Northwest Residents Chartie Albert Mayer's
Population Study Serves Only to Increase Panic
Northwest Detroit residents have
taken exception to the findings
contained in the report prepared
by Dr. Albert Mayer and issued
by the United Jewish Charities
two weeks ago.
In a statement to The Jewish
News, one group of residents,
under the leadership of Mr. and
Mrs. Irving Kroll, 19605 Stratford,
charge that this report "has all the
aspects of a dangerous, self-fulfill-
ing prophecy which serves only to
increase panic."
Challenging the headline in The
April 8 Jewish News that 88 per
cent of Detroit Jewry will live in
the suburbs by 1975, the protest-
ing group maintains that it should
have been predicted on the if in
volving certain conditions evolving
in the community. They state that
the report was "shocking to great
numbers of people in the Jewish
community who have worked to-
wards stabilization of schools and
neighborhoods in the Northwest
section."
The Krolls' statement, - co-signed
by Dr. and Mrs. F. Reisman, Mr.
and Mrs. Albert Dickman, Calvin
Lippitt, Irving L. Levine and Mr.
and Mrs. Irving W. Goodman, de-
clares:
"How do we reconcile the money
and effort spent by the Jewish
Community Council in support of
civil rights with the destructive
use being made of a dubious study
sponsored by the official voice of
the Detroit Jewish community?
"Several urgent questions need
to be answered by responsible
leaders of the community. The
restlessness many of us feel is not
one of movement to the suburbs,
but of finding voices among our
leaders that truly represent us,
the committed urban homeowners
who are aghast at the wholesale
herding of our people into self-
imposed ghettos outside the city.
Who is benefitting from encourag-
ing this flight to areas that all
too often offer unaccountably
high-cost housing (often of inferior
workmanship), inconvenient trans-
portation, limited cultural activi-
ties, sameness of terrain and popu-
lation? Are we as Jews still in a
Diaspora state of mind?
"We wonder who profits from
this? Those who will make possible
the temples, synagogues, bagel
factories and catering houses for
the next - 10 years? What exactly
are our brethren running from,
and to what?
"Those of us living in the
Pasteur-Hampton-Mumford area
have had proof of a stabilizing
of real estate and school in the
last year, and it is ironic that
at this point Dr. Mayer's report
was made public. Why? Whose
interests will this , best serve?
"It is one thing for the United
Jewish Charities to sponsor and
pay for a research project to en-
able them to plan for future ser-
vices; it is quite another thing, an
act of irresponsible leadership,
blatantly to release statistics and
projections that are questionable.
"Within this Mayer report, the
leap to conclusion that Northwest
Detroit must follow the wake of
Twelfth and Dexter areas leaves
several facts unpublicized: 1. The
Negro civil rights "movement has
led to a newly rising middle-class
that will not be ghettoized, and, 2,
our Northwest area is filled with
children and young adults, which
was not' true of the Dexter area
before its demise.
"The Mayer report has all the
aspects of a dangerous self-ful-
filling prophecy which serves
only to increase panic. Where
people really want to achieve a
goal,,
alone are not
reliabe indices of possible
attainment.
"The negative viewpoint of 'It's
too late . . . ' is precisely the
attitude that sophisticated Jewish
citizens .of Detroit find abhorrent.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, April 22, 1966-11
We are homeowners in an area
that is satisfactory in all aspects
were it not for the 'Attempts of
so-called authorities to maneuver
the statistics so that they can in
all good conscience give up the
Jewish establishments here;
schools, centers, etc., and with a
sigh of relief start building anew
in a homogenized setting. Perhaps
the true story is that it isn't hap-
pening fast enough ... fast enough
for whom?
"We do not intend to become
a statistic. Nor can we subscribe
to the seven-year move attributed
by Dr. Mayer to America's
middle-class. As citizens with
pride in the present and future
of the city we want to help
where it counts, and where we
are comfortable.
"If all the subliminal and overt
efforts that have successfully
moved so many of our brethren to
their new over-mortgaged villages
were put to positive action here in
the city, think of the money we
could put into city wide use that
would make us hold up our heads
with pride as Jews, and as Ameri-
cans.
"What we want is very simple.
Enough talk- about brotherhood
and the ideological value of inte-
gration. We call for an immediate
show of_ deed and commitment
from our Jewish leaders that they
do not intend to abrogate their
responsibilities. Show us, the home
eerns doaunsd s tbaukseiniens stm
h e nci twy tht h aat
"The best answer to what our
tremendous
leaders fear is the growing rate of
oc ouirn mr 7_111 itou sc ecnetnetre r svceh otoalns g a i bnl e d anti-Semitism, is to grab this
opportunity for positive action and
plans for staying and improving to curb the spread of the ghetto
facilities here.
mentality."
IRV KATZ
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