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