CLOSE-UP

Today just a handful of Jewish merchants remain at Detroit's Eastern Market, a place

ith $20 and credit
from wholesalers
for his hard work,
young Polish im-
migrant Morris
Dorn in 1928
opened what be-
came a pro-
sperous fruit and
produce business
at the Eastern
Market in Detroit.
At the time, the market
was flourishing with Jew-
ish merchants — mostly
wholesalers who would
start their weekdays_ over
breakfast at 4:30 a.m. at
the nearby, now out-of-
business, Samuel Brothers
Restaurant. Samuel's list
of regular early morning
risers was full of influen-

.

tial businessmen, among
them the late Dexter-
Davison supermarket
founder Norman Cottler.
After a long day at work,
the men would wind down
in the steam room at the
Oakland Bath House,
better known as the
schvitz.
"It was a business with a
lot of romance. You could
see things grow. The
flowers, the fresh fruit and
vegetables were so
gorgeous," says Mr. Dorn's
daughter, Sylvia Ravin,
whose husband, Sidney
Ravin, ran Dorn Fruit and
Produce from the mid-
1950s until he retired in
1986. "It was, and still is,
the bread basket of

Eastern

KIMBERLY LIFTON

Staff Writer

Photos by Daniel M. Rosen

Detroit."
On Saturday, rain or
shine, many who were for-
tunate enough to rent
stalls in the market's pop-
ular open air section sold
their leftover fruits and
vegetables. Some, like Mr.
Dorn, an Orthodox man
who died three years ago,
never put their names on a
lengthy waiting list to
lease a stall. Instead, Mr.
Dorn and other observant
Jews rested and davened
on Shabbat.
The 99-year-old market,
which spans 11 acres, is
nestled between Wilkins
on the north, the Chrysler
Service Drive on the south,
Riopelle and Market on the
east and Russell on the

west. It holds an estimated
450 dealers.
No longer is the Eastern
Market bustling with Jew-
ish merchants, but it
hasn't lost its charm.
Replacing ice tubs and
electric fans of the 1920s
and '30s are massive
refrigerators and freezers
to store fresh produce and
meats.
The market is a place
where many immigrants,
like Holocaust survivor
Henry Dorfman, got
started in the meat-
packing business. Mr.
Dorfman's Thorn Apple
Valley has since moved to
larger facilities a few miles
away from the market, but
others remain. And chil-

