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Jewish philanthropist
A. Alfred Taubman's
company has entered into
partnership with the Union
Bank of Switzerland to
build a megamall.

JULIE EDGAR SENIOR WRITER

A prime piece of property in
Auburn Hills will finally get a
"megamall."
The two major partners in the
gigantic Great Lakes Crossing
Center seem an unlikely pair:
the Taubman Realty Group and
the Union Bank of Switzerland
(UBS), which has recently been
implicated in concealing the
bank accounts of European Jews
who entrusted their money to
Swiss banks before World War
II. The Swiss also are accused of
profiting from gold looted from
Jews by the Nazis.
In 1995, the latest year for
which investment figures are
available, the Swiss banking in-
dustry had investments in the
United States totaling $964 mil-
lion, according to the Swiss Em-
bassy.
Mr. Taubman is a major donor
to Jewish organizations.
Six years ago, UBS bought the
268-acre parcel at 1-75 and Bald-
win Road, which has a market
value of close to $9 million, along
with five adjacent parcels that
vary in size from less than one
acre to seven acres and are val-
ued at over $300,000. Another
developer, Western Development
Co./Auburn Mills Associates
Ltd., had planned to build a
mammoth shopping mall there,
but withdrew in 1990 after fi-
nancial arrangements fell apart.
The Taubman Realty Group,
which developed and owns 19
malls in 11 states, including
Twelve Oaks in Novi and Briar-
wood in Ann Arbor, entered into
limited partnership with the
bank early last year, according
to Christopher J. Tennyson, se-
nior vice president of corporate
affairs for the Bloomfield Hills-
based Taubman Company.
Other partners in the deal in-
clude Jewish communal leader
Max M. Fisher, Richard Kughn
and the Taubman family.
The Taubman company had
declined to comment on the part-

TERRITORY page 38

The kosher community soon
will have five new kosher
food-service businesses.

JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR STAFF WRITER

or days after Classic Coney Island closed, patrons
continued to tug on the locked door, unaware that
the area's last kosher full-time restaurant was no
longer.
ust as the doors were unyielding, so seemed the
usher restaurant market. After Sara's and Classic
Coney failed in rapid succession, no entrepreneur dared
to jump into the void created by the coney island's
demise.
Until now.
Two restaurateurs and two take-out
food service businesses either have opened
Above right:
kosher places or plan to do so in the next
Asher Galed, in
year. Additionally, one of the area's pre- the blue shirt, and
mier ice cream shops recently became
Hanna Ibrahim
kosher.
recently
The owners of the ventures all say they
expanded their
are aware of the dismal success rate of
vegetarian
metro Detroit's kosher eating establish- cuisine business.
ments but say the need for such busi-
Right: Art Stevens
nesses remains.
is the vice
"It is an embarrassing reflection of the
president of Ray's
culture that an area with so many Jews
Ice Cream, the
does not have a kosher restaurant," said newly kosher ice
Luis Cartagena, a kosher chef who is cre-
cream parlor.
ating a kosher vegetarian restaurant to
be situated in Royal Oak. "The area
should have a kosher facility."
And for that sentiment, the kosher supervisory agen-
cies — the Council of Orthodox Rabbis of Greater De-

BOOM page 42

Compensation

Some 800 Holocaust survivors try to find ways
through the red tape.

PHIL JACOBS EDITOR

athan Roth wandered
Fran Victor, a local video pro-
around the back of the ducer, conceived the idea for the
crowded Congregation Sunday forum after spending
Shaarey Zedek auditorium hours videotaping interviews of
last Sunday, looking for a seat.
survivors for the Steven Spiel-
It wasn't easy. But nor were berg Shoah Foundation. Dr. Sid
the procedures and questions Bolkosky, a Holocaust historian
presented by experts in the area and professor at the University
of Holocaust compensation to of Michigan-Dearborn, moder-
more than 800 Detroit area ated the afternoon.
Holocaust survivors and their
"I'm one of those who first re-
loved ones.
fused
fused
compensation," said
They came to learn solu-
Mr. Roth, a retired adver-
tions to complex problems hundred
listened tising agency executive.
of compensation. Some, like
"Unbeknownst to me, my
to the
Mr. Roth, got the answers speakers. wife signed my name to a
they searched for. The
form, and it started coming.
speakers included William But I just couldn't see taking
Marks, an attorney specializing compensation for what was
in the claims of Holocaust sur- done. But now, after what I
vivors, and Greg Schneider, di- learned on Sunday, I might be
rector of allocations and special eligible for a raise in compensa-
projects for the Claims Confer- tion, so I'll apply."
ence (Conference on Material
Mr. Roth survived Auschwitz
Claims Against Germany).
COMPENSATION page 39