FOREVER OURS
AMBASSADOR DAVID B. HERMELIN, 1936-2000
HUMOR HELPED SHAPE DAVID
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is like Abbott losing Costello,
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Burns losing Allen, Martin losing
Lewis.
While most people knew David
Hermelin as a Jewish philanthropist,
communal leader, business entrepre-
BILL
neur and diplomat, I knew him as a
CARROLL
comedy-writing partner. And I was
Special to the
usually the straight man.
Jewish Arews
We wrote shows for many pro-
grams at Congregation Shaarey Zedek, including,
anniversary celebrations, installations of new offi-
cers and a group called the Mighty Men's Club
Art Players. I wrote the joke lines . . . he wrote
brilliant new lyrics to well-known songs. One
time, I fed him lines as the 2,000-year-old rabbi.
We usually had one rehearsal early in the week,
then a quick run-through at his home two hours
before the show. But during the week, he kept
adding new players, until we had a cast of thou-
sands . . . and we inserted new jokes right up
until show time.
Another time, at a Hermelin birthday party, his
family and friends staged the Seven Little
Hermelins (there had to be that many to handle all
of his activities) and I was the "bionic mohel,"
who performed all of their circumcisions.
As Rabbi Irwin Groner said in his eulogy at
David's funeral Nov. 24, you just couldn't say "no"
to him. "You laughed for him, you cried for him,
Bill Carroll is a West Bloomfield resident.
you worked for him, you did anything for him,"
said the rabbi.
This was true. One time, David called me to do
a show and I didn't feel like it, so I droned on
with several excuses. He paused and said: "Are you
finished? OK, be at my house tomorrow night and
we'll write the show."
From these shows, David and I developed a
joke-sharing friendship with builder Joe Rose.
When any of the three of us needed topical jokes
for various occasions, he could call the other for
some quick lines. Guess who needed them most?
When David phoned my office and I was gone
for the day, he asked my boss if he had some jokes
for him. Another time, he paged me at a black-tie
event in Cleveland to get some lines. One morn-
ing, Rose drove with David to attend a meeting
and to get some jokes. David stopped at six chari-
ty organizations for mini-meetings before Rose got
his lines.
The best laugh of all came when David called
me for some jokes — while driving up to the
restaurant where he would emcee a charity event.
"Thanks for the advance notice," I said. "Never
mind . . . give me some lines," he pleaded. So, I
started reciting every topical joke I could think of,
until I heard a voice.
"This is the parking lot attendant . . . the driver
went inside."
As David's son, Brian, said in his eulogy, we
had a "front-row seat to the greatest show on
earth." ❑
A FOUNT OF
AMUSEMENT,
WISDOM
M
ichael H. Steinhardt mingled with world
leaders at the signing of a peace accord
between Israel and Jordan in the desert
north of Eilat in 1994.
The signing drew the likes of
President Bill Clinton, Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Jordan's
King Hussein.
But what Steinhardt remembers
most about his three-day trip to the
Mideast was his cabin partner
aboard an Air Force jet: David
Michael H
Hermelin.
Steinhardt
"My memory of being with David
surpassed that of all the dignitaries we saw," said
Steinhardt, chairman of Jewish Renaissance
Media, parent company of the Detroit Jewish
News and Atlanta Jewish Times. "He Ax.ras a far
more memorable character and far more pro-
found."
Both men, seated next to each other by
chance, were guests of Clinton, as were others on
the 11-hour flight.
"It was really my first introduction to David, and
what a rare person he proved to be Steinhardt
said. He was so filled with stories and charm and
insight. He really was the life of the party."
But Hermelin was more than that Steinhardt
discovered. He was also a fount of amusement
and wisdom."
The trip they shared included a banquet at the
Royal Palace in Amman and a visit to the
Knesset in Jerusalem.
Steinhardt remembers the whirlwind experience
as a "great moment of optimism and brotherhood."
It happened when "peace in the Mideast was
in the midst of being realized," Steinhardt said
It was part of the great sweep of events that
food and to see and be seen.
included Rabin and [Palestinian Authority
Hermelin as usual was holding court when, during
leader] Yasser Arafat signing a document on the
a break in the action around him, I walked up and
White House lawn, and which began in 1993 in
introduced my wife and our guests. One of the ath-
Oslo, ironically where David would later serve as
letes we hosted was Lawrence Bond, the goalie of the
our ambassador [to
British soccer team. His parents had
Norway].
come from London to watch the games
"The whole peace
and, because the father had team cre-
process seemed to be lead-
dentials, we brought them to the recep-
ing, toward something
tion.
wonderful until this fall,
When I told Hermelin the 16-year-old
when it all seemed to fall
goalie was also a professional magician,
apart," Steinhardt said.
the soon-to-be master of ceremonies
The two saw each other
launched into a 10-minute discussion of
several times after 1994,
magic and the failing magic store he
but it was the trip that left
owned in the Tel-Ex Plaza at Telegraph
Steinhardt with an indelible
and 10 Mile roads in Southfield. He
impression of Herrnelin.
kept the store open, he said, just to pro-
"David had the ability to
mote the magical art.
do that because he had
Brenda and David Bond of London,
such a powerful, remark-
England, were captivated. They couldn't
David
ably appealing personality.
understand how a man of Hermelin's
Hermelin Even using the words 'appealing personality' some-
importance could spend so much time
announcing how understates what he was," Steinhardt said.
with a London cab driver and a secretary,
the parade of
"Certainly the majesty of David Hermelin was
asking educated questions about their
athletes at the that he was funny and warm and sensitive, and
son and his hobby.
JCC Maccabi he could always see the bigger picture, He was
That was the magic of David
Games, just a very, very special person." E
Hermelin. ❑
August 1990.
THE MAGIC IN DAVID
WASN'T SLEIGHT OF HAND
E
alv
12/1
2000
32
veryone in Detroit has a favorite
story about David Hermelin. He
was one of those rare people who
touched so many lives by making
each individual feel special.
Like so many others in Detroit, Jay
Robinson's attachment to David
Hermelin stemmed from boyhood. The
connection became important when
Robinson, active in the JCC Maccabi
Games movement since his son's participation in the
first teen games in 1982, brought the games to Detroit
in 1984, and then again in 1990 and 1998.
It was Hermelin who bought into Robinson's plan to
stage spectacular opening ceremonies in August 1990 at
the newly opened Palace of Auburn Hills, co-owned by
Hermelin, William Davidson and Robert Sosnick (who
also died this year). And it was Hermelin who accepted
the all-important, grueling job as master of ceremonies
for the two-hour evening. Somebody special had to
keep the program, the 10,000 to 15,000 spectators and
the 2,200 teen-aged Jewish athletes from the United
States, Canada, Israel, Russia, Australia and Latin
America in line, on time and entertained.
The Detroit Maccabi Club, the Jewish
Community Center and, I suspect, Hermelin, hosted
a VIP reception at the Palace an hour before the
opening. Hundreds of people crowded in for the free
— Robert A. Sklar, Editor