Metro
Cover Story
IT'S MY LIFE from page 17
Rabbi Rosenzveig in his office
from place to place. In America, creat-
ing a living memorial to all who had
been slaughtered became his quest.
Rabbi Rosenzveig conceived the
concept of the HMC — the first free-
standing Holocaust memorial center
in the United States — and made a
reality in it its original location next to
the Jewish Community Center in
West Bloomfield and then last year in
a greatly expanded site on Orchard
Lake Road north of 12 Mile in
Farmington Hills.
He worked to raise the HMC's
start-up funding for 21 years —
from 1963 until it opened in 1984
— not receiving wages or compensa-
tion until 1983 and not having a for-
mal salary contract with the HMC
until 1992.
At the center, Rabbi Rosenzveig
plays the dual role of "big thinker"
and "doer."
He's planning to host a symphony
performance at the HMC in March, is
arrana b ina b to host a lecture on the role
of rabbinic American GIs during the
liberation of the German concentra-
tion camps in World War II, is work-
ing on a pilot program on the
Holocaust with Farmington Public
Schools and is developing a CD-ROM
based on seven or eight "watershed
events" in Jewish history.
He has balanced the budget every
million towards
year, raised about
a $17 million fund-raising goal for
the new HMC, and he has built the
endowment fund to about $10.5
million.
And he's done it with the support of
only five full-time staff members.
HMC Controller Selma Silverman
"This isn't a job, it's my life," he
said simply.
He Is The HMC
The 70-something rabbi's single-mind-
ed focus and directness may raise
hackles with some in the community,
but many agree that without him, the
HMC would not exist.
"He's brilliant, tenacious, and he's an
incredibly hard worker," said Dr.
Michael Treblin, current HMC presi-
dent. "There's no assistant director and
very little under-administration. He
does the job of two or three people."
Dr. David Silbert, a board member
since 1989, agreed.
"He is the institution," he said. "He
is the fund-raiser; he gets the speakers.
The guy is amazing."
Dr. Silbert also observed that the
rabbi is a polarizing figure. "You love
him or you hate him," he said, "and a
lot of people don't understand him."
Lawrence Jackier, past president of
the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit, said the rabbi "engendered in
many people an understanding of the
need for an institution like this.
"However, those people have multiple
responsibilities and involvement in the
community, whereas he is solely focused
on one goal and outcome," Jackier said.
"Nothing was going to deter Rabbi
Rosenzveig from seeing this through
and nothing did. There were tremen-
dous hurdles and promises that were
made to him, not by Federation but by
the German government and by others,
which were never delivered upon; but
nevertheless, he persevered. He's created
a really amazing institution."
Jackier was speaking of the $2.5 mil-
lion German government pledge to
the HMC in 1992; the HMC planned
to expand on the Eugene and Marcia
Applebaum Jewish Community
Campus in West Bloomfield. When
the Federation couldn't come to terms
to allow the expansion, the German
government pulled its commitment,
and the HMC stopped asking.
Rabbi Rosenzveig said that the
HMC is doing "fairly well" with fund-
raising efforts.
"We are paying our bills," he said,
adding that the HMC has put away
enough money to pay the loan inter-
est for the next year, about $38,000
a month.
Fair Compensation?
Rabbi Rosenzveig bristled when the
question of his salary was raised in the
Sept. 30 story "Questioning
Compensation" in the Chronicle of
Philanthropy magazine.
According to the story, the rabbi
made $300,522 in salary and benefits
in the 2002 fiscal year, 43 percent of
the $699,995 budget.