1942 - 2021

Covering and Connecting 
Jewish Detroit Every Week

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DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 
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MISSION STATEMENT The Detroit Jewish News will be of service to the Jewish community. The Detroit Jewish 
News will inform and educate the Jewish and general community to preserve, protect and sustain the Jewish 
people of greater Detroit and beyond, and the State of Israel.

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Detroit Jewish community, reflecting the diverse views and interests of the Jewish community while advancing the 
morale and spirit of the community and advocating Jewish unity, identity and continuity.

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6 | FEBRUARY 25 • 2021 

ed with love, and introduced 
to the beauty of art, inspira-
tional stories in books and 
our parents’ friends from 
every cultural group, my 
brother Sanford Allen Cohen 
(who passed away Dec. 4, 
2020) and I followed in their 
footsteps. 
In 1968, as fashion director 
for Saks Fifth Avenue, I was 
the first to hire Black mod-
els in Detroit. Bessie Woods 
worked in the stock room. I 
encouraged her to take to the 
runway. 
When Bill Blass saw the 
beautiful Black model Billie 
Blair in his fashion show at 
the Saks Fifth Avenue Troy 
store, he invited her to be in 
his show in NYC and took 
her to Paris in 1973 for the 
historic Battle of Versailles 
Fashion Show that pitted 
French designers against 
American designers. The 
Black models stole the show 
for the Americans. 

As the vice president 
of fashion marketing and 
merchandising for the J.L. 
Hudson Co., I also hired the 
first Black woman executive, 
Phyllis Johnson.

DETROIT CHESS TEAM
My brother, also inspired 

by our parents, created his 
unique path of “spilling 
the honey.” For 30 years, 
Sanford was a civics teacher 
at Southeastern High School 
in Detroit’s most impov-
erished neighborhood. He 
created a chess club as an 
afterschool activity to engage 

and empower the students 
to think in new ways. He 
took the chess team to the 
National Competition three 
times. Some 1,375 high 
school chess players from 200 
high schools in 33 states par-
ticipated. Southeastern High 
sophomore Martell Collins 
swept to a perfect 7-0 score 
in the tournaments and to a 
National Championship title. 
Join me and my friend Dr. 
Shari Rodgers and Spill the 
Honey. May our family story 
inspire you to share your 
story of how you spill the 
honey on her website, www.
spillthehoney.com. Let’s work 
together to make our world a 
better and sweeter place. 

Brenda Naomi Rosenberg co-created 

the Tectonic Leadership program with 

Samia Moustapha Bahsoun “to make 

a more beautiful world by breaking 

barriers and reframing relationships, 

utilizing creativity to actualize change.”

continued from page 4

MY FATHER WAS ONE OF THE FIRST 
TO SHOWCASE BLACK ARTISTS.

Dorothy Ashby 
Trio

