•

NG OVAT!'N

Near right: At the May 5 opening of "Haven

to Home: Jewish Life in America" at the
Detroit Historical Museum, honorary event

co-chair Eugene Applebaum and Bill
Berman, recipient of the Leonard N. Simons

History Award from the Jewish Historical

Society of Michigan

Far right: Laying the cornerstone for
Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield:
Louis Berry, David Miro, Rabbi Morris Adler

and Bill Berman, June 17,1962

Philanthropy from page A15

Boulder, Colo., who, with his wife, volun-
Schools and Congregation Shaarey Zedek,
the young Leonard Bernstein — they were
teers by piloting planes and helicopters
where he sang as a young boy in the syna-
two of only some 30 Jewish students at
to remote sections of the world to treat
gogue choir.
Harvard then.
impaired people; a daughter, Ann Feld,
"My father's membership in Shaarey
"When I graduated;' Berman said, "World
who is a New York author; and three
Zedek goes back to the 1890s," Berman
War II was well under way and I received a
grandchildren.
said. "He came from old Russia and met
letter from the government, informing me
Berman follows the same exercise
my mother [Esther] here; she was born in
I could enter the Navy as an ensign, so I
regimen with a trainer when he's staying
Toledo. He did well in real estate, and we
spent four years there as an officer."
at his other two homes — condomini-
had a maid and a chauffeur living in our
Berman became an expert in underwa-
ums in Sarasota, Fla., and in the center
large house. They didn't get paid anything, ter ordnance and mines by taking training
of Manhattan's famous Lincoln Center.
but they got free room and board. My
at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire
Disciples of the Pritikin Program for Diet
father also ran the old Eckert and Becker
and in Maryland and Florida.
and Exercise of California, he and Madge
Brewery. Then came the 1929 stock mar-
"I spent 48 months in the Navy, dodg-
also eat "plenty of fiber" and as many
ket crash and he went bankrupt. But he
ing Japanese Zeroes and Kamikaze pilots. I
healthy foods as possible. Until recently, he picked up the pieces; and my brother, two
even landed with the Marines on Okinawa,
even played a few rounds of golf a week.
sisters and I were able to attend college!'
which was one of the bloodiest battles in
Wherever he is, he usually doesn't make
the Pacific [12,513 American deaths over 82
a move in the morning before devouring
days]. I thought,Tm a Jewish
the New York Times and other publica-
naval
officer. What the heck
, 12
tions to keep up with his investments and
am I doing here on the beach
news of the world. Berman is getting used?,
with the Marines?' One night
to operating a new iPhone, but he scoffs
in the rain and cold, I ended
at computers and e-mails. "A little too
up sleeping right next to a
much technology for me:' he said.
500-pound bomb that didn't
g
"Bill always has been way ahead of his 15,
detonate. I woke up staring
time; he's always thinking of the future
at the bomb, and I figured I
and of shaping the community the way it
must be meshugge [crazy]."
should be years from now:' said Federal
Judge Avern Cohn of Detroit, who has
Career Wise
known Berman since the early 1950s.
The post-war building
Cohn's father, attorney Irwin Cohn, did
business was tame by corn-
legal work for Berman's father, Julius.
parison as Berman and his
"Bill is very unique in the Jewish com-
brother-in-law, Smokier,
munity," Cohn said. "He's thoughtful and
built more than 20,000
insightful; he's charity-plus. He thinks
homes and condominiums
The Bermans with Berman Award winner Jonah Geller
and acts like the man who could live to be of Oakland County-based Tamarack Camps, 2008
in Michigan alone between
the proverbial 120."
1946 and 1975. Many of
the homes were in Royal
The Early Days
The War Years
Oak and Clawson; then their building
Berman has come a long way in 91 years
Berman obtained two degrees from
empire spread to western Michigan, Ohio,
— starting on Burlingame Street near
Harvard: a bachelor's degree magna
Minnesota and New York. Berman was
Woodward Avenue in the old Jewish area
cum laude and an MBA from Harvard's
president of Bert L. Smokier & Co.
of Detroit. With a first name like Mandell,
Business School.
One of Berman's longtime friends, Mort
a person has to have a nickname; his
"I lived next door to John E Kennedy
Harris, a Bloomfield Hills investor, recalls
became "Billy" after an Uncle Bill who died in Cambridge, but only really knew him
being involved with him in one of his more
around the time he was born, the youngest
enough to say 'hello' every day:' he said.
unusual business ventures in the 1990s.
of four children. Berman attended Doty
Although an excellent student, Berman
"He called me and said we're going to
Elementary, Hutchins Intermediate and
did study with a tutor — future author
buy a fleet of 500 trucks in Poland;' Harris
Central High schools ('36) and got his
and economist John Kenneth Galbraith.
said. "And we did. It turned out to be a
Jewish education at the United Hebrew
And Berman had a casual friendship with
pretty good deal. The trucks delivered

are....wer•••• am*

-

A16

June 4 *T. 2009

merchandise throughout Europe — from
France to Russia. Then we sold them; that
was an even better dear

Berman Imprint
Through his working years, then in retire-
ment, Berman has found time to be active
in many communal organizations. He has
left his philanthropic imprint on causes
and charities everywhere. Past president
of the New York-based Council of Jewish
Federations, the umbrella organiza-
tion of 160 North American federations,
Berman says he is "proud that the Jewish
Community Center in West Bloomfield
[1975] was built during my tenure as
president of the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit!'
Berman was co-founder of the Jewish
Education Service of North America and
launched the Berman Evaluation Study
to evaluate JESNA s U.S. programs. He
was the first chairman of the philan-
thropic Skillman Foundation, named
after former Minnesota 3M Co. execu-
tive Robert Skillman, who later came to
Michigan and put $500 million into the
foundation.
Berman created the program that led
to the nationally imitated, Federation-
sponsored Jewish Experiences for Families
(JEFF), emphasizing family education,
and the North American Jewish Data
Bank at the University of Connecticut,
chairing periodic Jewish population stud-
ies, including Detroit's in 1989 and 2005.
He also was founder of the Jewish Policy
Archive at New York University. "We turn
data into action to improve the quality
and education of Jewish education:' he
explained.

'

Extended Reach
Berman has been active in the Jerusalem
Center for Public Affairs and the Berman
Fund for Research on Children with
Disabilities, both in Israel. He and
Madge recently established the National
Jewish Policy Center (with the Revson
Foundation) in New York City.

