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in
the

Fred and Arlene
Frank each
lead a local
synagogue.

Sibling Service

ESTHER ALLWEISS INGBER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Information on High
Holiday services at the
siblings’ congregations
can be found at:

TEMPLE EMANU-EL

14450 W. 10 Mile Road
Oak Park, MI 48237
(248) 967-4020
www.emanuel-mich.org

ISAAC AGREE
DOWNTOWN SYNAGOGUE

1457 Griswold
Detroit, MI 48226.
(313) 962-4047
www.downtownsynagogue.org

S

iblings may occasionally have some rivalry, but a brother and
sister who serve as executive directors at different synagogues
aren’t in conflict; in fact, they both are content in their second
careers and are there for each other.
The siblings both started their fulltime positions in November
but in different years. Fred Frank is closing in on three years with
Temple Emanu-El, a Reform synagogue in Oak Park. His younger
sibling Arlene Frank came aboard in 2016 at Isaac Agree Downtown
Synagogue (IADS), a Conservative shul in Detroit.
These are second careers for both Franks. Retired attorney Fred
previously was a senior partner with the Honigman Miller Schwartz
and Cohn law firm in Detroit.
Former director of the OCC Womencenter at the Oakland
Community College-Orchard Ridge Campus in Farmington Hills,
her position was eilimnated. She eventually departed OCC after 23
years.
“IADS came along at an opportune time,” Arlene said.
“I would not have imagined that Fred and I would be in the same
position at different congregations,” she added.
Fred, Arlene and their brother Bobby are children of the late Anne

and the late George I. Frank, Shoah survivors from Vienna, Austria.
“Our father was picked up on Kristallnacht in 1938 and taken to
the Dachau concentration camp,” Fred said. “He managed to get to
England about six months later.”
The Franks lived on Forrer Street in northwest Detroit. The chil-
dren attended Bow Elementary, Coffey Junior High and Henry Ford
High School.
Fred earned a bachelor’s degree at Wayne State University’s for-
mer Monteith College. He graduated with his JD degree from Wayne
State University Law School.
Arlene has a bachelor’s degree in women’s studies from University
of Michigan. Her future was influenced by her early success at
Temple Israel, which the Frank family joined in 1960.
“At age 14, I was the first girl elected president of the Reform
Jewish youth group at Temple Israel, running on a feminist plat-
form,” Arlene said. “I thought I was really making a difference.”
Union activities became her way of correcting inequities. She
attempted to organize workers while employed at Evangelical
Deaconess and the old St. Joe’s hospitals. She also was a union stew-
ard at Harper Hospital.

continued on page 38

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September 14 • 2017

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