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A JEWISH RENAISSANCE MEDIA PUBLICATION

» Divestment Vote UM-Dearborn student
government rejects resolution but calls for regents to
review investments. See page 16.

olio 0,

» For Book Lovers Annual Bookstock effort is
powered by volunteers dedicated to the power of literacy.
See page 20.

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DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

» Big-Screen Bonanza

JCC's Marwil Jewish Film
Festival offers a potpourri for movie lovers. See page 39.

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Longtime Bookstock volunteers Beverly and
Larry Sabbath

metro

B enefactor
In Chief

Stephen M. Ross'
commitment to U-M
presents a lesson in giving.

Adam Finkel
Special to the Detroit Jewish News

L

ast year, real estate developer and alum-
nus Stephen M. Ross announced a $200
million gift to the University of Michigan
to significantly transform the student experience
at the business school and athletic campus. It
was the largest single donation in U-M history
and makes him the biggest donor to his alma
mater with lifetime giving of more than $313
million.
How did he get from stu-
dent to benefactor? Ross
shared the lessons he learned
along the way with the IN.
Lesson No. 1: In the 21st
century, what you learn in
school matters more than
ever, he said.
Stephen M.
Take Jerry Halperin. He
Ross
studied finance at U-M and
then law and taxation at
Harvard Law School. He built his career on core
academic skills, rising to the rank of vice chair-
person at PricewaterhouseCoopers and president
of the Detroit Investment Fund. The knowledge
Halperin learned in the classroom set the stage
for his career success.
When he signed up for the networking
site Linkedin, he learned the business school
he graduated from in 1952 was now named
the Stephen M. Ross School of Business. For

CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

Detroit's JCC is like others
across the country facing
chronic debt, challenges.

Julie Edgar I Special to the Jewish News

Above: The Berman Center for Performing
Arts was added in 2011 to the JCC in
West Bloomfield to draw audiences
and to gain revenue from rentals.

Printed In

Michigan

1942

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2013

Covering and
Connecting
Jewish Detroit
Eve y Week

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j

ewish community centers in North America are facing
financial pressures that have forced more than a few to
shut their doors — or take out loans to survive.
Like other Jewish institutions, attracting and retaining mem-
bers is a challenge in an era when American Jews feel at ease
anywhere and choose to spend their dollars elsewhere.
Welcoming intermarried couples is a strategy many syna-
gogues have adopted to stay relevant and financially solvent
in the 21st century and, in the case of most JCCs in North
America, opening membership to non-Jews (who make up, on
average, one-quarter to one-third of the membership of JCCs
nationwide) does the same.
Yet, an open-door policy hasn't been a magic bullet. Many,
like Detroit's JCC, are facing serious financial pressures. Several
have closed — the Los Angeles and Bay Area in California are
notable examples — while others struggle with chronic deficits.
The collapse of the housing market in 2008 and the economic
downturn that followed hurt nonprofits especially, says Jordan
Shenker, senior vice president of community services at the
JCC Association (JCCA), the umbrella organization of some 350
JCCs in North America, or about 95 percent of all JCCs.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

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