12 Friday, August 6, 1982

C7

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Blumberg, Fleischman, Hechtman Gifts Mark
Extensive Program of Housing for the Elderly

Three names synonymous with local philanthropy and Jewish communal involve-
ment — Blumberg, Fleischman and Hechtman — will be borne by the three facilities of
the new residential complex at the Jewish community's Maple-Drake site, scheduled for
groundbreaking Sept. 12.
The three structures are the Hechtman Apartments of Jewish Federation Apart-
ments, named for Samuel and Lillian Hechtman; the Edward I. and Freda Fleischman

Residence, sponsored by the Jewish Home for Aged; and the Louis and Edith Blumberg
Plaza, a core activities and recreational center that links the other two buildings.

Contributions totalling $1.5 million toward these three facilities that will serve the
community's aged have been announced by the Blumberg, Fleischman and Hechtman
families.

* * *

* * *

Blumberg Plaza

Hechtman Apartments

Fleischman Residence

A social and service center that will form the hub of
activity for elderly residents of the projected Maple-Drake
complex is to be named the Louis C. and Edith B. Blumberg
Plaza.
Designation of the Blumberg Plaza honors a couple
who have given much of their time and resources to the
Detroit Jewish community, including $500,000 for the
Blumberg Plaza.
Athong the features of-The plaza will- be a
synagogue, lounge area and mini shopping mall with
a snack bar and gift shop. Linking the two structures,
Fleischman Residence and Jewish Federation
Apartments, the Blumberg Plaza also will have a li-
brary, day program room, activities room and
kitchen.

Samuel Hechtman, whose volunteer labors have
spearheaded the Jewish Federation Apartments building
program since 1967, will be honored together with his wife
Lillian in the naming of the JFA's Phase III in West Bloom-
field.
The Samuel and Lillian Hechtman Apartments,
toward which the couple has given a $500,000 gift, will rise
on the Maple-Drake site where the Jewish Community
Center is located and the Holocaust Memorial Center is
under construction. Hechtman chaired the building com-
mittees for both structures, as well as phases I and II of
Jewish Federation Apartments in Oak Park.
In announcing the couple's gift and the naming of the
three-story structure in their honor, JFA President Shel-
don Winkelman said tilt designation of Hechtman Apart-
ments "could not be a more appropriate way of recognizing
the Hechtmans' many contributions to his community."
A former president of
Jewish Federation Apart-
ments, Hechtman has
played a major role in the
Jewisl*community. His
wife Lillian is active in a
, number of Jewish organiza-
tions, including Hadassah,
ORT and the sisterhood of
Adat Shalom Synagogue.
Hechtman is a member of
the Jewish Welfare Federa-
tion Board of Governors and
has been active in the Allied
Jewish Campaign. He co-
chaired the building com-
THE HECHTMANS
mittee for Federation
Apartments' first two phases, and is co-chairman for the
third phase. He also is a board member of the Jewish Com-
munity Center.
Hechtman was a founder of the Interseas Water Con-
duit (Mediterranean to Dead Sea Canal) in Israel. Among
many other honors, he received Israel's Medal of Valor in
1972 for his dedication to civic and Jewish causes and for
his support of Israel through the Israel Bond Drive.
An attorney and president of an investment com-
pany, Hechtman has been a leader in Detroit's build-
ing industry. He is an honorary life member of the
Builders Association of Metropolitan Detroit, and an
honorary life director of the National Association of
Home Builders. He has served as chairman of the City
of Detroit Planning Commission and as a Building
Authority Commissioner in Southfield.
Mr. and Mrs. Hechtman have three daughters, Sally
Ann Orley, Elaine Conway and Rhoda H. Siegel, 10
grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

The Residence for Jewish Elderly, to be built at Maple
and Drake roads under the auspices of the Jewish Hom
Aged, will carry the names of Freda and the late Edwi
Fleischman, a couple long associated with the home
other causes vital to the Jewish community.
Their son Marvin, president of JHA, announced a gift
of $500,000 from the Fleischmans which will help launch a
major fund drive on behalf of the residence.
"It is a source of great pride," he said, "that the Resi-
dence for Jewish Elderly — a new concept in services for our
older adults — will carry the Fleischman name. The needs
of our aged, served for 75 years by the home, always have
been of vital importance to my_parents and my family." He
called it "a fitting memorial to my father," who passed
away in April.
The Fleischman Residence will offer apartment
living to those who are able to maintain their own
homes with a degree of special care provided. Serv-
ices and programs will be designed to promote inde-
pendence — an interim step toward the home's care
for dependent elderly and Jewish Federation Apart-
ments' rental housing for the independent aged.

A member of Sinai Hospi-
tal's Board of Trustees,
philanthropist Louis C.
Blumberg has contributed
both his time and financial
support to the Jewish
The Louis C. and
Edith B. Blumberg Profes-
sional Building and the
Blumberg Wing of Sinai
Hospital are testimony to
his generosity.
Blumberg has been an
active member of the
Jewish Welfare Federation
and has held leadership
THE BLUMBERGS
positions in the Allied
Jewish Campaign. He is currently a board member of the
Detroit Service Group. The late Edith B. Blumberg was a
member of the Sinai Guild and was one of the original
sponsors of the Sinai Gift Shop. Mrs. Blumberg was also a
charter member of the. TB and Health Society and worked
with the Retarded Children's Foundation in Northville.
A founding partner in an insurance firm, Blumberg is
a member of the Detroit and Michigan Insurance Associa-
tions and the Detroit Board of Commerce. He has served as
president of the Standard Club and Franklin Hills Country
Club, and is a member of Cong. Shaarey Zedek, Temple
Beth El and the Downtown Synagogue.
He has played a key role in many civic and Jewish
causes, and is a life member of the Perfection Lodge of the
Masons and a charter member of the Detroit Round Table of
the National Conference of Christians and Jews, Boys Club
of Metropolitan Detroit, American Jewish Congress and
American Jewish Committee. Blumberg is a strong suppor-
ter of the Jewish Association for Retarded Citizens and also
has served on the board of the Morris Adler Foundation:

.

.

Freda and the late Ed-
ward I. Fleischman au-
gmented the work of
numerous Jewish organiza-
tions and agencies through
their dedication and ta-r
lents.
A past president of the
Jewish Home for Aged, Mr.
Fleischman served on the
boards of the Jewish Wel-
fare Federation, Jewish
Community Center and
Jewish Federation Apart-
ments. He was an active
member of Cong. Shaarey
THE FLEISCHMANS
Zedek, serving on the board
of directors for several years. Mrs. Fleischman's commit-
ment to the community has been expressed in her many
activities on behalf of the Auxiliary of the Jewish Home for
Aged, United Hebrew Schools and Cong. Shaarey Zedek.
In 1979, they recieved the state of Israel's Lion of
Judah Peace Award for leadership and active participation
in Israel's cause for economic independence and peace
through the Israel Bond Drive.
Born in RusSia, Mr. Fleischman was chairman of the
board of several oil companies. Mr. and Mrs. Fleischman
have three children, Marvin, Fannie Robinson and Rose
Liebergott, nine grandchildren and two great-grand-
daughters.

Israeli Pharmaceutical Firm Harnessing Interferon For Cancer

REHOVOT — A new
pharmaceutical firm here is
seeking ways to harness the
body's natural defenses in
the fight against certain
viruses, auto-immune dis-
eases such as multiple
sclerosis, and ultimately
cancer.
Interpharm Laboratories
is among a doien companies
in the world working on fib-
roblast interferon, a human
protein that helps fight vir-
uses and has been touted by
some scientists as a poten-
tial anti-cancer drug.
The three-year-old firm is

also involved in the produc-
tion and marketing of
human growth hormones
and in researching the use
of an embryonic protein for
potential treatment of dis-
eases engendered by the
body's immune reactions to
itself.
Working together with
the prestigious Weiz-
mann Institute of Sci-
ence, the firm is in the
clinical trial stages of de-
veloping fibroblast in-
terferon, a human pro-
tein which they are pro-
ducing from the fores-

kins of circumcised in-
fants.
Interferon received its
name more than 20 years
ago when a British vir-
ologist discovered that a
substance secreted by cells
as part of the body's natural
defense system 'interfered'
with the multiplication of
viruses.
Interferon is synthesized
in miniscule quantities by
most body cells when
alerted to a viral infection
in a nearby tissue. Secreted
into the tissue, it allows for
biochemical changes that

increase the tissue's resis-
tance to the virus.
The discovery that in-
terferon also slows down the
division of cancer cells led to
speculation in the mid-
1970s that a miracle cure
for cancer had been found.
Interpharm has been
producing interferon
from the fibroblast cells
with the aid of culture tis-
sue techniques de-
veloped at the Weizmann
Institute by Drs. D.
Guarari-Rotman and T.
Landau. Once extricated
from the foreskins, the
cells are grown in a nut-
rient medium, extracted,
purified and freeze-
dried.
In recent years new gene-
tic engineering techniques
for the eventual production
of synthetic interferon have
been advanced, and Inter-
pharm hopes to incorporate
the new methods. Interfe-

ron is not available for sale immune system mistakes a
to the public, but last year part of the body to be foreign
Interph'arm began selling and mobilizes its forces to
small quantities to research attack it. In short, the body
institutes.
begins to self-destruct.
Most of Interpharm's $1.5
Hadassah researchers
million in sales last year
came from the marketing of noted a remission in
human growth hormones to these diseases during
prevent dwarfing in chil- pregnancy and began
dren who suffer from pituit- asking why this occur-
ary malfunction. A series of red. They now believe
injections of the hormone, that alpha-feto protein,
which is extracted in Israel produced by the fetus,
from imported post-mortem suppresses certain
pituitary glands, allows the munities. Interph,
children to achieve their joined the Hadassah re-
search team to investi-
genetic height.
gate the potential com-
In another project, Inter- mercial application of the
pharm is working together protein.
with the Hadassah-Hebrew
Situated at the Kiryat
University Medical Center
on the use of a protein pro- Weizmann industrial park
duced by the human fetus not far from Tel Aviv; Inter-
that may be useful in fight- pharm has a staff of 70, plus
ing auto-immune diseases 30 scientists on the com-
that often lead to loss of pany payroll who work at
muscle control. These dis- leading Israeli research in-
eases occur because the stitutions.