Louis LaMed, a businessman and philanthropist who, over a 30-year span sponsored a wide variety of Hebrew and Yiddish literary and educational projects, died in Miami Beach, Fla., on Dec. 23 at the age of 82. Funeral services were held on Dec. 26 in Detroit, his home for 58 years.
LaMed was born in Novaya Ushitza, Ukraine and was educated at the Kemenetz-Podolsk Yeshiva and at the Odessa Yeshiva where his life-long interest in Hebrew and Yiddish literature was inspired by such teachers as Chaim Nahman Bialik and by Mendele Moher Seforim Abrahamovitz who occasionally lectured at the school. He also studied for a year at the St. Vladimir University in Kiev before coming to the United States and settling in Detroit in 1921.
LaMed sought to make “peace” between Hebraists and Yiddishists. Toward that purpose be established the Louis LaMed Foundation for the Advancement of Hebrew and Yiddish Literature in 1940. Its aim was to stimulate creativity in Hebrew and Yiddish writing. Annual prizes were awarded for outstanding works published in both languages.
From 1941-1960, the foundation distributed 90 awards to authors totalling $150,000: LaMed and his wife, Esther, also established a professorship in Jewish studies at Wayne State University in 1955 and 1960 announced the creation of a fund to the National Foundation for Jewish Culture to encourage Jewish scholarship.
LaMed himself attended Wayne State University as a young man and earned a law degree at the University of Detroit. He was admitted to the Michigan Bar in 1926 but never practiced his profession. Instead, he entered the insurance business from which he retired in 1960. He was also the founder and owner of three furniture companies.
He was an honorary chairman of the Midrasha board of directors, a member of the board of the United Hebrew Schools in Detroit and served as chairman of the education division of the Jewish Welfare Federation. He was also active on the Jewish Community Council executive committee and the Jewish Center and Federation Apartments board of directors. He was a past president of the Sholom Aleichem Institute and a member of the labor Zionist Alliance.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
