OUR COMMUNITY

28 | AUGUST 18 • 2022

A

legendary
Detroit
radio voice
will be honored with
a dinner and tail-
gate party Aug. 27 at
Lawrence Technological
University in Southfield.
Detroiters know
Specs Howard for his
longtime media institu-
tion, the Specs Howard
School of Broadcast Arts, which
operated from 1970 to 2021,
when it became part of Lawrence
Tech.
Jerry Liebman was born April
8, 1926, in rural Kittanning, Pa.
He graduated from Allegheny

College and went into
radio announcing in
his home state. After
getting a job with a big-
ger station in Cleveland,
he adopted the name
Specs Howard, for his
trademark glasses. He
was a Top 40 DJ in
Cleveland from 1956 to
1962, then became part
of “The Martin and
Howard Show,” one of the earliest
examples of the “morning zoo”
drive-time radio format, a com-
bination of music, news, celebrity
interviews and comedy bits.
In 1967, he was recruited to the
Detroit market by WXYZ-AM,

where he continued “Martin
and Howard.” In 1970, he left
the airwaves to establish the
Specs Howard School, training
generations of Detroit broadcast
technicians, engineers, and radio
and TV personalities in the finer
points of the broadcast arts. Many
of Detroit’s most prominent radio
DJs, news reporters and TV per-
sonalities have a Specs Howard
certificate on their resume.
Now that his school is part of
Lawrence Tech, the Specs Howard
community plans to celebrate
Howard and all he’s done for
the Michigan communications
industry with a private dinner and
public tailgate party before LTU’s

first home football game Saturday,
Aug. 27. The tailgate party starts
at 6 p.m., and the football game
kicks off at 7. Pregame activities
will feature a special media tribute
to Howard, including stories from
Specs Howard alumni. (Specs
alumni are invited to submit a
memory at https://ltu.wufoo.com/
forms/q1szkapz11dv47v/.)
The first 100 Specs Howard
alumni to register for the event
will receive a commemorative
coin with the Specs Howard clas-
sic radio button on one side and
an LTU seal on the other, celebrat-
ing the university’s 90th birthday
this year. To register, visit apply.ltu.
edu/register/specsalumnievent.

Lawrence Tech to Honor
Specs Howard Aug. 27

Jerry Liebman

Starting in September,
JFamily Detroit is
working to bring 40
families together with
a new program called
Sharing Shabbat. The
organization says it’s a
yearlong program for
families with children
ages 0-8.
“Your family will
participate in monthly
Shabbat experiences as
you build relationships with
families and learn how to
celebrate Shabbat in your
home,” JFamily Detroit
explains.
The community
organization is welcoming
families who are new to
town, interfaith families and
families looking to make
new connections.
Some of the programming
includes an opening
Shabbat dinner and closing

Havdalah celebration, two
art workshops with local
artist Gail Kaplan, a virtual
challah baking experience
and more.
The deadline to apply
for the program is Aug.
22. For more information
and to apply, contact
Shoshana Fain, Jfamily
Director of Programming
and Engagement, at sfain@
jccdet.org.

Sharing Shabbat

The Orthodox Union (OU) —
the nation’s largest Orthodox
Jewish umbrella organization
— applauded the U.S. Senate’s
passage of legislation that will
provide new financial support to
nonprofit organizations, includ-
ing synagogues and nonpublic
schools, to make their buildings
more energy efficient.
Passed by the Senate, the
“Inflation Reduction Act of
2022” allows nonprofits to ben-
efit from current energy-related
tax credits by making them
transferable to for-profit compa-
nies.
For more than 10 years,
Internal Revenue Code section
179D has provided tax credits to
building owners to subsidize the
cost of making their buildings
more energy efficient. For just as
long, OU Advocacy — the OU’s
nonpartisan public policy arm —
has worked to make these federal

tax credits available to nonprofits
in some form.
The bill is a tremendous vic-
tory for nonprofits, allowing
them to make energy-efficiency
improvements to their build-
ings and transfer the value of
the credit to for-profit com-
panies designing or installing
the new energy systems. The
company would then deduct
the value from its invoice to the
nonprofit.
OU Executive Director
for Public Policy Nathan
Diament, who also heads the
OU Advocacy Center, stated:
“We are very excited about the
expansion of 179D tax credits
to nonprofits. This resource,
combined with other ener-
gy-efficiency programs, can
potentially provide hundreds of
thousands of dollars in support
to individual schools, syna-
gogues and others.”

U.S. Senate Passes Bill that will Benefi
t
Day Schools, Synagogues