64 Friday, July 2, 1982
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
New Arbor House Volume
Baer's The Self-Chosen' Depicts Newest 'Our Crowd'
It was not so long ago
when Our Crowd" at-
tracted wide attention as a
delineation of a "clique" of
the most prominent Ameri-
can Jews. Now the Ameri-
can reader, with emphasis
on the American Jew, is in-
troduced to a fascinating
new crowd.
The new liking is in "The
Self-Chosen: 'Our Crowd Is
Dead, Long Live Our
Crowd' " by Jean Baer (Ar-
bor House).
So many personalities are
recorded here that this book -
may be sure to emerge as
"the talk of the town."
Mrs. Baer drew for the
title of her book upon
"Our Crowd" in which
Stephen Birmingham, in
1967, depicted the Jewish
elite of earlier years. Now
she gives emphasis to the
more timely "JEP," as
she described the Jewish
Elite Person.
She had intended origi-
nally to write a history of
Temple Emanuel. On the
way to the prestigious New
York Reform synagogue
she met the famous who be-
came an inspiration for
"The Self-Chosen," in which
she relates the experiences,
the accomplishments of 254
notables she interviewed.
Included in this cast of
characters is Henry
Dorfman of Detroit, who
emerges in this book in this
role: •
"As another instance,
Frederick & Herrud is the
fastest-growing company in
the, of all things, pork busi-
ness. The boss is Henry
Dorfman, 58, a Polish Or-
thodox Jew who survived
the Holocaust by jumping
with his father off the train
that carried the rest of the
family to Treblinka, even-
tually immigrated to the
United States, and bought
Frederick Packing Co., a
tiny pork-slaughtering
business in Detroit.
"To Orthodox Jews,
pork is trayf — unclean.
According to Fortune,
Dorfman's wife won't
permit pork in her home.
today you cannot achieve a
major role without giving a
major gift. But the day will
come when we have a
chairman who gives
$10,000 and the community
will understand. Now, fund
raising is becoming geared
to the professions, and pro-
fessionals just do not make
big money.'
"Mrs. Sherman makes no
mention of it, but everyone
in the philanthropic world
knows that she is the
daughter of Max Fisher, the
Detroit businessman, son of
a White Russian immigrant
peddler, who never had a
Bar Mitzva and went to
Ohio State on a football
scholarship.
"According to an article
in Monthly Detroit, Max
Fisher is a 'triumph of the
original revolutionary
myth of equality: that any
man with intelligence
and energy can rise to
wealth and power in the
classless freedom of this
new society. It hasn't
worked for a lot of
people, but it has cer-
tainly worked for Fisher.'
"A poor boy from an
obscure Ohio village, Fisher
,parlayed a chance
encounter with oil and a na-
tive genius for hard work
into an immense personal
fortune. Keeping a low pro-
file, Fisher gives away mil-
lions each year to charity
(he has estimated that he
gives away half his income),
raises millions for charity CI
believe in leadership giv-i
ing'), has served as unoffi-
cial financial adviser to the
Israeli government and has
been called 'probably the
most prominent Republican
in the country.'
"For 20 years daughter
Jane Sherman has followed
her father's example. She
has worked for the Joint
Distribution Committee,
served on the board of the
executive committee, na-
tional UJA Women's Di-
vision, is national co-
chairman of UJA Project
Renewal and co-chairman
of the Women's Division of
the Detroit UJA.
" 'I came from a philan-
Someday there will be a
thropic household with no
woman chairman.
" 'The woman who does Jewish training,' she re-
get the top spot will prob- calls, 'but my husband and I
ably have to be a woman of first went to Israel in 1962
independent means — from on a Young Leadership mis-
her own work or inheritance sion. I was hooked. I have
— so that she has clout. spent the last 20 years
Hopefully, the woman who studying Jewish history.'
"In ninth grade Sherman
achieves a top leadership
role will get it because of her went steady with a Gentile.
fund-raising ability .— not Her father told her, 'You
because of where the money should not marry a non-
came from or what she Jew. It makes for problems.'
Today she, states, 'This
gives.'
"She reiterates the made an impression on me. I
statement of many: 'As of do not want my children
But the family sees noth-
ing wrong with selling
meat they would not eat
because of their own reli-
gious scruples. As a fam-
ily motto puts it: 'The
meat is trayf, the money
is kosher.' A reasonable
and compatible distinc-
tion."
Max M. Fisher could not
possibly be eliminated from
such a listing. He is ac-
counted for in industry as
well as in philanthropy.
Coupled with him is his
daughter Jane Sherman.
Mrs. Baer went into so
many details about Fisher's
daughter Jane that the
reference to her is emi-
nently worth receiving the
space allotted in her book.
Thus, Mrs. Baer about Mrs.
Sherman:
"In summing up the
traumas and triumphs of
the Jewish philanthropic
world, 43-year-old Jane-
Sherman, an active fund
raiser for the Jewish Wel-
fare Federation of Detroit,
stresses that changes must
be made.
"She points out, 'There
is a locker-room syn-
drome. Sylvia Hassenfeld
serves as a fine example
of a woman who did not
achieve the top rank. She
should have been a
chairman of national
UJA. Many were for her.
It was a blatant ipistake
by UJA. However, there
was the feeling that a
woman cannot solicit a
man for a major_gift.
.
(two boys and a girl) to
marry outside their reli-
gion. I hope I do not have to
cope with this problem.'
"The Sherman family is
Reform with a deep
commitment to things
Jewish. On Friday nights
they say kidush. Mrs.
Sherman makes halla.
They always dine to-
gether on Fridays. She
proudly states, 'I am
more religious than I was
as a kid. Our home was
Reform. But my hus-
band's parents kept
kosher.'
"Mrs. Sherman prefers to
use the term community
pressure rather than peer
pressure. She says, 'Com-
munity pressure exists
JANE SHERMAN
much more here than in
New York. Giving is the
thing to do. Here, every Jew
knows every other Jew and
if you want to be a part of
the community, you give.
Recently, I was reading The
Jewish News and saw the
name of a local man I did not
know. This was unusual.
New York is a separate
country when it comes to
fund raising.'
"She adds, 'There is no
German-Russian thing in
Detroit. I have never seen it
or been aware of it. Today
Jews are Jews and heritage
does not make any dif-
ference.'
"Mrs. Sherman gives
every weekday to philan-
thropic work and attends
many night meetings. 'Ex-
cept for my family, this is
the most important thing in
my life,' she says. 'You need
the support of your spouse,
or the marriage would
break up. My husband
Larry is associate vice
chairman in the campaign
but he is not as emotionally
involved as I. You could not
have two crazies in one fam-
ily.'
"Mrs. Sherman won-
dered how her children
would reply to the tre-
mendous time she gives
to philathropy. She need
not have worried. All
three make their own an-
nual pledge to the UJA.
Federation campaign.
They earn the money
they give. For example,
younger son Scott
pledged $65 last year
with money earned from
his paper route and has
promised to increase the
amount this year.
" 'They see it,' she says
proudly. 'They understand
the importance of their
roots.'
"Just prior to his Bar
Mitzva at a local temple,
older son David, now a stu-
dent at the University of
Rochester, had gone on a
mission to Israel and was
deeply impressed. At this
temple, it is the custom to
have the 13-year-old stand
in front of the ark and
pledge to continue his
Jewish education. David in-
sisted on writing his own
`meaningful' pledge. He
vowed that 'Masada will
never fall again. The future
starts with my education.'
"Mrs. Sherman says sim-
ply, 'I cried. This was the
culmination of everything
Larry and I had tried to do
as parents.'
"Has philanthropic
work changed her? 'Yes,
it has made me a better
person,' she answers. 'I
am more understanding
of people around me. It
has made me both
tolerant and intolerant of
people who do not feel
the way I do. I cannot re-
main friends with people
who are not concerned
with others.
" 'I love what I am doing. I
would not change one min-
ute of it. I am having a little
part in guaranteeing that
wherever they want to live,
my kids will live freely as
Jews. I want them to be able
to say 'I am a Jew' from the
rooftop, just as I can do it
now.' "
All of this is exemplary of
the book's approach to the
others in the list of 254 who
were interviewed by Mrs.
Baer. Included in that list
are:
Ambassador Sol M.
Linowitz; opera star
ROberta Peters; financial
columnist Sylvia Porter;
Helen Galland, president
and chief executive officer of
Bonwit Teller; cosmetics ty-
coon Adrien Arpel; Dr.
Helen Singer Kaplan,
SOL LINOWITZ
Sanford Weill, chairman
of the board and chief
executive officer of
Shearson / American Ex-
press, Inc.; Elinor
Guggenheimer, former
commissioner of New
Yorke City's department
of consumer affairs;
Maynard Wishner,
president of the Ameri-
can Jewish Committee
and president and chief
executive officer of Wal-
ter E. Heller and Co.
Also former U.S. Ambas-
sador to Austria Milton
Wolf; Shirley Goodman, act-
ing president of the Fashion
Institute of Technology;
Alan Greenberg, chief
executive officer of Bear,
Stearns and Co.; Charles
Lazarus, founder and chief
executive officer of Toys R
Us.
Such is the extent of the
collected effort that
emerges as a veritable
Who's Who in American
Jewry.
Linowitz is portrayed as
America's Number One
Jew.
ROBERTA PETERS
Roberta Peters, who
has just made an appear-
ance here in the Peter
and Clara Weisberg
music series of Cong.
Shaarey Zedek is the sub-
ject of a fascinating study
of the Metropolitan
Opera star who is a de-
voted Jewess.
MAX FISHER
There is a fascination in
internationally-known sex
a
"The Self-Chosen." It
therapist.
,
Also Lester Crown, book about dedicated ,
president of Henry also about many who have
Crown and Co.; Rabbi intermarried, some lesser
Sally Priesand, the first known, all admitting their
American woman rabbi; Jewishness, a measure of
Frank Lautenberg, great pride in many ranks
chairman and chief as in those of Jane Sherman
executive officer of Data and Sol Linowitz.
It'll be a much talked.
Processing Inc., who has
won the Democratic about book, and deservedly
nomination for the U.S. so.
—P.S.
Senate in New Jersey;