A Maronite Christian Arab living in the Detroit area this week made a $5000 contribution to the University of Haifa in Israel in appreciation for the help Israel has given to her relatives and her people in the Israeli-Lebanon border region who are caught in the Lebanese conflict. Heidi Brancheau, owner of Heidi’s Salons in West Bloomfield and Southfield, made the announcement saying that she wanted to do something to thank Israel and the Jewish community.
A native of Lebanon, Mrs. Brancheau said her mother, who still resides near the Israel-Lebanon border, is alive owing to the medical care she is receiving from the Israelis. Three sisters, a brother and several aunts and uncles are still trapped in Lebanon.
Mrs. Brancheau’s donations to Jewish philanthropies are not new. She has been a donor to the Allied Jewish Campaign (the local United Jewish Appeal drive) and has assisted Women’s American ORT locally. She said she also wanted to thank the Jewish community for contributing to her business success.
She became interested in fund-raising for the University of Haifa through a client at one of her salons, Mrs. Louis Golden, whose husband is president of the American Friends of Haifa University (AFHU) and a member of the university’s board of governors. At the university, dorms are under construction for not only Israeli students, but for needy Lebanese students as well.
Golden arranged a meeting between Dr. Eleazar Raphaeli, president of the university, and Mrs. Brancheau, and subsequently she became a member of AFHU. The two became friends and soon the fund-raising project was launched.
After visiting Israel in October, Mrs. Brancheau will quit her hairdressing duties, although she will maintain both of her beauty salons which will be managed by family members from Lebanon she has sponsored here. She will work full-time for the AFHU. Golden has arranged for her to have an office and secretary. She also will devote her time to fund-raising activities for other charities.
“I want to spend the rest of my life helping others to keep from suffering,” she said, recalling the fate of her relatives in Lebanon. “I want to help eliminate suffering.” Mrs. Brancheau, who came to the U.S. at the age of 17, said that from the very beginning of her arrival in this country the only people who cared for her as a human being were the Jewish people. She added that when Lebanese Christians were being slaughtered in the recent strife, all the world kept silent and only the Israelis came to their aid.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
