WOMEN'S GIFT page 3
Left: The 1995-96 Women's Division officers are,
standing, Trudy Weiss, Edie Slotkin and Marilyn
Goldberg, and, seated, Mikki Grossman, Nancy
Glass, Linda Klein, Rusty Rosman and Carol
Weintraub Fogel.
Below: Mrs. Julien Priver, Mrs. Alfred Deutsch and
Mrs. Abel Swirsky chart G-Day returns in 1950.
ITY ARCH IVES
Bottom: In 1953, hundreds of G-Day workers
gathered at the State Fairgrounds.
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In its place came Phonogift, a phon-a-
under the husband's name, the extra gift
would be from the women, under their own thou. Instead of wearing out the soles of
their shoes pounding the pavement, females
names.
volunteers burned up the telephone lines,
Tillie Brandwine, the 1989 Fred M.
Butzel Memorial Award winner and a for- calling friends and associates, urging them
to pledge.
mer Women's Division president, said vol-
As fund-raising changed, Women's Di-
unteers would recite the same mantra to
potential gift givers who were corralled at vision held educational seminars, called
teas, luncheons and other social functions. blue-book exams. The women gathered in
each other's homes, listening to presenta-
"Our husbands do a lot for us, but they
can't laugh for us, love for us, cry for us or tions and jotting notes in blue-jacketed,
give for us," she said, recalling the slogan. loose-leaf notebooks about the state of the
Fund-raising evolved in the 1950s from so- Jews in less fortunate areas of the world.
"We wanted women in the community
liciting at tea parties to the formation of G-
to know what we did and to know what was
Day or Give Day.
new in the Jewish world,"
A daylong affair that
Ms. Weiner said. 'We felt if
started with a breakfast
we stretched our knowl-
at the State Fairgrounds,
edge, we would stretch our
G-Day sent 2,000 volun-
g ifts.
teers from Eight Mile
But as the decades
Road and Woodward Av-
brought change to the over-
enue to the streets of the
all women's movement na-
Jewish neighborhoods,
tionwide, new directions
knocking on the doors of
came to the division.
15,000 homes, all in
The division started and
search of the women's
— Linda Klein, president staffed support programs
gifts. Teams of women
of Women's Division. such as Shalom Detroit, an
struggled to raise the
informational welcoming
most money, racing back
committee for new Detroi-
with their pledges to the
ters; Speakers Circle, a group of women
fairgrounds before the close of the day.
With the movement of the Jewish com- who educate about the Allied Jewish Cam-
paign; Leadership Series, a training pro-
munity in the late 1950s and 1960s from
the city blocks to the sprawling suburbs, G- gram for future leaders of the division;
Volunteer Network, a committee making
Day was disbanded.
"In the '50s, every woman would be out volunteer opportunities more accessible to
either knocking on doors or at home wait- women; Communiteas, a neighborhood pro-
ing to be solicited," said Josephine Weiner, gram that educates and informs women
a former president and one of the founding about Federation and its workings; and
members of the division. "When everyone Business and Professional Women, pro-
started moving to the suburbs, it just wasn't gramming that addresses the specific needs
of women seeking balance between home
feasible."
"It's too bad that we don't do that any- and career life.
Although the division has made itself
more," Ms. Brandwine said. "People these
days talk of face-to-face solicitation. That's more accessible to working women, it still
offers the same three elements it always
why it was so effective."
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TH E DE TR O IT J E W IS H N E WS
"There are women
of great means and
women who give of
themselves
greatly."
71
has: fund raising, education and social ac-
tivities.
Although its latest endeavors have been
met with success, the division's history and
current accomplishments have been cloud-
ed by an image that it is merely for the
wealthy women of the community.
A historic succession of major Campaign
donors have headed the group; many of the
founders were the wives of wealthy lawyers,
judges and merchants. Most recently, the
division added a chapter of Lion of Judah,
a national organization whose one prereq-
uisite for membership is an anniml gift of
$5,000 to the Women's Campaign.
Linda Klein acknowledges the perceived
image exists but says it no longer applies
to the group.
"It is a real hard thing to deal with," Ms.
Klein said. "The intention is never there to
be elitist."
She pointed out that any woman who
makes a donation to the Campaign, no mat-
ter how large or small, is made a member
of the division. A number of committees and
organizations of the division are staffed by
volunteers, rich and not so rich, young and
not so young.
`There are women of great means and
women who give of themselves greatly,"
Ms. Klein said.
The future of the group is filled with
promise. For starters, the division will no
longer be known as Women's Division,
changing instead to Women's Campaign
and Education Department on May 29.
The group also hopes to cull from its
membership a future president of Feder-
ation. In almost 70 years since the original
Jewish Welfare Federation formed, there
has never been a female president.
"Other federations have had female pres-
idents," Diane Klein said. "Detroit's time
will come, too." ❑
Fora look at Women's Division's 50th an-
niversary celebration, see the In Focus sto-
ry in today's JN Entertainment section on
page 76.