22 | JANUARY 27 • 2022

OUR COMMUNITY

J

ewish Family Service (JFS) of
Metropolitan Detroit continues to
develop Lev Detroit (lev means heart in
Hebrew), directed specifically toward the
local Orthodox Jewish community.
“Lev Detroit, JFS’s recent initiative to be
as frum-friendly as possible, began in 2019
with JFSers Dini Peterson and Sammie
Rosenbloom leading the charge,
” says JFS
CEO Perry Ohren. “This follows almost 100
years of being as welcoming as possible to
members of the Orthodox communities.
”
Dini Peterson, a licensed social worker,
now JFS Chief Program Officer
for Family & Community
Services, began working for
JFS in 2011. Since then, she
notes, “the Orthodox segment
of the community has grown,
and JFS has made a special
effort to be a resource to the
Orthodox community. We have been work-
ing to build up trusting relationships with
rabbis, schools and community organiza-
tions.
”
So, she and Rosenbloom spearheaded Lev
Detroit. “The history of JFS involves trying
to serve all segments of the community,
”
Peterson says. “JFS efforts grow organically,
but Lev Detroit is a new level of investment
for the agency. Giving outreach to the
Orthodox community a name and devoting
resources to it, creates a focus and demon-
strates an ongoing commitment.
”
Last year, Bentzion Belen joined JFS as
director of Lev Detroit. He
specifies some of the depart-
ment’s activities:
• Orthodox 101: “We pro-
vide training to all our staff,
and to some outside groups
including medical centers, to
help professional care provid-
ers become more sensitive to the cultural
background of Orthodox clients, such as a

concern for kashrut, Shabbat, family purity,
holidays and the high cost of school tuition.
• “Lev Detroit provides referrals to JFS’s
behavioral health department, which
employs culturally sensitive licensed social
workers, as well as to Family Support
Services and other departments within
JFS. Lev Detroit may also refer to external
resources within the local community and
to financial resources available to members
of the Jewish community, including Matan
Beseter and Yad Ezra.
”
• For clients who seek more high-level
intervention, Lev Detroit provides referrals
to culturally aware external therapists.
• “We have increased the number of
school-based social workers to many of the
yeshivot and day schools, serving over 1,400
students within the community.
”
• The New Family Welcome Basket is
a pilot program. “When families move
here from outside of Detroit, we present
them with a welcome basket that includes
a resource guide for the institutions of
our community, restaurants, local syna-
gogues (and davening times), Community
Links and information about the Women’s
Orthodox League (WOL) and Hatzalah.
Local small businesses supply a coupon
booklet offering discounts for shopping in
the area. More than 50 families who moved
here since midsummer have received these
baskets.
”
• Another program helps with the cost
of school uniforms. “Several of the girls’
schools require uniforms, which can be
expensive for families. We have arranged
for families to pick up uniforms without
charge. To date, we have provided uniforms
for 118 students in 50 families.
”
Regarding JFS’s food assistance program,
Ohren says, “We provide food vouchers to
help families. The vouchers help families
purchase food at local markets and at the
Grove for families that purchase at the

entirely kosher market.
“In the weeks leading up to Passover,
” he
says, “we provide an additional $50,000 to
$70,000 of food assistance. Passover costs
money. We do not monitor the kind of
Passover provisions that our clients choose.
We want to help people maintain their lives
and commitments.
”
Belen quantifies the project: “Last year,
we helped 335 families prepare for the hol-
iday. The program is not just for Orthodox
families. We believe that 180 of the families
are Orthodox.
”
Last year, Lev Detroit brought in Rabbi
Avrohom Union from California for two
talks offering guidance on how to detect
and deal with domestic abuse, with one talk
for rabbis and another for rebbetzins and
women who teach kallah classes.
Lev Detroit also cooperates with other
organizations. For example, the National
Council of Jewish Women provides back-
packs filled with schools supplies at the
beginning of the academic year. “This year,
”
Belen reports, “we worked with NCJW to
provide 536 backpacks to students from 173
families, many who are Orthodox.
”
As a new initiative, Bikur Cholim of
Detroit provides a packet for new mothers
that includes practical items. Lev Detroit
contributed resource guides including
information about available mental health
support.
Belen notes that JFS currently employs
14 Orthodox staffers and two Orthodox
interns.
“Lev Detroit makes sense as an initiative
of Jewish Family Service,
” CEO Ohren says.
“Growth in the Jewish community is now
in the Orthodox segment. We are Jewish
Family Service: Our first name is ‘Jewish’;
we want to serve everyone in the Jewish
community. We want to be sensitive to the
special requirements of each of the subpop-
ulations that show up at JFS.
”

“Frum-friendly” Lev Detroit initiative
targets Orthodox community.
JFS Outreach

Dini
Peterson

LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Bentzion
Belen