Max Fisher Square

Detroit's legendary supporter of Israel memorialized at Jerusalem crossroads.

ldele Ross
Special to the Jewish News

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ax M. Fisher sailed like a boat
negotiating high seas and high
waves," said Israeli President
Shimon Peres. "He built an American-
Israel relationship that was unprecedented,
and while he built in Detroit, he construct-
ed in Jerusalem."
Peres called the Detroit industrialist and
philanthropist "a friend and a mentor"
when he spoke at the Jewish Agency for
Israel's inauguration of the Max M. Fisher
Square on June 22 during the Agency's
General Assembly in the presence of some
200 dignitaries, family and friends.
Fisher was the founding chairman of
the Jewish Agency Board of Governors as
well as holding many key positions in the
diaspora Jewish community.
Several former Jewish Agency chairmen
who worked closely with Fisher as well as
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat honored the
memory of the man they all called one
of the greatest American Jewish leaders
of the 20th century. They hailed him as
a consensus builder, a great leader of the
Jewish people who loved Israel with a pas-
sion that bonded him to Jerusalem.
Carole Solomon, past board of gover-
nors chairperson, called Fisher "larger
than life; a visionary and tireless sup-
porter of Israel."
Fisher's daughter Jane Sherman of
Franklin, who carries on her father's leg-
acy as a member of the Agency executive
team, tearfully told the audience that her
father was a modest man who never used
his power except on Israel's behalf and
that was always "below the radar."
"He taught us a lot:' she said, her words
choking in her throat, "the love of the state
of Israel, of the Jewish people."
Sherman called him "the greatest con-
sensus builder the Jewish people will ever
see."
Fisher, who lived in Franklin and died
in 2005 at age 96, became a major con-
tributor to the Republican Party, advising
U.S. presidents, starting with Dwight D.
Eisenhower, especially on Middle East
affairs. Sherman recalled how her father
and then-Israeli ambassador to the U.S.

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Stanley Wolf, 13, and Aviv Wolf, 8, of West Bloomfield help their grandmother Jane
Sherman of Franklin, daughter of Max Fisher, cut the ribbon at the dedication of
Max M. Fisher Square in Jerusalem as, from left, Randall and Sylvia Wolf, Israeli
President Shimon Peres, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, Israeli Uri Amangisto and
Jane Sherman's husband, Larry, watch.

Simcha Dinitz went to see President Nixon
during the Yom Kippur War and convinced
him to initiate the airlift of military sup-
plies to Israel.
Fisher also was instrumental
in facilitating every major wave
of Jewish immigration to Israel,
including Jews from Arab coun-
tries in the 1950s and Ethiopian
immigration. He also is credited
with significant involvement in
Operation Exodus, which helped
resettle a million Jews from the
former Soviet Union to Israel.

'A Rare Man'
Robert Aronson, CEO of the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit, called Fisher a rare man
who comes along once in a life-
time. "He operated quietly in the
corridors of power in Washington,
Jerusalem and around the world:'
Aronson said.
Peres also noted that Fisher
won the trust of all leaders,
Republican and Democrat, and
the left and right in Israel.

Fisher raised millions of dollars for
many Jewish causes, holding key posi-
tions with the Jewish Agency, the United
Jewish Appeal and the Council of Jewish

Federations.
The square named in his honor is a
landscaped site at a traffic intersection
in front of Binyanei Ha'Uma convention
center near Jaffa Road at the entrance to
Jerusalem. Designed by architect Yoram
Friedman, the square features a fountain
in the round made of reddish Jerusalem
stone with an olive tree planted in the cen-
ter to symbolize the tree of life.
Sherman said Fisher's "children, grand-
children and great-grandchildren will
watch that tree grow in Jerusalem like her
father's love of the State of Israel and the
love of the Jewish people."
"If he were here today,' she said, "he
would probably say that the building of
the Jewish nation is not over. We must
continue to be involved."
And as the Jewish Agency marks its
80th anniversary facing both economic
and leadership crises in choosing a new
chairman, Sherman said she would con-
tinue in her father's tradition of building
a consensus between what she called the
Zionists and the fundraisers.
"The fact is that politics have to be put
aside and we have to work together and do
what is right for the future of the Jewish
people she said. I I

Idele Ross is a native Detroiter who lives in

Jerusalem and works as a broadcast journalist.

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Jane Sherman of Franklin with Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat at the new Max M. Fisher Square
in Jerusalem.

July 2 • 2009

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