Happy
Anniversary
Israel!
Our entire Rock Financial
family salutes Israel on
50 years of growth & happiness.
ltl
A ia Rock
Financial
TheMortgage Bank
1 -800431 -ROCK
Michigan Locations:
Bingham Farms • Rochester • Canton
Fenton •Pittsfield •Grand Rapids •Lansing
Clinton Township •Grand Blanc • Detroit
Saginaw • Hartland•Southgate • Flint
5/1
1998
26
rm!
Rock Financial is a Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac and FHA
approved lending institution.
Fresh Start Loan Center is a division of Rock Financial
ebrate it on my own. It's too bad that the
Israelis don't participate more, because
then they could influence it more."
The Detroit Jewish community
held a memorial service at the Jewish
Community Center in West Bloom-
field April 29.
Gafni estimates that there are some
50 Israeli families living in Ann Arbor.
A more precise figure is harder to
arrive at, given the number of students
who come for only a few years and
return without making contact with
the local community.
But those who stay have a strong
sense of national identity, so it is not
surprising that when Gafni and her
husband, Ari, a professor of biochem-
istry at the University of Michigan,
arrived in Ann Arbor 14 years ago, they
were met almost immediately by a wel-
coming committee of compatriots.
"The infrastructure was actually
very impressive when we got here,"
she recalled. "Within two weeks,
someone contacted us and invited us
into the organization [of Israelis in
town]." The newcomers got a phone
list and a year's worth of parties to
attend, Gafni said. "I was very
impressed by the fact that they found
me," she said. "I don't think that exists
anymore, unfortunately."
As with most college towns, new-
corners are more likely to be short-
term visitors than long-term tenants.
Building relationships amid such tran-
sience can therefore be as precarious as
being a baseball fan in the world of
free agency — one never knows who
will be around next year.
Rivka is a clinical psychologist who
married a Michigan native she met in
her hometown a few miles outside Tel
Aviv. They have lived in Ann Arbor
for nearly 10 years now, and Rivka,
who spoke on the condition that her
last name not be used, said that one
defense mechanism against the disrup-
tive transience is to develop tighter
bonds with fellow expatriates.
"It's very hard on us to get close to
the people who come and go, so we
kind of keep together," she said.
Although neither she nor her husband
is religious, they send their oldest
child to Hebrew Day School — a
modest attempt at acculturation
which, she said, sometimes leads the
boy to declare that he is an Israeli.
"I won't just stay at home. I'll prob-
ably talk to parents and some of my
friends, and I'll tell my kids what Yom
Ha'atzma'ut (Independence Day) is
like in Israel," Rivka said.
Michigan is certainly capable of
supporting expatriate communities.
Chaldeans, for example, flocked
here in great numbers from Iraq, mak-
ing the Detroit area a major center for
their people away from the Middle
East. Ann Arbor has a substantial con-
tingent of Palestinians, many of whom
are active in town commerce. Both
Jerusalem Market and Jerusalem Gar-
den, for example, are Arab-owned.
Still, for some reason, which Ann
Arbor's Israelis were hard pressed to
identify, lately their community hasn't
been as tight-knit.
Of course, not every expatriate feels
fragmented. Tal Harris, who arrived in
Ann Arbor four years ago from Indi-
ana when her husband, Michael, took
a job teaching political science at East-<
ern Michigan University, said "the
Rana Gafni loves Ann Arbor, but regrets
missing Israel's celebration of its Jubilee.
Jewish community here is great."
Like the other Israelis interviewed
for this story, Harris, a nurse at St.
Joseph Mercy hospital, does not feel
the holiday vibes that infuse her
homeland on special days. But, she
added quickly, the Jewish community
here is able to satisfy the rest of their
sense of being Israeli.
"We are very impressed with the
Jewish activity" in Ann Arbor, she
said, citing the various social and cul-
tural programs and the resources for
the couple's three children.
As for Yom Ha'atzmaut, she is less c:
torn than her compatriots about miss-
ing the big anniversary.
"The number five-oh does not
make such a significant effect [on me
and my husband], as much as know-
ing that Israel is surviving another
year," Harris said. ❑