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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.