3 minute read
‘A Dynamic Leader’
OUR COMMUNITY
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For a lifetime of service, Larry Wolfe will receive Federation’s Butzel award.
ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER
In 1983, Jewish community leader and philanthropist Larry Wolfe experienced a major change in his outlook and attitude toward Jewish life.
While on a mission to Israel with his wife, Andi, Larry, despite not wanting to go initially, had a revelation as to what being Jewish truly meant.
It was the mission leader, David Hermelin, and Larry’s father-in-law, D. Dan Kahn, both of blessed memory, who had encouraged him to go.
“Going to Israel changed my outlook on my Jewish identity and how important it was to understand our Jewish traditions and values,” Wolfe, 73, says.
“It was a legacy that was brought to us over thousands of years,” he explains, and even more so when the State of Israel came into existence in 1948.
Back home in Michigan, Wolfe became seriously involved in Jewish life and volunteer work. Since then, he’s been to Israel more than 100 times and continues to help lead Jewish culture in Metro Detroit.
Now, nearly 40 years later, he’s made such an impact on the local community (and national and international Jewish life) that Wolfe will be receiving this year’s Fred M. Butzel Award from the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit to honor his lifetime of service, impact and commitment.
“Since 1951, the Fred M. Butzel Award has represented the community’s highest honor for volunteer leadership,” says Steven Ingber, Federation CEO. “I cannot think of anyone more deserving of this award than my friend and mentor, Larry Wolfe.”
Born in London, Ontario, and growing up in the old Dexter-Davison area, a Jewish enclave in Detroit that his family moved to when he was 5 years old, Wolfe was immersed in Judaism from a young age. He attended a Yeshiva Beth Yehudah afternoon school for Hebrew, later moving to Oak Park in the 1960s, where a strong Jewish community also existed.
LAW AND BUSINESS
In 1970, he married Andi, whom he dated in high school. Wolfe attended Wayne State University and then Detroit College of Law to pursue his dream of becoming an attorney. He and Andi have two children: son Jeremy and wife, Liz, who live in Huntington Woods, and daughter Ericka and husband, Matt, who live in Chicago. The Wolfes have six grandchildren. For a little over seven years, Wolfe practiced law with a mid-sized firm in Detroit before a new opportunity presented itself.
When Andi’s father, philanthropist D. Dan Kahn, invited Larry to join his business of distributing industrial supplies, tooling and machinery, he accepted the proposition. In fact, he remained with the company until 2017, when Larry ultimately sold it. Yet in those in-between years, Wolfe began his steady involvement in local
JERRY ZOLYNSKY
— ANDI WOLFE
Butzel Award winner Larry Wolfe
Jewish affairs, largely inspired by his father-in-law and that Israel trip.
In the late 1980s, Wolfe was introduced to the Jewish Community Center by his friend and mentor Jerry Sobel. Calling it a “natural fit,” Wolfe became involved with the organization and worked his way up to eventually be elected president in 1997. There, he met various Jewish community leaders, including people involved with Federation.
When asked to take a chair on the board of governors at Federation following his threeyear term as president of the JCC, Wolfe gladly accepted. He also became president of Adat Shalom Synagogue.
FEDERATION PRESIDENT
Wolfe’s interest in the Jewish community continued to blossom as did his work with Federation. After working on a number of Federation committees over the years, he eventually was elected president in 2015.
In his three years as Federation president, Wolfe is particularly proud of several achievements under his watch as president of Federation, including moving Federation’s education department to the JCC, which could give the Center better focus on how they serve people within the community through learning initiatives.
Larry and Andi Wolfe often volunteer together, for instance with ORT, a global education network driven by Jewish values. Larry serves on the board of World ORT, as have many noted Detroit ORTsupporters including previous Butzel Award winners David Hermelin and Dr. Conrad Giles, Andi, likewise, is a board member of ORT America.
Yet these initiatives only begin to scrape the surface of Wolfe’s work in Jewish Detroit and beyond. As president of the D. Dan and Betty Kahn Foundation, established by Andi’s family, Wolfe presented a
