OF BLESSED MEMORY
MARCH 18 • 2021 | 39
continued on page 41
IRVING COHEN,
93, of West
Bloomfield, died
March 6, 2021.
He is survived
by his sons and
daughters-in-law, Dr. Randy
and Dr. Alice Cohen, Howard
and Susan Cohen; daughters,
Ronna Sabbota and Pamela
Siegel; grandchildren, Leah
and Benjamin, Samantha and
Michelle, Zachary and Kaylee;
many other loving family
members and friends.
Mr. Cohen was the beloved
husband of the late Arlene
Cohen.
Interment was at Machpelah
Cemetery. Donations may be
made to the American Heart
Association or to a charity of
one’s choice. Arrangements by
Dorfman Chapel.
LAURICE
COVENSKY, 43,
of Bloomfield
Hills, died March
7, 2021.
She is survived
by her parents, Edith and
Harvey Covensky; brother,
Jeffrey Covensky. She was the
loving aunt of Ainsley and
Aden Covensky; she is also
survived by many other loving
family members and a world
of devoted friends.
Interment was at Machpelah
Cemetery. Contributions may
be made to Hillel of Metro
Detroit. Arrangements by
Dorfman Chapel.
SIDNEY FORST, 101, of
Chicago, formerly of Detroit
and Southfield, died March
4, 2021.
He is survived by his sons
and daughters-in-law, David
and Carla Forst of Birmingham,
Robert and Kelly Forst of
Celebration, Fla., Chaim and
OBITUARIES
F
rank Kelley, the longest-serving state
attorney general in Michigan history,
was, as you might guess from his name,
born an Irish Catholic.
But what you may not know is that through-
out his life and career, he had a uniquely close
relationship with the Jewish community, and he
relied heavily on two brilliant Jewish deputies in
modernizing the role of his office.
Kelley, who died March 5, 2021, at the age of
96, grew up in a Detroit where the racist broad-
casts of Father Charles Coughlin
blared from many a radio, and
there was a nasty streak of
antisemitism among, too, many
Irish Americans. But, that wasn’t
true in Frank Kelley’s home.
“My father used to say, ‘the
Irish have been discriminated
against for 500 years. But our
Jewish neighbors have been dis-
criminated against for 5,000 years,
and yet we’ve both found freedom
and opportunity in America.
’”
Frank said, “No slurs against Jews were toler-
ated,
” either in their home or the rather elegant
speakeasy the elder Frank Kelley ran.
That attitude helped the future attorney gen-
eral when he was a teenager and got a badly
needed job in retail selling men’s clothing at the
old United Shirt store on Michigan Avenue, a
store he remembered as being run by “a fine
Jewish guy of Dutch descent named Sam Van
Horn.
”
This was just supposed to be a temporary job
during the Christmas rush. Times were hard,
money was tight, and Kelley told me “that was
a different era. Many customers would make
antisemitic remarks, especially when they want-
ed to return things. That didn’t sit well with
me.
”
Kelley responded by saying, “Now, why are
you saying that? We’re just normal people like
you.
”
When the owner found out about that, he
told the manager, “Keep the kid on for as long
as he wants.
”
“Consequently, I was the only gentile retained
after the Christmas rush,
” Kelley told me,
laughing, many years later.
JEWISH ADVISERS
But his best and most intense collaboration
was yet to come. When Michigan Attorney
General Paul Adams resigned to take a state
Supreme Court seat in December 1961, Gov.
John Swainson appointed Frank Kelley to the
job, and he instantly made Leon Cohan, who
was already an assistant attorney general, his
chief deputy.
Cohan became his chief partner in remak-
ing the office and redefining what the job
of Michigan Attorney General
should be. Until Frank Kelley,
attorneys general had mostly
been reactive, defending the state
and its officials when they were
sued. Kelley, with a strong assist
from Cohan, made the office an
aggressive crusader on behalf of
the people.
He started a Consumer
Protection Division and appointed
a Jewish woman and Yale Law
School graduate, Maxine Boord
Virtue, to run it.
Cohan also took him on a trip to Israel in
1971, when Frank Kelley was preparing to
run for the U.S. Senate. There, Kelley told me,
“I had a chance to chat with four of the most
impressive people in Israel — Prime Minister
Golda Meir, Abba Eban, Defense Minister
Moshe Dayan and Ariel Sharon.
” He found
Dayan the most impressive larger-than-life
figure.
Kelley lost the 1972 election but remained
Michigan’s attorney general till 1999. When
Leon Cohan left to become chief counsel for
Detroit Edison in 1973, Kelley elevated Stanley
Steinborn, a man he had hired in 1963, to be
his chief deputy, a job he kept till retiring in
1997.
“My dad taught me how to look at the world,
”
Kelley told me. “But I’m sure he couldn’t have
imagined that his son would not only be the
nation’s longest-serving attorney general but
would also benefit immensely from two superb
deputies who were both Jewish.
”
Longtime political analyst Jack Lessenberry is the co-author
of The People’s Lawyer: The Life and Times of Frank Kelley
(WSU Press, 2015).
Longtime attorney general was a friend to Jews.
Remembering Frank Kelley
JACK LESSENBERRY CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Frank Kelley
SETT95 VIA WIKIPEDIA