metro >> on the cover
American Dreams
Jewish-Russian immigrants have an entrepreneurial spirit in common.
Jackie Headapohl I Managing Editor
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
stars with pictures of baby Lenin on them
to the Italians, convincing them the picture
was of a famous Russian soccer star.
The hustling, along with 10-hour shifts at
a gas station, allowed Gendelman to come
to the U.S. in 1990 with a few hundred dol-
lars in his pocket.
His family came to Northgate, and he
enrolled at Berkley High to learn English.
He also took any job he could find, cleaning
toilets at the Berkley Ice Arena for $3.25
an hour, delivering pizzas, selling vacuum
cleaners, selling carpets.
"When I was 24, I asked myself, 'What
am I doing?' I decided to become a com-
puter programmer," he said. After working
in that field for a few years, Gendelman still
felt unsatisfied.
"I always knew I wanted to own my own
business, even in Russia: he said. "So I
decided to learn how to repair computers
and opened up a business with a friend.
Our first job took two days and two nights
and earned us only $50, but we learned."
That was only the beginning. In 2004,
Gendelman opened Company Folders Inc.
in Keego Harbor, a graphics design and
printing company that employs 11 people.
"I knew if I worked my butt off, I could
build something to be proud of: he said.
He and his wife, Janet, a teacher, live
in West Bloomfield with their two chil-
dren, Aaron, 2, and Noa, 41/2. The family
belongs to Temple Israel and the children
attend preschool at the Jewish Community
Center.
Gendelman has remained close friends
with many of the young men he met at
Northgate. "We all moved to America at
roughly the same time, and every one of
us has achieved success: he said.
Hard Work Pays Off
So how did so many friend achieve the
same kind of success?
"It sounds cliche, but it really comes
down to the American dream: said Mike
Starobinsky, owner of Waterford-based
Maxwill Solutions, a provider of computer
and networking services. "You have the
opportunity to do anything you want, and
if you work hard, provide the best service
and never say no, you can make it."
Starobinsky never held lifelong dreams
of owning his own company, he said. It
came about through a circuitous path and
now "he loves every second of it."
10 October 18 s 2 012
Vladimir Gendelman and family
Mike Starobinsky and family
Steven Smolkin and family
Starobinsky left Poltava, Ukraine, and
moved to Northgate Apartments with his
immediate and extended family in 1989.
He also attended Berkley High to hone his
English. He wasn't sure what he wanted to
do after high school so got his cosmetol-
ogy license and worked for about three
years in his mother's beauty salon.
"I knew it wasn't my future," said
Starobinsky, who enrolled in courses in
IT network management and engineering
and got his certifications in Novell and
Microsoft.
He worked for several different compa-
nies and started a side business in 2006,
helping family and friends with their IT
concerns. He was working at payroll giant
ADP in Ann Arbor in 2008 when the econ-
omy tanked and he was laid off.
"That's when I turned full time to grow-
ing my business. I went networking, pass-
ing out business cards and going door-to-
door to sell my services: he said.
Starobinsky had a knack for selling, and
Erik Raykinstein and family
Yuliy Osipov and family
his business eventually grew. He recently
had to hire someone to help him handle all
the demand.
"Perhaps being Jewish has something to
do with it," he said of his success. "When
I started, most of my referrals came from
other Jews."
He lives in Waterford with his wife,
Alina, and sons Maxim, 8, and William, 4.
They attend Chabad of Commerce. "We're
not Orthodox, but we believe in traditions
and want to share them with our children.
There's something special about being
Jewish!'
Anti Semitism Spurs Move
-
Perhaps none of the friends had a worse
experience before moving to the United
States than Steven Smolkin, now owner of
Simon's Jewelry and Pawn Shop in Hazel
Park. In 1989, while still living in Belarus,
he was severely beaten for no other reason
than being Jewish.
"It was the last straw for my family:
Alex Kheynson
Smolkin said. "The next day, my parents
applied to leave the country."
He arrived in the U.S. in the early 1990s
with his family. Sponsored by Jewish
Family Service (JFS), the family shared
a small two-bedroom apartment in Oak
Park. He immediately took a job as a stock
boy at a Jewish market (his first pay-
check was $30) and enrolled in Oakland
Community College. Later, he attended
Walsh College in Troy, where he earned a
business degree.
His dad, who was a jeweler in Russia,
got him a job in a jewelry store, which
he managed for three years. "I thought to
myself, if I can do this for somebody else, I
can do it for myself as well."
He opened in 1995 with a 600-square-
foot store. A few years later, it doubled.
Last year he expanded again, to a
5,000-sqaure foot space in his own free-
standing building.
Dreams on page 12