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Nostalgia Fills Recollection of the Delray Jewish Community

Back when 12th Street and
Dexter were the hub of the
Jewish community, in the
1930s to early '40s, another
world of Jews was thriving
several miles away, in Del-
ray. It was the small and
ulique Hungarian Jewish
community.
Centered around the First
Hebrew Congregation of Del-
ray, it was hardly known to
the larger community, but it
instilled a fierce pride in its
own members.
The memory of that com-
munity is being perpetuated
by its "alumni," several of
whom have formed' a com-
mittee to organize a reunion
in late spring or summer.
Shirley Gormezano, w h o
once lived in the Delray com-
munity, recalled a life that
was sweet, not because it
was easy but because it was
filled with the things that
money could not buy: a love
of Jewishness, good friends,
good fun and the incompar-
able gypsy music.
Its citizens, many of them
refugees, were hard-working.
Many were impoverished.
But, Mrs. Gormezano said,
they had a will and a drive
to succeed. Today, the prod-
ucts of the Delray Jewish
community count among De-
troit's best known profes-
sional and business leaders.
Here is how Mrs. Gorme-
zano described "a Hungarian
Jewish community which was
like a little world unto it-
self".

By SHIRLEY GORMEZANO
Life was chiefly centered
around the First Hebrew
Congregation of D e 1 r a y,
which was located on Bur-
deno St., one block north of
W. Jefferson. It was founded
in 1915 above a bank on W.
Jefferson and later moved to
the Burdeno address.
The first structure was
frame, and in 1925 a brick
building was constructed and
named the First Hungarian
Hebrew Congregation of Del-
ray. It was later changed to
First Hebrew Congregation
of Delray when some fam-
ilies, other than Hungarians,
began moving into the then-
thriving business area which
ran up and down West Jef-
ferson from Dearborn Ave. to
Junction.
The one and only kosher
meat market and grocery
store combination was owned
and operated by the Lax
brothers, Kalman, the butcher
and Sigmond, the grocer.
The largest produce market
was owned by the Wolovitz
family.
Some of the other mer-
chants included the Golden
Valley Dairy Co. owned by
Harry Greenstein and Dave
Kreisman; Hungarian Village
Supper Club, owned by the
Duschinsky family;* Henig's
Dry Goods; Fox Furniture
and Kollenberg Furniture
Co.; Sam Klein's Shoe Store;
Liebowitz's Shoes; Lachman's
Jewelry Store; Zwieback's
Ladies Apparel; Citron and
Solomon's live poultry; Mor-
off's and Rabin's paint stores
and many others.
On a Saturday evening you
could walk up and down W.
Jefferson and enjoy the happy
sounds of gypsies singing,
dancing and playing their vi-

42—Friday, March 29, 1974

olins in the streets, all in
native costume.
Shoppers would be bustling
from store to store, catching
Saturday night bargains,
while huge limousines would
pull up in front of Hungarian
Village with elegantly
dressed men and women ar-
riving for an evening of
Hungarian cuisine and
Hungarian gypsy music and
entertainment.
(The young kids, like my-
self, would hide in the sha-
dows and watch all- this
glamour in complete disbe-
lief. We would stand behind
the Hungarian Village to lis-
ten for hours to the haunt-
ingly beautiful gypsy or-
chestra. Saturday night was
always greatly anticipated.)
All this took place during
the 1930s to early '40s.
The Hungarian Jews lived
together harmoniously-among
their gentile neighbors in a
mutually impoverished s o -
ciety. Some of the people
were economically comfort-
able, while many others were
quite poor. Same definitely
deserved to be on welfare —
no one was. They were much
too proud.
Some had threadbare
homes, no electricity, no tele-
phones or other luxuries like
refrigerators or gas stoves.
Everyone was happy, though,
and content in the closeness
of community life, which all
centered around the Delray
shul.
The hub of the whole com-
munity was the congregation,
and Rabbi and Mrs. Harry
Greenfield and his family,
Larry, Sylvia and later Bev-
erly. (They now live in Is-
rael.) There never was and
never will be such a lovable,
devoted and dedicated rabbi
and rebbetzin. They were
way ahead of their time.
When they first arrived in
Delray from Hungary, it was
somewhere in the mid-30s.
Rabbi Greenfield was a bril-
liant and fun-loving person
who drew together all the
Downriver communities of
River Rouge, Ecorse, Wyan-
dotte, Trenton, Lincoln Park
and W. Fort Street. The
people would gather at the
Delray shul for recreational
activities and special occa-
sions.
Rabbi Greenfield, an Or-
thodox rabbi, encouraged
many extracurricular activi-
ties which the community
would never have otherwise
experienced, such as a girl
scout troop, which was led
by Evelyn Rose and Annette
Mittleman; Del-Rouge AZA
Chapter 317; and a very ac-
tive sisterhood headed by
Mrs. Fanny Kohn, who did
everything including cooking
for all the simhas, making
costumes whenever needed
and collecting heder money
from house to house to pay
the rabbi.
Rabbi Greenfield was the
heder teacher for all age
groups and all classes, with
his wife, Tekla, as his as-
sistant. Most of the residents
were not observant Jews, al-
though the synagogue was
strictly Orthodox. The rabbi
and rebbetzin instilled Juda-
ism into children who never
would have otherwise been
exposed to it.
All the boys were bar-

mitzvaed, and whatever a
student learned, for some
reason (the rod was waved
forebodingly, but never used)
he retained.
Many of his former stu-
dents are affiliated with syn-
agogues in the Jewish com-
munities today, and there are
many who are quite active
in Jewish communal life.
Some former Delray resi-
dents are Norman Feder, ex-
mayor of Southfield, Rabbi
Ernest Greenfield (of Green-
field Noodle Products), Dr.
Eugene Steinberger, Dr. Rob-
ert Baruch, Dr. Charles West
(Carl Weinfeld), Bernard
Jonas, Walter Jonas, Betty
(Duschinsky) Berg, Shirley
(Greenstein) Gormezano,
Jeanette (Greenstein) Green,
Pearl (Rose) Goutman, Edith
Rose, Muriel and George
Tarnoff, George (Duschin-
sky) Duchin, Dolly (Moss)
Weinstein, Irene (DeSure)
Astrein, Fred Lax, Aaron
(Wolovitz) Wallis, Irving
Auslander and Clara (Weis-
enberg) Tamaroff. Violet
(Weinfeld) Lake is the wife
of the owner of Nippersink
resort.
One interesting aspect is
that the rabbi was also the
shohet. The Greenfield fam-
ily had an apartment directly
in back of and adjoining the
main sanctuary. Its doors
were always open and often
a haven to many. In the front
of the synagogue was the
main entrance and a small
classroom. There was a
downstairs social hall and an
upstairs sanctuary for the
women.
A small ritual slaughter
house for chickens was in the
backyard. It was a common
practice on Wednesday and
Thursday evenings for resi-
dents of the community to
seek out the shohet to slaugh-
ter their chickens for the
Sabbath.
More often than not, they'd
find him in the process of
teaching his Hebrew classes.
The 'rabbi would either leave
us on our honor when he went
off to perform his service, or
he would call upon his wife
to take over for him if she
wasn't too busy with her
family. We learned how to
read and write Hebrew and
Yiddish, H u m a s h and all
about JeWish laws, customs
and holidays.
On Friday evening at 8:30,
after Sabbath services and
dinner, the community would
gather at the synagogue for
a Friday evening forum on
some current topic of inter-
est.
The speaker was usually
Rabbi Greenfield, who was a
gifted and eloquent speaker,
with a tremendous sense of
humor. He was always very
knowledgeable and well
versed on all current affairs.
The sisterhood would serve
tea and cakes following the
forum, and this was a weekly
event greatly enjoyed by
young and old alike.
Sunday mornings there was
a Sunday school with quali-
fied teachers who were hired
to teach Jewish history.
The rabbi saw to it that the
children were always taken
on outings, with the assist-
ance of a very benevolent
woman who always acted as
our chauffeur, M r s . Mae
Sobel. Mrs. Sobel chaperoned
us on trips to the lake, pic-
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS nics, the circus, etc.

There were many in the
community who had no autos,
and many children in the
neighborhood (myself among
them) would never have had
the benefit of any kind of
exposure to the world outside
if it weren't for the rabbi's
efforts. The heads of families
were too busy with business
and too burdened with mak-
ing a living to take time out
for such trivialities.
The rabbi was also the
sports director, being an avid
baseball fan. He also was the
director, producer, chore-
ographer, costume designer
and set • director for Hanuka
and Purim plays. It was so
much fun rehearsing these
plays which were absolutely
fabulous and took many
weeks of hard work.
The entire community
turned out to enjoy the var-
ied talents of their children.
Many hours of toil, worry and
love went into these en-
deavors.
He also assisted the girl
scout leaders with putting to-
gether plays throughout the
year. The rabbi was a tall,
dark and exteremely hand-
some man with a dynamic
and fun-loving personality,
and coming to the synagogue
was something we all antici-
pated and loved. He encour-
aged mother's and daughter's
banquets each year around
Mother's Day, with local en.
tertainment again under his
auspices.
(I, Shirley Greenstein, was
t h e official "singer-enter-
tainer" in the synagogue and
had the lead in all the plays
and was also .the rabbi's pro-
tege. He would teach me
beautiful Yiddish songs such
as "My Yiddishe Momme"
and take me along with him
to entertain at synagogues in
the 12th Street, Linwood and
Dexter areas).
(To me, a young teen-ager,
this was like going into an-
other world, so remote from
the one I was accustomed to.)
The "Jewish neighborhood"
as all the Delray kids re-
ferred to it, seemed a mil-
lion miles away from ours,
completely unobtainable —
out of our social class and
reach.
"Simhas" were especially
happy communal occasions.
When a boy became bar-
mitzvaed, it was followed by
a delicious luncheon down-
stairs in the social hall. The
sisterhood would prepare the
meal, and the whole congre-
gation was invited. No for-
mal invitations were sent;
everybody automatically
came.
The children were espe-
cially ,exicted and could
hardly wait for services to
end so we could taste the
delicious homemade Hungar-
ian food. The tables were all
invitingly set with hallas,
giant-sized portions of ge-
filte fish and horseradish.
This usually would be fol-
lowed by cholent and famous
Hungarian pastries and tea.
Weddings were the same —
everyone was invited, and
everyone came. The food was
all homemade, and everyone
was happy.
Holidays were especially
exciting. One of our tradi-
tions on Yom Kippur was for
the young children to pur-
chase corsages at the local
florist before sundown erev
Yom Kippur. The next day

they would be delivered to
the synagogue, and the chil-
dren would present them to
their mothers.
It was with such love and
anticipation that we enjoyed
this custom. It was for the
ultimate reward of having
the mothers feign complete
shock and surprise when pre-
sented with such beautiful
gifts.
On Sukkot, all the children
would gather around the
synagogue for services and
to play all sorts of games
around and in the sukkot.
They were mostly played
with walnuts and were very
competitive.
Another very beautiful and
nostalgic memory of Delray
was May Day. On May 1, to
celebrate the arrival of
spring, at the crack of dawn
Hungarian gypsies would
serenade us under our bed-
room windows with haunt-
ingly beautiful gypsy melo-
dies. The-custom was to
throw them some coins, but
only after we had had our
fill of those incomparable
songs.
On Palm Sunday, gentile
children would go from door
to door to sprinkle cologne
(they referred to it as holy
water) on us, also for a few
coins.
Although my family was
observant and this was a
Christian custom, my mother
would always allow this so

as not to offend or insult the
children. She would usually
drag my sister and myself
out of hiding, under protest
from us, so that they could
perform their "mitzva."
The community started to
disband during the early to
mid-40s. The war brought new
prosperity to many, and they
were able to assimilate them-
selves in the regular Jewish
community. The roots were
so deep for some, myself in-
cluded, that we traveled on
three buses and streetcars
daily, one way, for two year
to continue our schooling
Southwestern High on 1,
Fort Street.
*
A date is being selected for
t h e Delray-Downriver r e -
union, including a dinner-
dance and Hungarian gypsy
orchestra. All generations of
former residents are invited
to submit their names and
addresses and those of others
to:
Irene (DeSure) Astrein,
398-5690; Betty (Duschinsky)
Berg, 557-5916; Shirley
(Greenstein) Gormezano, 547-
5768; or Clara (Weisenberg)
Tamaroff, 541-6756.

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