18 | NOVEMBER 23 • 2023 
J
N

I

n late October, Jane F. 
Sherman participated 
in a powerful Jewish 
Federations of North 
America solidarity mission 
to Israel. 
Already planning to 
travel to Israel under any 
circumstances to visit her four 
kids there, Sherman quickly 
agreed to go on this mission 
when it came up following the 
Hamas terror of Oct. 7. 
The mission was of great 
importance to Sherman, as 
she hasn’t missed a war in 
Israel since the 1973 Yom 
Kippur War.
“I lived there during the 
Scud war [with Iraq in 1991]. 
I lived there during 2006 
[the Lebanon war]. And I felt 

it was important to go give 
my support and also to see 
what was going on because 
I’m a fundraiser at heart, 
and I wanted to see what we 
needed to raise the funds for. 
So that’s the reason I went,” 
she explained. 
Earlier this year, Sherman 
was the recipient of the 
inaugural Max M. Fisher 
Award at the inaugural Jewish 
Agency for Israel North 
American Council Leadership 
Dinner, for the impact she 
has made to the local and 
global Jewish communities. 
Sherman is the daughter 
of the late Fisher, the iconic 
Detroit-area philanthropist 
and businesswoman who was 
the founding chairman of 

the board of governors of the 
Jewish Agency for Israel.
For 50 years, Sherman has 
been devoted to supporting 
Israel and Jewish life with 
a focus on children at risk, 
Jewish education and the 
next generation of Jewish 
leaders. She was a member 

of the Jewish Agency Board 
of Governors for more than 
25 years and is currently 
a member of the Jewish 
Agency Executive Board.
Sherman was on the 
mission for five days with 
18 people from all over the 
United States. She was the 
only one from Detroit. 
The furthest south location 
Sherman visited on this 
mission was in Ashkelon. 
“When we were there, we 
had a couple of red alerts,” 
Sherman said. “I had a couple 
of red alerts in Tel Aviv, too.” 
Sherman visited with 
evacuees from southern 
Israel (of which there are 
about 200,000 in total) 
including some from Kfar 
Aza, a kibbutz just miles 
away from Gaza and where 
Hamas massacred residents 
and abducted several 
hostages on Oct. 7.
Sherman witnessed the 
thousands of volunteers 
that have set up facilities, 
provided services and all the 
items the evacuees needed, 
like clothes, food, diapers, 
formula and more. 
“And the Jewish Agency 
has a program called the 
Victims of Terror Fund, 

Jane Sherman Reflects 
on JFNA Solidarity 
Mission to Israel

“The psychological trauma of this war goes becond 
anything anybody ever imagined,” she said.

DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER

OUR COMMUNITY

PHOTOS BY JFNA ISRAEL (AVIRAM VALDMAN)

LEFT: Jane (right) said of the trip, 
“I’ve never been in a situation as 
sad as this.” BOTTOM: Mission-
goers visited facilities providing 
services and items needed by 
evacuees.

