Andrew Stein and his daughter, Mia, 6, in front
of their Sherwood Forest home
Rachel Klegon at Green Living Science,
where she is executive director
A Revitalized Detroit Attracts
Young Jewish Residents
SHARI S. COHEN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
W
hile many Jewish Detroiters left the city
between 1950 and 1970, a growing
number of young Jews are choosing Detroit as
home.
Jewish singles and couples, mainly in
their 20s and 30s, have moved to neigh-
borhoods, including Sherwood Forest in
Northwest Detroit, Midtown and Lafayette
Park as well as the North Side and West
Village. Most work or attend school in
Detroit and share an affinity for urban liv-
ing. Some are employed by educational
organizations or other nonprofit organiza-
tions dedicated to improving Detroit.
Rachel Klegon, 31, executive director of
Green Living Science, a nonprofit environ-
mental education organization, grew up
in Farmington Hills. After graduating from
Michigan State University in 2007, she took
jobs with two Detroit-based nonprofits —
Woodbridge Neighborhood Development
Corporation and Summer in the City.
“I like urban areas and wanted to be in
the city,” she explains. “I always considered
Detroit to be my city, and I felt very con-
nected to it.”
Since then, she has lived in Detroit’s
West Village, Woodbridge and North End
neighborhoods. In the North End, which
she describes as located between New
Center and Hamtramck, she rents a home
built in 2007.
“My street is very safe, and I have great
neighbors,” Klegon says. “It’s right off I-75
so it’s convenient — nothing is more than
20 minutes away.”
She is friendly with people she met while
living in Detroit’s Repair the World Moishe
House and Detroiters she knew from
Temple Kol Ami, which she attended while
growing up.
Andrew Stein, 35, is executive director
of City Year Detroit, a nonprofit that trains
and places AmeriCorps members in Detroit
Public Schools for a year of service.
“I grew up in the suburbs with a certain
perception of Detroit and other cities in
general as a place where you went to the
theater and sporting events — not where
you live,” he says.
However, while living in Washington,
D.C., for 11 years, Stein says, “That narra-
tive was flipped on its head.”
In 2015, after accepting the City Year
Detroit position, Stein wanted to live and
invest in Detroit. “It opens up ways to be
part of a community that you can’t do
when you’re living outside,” he explains,
adding that his Detroit residency isn’t a
political statement or job requirement and
that he doesn’t consider himself a pioneer.
While their acquaintances here recom-
mended Pleasant Ridge, Huntington Woods
and Berkley, Stein’s wife, Beth, wanted
to consider Detroit. They looked at many
Detroit neighborhoods with a Realtor
specializing in Detroit and bought a house
in Sherwood Forest in Northwest Detroit
last year. It was built by a Jewish doctor in
1955 and still had the original mezuzahs.
“The house was loved and cared for,
and we found that this has always been a
strong neighborhood,” Stein says.
The Steins wanted to raise their children
in a diverse neighborhood and say the
urban experience is “overall very positive.”
“We have met friends who are young
and others who have lived in the neighbor-
hood for 30 or 40 years. We always feel
safe in our neighborhood,” he says.
They investigated many school options
and chose a public charter school, Detroit
Achievement Academy, for their daughter,
Mia, 6. The Steins participate with a group
of Detroit Jewish families who plan family
events in the city, using JTot Detroit to con-
nect online.
Stein says Sherwood Forest residents are
very supportive of ongoing improvements
on nearby Livernois, once known as the
Avenue of Fashion. “Anytime something
opens, everyone supports it,” he says. •
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January 26 • 2017
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