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U.S. Jews Are Not Creating Ghettoes in Suburbs, Sociologist Says

December 24, 1959
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A Wayne University sociologist has rejected the theory that American Jews are creating ghettoes in the exodus to suburban areas, “gilded” or otherwise.

Dr. Albert J. Mayer, associate professor of sociology at the Detroit college, said that the true ghetto was an area where only Jews could live and usually one where non-Jews were forbidden to live. A true ghetto, he said, was an area which was inhabited by Jews according to law or custom, as was the pattern in Europe.

Speaking at the Detroit Jewish Community Center, Dr. Mayer said there was no ghetto either in Detroit or its rapidly expanding suburbs. He said that the north section of Detroit, which was the first center of Jewish concentration, never had more than 60 percent of the Jews of Detroit and that even then, 40 percent of the population of the section was non-Jewish.

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