75 Years And Counting …
pillars of the community
The JN has been making a difference in the lives of Metro Detroit’s Jewish community since its
founding in 1942. Here, we ask a few community members what the JN has meant to them.
EUGENE DRIKER
LARRY JACKIER
SAFEGUARDING HISTORY
GLUE OF THE COMMUNITY
We live in fraught times.
People are worried about
the future of our Jewish
community, our democracy
and, indeed, the world
itself. It is at times like
these that newspapers are
especially important.
While for some readers
they are a key source for
what happened last week,
for others they provide his-
torical context for stories
that have gone on for years
and even decades.
It’s in that role that the
Jewish News is particularly
valuable, helping current
readers grasp the back-
ground for issues that seem
new, but whose anteced-
ents go back a long time.
George Orwell warned,
“The most effective way to
destroy people is to deny
and obliterate their own
understanding of their his-
tory.”
The Detroit Jewish News
Foundation has confronted
that risk by digitizing its
issues for the past 75 years,
making them easily search-
able on the internet for
anyone interested in the
history of our community,
written as it was being
made.
This remarkable achieve-
ment will help future gen-
erations understand where
they came from, so very
crucial in helping them
know where they are going.
Detroit is a very fortunate
Jewish community in that
it can benefit from the
Detroit Jewish News in ways
far more significant than
simply as a community
newspaper.
The DJN is an institution
in Detroit, which, I believe,
can be used to provide an
outcome that appears to be
currently lacking, i.e. “com-
munity connectivity.”
At the present time,
while our community has
wonderful diversity — such
diversity seems to create a
different type of problem.
There are far too many
individuals and institu-
tions that are completely
unconnected to the com-
munity as a whole. They
are Jews physically located
in Detroit but not in any
way connected to the com-
munity.
With its wonderful, new,
readily available archives
and the many people and
organizations that the DJN
does reach, the DJN is in a
position to provide a con-
siderable amount of the
glue that our community
could use.
I hope that our current
community leaders will
pause and take a hard,
thoughtful look at the role
that the DJN can play to
help reconnect Detroit.
Eugene Driker
Eugene Driker has a long
history in service to Wayne
State University as well as
Jewish and other community
causes.
64
July 18 • 2017
Larry Jackier
Larry Jackier is an attorney
and partner at Jackier
Gould and one of the Detroit
Jewish community’s most
accomplished leaders.
jn
MIRIAM STARKMAN
JUDGE AVERN COHN
MARTY MADDIN
SERVING JEWISH
COLLEGE STUDENTS
THE VOICE OF
THE COMMUNITY
THE DINNER TABLE
OF OUR COMMUNITY
Growing up in suburban
Detroit, I remember the
Jewish News in our home
before every Shabbat.
When I became the execu-
tive director of Hillel of
Metro Detroit, it was
shortly after Phil Jacobs
had become editor of the
Detroit Jewish News.
That was close to 25
years ago, and the Jewish
News has always been a
valued supporter of Hillel
of Metro Detroit and our
vision to bring vibrant
Jewish life to the local col-
leges and universities that
we serve.
Whether they are cover-
ing campus programming,
Israel trips or young adult
Jewish life in our commu-
nity, the JN has reported
our activities in a fair and
informative way.
The Jewish News also
provides space for our
students to have their
own voice through their
Jewish@edu section. This
gives our students the
opportunity to express
their opinions and experi-
ences and help shape them
as future leaders in the
Detroit Jewish community.
Yasher Koach to the JN
on your 75th anniversary!
The Jewish News is to be
congratulated on its 75th
birthday. I was a senior
in high school at its birth
when I began reading it. I
continue to read it today.
In the beginning we were
told, “A well-published
Jewish paper in Detroit
was long overdue” (Fred
M. Butzel). “Many oppor-
tunities for a paper to
accomplish much good
for its Jewish community”
(Henry Wineman). “It is
written intelligently, read-
ably and effectively” (Dr.
Stephen Wise). These
words of praise bear
repeating today.
Then and now we
depend on the Jewish News
to keep us informed about
Jewish affairs and environ-
ment — locally, nation-
ally and internationally.
We also are advised, in
the tradition of Philip
Slomovitz, founder and
first editor, of blessed
memory, what is good and
sometimes bad about our
mutual interests.
The Jewish News con-
tinues as the voice of the
Jewish community.
The Jewish News is part
of the glue that holds
together our great Jewish
community. It helps tie us
together and forces us to
think and act as a com-
munity rather than just as
individuals who happen to
live in Metro Detroit.
The Jewish News is the
dinner table of our com-
munity; and like any good
dinner table, it provides
our community a chance
to collectively celebrate,
debate, mourn, educate,
laugh and discuss the
state of our future.
Sometimes we like
the food, discussion and
company and other times
we wish we had chosen
carryout. The key is not to
achieve consensus, com-
plete harmony or to have
everyone love the food; the
key is to get everyone sit-
ting down together at the
table. Fortunately for us,
the Jewish News has and
will continue to provide us
the forum to do so.
Miriam Starkman
Miriam Starkman is
executive director of Hillel of
Metropolitan Detroit.
Judge Avern Cohn
Avern Cohn is a senior
judge for the U.S. District
Court for the Eastern
District of Michigan.
Marty Maddin
Marty Maddin is an
entrepreneur and executive
coach, former president
of Federation’s NEXTGen
Detroit and a community
volunteer.