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Akiva Auction
I
Annual event opens a window into Modern Orthodoxy.
Robert Sklar
Contributing Editor
I is a fundraiser and has a large social component, but
Akiva Hebrew Day School's annual auction also helps
introduce the larger Jewish community to Modern
Orthodoxy.
"People need to understand what Modern Orthodoxy
is:' said Akiva board chair Dr. Howard Korman, surveying
the crowd on Dec. 16 at Congregation Shaarey Zedek in
Southfield.
"We look like everybody else in the Jewish community
except we wear a knit kippah — we have a very strong
belief in going to college, becoming professionals, and being
active fundraisers in and givers back to the community:'
said Korman, a medical doctor in comprehensive urology at
William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak.
Added his wife, Michal, a dental hygienist and an Akiva
volunteer: "In Modern Orthodoxy, we are in both worlds at
the same time. We keep kosher and keep Shabbat, but yet
we are out in the real world. Our kids have to learn to live in
both worlds, and that's sometimes a tough thing to do:'
The Kormans, Southfield residents, have three sons, ages
10 to 16, at Akiva. Their oldest son, 19, made aliyah and is
studying in Israel.
Akiva's 22nd annual strolling buffet and Chinese auction
drew 425 people from across Jewish Detroit. Gil Stebbins of
Southfield chaired the auction with assistance from Cheryl
Jerusalem of Oak Park and Fern Herschfus of Southfield.
Akiva has a $3.8 million annual budget; the auction
generates about 1-2 percent of that, according to Sidney
Katz, executive director. ❑
Mitzvah Madness
Debbie, Yehudah, Michal and Herschel Wrotslaysky have their
picture taken by Rabbi Yochanan Schrader - all of Southfield.
Dr. Howard and Michal Korman of Southfield
S
Mallory Stoddard of Oak Park and Jeff Stone of West Bloomfield
January 3 • 2013
Huntington Woods look over
the auction program.
Beth El teens spend time repairing the world during Chanukah.
tudents of Temple Beth El's Monday night school celebrat-
ed Chanukah and added light to the world during their
Mitzvah Madness Program.
The presidents of the Young People's Society (Adam Boorstein,
Jeremy Fine, Margot Alpert and Austin Glass) lit the Chanukah
candles, and then students chose from multiple hands-on tikkun
olam activities.
Some made small care packages to send to children in Sderot, a
town close to Gaza that has seen rockets rain down on it all year,
18
Gil Stebbins and Sidney Katz, Jeffrey Warsaw of Birmingham
and Danielle Sigler of
both of Southfield
but most heavily this fall. The care packages included tea bags for
stress, antacid, a little Hershey's kiss and packaged chicken soup.
Other students made knotted blankets for children involved in
Kids Kicking Cancer. And non-perishable, high-nutritional meals
were packaged for local food banks and to add to Temple Beth
El's Mitzvah Meal disbursement in December. Students also sent
letters to Israeli soldiers serving on the front lines and decorated
tefilat ha derech (prayer for the traveler) cards for Jewish men and
women serving in the American military.
❑
Adam Israel of Huntington Woods
Max Kwartowitz of Huntington Woods