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in
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Returning
Home

Young couples bring second-generation
boom to Bais Chabad.

ANNIE LEHMANN
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

ABOVE: With second-
generation members returning
to Bais Chabad in West
Bloomfield, there’s often a
logjam of strollers during
events and on Shabbat.

W

hile congregations nationwide
are wrestling with aging and
diminishing membership, a
much different story is unfolding at the
Sara and Morris Tugman Bais Chabad
Torah Center in West Bloomfield.
“In the past six years, nearly 25 young
couples have moved into the neighborhood
and joined our shul,” says Rabbi Shneur
Silberberg, 33, the Torah Center’s outreach
director.
Without financial or housing incentives
(as offered successfully in past years by
Young Israel of Southfield), it might seem
surprising that couples gravitate to this
community. But most of the young people
moving into the neighborhood grew up in
the area and are returning with families of

their own.
Though Guido and Connie Aidenbaum
were active in the West Bloomfield Jewish
community while raising their three chil-
dren, they weren’t affiliated with the Torah
Center.
Their daughter Whitney (now called
Eliana), 29, graduated Frankel Jewish
Academy and left Michigan to attend the
University of Pennsylvania. There she
became interested in leading a more reli-
giously observant life.
After graduating Harvard Law School
and working in Boston for two years, she
and her husband, Elya Silfen, 30, who
works for Morgan Stanley, decided to move
to West Bloomfield.
“Being close to family was a priority, but

PHOTOS BY RUDY THOMAS

we also wanted to live in an active Jewish
community,” says Elya, who voluntarily
runs the JTeen program, supported by Bais
Chabad and a Schulman Foundation grant,
that attracts about 300 non-affiliated teens
for weekly Shabbos meals. “I grew up in
North Carolina and, by comparison, West
Bloomfield has a great deal to offer.”
Connie Aidenbaum, who didn’t think
Eliana would ever return to the Midwest,
says, “No one is happier than me. I’m glad I
was wrong.”
Now, with the birth of the Silfens’ daugh-
ter, Estie, three generations of the fam-
ily attend Shabbos services at the Torah
Center together.
They are one among many multigenera-
tional families at the Torah Center.

THE MILLERS

Esther, Elya and Eliana Silfen

Zeldy Kleinman, Noga Feldman and Mirel Silberberg

Just this month, Jennifer Goodman, 26, a
client associate at Merrill Lynch, and Jacob
Miller, 26, a product engineer at Adient,
were married. The two, children of Torah
Center families, grew up together.
“If you looked up the word beshert
[meant to be] in the dictionary, you would
find a picture of Jen and Jacob Miller,”
Silberberg remarked at their wedding.
“There was never a question that,
given a choice, I wanted to live in West
Bloomfield,” Jen says. “The people in this
community are like family to me.”
Jacob felt the same way; so much so that
he bought a house even before he and Jen
became a couple.
“I’d go house hunting with him as a

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September 14 • 2017

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