Helen Zuckerman
Interviewed by Sharon Alterman
August 26, 2005
Zuckerman home, Franklin, Michigan
Helen Zuckerman
Video 00:53:08
Helen Zuckerman
Audio 00:53:08
Abstract
In this oral history interview, Helen Zuckerman speaks about her upbringing. She grew up in a non-Jewish neighborhood with minimal Jewish education, but always kept holidays because of her grandmother. She did not have many Jewish friends growing up, but met her husband Paul at a Temple Beth El dance.
Zuckerman talks at length about how she and her husband met and about his peanut butter business. She discusses being a young mother and joining ORT and Hadassah. She mentions that she became much more involved with Federation after the death of her husband.
She speaks about her family’s many trips to Israel, as well as how they had a home there for 15 years. She also discusses the leaders in Israel she and Paul had relationships with, as well as some others they stayed in contact with. She talks about the time when Paul was chair for the United Jewish Appeal and their contribution to The Orchards in Detroit.
Zuckerman goes into the things she got involved with after her husband passed, like the Michigan Cancer Foundation, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Michigan Opera Theatre, and Israel Bonds. She talks briefly about being a widow, her love of art and her art collection. Lastly, she discusses her children and grandchildren.
History of Narrator
Helen Fleisher Zuckerman was born in 1914 in Bay City, where her parents had settled after coming to America from Russia. Her father operated Oppenheim’s dry goods store there, then moved the business to Detroit’s east side. She graduated from Detroit’s Southeastern High School and attended Wayne (State) University but dropped out during the Great Depression to work at Himelhoch’s department store, rising to a manager’s position.
She met Paul Zuckerman on a Bob-Lo Island moonlight cruise sponsored by Temple Beth El, and they were married for almost 50 years. Longtime benefactors of Israel, the Zuckermans established a community center near Ben-Gurion University, a study hall at Hebrew University, a day care center and park in Jerusalem, and they donated a Magen David Adom ambulance. In Michigan, the Zuckermans founded the Angels of Michigan Cancer Foundation and funded a nursery school at Temple Beth El.
Mrs. Zuckerman started the Paul Zuckerman Support Foundation for Cancer Research at the Karmanos Cancer Center. She became a member of several boards and committees, achieving awards and honors along the way. She was on the boards of such organizations as the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit’s Women’s Division, the Detroit Institute of Arts’ Friends of Modern Art, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Michigan Cancer Foundation. She also was extremely active in Jewish Vocational Service (JVS), donating historical photos of Detroit and Israel to be housed in the Paul Zuckerman Conference Room.
Transcript
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Credit as: Leonard N. Simons Jewish Community Archives. Helen Zuckerman Oral History Interview, August 26, 2005.