A 

friend’s house fire 
nearly 100 years ago 
sparked a business 
idea that continues to grow 
and flourish, led by two local 
Jewish families. Globe Midwest 
Adjusters International traces its 
roots back to that century-old 
fire.
In today’s world, public insur-
ance adjusters help people get 
fair settlements from insurance 
companies after they suffer fires 
and other losses. Globe is now a 
national leader in the field.
The Southfield-based com-
pany has handled major claims 
from terrorist attacks at the 
World Trade Center to the 
Oklahoma City bombing to 
natural disasters locally and 

nationally. They negotiate with 
insurance companies on behalf 
of businesses and individu-
als and do everything from 
documenting inventory after 

floods, fires and other damage 
to assessing the loss of business 
revenue and more.
The company’s four own-
ers — brothers Carl and Ethan 
Gross, and father and daughter, 
Bobby Levin and Danielle Levin 
Gabbard — are carrying on the 
family tradition.
“Legend has it that in 1924, 
my great-grandfather, Abe 
Mackey, had a friend whose 
house caught fire,
” recalls the 
company’s CEO Ethan Gross. 
“He wanted to borrow some 

money for repairs. Abe agreed 
to loan him the money but 
wanted to handle the claim to 
make sure there were enough 
insurance proceeds to pay 
back the loan. That’s when he 
became a public adjuster.
”
In the early 1950s, Abe and 
his partner, son-in-law David 
Gross, formed a company with 
Maury Levin, bringing the two 

business SPOTlight

brought to you in partnership with 

here’s to

B I R M I N G H A M

Insurance 
Assurance

Globe Midwest Adjusters International has 
had Jewish roots for generations.

 

ROBIN SCHWARTZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Top Row (left to right) is Maury 

Levin and Abe Mackey, center row is 

David Gross, the company’s original 

founders.

COURTESY OF GLOBE MIDWEST ADJUSTERS

Ethan Gross
Danielle Levin 
Gabbard

Carl Gross
Bobby Levin

At the recent Hillel 
International Virtual 
Global Assembly, 
University of Michigan 
Hillel was present-
ed with the presti-
gious Philip H. and 
Susan Rudd Cohen 
Outstanding Campus Award 
in recognition of its excellence 
in strategically engaging 
students on the periphery of 
Jewish life.

The Isaac Agree Downtown 
Synagogue has announced that 
Gavri Yares will be joining their 
staff as the congregation’s musi-
cian in residence. 
He will provide joy-
ous devotional music 
and service lead-
ership to enhance 
Shabbat, Tot 
Shabbat, Havdalah 
and holiday services. 
Yares is a musician 
and music educator who has 
toured, performed and taught in 
North America, Europe and the 
Middle East and is a multi-instru-
mentalist proficient.

University 
of Michigan 
Assistant 
Professor Devi 
Mays has won 
a National 
Jewish Book 
Award from the 
Jewish Book 
Council for her 
first book, Forging Ties, Forging 
Passports: Migration and the 
Modern Sephardi Diaspora, pub-
lished by Stanford University Press. 
The book won in the category of 
Sephardic Culture, receiving the 
Mimi S. Frank Award in Memory of 
Becky Levy. 

26 | FEBRUARY 11 • 2021 

