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26 October 8 • 2015 continued on page 28 Auto » B etween the summers of 2009 to 2015, the Detroit area's job- less rate plummeted from 16.3 percent to 5.1 percent. Michigan led the nation in manufacturing jobs created, adding nearly 74,000 jobs between 2010 to 2013 — more than 30,000 of those jobs were specific to automotive manu- facturing. Behind the automotive uptick — and the evolution of the automotive work- force over the last few decades — are stories of Jewish execs and recent grad- uates who have moved here to make Detroit their new home. A YOUNG GENERATION The majority of automotive engineers move to the Detroit area from other states. After studying mechanical engi- neering at Purdue University in Indiana and graduating in 2013, Josh Fried moved to Detroit to become a product engineer at Ford Motor Company. Fried grew up in Leawood, a suburb of Kansas City, and now lives in Novi, though he says he "sometimes feels like he lives on I-96." Over the last 2.5 years, Fried has plugged himself into Jewish Detroit and views the community as "amazing, active, extremely diverse and, most of all, welcoming." When he lacked a seder a few years ago, the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit connected him to a rabbi who welcomed him to his home for a family seder. Rabbi Elimelech Silberberg of Bais Chabad Torah Center in West Bloomfield has had him over on several occasions for Shabbat din- ners, and lately he has been going to the NEXTGen Good Shabbos Detroit events, which allow him to explore a diverse array of synagogues around the community. At events, he's come across other peers who work at Ford, GM and the automotive suppliers. When he first moved here, he didn't view Detroit as having such a large, vibrant community and has been surprised by the size and involvement within Jewish Detroit. He also said he's amazed by the misperceptions many have about Detroit compared to what actually exists in the city and greater Detroit area. Luciano Blinder came to Detroit almost by accident. The 2012 economy in Brazil, where he grew up, increased by a paltry .9 percent and more than a million protesters would take to the streets in 2013 complaining of political corruption, unreasonable living costs and faulty public services. The 2012 Credit Suisse Youth Barometer showed 50 percent of young adults in Brazil viewed corrup- tion to be their nation's biggest problem. Working as a lead product engineer at Faurecia, a major manufacturer of auto- motive parts, Blinder's office was short of projects. Yet, Faurecia's U.S. office was booming, without the bandwidth to accomplish all their necessary proj- ects. A decision was made for Brazilian engineers to move to Detroit to sup- port the U.S. engineering department. Blinder served as the liaison for this job exchange, and the three-month position in the Motor City would be extended to six months and then nine months. Blinder returned to Brazil in late 2013. By mid-2014, he was offered another position at Faurecia, this time working directly for the U.S. office. Blinder, who grew up in Curitiba, Brazil, with a small Jewish community of two synagogues amongst a population of nearly 1.8 million, would uproot himself and travel 5,150 miles to make a home in his new city of Royal Oak. Here he finds a larger, more active Jewish community than in his home- town and also finds uniqueness in the different branches of Judaism that define our religious communities. When Blinder is not working as the lead engineer for rear seats of the Cadillac CT6, he's joined activi- ties, such as Torah on Tap and Latke Vodka, Federation's annual young adult celebration around Thanksgiving. Daniel Snyder has seen the oppor- tunities within the automotive industry firsthand. After graduating in May 2014 from Wayne State University with a bachelor's in logistics, materials and supply chain management, he became a logistics engineer at Faurecia after completing an internship during his undergradu- A man and his car: Ford product engineer Josh Fried with his beloved Mustang. Auto Attraction Adam Finkel | Contributing Writer Industry uptick lures Jewish talent to a new home in Detroit. Luciano Blinder Daniel Snyder G V