Viewfinder: Groundbreaking Ceremony for Harry and Wanda Zekelman Campus

Distinguished leaders from both the Jewish and metro Detroit communities and many honored guests and students gathered Sunday morning for a historic groundbreaking ceremony in Oak Park.

Construction on the Harry and Wanda Zekelman Campus is under way at 15151 W. 10 Mile Rd. and Sunday's ceremony officially kicked off the project, which is scheduled to be completed by fall 2012.

The four-acre campus will be home to a pair of 25,000-square-foot buildings – one dedicated to state-of-the-art classrooms and learning, while the second structure will serve as a dormitory for students from outside the area.

The $3 million project, funded by Bloomfield Hills residents and philanthropists Alan and Lori Zekelman, is named in honor of  Alan Zekelman's parents, Harry and Wanda, whose dedication to education and the Jewish faith serve as inspiration to the campus.

"It's very appropriate that this campus be named after his (Alan Zekelman) parents, Harry and Wanda Zekelman," Rabbi Bentzion Stein said. "They were the ones that gave, instilled, this love of education into their son."

"My wife and I are so excited about this project," Zekelman told the crowd. "It honors my parents, and I'm almost speechless."