DETROIT JEWISH NEWS, December 18, 1964
Section 0, Page 3
The New UJA General Chairman
Max M. Fisher Inspired Humanitarian
'Max M. Fisher, distinguished Detroit communal and civic leader, and nationally prominent in the petroleum
industry and other enterprises, on Dec. 13 was elected general chairman of the 1965- United Jewish Appeal. He
was chosen by acclaim by 2,000 delegates at the 27th annual conference of the United Jewish Appeal, at the New
York Hilton Hotel.
As general chairman of UJA, Mr. Fisher assumes what is generally considered the top leadership post in
American Jewish life, heading one of the world's largest and best known humanitarian organizations. In more than
26 years of existence, UJA has made possible life - saving aid for more than 3.000,000 persons throughout the word,
helping to resettle nearly 1,500,000 of them from places where they could no longer live to, free lands, including
Israel and the United States.
Mr. Fisher has been prominent in civic, communal and philanthropic activities for more than a quarter of a
century. Prior to his election he served as UJA associate general chairman. He holds numerous top posts in other
bodies, non-Jewish and Jewish.
Mr. Fisher is president of Detroit's United Foundation, the nation's largest community chest organization. He
was elected to the post in May 1964. His association with the Foundation goes back many years. In 1961, when
Detroit was suffering from a serious business recession, Mr.. Fisher accepted the chairmanship of the city's United
Foundation Torch Drive, to raise funds for 195 health and community services in Detroit. He directed the most
successful campaign ever conducted by the drive until that time one that involved the participation of a volunteer
army of more than 100,000, and raised S19,530,000.
Mr. Fisher has been an outstanding figure in Detroit's Jewish community. From 1959 to 1964 he was president
of Detroit's Jewish Welfare Federation and now is chairman of its executive committee. In addition, he has long
been a leader of the Federation's annual Allied Jewish Campaigns, of which the UJA is a major beneficiary. As
chairman of the campaign in 1957, he was instrumental in raising the largest sum in the drive's history in Detroit.
As general chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, Mr. Fisher succeeds a number of other outstanding figures
in American humanitarian endeavors, including Henry Morgenthau, Jr., Edward M. M. Warburg, William Rosenwald
and Joseph Meyerhoff.
Among the many honors conferred on Mr. Fisher in recognition of his civic and humanitarian endeavors, the
most recent was the Fred M. Butzel Memorial Award from the Detroit Jewish community in February 1964. This
award, which is presented for distinguished community service, is considered the highest honor which can be
conferred upon a member of the community.
Mr. Fisher has been a member of ten UJA Study Missions made up of key American Jewish leaders who
annually make on-the-scene surveys, at their own expense, of critical Jewish needs in Europe, North Africa, the
Middle East and IsraeL His first-hand studies of UJA-supported aid programs abroad have given him an authoritative
knowledge of these needs, particularly the crucial problems besetting Israel's people in absorbing scores of thousands
of newcomers annually.
Before his election to the post of UJA general chairman, Mr. Fisher had long served in the highest levels of
UJA leadership. For several years he has been a member of UJA's national executive committee, its top policy-making
body, and has -served as associate general chairman, as national chairman and as chairman of the UJA Special
Fund --- a supplementary UJA drive, raising funds specifically for extraordinary immigration needs.
He is a top officer of UJA's two major constituent agencies, serving as co-treasurer of the United Israel
Appeal-Jewish Agency for Israel, Inc. and as a member of the National Council of the Joint Distribution Committee.
He also serves on the boards of the Detroit Economic Club, the Detroit Board of Commerce and the Detroit
Metropolitan Building Fund. Additionally, he is vice president of both Sinai Hospital and the Greater Detroit
Hospital Council, and served as a director of the Detroit Symphony and the Detroit Institute of Arts.
In the business world, Mr. Fisher has long been nationally prominent in the petroleum industry. He pioneered
in .developing Michigan's oil industry and was a leader in successfully introducing new oil refining processes. He was
a founder and the board chairman of the Atirora Gasoline Company, one of the largest independent producers and
distributors of petroleum products in the Midwest. Subsequently, he was a member of the board of the Marathon
Oil Co., with which . Aurora was merged, and of the Hess Oil and Chemical Co.
He is a member of the American Petroleum Institute, and is a former director of both the National Petroleum
Council and the Western Petroleum Refiners Association. He has served for more than a decade as a principal
adviser to the government of Israel on its growing refining and petro - chemical industry. He is the vice - chairman, and
was formerly the board chairman of Israel Petrochemical Enterprises, and is a director of Paz Oil Company, Israel's
largest distributor of petroleum products. /
Mr. Fisher is one of the owners of the Fisher and 'New Center buildings in Detroit; chairman of the board of
the R•C group, a company operating in the insurance field, a board member of the Allen Industries and a director of
the Manufacturers Bank' of Detroit.
Mr. Fisher was born in Pittsburgh, July 15, 1908. The family moved to Salem, near Youngstown, 0., where
he spent his formative years. He attended Ohio State University where he played varsity football and majored in
business administration. He entered the oil business upon his graduation.
The United Jewish Appeal, established in 1938, is the major American agency providing humanitarian funds
for immigrants to Israel and refugees and distressed Jews overseas. UJA aid programs are carried out by its three
member agencies: the United Israel Appeal-Jewish Agency for. Israel, Inc., which helps to receive, settle, and absorb
immigrants to Israel; the Joint Distribution Committee, which aids Jews in 29 countries, including Israel, where it
conducts a special welfare program for aged, chronically ill and handicapped immigrants and the New York
Association for New Americans, which assists Jewish refugees to the United States. The United Hias Service,
which provides for the resettlement of Jewish refugees to countries other than Israel, also benefits from the UJA
campaign.