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

