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Eli Golshteyn:
Getting Resettled as
a New Immigrant
Eli Golshteyn was only 6 when he
left Novosibirsk in southwest Siberia
with his parents, Alexander and
Rufina, and his older brother, Roman.
Golshteyn’s father held a Ph.D.
in mechanical engineering and his
mother a master’s in civil engineer-
ing. They knew they’d have to learn
English before they could get profes-
sional jobs here. His father enrolled
in English classes at Oakland
Community College while his moth-
er cleaned houses to put food on
the table. When his father got an
entry-level technician’s job, his moth-
er stopped working and took English
classes.
Hebrew Free Loan was an import-
ant part of their resettlement. After
rent and other basic expenses, there
was little left for the other things that
are essential to a middle-class life.
Small loans helped the family buy
their first computer, a used car and
to pay medical bills.
Golshteyn’s father retired as a
senior engineer at Bosch. His mother
still works as a plumbing engineer.
Roman Golshteyn became active
in Federation’s NEXTGen program
and invited Eli to be a “young liaison”
for Hebrew Free Loan. For several
years he was an adjunct (non-voting)
member of the
Hebrew Free Loan
board. He joined
the board officially
in 2018. Now 32,
He is its youngest
member.
Golshteyn,
of Birmingham,
works as an internal auditor. He
says his financial know-how makes
him appreciate Hebrew Free Loan’s
support for small business entre-
preneurs. He sees the loans as a
good way to retain Jewish talent in
Detroit. Using his board position to
help applicants, he said, gives him “a
sense of immense joy and honor and
belonging to the community.”
Julie Greenfield:
Starting a Family
Julie Greenfield and her husband,
Robert, wanted to start a family and
realized early on that they would
need in-vitro fertilization to do so.
“The medical expenses were
mounting, and we were concerned
about how we would pay for the
treatments, medications and so on. A
friend suggested we contact Hebrew
Free Loan,” said Greenfield, 50, of
Huntington Woods, who works as a
manufacturer’s rep in the commercial
furniture field.
The Greenfields borrowed the max-
imum available at the time, $7,500,
which they paid off within a few years.
The Greenfields now have twin
15-year-old sons. Julie realizes she
and her husband can’t say their family
would never have happened without
Hebrew Free Loan, but the loan did
a great deal to ease their financial
burden.
“Had we not gotten the loan from
HFL we would have most likely found
other resources that would have
charged us interest, and honestly, we
probably wouldn’t have paid it off as
fast, resulting in more expenses over
a longer period of time,” she said.
Greenfield said she and her hus-
band didn’t know much about Hebrew
Free Loan before they applied; they
assumed it was for low-income fami-
lies, especially immigrants.
“Moving through the process,
we were very impressed with their
mensch-like approach to working
with people,” she said. “Asking for a
loan can be a daunting and humbling
experience. They were so kind and
compassionate. They instantly put us
at ease and turned a potentially awk-
ward situation into an inspiring one.”
In 2014, Greenfield’s father, Mel
Kalt, and uncles, Richard and Morse
“Mike” Kalt, created the Pearl and
Charles Kalt Evergreen Legacy Fund
at Hebrew Free Loan in memory of
their parents. Mel Kalt is now on the
Hebrew Free Loan board.
“It’s funny how an off-hand sugges-
tion by a friend almost 20 years ago
has affected the lives of so many peo-
ple in our community,” Kalt said.
Housed in the 1920s in the
Hannah Schloss Building near
Downtown, the city’s first
Jewish community center, the
organization moved north to
Kirby and Beaubien. In the
1930s, HFL operated from
several buildings, including a
former bank, in the Dexter-
Davison area. Later the
agency moved to the Jewish
Community Center buildings in
northwest Detroit and then Oak
Park, and to the United Hebrew
Schools building in Southfield
(now the home of Yeshivas
Darchei Torah). Now, Hebrew
Free Loan’s office is in the Max
M. Fisher Jewish Federation
Building in Bloomfield
Township.
The nature of HFL loans
changed along with communal
needs. So many emergency
loans were made during the
Depression — many to cover
home payments and medical
bills — that Hebrew Free Loan
itself ran out of money in 1930.
Then-President David Zemon
made a personal loan of $2,000
to keep the organization afloat.
Unlike many banks, which
tightened their lending practices
during the Depression, HFL
grew theirs, using a secured
$50,000 line of credit from the
National Bank of Detroit and
an increased stipend from the
Jewish Welfare Federation.