Cohn-Haddow Center for Judaic Studies - Wayne State University
John M. Haddow Memorial Program in Jewish Culture
THE
high NOTE,
metro
In Conversation
Taubman recalls Detroit history and
receives JHSM's Simons Award.
A. Alfred Taubman, Judith Levin Cantor and JHSM President Gerald Cook
A Jewish musical revue of the greatest hits
including selections from Yiddish musical theater,
Irving Berlin, Gershwin, Broadway, Leonard Bernstein,
Simon & Garfunkel, and Debbie Friedman.
Featuring Temple Israel's Cantor Michael Smolash and Cantorial
Soloist Neil Michaels with an ensemble of musicians from the
Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Teddy Abrams conducting.
Cantor
Michael Smolash
Cantorial Soloist
Neil Michaels
Conductor
Teddy Abrams
Monday, June 23, 2014 at 7 p.m.
The Berman Center for the Performing Arts
6600 W. Maple Road, West Bloomfield
Tickets: $25 per person
For tickets, call The Berman at (248) 661-1900
Or buy them online at: www.theberman.org
g-‘ Jewish Federation
Cohn Haddow
OF METROPOLITAN DETROIT
Alliance
for Jewish
Education
Center for Judaic Studies
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DETROITFS I SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
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A COMMUNITY-SUPPORTED ORCHESTRA
20 June 12 • 2014
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THE CENTER
Harry Kirsbaum
Contributing Writer
p
hilanthropist A. Alfred Taubman
looked back in time while cel-
ebrating his 90th birthday as he
received the Leonard N. Simons History
Award from the Jewish Historical Society
of Michigan (JHSM) at its 55th annual
meeting May 20 at Congregation Shaarey
Zedek in Southfield.
Some 125 people saw Scott Kaufman,
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit CEO, play talk show host as
Taubman spoke of his past, his friend-
ships and Detroit.
Quoting the late actor George Burns,
Taubman said, "If I knew I'd live this
long, I would have taken better care of
mysel'
Besides family and friends, he cited
the Taubman Medical Research Institute
at the University of Michigan in Ann
Arbor, which uses stem cells research to
help cure diseases, as one of his greatest
achievements.
"It wasn't easy," he said. Because
Michigan is one of five states that would
not allow embryonic stem cell research,
Taubman led a group that fought for a
constitutional amendment to change
the law. "We went up like politicians to
Lansing and won 53-47," he said.
He cited architect Albert Kahn, indus-
trialist Ed Levy Sr. and his good friend
Max Fisher as three Jews who stand out
as Jewish contributors to the history of
Detroit
"There isn't any way you can speak
about impact without talking about
Albert Kahn:' he said. "He was an out-
standing architect, an outstanding mind
and he was the inventor of the horizontal
manufacturing system. He built factories
all over the world:'
Ed Levy Sr. started with a mule, clean-
ing basements and made enough to buy
a truck and then a second truck, and
put a bid in to Henry Ford to get paid
for removing slag from the Rouge plant,
Taubman said. He got the contract, then
figured out how to use the slag to make
cinderblock and road-building material.
He then offered to pay Ford to remove
the slag so he could use it, and he built
the business into an international com-
pany.
"These two Jews, Ed Levy Sr. and
Albert Kahn, became two people
that Henry Ford couldn't do without:'
Taubman said.
"Of course, I have to mention Max
Fisher, my close friend and a devoted
Jew," Taubman said of Fisher, who gave
away millions to Jewish causes. Growing
up in Salem, Ohio, "he never had the
chance to have a formal Jewish educa-
tion:'
Taubman called the JHSM "a fabulous
organization. You can't think about today
or tomorrow without knowing the past:'
he said.
Detroit Recollections
Looking at the present, he commended
Dan Gilbert, who has purchased more
than 40 buildings in downtown Detroit.
"I think he owns the whole down-
town:' Taubman said. "And he fixed
them up and moved 12,000 jobs into
downtown Detroit:'
Taubman cited the London Chop
Conversation on page 22