metro >> on the cover

Orthodox families from around
the country find Metro Detroit
a welcome new home.

Louis Finkelman I Special to the Jewish News

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Jewish families have moved to suburban
Detroit. These newcomers have their own sto-
ries to tell about why they chose to move here.

Brooklyn To West Bloomfield
David Hoory grew up surrounded by fam-
ily. When his parents came to America —
his father from Iraq, his mother from Syria
— they and their extended families settled
in the same neighborhood in Brooklyn. A
generation later, his sisters live within walk-
ing distance of each other. And when Hoory
met his future wife — who had always lived
all of four blocks away — they married and
moved, as expected, into the same neigh-
borhood.
Hoory developed his hard-working
entrepreneurial spirit by watching his
parents work at their own businesses. At
a young age, while his peers were playing
video games, Hoory was buying and selling
video games. This and his other efforts as
an entrepreneur gave him the urge to try
another endeavor where he could control
his own destiny: real estate sales.
He was a successful Realtor in Brooklyn
when a relative alerted him to an opportu-
nity in financial services at the New York
Life Insurance Company. He describes
financial services as "his canine and attri-
butes his promotions to partner and later to
senior partner to his "entrepreneurship and
hard work"
The next step up the ladder at his com-
pany would mean running and growing a
general office as a managing partner — and
a move out of New York. He contemplated
opportunities elsewhere in the country, and
then, about a year ago, accepted the posi-
tion as managing partner of the Greater
Detroit General Office in Southfield.
Why Metro Detroit?
Though Hoory marks off the items on his
checklist, explaining that suburban Detroit
has everything, Akiva Hebrew Day School
in Southfield was the decisive factor.
"If it weren't for Akiva, I could never have
accepted:' he said. "The most important
question was, 'How are we going to raise
our children?"'
David and his wife, Lisa, have four chil-
dren, Nina, 8, Ovadia, 7, and twins Jaclyn
and Joseph, 3. The older children had
started school in Brooklyn at the Yeshiva
of Flatbush, which Hoory says has an edu-
cational philosophy similar to the Zionist,
Modern Orthodox Akiva.

Young professionals Dr. Joseph and Leah
"Aldva," he says, "is a small-
Sanders moved to Huntington Woods from New
er, more intimate place that
York with their son, Moshe. Nathan is a native
feels like a family"
Detroiter, born June 14. They were drawn by
West Bloomfield also offers
work and Leah's sister, Miriam, who married a
a choice of welcoming syna-
Detroiter.
gogues.
David and Lisa usually
attend Congregation Ohel
Moed in West Bloomfield, in
easy walking distance of their
home, and enjoy its full range II
of activities for adults and
children. They also connect
with the Sephardic congrega-
tion Keter Torah, also in West
Bloomfield.
Though Lisa does not come
from a Sephardic background
(her father is songwriter/sing-
er Yossi Toiv of Country Yossi
and the Shteeble Hoppers),
she has mastered the tradi-
tions and cooking of her hus-
band's family.
Suburban Detroit also has
an interconnected Jewish
community, Hoory said. "I feel
like I know a whole communi-
ty in West Bloomfield — and
lots of people in Southfield
and Oak Park:'
Besides, the area has clean
modern office buildings,
homes with expansive yards
and growing trees. "Obviously, the local
community with a more wholesome, less
economy is growing, too:' he added.
competitive environment, and they could
When Lisa's relatives recently came to
find more affordable housing in Oak Park.
visit, the young newlyweds enjoyed their
He likes the idea that his children can meet
vacation in suburban Detroit and expressed Jews from different backgrounds in school,
admiration for Jewish life here. Now they
in synagogue and in the neighborhood.
are considering making the move.
Another advantage of Oak Park for the
Judowitz family — other relatives made the
New Yorker In Oak Park
move here in recent years. The Judowitzes
Yoel Judowitz had always lived in the New
have three children, a girl, 6, a boy, 4, and a
York area before he and his wife, Mindy,
son born in Michigan this year.
Affordable housing for this family means
moved to Oak Park last
year. He grew up in Far
they rent a four-bedroom house with spa-
Rockaway, and she in
cious yards for what they would pay for a
the Flatbush section of
small apartment in Monsey. They continue
Brooklyn. After they
to look, calmly and carefully, to buy a house
married, they moved to
in their target area.
Monsey, a stronghold
Yoel had the freedom to decide where
of observant Jewry. Last
to live because he has a "transportable"
year, they moved to Oak
profession. As an artist and book illustra-
Yoel Judowitz
Park.
tor, he can simply send his work in from
Yoel said they moved
cyberspace.
for two reasons: They felt the attraction
He also teaches science in grades 6-8 at
of raising their children in an out-of-town
Southfield-based Yeshiva Beth Yehudah,

where their oldest child attends school.
Mindy Judowitz, recently certified as a
school psychologist, also will be teaching
second-grade girls secular studies classes at
Beth Yehudah.

West Coast To Oak Park
Former Californian Dovid Greenberg, like
Judowitz, has an Internet-related profession.
Greenberg runs a digital marketing agency
and so can live anywhere. He and his wife,
Chana, considered many options and dis-
cussed them with their rabbi before choos-
ing to relocate to Oak Park.
His wife comes from Providence, R.I., so
she already understood the attractions of
out-of-town life, he said. He grew up in Los
Angeles, so "out-of-town" feels like a new
experience for him — and he likes it.
"People are friendlier in a smaller com-
munity:' he said. "In Oak Park, people wave
and say hello:'
In a big city, Greenberg says, you might
seek out people just like yourself. In Oak

Revival on page 10

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August 14 • 2014