From sapling to tree
Frazer family contributions started small and have grown exponentially
By Janet Perez
G rowing up in Detroit and working in Washington, D.C., and New York, David Frazer was accustomed to being sur-
rounded by strong Jewish communities. But in 1963, when the young lawyer brought his fledgling family to Phoe-
nix, he found a very different situation.

“When we first moved here, and we were literally still unpacking, we read something in the Jewish News about a welcome
meeting for newcomers at the Jewish Community Center, the old one on the West side (17th and Maryland avenues),”
Frazer said. “So, Joan and I, with another couple that we had met just recently, went to the meeting. It turned out that the
four of us were the only ones to show up.”
While the organizers of the
event outnumbered the attend-
ees, Frazer was struck by the
sense of camaraderie.

“Everybody was very nice
and said they were glad we
came,” he said. “Then they told
us that there was going to be a
fundraiser the following week.

That was my first contribution
to the Jewish community in
Phoenix. It was a modest con-
tribution, no more than $100 I
can guarantee you.”
From that $100, Frazer, his
late wife, Joan, and his current wife,
Marilyn, have become devoted and
generous members of the Jewish com-
munity in greater Phoenix.

As time went on, Frazer would
become president of the Jewish Com-
munity Center, what is today the Jewish
Federation of Greater Phoenix. Frazer
later moved on from his duties, but
he returned a year ago to help raise
$100,000 to buy the center a new
sound system at its current location
on the Ina Levine Jewish Community
Campus in Scottsdale.

Frazer’s late wife, Joan, was on the
board of directors of the Hillel Jewish
Student Center at Arizona State Uni-
versity for 10 years. When she passed
away in 1999, Frazer joined the board
for another 10 years. Joan also was the
co-founder and first president of Jew-
ish Business and Professional Women,
a board member of the Jewish National
Fund and a member of Temple Beth
Israel in Scottsdale.

In honor of Joan, Frazer created the
12 BEST OF JEWISH PHOENIX 2017
including $1 million to help
build a visitors’ center at Abra-
ham’s Well, a historic site in
southern Israel’s largest city,
Be’er Sheva.

Frazer’s past and current
community involvement within
and outside of the Valley Jewish
community includes working
with the federation on planning
interfaith rips to Israel, helping
to create the Flinn Foundation
and working with the National
Council of Christians and Jews
Photo courtesy of JNF
(now the National Confer-
Joan Frazer Memorial Award for Juda-
ence for Community and Justice) for 30
ism and the Arts in 2000. The scholar-
years on the Anytown Camp program.

ship provides students of any faith at
Anytown is a summer camp that brings
ASU with up to $1,500 to support the
together high school students of diverse
creation of original, artistic expressions
backgrounds to eliminate biases. When
combining Judaism and the arts.

funds for the program in Arizona dried
Growing up as a secular Jew in a heav-
up in 2008, it was handed over to the
ily Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn,
YMCA. However, the YMCA combines
Marilyn Frazer said she really began
college and high school students.

learning about her faith when, as a young
“We later asked the YMCA to let us
bride and teacher, she moved to North
do the camp just for high school kids,”
Carolina. Eventually, she joined Hadas-
Frazer said, and now the program oper-
sah. When she moved to the Valley in
ates as an independent nonprofit called
1990, she joined the Phoenix chapter of
the Anytown Arizona Leadership Camp.

the Brandeis National Committee.

All this is to be expected from some-
“And when I married David, I began one who was raised to give back and be
to learn more about philanthropy,” said a leader in the community.

Marilyn, who married Frazer in 2002.

“My mother was very active in the
They also have long supported the
community in Detroit and my father
Jewish National Fund (JNF).

was very involved with his synagogue
Frazer, through his law firm, Frazer
in Detroit. They were leaders,” Frazer
Ryan Goldberg & Arnold, helped his
said. “That’s what Jews are supposed to
client Mary Mann bequeath $1.3 mil-
do. If you have money and after you’ve
lion to JNF. After Mann’s death in
taken care of your family, give to causes
2006, Frazer was responsible for direct- that you think can be very helpful to
ing the funds to two projects in Israel,
people in the community.”




Photo by Ken Brown Photography