jews d
in
the
Best Of The Best
Reunion of Oak Park school
recalls its rich diversity.
Hillel Day School
Hires New Rabbi
R
EVE SILBERMAN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
S
hortly after the Paul Best
Elementary School opened in
the fall of 1954, a dispute broke
out over placing a Christmas tree in
the lobby. Some Jewish parents (many
had moved to Oak Park to avoid anti-
Semitism) expressed discomfort and
brought up church-versus-state issues.
But working together, the parents
reached a compromise: The tree would
have a home at Paul Best, but its deco-
rations would be essentially secular,
including artwork by Best students.
A willingness to seek compromise
and, even more important, the promo-
tion of tolerance, characterized the for-
mer school, which closed in 1976. On
Saturday, Aug. 18, Best grads will gather
to share their memories. (Details
below.)
Mary Baroff of West Bloomfield,
whose two sons both attended Best,
hopes to attend.
“Who hears of elementary schools
having reunions?” she marvels. “But
that was a very special school.”
Not only were its academics and art
programs outstanding, she recalls, but
the school emphasized “diversity” at
a time where the word didn’t roll of
everyone’s tongue.
Baroff remembers that first- and
second-graders regularly put on a
play called The Churckendoose, about
a bewildered barnyard animal who
doesn’t look like any other creature in
the barn. At first suspicious, the other
animals accept the Churckendoose.
“That play taught tolerance,” Baroff
says.
During its first decade, at least, the
Best enrollment was about 40 per-
cent Jewish. While some kids went to
Hebrew school and others to catechism
sessions at nearby Our Lady of Fatima,
most Best grads say religion rarely
came into the conversation.
While all the reunion guests will join
into the school song with its unforget-
20
August 16 • 2018
jn
table first lines: “Best School is the
best school/in the good ol’ U.S.A.,”
the reunion may be especially sweet
for its Jewish students. After they
left Best, some recall their shock and
hurt when they encountered the occa-
sional anti-Semitic comment at their
middle and high schools.
The concept of tolerance was broad.
In 1958, in a highly unusual act for the
era, Best kids did a school exchange
with the all-black Grant Elementary
School. Later, Best became the first
elementary school in the Ferndale
School district to hire black teachers. It
also “mainstreamed” two children with
developmental issues at a time when
most schools refused to accept such
kids.
Before his death a few years ago,
former principal Larry Sophiea recalled
that teachers and principals at other
schools were jealous of the Best name.
Paul L. Best, a former Ferndale princi-
pal and administrator, was crucial in
putting the funding together to build
the new school (now Ferndale Upper
Elementary School) serving a big crop
of baby boomers.
Best grad Sally Kotler, now known as
Shira Chai, regrets she can’t make the
reunion — she lives on a kibbutz near
the Sea of Galilee — but hopes to con-
nect to her Best friends by Skype during
the event. Chai says she still occasional-
ly hums a song played frequently in her
second-grade classroom: “I’m proud
to be me/but I also see/you’re just as
proud to be you.”•
The Best school reunion will be from noon-4
p.m. Saturday, Aug. 18, at Farina’s Banquet Hall
in Berkley. Students, parents and teachers from
1954-1976 are welcome. No charge; food will
be served. Building tour at 10:45 a.m. Contact
Jonathan Nachman at (248) 390-3768. A meet-
and-greet will be held from 6-9 p.m. Friday, Aug.
17, at CG’s Upper Deck in Waterford. Contact
Eve Silberman, (734) 663-8756 or
evesilberman2@gmail.com.
reside in Oak Park, are parents to Yair,
abbi David Fain has joined the
3, and Natan, 1.
leadership team of Hillel Day
Inspired to pursue the rab-
School in Farmington
binate, Fain received ordination
Hills. As rav bet hasefer, or
at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah
school rabbi, Fain will lead
in New York in 2018. While in
the school’s Jewish life, from
New York, he was the youth
daily minyan to learning to
director at Hebrew Institute of
the spiritual growth of stu-
Riverdale.
dents and families.
Fain also ran JSpace, an edu-
“His passion for engag-
cational program in New York
ing children in their Jewish
education in both authentic Rabbi David Fain for unaffiliated families that
included Hebrew language and
and exciting ways will be
prayer studies, with parents
a tremendous asset to our
and children learning side by side,
school,” said Steve Freedman, Hillel
having “formative experiences that
head of school.
Fain assumes the position following were, in many instances, life-chang-
the departure last school year of Rabbi ing,” he said.
“At Hillel, we are committed to
Jonathan Berger.
Halachah in all its dynamism, com-
Fain attended public schools in
mitted to Jewish growth that works for
Hamden, Conn., and graduated from
each family, and we realize the critical
the University of Connecticut before
setting his sights on Jewish education. importance of the journey happening
at both school and at home,” he said.
He spent three years working at vari-
“I am passionate about opportuni-
ous day schools as part of the Pardes
ties to learn Torah with children and
Educators’ Program in Jerusalem,
adults, and to see how powerful the
where, in conjunction with Hebrew
connections are when intergenera-
College in Boston, he received his
tional learning around prayer and the
master’s degree. It was while work-
holidays ensues. I look forward to sup-
ing at Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day
porting our families’ Jewish growth in
School in Chicago that he met his
ways that are meaningful to them.” •
wife, Shoshana. The couple, who now
New Head Of JHSM
T
he Jewish
Historical
Society of
Michigan has hired
Catherine “Katie”
Cangany as execu-
tive director.
Cangany joins
Katie Cangany
JHSM from the
University of Notre
Dame, where she
was an associate professor in the his-
tory department. She holds a Ph.D.
from the University of Michigan and
a B.A. from Indiana University in
Bloomington.
Married with a daughter, she
resides in Oakland County. She is the
author of Frontier Seaport: Detroit’s
Transformation into an Atlantic
Entrepôt (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2014), which charts
colonial Detroit’s transformation
into an Atlantic port city. She has
also published significant research
on colonial Detroit in peer-reviewed
journals.
With family ties to Apple Island on
Orchard Lake, Cangany has been an
active member of the Greater West
Bloomfield Historical Society for
more than a decade.
“Katie’s strengths as a respected
scholar, passionate historian, proven
fundraiser and dedicated nonprofit
volunteer combine to make her the
ideal candidate as our new execu-
tive director,” said JHSM Board of
Directors President Risha B. Ring.
Cangany, who assumed her new
role this month, said she is looking
forward to returning to her Oakland
County roots in a role that highlights
her love of public history.
“As JHSM heads into its 60th year
in 2019, I am excited to explore ways
to expand and improve outstanding
programming, engage a wider
membership, and share our state’s
proud Jewish history,” she said.
Cangany replaces Wendy Rose
Bice, who provided more than nine
years of service to JHSM. Under Bice’s
leadership, the organization’s mem-
bership doubled, with an increased
web and social media presence, and
robust programming, including a
variety of bus tours, youth education
curriculum and professional presen-
tations.•
Meet Katie Cangany at a reception from 4-6
p.m. Thursday, Aug. 16, in Rooms 202-203 of
the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan
Detroit in West Bloomfield. No RSVP required.