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THE JEWISH CHRONICLE
THE JEWISH CHRONICLE
Michigan's Only Jewish Publication.
Samuel J. Rhodes,
-
-
Editor
Issued by the Jewish Chronicle Publishing Company.
Anton Kaufman,
-
Manager
Subscription in Advance
$1.50 per year
Offices 701Penobscot Bldg.
Telephone Cadillac •.188.
The Jewish Chronicle invites correspondence on subjects of inter-
est to the Jewish people, but disclaims responsibility for an indorse-
ment of views expressed by the writers.
All correspondence and society notes to insure publication must
be sent in so as to reach this office Wednesday morning of each week.
FRIDAY, 'Al ARCH 3, 1916.
Salutatory
'This issue marks the initial appearance of the Jewish Chronicle.
For a long time, there has been a vital demand for a Jewish
publication in Detroit For a long tiple, the jet's of this city have
felt the need of an organ for their communal expression. For . a long
time, it remained, indeed, a sad reflection upon our boasted spirit of
civic progress that \aide every Jewish community in the country,
numerically at all approximate to ours, could boast of the possession
of some medium for the utterance of its collective sentiment, Detroit
Jews lacked such a medium.
It is the earnest hope of its founders that the Jewish Chronicle
will .fill that want. It is their fond ideal that it shall become a vital
force for the uplift of the Jews in this city. It is their cherished
dreain that it shall become a potent factor in the communal Jife of
Detroit •Jewry, one for its welfare and good.
The Jewish Chronicle will never he the ally of any single faction
among our people. Rather will it be the champion of all progressive,
constructive elements in Judaism. It will be tireless and - unrelent-
ing in its opposition to every movement creating dissension in Jewish
ranks or contributing towards the disruption of le\•ish solidarity.
And it will be equally indefatigable and fearless in its devotion to all
forces making for strength and harmony in contemporaneous Jewish
life.
Ths.:1- will he found in the pages of the Jewish Chronicle, fr,mi
Our Day of Opportunity,
Tuesday, April Fourth
On this day there will be held in Arcadia Hall, Woodward and
Stimson Place, a areat public meeting that will test not only the gen-
erosity but the humanity of our people. This 'is the day that has
been set aside for the gathering of Detroit's quota to the FIVE MIL-
LION DOLLAR fund that must be raised during the year 1916 for
the relief of our stricken co-religionists in the war zone. Five Mil-
lion Dollars ! It seems like an enormous sum, and yet it is only the
merest bagatelle in proportion to the stupendous amount that is
necessary to relieve the most poignant of suffering among the un-
counted thousands of men, women and children who are without food
and shelter, but who, like dumb brutes, are the victims of every form
of passion that can goad men to inhumanity. Five Million Dollars
raised during the year 1916 by the Jews of America for this purpose
will furnish to our tortured brethren in the war zone less than ONE
DOLLAR PER CAPITA. The conditions that are verified beyond
dispute beggar description. Words are too weak to picture them
even in faintest outline. Only the imagination can dimly conjure up
the picture of these homeless, helpless, starving thousands.
So far as words can tell the story, it will be told by Dr. Stephen
S. Wise of New York, who will come here especially to address this
meeting, Others, too, prominent in the Jewish and the non-Jewish
world, and who are intimately acquainted with the conditions in the
war zone, will tell their story. They will be well worth listening to.
But it should not need the stirring appeal of eloquent men to
touch the hearts of our people in this overwhelming crisis. The
thought of unnumbered thousands of men and women, young and very
old,
without food and shelter ; the very thought of young women by the
thousands subject to a fate that is infinitely worse than death ; the
very thought of little babes
crying for the food which their starving
parents cannot give them, must wake the humanity of our men and
our women who are steeped in luxuries and rolling iwealth beyond
the remotest possibility of legitimate use.
The committee in charge are setting their standard at One Hun-
dred Thousand Dollars. What a bagatelle this is, as compared both
with the wants of our starving brethren and to the enormous wealth
of our prosperous community. To some few, whose standards of giv-
ing are very low and inadequate, the amount may seem large. Let
them revise their judgment and let every man and woman and child
in our community give to this cause not only according to his means,
but even beyond his means to give. It is the one place and time
where we would preach extravagance. We cannot give too much.
The danger is that some of us shall want to give too little.
Administration offices to make preliminary arrangements for this
meeting are to be opened in the Washington Arcade Building, under
the general direction of Mr. David A. Brown, who has kindly con-
sented to devote a month of his time to the work of organization.
The appeal at this meeting is for bread and for the sustenance of
life. God grant that there be no man and no women and no child in
our community, who shall be so poor of so mean or so inhuman as
not to be moved to give all that he can—yea, and more than he be-
lieves he can, to the relief of the most distressing condition by which
the Jews of the world have in all their long and checkered history
been confronted. Let us take up the battle cry, "ONE HUNDRED
THOUSAND DOLLARS TO BE RAISED BY APRIL FOURTH."
—Temple Bulletin.
--mile to time, contributions and essays by Jewish thinkers of un-
doubted authority and prominence, devoted to the treatment of his-
torical questions and to the frank consideration of current problems.
In conclusion, if the Jewish Chronicle shall lie instrumental, in how-
ever small a degree, in causing the conservation f,,r the future of
some of our splendid heritage of the past, its founders shall feel
more than amply justified for having made its existence possible.
THE AWAKENING OF THE B'NAI B'R1TH.
To
Jews who appreciate the splendid character of the Onler of
lrnai wno are familiar with its lofty aims and ideals, and who
know of the grand work it is accomplishing in other cities, the inac-
tive and dormant state of the local lodge must, indeed, have-presented
a tragic spectaelc\, JI-race, they. will be ;;ratified to learn of th e de-
cided rejuvenation of the order in this city. At a meeting of the
organization held recently, a new set of officers was elected, and a
vigorous membership campaign inaugurated. May these be the
indications of a new and lasting.period of activity by the Irnai Irrith
of Detroit !
A NEW FIELD FOR CO-OPERATION.
A small news item of last Sunday, inconspicuously placed, told
of the f;raduation Fxercises held by the
1:nrd School, in \I•licit 512
foreigners, representing 5• various nationalities, participated.
This modest news paragraph opens to our vision new vistas of
thought. The greatest problem which confronts this coritr• at the
present time, a problem which in these turbulent war times has
become real and meaningful, is the problem of properly absorbing
our various foreign elements. The Graduation Itxercises of Ford's
School are significant, for they mark the birth among us of a broader
and saner conception of what constitutes the real solution of Am-
crica'S great problem.
The whole is the sum total of its parts. What affects the whole
must necessarily concern each one of its constituent parts. The
problem of effecting a proper adaptati:m on the part of the immigrant
to the altered conditions and environments of this land is not an
abstract problem, with which the government alone is to deal. It is
a concrete problem, vitally touching -
us as individuals. And if it is
ever to be solved, we must cope with it ourselves. In this, as in
so many other things, along the road of co-operation lies the way
to Success.
Henry Ford realizes this.