28 | FEBRUARY 22 • 2024 
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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

