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aspire to work in Ford's factories or
mould not get jobs there.
They struggled first to create their
own institutions, including the medical
clinics and dining halls as well as the
shuts. But they also tried not to stand
out too much from other Americans.
Picking up the theme, historian
Sydney Bolkosky of the University of
Michigan-Dearborn noted that in the
-period before World War II, some
Detroit Jews spoke out about the viru-
lence of German anti-Semitism. Many
were more concerned about internal
dissent. "It was as if the Jews of
Europe and the Jews of America lived
on different planets," he said.
Even when Holocaust survivors trick-
led into the city, Bolkosky explained,
\__ their American hosts told them to enjoy
/_ "'the economic opportunities and material
help but to keep silent about their expe-
rience. "That added burden of silence
took its own toll," he said.
The third panelist for the session
offered the most provocative descrip-
tion of changing Jewish identity. In
Detroit, as in the rest of the nation
beginning in the 1960s, Jews primarily
/- identified themselves as "whites," said
Thomas J. Sugrue of the University of
Pennsylvania.
The "romantic view" that blacks and
Jews were conscious of a shared history
oppression was partially true, Sugrue
said. "They did march hand-in-hand in
civil rights demonstrations."
Jewish leaders did try to stop the
flight from city to suburb, "but they
were rebuffed by the Jewish rank and
file," he said, as most voted with
their feet."
The flight began well before
Detroit's 1967 riots, he noted. Sugrue
particularly cited the heavily Jewish
Russell Woods neighborhood, which
in the two years from 1948 to 1950
went from 1.3 percent African
American to 37 percent as Jews left
their apartments for houses further to
the northwest.
Both Sugrue and Glazer noted that,
unlike Roman Catholics who defend-
ed their parish turfs, Jews were not
territorial. Citing "the march of
Temple Beth El," from Woodward
and Elliot (1903) to Woodward and
\--) Gladstone (1922) to Bloomfield
Township (1972), Glazer said, "You
can mark the trail of Jewish migration
by the trail of abandoned synagogues
that are now black churches.
The Jewish history in the 12th
Street neighborhood, Sugrue said, was
nearly obliterated by the 1967 riots
and Hastings Street "was buried
beneath the Chrysler Freeway." I I
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13/12
1999
Detroit Jewish News
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