It’s the Community That We’ve Made: Jewish Migration to East Lansing, Michigan, in the Postwar Era

In 1967, David and Beverly Wiener and their two daughters left their supportive graduate student housing community in Syracuse, New York and arrived in East Lansing, Michigan, ready for David to start his new job as an assistant professor in the American Thought and Language program at Michigan State University. David was born in Philadelphia, grew up in a Jewish neighborhood there, and his entire tight-knit family had gone to school in the Philadelphia area. His mother was deeply upset with David’s decision to take a job halfway across the country. But at least one fellow graduate of Syracuse assured