Metro

A Life Of Involvement

Harry Kirsbaum
Special to the Jewish News

T

P ho to by Ha rry K lrs baum

Judge Paul D. Borman receives Federation's highest honor, the Butzel Award.

Israel and some other cousins to the
United States',' Borman said. "My father
was very involved with the World War II
refugees — greenas' (the nickname came
from the green immigration cards). We
would have picnics at Lola Valley Park and
take out a truckload of food and invite all
the (greenas.'"
Tom's brother Al joined the business in
the 1920s; in 1959, they took the company
public as Borman Foods (Farmer Jack).
"My father gave stock to all of his and
my mother's family before they went pub-
lic," Borman said. "They were loving and
giving and caring."

wo framed Detroit Jewish News
cover stories hang on the door
leading to Judge Paul Borman's
bench in Detroit's federal building. One
story is obvious: "Borman Takes the
Bench:' Sept. 23 1994.
The other story — "A Long Way From
Home," March 10, 1995, about the Jewish
Children's Home — arouses deep-seated
passions in Borman and explains, in part,
why he will receive the Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit's most prestigious
honor, the Fred M. Butzel Memorial Award,
Public Service
at the organization's annual meeting Sept.
In
the 1960s, Tom Borman and Mo
23.
Brandwine
started the local chapter of
"My association with Federation began
AIPAC,
the
American Israel Public Affairs
when I was 10 days old, when I was placed
Committee.
In 1962, when President John
in the [Federation-supported] Jewish
Kennedy
wanted
to make a statement of
Children's home Borman said from a
support
about
Israel,
Tom joined locally
couch in his sprawling office. "I was there
with
Rabbi
Morris
Adler
of Congregation
for about 13 months; then I was adopted
Shaarey
Zedek
and
other
AIPAC
leaders
by the two most wonderful people. My
from
around
the
country
in
Washington
to
commitment goes back 68 years."
listen
to
the
presidential
speech.
Federation CEO Robert Aronson called
Paul Borman tagged along on a trip
Borman a passionate and committed com-
that
would force him to rethink his career
munity advocate who "gives tremendously
plans.
of himself to the general community and
Newly graduated from the University of
to the Jewish community, in a big way."
Michigan
Law School, Borman's original
Borman, raised in northwest Detroit's
intent
was
to join the Peace Corps.
Palmer Woods and now living in
"[They]
wanted
to send me to Peru to
Birmingham, was an only child adopted
teach
money
lending;
I wanted to go to
by Tom and Sarah Borman who came to
Africa
to
help
starving
people," he said.
the United States as immigrants — Tom
In
Washington,
Borman
strolled past a
in 1914 from Russia, Sarah in 1917 from
building
that
housed
the
U.S.
Civil Rights
Poland.
Commission.
"I
walked
in,
asked
if they
"For both of them, their whole lives
had
any
openings
and
they
said,
`Yes.."'
,
'
Borman
said
of
his
were nothing fancy'
Borman started in the Administration
parents.
of Justice Section, going to Mississippi
And his tastes, too, are unpretentious
— seersucker suit, powder blue shirt, navy to investigate voting and segregation
offenses.
blue Lady Justice
"There was
membership
total
hate for
tie and antique
the
federal
gov-
gold watch with
ernment
down
a black leather
there he said.
band.
After a year,
Borman grew
Borman went to
up in a house-
Yale Law School
hold concerned
— Emery Klein
to obtain a
with giving, not
master's degree in law.
getting. His father founded Tom's Markets
His first job after graduation in 1964
and was able to bring the rest of his family
was as an assistant U.S. attorney working
to the United States.
in the criminal division for U.S. Attorney
"After World War II, my father and
Larry Gubow, a good friend of his father's.
mother brought over some cousins to

"Paul D. Borman is a gift
to the Jewish people;
he is a real mentsh."

Federal Judge Paul D. Borman in his downtown Detroit chambers

Gubow would eventually become a federal
judge and serve from 1968 until his death
in 1978.
Borman now occupies Gubow's court-
room. He can see Gubow's portrait from
the bench and still uses a pen that Gubow
gave him as a bar mitzvah gift in 1952.
In 1966, Borman became vice president
and house counsel in the family business,
Borman Food Stores, but the race riots
in 1967 pulled him back into the public
realm.
After the Detroit riots, he became
special counsel to Detroit Mayor Jerome
Cavanagh until 1969. He followed this with

a decade as a law professor at Wayne State
University in Detroit from 1969-1979. He
set up an urban legal program at Wayne
Law School as well as clinical education
programs where law students would assist
people with problems.
He became the chief federal defender,
U.S. District Courts, in the Eastern District
of Michigan from 1979-94.
In 1994, Borman put his name in for
one of three federal judge vacancies. On
Sept. 2, 1994, he was sworn in as a U.S.

Involvement on page 14

September 20 • 2007

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