Through the help of
JVS, Esther Nenner
landed herself a job at
the Jewish Community
Center's Women's
Health Club.

FOCUS

Zwi and Gertie
Golinbursky
make regular
visits to the
isolated elderly
who are
serviced through
JVS' Project
Outreach.

Edward Godzina is part
of the JVS Project
Outreach program.

o
F
HisToRy ELPI\G

KIMBERLY LIFTON

Stafffriter

A

lthough skilled as a
chemist, Valentina
Gordin did not know
how to find a job when she
immigrated to the United
States in 1976.

She found comfort at Jew-
ish Vocational Service,
whose counselors helped her
learn English and guided
her to Dupont. Today, she
has moved up the Dupont
corporate ladder as a resear-
ch chemist.
"This country is full of op-
portunities," Mrs. Gordin
says. "Here, I can do a lot of
things. I started as a chem-
ist, and now I am in research
and development. In Russia,
I would still be working with
my hands."
Noik in its 50th year, JVS
has grown with the com-
munity, helping people like
Mrs. Gordin land their first
jobs in the United States.
Founded in 1941, the agency
first served Jewish women
seeking clerical positions, as
well as refugees and veter-
ans from war-torn Europe.
Today, the expanded agen-
cy is non-sectarian, pro-
viding career development,
job placement, educational

84

FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 1991

JVS Executive Director Albert
Ascher has guided the agency
since 1972.

and vocational services for
• the Jewish community;
outreach services for Jewish
senior adults; the Jewish
Occupational Intern Pro-
gram for summer work ex-
perience for students; and
special refugee services.
Services also are available
for unemployed and
dislocated workers and for
Jewish and non-Jewish
adults with mental and
physical disabilities. Among
these clients, JARC
residents learn daily living
and work skills at JVS
clinics.
Mrs. Gordin credits JVS

for guiding her to her job.
And when her brother,
Alexander Kovalchuk, a
physicist, and his wife,
Irena, a French teacher,
moved to Detroit from the
Soviet Union about four
months ago, she showed
them the way to JVS.
At JVS, the Kovalchuks
are learning about resumes
and job interviews. Along
with other Soviet
newcomers, they have taken
employment classes targeted
for the new immigrants
where they discuss the econ-
omy, jobs and wages. They
come to JVS to learn the do's
and don'ts of the job market.
"The organization has
changed as the community
has changed," says Albert
Ascher, JVS executive direc-
tor. "If we still operated the
way we did in the beginning,
we wouldn't be here today."
The history of Jewish
vocational services in
Detroit dates back to 1926
with the establishment of
the Young Women's Hebrew
Association (YWHA). There,
women were trained and
placed in typing, shorthand
and other office jobs.
In years to come, commun-
ity leaders recognized a need
for a larger agency — one
that included vocational
guidance, job placement and

a library filled with informa-
tion needed for job searches.
By 1940, M. William
Weinberg was hired to direct
the new JVS, which offi-
cially opened in 1941. Al-
ready working there was
AnnaRose Vass, the first
JVS employee, a placement
counselor who stayed with
the agency until 1970.
After Mr. Weinberg com-
pleted his first year, JVS
entered into contractual
agreements with the Mich-
igan Employment Security
Commission, the National

The history of
Jewish vocational
services in Detroit
dates back to
1926.

Youth Administration and
the Detroit Board of Edu-
cation.
Each would share job
orders with JVS, and each
accepted JVS clients for
work. The agencies provided
reciprocal counseling ar-
rangements as well.
It didn't take long for JVS
to grow. By March 1942,
JVS was incorporated as an
independent Jewish Welfare
Federation Agency, moving
to 5737 Second Boulevard in
Detroit which it shared with

Jewish Family Service's
forerunner, the Jewish So-
cial Service Bureau.
The agency moved several
times, temporarily servicing
clients in other areas in
Detroit before finding its
home at two current loca-
tions — a site in Detroit at
Woodward and Canfield and
headquarters in Southfield
at 12 Mile and Southfield
roads.
Mr. Ascher, who has led
JVS since 1972, recalls tales
of the 1940s, when anti-
Semitism played a definite
role in the career choices of
young Jews.
At the time, some fields —
banking, utilities, insurance
and engineering — were not
widely open to Jews. In cer-
tain cases, Jews were refus-
ed admission to college pro-
grams in these fields be-
cause the colleges felt they'd
have no chance of a job after
graduation.
"The JVS cannot elim-
inate discrimination, nor
prescribe a single, simple
solution for this complex set
of problems," wrote ex-
ecutive director Mr.
Weinberg. "The agency does
not ask employers to hire
Jews en masse, nor does it
ask that a proportionate
quota of jobs be given to
Jews. It does seek, however,

