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Gifted Couple: In a
Big Circle of Friends
Meet Sarah and Benji Rosenzweig.
VIVIAN HENOCH I SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
I
am a big believer in the laws of attraction and the
laws of reciprocity."
With an opening statement like that on his
Linkedln profile, you know meeting Benji Rosenzweig
will be a rare experience. To be sure, meeting Benji
together with his wife, Sarah, will make that experience
doubly worthwhile. Benji and Sarah personify the laws of
attraction and reciprocity.
Sarah and Benji started out as friends 10 years ago,
working as volunteers with a spiritual connection to the
Friendship House — a division of Friendship Circle in
West Bloomfield.
At the time, Sarah was at Wayne State and Benji
recently had moved to Detroit from New York. Self-
described as a "Jack of most trades and master of few,"
being only 23 and still working to find himself, Benji had
started a construction business and then was forced to
leave after a back injury. So he turned to the employment
counseling services of JVS, a program for which he has
been forever grateful.
According to Sarah, it was friendship, not love at first
sight. "Benji asked me out about a million times before
I ran out of excuses and said yes," she says. "We dated
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September 17 • 2015
for six months, were engaged for nine months and now
we're married eight years with two beautiful daughters,
Na'amah, 6, and Ellah, 4."
"Sarah is a Super Mom," says Benji. "She is supportive
and loving but also a fierce and passionate advocate for
the people and causes she believes in."
About Benji, Sarah observes, "He is the creative
person in our relationship. Benji really has an amazing
imagination, a way of looking at things that sparks new
ideas. Always! If he's awake, he's creating."
All those attributes go into the balance of Benji's and
Sarah's professional careers and family life today.
Benji is a top-producing commercial real estate broker
with Indigo Centers, a commercial real estate firm in
Birmingham, where he is vice president of brokerage. He
also describes himself as a music producer, a blogger, a
marketer, a passionate Detroit advocate and a full-time
dad and husband — with "the order of those things
changing daily," depending on how much sleep he gets.
Sarah is a social worker with bachelor's and master's
degrees from Wayne State University. She began her
clinical practice more than a decade ago, has been a
therapist for children, families and addicts and now is
a neuro-rehabilitative therapist, specializing in patients
with brain injuries, at Life Skills Village and a geriatric care
manager with Michigan Senior Planning.
Breaking from what would typically be a busy
afternoon with clients, Benji and Sarah meet me at 751
Griswold St. — one of the many old buildings Downtown
in the process of redevelopment.
"Projects like this are something we work on quite a
bit," says Benji as we marvel at the detail of the two-story
ceiling of what used to be a bank. "We expect that very
shortly this building will be fully occupied and thriving as
another asset Downtown."
Brokering the deal is on the long roster of projects in
the city and on the homefront for the Rosenzweigs.
On Entrepreneurism
Q: Benji, you've started many businesses. Do you consider
yourself an entrepreneur?
Benji: While I've run a few businesses, primarily in
music and consulting, today I have put most of that
aside to focus on my real estate practice, my family and
my community service. I suppose you could call me a
social entrepreneur, always looking for better solutions to