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 When Al Silbowitz shares his sense of Aleph Springs, the new “Jewish-inspired” neighborhood in Southern Oregon, he can’t help recalling the famous ad campaign of the 1960s.
“The slogan,” says Silbowitz, a partner in the development, was, ‘You don’t have to be Jewish…to love Levy’s real Jewish Rye.’” Madison Avenue coupled the headline with photos of folks unlikely to be lansmen, including an Asian boy, a Native American and even a Catholic altar boy.
“The point,” says Silbowitz, “is that while traditional Jews will certainly feel at home at Aleph Springs, others will as well. Like the rye bread, it’s not about religion. Or even the culture, necessarily.
“It’s about the values I associate with my heritage, values like decency, reciprocity, beauty, intelligence, neighbor helping neighbor. I see it as a warm place for people to enjoy the arts and intellectual pursuits and simply just to play.”
The neighborhood serves as a residential extension of the synagogue next door, the Havurah Shir Hadash, a Jewish community that models the same “brand” of inclusiveness. It is no coincidence, says Silbowitz, that most of Aleph Springs’ investors are also members of the synagogue. “The Havurah not only makes people of all Jewish denominations feel welcome, but people of all faiths. The same will be true for Aleph Springs.”
Silbowitz’ commitment to Aleph Springs was inspired by the experiences of his family.
When the Brooklyn-born Silbowitz, his wife Virginia and their two daughters moved to Ashland from the Bay Area about 11 years ago, he brought his mother Betty, as well, hoping to find a place for her to live in the area.
Though she felt instantly at home attending services at the Havurah, and found Rabbi David Zaslow sweet and supportive, says Silbowitz, none of the senior communities satisfied her craving for a “Jewish consciousness.”
“Aleph Springs is the kind of place that my mother would have loved,” says Silbowitz. The six condominium units nearest the synagogue are designed specifically for elders like her. She’d be able to just walk across the lawn and be in the shul.” She died at age 96 in 2004.
While Betty was enjoying the familiar embrace of Yiddishkeit within the Havurah community, Virginia was feeling equally at home, no matter that she was Chinese, and raised in the Buddhist-Confucian tradition  before she became a Presbyterian.
“That,” says Silbowitz, “is the kind of community I envision Aleph Springs as being.”
A contractor and developer for 35 years, Silbowitz’ resume includes some substantial stints in a variety of fields. After earning a Master’s degree in English at the University of California at Berkeley, he volunteered as a radio reporter for the liberal KPFA, covering KKK rallies, the Free Speech Movement and the riots in Watts. He worked as an assistant to the president at Golden Gate University, returned to the station as its manager for three years, and then labored as a logger cutting down frost-damaged eucalyptus trees for the East Bay Regional Park District. In his spare time, he was instrumental, as board president of the UC Berkeley Hillel House, with benefactor Jacques Reutlinger, in completely rebuilding that campus facility.
True retirement in Ashland has been pleasantly elusive, says Silbowitz, who found his property in the hills conducive to growing wine grapes. After planting more and more grape vines over the years, he officially became a vintner, introducing the Grizzly Peak Winery label in 2006.
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