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RESTAUR T WEEK

Future home of:

Yeshiva Beth Yehudah - Oa P

Bais Yaakov High c

THE PERFECT BITE

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Architect:

AT THE PERFECT PRICE.

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A sign at the construction site

•

BIRMINGHAM RESTAURANT WEEK

January 28-February 1 & February 4-8, 2013

Three Course Lunch $15, Three Course Dinner $30

Join us for two fabulous weeks of quality dining. Many
of Birmingham's finest restaurants will be participating.
It's an experience you'll never forget. Bon appetit! For
more info, visit BirminghamRestaurantWeek.org or call

A Yeshiva Grows
In Oak Dark

Building capacity, building the
community.

Vivian Henoch

Special to the Jewish News

Birmingham Restaurant Week is partnering with Forgotten Harvest to raise money to feed those in
need in Metro Detroit. Just $5 is enough to provide 25 nutritious meals. Look for details about how
you can support Forgotten Harvest, inside participating restaurants.

Check out our Facebook page:

BirminghamRestaurantWeek.org

T Enjoy Birmingham NOW

SIGN UP NOW

A Gift for Jewish Children
and their Families

JEWISH BEDTIME STORIES & SONGS

WHAT? The PJ Library ("PJ" for pajamas)

program offers the gift of free, high quality
Jewish books and music each month
to children ages 12 months
through 8 years.

I

A Growing Need

A 13,000-square-foot facility, located

t's a rainy morning in November,

but you'd never know it from the
bright smiles and sunny moods
we find at Yeshiva Beth Yehudah's
Meer Preschool.
The Meer Preschool is a busy place,
accommodating more than 220 chil-
dren between the ages of 3 and 5.
Crossing the "trike lane sidestepping
zooming little ones at play indoors,
we follow the preschool director,
Rivka Goldberg, into one of the
kindergarten classrooms where the
children are seated quietly, attentively
listening as their teacher explains
how a Sefer Torah is handwritten on
parchment.
This is where it begins.
Goldberg's pride and enthusiasm
are evident as she describes how the
preschool has more than doubled in
size, growing at a rate of 20 new stu-
dents per year. For every child at the
Meer Preschool today, there are likely
to be three or four other siblings in
the school system, if not now, then
soon.

next to the Yeshiva Beth Yehudah
Boys' School on the Newman Campus
in Oak Park, the Meer Preschool was
built more than a decade ago. Though
it was considered a sizable facility,
adequate for the needs at the time,
the school stands at capacity today,
utilizing every square foot of space for
classroom needs.
The growth of the community is
reflected throughout the Yeshiva
system. In both the Boys' and Girls'
School, for instance, the classes in
grades 1-4 are now 50 percent larger
than classes in grades 5-8.
"Clearly there's a need in the com-
munity for building a new facility:'
explains Dr. Maury Ellenberg, Yeshiva
Beth Yehudah board chairman. "Our
population is growing considerably,
and our current space is simply insuf-
ficient. With this new wonderful
facility, we anticipate, with God's help,
being able to accommodate the contin-
ued growth we are experiencing."

Yeshiva

on page 14

WHY? PJ Library books

celebrate important
aspects of Jewish
culture, values and
tradition, and
become cherished
bedtime stories.

HOP

Sign up at

PJLIBRARY.org

Jewish Federation

248.205.2534

OF METROPOLITAN DETROIT

Alliance for Jewish Education

PJ Library is a gift from the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit in partnership with the Harold Grinspoon Foundation.

Progress continues at the school, which is expected to open in Fall 2013.

12

December 13 • 2012

JN