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Editorial
Change Should Help Better Position Akiva
L
ike any Jewish institu-
tion, Yeshivat Akiva must
change to stay relevant,
attract students and donors, and
ultimately, prosper. In his second
year at the Zionist day school in
Southfield, Rabbi
Tzvi Klugerman,
head of school, is
clearly committed to
change.
As the JN cover
story "Multi-Grade
Upgrade" (Aug. 22)
Rabbi
reports, Akiva prom-
Klugerman
ises continued aca-
demic improvements
and streamlined operations while
keeping within budget parameters
necessitated by a small drop in enroll-
ment from a 12-year average of 300
students per year. It also is focusing
hard on teacher development, student
support and classroom technology.
As our only Modern Orthodox day
school, Akiva plays an important role
within the Detroit Jewish community.
That's reflected in Federation's sub-
stantial annual investment in Akiva;
the 2012-2013 allocation is $440,344.
The Lead the Way Campaign that
supports student scholarships is per-
haps Akiva's most urgent cause; the
school is in no position to turn away
an otherwise qualified student.
Change in both secular and Jewish
studies, whether required courses
or electives, is vital to keeping the
school on a sustainable path as its
50th anniversary nears in 2014.
Enrichment, special needs and AP
classes add to the curriculum. Years
ago, Akiva recognized its mathematics
and science requirements needed
revamping; they continue to be a
priority. Akiva certainly isn't standing
pat; a natural outgrowth was staff
layoffs, unfortunate as they were, as
part of consolidation initiatives.
With an action plan in place to ele-
vate K-6 learning, Akiva has turned to
middle school upgrades to make the
transition year more attractive and
limit the number of students leaving
for another seventh-grade option. In
a further sign of innovation, creative
class scheduling gives high school
teachers greater flexibility in shaping
learning opportunities. Akiva is proud
of its family culture, but that doesn't
mean the school is not without enroll-
ment challenges in a shrinking Jewish
community.
More young Jewish families con-
tinue to make the Southfield area
home, but the pool of potential Akiva
students is not endless. Curtailing stu-
dent transfers is crucial to retaining a
viable middle school and high school.
The influx of more Modern Orthodox
families could avert a troubling trend
in high school enrollment. Meanwhile,
Akiva graduates continue to be
accepted at top universities.
Akiva has begun to try to recruit
high school students from Ann Arbor
and elsewhere where there's no
Jewish high school – a bold and nec-
essary move.
Not settling for the traditional
school day, Akiva is developing
enriched student, parent and com-
munity learning through the Beit
Midrash Akiva.
A love of Israel is imbued within
each Akiva student from the start.
It's not surprising that Akiva hosts
one of Jewish Detroit's largest
Israeli Independence Day festivals.
Akiva's twice-daily minyan is open to
the community. And the school has
teamed up with Southfield Public
Schools, Adat Shalom Synagogue and
Hillel of Metro Detroit to enhance
programming. All are examples of
the school's determined community
outreach.
Akiva students not only become
immersed in Hebrew, Torah, Talmud
and other Jewish learning, but also
generally spend their post-graduation
year in an Israeli yeshivah or seminary
before college. Israeli
teachers, tutors and
families as well as
Israeli organizational
volunteers add to
Akiva's Zionist flavor.
It's great to hear
Akiva President Dan
Dan
Mendelson assure
Mendelson
that graduates study-
ing in Israel will visit
Federation's partnership region in
the Central Galilee so they can return
here as young ambassadors of the
vibrant Michigan-Israel connection.
One of Akiva's most significant
board targets is to eventually
implement a 16-point master plan
that's being developed from the
results of an Akiva community
survey. The plan will be a strategy for
improving and securing the school
over the long haul. Workgroups are
busy strategizing.
The Detroit Jewish community
is fortunate to have a mix of day
schools, each bringing something
special to our collective educational
table. With enrollment growth, com-
munity support and a thoughtful
master plan, Akiva, named for the rab-
binic giant, should be well positioned
to serve as our Modern Orthodox day
school for another 50 years. ❑
Essay
Brotherhood Jihad
This underreported deception aims to countervail the American way.
T
here we were, upwards of
250 strong at the Corners in
West Bloomfield, viewing ter-
rorism investigator Steve Emerson's
sobering documentary on the Muslim
Brotherhood's stealth war on, and infiltra-
tion of, the West. The film, honored at the
2013 New York City International Film
Festival, is appropriately titled Jihad in
America: The Grand Deception.
Take it from Emerson, whose
Washington-based Investigative Project
on Terrorism serves as
a reality check on the
U.S. government. He
says the Middle East-
based Brotherhood
commands the same
global supremacist
objectives as Al Qaida
Steve
and the Taliban. Such
Emerson
groups follow shariah,
the moral code and religious
audio clips with law enforce-
law of Islam. Muslims are
ment officials and political
obliged to wage jihad (strug-
experts. It captures how the
gle) in pursuit of a shariah-
Muslim Brotherhood, an
governed global Islamic state
Islamist Sunni transnational
known as the caliphate.
movement, evolved following
The enlightening film,
its 1928 founding by Hassan
locally hosted by the Zionist
al-Banna to reconnect Muslims
Organization of America-
with Islamic values and lay the
Michigan Region on June
foundation for the caliphate.
Robert Sklar
26, plunges viewers into
Contrib uting
the darker side of Islamism,
Stunning Find
Edit or
Burrowed within the film are
the political radical form
of Islam that belittles infi-
revealing details of a declas-
sified FBI document that explains the
dels — all nonbelievers. Certainly not
all Muslims fall into this shadowy camp;
ultimate goal of the Brotherhood in
believing in parts of the Koran doesn't
North America and its front groups: to
automatically propel a Muslim, a religious politically control all non-Islamic govern-
follower of Islam, into being an Islamist.
ments in the world. That Explanatory
But with 2 billion Muslims worldwide,
Memorandum, discovered in a 2004
even if 2 percent are Islamists, that's a lot.
FBI raid of a Brotherhood activist's
The 70-minute film features video and
Annandale, Va., home, was dated May 22,
1991. Mohamed Akram, a member of the
Brotherhood's North American board and
a senior Hamas leader, wrote the memo
on behalf of the Brotherhood's Shura
Council and Organizational Conference.
In 1987, the council approved and adopt-
ed a long-term plan that formed the basis
for Akram's supplemental memo.
The memo is dusty now, but it's not
antiquated. Its boldness still echoes as
evidenced by Brotherhood stirrings both
in North America and abroad.
Dr. Mamoun Fandy,
a Washington politi-
cal researcher and
Brotherhood expert,
states in the film: "The
West is tremendously
naive about the danger
of these various Islamic
organizations:'
Mamoun
In that light, the film
Fandy
Brotherhood on page 47
46
September 12 • 2013
jpi