Telethons are a staple of the Annual Campaign. Can you guess the year that this telethon photo was taken? Here are some hints:
- There are a number of obsolete items in this image, including rotary phones and printed telephone directories.
- This photo was taken at the Federation HQ, located in the Fred M. Butzel Memorial Building, 163 Madison Ave, Detroit.
- While we don’t see many ladies at this telethon, the Women’s Division had already formed and was doing its part to help raise money for the campaign.
And the year is…1962!
The Annual Campaign as we know it today first began in 1925 as the Allied Jewish Campaign. It aimed to centralize fundraising, budgeting, and allocating money to its member agencies and to other organizations of the Detroit Jewish community and overseas agencies serving Jews.
Federation’s fundraising efforts were mainly led by the Detroit Service group, comprised of lay leaders separated into divisions by their professions. Each division would compete against each other to see who could raise the most, and starting in 1950 the year’s activities culminated in Stag Day. With the promise of no speeches and “just a day of good fellowship,” Stag Day was a day of fun, food, golf, and the awarding of a trophy to the top fundraising division of the campaign. Although the Detroit Service Group consisted of all men, the lead staff person was the formidable Esther Prussian!
Today, the Annual Campaign is still Federation’s most important vehicle to meet the needs of the Jewish people in Detroit, Israel, and around the world.
If you want to learn more Jewish Detroit History, explore our digital database.
Image: Jewish Federation Photograph Collection, FEDJF.94.1, Leonard N. Simons Jewish Community Archives.
