AUGUST 4 • 2022 | 29
serving as its first woman
president. About 10 years
ago, she started a Detroit-area
Women of American Society
of Technion stock group to “try
and build ambassadors” for
Technion. Most of the stocks
purchased have a Technion
connection and profits are
donated to the university.
Wolfe, who joined Kovan’s
Technion stock group, was
already familiar with Technion.
Her late father — D. Dan
Kahn — became involved with
Technion decades ago and
donated funds for a robotics
laboratory and other facilities
on its campus.
Deutchman’s grandfather,
the late Samuel Brody, attend-
ed an early Technion support
meeting in Detroit and con-
tributed for an agricultural and
engineering building during
the 1950s. Since then, Cathy
Deutchman, her late father
and her husband have served
on the national board of the
American Technion Society.
The 2022 WATS Mission
was the result of more than
three years of planning, says
Kovan, who was its co-chair
with Janey Sweet of California.
Cathy Deutchman was the
National Program and Mission
Sub-Committee co-chair.
According to Kovan, the
group got along well and was
enthusiastic about what they
saw and learned. The only
downside was an outbreak of
COVID — six participants
came down with the virus
and were tested, treated and
quarantined in keeping with
Israeli protocols.
About Technion
The Israel Institute of Technology, known as Technion,
is Israel’s oldest university. Technion opened its doors
to students at its Haifa campus in 1924. Today, Technion
has more than 15,000 students and is considered a
“powerhouse of science, engineering and medicine.”
The Detroit Chapter of the American Technion
Society, which assists Technion primarily through
philanthropy, was established in 1940. Most supporters
were engineers, scientists or businesspeople, but
other civic leaders, including Philip Slomovitz, the
first publisher of the Detroit Jewish News, were early
members.
Sources: Technion website and a history of the Detroit chapter of the
American Society of Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, 1989.
Cooking class: Janey Sweet,
Barbara Cohn, Janis Wetsman,
Cathy Deutchman, Linda Kovan
and Neta Blum, instructor,
participate in a cooking
demonstration with information
about food sustainability.
Mission participant
Gayle Moyer in Arielle
Fischer’s Biomechanics
and Wearable Tech Lab
with equipment that helps
people correct their gait to
avoid joint replacement.
Mission participant Andi Wolfe with Alon
Wolf, vice president/external relations and
resource development at Technion, in front
of the engineering building endowed by her
parents, D. Dan and Betty Kahn.