jews d
in
the
Jewish Detroiters
On The
Move
Out-migration to
suburbs started
in the 1950s, but
now some are
returning to the
urban core.
BY SHARI S. COHEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
THE
INTERSECTION
PROJECT
Nearly 50 years after a police
raid at 12th and Clairmount
streets ignited violence and
carnage, the Detroit Journalism
Cooperative, which includes the
Detroit Jewish News, is exploring
whether conditions that
produced the civil unrest have
improved for Detroit residents
in a series of stories called The
Intersection. This is the last in
the series. To see all the stories
done by our partner media
agencies, go to
www.detroitjournalism.org.
12
January 26 • 2017
D
etroit has had Jewish residents since 1762. The
and four-family duplexes and apartment buildings. They
first Jewish neighborhood, Hastings Street, devel-
were not fleeing; they were improving their housing stock.”
oped near downtown Detroit in the 1880s. By 1910,
After World War II, returning veterans sought to start
Jews began moving to newer neighborhoods to the north
families, and real estate developers created suburban-like
and later northwest, as African Americans moved into
developments in Northwest Detroit — mostly brick, two-
predominantly Jewish neighborhoods — a pattern that
story, single-family homes with small front and backyards,
continued into the 1970s. In recent years, there has been a
and detached garages. Many young Jewish families bought
modest reversal of that trend with some new Jewish resi-
houses in northwest Detroit around Bagley, Hampton
Judge Avern Cohn and Vernor elementary schools. Synagogues, temples and
dents inspired by Detroit’s revitalization.
According to historian Sydney Bolkosky’s book,
stores followed them.
Harmony & Dissonance: Voices in Jewish Identity in Detroit 1914-
But, by 1958, Jews were on the move again — this time initially
1967, some Jews left Hastings Street for better business opportuni- to Oak Park, Huntington Woods and Southfield, often moving to
ties, but others “wanted to escape escalating crime — which fre-
subdivisions developed by Jewish builders. By 1958, according to a
quently served as a euphemism for their flight from the mounting
study by Albert Mayer for the Jewish Welfare Federation, cited in
black population.”
Lila Corwin Berman’s Metropolitan Jews: Politics, Race and Religion
Black Detroiters were crowded into a small section of the city
in Postwar Detroit, 20 percent of Detroit’s Jewish population lived
and, with continued migration from the South, they faced a criti-
in Oak Park and Huntington Woods. The Oak Park branch of the
cal need for more housing. However, racial prejudice and discrimi- Jewish Community Center opened in 1959.
natory legal restrictions hampered their ability to rent and buy
homes outside their existing neighborhoods.
REASONS FOR LEAVING
Some powerful all-white, non-Jewish neighborhood organiza-
Why did Jewish Detroiters leave the city? There were multiple rea-
tions posted threatening signs, vandalized African-Americans’
sons — racial, economic, religious and sociological and, of course,
homes and threatened violence when blacks attempted to rent or
many white residents who were not Jewish also moved to the
buy homes in white neighborhoods. Black Detroiters faced less
suburbs. (Years later, many African Americans left Detroit for Oak
resistance when moving to Jewish neighborhoods.
Park and Southfield, too.)
“Jews didn’t demonstrate or burn crosses; they simply moved
According to Judge Cohn, as soon as a neighborhood became 30
out,” recalls U.S. District Court Judge Avern Cohn, then a lawyer
percent black, whites started to leave. “Jews are white people, and
active with the Jewish Community Council, precursor of the Jewish they weren’t used to integration,” he says.
Community Relations Council.
A key incentive for many families was the desire for newer,
Cohn views the initial outward migration as mostly driven by
better housing that was readily available in the suburbs by the
upward mobility. “The initial movement from the Twelfth Street
late 1950s. Government mortgage programs eased the financing
area was not racial,” he says. “Families were living in two-family
for new homes that offered more space and privacy than some
jn