SOUTHFIELD:
the suburbs. At the time, the
northwest corridor was in-
creasingly black or Or-
thodox. Middle class Con-
servative and Reform Jews
left the area for the suburbs.
The Orthodox were com-
mitted to staying in the area
and launched efforts to
secure an eruv, a ritual
enclosure that permits
observant Jews to carry
within its parameters on
Shabbat and on holidays. By
1981, after a four-year
battle, highway officials,
utility companies and local
governments gave the go
ahead for an eruv around
northwest Baltimore and
Pikesville.
The organized Jewish
community didn't want to
lose its stake in the area. It
already abandoned its third
location since Jews first set-
tled along the waterfront in
Baltimore during the late
1800s. They moved to the
lower Park Heights Avenue
area before convening nor-
thwest upon Upper Park
Heights.
"We didn't want a fourth
move," said Ruth Gug-
genheim, CHAI director of
home ownership services.
"This was the last Jewish
community in the city."
Ten years ago, the
organized Jewish commun-
ity started to notice a change
in the neighborhood. Those
who kept the community
stable were aging. The
residents ranged from 55 to
65 years old. Younger
couples with children were
not considering the area.
Still present were the black
and Orthodox, who rarely
communicated.
"As we looked at demo-
graphics, we saw that the in-
stitutions were in a neigh-
borhood that was getting
older," said Marshall Levin,
director of community plan-
ning for the Associated. "We
wanted to be pro-active,
rather than reactive. It was
clear that maintaining an
integrated area with Jewish
presence was an immediate
need.
"We hoped for exactly
what happened," Mr. Levin
said. "This is a story of great
vitalization."
In 1983, CHAT came for-
ward with its mission: con-
vince middle class blacks
and whites to stay, and
make available affordable
housing for young Jewish
families.
The Associated and the
city provided initial start-up
funds. CHAT began advising
prospective residents of
available homes and provid-
ed low-interest home loans
to first-time buyers.
CHAI also offered mat-
ching grants for home im-
provements and launched
teams of block clubs to im-
prove community morale.
Since the program began,
CHAI has counseled over
1,400 clients. Each pays a
one-time membership fee of
$18. Chai has helped 450
families buy their houses
through counseling and fi-
nancial assistance, Ms.
Guggenheim said.
"We co-exist
peacefully and
happily. I guess
that's the best you
get in 1991."
— Boruch Levine
"We have been able to
weather that generational
turnover in population.
When CHAI started, there
were the same numbers of
Jewish families living here.
But they were empty
nesters, they were older,"
said Ken Gelula, CHAI's ex-
ecutive director. "We are not
trying to build up the Jewish
community dispropor-
tionately — just to stabilize
it.
"What gives it that sense
of renewal is that hundreds
of young people with chil-
dren are moving in," Mr.
Gelula said. "A lot of other
communities have allowed
people to flow out of these
neighborhoods."
CHAI did help bring
blacks and Jews together to
live quietly next to one an-
other. They talk on the
street, and sometimes meet
to discuss neighborhood con-
cerns.
But for the most part, the
AT RISK?
Jews and blacks don't invite
each other over for dinner,
and they do not socialize.
"We have two different
cultures," said Boruch
Levine, a CHAT board mem-
ber. "The bottom line is that
they would like an ideal
black neighborhood that is
all middle class. In any
group, people like to live
amongst themselves.
"Unfortunately, we don't
live in an idealistic world.
We co-exist peacefully and
happily. I guess that's the
best you get in 1991."
The Orthodox children of
Upper Park Heights attend
private schools. A small
minority of Jews attend the
public schools in the area.
Most of these schools at one
time, however, were
predominately Jewish.
Many of the black children
attend schools like Pimlico
Middle School, which is
predominantly black and
directly across from the Jew-
ish Community Center.
On Shabbat, Jews walk up
and down the streets, talk-
ing and visiting with
friends. In the evenings,
with the exception of
Shabbat, Northwest
Citizen's Patrol cars drive
around.
Sometimes, Ed Clapp, who
is black, turns on electrical
appliances for his Jewish
neighbors on Shabbat and
holidays. Once he drove a
rabbi's wife to the hospital
when she went into labor on
Shabbat.
He and his wife, Bernice,
have lived in Upper Park
Heights for 15 years.
They've noticed some
changes — for the better.
When they first arrived,
the Clapps said, hubcap and
bicycle thefts were a com-
mon occurrence. They aren't
much of a problem anymore.
Mr. Clapp doesn't know
many of his black or Jewish
neighbors. He said it is rare
that blacks and Jews
socialize. But, he added,
everyone seems to have one
thing at stake: the
neighborhood.
Mr. Clapp credits the Jew-
ish community with improv-
ing the neighborhood
climate.
1
PIKESVILLE
D.
BALTIMORE
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"I believe this neighbor-
hood has stabilized," said
Mr. Clapp, a retired teacher.
In Upper Park Heights,
CHAT is focusing on neigh-
borhood maintenance, work-
ing with the city to improve
streets, outsides of homes,
lawns and the appearance of
Park Heights Avenue,
It is targeting additional
blocks that are experiencing
rapid demographic change.
CHAT also would like to br-
ing in more young, non-
Orthodox Jewish families.
Many believe masses of
non-Orthodox families will
not choose life in Upper Park
Heights. The Baltimore City
Public Schools, which like
many urban school systems,
is seeing a steady decline in
test scores while failure,
dropout rates and crime are
on the increase.
Also, the city property tax
rates are about twice as high
as the surrounding
Baltimore County, where
most of Baltimore's non-
Orthodox Jews live.
Park Heights Avenue is
teeming with synagogue and
Jewish communal life. Cross
Country Elementary has at-
tempted to attract Orthodox
involvement by offering its
gymnasium and classrooms
to the community for eve-
ning use.
Israeli music is always
playing in the home of Tali
and Lewis Adelstein, who
moved to Baltimore from
Boston three years ago. She
is Israeli; he is a Zionist. Yet
neither is Orthodox.
They live next door to the
Goldbergers and across the
street from Ed and Bernice
Clapp. They know their
neighbors.
They watch Bracha Gold-
berger light Shabbat candles
each week through the
window. Tali is thinking
about koshering her kitchen.
Yet she feels "a bit
isolated."
"To them (the Orthodox),
this must be paradise," she
said. "But it is difficult to
feel the charm of the neigh-
borhood if you are not part of
it."
Still, the Adelsteins love
their house. After all, if it
weren't for CHAI, they
might still be renting. "It's
an investment," she said.
"CHAI holds your hand
from A to Z," Tali Adelstein
said. "We got a house for
$71,000 and a home im-
provement loan to fix it up.
This was our savior. We
knew nothing about being
homeowners. CHAI took us
step by step."
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
33