32 | NOVEMBER 17 • 2022 

OUR COMMUNITY

D

avid Broner, 83, of 
West Bloomfield 
was nominated to be 
our Volunteer of the Week by 
Hebrew Free Loan for the years 
of mentorship he’s provided to 
the community. 
“David is the ultimate in 
volunteer work,
” said Paul 
Hooberman, a contributor 
to Hebrew Free Loan. “He 
spreads his time out in so many 
different directions and has for 
many years. 
“
After he retired from a 
family business, he went to 
work full time as a volunteer 
at SCORE [the nation’s largest 
network of volunteer, expert 
business mentors, dedicated to 
helping small businesses get off 
the ground]. I volunteered at 
SCORE for a while and David 
was my mentor. He’s just a 
terrific individual.
” 
Since retiring from the 
family business, Broner Glove 

& Safety, Broner has dedicated 
his time to volunteer work for 
the past 12 years. He was a 
board member with Hebrew 
Free Loan and got involved with 
SCORE after learning about it 
at his synagogue, Congregation 
Shaarey Zedek.
“I get to meet people that I 
never would have met in my 
entire life, who are dreaming 
of actualizing a business in 
Michigan,
” Broner said. “SCORE 
is a wonderful organization. 

Nobody gets paid. We get 
paid accolades for watching 
somebody grow.
”
Broner is a certified volunteer 
mentor with SCORE and was 
awarded the SCORE Mentoring/
Coaching Award of the year 
in 2014. He has mentees he’s 
been working with for eight or 
10 years and some he’s been 
working with for three months.
“We’ve been so fortunate 
to get to know him over the 
past couple of years, and it’s 
so incredible to have someone 
with so much experience 
and wisdom helping us out 
in a volunteer capacity,
” said 
Josh York, co-founder of Soft 
Goods, a cut-and-sew garment 
factory in Detroit’s Northwest 
neighborhood. 
“He’s made important 
connections for our small 
business that have helped us 
grow and always comes with 
creative ideas of solving some of 
the problems that we face. Aside 
from business, he’s a great guy to 
call a friend, and we’re lucky to 
have him on our team!”

While Broner isn’t as active 
with Hebrew Free Loan 
anymore, he still offers support 
when they need it.
“Volunteering and mentoring 
keep me abreast of what’s 
happening and current. I would 
say it’s healthy for me to try 
to stay as current as I possibly 
can, especially with these young 
people who are technological 
and all over the place. So, it 
keeps me on my toes,
” Broner 
added. 
Broner encourages others 
with business experience to 
become a mentor with SCORE 
if they have the time. 
“I would say if you were 
a former business owner or 
business manager, you would 
get a big lift out of being a 
SCORE mentor.
” 

To learn more about SCORE, head 

to: score.org. For Hebrew Free Loan: 

hfldetroit.org. 

 If you would like to nominate some-

one to be the next volunteer of the 

week, send a nomination with a short 

paragraph telling us why to rsweet@

thejewishnews.com.

Meet David Broner, a certified 
volunteer mentor with SCORE, helping 
small business owners in Michigan. 

A Mentor for 
Entrepreneurs

RACHEL SWEET ASSOCIATE EDITOR 

VOLUNTEER OF THE WEEK

David Broner with 
two of his mentees, 
Josh York and Carl 
Williams 

A Broner family photo 

David 
Broner

