PROFILE
A GOODMANATfFS
Alan Goodman,
a South African Jew who
manned a frontier outpost in
Israel and who now is the
executive director of the
Detroit Jewish Family Service.
PHIL JACOBS
Managing Editor
verlooking the Jor-
danian frontier from
a lonely kibbutz out-
post, a rifle in his
hands, Alan Good-
man had plenty of
time to think about
his life.
He thought about the
black nanny who helped
raise him in his South
African home. How all his
Jewish friends had black
nannies and really didn't
know any differently. He
thought about the hurt he
felt that his beautiful
homeland with its lush
green hills and purple
valleys was the center of a
hate called apartheid.
He considered the piece
of Jordan he was watching.
He knew that a Jordanian
outpost probably had him
fixed in its binoculars. He
knew that soldiers at simi-
lar outposts in Israel were
looking out at the possible
annihilation of their coun-
try. And for once in his
adult life, Alan Goodman
knew that in the desert
darkness with the black
sky highlighting the stars
above, he was doing the
right thing.
0
34
FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 1991
Fifteen years later, Mr.
Goodman is still on guard.
This time he's not sur-
rounded by hostile Arab
nations. This time the
enemy to the Jewish people
shows itself differently. It's
in the form of AIDS, bat-
tered children, the Jewish
poor, the mentally ill, the
resettlement of hundreds of
new American families
from the Soviet Union, and
worse yet, the knowledge
that there simply isn't
enough money around to
meet all the needs of
the Detroit Jewish com-
munity.
Mr. Goodman came to
Detroit via South Africa,
Israel and Albany, N.Y., to
direct the community's
Jewish Family Service.
The move marked a major
step for Mr. Goodman, as
well as something of a risk
for Detroit. Mr. Goodman,
who served in the Israeli
Defense Forces and trained
as a social worker and so-
cial services administrator,
came here from the exec-
utive director's post in
Albany. The Council of
Jewish Federations
classifies the New York
capital as a small city with
a population of about
15,000 Jews and a cam-
paign total of $2 million.
Detroit's JFS budget alone
is more than $2.5 million.
For Detroit, finding a
successor to Sam Lerner
wasn't going to be taken
lightly. Mr. Lerner headed
the agency for 25 years.
"We thought we were in
for some trying times after
having the same executive
for over 25 years," said
former JFS president Ed
Gold. "Alan made that
transition really well. He's
brought new insight into
the agency in a number of
ways. I can't underscore
enough how well he's doing
here. There was concern
that he was in over his
head coming from Albany.
But the types of problems
he faced in Albany were
really no different there.
There were just more of
them here."
Mr. Goodman, 40, said he
knew early on in his life
that he didn't like what he
was seeing in Johan-
nesburg. His father is a
jewelry importer, while his
mother is a classical
guitarist. His dad wanted
him to join in the watch
business. When Mr. Good-
man reached his late teens,
the South African Army
wanted him to join in their
work, which at the time
meant keeping a close eye
on the country's unrest
within the black
townships.
Mr. Goodman took a lik-
ing to neither and decided
to make aliyah.
"I was a Jew socialized in
a prejudiced society," he
said. "All of my friends
grew up with their black
servants, their nannies. I
had mine. Despite what the
white government says it's
going to do now in South
Africa, there's still years
and years of lapsed pre-
judice.
"If you were white you
could be jailed for just talk-
ing to a black," he con-
tinued. "I grew up not
knowing sometimes if I
was breaking the law.
Many, many prominent
whites just disappeared in
this society. You lived in
fear, and I was not willing
to sit with my backside in a
jail for 30 years in a system
where there weren't
changes going on.
"It pained me to leave
South Africa, but the fight
of the South African Army
was not a fight I was will-
ing to sacrifice my life for."
Mr. Goodman lived in
Israel for 5 1/2 years, serving