Special Report

Continuing The Legacy

$75 million gift to Hadassah Medical Center honors Davidson's mother.

Keri Guten Cohen

mental with the chapter from 1917 on for
about 40 years. She'd love the fact that the
tower is going to be built and serve the
people of the area."

Story Development Editor

W

hen Sarah "Sal" Wetsman
became a zealous Hadassah
lady in the early days of the
American Zionist women's organization,
she had no clue her future son would
give $75 million to help build a new 14-
story Hadassah Medical Center tower in
Jerusalem that would be named in her
honor.
The cornerstone of that in-patient tower
was laid March 4 at the hospital in EM
Kerem, a western suburb of Jerusalem.
William Davidson, Sal's son, and his wife,
Karen, of Bloomfield Hills made the gift
on behalf of Guardian Industries Corp. of
Auburn Hills. Davidson, 84, is president
and CEO of the global glass manufacturer.
The gift is believed to be the second larg-
est ever made to a Jewish institution.
Back in Sal's day, Israel was still a
dream. An ardent Zionist, she was moved
by the promise of a Jewish state and
worked hard toward its establishment.
When Sal and her mother Bessie heard
about Henrietta Szold and her dream for
an American Zionist women's group, they
invited her to Detroit in 1916. She stayed
in their home for 10 days, sharing her pas-
sion and her vision with the Wetsmans
and other likeminded women. Not long
after, this core group founded Detroit
Hadassah, one of the earliest chapters in
the country.
When Sal married Ralph Davidson,
their home became a frequent meeting
place for the group. When Hadassah out-
grew the house, they moved their meet-
ings to an empty apartment in the Avalon
Theatre building owned by the family
on Linwood Avenue, in the heart of then
Jewish Detroit.
Today, the Greater Detroit Chapter
of Hadassah, with more than 4,000
members, operates out of the Sarah and
Ralph Davidson Hadassah House in West
Bloomfield, a building donated by Sal's
daughter, Dorothy Gerson, and her hus-
band, Ralph, of Franklin.
"As a little kid, I remember my grand-
parents were very early Zionists:' Gerson
said. "I remember my grandfather saying
the Jewish people had to have a homeland.
He went to the second Zionist Congress
in Basal [Switzerland in 1898]. They tray-

Standing in front of a model of the new tower to be built and named after Sarah
Wetsman Davidson are Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, director general, Hadassah Medical
Organization; June Walker, Hadassah national president; and Jonathan Aaron, rep-
resenting William and Karen Davidson on behalf of Guardian Industries.

eled to Palestine,
which was very rough
and not hospitable
property. They had
such problems with
malaria. Hadassah
would be the medi-
cal arm of Israel and
treat people who were
building the land.
William Davidson
"My mother was
a strong person
who would get in the car and go around
organizing Hadassah chapters. She had
a wonderful speaking voice and could

get up and speak
off the cuff to a
whole roomful of
people. She would
have loved all this:'
Gerson said.
"I'm very thrilled
by my brother's
gift. He does great
work and I'm
Sarah Wetsman
proud
of him."
Davidson
Davidson remem-
bered, "My mother was devoted to
Hadassah all her life. She spent a lot of
time on Hadassah and was very instru-

Long Family Legacy
Jonathan Aaron, the Davidson's son-in-law
who assists with philanthropic endeavors
at Guardian, represented the family at the
cornerstone dedication in Israel, where 22
other donors of $1 million or more also
were honored.
"I was very moved personally:' he said
from Jerusalem. "I know how much this
means to Mr. Davidson on behalf of his
mother. He told me how he remembers
— when his mother was president of the
Detroit chapter and also the Central States
region in 1929 — her getting into a car on
her own and going to surrounding states
for Hadassah.
"I also did some research about his
family and its connection to Jerusalem.
There is special meaning in this gift. He
had a great-grandfather who moved to
the Jewish Quarter in the Old City in 1903,
and lived out his life there. And his grand-
father was part of a group that purchased
land on Mt. Scopus that was given to the
Jewish National Fund, then to Hadassah to
build the hospital there.
"There's also another great family con-
nection to medicine and health care,"
Aaron said. "In 1918, Mr. Davidson's
mother, still a single woman, borrowed
$1,000 from her father and committed the
local Hadassah chapter to buy an ambu-
lance that was purchased and sent to the
American Zionist Medical Unit, run by
the American Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee and Hadassah jointly [in
Palestine]."
Judi Schram, current president of the
Greater Detroit Chapter of Hadassah,
underscores this historic family thread.
"What started with the $1,000 loan now
culminates in this momentous gift from
her son and his wife:' she said. "The Sarah
Wetsman Davidson Tower will stand as an
enduring tribute to Sal's love of Hadassah
and her commitment to health care, Israel
and the Jewish people.
"The phone has been ringing off the
hook at Hadassah House with congratula-
tory messages from around the country
and Israel," Schram said. "William and

Continuing The Legacy on page 16

March 8 2007

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