Publisher's Notebook
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Speak Loud, Speak Proud!
R
emember Dothan, Alabama?
About 18 months ago, this tiny Jewish community
about 90 miles from the Gulf of Mexico embarked
on an improbable marketing and advertising campaign.
With financial resources from its own Blumberg Foundation,
Dothan targeted Jewish families in several metropolitan areas,
including Detroit.
You may remember the attractive
advertising for Dothan that appeared
in the Jewish News under the heading:
You Deserve A Better Quality Of Life.
It touted Dothan as "a regional hub of
industry, health care and education"
and its Jewish community as having "a
rich history." The sweetener? It offered
up to $50,000 interest-free grants as
part of its Jewish "Family Relocation
Project:'
Because of the campaign, the Jewish
community of Dothan attracted sev-
eral new families.
And what about us, right here in Detroit?
Shortly after the Dothan advertising campaign surfaced in
the Jewish News, I wrote a Sept. 25, 2008, column. It offered
a blueprint for repositioning and reinvigorating our Jewish
community in the Metropolitan Detroit area and Southeastern
Michigan. If little Dothan could perfume itself, imagine what
we could do with the depth and breadth of general and Jewish
resources at our disposal? Facing my column was a mock-up
of a full-page advertisement that could run in the Jewish News
and elsewhere, celebrating Southeastern Michigan as a great
place to live — and a great place to live Jewishly.
It suggested at the bottom that additional information,
including a hypothetical DVD, could be obtained by con-
tacting the community outreach department of the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit.
Well, that's as far as it went. The column and facing ad
created very little interest among Jewish communal leaders.
Actually, leaders outside of our Jewish com-
munity were much more excited about the
possibility for this kind of initiative.
We offer a new narrative
to rejuvenate our Jewish
community — and all of
Southeastern Michigan.
have the ability to change the narrative about our future as
a Jewish community and about the role we can play in the
region's rejuvenation.
We must insist that our Jewish communal leaders refrain
from kicking the demographic can further down the road ...
leaving our next generation with the equivalent of one big
Detroit Jewish Home for Aged and an annual Federation cam-
paign fundraising apparatus that has been milked dry.
Call To Action
Beginning with today's Jewish News, we will be attempting
to redirect the narrative. We will be running a series of pub-
lic service advertisements with testimonials from people in
Southeastern Michigan — Detroit and Ann Arbor — that
speak to the many positives about living, and living Jewishly,
in this region. Before we can sell others on the attributes of
Southeastern Michigan, we have to believe them ourselves.
Opposite the series of advertisements will be a page of con-
tent aimed primarily at Jewish 20- and 30-somethings. Week
to week, some of the items that will rotate include:
• new job openings;
• jobs recently landed;
• a Q&A profile with a 20-to 30-something about living in
the region;
• select postings from the "SE Michigan Jewish Alliance"
Facebook site;
• cultural hotspots for getting together and socializing;
• helpful hints for budding entrepreneurs looking for finan-
cial resources, mentors, etc.
We will also expand our social media and digital
footprint, providing additional interactivity and
spreading the good word virally.
I encourage you (and your children and grand-
children)
to look at our region and Jewish com-
Downward Trend
munity
with
a fresh pair of eyes. Southeastern
The 2005 Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Michigan
can
be one of North America's most
Detroit-commissioned demographic study
desirable
areas
to work, play and enjoy a full, rich
remains the one source of concrete data about
and
diverse
Jewish
life.
our community. It showed that our population
If
you
know
a
20-something
or 30-something
slipped by almost 24,000 (25 percent) since
(or
40-something,
for
that
matter!)
who would like
the last study in 1989. The study also showed
to
provide
a
testimonial
about
living,
and living
we had:
Jewishly,
in
Southeastern
Michigan,
please
send his/
• a frightfully small number of Jewish 20-
.
her
name
my
way
at
ahorwitz@thejewishnews.com
somethings living in the Detroit metropolitan
sh Alliance
JN's
Jewi
The
If
you
know
of
a
new
job
opening,
someone
who
area;
intern, Rachel Lachover just landed a job, someone who wants to be added
• the highest proportion of senior citizens
to the "SE Michigan Jewish Alliance" Facebook site
outside of Sunbelt retirement communities
or
can
provide
information for a mini-profile about a 20-some-
• out-migration that exceeded in-migration ... more people
thing
or
30-something,
etc., please contact JN intern Rachel
moving away than relocating here; and this was before the
Lachover
at
(248)
351-5156
or rlachover@thejewishnews.com .
implosion of our regional economy.
If
Dothan,
Alabama,
can
do
it, so can we. Our future as a
Today, a thoughtful guess of the size of our Jewish commu-
vibrant
and
diverse
Jewish
community
is at stake. ❑
nity is closer to 60,000 and without attempts at intervention,
is heading toward 50,000 in five to seven years.
Turn the page to see our opening two-page spread spotlighting
Yes, the fate of our Jewish community is tied to the fate
Jewish
and economic opportunities in Southeastern Michigan.
of Southeastern Michigan and the city of Detroit. But we do
JOIN US ON
FACEBOOK;
search our
group name
"SE Michigan
Jewish Alliance.
The mission of the
Jewish Alliance is to
revitalize and reinvigorate
the young adult (20-30
something) Jewish
community in Michigan.
As an online/social
component of the Detroit
Jewish News campaign,
we are encouraging this
page to be a networking
system to provide young
Jewish adults with
business and social
opportunities. Please join,
post opportunities,
upcoming events, and
invite your friends to join
as well!
fac ebook
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--
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loicA"a*3ft
SOUTHEASTERN
J
EWISH
JN
ALLIANCE
February 11 2010
15