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Community Cohesion: Oak Park, Michigan |
The Community
The Orthodox Jewish community of metropolitan Detroit was concentrated in the middle of the proposed I-696 right-of-way through Oak Park, a suburban town just north of Detroit. Oak Park is the core of Jewish life for both the secular and Orthodox Jews in the Detroit area, with a high concentration of religious, educational, and Jewish retail facilities. The Orthodox Jewish community was created in the 1950s by middle-income families who belonged to common synagogues and who had moved together to suburban Oak Park from Detroit. According to a 1980 community assessment, estimates of the population of the Orthodox Jewish community ranged from over 3,600 to over 8,000.
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Over the years, the Jewish community invested over $60 million from private
fund-raising for the construction of synagogues, pre-kindergarten to advanced
post-graduate religious schools, a Jewish community center, and housing for the
elderly. Out of the 19 synagogues in Oak Part, 7 (5 of them Orthodox) were adjacent
to the I-696 right-of-way. The area, which was rich in educational institutions, included
two Jewish day schools, five religious afternoon schools, and two rabbinical schools.
These facilities provided convenient access for the pedestrians of the community,
who strictly adhered to Jewish religious law and did not drive on the Sabbath. The
Orthodox Jewish community actively encouraged the development of retain businesses
catering to their specific needs. In the early days in Oak Park, local leaders
successfully encouraged a kosher butcher from New York City to relocate his
business to the neighborhood. The range of commercial establishments in this area
has expanded to include more kosher shopping facilities catering to Jewish needs,
including restaurants, butcher shops and bakeries as well as a bookstore. The
location of these particular retail facilities in Oak Park was convenient for elderly
members of the community who lived in the apartment buildings nearby.
The fabric of this community was maintained through growth in the number of
Orthodox Jewish families seeking to live in a close-knit, religious community. While
some Orthodox Jewish families had come to suburban Oak Park from Detroit, others
had moved there from other parts of the Nation, attracted by the area's educational
day schools, synagogues, and other facilities for Orthodox Jews. The rabbinical schools
brought young families involved in religious study into the area. Controversy
over the freeway, however, suppressed strong growth in the community. But upon the
completion of I-696 in 1989, the community resumed its growth with new immigrants
from Russia and Israel joining the population.
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