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Editorial
Akiva Being Pro-Active To Assure Its Future
I
t takes involved parents, great teach-
ers, hardworking administrators and
eager-to-learn students who care about
Torah values and Jewish identity building
for a Jewish day school to succeed. Donors
typically respond to such a quality school
setting.
Take the case of Akiva, a 51-year-old
Orthodox Zionist day school in Southfield.
Its leadership has worked hard to overcome
financial and enrollment challenges over
the years to create a homespun environ-
ment for its preK-12 secular and Jewish
programs.
It's not by chance Akiva was awarded a
two-part $8 million gift from the William
and Audrey Farber Philanthropic Fund
through Federation's Centennial Campaign
and a $2.25 million grant from the William
Davidson Foundation — both highly
regarded local philanthropies.
Without a lot of fanfare, Akiva has creat-
ed a strong niche for itself in the day school
landscape of Jewish Detroit. It just needed a
boost financially to upgrade its facilities and
uplift its academics.
Without a lot of fanfare, Akiva has
created a strong niche for itself in the day
school landscape of Jewish Detroit.
million building will include 59,000 square
feet laid out as a school; only the gymnasi-
um will be kept from the existing building.
Groundbreaking takes place Nov. 15.
The Farber and Davidson philanthropies
aren't accustomed to wildly giving without
thorough vetting of the targeted cause.
Clearly, Akiva leaders did their home-
work. That included assuring the school's
financial house is in order, just short on
money to meet Akiva 50th Anniversary
Improvement Plan projections. The Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, which
helped facilitate Aldva's move from Lathrup
Village to Southfield in 1999, has been a
ready partner in Aldva's pursuit of high-
octane strategic planning.
Coming Of Age
Beyond The Building
The main capital improvement spun from
the Farber allocation will be a brand-new
building across the parking lot to replace
the current structure — a former syna-
gogue and originally a church. The $12.5
Akiva is in the midst of a $15 million uni-
fied campaign, with just $2.3 million to
go, to fund academic upgrades and new
construction. Leadership was smart enough
to understand that facility and technologi-
cal improvements are pivotal to creating an
inviting and modern learning environment,
but that the quality of teaching relative to
basic and enhanced educational offerings is
what gives real texture, purpose and value
to a school.
For example, Aldva's planned use of the
Davidson grant includes support to recruit,
train and keep teachers and other top edu-
cators — who comprise the vital timbers
of a school. Notably, Akiva has prioritized
its mathematics, language arts and science
programs to assure they form a solid back-
bone for secular studies, which complement
Judaic studies.
It's especially significant the school will
cast a critical collective eye toward examin-
ing and smoothing the seams connecting
the lower and upper grade levels to ensure
"that skills are developed, reinforced and
tracked from early childhood through high
school; as Rabbi Noam Stein, high school
principal, told the JN in the Aug. 20 report
"Ready, Set, Build!"
The more seamless the transitions, the
easier it will be for students to move on and
grow as opposed to having to readjust and
re-orient.
Primed For Future
Akiva, named for the rabbinic sage, strives
to fill each student with a love of Israel from
the very start. Graduates generally spend
their post-graduation year in an Israeli
yeshivah or seminary before college. Israeli
teachers, tutors and families join with
Israeli organizational volunteers in further
honing Aldva's Zionist edge. Akiva also
hosts one of Detroit Jewry's largest Israeli
Independence Day festivals.
Other examples of Akiva outreach include
twice-daily minyans open to the commu-
nity and partnerships with other Jewish
institutions and organizations as well as
with Southfield Public Schools.
The JN report underscored that the
school carries no debt. That's thanks in no
small measure to savvy fundraising initia-
tives, Federation's Annual Campaign and
the Federation-managed Shiffman Family
Day School Tuition Assistance Fund.
Such support is indicative of the impor-
tant role Modern Orthodoxy plays in Jewish
Detroit and the emerging success Akiva is
having in attracting new, young Modern
Orthodox families to Southfield. Sustaining
this momentum is now key.
❑
Guest Column
To Honor Thy Neighbor
s the Syrian refugee crisis has
dominated headlines across
the world this week, there have
been numerous calls, both from inside
Israel and from diaspora communities,
for the Israeli government to take in
thousands of Syrian refugees.
The plight of the Syrian refugees is
beyond heartbreaking. The situation
is deplorable beyond expression. But
the calls for Israel to take in refugees
are folly. This is not because we are
callous to the plight of Syrian families
stranded by war and a murderous
regime; it is because the Jewish state
simply cannot afford to do so.
Those who have called for Israel
to absorb refugees, foremost Israel's
Opposition Leader, Isaac Herzog,
argue that Israel will benefit from
absorbing Syrian refugees in a myriad
A
48
of ways.
Firstly, they argue that Israel has
a moral duty to help those in need.
They invoke the biblical credo "Help
thy neighbor" and conjure
up images of the plight of
Jews in Europe 70 years
ago. The moral duties of the
Jewish state are unques-
tionable; this argument
would be very convincing if
not for the many potential
pitfalls.
One such pitfall refutes
the dubious claim that by
performing this good deed
of humanitarianism, Israel
would be commended and
recognized throughout the world, that
Europe and even some of the moder-
ate Arab states will begin to see Israel
in a different, more appealing light.
Thus, absorbing refugees would be a
strategic victory for Israel. But this is
the epitome of naivete.
While it is very conceiv-
able that the world would
recognize and applaud
an Israeli gesture to aid
Syrian refugees, the idea
that the news media would
devote more than one
news cycle to it is prepos-
terous. In the next war
with Hamas or Hezbollah,
will anyone remember that
Israel gallantly accepted
Syrian refugee families in
September of 2015?
Absolutely not.
There is a widespread culture of
collective amnesia about Israel's
commendable record of humanitari-
anism – even when it was one of the
first to send aid halfway across the
world, to Haiti, during its disastrous
earthquake; even when it sent sup-
plies to Turkey (a country with whom
it has a bitter feud and no diplomatic
relations) during a mudslide and the
like. But the world does not care to
remember.
Yet the most important reason
Israel cannot acquiesce to calls for
aiding Syrian refugees is Israel's
"demographic threat," which refers to
the erosion of Israel's majority Jewish
population if it rejects a Palestinian
state and annexes the West Bank.
If Israel gives citizenship to every
Palestinian in the West Bank, it will
eventually cease to be the nation-
state of the Jewish people, and will