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