Insight
Remember
When • •
From the pages of the Jewish News
from this week 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and
60 years ago.
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.
B'nai B'rith celebrates its 150th
I anniversary with many programs and
events throughout the community.
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_Jewish Home for Aged resident Jack
Feig, 102, attends a three-day camp-
ing program at the Butzel
Conference Center in Ortonville.
1 973
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is
named the recipient of the 1973
Nobel Peace Prize — the second Jew
to win the prize.
Multiple Jewish businesses are
destroyed in a fire in the Chelsea
area, outside Boston.
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‘
Bernard B. Siegal is elected president
of Knollwood Country Club, West
Bloomfield.
Beth Aaron Synagogue in Detroit
is engaged in a project to aid the iso-
lated Jewish Community of Karachi,
Pakistan, which numbers about 400.
At a meeting of the Detroit Chapter,
American Red Cross, I. A. Berger,
Mrs. Fred Shiffman, Eli Levin and
Mrs. R. Schreiber are honored for
service projects and increased morale
at veterans' hospitals.
Caterer Hilda Blume of Scranton,
Pa., will demonstrate cooking meth-
ods at the first traditional Cooking
Institute, sponsored by the
Congregation Shaarey Zedek
Sisterhood in Detroit.
H. Leivick, one of the greatest Jewish
poets, and Saul Meisels, eminent
singer, will be featured at the annual
concert of the Sholem Aleichem
Institute in Detroit.
Odessa Aid Society serves 1,200
sandwiches at the downtown USO,
under chairmanship of Mrs. Julius
Ring.
A
10/17
2003
26
— Compiled by Holly Teasdle,
archivist, the Rabbi Leo M Franklin
Archives of Temple Beth El
The Go-To Guy
JCCouncil to celebrate 25 years of Allan Gale's passion and commitment.
DON COHEN
Special to the Jewish News
A
s Allan Gale marks a quarter-
century of service to the
Detroit Jewish community,
he is as relaxed — and as
tense — as usual.
Leaning back in his chair in the origi-
nal "Max' — the Max M. Fisher
Federation Building on Telegraph Road
in Bloomfield Township — the associate
director of the Jewish Community
Council of Metropolitan Detroit is in
his element.
Behind him is a large map of the
Middle East and North Africa — the
better to remind him of Israel's precari-
ous perch in the world. On the win-
dowsill is the Encyclopedia Judaica — the
better to remind him of the triumphs,
tragedies, personalities and rhythms of
Jewish life.
A beautiful, large panoramic photo of
Jerusalem, a map of Israel, a picture of
Theodor Herzl and fairly well-tended
piles of papers also dominate the room.
During his 25 years with Council, the
surroundings have changed but the
commitment and passion have stayed
steady. The community will honor him
7:45 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 23, at a dessert
reception and program focusing on
Israel at Adat Shalom Synagogue.
"There is no one that I'm familiar
with that matches Allan in terms of his
depth of commitment to the Jewish
community and to Israel," says David
Gad-Harf, Council's executive director.
"This really animates everything he does
for the Jewish Community Council."
While Gad-Harf rattles off the many
contributions Gale has made during the
15 years they've worked together, and
notes the passion and substance he
brings to the table, he hits on a key role.
"He is continually providing us with a
sense of history and how the Council
responded to similar challenges in the
past," Gad-Harf says. "He helps us apply
the lessons of the past to the challenges
of the present."
Gale, a West Bloomfield resident, also
values their relationship and coopera-
Allan Gale
tion. "I've learned much from him, but
I've also partnered with him," he says.
And he values his community. He
served as a board member of Temple
Emanu-El when he lived in Southfield.
His daughter attended Hillel Day
School of Metropolitan Detroit, and he
is a volunteer for Federation's Annual
Campaign and United Way. He serves
on the board of the Detroit Council for
World Affairs. He also was selected a
Poynter Fellow by the Poynter Institute
for Media Studies.
Ever the community professional,
Gale is less interested in talking about
himself and his accomplishments than in
ensuring those who had influenced on
those years and achievements are given
adequate credit and mention. And the
list is long, headed by his wife, Linda,
and children Eric, 17, and Alyssa, 15.
"My family was always interested in
current events," recalls Gale, 51, a twin,
and one of four sons born to Florence
and the late Harvey Gale in
Minneapolis.
"We would watch the CBS Evening
News with Walter Cronkite and talk
about politics," noting those politics
were always Democratic. Though he was
involved in synagogue life as a child,
Gale's Jewish involvement changed and
deepened when friends brought him to
the campus Hillel at the University of
Minnesota in the early 1970s.
"I always had an awareness of Israel,"
says Gale, whose late aunt moved to pre-
state Palestine in 1939, "but at Hillel, I
made friends who had been to Israel and
had a much better understanding and
stronger commitment than I had."
Gale became the Hillel president dur-
ing his senior year, when he earned his
bachelor's degree in political science. (In
the mid-1980s, he earned a master's
degree in interdisciplinary Jewish studies
from the Midrasha College of Jewish
Studies in Southfield).
Focused on visiting Israel, he worked
a few jobs to earn some money, and in
the fall of 1975, attended a Kibbutz
Ulpan near Haifa, living in Israel for
nine months.
-
In 1977, he became a Jewish occupa-
tional intern at the combined Jewish
Community Relations Council and
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in
Minneapolis. "At the end of eight weeks,
the director called me in and said he
thought I'd be good for the field [of
Jewish community relations]. He had no
opening, but he said if I was willing to
move, he'd help me find a job."
Detroit Is Calling
"I used to conduct long interviews, and I
was rather impressed with him," recalls
Alvin Kushner, then Council executive
director.
Kushner had received a call from his
colleague in Minneapolis and had Gale
flown to Detroit to meet him. "He was
just a bright guy, a pleasant guy, who
wanted to be good in the field, and he
made himself good," Kushner said.
Kushner told Gale that when a job at
Council opened, he would be hired.
Gale recalls that meeting, at the Onion
Roll Deli on Woodward, and was elated
he had found a job on his first interview.
A few months later, Gale moved to
Detroit.
"When he first came to town, every-
one was trying to fix him up," remem-