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OLGA GAMBURG

Siegel family in
2013: Michael,
Nancy Heinrich,
Marvin, Gloria
and Brian.

All In The Family

Father’s Centennial gift honors his children
who head Federation agencies.

BARBARA LEWIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

embers of the board of governors of the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit and United Jewish Foundation had rea-
son to celebrate at their April 24 meeting with the announcement
of a $1 million gift to Federation’s Centennial Fund from Marvin D.
Siegel, M.D.
Federation is in the fifth year of its Centennial Campaign, which
has raised $213 million from 137 donors. Leaders are working to
raise $250 million to support the future of the local and interna-
tional Jewish communities.
The Dr. Marvin D. and Gloria (z’l”) Siegel Centennial Fund will
be split between Jewish Senior Life, which is headed by Siegel’s
daughter, Nancy Heinrich, and the Jewish Community Center,
headed by his son, Brian. While the late Bill and Madge Berman
made a Centennial gift to establish and maintain the theater that
bears their name at the JCC, this gift is the first to the JCC itself.
Siegel’s children are unusual, if not unique, in their paths to
leadership. A few years ago, the siblings simultaneously served as
the volunteer presidents of Jewish Federation member agencies.
Now both are CEOs of those same agencies.
Heinrich and Siegel say their parents infused their lives with
Jewish values, including service to the community and support
for Israel. They also give a shout-out to their maternal grand-
mother, Fannie Siegel, who continually admonished each to “be a
mensch.”
Marvin Siegel, 84, of Birmingham, is a practicing dermatologist.
He was active with the Maimonides Society, Federation’s group
for physicians, and frequently opened his home for major donor
parlor meetings. He volunteered his medical expertise for Project
Chesed, which provided free care for refugees and others unable
to pay for services.
His wife, who died in August 2016, was an active member of
the local National Council of Jewish Women. She volunteered at
Orchards Children’s Services, which was started by NCJW, and
taught English to newly arrived refugees from the former Soviet
Union.
Gloria Siegel was very people-oriented, Heinrich said. “She
knew everybody’s story and knew who was related to whom.
Everyone felt like she was their special friend,” she said.
Marvin Siegel said if his wife were still alive she would be
“absolutely ecstatic” about Nancy and Brian’s life career trajecto-
ries. “I’m very proud of all my children, and I’m fortunate they all
still live in this area,” he said.
Marvin and Gloria’s unwavering support for Israel was the
“catalytic motivation” for their involvement with the local Jewish
community, Brian said. They made eight or 10 trips to the Jewish
state, including some with their children.

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April 26 • 2018

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The Siegels’ third child, Michael, 60, of West Bloomfield works
with his father as a dermatologist. He hasn’t been as active in
the Jewish community but has spent many volunteer hours in
the medical field, including a term as president of the Michigan
Dermatological Society. He is devoted to his patients and is the
“consummate physician,” Brian said.
Heinrich and Siegel break the mold in another way: Both
worked their way up through the ranks of their respective boards
as hardworking and committed lay leaders before they were
asked to serve as agency professionals in 2016.
Heinrich, 57, of Huntington Woods, worked for 30 years as a
real estate attorney before joining the Jewish Senior Life staff.
She was a longtime JSL board member and served as its presi-
dent from June 2011 to December 2013. She also served on
Federation’s Israel and Overseas Committee and chaired the Israel
and Overseas Department.
Brian Siegel, 54, of Birmingham also worked as a real estate
attorney before becoming an entrepreneur. He is a partner in sev-
eral area businesses, including Star Trax, Joe Dumars Fieldhouse
and Detroit Axe, a competitive axe-throwing arena in Ferndale.
He was one of four originators of NEXTGen, Federation’s pro-
gram for young adults. He chaired several Federation committees,
including the Israel at 60 committee, the Missions committee and
the Grosfeld Leadership Development program. He was president
of the Jewish Community Center twice, from 2011-2013 and
again from 2015-2016. He has won numerous awards, including
the Susan Alterman Leadership Award from the JCC in 2004 and
the Frank A.Wetsman Leadership Award from Federation in 2008.
He was the Larry D. Sills Memorial Golf Outing honoree in 2010.
Robert Aronson, Federation’s former CEO and chief develop-
ment adviser, said Heinrich and Siegel were “outstanding leaders
as volunteers who are now dedicated professionals running two of
our most important agencies.”
“This doesn’t happen by accident,” he said. “Marvin and Gloria
were dedicated to community service, philanthropy and family,
and it’s obvious that Nancy and Brian absorbed this from their
parents.”
Siegel and his sister say their parents raised them with an
unspoken expectation of excellence.
“They did not accept anything less than total commitment,”
Heinrich said. “They said, ‘If you do a job, do it right.’ If someone
asks us to do something and we can, we will do it; we don’t see
an option other than doing the best job we can.”
In addition to their love for the Jewish community, Siegel said
he and his sister share several personal characteristics. “We’re
both honest, creative and authentic,” he said. “We care.” •

“This year, the JCC will partner
with and collaborate with more than
80 different organizations, includ-
ing Federation, congregations, day
schools, early childhood programs,
foundations and agencies within the
Jewish community as well as like-
minded organizations, agencies and
foundations from outside the Jewish
community.”
For example, the JCC has lent sup-
port to Hazon’s Jewish Food Festival,
The Well’s Taslich on the River and
the Metro Detroit Board of Jewish
Educators SEED conference for teach-
ers, among others. And it will be the
lead agency with Federation in pre-
senting the community’s Israel@70
celebration at Detroit’s riverfront June
20, a partnership that will involve
more than 40 Jewish organizations.

REBUILDING TRUST

As the JCC and its team move for-
ward with this new vision, they know
people may be skeptical.
“People are concerned that by clos-
ing the JCC in Oak Park, it reflects
a leaning in to the West Bloomfield
campus,” Siegel said. “We are saying
that’s not the case, and we have to
prove it. That is a fair way to hold us
accountable.”
The closing of the Oak Park JCC
on Aug. 31, 2015, remains a festering
wound for many in the communities
surrounding the A. Alfred Taubman
Campus. It was made worse when
Federation proposed building a new
multi-purpose building but could
not deliver a sustainable model, even
though a major donor was on board.
Federation demolished the build-
ing this January. The empty site is a
reminder of that unfulfilled plan and
of the JCC that once served the area.
Siegel, JCC CEO since March 2016,
and a longtime JCC volunteer, board
member and twice its president, says
he attended all the meetings regard-
ing the Oak Park JCC, which essen-
tially was closed because it was losing
$800,000 annually (out of an overall
$1 million annual loss). The JCC was
already dealing with a $6.5 million
deficit on its balance sheet.
“We lost some of our heart and I’m
the first person to say it, but it was
not motivated by bias toward one
part of town,” Siegel said. “To me,
the JCC is a trust issue. For reasons
both fair and some unfair, the trust
has been lost. How do we rebuild
that trust? We have to prove it on the
ground.”
One way is to continue acting on
his staunch belief that the JCC is a
“critical engine for building mean-
ingful connections between Jewish

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