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Jewry's Role in
Human Affairs

PATRONS OF SOCIAL PROGRESS - I

Communal Service

A partial look at David Page's communal service resume:

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• Children's Hospital of Michigan trustee, member of executive committee,
planning committee.

• Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan trustee, co-chairman
development committee.

• United Jewish Communities director

Never in their long history have Jews found more ways to wealth than in
20th Century America. Poor immigrants or their children, assimilated and
sometimes secularized by an accepting society, triumphed in business and
industry from A to Z--from Philip Altheim, steering the country's largest
electric construction company, to the late Morris Zale whose scale of
jewelry operations was unsurpassed.
Prosperity inspired in many a strong urge to repay our nation's
generosity in kind. Samuel Newhouse, a newspaper and radio magnate,
gave huge sums to the arts and medicine. Detroit's own William
Davidson, president of the world's fourth largest glassmaker, donated
millions to educational programs. Holocaust survivor Kurt Weishaupt,
founder of a leading postage stamp wholesaling firm, was named among the
most charitable citizens in the U.S. by America's Caring Institute. And
publisher Walter Annenberg has been hailed as our country's greatest
living philanthropist. Others also prevailed:

• Detroit Area Council of Boy Scouts of America director

• Detroit-Chamber Music Society advisory board member

• Detroit Medical Center trustee

• Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit board of governors' member,
executive committee member, general fund workgroup chairman

• The Jewish Fund director

• Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute director

• The Kresge Foundation trustee ;nvestment committee chairman

• Rose Hill Center director

• United Jewish Foundation board of governors' member

• United Way Community Services director

• Wayne State University School of Medicine board of visitors' member

• Allied Jewish Campaign chairman, attorney's section, 1973; chairman, pro-
fessional service division, 1979-81

• American ORT Federation director, 1972-93

• Detroit Men's ORT director, 1965-82, president, 1971-75

• Marygrove College trustee, 1977-83

• Temple Beth El president, 1976-77, trustee, 1970-86

• United Way of Southeastern Michigan vice president and director, 1986-95

• Wetsman Young Leadership Award, from the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit, 1971

• ORT Man of the Year Award, from America ORT Federation, 1974, and
Detroit Men's ORT, 1985

• Winning Ways Award for Community Leadership, from Wayne County
Executive Edward H. McNamara, 1991

• Learned Hand Human Relations Award, from the American Jewish
Committee, 1997

MEYER GUGGENHEIM
(1828-1905) b. Lengnau, Switzerland Fleeing
anti-Semitic oppression in their homeland, father
Simon and son Meyer--then nineteen--hawked
shoelaces and needles on the streets of
Philadelphia and took to the road as peddlers in
Pennsylvania's anthracite mining district. It was
a lowly beginning for a family which would
eventually produce one-half of the world's copper.
On a slow route to great wealth, the Guggenheims also manufactured and
sold lye and stove polish to local farmers and imported lace-embroidery
from their native country. Their destiny changed dramatically when profits
from an 1890 investment in a Colorado silver mine seeded a smelting and
refining empire in copper, silver, tin, zinc, lead, nitrates and other metals
and minerals. Meyer neared sixty when outstanding success came.
Assisted by his seven sons, Meyer may have amassed, in its time
and at its peak, the second largest family fortune in America, exceeded
only by that of the Rockefellers. It was then that his children, acting in his
spirit, began giving sizeable portions of their personal wealth to public
foundations and worthy causes. Among the most visible civic gestures was
Solomon's founding of the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, a
pantheon of abstract art. Simon, who also served as a U.S. senator from
Colorado, established a memorial foundation to assist writers, scientists
and artists. Daughter Peggy was a noted art patron, and Daniel spent
millions to promote aeronautics.

JULIUS ROSENWALD
(1862-1932) b. Springfield, IL Following a
modest success in the New York City and Chicago
clothing business, the son of German Jewish
immigrants bought a one-quarter share in the
newly formed Sears, Roebuck and Company
department store which he joined. And as the
driving force behind the emerging world's largest
mail order house and store chain, he turned the
original investment of $37,000 into assets worth about $150 million.
Assuming its presidency in 1920, Rosenwald introduced policies and
practices--some firsts of their kind--that established the Sears reputation for
product quality, and customer and employee satisfaction. Under his
leadership, the company introduced the famous "money back if not
satisfied" guarantee, began manufacturing products carrying the Sears label
and launched a then unique profit sharing program. At its business height,
the firm issued as many as 40-million mail order catalogs a year.
Of the estimated $70 million he gave away, partly through the
Julius Rosenwald Fund, the businessman-philanthropist helped cover
building costs for more than 5,000 schools for black children in the
southeast. Also in the public interest, he donated many millions to
YMCAs, the University of Chicago, dental infirmaries in public schools
and towards establishing Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry.
- Saul Stadtmauer

Visit many more notable Jews at our website: www.dorledor.org
COMMISSION FOR THE DISSEMINATION OF JEWISH HISTORY
Walter & Lea Field, Founders/Sponsors
Irwin S. Field, Chairperson
Harriet F. Siden, Chairperson

9/24
1999

Detroit Jewish News 11