metro Jewish Detroit Expert to explore Jewish connections to the Motor City. Yaffa Klugerman Special to the Jewish News J ews lived in Detroit, most left it, and now many are trying to revitalize it. What lies behind these contradictory decisions to live, to leave and even, perhaps, to return? Lila Corwin Berman will discuss the answer to these and many other questions about Jews and urbanization during the Jean & Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies' 25th annual David W. Belin Lecture in American Jewish Affairs at the University of Michigan. The talk, "The Jewish Romance with the Modern City: Loving, Leaving, and Reforming," will take place on Thursday, March 12, at 7 p.m. at Forum Hall, Palmer Commons, at 100 Washtenaw Ave. in Ann Arbor. The event begins with a recep- tion at 6:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public. Corwin Berman holds Temple University's Murray Friedman Chair of American History as associate professor in the Department of History Lila Corwin and Director of the Feinstein Center for American Berman Jewish History. She is the author of the award- winning Speaking of Jews: Rabbis, Intellectuals, and the Creation of an American Public Identity. Her talk will focus on themes explored in her forthcoming book, Metropolitan Jews: Politics, Race, and Religion in Postwar Detroit, slated for publication in April. The book examines the role that urban- ism played in crafting American Jewish identity. It argues, she says, "that instead of abandoning urbanism when Jews left the cities, they actually refashioned it into a different political, economic and cultural identity:' The lecture represents her effort to explore Jews' connection to cit- ies in the modern period. Detroit will figure prominently because, as Corwin Berman notes, it provides the paradigmatic example of a "white flight" city, where much of the white community abandoned the city and decamped to the suburbs within a very short period. But there were other reasons she chose to concentrate on the Motor City "I married into a family that's from Detroit:' she said. "So there was a sense that this was a city that I wanted to learn more about because I had a [personal] connection to it." Her research of Detroit also began with being in the right place at the right time. Corwin Berman was a fellow during the Frankel Institute's inaugural year in 2007-2008 when she realized that she wanted to write about the journey from city to suburb, and what that meant for Jews' political, economic, religious and cultural conscious- ness. "There was an element of serendipity:' she said, "that I happened to be close to Detroit when I was starting this project:' Ultimately, Corwin Berman hopes that her lecture will help people better understand Jews' relationship with cities. "It's not just based on nostalgia," she remarked. "It's really framed by legal structures and economic policies, some of which had very racist origins ... [People] need to grapple with how these policies created decades of white disinvestment from cities, and how they need to be changed in order to create a different kind of base to the American public in cities." Writers' Workshop Author To Launch His First Novel Author Erwin Posner will launch his new book, A3 — a Mystery of Intrigue, at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 8, at the Jewish Community Center in Oak Park. He will donate profits from the sale of his mystery to benefit the JCC Writer's Workshop. Posner is a regular attendee at the workshop, which is led by Robert Palmer. Posner, a Southfield pharmacist, will talk about how to self-publish your work on a modest budget. This is his first novel. Palmer, founder of the Raven Writing Studios in Farmington Hills, will discuss "discovering the writer that is inside you" by using techniques he developed using a stepped workshop method. Posner's book is the third in a series of stories he has written called the "Kiddush Club" series. The new book takes the reader to Russia, Cambodia and the capitals of major cities across the globe. The problems that evolve need to be dealt with by cabinet members in the U.S. executive branch, the FBI, CIA and by the National Security Adviser. The event is free. ❑ Hillel Day School's Annual Dinner 2015 DREAM MAKER AWARD HONOREES THE AUDREY AND WILLIAM FARBER FAMILY 2015 RABBI COB SEG A ( "I) A If A D '• N1 2015 DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARDEES Ifl Y SAFRAN DR. CHARLIE SCHWARTZ HILLEL DAY SCHOOL Mind and soul. Better together. For more information contact Amy Schlussel at aschlussel©hillelday.org or 248.539.148 00000 18 March 5 • 2015