ADL Board Member and National Commissioner Craig Fleishman shares his passions for travel, the law, his family, and fighting for justice and fair treatment for all.
How did you first become involved in ADL? How are you involved now?
In the late 1970s, Larry Atler, who was a very strong supporter of ADL and its principles, acquainted me with its goals and achievements. Being new to this community, it seemed like a worthwhile opportunity to integrate into the community with a meaningful organization. I’m a national commissioner and have been a board member since ice covered most of the earth (1984)!
What do you do in your professional life?
I am a trial lawyer. I have dedicated my practice to helping folks with significant emotional, physical and financial injuries and damages.
When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Batman. Batman and Spiderman were my heroes. As I grew older I wanted to be an FBI agent. It seemed like a tremendous opportunity to be able to be secure by having a badge and a gun since I was a shrimp.
Where were you born? From where do your ancestors hail?
I was born in Detroit. My grandfather on my father’s side emigrated here from South Africa, having walked with his brothers from Lithuania to Palestine to avoid serving in the Russian army. They went to South Africa when they heard that gold had been discovered there. When the Boer war broke out, the Boers wanted them to fight the English and since they were already draft dodgers, three of them decided to leave for the United States (one of them was inducted into the Boer army and remained in Johannesburg). My grandfather didn’t see his brother for sixty years. In a great series of coincidences, he named his sons Alan and Leonard and the South African brother named his sons Alec and Leonard; the South African Leonard eventually became a member of parliament. When I got out of the Army I was in Saigon, and I wrote to my cousins in South Africa and asked if they wanted to meet. I trekked through Asia and Africa, and ended up in South Africa where I met my cousins. We became very close friends and they have come to Denver several times as well.
My grandfather on my mother’s side immigrated to the US by himself at the age of 13 with five dollars sewn into his coat. His father had come to America and raised enough money to be able to bring my grandfather and other family members back to the US. When my great-grandfather went back to Hungary, he got pneumonia and died. So my grandfather got to Antwerp, got into the hold of a ship without being able to speak English, and made it to Ellis Island. He didn’t know where his relatives were other than somewhere in Detroit. After working in New York City and saving up some money, he took a train to Detroit and asked someone where his cousin lived and the person he spoke to said “is he a Jew?” When my grandfather said “yes,” the man said “take this bus to the end of the line, because that’s where the Jews live.” So that’s how he found his relatives. He became a very successful guy with only a seventh grade education; he dropped out of school because he was beaten up so much by other kids for being a Jew.
My other grandfather on my father’s side, Nathan Fleishman, ended up becoming the chairman of the board of a national bank in Granite City, IL, across the river from St. Louis. In the 1920s, the chairman of banks signed the bank notes, so I have framed in my office a $10 bill signed by my grandfather!
What’s your favorite holiday?
The Fourth of July. I enjoy watching the fireworks.
What’s your favorite food?
Lobster and lasagna, with a peanut buster parfait for dessert.
What are you reading?
I just bought Night by Elie Wiesel. Can you believe I’ve never read it? A book on a similar topic by Simon Wiesenthal that I read years ago, The Murderers Among Us, is about the Germans claiming they didn’t know about the Holocaust, and giving examples of how that’s untrue.
What’s a special place you have visited?
Auschwitz. It was very moving, depressing, thought-provoking and memorable.
What’s one thing every person should know or experience?
The inner joy and satisfaction of standing up for one’s principles and making a contribution, personally and financially, to help the less fortunate.
What teacher or class stands out to you the most in your education and why?
Medical and legal principles. It was taught by Roger Johnson at the University of Denver Law School. He’s a doctor and a lawyer and I found it fascinating learning medicine and developing an understanding of injuries suffered by tort victims.
What are you passionate about personally? What can’t you stop talking about?
The Epilepsy Foundation. My involvement came about from a tragedy in my life concerning my son, Jason. Jason died very suddenly from bacterial meningitis at the age of 23, after graduating from Middlebury College in Vermont. He did not die of epilepsy, but he had contracted epilepsy when he was learning ski racing on a glacier and was involved in a collision on the mountain. They gave him various medications to control the seizures which were unsuccessful, so I decided to research on the Internet to see if there was some solution to this problem, and that’s how I learned about the Epilepsy Foundation of Colorado. I contacted them and they linked me up with a doctor who put together a medicine cocktail that helped with some of the adverse effects of Jason’s other medications. They were so taken with him in Vermont that they put him on the board of the foundation there and he traveled to Vermont colleges and gave lectures to college students about the misconceptions about epilepsy. After his death, I wanted to do something to memorialize him, so I got together with the foundation here in Colorado, and I created the Jason Fleishman Camp, which is exclusively for kids with epilepsy. I have 100 kids here in camp. Most of them are on scholarship, and if not for this camp, they wouldn’t be able to have that experience. We have specially trained staff including volunteer nurses, doctors and counselors that spend a week with these kids and if someone has a grand mal seizure, they can do so without embarrassment because no one cares. The parents are so appreciative that the kids can rock climb, horseback ride, and do everything anyone without a disability can do in controlled circumstances where there is no fear of ridicule or injury.
The two accomplishments in my life that I am the most proud of are creating the Jason Fleishman Summer Camp and being awarded the Bronze Star in Vietnam for meritorious service to my country.
Where can we find you when you are not working?
On my patio sitting in a hot tub reading a book and enjoying a cigar.
What would be impossible for you to give up?
Travel. I’m going to Iceland in October. Mainly I’m going to see the aurora borealis so I can cross it off my bucket list, but I’m also going to do some whale watching, drive around the island, and take a short trip on a sea boat around a bunch of ice floes. I hope to try some reindeer jerky.
If you had to teach something, what would you teach?
A course in the law. I did created a course at DU law school called Understanding and Preventing Legal Malpractice. It was the first in the country, and other law schools have since copied it. Prior to that, I taught government contracting to men and women from NATO countries before I went to Vietnam. After law school, I volunteered to be a night school teacher at Regis College because I enjoyed teaching so much. I created and taught three courses there: Principles of Insurance, Principles of Real Estate and General Principles of the Law. I would teach one of these courses each semester for undergraduates who were majoring in business. I would definitely teach again.
Tell me a story that immediately pops into your mind that was a defining or significant moment for you with regards to ADL’s work.
Co-chairing the Governor’s Holocaust Remembrance Program was an incredibly moving and rewarding experience. Being able to co-present a program honoring Holocaust victims and providing education to over a thousand members of the audience concerning this horrific endeavor of the Nazis to exterminate the Jewish people was cathartic and fulfilling from an educational standpoint.
Why do you choose to make a financial investment in ADL?
I believe that each of us has a moral commitment to give back to the community and do our utmost to fight against hatred, bias and prejudice.
Complete this sentence: For me, the ADL is …
… An organization that is principled, important, well-run, and devoted to a wonderful group of causes.