Obituaries
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www.detroitjewishnews.com
Clues To A
He aler
Dr. Abraham Becker
DAVID SACHS
Staff Writer
D
r. Abraham Becker, of Bloomfield
Hills, who died April 28 at age
90, was the longtime chief of pul-
monary medicine at Sinai
Hospital in Detroit.
He was also a fan of the fictional super-sleuth
Sherlock Holmes.
And Dr. Becker duplicated detective
Holmes' techniques in his practice — using
acute powers of observation and superior
brainpower to become a medical "sleuth" in his
own right. He was known as a master diagnos-
tician among his peers.
"It's all deduction in medicine; you're given
clues," said his wife of 52 years, Dorothea Becker.
Dr. Jeff Parker of West Bloomfield, part-
ner with Dr. Becker for 15 years until the
latter's retirement in 1979, noticed a problem
with Dr. Becker's patients when he first
joined the practice.
"When I finished an examination they
would say, 'You're not done, are you?"' he
said. "'Dr. Becker would spend much more
time and go into much more detail,' they
would say."
Son Dan Becker once witnessed his father
examine a friend at the dinner table. "I saw
the change in my dad," he said. "He became
intense, highly alert, highly focused, as an
athlete at the starting blocks. His whole
being was put into the examination."
His son remembers his father poring over
medical journals late at night; journals were
piled so high that the desk they rested upon
teetered under the weight.
Said Dr. Parker, "Dr. Becker would integrate
the academic and the clinical in a way that very
few physicians could. All the doctors would come
to see him when they got sick."
Peggy Jo Wise Marcuse of Huntington
Woods said her father, the late Judge John M.
Wise of Wayne County Circuit Court, was
always very grateful for the doctor's ability. Dr.
Becker diagnosed Judge Wise's cancer in time for
him to seek successful treatment at the Mayo
Clinic. "I remember my father always saying,
Abe saved my life,'" she said. The judge was just
one of many patients who could so testify.
Dr. Becker graduated from Central High
School in Detroit with highest honors and
was Phi Beta Kappa at the University of
Michigan and Alpha Omega Alpha, a similar
distinction, at its medical school from which
he graduated in 1934.
He spent the next four years at the U-M
Hospital, followed by a practice in Detroit
associated with Harper Hospital. Beginning
in 1942, he served in the army with Harper's
17th General Hospital in Europe, and was
on his way to the Pacific when the atomic
bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.
Returning from service in 1946, Dr. Becker
resumed his practice at Harper and helped estab-
lish Sinai Hospital in 1954. Dr. Becker was a
clinical professor of medicine throughout his
career. He served one year as chief of medicine at
Sinai and one year as chair of the doctors' group
of the Allied Jewish Campaign.
He and Dorothea were among the founding
families of Temple Emanu-El in Oak Park.
Praising her role was Emanu-El Rabbi Joseph
Klein, who spoke at Dr. Becker's funeral April 30
at Ira Kaufman Chapel.
"Dorothea enabled Abe to become the
dedicated and honored professional he
became," said the rabbi. "And in these last
several years, as Abe's health began to
decline, it was Dorothea who gave him such
extraordinary care."
Dr. Becker is survived by his wife,
Dorothea; son and daughter-in-law Daniel
and Naomi Becker of Israel; daughter Rachel
Becker of Keego Harbor; grandchildren
Yochai, Tamir, Amitai and Arnon Becker and
Emily, Eric and Andrew Shepley.
Interment was at Clover Hill Park
Cemetery. Contributions may be made to the
Jewish National Fund for the Abraham Becker
Forest in Israel or Hillel Day School of
Metropolitan Detroit in Farmington Hills. ❑
Cardinal O'Connor,
•
Foe OfAntisemitzsm
New York/JTA — Jewish leaders are joining Catholics in
mourning the loss of New York's Cardinal John O'Connor,
who died May 3 at the age of 80.
Cardinal O'Connor was heralded
as a man of conscience who helped
improve Catholic-Jewish relations.
"He had the largest Jewish diocese in
the world," said Rabbi Mordecai
Waxman of Temple Israel in Great
Neck, N.Y., a past leader of the
International Jewish Committee for
Interreligious Consultations.
Cardinal O'Connor was known
for his fierce opposition to anti-
Cardinal O'Connor
semitism. "No one who is truly
Catholic can be an antisemite. It's a
contradiction in terms," the cardinal said when he was awarded
an honorary doctorate of humane letters by the Reform move-
ment's Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion,
making him the first Catholic cardinal to be so honored by a
Jewish seminary.
In line with these beliefs, Cardinal O'Connor sent a letter
last year to his Jewish friends before the High Holidays express-
ing his remorse for violence committed against the Jews
throughout the ages. Though he omitted any direct reference to
the Holocaust, Jewish leaders took his statement as a positive
step toward bridging the gap between Catholics and Jews.
"I ask this Yom Kippur that you understand my own abject
sorrow for any member of the Catholic Church, high or low,
who may have harmed you or you forebears in any way," he
wrote.
"The Jewish people lost a champion and I lost a friend," said
Rabbi A. James Rudin, interreligious affairs director for the
American Jewish Committee. Rabbi Rudin said he was inspired
when he inquired as to the cardinal's well being. Cardinal
O'Connor replied, "Rabbi Jim, every day is a holiday."
"He meant the joy of it all," Rabbi Rudin said. "He loved
being the cardinal."
Rabbi Rudin also recognized Cardinal O'Connor's role in
matters concerning the Jewish state. "I consider him a chief
architect in establishing Vatican-Israel relations."
In 1987, Cardinal O'Connor made a landmark visit to
Jordan and Israel, where he provoked controversy over his
endorsement of a Palestinian homeland and acquiesced in a
Vatican request to downgrade his meetings with Israeli officials.
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations heavily criticized him, but the same group later
recognized him for his role in urging the pope to grant political
recognition to the Jewish state.
"He set the bar very high in terms of what should be done
vis-a-vis Jews," Rabbi Rudin said.
Aside from his achievements as a community leader who
often spoke out against popular opinion, Cardinal O'Connor
will also be remembered for his sense of humor.
Rabbi Aaron Landes, senior rabbi of Beth Sholom
Congregation in Elkins Park, Pa, served as a Navy chaplain
with the Father O'Connor. He remembered a Christmas trip to
Antarctica to visit sailors.
"He regaled us with stories, especially about the seals," remi-
nisced Rabbi Landes, who laughed as he remembered of Father
O'Connor as he "acted out the parts .of the seals."
5/12
2000
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