Community welcomes newcomers
Ruth Kantrowitz has relocated to faraway places several times in her life, most recently from Los Angeles to Milwaukee. But this is not her first experience living here.
When she was 13, Kantrowitz, then Ruth Shaer, and her family moved to Milwaukee from Acco, Israel. After graduating from Nicolet High School in 1994, she moved to Los Angeles to attend Mt. St. Mary College.
And on Thanksgiving Day, 2003, after nine years away, she returned to Milwaukee with Jason Kantrowitz, her California-born husband, to take over her family’s business, Countryview Group Homes, in Glendale.
Jason, like most of the 30-some guests at a Dec. 4 “Let’s Get Acquainted” wine tasting party, moved here from out-of-state within the last couple of years.
His wife, for one, is glad to be back in Milwaukee. Although she couldn’t wait to “run away to California” when she was 17, now she loves the quiet of Milwaukee, she said.
She and Jason prefer to raise their infant, Leah — who slept soundly through the party in pink pajamas — in Milwaukee rather than L.A., they added.
Held at a private Shorewood home and sponsored by the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Welcoming Committee, the event is part of a larger mission to welcome newcomers and help them settle in to their new community.
“We know that a lot of newcomers make their best friends when they move to Milwaukee and meet other newcomers,” said Evy Garfinkel, director of the federation’s Women’s Division.
The committee knows of 53 new family units who arrived in Milwaukee between Jan. 1-Nov. 30, 2005. They connect with the committee through the Internet, realtors and a telephone book listing for Jewish Newcomers Information, Garfinkel said.
Long Island native Pam Silverstein made contact even before she moved to town. “Back home and at school I was involved in the Jewish community,” said Silverstein, who moved here about a year and half ago after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
“When I came to look [at Milwaukee] I met Ellie Gettinger [MJF Young Leadership Coordinator] and then [after arriving] I got involved right away in the many interesting, great events [of YJAM — Young Jewish Adults of Milwaukee].”
Silverstein moved here to enter a training program as a buyer for Kohl’s Department Stores, headquartered in Milwaukee. Everyone in the program is 20-something and all, like her, moved here for the job-training program, she said. “My job is great and I have two great groups of friends — my work friends and the friends I met through Ellie.”
Much to her parents’ delight, she has befriended Cantor Mitchell Martin from Congregation Beth Israel and been a guest in his home for Shabbat dinner, she added.
Wendy Smith moved to Fox Point in August from West Bloomfield, Mich., a suburb of Detroit, when her husband Donald, who grew up in a small Michigan town in the Bay City area, was promoted to logistics manager at Johnson Controls.
“I thought this would be a very hard move for me because my roots in Detroit run very deep, but I’m stunned at how good it has been for our family,” Wendy said.
They feel they have been welcomed warmly in Milwaukee and are happy to live in an area with a concentrated Jewish community as “the Jewish community in Detroit is very spread out,” she said.
The Smiths, who have joined Congregation Shalom, added that they wanted their sons Jared, 11, who attends Bayside Middle School, and Andrew, 5, who attends Stormonth Elementary School, to “go to school with kids they also go to temple with.”
In addition to desserts, the reception featured a wine-tasting experience provided by New World Wine Company, of kosher wines from four countries.
The Welcoming Committee, co-chaired by Terri Stevens and Andrew Satinsky plans to hold two welcoming events per year, one in late spring or early summer and the other near the end of the year.
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