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And we continue with our American stories and with Alex Cortez bringing us a unique American voice paying tribute to one of his family

members. I grew up in a in Detroit, born in Detroit, in a very middle class family, lived in a two-family

house with my mother's sister living upstairs. We live downstairs with an open stairwell.

So it was like, almost like having two mothers and, you know, my cousins were like my brother.

Very typical Midwestern middle class area and having a successful uncle that lived on the

other side of the streets, so to speak, and a big impact of my life. When you see success and, you know,

you realize, hey, you know, I came from the same place. The opportunity is there. No one gave it to

them. You're listening to Stephen Ross, whose uncle is the late Max Fisher, who created one of

the largest gas station chains in the Midwest, who was one of the most influential Jewish philanthropists for decades, and Stephen believes was the person who had the greatest impact on his life.

But, I mean, you know, it wasn't something that, you know, it was a relationship where I learned.

I didn't inherit anything from him. I had nothing,

but I learned so much and it was such important, valuable lessons.

You know, in life there was much more the money could have ever bought, you know.

In those days, things were very segregated. You know, the Jews lived here, the Gentiles lived there, and there was a lot of anti-Semitism.

But he transcended that, you know, I mean, the fact that he could do business with Henry Ford,

you know, he was very anti-Semitic, and he was able to be mobile in both aspects of it, I thought was very, very important to be successful, you know.

And most people were you want to stay within, you know, in those days, there was strength by protecting each other.

And that's typically how the Jews survived all those times.

And I think to recognize the fact that we live in a society that is totally mixed, you want to be able to work in all aspects of it and bring people together.

In the summers, I worked at the company.

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