28 | FEBRUARY 22 • 2024
J
N
F
edRadio Detroit co-hosts Sam
Dubin and Beverly Lis welcome Jane
Sherman to this month’s podcast.
Sherman is a trusted leader in Detroit’s
Jewish community, touching lives in
Michigan, in Israel and around the world.
Her resume is impressive: She’s a member
of the executive committee for the Jewish
Agency for Israel. She’s a past
chair and a board member of the
United Israel Appeal, and a board
member of the Jewish Federation
of Detroit. She also serves on the
boards of the Jewish Federations of
North America, Birthright Israel
Foundation and the Michigan
Council of AIPAC. Jane is a
board member of the Detroit Symphony
Orchestra. She’s also chairman of the Fisher
Group and serves as vice chair of the Max
M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation.
Sherman, the daughter of Max Fisher, talks
about the first time she was in Israel in 1962
on her 21st birthday to her most recent visit
to Israel on a solidarity mission after Oct. 7.
She said the current war against Hamas
feels different than the wars that came
before. “I’ve never walked into that country
to see such sadness and such resilience,
” she
said. “There is nobody in the country that
hasn’t been affected by this war in some way
or another. Whether they’ve lost a relative or
they’ve got a hostage in their family, or the
bombs have fallen next to their house
or they’ve gone into their shelters.
“
And yet,
” she continued, “the
resilience of the Israeli people is
beyond anything I’ve ever seen. And
the perfect example of that is the
volunteerism that has gone on in
Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
”
Sherman said about 200,000
evacuees, both from the north and the
south, need help. Huge warehouses filled
with food, supplies and necessities have
opened that are being manned entirely by
volunteers, people who only a few months
ago were protesting in the streets against
judicial reform.
“It’s amazing what they’ve done. And it’s
all kinds of people. There are CEOs of major
corporations and children 10 years old who
are volunteering,
” she said. “I think it shows
their strength and love for the State of Israel
and how important it is to them and how
important it is to the Jewish people. I don’t
think they’re doing it just for themselves. I
think they’re doing it for all of us.
”
THE JEWISH AGENCY
Max Fisher was the first chair of the Jewish
Agency, which was set up by the State of
Israel to take care of its immigrants and to
build the country.
Last year, Sherman said, the Jewish
Agency brought over 30,000 immigrants to
Israel, mainly from Russia and the Ukraine,
but also from Ethiopia and the United
States.
“
Another main focus of the Jewish Agency
is creating relationships between Israelis and
Jews throughout the world,
” she said.
The Jewish Agency also has a fund for
victims of terrorism, which provides a
stipend and psychological therapy for those
victims. Since Oct. 7, the Jewish Agency is
helping 7,000 victims of terror. “To put that
in perspective,
” she said, “in the last three
years, we had 3,000 in total.
”
The Jewish Agency has also been busy
implementing programs for victims of
the war as well as children, rebuilding
communities decimated by Hamas and
caring for all the people living in the
absorption centers.
“The new immigrants, all the Ethiopians
that live in the South were all moved and
evacuated to different places,
” Sherman said.
In addition to speaking about the Jewish
Agency, Sherman shares news of her
family, including the Ethiopian children
she and Larry unofficially adopted more
than 20 years ago, and kvells about how
each child turned out. She also shares
her large family’s Shabbat traditions,
her thoughts on developing young
philanthropists and discusses antisemitism
on campus.
Tune into FedRadio Detroit on
myjewishdetroit.org to hear more about
her fascinating life and also hear a
conversation with Avi Smith, who was
featured in the Nov. 23, 2023, Jewish News
for creating dog tags with names of Israeli
hostages and then gifting them to Farber
Hebrew Day School.
FedRadio Detroit
Podcast Welcomes
Jane Sherman
OUR COMMUNITY
One of Detroit’s most trusted leaders talks
about her work with the Jewish Agency.
JACKIE HEADAPOHL EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Jane Sherman, right, on her recent
solidarity mission to Israel. “I’ve
never been in a situation as sad as
this,” she said.
PHOTOS BY JFNA ISRAEL (AVIRAM VALDMAN)
Jane Sherman