This Week
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HARRY KERSBAUM Staff Writer
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KRISTA HUSA Photographer
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nyone traveling through Jewish communal Detroit this
summer has probably noticed that the roads aren't the
only things under construction. Orange cones and
yellow trucks decorate Jewish sites all over the area.
Ten major projects are under way, at a cost of
close to $40 million. The work, ranging from the
construction of a yeshiva preschool to a pair of
adult day care centers for Alzheimer's patients, is
one of the largest building booms in the history of
the Detroit Jewish community, said Robert Slatkin, the man who holds the
communal pursestrings. "There's just so many things going on right now."
Slatkin, formally president of the United Jewish Foundation of
Metropolitan Detroit, the banking/real estate arm of the Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit, joined Penny Blumenstein, Federation president,
and other officials two weeks ago to spotlight some of the construction
sites for the Jewish News and to explain what made this year so special.
Think stock market, Slatkin said.
"The stock market has been kind to us," he said, noting that the bull
market had increased the Foundation's investment portfolio, including
endowments, by $200 million in the last 10 years. The construction
projects were a type of "dividend" from that growth, he said.
He also noted that the market has been kind to donors, enabling
them to be more generous.
New capital gifts in the last two years alone total about $20 million, said
Mark Davidoff, Federation's chief operating officer, and overseer of the cap-
ital projects, but donors had to be matched to projects that meet identified
needs. Federation strategic meetings in 1996 ranked the Jewish communi-
ty's priorities, which turned into construction projects like the Dorothy and
Peter Brown Adult Day Care Center being built on the Jewish Community
Campus in West Bloomfield. That center, which has a companion site at
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THE Nom JEAN AND EDWARD MEER EARLY *b
CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT CENTER in Southfield
is a new, one-story building adjacent to the Yeshiva
Beth Yehudah for boys. The 11,000 square foot,
$1.1 million structure will allow the yeshiva to
teach 140 pre-nursery through kindergarten
schoolchildren in their own environment. Six col-
orful classrooms with computer stations will be
ready at the end of October. The property is owned
by the yeshiva, the building by the Foundation.
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MARION AND DAVID HANDELMAN FIALL AND AIJDFIDREUM, the $1.2 million irce don
restoration, is aimed at hosting lifegcle events and expected to be completed in Sep*
tfie first phase of a two-phase $18 million renovation of the D. Dan & Betty Kahn
the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield. At 5,300 square feet, the room
320-360 people seated banquet-style, and more than 600 people attending lectures.
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9/3
1999
6 Detroit Jewish News
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