Looking Back

From the DJN Foundation Davidson Digital Archive
of Jewish Detroit History

F

or once, I am
not going to
write about
a person, place or
event that I found in
the Davidson Digital
Archives of Jewish
Mike Smith
Detroit History.
Detroit Jewish
There is a simple
News Foundation
Archivist
reason for this. I
have a great story
for you, but after searching the
archives for several months now, I
could find nothing about the hero
of my story.
While the Archive is still the
most comprehensive history of Jews
in Metro Detroit and Michigan, it
does not have everything. However,
by writing the following story in
the JN, this piece of history will
be recorded and will live forever
in the Davidson Digital Archive. I
think you will agree with me that
this story is worth preserving.
While on vacation in Michigan’s
Upper Peninsula this fall, I read a
story in the Sept. 24, 2018, issue
of The Mining Journal, which has
been the Marquette, Michigan,
daily newspaper since 1841.
The article was about a most
remarkable Jew: Dr. Adam Brish,
who had passed away at age 93 on
Sept. 11, 2018. To say that Brish
was a remarkable fellow is really
an understatement. Adventurers
like Jack London or Lowell Thomas
have nothing on Brish.
Born in Lodz, Poland, Brish
was a survivor. He lost most of his
family in the Holocaust, but he and
his father survived in the infamous
Lodz ghetto. During some of this
time, Brish worked as a slave
laborer, making steel toes for the
boots of the Nazis. The Russian
Army liberated the Brishes, along
with 877 surviving Jews in the
Lodz ghetto in January 1945.
After the war, Brish attended
Lodz University, earning his

46

December 27 • 2018

jn

medical degree in 1951. He then
served in the Polish Army as a
neurosurgeon. When it became
clear to Brish that he could never
advance in the Polish Army
because he was a Jew, he obtained
a tourist visa and headed to Israel,
never to return to Poland.
Upon landing in Israel, Brish
joined the Israeli Defense Forces.
He worked at Tel HaShomer, the
IDF’s first military hospital. There,
Brish met a nurse, Patricia Kuhl.
They married and moved to the
United States in 1963.
The Brishes moved around the
States, working in Massachusetts,
New Jersey and Wisconsin before
settling in Marquette, where Brish
was offered a position as the
first neurosurgeon at St. Luke’s
Hospital. Indeed, he was the first
neurosurgeon in Michigan’s Upper
Peninsula. He spent the remainder
of his career in Marquette at
the city’s General Hospital. In
1992, the Neuroscience Lecture
Conference named the Adam Brish
Neurosciences Lecture Award
in his honor. After 30 years as a
neurosurgeon, Brish retired in
1993, spending winters in Arizona
and summers in Marquette.
Rising from the Lodz ghetto in
Poland to becoming a nationally
respected neurosurgeon who
worked in Michigan’s Upper
Peninsula, the story of Dr. Adam
Brish is amazing by any standards.
Perhaps the real mark of excellence
was the outpouring of praise for
Brish upon his passing. Not many
of us touch as many lives as he
did. And, now, his story will be
preserved in the Davidson Digital
Archive and, in the future, readers
and researchers will be able to find
a bit of his fantastic story. ■

Want to learn more? Go to the DJN
Foundation archives, available for free at
www.djnfoundation.org.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Dr. Adam Brish was a neurosurgeon in the Polish Army in the 1950s;
Brish was the first neurosurgeon in Michigan’s UP; Pat and Adam Brish; Grandson Solomon
and son Harry flank Brish at his 90th birthday.