jews d in the continued from page 28 jews d on the cover jews d in the in the Eye On S queeze queezed Out d Rising rents and gentrification are the dark side of Detroit’s resurgence. STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER PHOTOS BY JERRY ZOLYNSKY TOVAKDESIGNS.com TOP: Paul Wasserman in front of his hat display. RIGHT: Wasserman in front of his store. 10 August 17 • 2017 I t is the dark side of urban revitalization. A rundown part of town gets a facelift. Old buildings with good bones are gutted and restored while others come down to make way for shining new structures. Trendy shops and restaurants open and a once undesirable area is suddenly on the rise. Unfortunately, so are the rents. It is happening in cities from Seattle to Chicago. The silver lining of urban gentrification comes at a heavy price. Long- time residential and commer- cial renters feel the pinch and are often financially squeezed out at the expense of an area becoming trendy and hip. The most prominent and longtime retailer to fall victim is Henry the Hatter at 1307 Broadway in Detroit. According to owner Paul Wasserman, who took over the 124-year- old business from his father 25 years ago after working by his side since the 1970s, the store, which custom fits hats for musicians, celebrities and U.S. Poland BARBARA LEWIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER Survivor’s father comes alive through book of his pre-war photographs. TOP: Ruth Webber and her daughters Susan, Shelly and Elaine in front of a photo of Ruth’s father, Szmuel Muszkies, at the launch party in Poland for a book of his photos. INSET: The Muszkies family in the late 1930s: Malka, Helen, Ruth and Szmul. R uth Webber found her father again in October, more than 70 years after she lost him in the Holocaust. Szmul Muszkies was a professional pho- tographer in the Polish town of Ostrowiec, a city of about 80,000 residents, including about 8,000 Jews. He photographed portraits and pictures of important life events for the Jewish and gentile communities, including weddings, baptisms, first communions and undoubt- edly bar mitzvahs, though no such photos have been found. He also took pictures of school, social and trade groups and of the town’s businesses and industry, including its important steel- works. His studio was regarded as the best of the town’s several photographers’ shops. Webber, 81, of West Bloomfield was the younger of the two daughters born to Muszkies and his wife, Malka. Muszkies’ connections with influential non-Jews helped save his family, though he died in Gusen, a sub-camp of the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, just a few days before it was liberated. Several months ago, a resident of Ostrowiec published a book of Muszkies’ photographs, an event marked by a cer- emony that Webber, her three daughters and other family members attended. She was able to learn more about the father she barely remembered. “My memories of him are mostly about the hugs I received when he came home from work, his genuine concern about my well- being and the joy I experienced when I was allowed to play in his studio,” Webber said. THE WAR YEARS After the Nazis invaded Poland, the Ostrowiec Jews were sent to a ghetto. When their ghetto was going to be liquidated in 1942, Muszkies arranged for his older daugh- ter, Helen, to live with a gentile family. She spent the rest of the war passing as Catholic. He, his wife and their younger daughter went to a nearby work camp, where condi- tions were less harsh than in the concentra- tion camps. The family moved together to several labor camps, but eventually Muszkies was taken away separately. Webber and her mother ended up in Auschwitz. The infamous Dr. Josef Mengele, who would determine with the flick of his thumb which arriving prisoners would be immediately gassed, didn’t show up to meet their train, so they were sent to barracks. Webber was able to stay with her mother for a few months; but then she was sent to a barrack for children, many of whom were designated to be subjects for Mengele’s per- verted medical experiments. Her father was also at Auschwitz, and he sent her a message to meet him. “My father looked like an old man, although he was only 45 years old, hardly the father I remembered,” she said. It was the last time she saw him. She was liberated Jan. 27, 1945, and taken to a Krakow orphanage where her mother found her. She was not yet 10 years old. After a short time in a transition camp in Germany, and then a period in Munich, Malka Muszkies and her two daughters moved to Toronto, where they had fam- ily. Webber met her husband, the late Mark Webber, at a survivors’ gathering in Toronto and moved to his home in Detroit. Together they raised three daughters, Susan of Washington, D.C., Elaine of Huntington continued on page 12 12 jn jews d jn January 12 • 2017 jews d in the in the back to school 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 HAVE AN OCCASION TO CELEBRATE? NEED SOME DESSERTS FOR A PARTY? JUST WANT TO SEND A GIFT? 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. Lexi Smith at the Taj Mahal 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 SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER The Great Gap More and more, Metro Detroit high-school grads are opting to take a gap year before starting college. W hile a student at North Farmington High School, Blair Bean joined a conversation started by family friends discussing high- school graduates taking gap years before entering college. Bean soon began mulling over the idea of allotting time to pursue interests beyond career academ- ics. Not only did she relate to the idea, she also decided to spend a gap year in Israel. That destination has been cho- sen by a number of local gap stu- dents, from Orthodox to Reform, and for different reasons. “I wanted to try new things,” says Bean, a member of Temple Shir Shalom in West Bloomfield. “I wanted to be part of an accepting community. I wanted to be able to make mistakes and get some experience in learning how to be successful. I wanted to make new friends and take the idea of being independent to a whole new level. I wanted to give of myself and strengthen my connection to our Jewish homeland.” Bean, recently returned and about to enter Michigan State University as an English major, found all that she wanted by com- pleting a program with Young Judaea. She also received college credits through American Jewish University for studies that were part of the program. “I took campus classes in Jerusalem that covered Hebrew, Jewish law and Middle Eastern conflict,” she says of the academic segment of her experiences. “We also had classes where the coun- try of Israel was our classroom, and we learned about religions of Israel and the history of Zionism through art. “I volunteered in a youth village and met kids from many coun- tries. There also was time for spe- cial interests, and I spent one week each in viewing art in Jerusalem, going through desert survival techniques and sea hiking.” As she gets ready to go to col- lege, Bean feels very glad she had the gap after high school. “The year opened my eyes to so continued on page 30 CHECK OUT OUR NEW ONLINE DESSERT ORDERING AT WWW.QUALITYKOSHER.COM PLACE YOUR ORDER ONLINE OR OVER THE PHONE AT 248.352.7758 PICKUP S P R IN G SUMMER ! Promo (AT KRAVINGS OR SHAAREY ZEDEK) AND DELIVERY AVAILABLE PLACE YOUR ORDER ONLINE & GET $5 OFF ANY ORDER OVER $25 WITH COUPON CODE SUMMERISHERE5 OR GET $10 OFF ANY ORDER OVER $50 WITH COUPON CODE SUMMERISHERE10 FOR ANY QUESTIONS OR CUSTOM DESIGNS CONTACT OUR SALES TEAM AT 248.352.7758 Wishing us all a warm & sweet Spring & Summer! 30 May 10 • 2018 jn 12 January 26 • 2017 jn story “Squeezed Out” about Paul Wasserman, aka Henry the Hatter, being forced out of his longtime home on Broadway in Detroit. “Very nice work here. It explains the human stories behind gentrification and redevelopment. The reality of what happens to people is very vivid, and the reporter lets the sources tell their own stories,” the judges said. Also in the Feature Story category, JN Contributing Writer Barbara Lewis won second place for her story “Eye on Poland,” about how a book of pre-war photographs helped Ruth Webber find her father again 70 years after she lost him in the Holocaust. Contributing Editor Robert Sklar took fourth place for his story “Max-imum Effect,” a retro- spective on Max Fisher for the JN’s 75th anniversary issue. Contributing Writer Suzanne Chessler won third place in the Localization of a National Story cat- egory for her story “The Great Gap” about how an increasing number of Metro Detroit high school grads are opting to take a gap year before starting college. Contributing Writer Shari S. Cohen won fourth place in the Explanatory Story category for “Jewish Detroiters on the Move,” a story about the role Jews played in 28 August 24 • 2017 jn jews d in the 75th Anniversary/essay Robert Sklar Contributing Editor Max-imum H Effect e would become a confidant of U.S. presidents and Israeli prime ministers from his big-picture perch as dean of American Jewry and as a late-blooming Zionist who came to grasp Israel’s intrinsic role in building Jewish unity. But Detroiter Max Fisher — ardent Zionist, business titan, mega-philanthro- pist, communal leader and political force — didn’t bond with Israel or Zionism and, in turn, Jewish causes until visit- ing the Jewish state on a United Jewish Appeal (UJA) study mission in October 1954 at age 46. Israeli statehood in 1948 and Keystone Oil Refining Co. business partner Leon Kay, a Holocaust survivor who became an avid Zionist, brought Fisher, until now “unaffiliated and relatively unin- formed,” into the dynamic world of Jewish affairs and philanthropy, accord- ing to Sidney Bolkosky’s 1991 book Harmony & Dissonance, Voices of Jewish Identity in Detroit, 1914-1967. Keystone Oil had been a sponsor of Jewish Detroit’s Israeli Independence Day rally Max Fisher: Champion of building a strong Israel as the pathway to a strong Jewish world. on May 16, 1948, at the Central High School athletic field in celebration of the new State of Israel. But it wasn’t until that first UJA mis- sion, what Harmony & Dissonance called “an unabashed attempt to enlist the support of wealthy and influential Jews,” that Fisher, who grew up in Salem, Ohio, a small town with few Jews, discovered his Zionist calling. That calling, with encouragement from his wife, Marjorie, eventually would command much of the continued on page 54 FROM LEFT: Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir with Max Fisher. Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin with Max Fisher by a Chagall wall tapestry at the Knesset in Jerusalem. Max Fisher and Dwight Eisenhower at the former president’s farm in 1965. COURTESY LEONARD N. SIMONS JEWISH COMMUNITY ARCHIVE 52 July 18 • 2017 COURTESY MAX M. & MARJORIE S. FISHER FOUNDATION jn housing issues around the time of the Detroit civil disturbance in 1967. The story was part of the Intersection Project, a program of the Detroit Journalism Cooperative, in which the JN participated. In the Spot or Breaking News category, Stacy Gittleman won third place for “Offering Support,” a story about how the Jewish community stood together with Chaldeans over the deportation issue. “I’m so proud of the journalism the JN staff and contributing writers produce week after week,” said JN Managing Editor Jackie Headapohl. “These wins prove what I’ve always known — the Jewish News has some of the best journalists in the busi- ness.” •