14 June 6 • 2019
jn

jews d
in 
the

fashionable and planted an early seed 
in Jackie’
s mind about the need to make 
decisions that benefit the Earth. Jackie’
s 
father was involved in Jewish communal 
and philanthropic organizations and 
helped guide her to leadership as board 
member of the Isaac Agree Downtown 
Synagogue for six years and as a role 
model to Jewish activists in the city.
It was not just her father who viewed 
her ambitions as crazy. A key part of 
the Avalon narrative is that when Jackie 
wanted to open up shop, the landlord 
told her the building was not “ready for 
windows.
”

SUPPORTING OTHERS
Oren Goldenberg, vice president and 
chair of fundraising committee for the 
Downtown Synagogue, says that Victor 
is a valued financial partner and stra-
tegic visionary. He thought so highly 
of her potential that he stepped off the 
board to make room for Jackie to have a 
seat at the table. 
“She is an incredible woman who con-
tributed to revitalize Detroit by investing 
in Cass Corridor,
” Goldenberg said. “She 
is really dedicated to doing good via 
her triple bottom line philosophy, being 
available to counsel those who look up 
to her as a role model and is a great 
mother as well.
” Jackie is the mother to 
two children, Rafi and Ari.
“I don’
t know what I would have done 
without Avalon,
” says Goldenberg, now 
35, who has been a resident of the Cass 
Corridor since 2007. He remembers the 
egg- and-cheese breakfast sandwich, 
sold for $2.75, and his favorite, the choc-
olate cherry scones.
Avalon’
s has contributed to advancing 
the food ecosystem in the Detroit com-
munity and to promoting nonprofits 
that support a healthy, just Detroit with 
access to healthy food and economic 
opportunity. 
Recently, Victor hosted a tasting and 
fundraiser for Detroit Food Academy. “I 
have been a fan of DFA since the orga-
nization’
s inception in 2011,
” she said. 
“Over the course of the last year, my 
respect has turned into awe.
” 
For DFA co-founder Noam 
Kimelman, the admiration is mutual. 
“Jackie is a tremendous force in the 
community,
” he said. “I’
ve known her 
for eight years now, and I’
m continually 
amazed with the energy and passion 
she brings to everything she does. I’
m 
especially fortunate to serve with her on 
the board of the Detroit Food Academy, 
where she has so generously given of her 

time, resources, and expertise. It’
s clear 
to me that Detroit would not be where it 
is today without Jackie Victor.
”
Liz Barry, owner of Canine to Five, 
has known Victor for 15 years. She will 
never forget when she started her busi-
ness in 2005 and sought Victor’
s help 
during a challenging launch. The fence 
outside of her location, Victor suggested, 
was in need of paw prints. 
Barry views Jackie as a mentor and 
a friend, who then became a client. 
“Watching the evolution of her business 
and the grace in which she has handled 
it with the changes in her neighborhood 
and life and industry. She is always giv-
ing advice with a smile on her face to 
other business owners.”

When food entrepreneur David 
Mancini had an idea for a high-quality 
pizza restaurant, Victor knew exactly 
where it should be. She suggested a 
space in the Eastern Market which has 
become its home to this day. There are 

many stories like that within the com-
munity.

INSPIRED BY HER ROOTS
Victor, not surprisingly, has social 
activism in her roots. She formerly 
was executive director of a statewide 
peace and justice organization. Beyond 
government policy, she was focused on 
empowering individuals. Her on-the-
job success was measured by how many 
people she involved in her cause and 
whether those stakeholders were in it for 
the long haul. 
Victor’
s work ethic, which has her 
day starting at 5 a.m. and led to 80-hour 
work weeks, was witnessed early in her 
career as well. In 1987, when there was 
a Michigan Peace March for Global 
Disarmament, she walked 350 miles 
from Sault Ste. Marie to Detroit.
Although her father thought opening 
Avalon was a crazy decision, he was 
always there for words of wisdom and 

whatever support he could provide. 
Victor quotes his lessons so often that 
her management team knows “SIV” 
(Steven I. Victor) quotes by heart. One 
example: Her father would ask her, 
“How is it going according to Jewish 
accounting?” which was his way of ask-
ing, “How much money do you have in 
the bank at the ready when needed?”
Victor remembers going on a ski trip 
with her father as a young girl. He want-
ed to publicize a business class he would 
teach lawyers who were on vacation. 
“He made a deal with me,
” Victor said. 
“If I put up posters, we’
d ski for a day.
” 
She agreed and hundreds of people 
showed up for his class — the beginning 
of American Educational Institute, a 
thriving business that exists to this day.
Twenty-two years later and running 
a $8 million per year business, Steven’
s 
words still ring true to Jackie: Keep it 
simple. “I could make a whole book of 
his ‘
pearls of wisdom’
,
” she said. 
Her parents’
 values of living a life 
bigger than yourself and giving back 
to the community have informed her 
life’
s path in ways they could not have 
imagined. “The other critical aspect to 
my family’
s values is that we all knew 
that we are privileged,
” she said, “but 
that didn’
t mean that we were entitled.
” 
She said she recognizes that every day 
she has lived and worked in Detroit, an 
economically diverse community.
“I had the privilege and economic 
security to take a risk to start Avalon 
and raise my children in Detroit. I never 
take that privilege for granted, nor do 
my children,
” she said. “I am humbled 
every day to work with incredibly 
hard-working people who make Avalon 
successful every single day.
”
Her business buzzes on a schedule 
spanning most day and evening hours. 
The baking usually includes a few thou-
sand pounds of dough a day, 10-15 dif-
ferent mixes. One dough at a time. Over 
and over and over. The dough rises in 
a windowless facility, and then people 
come in to form and scale the bread, 
kneading it, setting into loafs and orga-
nizing it on racks.
That’
s before it enters the oven, where 
a sliced-to-order Hastings Street Challah 
may arise, reminding Jackie of the store 
her grandfather, Ben, had on Hastings 
Street in Detroit’
s Paradise Valley, where 
he sold shoes and clothes to neighbor-
hood customers and where her father 
learned the lessons of honesty, hard-
work, gratitude for all and menschkeit 
that he passed on to her. ■

Avalon’
s revenue has increased 10 times 
over the decade and quadrupled over the 
past two years. What matters most to Victor, 
however, is having a positive impact on the 
Earth, the community and her employees.

continued from page 12

AVALON INTERNATIONAL BREADS

