THE JEWISH NEWS

S

o the lord banished man
from the Garden of Eden.
And He placed at the east
end of the garden the
cherubim and the flaming
sword which turned every
way, to keep the way to the Tree of
Life (Genesis, Chapter 3).

Are the Jews who live east of
Woodward in an exile of exiles from
the "Eden" of the northwest sub-
urbs? To many on the west side, the
communities of Troy, Rochester
Hills, Sterling Heights and points
east are right off the map: huge
areas with a tiny and widely dis-
persed Jewish population, an undis-
cover'd country from whose bourn no
Jew returns.
But for a Jewish community in-
creasingly fragmented geograph-
ically, the Jews of eastern Oakland
County and beyond may actually re-
present the vanguard of a new
thrust of Jewish migration.
"After Farmington Hills,
where?" asks Iry Wengrow. "How far
out can you go before you're removed
from (Detroit's) cultural and em-
ployment centers?"
Wengrow, his wife Marcia and
children live in Troy. A marketing
manager with the Ford Motor Com-
pany, he is also president of the Troy
Jewish Congregation (Reform), the
area's only synagogue. Through his
work in attracting members to TJC,
he has become somewhat of a maven
on the subject of "east of Woodward"
Jews.
In terms of who we are, it's es-
sentially four groups:
• "Jews who live on our side of
town by conscious decision, who
didn't like the west side influ-
ence .. ."
• Jews who came for economic
reasons, for whom real estate was a
better investment than in other
parts of town.
• "Jews who had no ties one
way or another," who are not native
Detroiters, who are working for
companies in the area or are trans-
ferees from out of town.
• Intermarried couples.
The profile of these Jews indi-
cates a population whose Judaism is
tangential, and who place other fac-
tors (mostly economic) higher than
their Judaism in the ladder of
priorities when deciding where to
live.
To many of these east side Jews,
living close among Jews is "ghet-
toish," while being a widely-
dispersed minority among Chris-
tians, or alternatively, being only
one among a patchwork of ethnic
groups, is "cosmopolitan."
Still others see the east side as a
"down to earth" alternative to the
conspicuous consumption of the west
side's wealthier sections.
"It's ,a good community to live
in. Good schools, good property val-
ues," says Marla Scafel -She and her

44

Friday, October 3, 1986

husband Art have one child, with
another on the way. Despite their
satisfaction with Troy, they admit to
worrying about the isolation their
son could face when he enters school.
"It may be a problem, says
Marla, "but I hope by the time he's
school age, he may be a minority,
but not the only Jewish person in
his class.
"I think our son will grow up
knowing he'll be different from other
people, but I don't think that's such
a bad thing. I would hope that he
would think he's special . ."
What will happen to the kids? is
a thread which weaves through con-
versations with east side Jews, tying
their experiences into a common
cloth. Singles and young couples feel
confident that they can weather the
non-Jewish milieu. Having children
gives them second thoughts about
assimilation. They find it necessary
to recreate the institutions which
will provide a framework for the
new generation's Jewish identity.
The Troy Jewish Congregation
was founded in 1982 by Phyllis
Wenig and Pam Spitzer, two Troy
mothers whose children attended the
fledgling United. Hebrew Schools
branch in a Troy school. Through a
notice in the Troy Eccentric, 25
people were drawn to the nascent
congregation's first organizational
meeting.
"At the second meeting, 80
people walked in," Wenig recalls.
"We were totally unprepared for the
turnout ... We chose a name. We
had already outgrown a basement."
Today, TJC boasts a member-
ship of nearly 100 families. Con-
gregants come mainly from Troy and
Rochester Hills, but Jews from War-
ren, Sterling Heights, Mt. Clemens,
Birmingham, Oak Park and Royal
Oak also fill the seats of the
sanctuary of the Lutheran Church of
the Master where the congregation
now meets. TJC recently bought a
plot of land at Coolidge - and Wattles
from the Jewish Welfare Federation,
but there are no plans currently to
begin construction of a permanent
facility.
Like most congregants, Wenig is
a TJC cheerleader. "One drawback
to Troy was that there was no
Jewish community, and now there
is," she says.
"Belonging (to a synagogue) is
more important since we had kids,"
says Joanne Levy. "I think it made a
big difference in our life. Before the
congregation, the kids thought they
were the only ones who celebrated
Chanukah."
The Levys, who moved to Troy
for "business reasons," argue that
Troy, connected to Detroit by 1-75, is
more centrally located than the west
side suburbs. "I can get anyplace I
want to go, even the west side,
within a half hour," Joanne argues.
Some, like John Kovaks, wanted
to be in on the ground floor of a

.

ST Of
OODWA RD

In increasing numbers, Jews
are moving to places like
Troy and Rochester Hills.
What awaits them on the
"other side"?

DAVID HOLZEL

Staff Writer

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

