6 | MAY 6 • 2021
PURELY COMMENTARY
1942 - 2021
Covering and Connecting
Jewish Detroit Every Week
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letters
Fond Memories of
‘The Heights’
“Living Jewishly in the
Heights,” the recent Jewish
News article on the surge of
Jewish residents in Madison
Heights [April 15, page 12],
recalls earlier experiences of
the first Jewish students at
Madison High School from
1952-54. Oak Park was a
newly developed community
and had just one elementary
school. Families with older
students had to enroll them
in school districts that would
accept tuition students. This
was still after the war and
home construction in new
suburbs like Oak Park was at
warp speed! (“Warp speed”
was probably not part of the
patois of this time.)
My parents, Fred and
Dorothy Nolish, were among
those first Oak Park “settlers.”
I, as a newly double promot-
ed 10th grader, found myself
on a school bus en route to
Madison High School, fol-
lowing my freshman year at
Central, where geometry had
terrified me, and my tone
deafness had disqualified me
from singing in the chorus.
Understand that a Jewish
student was a curiosity in
this blue collar, working class
community. There was a
“Jew store” across from the
school, and it was a given
that you could be “jewed” out
of money. And while I was
a decent student at Central
High School, I became a star
at Madison. My classmates
were friendly and welcoming.
The teachers seemed delight-
ed to find such an industri-
ous student, and I was able
to start a school newspaper
and become its editor, serve
as a class officer, participate
in forensics, have the leading
role in the school play, serve
in the homecoming court
and graduate as valedictori-
an.
Let me note, however, that
there was a total of 37 stu-
dents in my graduating class
and few were college-bound.
I doubt that I would have had
this honor at Central, which
was awash with brilliant,
ambitious scholars!
I had also found a boy-
friend among my Madison
classmates, even though I
recall hurt feelings when a
boy of interest referred to
me as “a walking dictionary,”
but I found a steady who
escorted me to school dances
and the prom. My parents,
concerned that I might not
marry a Jewish boy, had
joined Temple Beth El when
I was in the fifth grade. Thus,
for my last two years of high
school, I lived in two worlds:
my Madison High School
classmates were very differ-
ent from the Beth El crowd,
many of whom were from
the city’s most prominent
families.
Thus, to read that Jews
are “living Jewishly in the
Heights” evokes memories of
a community that enriched
my life. I’m not surprised
that this influx is impacting
the city’s government and
culture and that newcomers
are experiencing friendship
and support. It’s even more
gratifying to learn that the
city council approved a
proclamation recognizing
International Holocaust
Remembrance Day!
— Edie Broida
West Bloomfield