Above:
Students having a seder
at Beth Isaac.
Below:
Ray Clement teaching a
Sunday school class.

cpinev

ADDII 1' 1001

Detroit Metropolitan Air-
port where he teaches air-
craft maintenance for Nor-
thwest Airlines. They
knew where the Jewish
areas were, Mr. D'Loss
said. "But I wanted to be
closer to work. So we made
a tradeoff."
Sometimes it is a hassle
to be far away from the
Jewish community, he
said. It's difficult to get to
the Jewish Community
Center, take adult edu-
cation classes and have
their children always par-
ticipate in social activities
with the larger Jewish
community.

To make ug for it, Mr.
D'Loss and his wife, who
recently converted to
Judaism, have created a
Jewish atmosphere at
home and are active Beth
Isaac members, Mr. D'Loss
said. He is the Sunday
school principal, edits the
bulletin and is a synagogue
board member.
While he loves Beth
Isaac, Mr. D'Loss isn't sure
he wants to be so far
removed from the general
Jewish community again.
Due to a job transfer, the
D'Loss family is moving to
Minneapolis in July after
his eldest son is bar mitz-
vah. Because the Jewish
community of St. Paul is so
close to the airport, he'll
get the best of both worlds,
Mr. D'Loss said.
But Susan MacNicol,
who grew up in Trenton as
part of the large Ellias clan
and is now raising her own
family in the city, said she
never felt sorry she wasn't
in the midst of Detroit's
northern suburbs.
"This is a good place to
raise kids. It's a pretty ac-
cepting community," Mrs.

MacNicol said. But it has
also meant sacrifices.
Her children are among a
handful of Jewish students
in the Trenton school
system, she said. So the
first year when her
daughter's swim meet fell
on Yom Kippur, Bethany
swam and fasted.
The following year, the
school scheduled another
swim meet* on Rosh
Hashanah even though it
had tried to avoid the con-
flict. "We left it up to the
girls. They decided not to
swim," said Mrs. Mac-
Nicol, who had two chil-
dren on the team. "We're
glad the kids felt comfor-
table to take a stance."
But it makes people like
the Griffins upset when
Jews in Detroit's northern
suburbs insinuate
Downriver Jews are not as
committed to Judaism.
"Just because it's not
Southfield doesn't mean
we're any less Jewish,"
Mrs. Griffin said.
Just ask Mr. Freeling,
who moved from Birm-
ingham to the Downriver
area nine years ago with

his wife, Miriam. Mr.
Freeling, who is blind, was
tired of taking two buses to
his job in Taylor every day.
After their son left high
school, the couple found a
ranch home in 'Lincoln
Park.
"My wife and I don't need
to be in a Jewish neighbor-
hood," Mr. Freeling said.
"We don't need a -place to
tell us who we are.-To me,
that is a shtetl mentality."
Moving out of a Jew-
ish community did not
mean the couple lost their
commitment to Judaism.
The first thing they did
was join Beth Isaac, Mr.
Freeling said.
Yet, he and other
Downriver Jewish families
constantly get asked by
other Detroit area Jews,
"You live where? I didn't
know there were any Jews
down there." In recent
years, more Downriver
Jews have begun serving
in Jewish communal
organizations. But, Mr.
Freeling said sometimes
they feel slighted. "There's
a certain mindset in the
community."

