Gallery Archive

Law Professor and Civil Rights Advocate

Poet and entrepreneur

Scrap Metal Entrepreneur

Automobile manufacturer

Jewish Detroit's First Great Surgeon

Giant of philanthropy

Service and Philanthropy Were the Heart of His Soul

Michigan's First Jewish Settler

Philanthropist, Entrepreneur, Visionary, Family Man

The Jewish Hercules

Hammerin' Hank

Detroit's First Jewish Resident

Albert Kahn: Jewish Detroit’s Favorite Architect

He achieved great fame within Detroit for stories of his great strength as well as co-founding the B’nai David synagogue.

The Butzel company not only provided uniforms to the Union soldiers during the Civil War, but the brothers also helped provide safe passage for slaves making their way along the Underground Railroad.

Ezekiel Solomons, a native of Berlin who had served with the British army, arrived at Michilimackinac in September 1761. He is Michigan’s first-known Jewish resident.

David Emil Henieman, born in Detroit on October 17, 1865, was the son of Emil and Fanny Butzel Heineman, prominent Jewish Detroiters who ran a clothing store within Detroit’s Russell House on Campus Martius, and were very involved in the community.

She served as president for some thirty years of the Detroit Ladies' Society for the Support of Hebrew Widows and Orphans in the State of Michigan, popularly known as The Frauen Verein.

Emil and Fanny (Butzel) Heineman were prominent Jewish citizens of Detroit in its pioneer days. Emil Heineman was born December 11, 1824, at Neuhaus on the Oste, near Hamburg.

In 1911, Aaron founded the Aaron DeRoy Car Co. and opened a Studebaker dealership, becoming the first Jewish auto-dealership owner.