NEIGHBORHOODS
FARMINGTON HILLS
FARMINGTON
LIVONIA
Population:
Farmington Hills: 83,790
Farmington: 10,423
Livonia: 100,545
Synagogues:
Farmington Hills:
Adat Shalom Synagogue
Bais Chabad of Farmington Hills
The Birmingham Temple
Livonia:
Beit Kodesh
Canton:
Bet Chaverim
Jewish Organizations:
Farmington Hills:
American Technion Society
Beth Achim Religious School at
Greg and Marina Apsey, daughter Vivienne, 6
Laurie and Ray Kach, children Daniel, 6; Michael and Jeremy, 8
Adat Shalom Synagogue
Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit
International Institute for Secular
Humanistic Judaism
Israel Cancer Association of Michigan
JARC
The Sinai Guild
Jewish Funeral Home:
The Dorfman Chapel Funeral Home
FARMINGTON HILLS is the largest city in
Oakland County. Its Jewish population is
concentrated more toward the northern
end of the city. Rolling Oaks, south of 14
Mile and west of Farmington Road, and
Olde Franklin Town, south of 14 Mile and
east of Middlebelt, are two of the more
popular subdivisions for Jewish families,
especially those with young children.
From a Jewish perspective, Farmington
Hills is best known as the home of
Humanistic Judaism, which was brought
to life at the Birmingham Temple by Rabbi
Shervvin Wine, who retired this year.
Come November 2003, it will be the
new home of the Holocaust Memorial
Center.
Incorporated as a city in 1973,
Farrnington Hills has more than 500 acres of
public parkland. To the south is the much
smaller city of Farmington, and further south
is Livonia, which occupies 36 square miles
FAMILY SPOTLIGHT
.Ka.ch/Aps
W
hen Laurie and Ray
Kach needed a larger
home for their growing family,
they couldn't take their
Farmington Hills neighborhood
with them, so they did the next
best thing: They took their neigh-
bors, Greg and Marina Apsey, who
had also outgrown their house.
The two families moved in tan-
dem to the Olde Franklin Town
subdivision into houses virtually
across the street from each other.
"We knew we wanted to live
either here or in Rolling Oaks,"
Laurie said. "Whenever I went
house-hunting, I always had my
eye out for two houses."
"This is a great neighborhood,
it's very helm/ sh (comfortable).
There are so many kids here, and
the people are friendly. When you
walk down the street, people say
hello. We go camping every sum-
mer with a group of families from
the subdivision."
The Kach family, originally
from New York, chose Farmington
Hills because of its excellent
schools and multicultural
population. They also liked the
proximity to Adat Shalom
Synagogue, where their children
attended preschool, as did the
Apsey's daughter, Vivienne.
The two families have continued
to grow closer since their move.
"We are like second parents to
each other's kids; we have
Shabbos, dinners and holidays
together. I feel like a sister to
Marina, who is from Russia," said
Laurie, who worked as a social
worker at Kadima. Ray is a tech-
nical specialist engineer at Ford
Motor Co. The family belongs to
Temple, Kol Ami in West
Bloomfield.
bordered by Inkster and Eight Mile Road.
Although Livonia's Jewish population is
much smaller than it was 50 years ago,
there is still enough of a Jewish community
to support its own synagogue, Beit Kodesh.
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FAVORITE NEIGHBORHOOD HANGOUT:
"Our backyard swimming pool is a popular destination for a lot of the kids in the
neighborhood. Besides hanging out there, we love shopping at Nino Salvaggio's
Strawberry Hills," said Laurie Kach.