Obituaries are updated regularly
and archived on JN Online:
www.detroitjewishnews.com
A Medical Pioneer
LEONARD POGER
Copy Editor
D
r. Hedvig (Rosenthal) Spitzer
was a trailblazer whose life and
career paralleled the 20-century
saga of the Jewish people. A Holocaust
survivor who hid with her mother in
Budapest, Hungary, during the war, she
went on to become a
pioneering physician
in Israel and the
United States.
Dr. Spitzer, 77, of
West Bloomfield,
died Nov. 13, 2004,
of abdominal com-
plications. Her son
Dr. A. Robert Spitzer
of West Bloomfield
described his mother
as a strong personality who survived
three battles with cancer and other med-
ical problems.
"She was brash, headstrong and confi-
dent," he said. "She was a pioneer all her
life."
Dr. Spitzer and her family have been
Detroit area residents since the late
1980s, retiring around 1990.
Born in Marmaros-Sziget, Romania,
in 1927, she and her mother went into
hiding in Budapest during World War
II, using forged papers reflecting that
they were not Jews. Her father was con-
fined to the Budapest ghetto. The doc-
tor-to-be, her parents and about half of
her aunts and uncles survived the war.
In the late 1940s, she entered medical
school in Austria at a time when women
were largely barred from becoming doc-
tors. She went to Israel shortly after it
won its independence and, in 1949, was
part of the first graduating class of
Israel's first medical school at Hebrew
University in Jerusalem. Attending the
ceremony was Israel's first prime minis-
ter, David Ben-Gurion.
After graduation, Dr. Spitzer cared for
immigrants and refugees, particularly
those from North Africa and Arab coun-
tries, who were pouring into the new
state. She worked under stressful condi-
Dr. Hedvig Spitzer
tions because of repeated Arab attacks.
In the early 1950s, she came to New
York City to complete her medical train-
ing, becoming the first resident at the
new Van Etten Hospital of the newly
formed Albert Einstein College of
Medicine of Yeshiva University. After
completing training in internal medi-
cine, pathology, and neuropathology, Dr.
Spitzer joined the faculty at the medical
school, created because of quotas
imposed elsewhere on Jewish applicants.
Reflecting her pioneer spirit, Dr.
Spitzer was the first doctor to use an
iron lung in the early 1950s to resusci-
tate a patient with respiratory failure
from chronic lung disease.
Through the 1960s and 1970s, Dr.
Spitzer was active in fund-raising for the
State of Israel, returning there in the
1980s to practice pathology at Ichilov
hospital in Tel Aviv. She later returned to
the United States, working at Harper
Hospital in the Detroit Medical Center.
Dr. Spitzer exemplified the concept of
"eshet chayil"— part of a Sabbath prayer
praising "women of valor and courage,"
her son said. She was active in fund-rais-
ing for the United Jewish Appeal for
Israeli and Jewish causes. She was a
strong believer in Jewish education, and
all her children and grandchildren have
attended Jewish day schools.
Dr. Spitzer is survived by her sons and
daughters-in-law, Dr. A. Robert Spitzer
and Dr. Ann Silverman of West
Bloomfield, Jeffrey Spitzer and Nicky
Cregor of Jerusalem; and grandchildren,
A Gem Of A Chef
LEONARD POGER
Copy Editor
M
ark G. Davis, a prominent
chef and caterer, will be
remembered for his kind-
ness, thoughtfulness and his concern
for others, said his mother, Friedel
Davis of West Bloomfield. "He was a
gem — very loving and someone who
had a place in his heart for everyone."
Mr. Davis, who was born in
Saginaw and grew up in the Detroit
area, was a chef at several well-known
local restaurants, including the former
Money Tree in Detroit and Tweeney's
and Punchinello, both in
Birmingham.
Mr. Davis, 56, died Nov. 13, 2004,
in a fire in his West Bloomfield home.
His mother shared memories of her
son, who graduated from Berkley
High School and Michigan State
University and studied culinary arts in
11/19
2004
102
Paris, France.
During his career, he was a personal
chef for many prominent people,
including the late David Hermelin,
the U.S. ambassador to Norway dur-
ing the Clinton administration. He
cooked for the Hermelins at both the
embassy in Oslo and at their Bingham
Farms home.
Mr. Davis' mother said he was
preparing for a trip to North Carolina
to prepare Thanksgiving dinner for a
family there, an annual excursion.
Over the years, Mr. Davis also pre-
pared benefit dinners. In an interview
in the October-November Detroit
Home magazine, he recalled his cater-
ing days in celebrity-filled Los
Angeles, which he called the "catering
capital of the world."
Mr. Davis' sister Eileen lives in Los
Angeles and is married to the actor,
writer and musician Bill Mumy. She
remembers her brother's days there
and the kindness he exhib-
ited to those he met.
"No one was a stranger to
Mark — from the digni-
taries he prepared food for
to the dishwashers he
worked with — he treated
everyone equally," said his
sister.
Growing up, her brother
loved to sing, she recalled.
"He's just creative.
"Mark grew up in a fami-
ly that was involved in pro-
fessional food preparation.
Our grandparents owned
Mertz Bakery on Linwood
in Detroit and later on 10
Mile and Coolidge in Oak
Mark Davis
Park. He grew up all around
As a youth, Mr. Davis was active in
the food business."
Jewish
school and synagogue pro-
His first experience as a waiter in a
grams, his mother recalled, noting his
local restaurant is what got him inter-
membership in United Synagogue
ested in cooking, she said.