Community Profile

SPECIAL REPORT

Outside
The Core

Some Jews jumped to Novi
and Northville ahead of the
Jewish migration, but are
discovering themselves.

Don Cohen
Special to the Jewish News

N

Lubavitch-run schools when they decided
it was time for a change.
"We were looking for more challenge,
to start something fresh and new:' Rabbi
Susskind explained.
As they made contacts in the area they
were encouraged. "Meeting one family led
to another. Each family knew two or three

ovi and Northville are com-
munities on the edge ... on the
edge of the "core" of the Metro
Detroit Jewish community.
The recently completed 2005 population
study done by the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit showed the subur-
ban area where most Jews
live expanded from 13 ZIP
codes in 1999 to 23 ZIP
codes in 2005. Royal Oak
to the east and Commerce
Township and Walled Lake
to the northwest have been
added. But the Jewish
population in Novi and
Northville did not exhibit
enough growth to nudge
the core further west.
Not yet, anyway.
There is no doubt that
those who live there are
increasingly connected
to each other and Rabbi
Avrohom Susskind has
become the Pied Piper for
area Jews.
Leah and Rabbi Avrohom Susskind: The Pied Pipers
Rabbi Susskind, 31, is
other families — not 20, but a few others:'
the director of the Novi-Northville Center
the rabbi says. "In every subdivision, I'd
for Jewish Life, a project of the Chabad-
meet a few Jews who thought they were
Lubavitch movement. With his wife,
the only Jew there. But there was no place
Leah, 29, and their three little girls, Chaya
for Jews to congregate as Jews in Novi."
Mushka, 5, Fayga, 3, and Chana, 1, the
So the Susskinds looked to move to
Susskinds are playing a Jewish tune that
the area and open their home for Jewish
has brought Jews out into the open.
activities. They plotted Jewish homes and
"It's the Susskinds that are trying to
businesses on a map in order to decide
bring the community and local families
where to live.
together," Celia Gendloff of Novi says.
"We found there was no particular spot
And, indeed, anyone you approach
with Jewish people. There were some in
about the Jews in the community suggests
every subdivision, on the west side, and
the Susskinds are the people to talk to.
the north side. So we decided to move
They grew up in Crown Heights, New
where we thought we'd be central."
York, and were teaching in Oak Park at

Their real estate agent thought
they were crazy when they decided
on a neighborhood — he was certain
there were no Jews there. "But we
found that two of our neighbors are
Jewish, and there is another family
just down the block:' Rabbi Susskind
says.
With unpacked boxes still scattered
around their new home, the family
held a Sukkot party last October. "We
exceeded our expectations:' Rabbi
Susskind says of the 60 people who
turned out and the connections that
were made. "People saw each other
and said, `I know you form Temple
Israel' ... 'I know you from Adat
Shalom:"
"We've grown a lot quicker than we
anticipated, in both quality and quan-
tity," the rabbi says.
For example, just a few days after
the Sukkot party, he received an e-mail
from several parents of teens asking him
if he would meet with their kids if they got
them together. "It wasn't even our initia-
tive," he says. "They came on their own.
There were about 10 kids and we met
several times."
While people aren't moving to the area
to be with other Jews, Rabbi Susskind
says, they see his Center for Jewish Life
as a plus. They've held a Chanukah party
in their home and a Purim party at the
Novi Civic Center. Leah Susskind runs a
monthly Women's Circle and is planning a
program for mothers with young children.
As more families get involved, the
Susskinds hope to further expand their
offerings.

Further Out
More than 30 years before the Susskinds
moved in, Julie Abrams, like many other
Jewish Detroiters, were looking to move to
the suburbs.
"At the time, for me, West Bloomfield
was out of my price range, and Southfield
just seemed to be a lateral move," explains
Abrams. "I had some Jewish and gentile
friends from Detroit who recommended
Novi as a growing community. I knew I
would be close to Jewish communities
in Farmington and West Bloomfield, and
figured they would be soon moving into
Commerce Township and Novi."
Though that hasn't happened yet,
Abrams stays connected to the Jewish
community.
"Anything I want Jewish is close by to
me," she says.
She does her kosher shopping at the
Kroger on Halsted in Farmington Hills
or the Hiller's on Haggerty in Commerce.
There was once a Northville/Novi
Hadassah chapter — currently there are

brams is involved

Nevi's public schools

40 Hadassah members in Novi and six in
Northville — and back in the late 1980s
there was even a United Hebrew Schools
branch at Village Oaks Elementary School
for a few years for 15 children.
Abrams has served on the Novi
Community Schools' Board of Education
since 1992. The district has 6,372 students.
"I think it's been very minimal:' Abrams
says of the presence of Jewish families,
based on her experience with the schools.
"Sometimes, it's mixed marriages so you
can't tell by the names, and we don't count
religious groups in the school system, but
it's always very few."
She estimates there are maybe a dozen
Jewish teachers in the school district.
"It hasn't caused my family any prob-
lems at all," she says."I've had no experi-
ences with anti-Semitism. They always
cover both winter holidays in the schools,
very carefully as they should."

Up North

It's the first anniversary of the Lunch and
Learn program run by Rabbi Susskind
and catered by Leah, and it brings about
a dozen people into the conference room
at Global Office Solutions, a national sup-
plier of office products and furniture. The
owner, Reuben Levy, 33, moved to Novi
10 years ago and established his business
there two years later.
At the age of 23, Levy came to Novi pri-
marily to be on the lake with his ski-boat.
"I had a real estate license at the time,
and I looked at nine different houses and
found one on South Lake Drive with lake
access," he says. Since then, he has moved
around the lake twice and is now on the
east side of Walled Lake, the third larg-
est lake in Oakland County and located
mostly in Novi.

Outside The Core on page 51

August 17 • 2006

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