62 | APRIL 25 • 2024 
J
N

Looking Back

From the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History 

accessible at thejewishnews.com

The Colorful Tale 
of Mercury Paint
I 

think that today’s column may be my favorite type of “Looking 
Back.” It begins by having a casual chat with a Jewish Detroiter, 
which provides me with an idea for a great story of Jewish Detroit 
history.
Case in point: Several weeks ago, some members of Bus #3 from the 
Motor City Mission to Israel in March 2023 (Bus #3 is the best!) met for 
coffee. So, at this mini-reunion, I’m talking with my friend 
Mitch Mallin. While we were chatting, another Bus #3er, 
Mark Milgrom, arrived. 
Talking between ourselves, Mitch and I agreed that Mark 
is a good guy. Then, Mitch says: “Did you know that Mark’s 
family, along with the Sobermans, owned Mercury Paint in 
Detroit?” I said, no, I did not know that — Mark is a modest 
person and has never talked about this during our conversa-
tions in Israel or afterward. 
This sounded very interesting to me, and I decided to see what I could 
find about Mercury Paint in the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish 
Detroit History. I figured that a good story might be waiting in the Archive. 
And, indeed, there was — for more then 60 years, Mercury Paint was a well-
known Detroit product, owned by the Soberman and Milgrom families. 
The company was founded by Jacob Soberman and Max Milgrom, young 
friends who had immigrated to Detroit from Ozarow, Poland, in 1913. Both 
were also house painters, and most important, entrepreneurial. So, after a few years in the city, they 
borrowed a few dollars and founded Soberman & Milgrom Co. in 1919. They sold wall coverings until, 
in 1921, the Soberman & Milgrom Paint Co. began selling paint from a store at Hastings and Alfred, in 
Detroit’s historic Jewish neighborhood of the early 20th century.
Sadly, Max Milgrom died at the age of 39. This was a severe blow to the family and the company, 
which temporarily closed. However, Jacob Soberman and Max’s widow, Fannie, soon reorganized the 
business and reopened. The firm began manufacturing their own brand of paint in 1934 and Mercury 
Paint was born.
The Mercury Paint Company remained a family-owned business throughout its existence. Max and 
Fannie’s sons, Myron and Louis, joined the firm after WWII, and Jacob Soberman’s son, Nate, in 1950. 
The third generation was represented by Paula Milgrom in 1975 and Charles Soberman in 1979. The 
company was sold to the famous national paint brand, Sherwin-Williams Paints, in 1996. 
BTW — Mark is the son of Louis Milgrom. 
I found excellent documentation of Mercury Paint in the Archive. First, two feature stories stand 
out: “Legacy of Color” (May 5, 1989, JN) and “Mercury Gets a New Coat” (Sept. 20, 1996). The latter article also announced that the 
company was sold to Sherwin-Williams. 
Mercury Paint is also cited on many other pages. For example, several Danny Raskin “Listening Post” columns mention family 
members. See the one for Charles Soberman’s 40th birthday (Dec. 16, 1988). Or see the very attractive advertisements, 1960s-1990s. 
Or see the many times Mercury Paint, or various Milgroms or Sobermans, were cited for their contributions to good causes.
Mercury Paint is a fine story of Jewish Detroit history. It was a pleasure traveling with Mark and Mitch in Israel, and I’m glad I had 
that chat with Mitch. 

Want to learn more? Go to the DJN archives, available for free at thejewishnews.com.

Mike Smith
Alene and 
Graham Landau 
Archivist Chair

OUR COMMUNITY

F

armington Hills res-
ident Mark Milgrom 
has had a deep con-
nection with Israel, especially 
with the Jewish Federation of 
Metropolitan Detroit’s part-
nership region, for decades. In 
March, Milgrom will be exer-
cising that connection once 
again on Federation’s Motor 
City Mission. 
Milgrom first went on an 
Israel trip with his family when 
he was a teenager. He had a 
great experience but didn’t 
catch the “Zionist bug” at that 
time. That wasn’t until he went 
on Miracle Mission II in 1995. 
“That trip did it for me; 
that trip triggered the Zionist 
feeling,” he said. 
Milgrom returned home 
“jazzed up” and got involved 
in the Partnership2Gether 
program at Federation, 
going on one or two young 
leadership missions in the 
framework of the program 
along the way. 
“I made some very close 
friends in the region,
” Milgrom 
said. “To this day, we’re still 
close. I’ve stayed at their houses; 
they’ve been here to Detroit and 
stayed at my house.
”
As a result of making 
friends in Israel, Milgrom 
became cognizant that 
language is everything 
when you’re trying to build 
a partnership between two 
peoples. This thinking led 
Milgrom to travel to Israel for 
two months to study Hebrew 
at an ulpan.
“What a wonderful 

experience that was,” Milgrom 
said. “Not only did it teach 
me Hebrew, spoken and 
writing and reading, but the 
ulpan does a wonderful job of 
teaching you the geography 
of Israel, the history. You go 
on field trips to a bank, to 
a supermarket, to the post 
office, everything you would 
need in order to live in Israel.” 
That trip and the dozen or 
so other Israel trips Milgrom 
has been on led him to a better 
insight on who Israelis are and 
why Israel is so important. It 
also led him to know his way 
around the country better when 
visiting friends and family. 
“Knowing just a little bit of 
Hebrew, enough to read road 
signs, enough to read a menu, 
enough to very simplistically 
ask for directions somewhere, 
goes a long way,
” Milgrom said. 
“It allows you to break through 
what I call the glass ceiling, the 
difference between a tourist 
experience and peeking over 
the top of the ceiling and seeing 
what an Israeli experience is 
like, to be an Israeli.
” 
Milgrom had a trip planned 
to Israel for March 2020, 
which got canceled when the 
pandemic hit. He’s been itching 
to go back ever since, and 
joining the Motor City Mission 
came at the perfect time. 
Having not been on an 
organized trip to Israel in many 
years, Milgrom is looking 
forward to things he hasn’t 
seen before in a group context. 
“For myself, personally, 
just to open up my eyes to 

parts of Israel I never knew 
existed,” Milgrom said. 
“There’s always something 
new and always new people 
to meet.”
Milgrom is staying in Israel 
after the mission for about a 
week or so to visit friends and 
cousins. 

“I’m getting the best of both 

worlds,
” Milgrom said. “The 
value of somebody organizing 
the mission and time on my 
own.
”
It was on the bus during 
Miracle Mission II that 
Milgrom met and spent time 
with Norm Keane, then the 
CEO of Jewish Family Service 
of Metro Detroit. Keane invited 
Milgrom for a tour of JFS when 
they got home. Fast forward 
and Milgrom was elected to 
the JFS board of directors and 
became board president from 
2010 to 2012. 
“When people ask me how I 
got involved with JFS, I always 
say it all started with a bus ride 
in Israel,
” Milgrom said. “It’s 
the Israel spark, the Zionist 
spark, that got me involved in 
the Jewish community and gave 
me a better understanding of 
Judaism and Zionism in Israel 
and around the world.
” 

Mark Milgrom is returning to Israel 
on the Motor City Mission in March. 

The ‘Zionist Bug’

DANNY SCHWARTZ STAFF WRITER

MOTOR CITY MISSION COUNTDOWN

Mark 
Milgrom 

