A Philanthropic Pillar

MEDICAL OUTREACH

CPO

co,

:2r,

005

07:2

0

OM
DO

ac

o 0

ci 0

r., 7-

on

Rendering of the Sarah Wetsman Davidson Tower at Hadassah Hospital outside Jerusalem.

M iII

Sarah "Sal" Wetsman Davidson

Generation To Generation

Davidsons' $75 million Hadassah gift continues family tradition.

Keri Guten Cohen

Story Development Editor

H

adassah has been a fam-
ily tradition for William
Davidson. His mother, Sarah
"Sal" Wetsman, helped organize Detroit
Hadassah after founder Henrietta Szold
visited her family home in 1916. And his
grandfather, Joseph Wetsman, was among
donors who gave land on Mt. Scopus in
Jerusalem, where Hadassah's first hospital
was built.
In 2007, Bill and Karen Davidson of
Bloomfield Hills carried on the tradition
when they gave $75 million to help build

a new 14-story Hadassah Medical Center
inpatient tower at the hospital in Ein
Kerem, a western suburb of Jerusalem.
The Sarah Wetsman Davidson Tower,
expected to be completed in 2012 in time
for Hadassah's centennial, will house
500 beds, 20 operating rooms, 50 inten-
sive-care beds and facilities for medical
research.
"Mr. Davidson was proud to be the
third generation in his family to support
Hadassah's goals and achievements, and
we are proud to be forever linked to his life
and his memory:' Nancy Falchuk, national
Hadassah president, said in a statement
after Bill Davidson's death on March 13.

"He understood the importance of excel-
lent medical care in Israel for people of
all faiths, regardless of their nationality,
religion or political beliefs.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with
Mr. Davidson's family, the entire Detroit
community and all others who were lucky
enough to be affected by his loyalty, gener-
osity and tenacity."
Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, director-general
of Hadassah Medical Organization, added,
"Bill Davidson's generosity, leadership and
close involvement in the Sarah Wetsman
Davidson Tower will dramatically enhance
medical care in Israel and strengthen
Jerusalem for the coming generations."

Both Falchuk and Mor-Yosef
attended Davidson's funeral Tuesday at
Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield.
"Mr. D's generosity and commitment
to Jewish philanthropies is legendary; but
when he and his wife, Karen, announced
the $75 million naming gift to the new
Hadassah Hospital inpatient tower in
Jerusalem, it was a singular act of devo-
tion to family and connection to his past:'
said Judi Schram, immediate past-presi-
dent of Greater Detroit Hadassah. "The
Sarah Wetsman Davidson Tower will stand
as an enduring legacy: l'dor v'dor (genera-
tion to generation)."
"There's also another great family con-

Early Family History

L

Ike many Jews in America,
William Davidson has an Eastern
European heritage. His father,
Ralph Davidson, was born in East
Prussia and moved to the United
States in 1887. Bill's mother, Sarah
"Sal" Wetsman, was born in Iowa to
parents from Volhynia, a province in
western Ukraine.
Both sides of his family have busi-
ness in their backgrounds.
Bill Davidson's paternal grand-
parents, Louis and Sarah Davidson,

A24

ts:larch 19 =, 2009

initially settled their family in Alpena,
but six years later moved to Hillman,
a small northern Michigan town where
they opened Davidson's Department
Store. When the store was devastated
by fire in 1915, the family moved to
Detroit, where son Ralph, his brother-
in-law and cousins began the Frank &
Davidson Company, a wholesale gro-
cery business.
Sal Wetsman's father, Joseph, began
his American life in 1886 as a ped-
dler, then began a wholesale peddlers'

supply business in Oskaloosa, Iowa.
He later bought and sold scrap. When
Joseph and Bessie Wetsman moved
to Detroit in 1904, Joseph turned to
real estate investing and was very suc-
cessful. Later, he owned the popular
Avalon, Linwood and Oriole movie
theaters in Detroit's heavily Jewish
Linwood neighborhood. Bill worked at
the theaters when he was a teen.
The Wetsmans and Davidsons were
active members of Congregation
Shaarey Zedek. Joseph Wetsman

served as a synagogue president from
1920-1922 and was among those who
founded Clover Hill Park Cemetery in
Birmingham in 1917.
Sal Wetsman and Ralph Davidson
married in 1920. They had two chil-
dren, Bill and Dorothy. El

Sources: Biographer Phillip Applebaum,

author of "The Wetsmans" and Michigan

Jewish History Vol. 40 of the

Michigan Jewish Historical Society.