FOR THE AGES

Max M. Fisher, 1908-2005

Another

H

e grew up in a secular Jewish home in Salem,
Ohio, a small, gentile town. But Max Fisher was
aware of his Jewish roots; his parents, Mollie
and William Fisher, were poor immigrants from the shtetls
of Russia.
With Israel's statehood, Max came to appreciate the
ancestral Jewish homeland and its meaning in the diaspo-
ra. He became a bar mitzvah at the Western Wall when he
was 75.
So it was no surprise to hear that this
pillar of Detroit Jewry helped lift Jewish
education, including a love for Israel, at a
time when it was under the national
Jewish radar. This involvement didn't
draw much publicity following his death
at age 96 on March 3. His success as a
statesman, industrialist, philanthropist
and Jewish envoy to the world overshad-
ROBERT A.
owed it.
SKLAR
But his consensus building in Jewish
Editor
education shouldn't be relegated to the
dustbin of history. Max had pushed the enve-
lope and we're better for it.
"He believed you needed to have ties to
Israel, whether you made aliyah or not," his
oldest child, Jane Sherman, told me a few
days after her father died at home under hos-
pice care. They lived about a mile apart in Franklin.
My ears perked up as Jane spoke. She's now co-chair of
the Jewish Agency for Israel's Israel Committee and chair of
the United Israel Appeal. She also serves on the United
Jewish Communities' Executive Committee. She earned
these achievements through hard work.
The irony was gripping: Max helped propel funding for
Jewish education in America yet Jane told me that her
Jewish learning was self taught. Max did, however, send her
and her husband, Larry, to Israel on a United
Jewish Appeal young leadership mission in
1962, when she was 21. That trip cemented
her love for the land and respect for Jewish
learning.
"My father believed you had to understand
Israel's importance to the Jewish people,"
Jane said.

Legacy

Listen Up

Max understood the corrosive effects of too much of the
three A's: assimilation, acculturation and apathy. He under-
and prime ministers, was a world-class investor and gave
stood that American Jewish life requires the warming rays
millions to secular and Jewish causes. But he held Jewish
of Israel. He understood that allowing our kids to visit Israel
education in equal esteem.
— with family; on a mission or through study abroad —
His strength of conviction at the 1969 GA eventually
was a key to the American Jewish experience along with
prompted federations to fund Jewish day and afternoon
Jewish exposure and opportunity at home.
schools, dramatically changing the face of Jewish
Just this week, I received a B'nai B'rith Youth
learning in America.
Organization notice that declares upwards of 80
Call Bill Berman, Jane suggested. He can tell you
percent of American Jewish teens, 250,000 of
more.
them, have no contact with anything Jewish. The
Bill — a Southfield-based philanthropist, and a
demands of school, sports, clubs, jobs, friends,
Jewish communal and Detroit civic leader — is the
college planning and family have made Judaism
guiding force behind Jewish education in Metro
seem irrelevant for the vast majority of seventh
Detroit. He's the founder of the national Jewish
through 12th graders, according to BBYO.
Josh Opperer
Experiences for Families program and the major
More shocking, BBYO concluded: "Once these
funder of U.S. Jewry's latest population study.
teenagers drift away, there is a very real danger
Bill recounted Max's powerful prescience.
that they will never come back. Looking for spirituality, they
"Max opened the door," said Bill, chairman of the CJF's
may be drawn to other religions and even cults. III equipped
education committee in 1969. "He gave the pickets an
to face anti-Jewish or anti-Israel sentiments on today's col-
evening to make their speeches and to hear
lege campuses, they may become angry or depressed. And
him say, 'You don't have to picket. We won't
without a personal commitment to their Jewish heritage, the
close the door. You don't have to fight to have
chance that they will raise Jewish children is diminished.
us recognize the need. Come and speak. -
What is at stake is not just a few thousand Jewish kids, but
Max instantly gave the issue legs.
an entire generation."
In those days, Federations typically funded
At Max's funeral, I commiserated with one of Jewish
human services and Jewish culture. They were spending lit- Detroit's promising young leaders: Josh Opperer, 34, a
tle on Jewish learning — yet.
Detroit attorney. Josh helped give the measure of a man
Max's reach included new day school funding guidelines
who spoke softly but wielded sweeping clout.
from the American Association for Jewish Education, which
"The majority of young Federation leaders didn't know
Bill Berman chaired. "We took the guidelines to Max and he
Mr. Fisher as perhaps so many older communal leaders
approved them," Bill told me last Friday. "He was proud to
did," Josh said, "but we certainly had known him by reputa-
be the CJF president who opened up the funding."
tion. And that reputation was an example to us all."
Today, the Detroit Federation allocates nearly $4 million
Josh serves on the Detroit Federation's Board of
from its Annual Campaign for Jewish education services.
Governors. He told me how moved he was by what
Federation CEO Robert Aronson said after visit-
, ing Max two weeks earlier: "Bob said the one
thing that Mr. Fisher had emphasized was that
he wanted to know what we as a community
were doing to engage the new young leaders.
"That's such a profound statement coming
from somebody so late in their life, so old, so far
• from being a young leader. He was still thinking
that at the top of the list should be engaging,
motivating and inspiring young leaders."
•
Well put, Josh.
Gravely ill, Max still drew the strength to send
a daunting message to the next generation of
Jewish leaders: That America's bounty can be
so overwhelming it can obliterate our 4,000-
= year-old tradition.
Josh's story punctuates why Jewish education
must be central to the core of who we are as a
people. Encouraging a climate for us to learn
and grow as Jews is another Fisher legacy.
Max Fisher succeeded hugely in this great
land of freedom and opportunity yet he never
Jewish Agency for Israel Chairman Leon Dulzin, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin
lost sight of the need to replenish Jewish
and Max Fisher at the Knesset, just after signing a covenant between the government of
America's stable of young leaders. That's a les-
Israel and the JAFI in 1979.
son for every American Jew. fVF

Edi tor's
Note book

Pickets To Power

Fortuitously, Max sided with protestors at the
1969 General Assembly of the Council of
Jewish Federations, forerunner to the United
Jewish Communities, which represents North
America's federations. The protest was
intended to arouse CJF support for teaching
Jewish kids about their heritage, including
the need for a strong connection to Israel.
Max was president of the UJC at the time.
Like the protestors, he knew that continuity
of Jewish life in America was at risk. He
knew we had to do more than just say we
were Jewish. He knew Jewish knowledge
and embracing Israel were intertwined.
This was a man who counseled presidents

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