Bill Davidson,

2009

Deepwater

Horizon, 2010

Invasion of Iraq, 2003

Hechtman II

Max Fisher, 2005

Apartments, 2008

The Modern Link

W

hen Philip Slomovitz — short,
bespectacled, intense — chan-
neled his white-hot passion
for Jewish survival and peoplehood into
the creation of the Jewish News in 1942, he
erected a broad and sturdy platform to give
voice to his ardent beliefs.
For most of the next 50 years, Slomovitz
and his weekly Purely Commentary
column rallied the Detroit Jewish com-
munity around an array of issues and
needs, including purchasing U.S. war
bonds to support our World War II mili-
tary effort and participating in the Jewish
Welfare Federation's annual Allied Jewish
Campaign. But the importance and correct-
ness of a re-born Israel as the physical and
emotional home of the Jewish people was
his north star.
While times change, especially in the way
information is gathered and disseminated,
Philip Slomovitz could not have imagined
that his own editorial voice, especially relat-
ing to the survival of Israel and the Zionist
dream, would be extended and updated
for current generations by Robert Sklar —

lean, clear-eyed and equally intense.
As editor of the Jewish News for the
past 13 years, Bob was second only to the
legendary Slomovitz in tenure. And as Bob
retires and moves into a new chapter of
his life, spending more time with his wife,
Beth, and no doubt adding hours to his
near-manic dedication to cycling, he will
continue to provide service to the Jewish
News and the community as a contributing
editor.
While Slomovitz cast a giant shadow, Bob
has created his own legacy by deftly blend-
ing the Jewish News' steadfast commitment
to Israel with first-rate community-based
journalism. Under Bob's guidance, the
Jewish News earned six Michigan Press
Association best weekly publication awards,
typically competing against 30 or more
secular weeklies from around the state. We
received high honors in every year we com-
peted ... the years we didn't earn recogni-
tion were the years we didn't participate.
Bob's competent and steady hand can
be found on several keepsake editions of
the Jewish News, including tributes to corn-

munal and philanthropic giants
David Hermelin, Max Fisher and
Bill Davidson. The most memo-
rable keepsake edition he quarter-
backed was the toughest ... the
one about the fire that destroyed
our Southfield offices in 2002.
Despite the devastation, a 116-
page edition of the Jewish News
reached anxious and relieved sub-
scribers only one day late.
In Bob's own words from that
week's edition,"I've been a journalist for
nearly 30 years and have covered countless
fires, but this was the first time I became
part of the story — an eerie feeling to
say the least ... But our determination to
publish during this trying time grew by the
moment. The fire's fury humbled the build-
ing ... but the Jewish News, what we like to
think of as the heartbeat of Detroit Jewry,
didn't flinch."
A key measure of an editor is the trust
the publisher places in him ... to assure
credibility, avoid sensationalism, act fairly,
project the values of the Jewish News in and

out of the newsroom and to rep-
resent the range of viewpoints in
the community. Not once in the
13 years we worked together did
Bob violate that trust.
Coming from editorial leader-
ship positions with Hometown
Newspapers and its Observer
& Eccentric publications, Bob
brought a simple but powerful
mantra ... the content gathered
and presented by the Jewish News
to the community must be "unsubstitut-
able."
While the Jewish News will continue to
build on the legacies of Philip Slomovitz
and Robert Sklar as it faces an exciting and
challenging future, one thing will be clear to
those who follow in their footsteps ... both
played "unsubstitutable" roles in helping to
chronicle, shape and lead one of America's
great Jewish communities. I

'

Arthur M. Horwitz is president/publisher of

Jewish Renaissance Media and the Jewish

News.

Shoulder To Shoulder

Adversity and friendship bring out the best in people.

W

hen I came into the temporary
office of the Jewish News nine
years ago, just a few months
after the fire destroyed the office on
Franklin Road, I met Bob Sklar, the editor.
We met briefly at his large card
table. Alan Hitsky and other Editorial
Department employees were set up at tern-
porary tables in the same room, all working
to get the paper out.
Little did Bob and I know just how much
we would work together as a team during
the ensuing years.
The news business is vastly different

from, yet the same as many businesses I
have run and worked in. The big reason I
learned to admire Bob was because he had
the biggest "key" of all.
I often have told people, "You have to
learn to have a thick skin in business. When
I make a business decision or address a
business issue, it is not YOU personally; it is
business:'
I can separate business from the person,
the human, his title and other extraneous
issues.
In my career, almost no one understands
that division, which can make for very chal-

lenging times when it is time to
make decisions.
Bob "the editor" and Bob "the
person" has always understood
that concept. That alone would
make him unique and special,
and my teammate!
There were many times when
we had to address issues that
meant major changes to the
paper, to what we did or how
we did it. Not only did Bob have
thick skin, he embraced and led
the issues, to the benefit of the

paper and the company.
At the same time, along the way
we moved from being co-workers
to friends, knowing we could
separate the work issues from the
people side.
When my younger and only
brother was diagnosed with cancer
and then passed away within 30
days, Bob did not just give me con-
dolences.
He and Beth drove to western
Pennsylvania. They took a hotel

F. Kevin
Browett
Chief
Operating
Officer

Shoulder on page 18

Oki

March 3 • 2011

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