One of the main reasons for the "hard left turn" the Jewish community took when it moved from the Hastings/Oakland area out into the Dexter/12th St. area was that Highland Park was mostly "restricted," and as with Dearborn, the Ford Motor Co. made sure it stayed that way. For several decades Anti-Semitism and anti-black racism were two of the great drivers in this migratory pattern, and that really can't be ignored. As stated by a poster above, for a long time areas that had had a heavily Jewish population were viewed as having already been "ruined" by many whites, and were given over to black populations who were also restricted from living elsewhere in the city.
Strangely, the story of Italian populations on the east side was broadly similar for a while. Restricted by ethnic/racial prejudice to living in Black Bottom and other nearby areas for much of their early history in the area [[note the location of the ancient Roma Cafe), east side Italians moved out Gratiot and into assimilation followed on that geographic path after some time by African-Americans.
My grand-mother experienced the anti-Semitism of that period first hand. She was Scots-Irish born and raised on the east side. But her half-sister and best friend married a Jew. This friend was working at Hudson Motor Car on Jefferson at the time, but they were thrown out of the same building my grandmother lived in because of her husband's background and suddenly found themselves unable to rent or buy a house anywhere on the east side in those days. Of course, the joke was on the haters as her husband went on to manage or own a string of apartment buildings and bars on the west side, they lived on Boston Blvd. for several years, and eventually moved on to Las Vegas where he ran food, beverage, entertainment, etc. for some of the big hotels.
And their kids have never even been to Detroit.
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