12 February 21 • 2019
jn

N

aysayers be darned, like the 
city itself, the Jewish community 
within Detroit’
s neighborhoods 
is coming back. 
 
Over the last five years, a slow but 
steady increase of Jewish single pro-
fessionals moved into the city. As they 
marry and start families of their own, 
they are buying homes in neighborhoods 
like Palmer Woods, Boston Edison and 
Woodbridge. 
Their plan is not to move into the 
suburbs as their kids grow out of diapers 
and into backpacks. In it for the long 
haul, families interviewed with children 

from birth to teens — some profiled in a 
2016 piece in the JN — are committed to 
sending their children to schools within 
the Detroit Public School Community 
District (DPSCD), even if they some-
times may need to plan it out one year at 
a time. Currently, 10 Jewish children are 
enrolled in DPSCD, according to Rabbi 
Ariana Silverman of the Isaac Agree 
Downtown Synagogue (IADS) 
Federation’
s 2018 Jewish Population 
Study indicates that the number of 
Jewish households in the city of Detroit 
decreased from about 1,900 households 
in 2005 to about 800 households in 2018. 
 

However, Silverman says this number 
is misleading and does not reflect what 
she sees on the ground level. The house-
holds of older Jews who have moved out 
or passed away are being replaced with 
younger couples who are having chil-
dren. Though they have not yet outnum-
bered this older demographic, Silverman 
sees this as a demographic shift that 
is evidence the Jewish community in 
Detroit is growing. 
“It used to be that I could name every 
Jewish kid in Detroit and knew every 
mom who was pregnant,
” said Silverman, 
a native of Chicago. She and her hus-
band, Justin Robert Long, a professor at 
Wayne State University’
s School of Law, 
now have Rebecca, 4, who is attending a 
DPSCD Montessori preschool program 
at Palmer Park Preparatory Academy, 
and August, 2. 
“Now, I find that is not true. I keep 
learning about new (Jewish) couples, 
young families and singles moving into 
the city. In 2017, we had High Holiday 
services [geared to young families] and 
30 people showed up. This past year, we 
had 65. I say this in all sincerity: If the 
community is looking for a feel-good 
story about Jewish Detroit, this is it!”
While this growth in the Jewish popu-
lation is taking root, Silverman said that 

her family and other families do not shy 
away from the fact their children attend 
school in a district with a student body 
that is predominantly African American. 
She and other Jewish parents interviewed 
said there are complexities and racial 
politics when it comes to choosing a 
school for their children in Detroit. They 
acknowledge that a higher percentage 
of white children attend one of the four 
schools in the city with Montessori pro-
grams and that it is getting harder to find 
spots there. The Montessori programs 
run from grades preK-4 and DPSCD 
plans to grow the program each year.
For the first time in more than a gen-
eration, the Detroit Jewish Coalition 
(a group of Detroit-based Jewish orga-
nizations, which includes IADS, the 
Reconstructionist Congregation of 
Detroit (RCD) and Repair the World), 
with funding from the Farber family, 
launched a new Jewish school on Nov. 
18. Dor Hadash opened at IADS with 
about 10 children ages 4-6, who mostly 
attend DPSCD schools. Silverman and 
Sarah Allyn are the primary instructors. 
Meeting on Sundays, the program 
is based on a family education model. 
For the first hour, the parents learn with 
Silverman while Allyn teaches the kids, 
then for the second hour, the full fam-

jews d
in 
the

on the cover

A New
Generation

Eitan Sussman and his 

children, Nava and Ilan, are 

part of Dor Hadash, a new 

Jewish school for Detroiters 

ages 4-6 and their families.

Families commit to raising their 
children Jewishly in Detroit.

STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

PHOTOS BY ELAYNE GROSS

continued from page 14

