metro » o n the cover

Board members at NCJW/Greater Detroit’s All Kids Playground at Hess Hathaway Park in Waterford in 2013

125 Years Of Service

NCJW/Greater Detroit builds on a legacy of aiding women, kids and families.

Barbara Lewis | Contributing Writer

I

t’s hard to think of a social action effort
in Detroit that hasn’t been touched by
members of the National Council of
Jewish Women, Greater Detroit Section
(NCJW/Greater Detroit).
Child welfare? They started the Orchards
in 1962 as a residential treatment center for
boys. Now Orchards Children’s Services is
an independent foster care and adoption
agency.
Feeding the hungry? NCJW/Greater
Detroit’s “Penny Lunch” program for school
children, started in 1911, was taken over by
the Detroit Public Schools and grew into its
citywide school lunch program. Its Kosher
Meals on Wheels began in 1973 and today
provides 26,000 meals annually.
Helping victims of domestic abuse?
NCJW/Greater Detroit operates Safe Place,

a kosher haven for women and children.
Education? In the early days, members
began offering classes in dressmaking and
English literature and soon added instruc-
tion in music, German
and “physical culture.”
They discussed establish-
ing a scholarship at the
University of Michigan
as early as 1895. The Ida
E. Ginsburg Scholarship
Fund was started in 1902,
Ida E. Ginsburg after the death of the
group’s founding presi-
dent, to support educa-
tion for girls and women.
Today more than $100,000 is provided
annually for loans and grants as part of
the William Davidson Jewish College Loan
Program. Over the years, NCJW/Greater
Detroit members have implemented a

number of literacy and educational support
projects for elementary-age children.
Help for people with disabilities? In
1984, the Detroit Section published an
Access Guide for the Handicapped. In 2003,
members built the first universally acces-
sible play area in Oakland County at Hess
Hathaway Park in Waterford. Jewish News
on Tape volunteers read and record issues
of the Jewish News for people who are visu-
ally impaired.
And there’s more, much more. Not sur-
prising when you consider that NCJW/
Greater Detroit has been around for 125
years, two years longer than its national
organization.
How is that possible?
The Detroit Section got its start in 1891,
when Rabbi Louis Grossman of Temple
Beth El asked some of his members to form
a Women’s Club “to better the condition

of numerous Jewish girls and women in
our midst.” The name was changed to the
Jewish Women’s Club in 1896.
Meanwhile, the National Council of
Jewish Women formed at the 1893 World
Parliament of Religions in Chicago, under
the leadership of its first president, Hannah
G. Solomon. Representatives approached
the Jewish Women’s Club, but the Detroit
group did not affiliate with the national
organization until 1925, becoming the
Detroit Section, National Council of Jewish
Women.
It is the oldest Jewish women’s organiza-
tion in the country.

DEDICATED WOMEN
The organization’s mission, inspired by
Jewish values, is to turn progressive
ideals into action. Members strive for social
justice by improving the quality of life for

continued on page 12

10 March 24 • 2016

