jews in the d

faith into the waves parted the
waters. The commonly held
lesson there is that individual
actions and human steps are
partners to Divine will. (And,
perhaps it is no coincidence that
Bloom once remarked that he
always has loved the tradition of
telling the Passover story.)
Though leadership in Jewish
Detroit is never so arduous
as parting waters, Bloom
has stepped up to numerous
leadership roles in more than
four decades of service to the
Jewish community, starting as
president of the Brotherhood
at Temple Beth El. It was a mis-
sion to Israel in 1983, followed
by a tour of Detroit’s Jewish
agencies, that really hooked
him. It was then, he recalls,
that he and his wife, Barbara,
started lighting Shabbat candles
and getting active in the Jewish
Federation.
With the business acumen
gained through years in the
steel industry as a suppli-
er to the Big Three, Bloom
breezed through the ranks of
Federation’s volunteers to serve the community in
numerous leadership roles starting as president of
the JCC (1994-1996).
“It’s kind of funny,” he recalled in his interview
for the Archives in 2012, “because if you look at
all the presidents of the JCC, you’ll see my uncle
Hy Meyers was a president, as was my cousin Bob
Slatkin and his nephew Brewster, and another
cousin Jacob Keden.”
Also on the agency side, Bloom has served
on the boards of the Jewish Fund, Jewish
Senior Life, JVS, the
Neighborhood Project,
Temple Kol Ami and
the United Jewish
Foundation.
With Federation,
Bloom has been a
passionate fund-
raiser, advocate and
activist for long-
range community
planning, focusing
on seniors, educa-
tion and Federation’s
Partnership Region
in the Central Galilee.
In the role of the
first chair of Federation’s Partnership 2000 (now
Partnership 2Gether), Bloom was instrumental
in establishing PACT —Natanya’s Parents and
Children Together program — to work with

Man Of Steel

Meet Douglas Bloom, business leader
and longtime community leader.

VIVIAN HENOCH SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

F

ounding partner of Bar Processing (a major
steel processor for automotive parts); past
president of Federation and the Jewish
Community Center; astute fundraiser, strategic
community planner and avid supporter of Israel;
naming sponsor of the Loving Acts of Kindness
Fund and JCC’s annual “Matzah Factory;” an
aficionado of model trains since childhood and
proud to become a bar mitzvah at age 61; ever
learning, ever curious, always dapper in his sig-
nature specs … This is Douglas Bloom, recipient
of Federation’s highest honor, the 2018 Fred M.
Butzel Memorial Award.

“WHAT KIND OF LEADER ARE YOU?”
Answering that question for the “record” — now
in Federation’s Oral History Archive — Bloom
described himself as a “lazy boss.” Clarifying that
classification, he added, “A lazy boss is a person
who hires good people, delegates, gives people
responsibility and authority and follows up.”
For those who know and love him, for those
who have worked with him, traveled with him,
followed his footsteps and learned from him,
Bloom could never be conceived of as a “lazy
boss.”
With a long resumé of firsts, initiatives and
bold steps, Douglas calls to mind the biblical
story of Nahshon, leader of the Tribe of Judah
and the man who jumped first into the Red Sea.
According to Midrashic tale, Nahshon’s leap of

28

October 11 • 2018

jn

new Israeli citizens from Ethiopia, as well as a
number of business incubators and exchanges
between Israeli and Detroit healthcare institu-
tions and universities. Additionally, he served as
chair of Federation’s Education Division and in a
favorite role as chair of Federation’s Planning and
Allocations Steering Committee.
For all of Barbara’s and Doug’s acts of loving-
kindness to the Jewish community, perhaps the
most widely known always will be the annual
Barbara and Douglas Bloom Matzah Factory
held at the JCC. As Bloom described in his oral
history, he and Barbara were among the first
people approached for the naming opportunity.
“We jumped at the opportunity because it was so
important to us that young people carry on the
traditions of Judaism and learn about Passover,”
he said.
For all his accomplishments, Bloom still con-
siders his bar mitzvah at the age of 61 to be one of
his proudest moments. As he tells the story …
“The first time I went to Israel, the security
for El Al at the Kennedy Airport asked, ‘Are you
Jewish?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ ‘You been bar mitzvahed?’
‘No.’ ‘How can you be Jewish if you weren’t bar
mitzvahed?’ … and I thought, maybe there’s
something to this … I was going to be 60, and
about to sell my business and retire . . . I decided
it was really important to have a bar mitzvah. So,
I approached Rabbi Roman at Temple Kol Ami,
learned to read and speak Hebrew, and celebrated
my bar mitzvah on a Saturday morning where
I led the congregation. I was really happy … it’s
never too late to learn, to appreciate something
new, and it’s important to be and do, to be active
and to care about being Jewish.”
Together, the Blooms are active supporters
of congregational life at multiple temples in the
community. At Temple Israel, the Blooms are
grantors of the Barbara & Douglas Bloom Special
Needs Fund for Single Mothers.
Residents of Birmingham, the Blooms are a
beautifully blended fam-
ily, the parents of three
sons — David, Andrew
and Matthew — and
grandparents of seven.
Bloom is the
67th recipient of
the Fred M. Butzel
Memorial Award
for Distinguished
Community Service
— Federation’s highest
honor. The 2018 Butzel
Award was presented
to Douglas Bloom at
the combined Annual
Meeting of the Jewish
Federation and United Jewish Foundation of
Metropolitan Detroit on Sept. 13, 2018, at the
Berman Center for the Performing Arts in West
Bloomfield. ■