Research Guides: Judaic Studies: Michigan Jewry

Detroit

Congregation Shaarey Zedek, 5622-5742, 1861-1981 by Eli Grad; Bette Roth
Publication Date: 1982
Echoes of Detroit's Jewish Communities: a history by Irwin J. Cohen
Publication Date: 2003
Harmony and dissonance: voices of Jewish identity in Detroit, 1914-1967 by Sidney M. Bolkosky
Publication Date: 1991

Analyzing one of the most vital and significant Jewish populations in the United States, Harmony and Dissonance chronicles the intellectual, cultural, and social history of the Jews of Detroit from 1914 to 1967.
Metropolitan Jews: politics, race, and religion in postwar Detroit by Lila Corwin Berman
Publication Date: 2015

In this provocative and accessible urban history, Lila Corwin Berman considers the role that Detroit's Jews played in the city's well-known narrative of migration and decline. Taking its cue from social critics and historians who have long looked toward Detroit to understand twentieth-century urban transformations, Metropolitan Jews tells the story of Jews leaving the city while retaining a deep connection to it.

Databases and archives:

Center for Michigan Jewish Heritage
A collaborative effort to promote Michigan’s Jewish heritage through the preservation of archival collections and joint outreach. It strives to connect the past with the present and celebrate the contributions of Michigan’s Jewry to the state and beyond.
Chene Street History Project
A comprehensive social and commercial history of the neighborhood that conveys what it felt like to live and work there. The project team at the Institute for Research on Labor, Employment, and the Economy (IRLEE) and the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies has accumulated nearly three hundred oral histories from Polish, Jewish, and African American residents and business owners; scanned tens of thousands of photographs and other documents, including ethnic newspapers, church bulletins, personal papers, and other ephemera.
Detroit Jewish News Digital Archives
Comprises the Detroit Jewish News and the Detroit Jewish Chronicle.
Jewish Family and Children's Service (JSSB-Detroit), ca. 1924-1963
This collection consists predominantly of records of the Jewish Social Service Bureau and, to a much lesser extent, of records of the Jewish Family and Children's Service. The bulk of the collection consists of records of individual cases which were processed by the JSSB.
Leonard N. Simons Jewish Community Archives (Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit)
The mission of the Leonard N. Simons Jewish Community Archives is to collect, preserve and make available for research the records of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, United Jewish Foundation, Federation’s member agencies and local community organizations.

Ann Arbor

Beth Israel Congregation (Ann Arbor, Mich.) records, 1938-2016 bulk 1956-2016
This is an archival collection housed at the Bentley Historical Library. Founded in 1916 by Osias Zwerdling, Philip Lansky, and other members of the Jewish Community, Beth Israel was the first formally established conservative Jewish congregation in Ann Arbor, Mich. The record group chronicles the history and activities of the congregation over a period of 78 years, from 1938 to 2016.
Hillel at Michigan 1926/27-1945 by Andrei S. Markovits; Kenneth Garner
Publication Date: 2016

This book provides the very first in-depth analysis of the founding decades of a major Hillel chapter in the United States. Hillel at the University of Michigan was founded in 1926 as the fourth such chapter in the United States following its establishment at three other public universities in the Midwest: Illinois (1923); Wisconsin (1924); Ohio State (1925).
Jewish Ann Arbor by Richard Adler; Ruth Adler
Publication Date: 2006

The earliest Jewish settlers arrived in Michigan during the mid-18th century. Primarily traders associated with the burgeoning fur industry, few of these entrepreneurs remained permanently. During the early 1840s, the five Weil brothers, farmers and tanners from Germany, became the first prominent Jewish settlers in Washtenaw County