metro Federatio _, .. t00101 etropi.g olitanDetroit illi. Supported in part by the Jewish Federatio n of jew isherati Fed on Another StepForward for Jewish Detroit w " RESTAUR T WEEK Future home of: Yeshiva Beth Yehudah - Oa P Bais Yaakov High c THE PERFECT BITE n ee Architect: AT THE PERFECT PRICE. • 11111111111. 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