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Harvey Gotliffe in Santa Cruz: Looking for the elusive "it."
Eleanor Rudner Greenberg and son, Michael, in the backyard of their San Francisco home.
toward that, than what I find out
here?'
Sally Smitheimer Harvey, direc-
tor of employee assistant services at
San Jose State, came out in 1986 and,
as a counselor, made an unusual
discovery: "I find it very strange that
California is supposed to be so laid
back, so cosmopolitan and so advanc-
ed. I find it more frenetic in the
(Silicon) Valley?'
That attitude carries over into
people's lives, believes Liz Smith, —
Chuck Berg's companion — who grew
up in Palmer Woods. "Detroit is real.
It isn't so out here. There was a deep
community feeling in Detroit. People
have the bonds:'
Perhaps because so many of the
transplanted Detroiters grew up in
Michigan, the connection is still
strong to an area 2,400 miles away.
"Detroit is different than other kinds
of cities," suggests Stillman. "You
may have gone to grade school, junior
high, summer camp, high school, col-
lege and even the army with someone.
It doesn't happen in other cities:'
Chuck Berg corroborates: "We
formed bonds. We were friends from
the time we were three or four years
old. In a way, it will never leave. The
roots are there. It's a special place for
me?'
It's a bit different for Lew Weins-
tein, who feels that "the umbilical
cord was well strung out and barely
existed" when the last of his parents
died two years ago. "I don't feel any
connection," he says, shaking his
head. He keeps phone contacts to
Detroit at a minimum.
Not Sally Harvey. "Every Friday
night I speak with my best friend in
Detroit. It's our weekly Sabbath ser-
vice?' And although Detroit is no
longer her home, she remembers
"having a very good life there?' She
quickly adds, "Home for me is where
I am and my son is. I'm a typical Jew.
I'm an adapter and a surviver."
Salle maintains phone contact
with his best friend from the 1950s at
Mumford on birthdays and other
times, as does Ellie Greenberg.
Although 26 years have passed since
she came west, she still keeps in
touch. "People you were so close to,
it's nice to see what they've done with
their lives." She cherishes "family
and friends. Still have the strong at-
tachment. It's the glue. I love to go
back." As her parents grow older, she
goes back more often. "It's especially
meaningful now."
While her visits with family and
friends in Detroit are a pleasure, she's
not completely happy with her
journey. "I get depressed when I drive
into the city. It saddens me. I think
of what it was. What it could be. San
Francisco is such a marvelous city. so
much energy," she relates, blocking
out some of its own, devastating pro-
blems, including the relatively high
incidence of AIDS, among San
Franciscans.
Lenny Salle has only been back
once, in 1972, and even though he
grew up in a racially-mixed
neighborhood, he was not prepared
for what he found in northwest
Detroit. "Of course the neighborhood
had gone from primarily Jewish to all
black. It looked the same except there
were bars on the windows and the
garages. And the alarm systems?'
Leah Chafetz has returned five
times, mostly for family occasions. "A
lot of friends have died. A la have left
Detroit;' she says. As an artist, Leah
has a special feeling for the city that
introduced her to the arts, fondly
recalling watching Diego Rivera pain-
ting the courtyard murals at the Art
Institute, and vividly picturing Cran-
brook as "a dream?'
With one son in Detroit and
another in Grand Blanc, Al Stillman
visits Michigan at least once a year,
also spending time with his closest
friends. His former Detroit friend and
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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