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wandering jew
My Family’s Jewish Detroit Story
I
siblings and always had money.
wandered recently with my mom
My mom knew every home and
through her childhood Jewish
resident on her block. But, in 2017,
Detroit. It was a journey of 10
she wasn’t sure whether 2661
miles and approximately 60
was the hollowed-out shell
years. I saw both the good
obscured by an overgrown
and a Detroit that suburbia
tree or the empty lot next
largely ignores, the “don’t go
door. There were still some
there” parts of the city. They
occupied homes in the area,
were once mostly Jewish and,
mostly in disrepair, marred
though we’ve long moved
by urban blight.
away, they are still a part
Mom’s eyes welled up
of our city. To start healing
Joshua Lewis
driving down the block her
Detroit, we must know its
grandparents walked to the
stories, old and new, no sugar- Berg
Stoliner Shul on the corner
coating. I’ll start.
of Elmhurst and Linwood.
Turn on your JewPS
She clearly recalled running
and set the coordinates to
downstairs where the men prayed and
Detroit, circa 1940s. Continue on
upstairs where her Bubbie sat with
I-75, Downtown, to Witherell near
the women to spread the word that
Elizabeth. This was the spot of Leo
her older sister gave birth to a baby
and Charlie’s Parking Lot, co-propri-
girl on Yom Kippur, just before the
etor Charlie Grossberg, my grandfa-
shofar blew.
ther. My mother spent many a sum-
We saw her alma mater, Durfee
mer day at the adjacent “day camp,”
Intermediate School, set to close this
known as the Fox Theater, where my
year. The building’s beauty belied
grandfather would leave her to watch
the likes of Betty Grable, Harry James, the sad spiral of the Detroit Public
Schools.
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis as he
She pointed out her pride and joy,
worked.
what used to be Grossberg’s Market,
Charlie was so nice that when stu-
our family’s business on the corner of
dents parked at meters instead of in
his lot, he would insert nickels as nec- Webb and Linwood. I tried to imagine
my mom walking down this street
essary. Let’s just say the value of the
with her grandmother, swinging a
legacy he left was not a financial one,
freshly decapitated chicken from the
but priceless nonetheless. Today, this
shoykhet.
spot houses a sporting concern you
And, it was in that upper floor on
may know, Comerica Park.
Elmhurst that their lives changed
My grandmother would take her
when mom’s sister contracted polio at
kids for outings by bus to J.L. Hudson
9 years old, leaving her a paraplegic.
and to eat at Carson’s Cafeteria. By
She spent the next year at the former
the 1940s, Jews visited and worked
there, but few still resided Downtown. Herman Kiefer infectious disease hos-
pital in Detroit. All my mom saw of
Mom lived first in the upper flat
her beloved sister the next 12 months
of her grandparents’ home on 2661
was what she could make out from
Elmhurst with, at any given time, her
the courtyard as she waved up to her
two sisters, parents, Bubbie, Zadie,
window in the quarantined facility.
other extended family and, as was
The following year was spent
the practice of Jews during this era,
with her in rehab learning to walk
Holocaust survivors. Little did she
know her future husband lived nearby with crutches, due to paralysis from
the waist down. At age 11, my aunt
on Leslie in a more tony area. My
attended the Oakland School for
paternal grandfather worked hard
from a young age to support his seven Crippled Children (the Nellie Leland
School). For high school, she was
allowed to attend Cass Tech, and my
Nana finally learned to drive, deter-
mined her disabled daughter would
attend a regular school. My mom
doesn’t know what scared her more at
this time, contracting polio herself or
driving with her newly licensed moth-
er. My aunt later became a Michigan
Civil Rights Commissioner and advo-
cated for disabled people.
Back in 2017, we continued driv-
ing past mostly empty buildings, a
few businesses barely holding on and
more than an occasional church. My
mom recognized many that used to
be Jewish shops and shuls. We soon
arrived at Livernois, which was the
high-end shopping district and is now
touting an active revitalization initia-
tive.
Further north on Wyoming, past
McNichols, was my mom’s high
school, Mumford, which is recently
rebuilt. Just past that was Gospel
Temple Baptist Church or, as she
knew it, Young Israel, her home shul
after the Stoliner Shul.
We turned left on Curtis, and right
on Monte Vista. The second house
from the corner of Pickford, No.18307,
was where my mom spent her later
adolescence. It was a modest one-sto-
ry home that she remembered being
much grander.
Jumping again to today, after
the Northwest Activities Center on
Meyers and Curtis, which used to be
the neighborhood Jewish Center, we
turned right onto 7 Mile Road and,
at Pinehurst, located the building
that was my mom’s hangout, Zukin’s,
a place I always pictured as the soda
shop from Happy Days.
We were now in the area that was
the next wave of northwest Jewish
migration, Bagley. Here was the home
of Super Sol Market on 7 Mile, just
before Livernois, my paternal grand-
father’s business and what was to be
my parents’ inheritance. However,
while my dad was in Vietnam, the ’67
riots shook the city to its core, and he
continued on page 8
Everything is...
Great?
You see a friend or acquaintance and say,
“Hi, How are you?” The expected and
usual answer is, “All is great thanks – so
and so just graduated, the kids are great,
ladida, ladida . . .” This is the standard
answer – even when things are not so
super. After all, if you bump into Bill
on the street and say, “Hi Bill, How are
things?” - you certainly don’t expect him
to say, “Awful. I’m behind on my house
payment, buried in credit card debt and
have a lingering tax problem that causes
me to lose sleep, fear the mail and the
phone. Beyond that – life is cool.” It’s
QRVXUSULVHZHGRQ·WVKDUHRXUÀQDQFLDO
“mishigas” with our friends – and there is
no reason to – for two obvious reasons.
First, you don’t want to become a news
item due to your friend who pledges
privacy but can’t resist the pathetic lure
of being a gossip. Beyond that – your
friend is not the person to seek counsel.
You need a professional who can identify
the path to solving your problem - at the
least possible cost and in the quickest
manner. That’s what we do. Everytime,
we hear our clients say, “I wish I came
in sooner.” There are solutions that work
and end the pain and anxiety. Oh, and of
course, needless to say, your business is
always a private matter. Call us for Free
Consultation – anytime. We’re here to
help.
THAV GROSS has been solving
problems since 1982. Be sure to tune
in to Law and Reality – Sunday
mornings at 11 AM on TV20.
thavgross.com lawandreality.com
Monte Vista home
B’Nai Moshe on Dexter
30150 Telegraph, Suite 444
Bingham Farms, MI 48025
Stoliner Shul
000209210
jn
July 20 • 2017
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