A merica lavish Periodical Coder comes AVENUE - CINCINNAIl 20, OHIO pEDLTROITJEMISIS ARON ICU February 14, 1936 and THE LEGAL CHRONICLE Community Closeups . . THE GREAT•WEST LIFE ASSURANCE COMPANY rAJENDS SYMPATHY to the families of One Thousand Two Hundred and Sixty-Four of its policyholders who died during 1935—but DERIVES GRATIFICATION from the fact that it has been privileged to pay them nearly Three Million Four Hundred Thousand Dollars. In addition nearl y Thirteen Million Dollars was paid during the year to living contract-holders. RECORDS that, since its inception, it has paid to policy- holders and beneficiaries almost One Hundred and Seventy Million Dollars. 49 MELVILLE . . . . S. WELT Gentleman from Indiana The following I. one of • writ. of biographical o k etohe. o f howl owelai service icad ow area ,,orkers which 0111 be PO ,- 'Isbell weekly In The Detroit Jroish Chronicle. EDITOR'S NOTE: LIVERY ONCE-IN-A-MUE- R. / but only by coincidence, your dyed-in-the-wool individualist in- sists—the law of primogeniture lifts the mantle from the shoul- ders of the father to those of the son and does a very excellent job of it. Take Mel Welt, for example. Ile succeeded his father, the late Louis Welt, at the helm of the family business. and added the temporary Central High— where the Krolik Building now stands, on Jefferson Ave. He completed his course, however, and was graduated from the new school—way out on Warren and Cass. It was at Central that Mr. Welt formed a friendship that has been cemented by 40 years of in- timacy with Ilenry Wineman. The two attended the U. of N. and roomed together at Ann Arbor. APPRECIATES the continued confidence of the public as shown by new business of over Fifty Million Dollars. ANNOUNCES that its total insurances and annuities in force amount to over Five Hundred and Seventy Million Dollars. REMEMBERS that it holds in stewardship, for policyholders and others, its assets of over One Hundred and Forty-three Million Dollars. REPORTS an increase in surplus after providing liberal par- ticipation returns to policyholders and after conservatively valuing assets and liabilities. Important Items For 1935 Business in Force (including annuities) . . . $570,774,224 New Business Issued (including annuities) • 50,667,747 Total Income 26,531,468 Payments to Policyholders and Beneficiaries 16,195,082 Assets 143,595,896 Liabilities (chiefly to Policyholders) 137,243,371 Surplus, Contingency Reserve and Capital 6,352,525 Write for your copy of The Great-West 32-page booklet, con- taming the complete 44th Annual Report and other interesting life insurance information. HARRY IIIMELSTEIN 1512 Union Guardian Bldg., Detroit REPRESENTING "EGREAT-WEST LIFE ASSURANCE COMPANY MLA() OFFICE •••WINPIIPLG The•Cry Against The Communists Try Stroh's Bohemian Beer and enjoy a new taste-treat. Stroh's is Fire Brewed. f . `4,' ONLY PROS C"?ICEST '4,v...is A Eip Strictly Confidential (coNciznap teem tongues EDITORIAL PAGE) wagging because they have been going places together in Miami . . . Leo Chertok, the big promoter who claims to have a contract for exploiting a big slice of Ethiopia, is a cousin of Moshe cs5.. Shertok, head of the political de- partment of the Jewish Agency for Palestine . . . Speaking of Ethiopia reminds us that Prof. Richard J. M. Gottheil of Colum- bia University is now giving the first course in Amharic, the official tongue of Ethiopia . A Jewish member of the N. Y. Assembly has introduced a bill in the legis- (CONCLUDED from EDITORIAL PAGE) deed alarming to many. Poor Jesus! What a time he would have if he returned to earth today. Which all goes to show that the struggle in this country is rapidly narrowing itself into two clearly discernable camps. On the one hand are the re- ligious forces who are coming more and more to be looked upon as "radicals," "Commu- nists" and labelled with other fancy designations. The other side consists of those whose philosophy is the opposite of everything which religion stands for. I believe, and indeed hope, that the large majority of Jews are on the side of the religious forces. THE STRUGGLE FOR RELIGIOUS LIBERTY The fact that religious groups are now in the vanguard of the struggle for civil and religious liberty in America is proof posi- tive of what I have just said. To be sure, there is no immed- iate danger that religious free- dom in the conventional sense will be restricted. No one ex- pects that church groups will be called upon by those in power to give up their traditional forms of worship. The danger is in another direction. It con- sists of a determination by the forces of reaction to prevent religious bodies from exercising the liberty of putting their ideals into practice. Events are proving more and more that the chief danger to the old or- der is not the relative handful of American Communists but the powerful influence of the churches. This is why religion has such an important stake in civil and religious liberty. The Ameri- can churches are not to be confused with the German churches. Their resistance to Fascism will be based upon to- tally different grounds. For, if the German churches had been granted religious liberty by Hitler, i. e. freedom to wor- ship as they chose, they would have been willing enough to follow the social and economic banner of the Nazis. But the American churches are opposed to Fascism ash system. And consequently they are menace number one to the future Fasc- ists. lature asking President Roosevelt to Intervene in behalf of the Catho- lics of Mexico .. . Reports that Dolly Stark, baseball's only Jew- ish umpire, was given a year'. leave of absence when he asked for more money are a lot of hooey He was really locked out, and . he's looking for a job lustre to the name of an institu- Mel Welt received his A. B. de. tion which is among the leaders gree in 1902, the yougest man of the industry in the city. Like his father, too, he has been presi- dent of Temple Beth El;. and the terms of office of Welt file, like that of Welt pore, is written In the records as of the halcyon days. Melville S. Welt was born in the town of Wolcottville, Indiana-40 miles southeast, as the crow flies, from Elkhart—Nov. 13, 1881. The family came to Detroit when the protagonist of these brief para- graphs was very young. And has been among the leaders of both the Jewish community and of the city ever since. The Welt home, then, was in half of a beautiful, white-stone front, double house on the north side of Charlotte, between Cass and Second. Wide, tree-shaded Charlotte Avenue was sedately fashionable in those days. Youth Mel Welt was a freshman at to get his baccalaureate that year. Shortly thereafter the Welt & Redelsheimer Paper House be- came the firm of Welt & Sons, with, first Melville, and then his brother, Joseph, in the partner- ship. The Damon and Pythias assoc- iation with Henry Wineman is legendary in the annals of the first decade of the century; and especially in the chapter which Michigan historians will one day devote to summers at Charlevoix during the peg-top pants and but- ton-shoe era. Messrs. Welt and Wineman were inseparable then. And many a matron of today re- calls, fondly, the flutter among maidenly hearts inspired by the handsome but adamanting bache- lor duo out at the famous old re- sort, just about the time when The Error of German Jewry CONCLUDED FROM EDITORIAL PAGE set-1161y from their spiritual kins- men, the German Jews of Amer- They, and their German-Jewish ica, might help them at this time to orientate themselves, set them protagonists in the United States, keep on harping on their absolute on the right' path, give them back aomething of their human dignity innocence, on the undeservedness and, perhaps, even save them phy- of the fate that has struck them sically. But that call is not forth- down. In a sense, of course, the coming. There is to be sure, as German Jews are indeed innocent, we all know, no lack of shofar- innocent in the French sense, in- blowers in the United States of nocent that is of having fostered America, but the cacophonous a living Judaism. But their slav- medley these fellow's emit is so ish compliance, their camouflaged obviously out of tune with the "Schutzjudentum," did not save exigencies of the moment that them. The Nazis, who have a even we Goyim, thick-skinned as certain instinctive dread of Juda- we are, detect the falsity of the ism — and rightly so — accused, whole performance. With those them, among other things, of con- brown marauders, who draw a pis- stituting a natural ferment in tol when they hear the word "in- society. As it happened, the tellectual" pronounced, the issue charge was wholly beside the point is not whether Ehrlich, Koch, in their case, but it showed that Wasserman, Haber, Einstein and the Nazis evaluated Judaism cor- so many other Jewish persons rectly, when they intuitively saw made important contributions to in it the natural enemy of the Le- German culture and civilization. viathan-State with its denial of The issue is that Judaism in its human dignity, social justice and essence, in its most vital inner the ideal of peace. Such had long being, is the foe of Fascism. We since ceased to be the view of Christian liberals know that. The Judaism on the part of the Ger- Nazis sense it, although they can- man-Jewish assimilationists. If not formulate their instinctive Hitler had not incorporated a hatred. But the German Jews, virulent anti-Semitism in his pro- who had deliberately separated gram and carried this into effect, themselves from the inner "Dy- the German Jews on the whole namik" of Judaism, do not know would have been the most solid this. They cannot know it. Hence supporters of his Fascism, just to they stand perfectly helpless and show how "Deutsch" they were. flabbergasted in the presence of To this day the main_ journal of the frightful calamity that has the German-Jewish emigration in overtaken the Jewish community Europe, the Pariser Tageblatt, has in that huge good-stepping drill- never uttered a word of criticism hall between the Rhine and the or protest against that other man Oder. of guile and blood, Hitler's ma= Not Puerile, Bat Tragic ter and prototype, Benito MIlvvo• J a in e s G. McDonald, the lini, the assassin of Giacomo Mat- teotti and of Italian liberalism. League High Commissioner for Refuge in the Clouds Refugees, in resigning from his As the waters began to mount post, drew a harrowing picture of in the Reich, the Jews took refuge the condition of the Jews in Ger- in the clouds. their American brethren pushing and shoving many. In the final analysis it them on from behind. The sight came down to this: the Jewish of that scramble whetted the Nazi population in the Reich is doomed. appetite for ''Judenblut," but it Mr. McDonald resigns—why not disconcerted the friends of Isra..I. say openly what is the "secrete The Jews banked on • final, last- de Polichinello" in Europe—be- minute recognition of past serv- cause of lack of co-operation. He ices: as many savants given tn, has travelled up and down the German science, so many basis world to find asylum for those founded, so many Jews dead on Jews, whose desperation, he pre- the battlefields, so many Catholic dicts, "may cause them to burst and Protestant orphanages en- the frontiers" one of these days. dowed by Jews and so on, to save He found no place of refuge any- them from the mortal flow which where. Not • single door opened. Hitler was preparing against them. Not • single one. Nobody offered They still persisted in fleeing from 'relief. Nothing broke the black Judaism. They drifted further impenetrable clouds in the hori- and further away from their na- zon, nothing except Palestine. tural anchorage. In the end, they Palestine, he asserted over and who thought to know the way over again, remains the only hope. Po well towards freedom, lost their , That poor little land, that des- bearings altogether, for the ulti- pised little land, that "puerile un- mate harbor of "Deutschtum" dertaking," is the only hope. One was denied them. Now that the would expect that PO devastating way back most be traced and trod- a refutation of the whole lobo-- den, the search for the trail is so ions theorizing of the German painful, so distressful to behold. Jews would cause them in humil- so full of anguish. that it may ity to praise God and thank the well be called the greatest spirit- Zionists, who made it possible that those poor, hounded, cruzlicd end ual drama of modern history. A clear trumpet-call for as- desperate Jews in the Reich can the first President Roosevelt was trust-busting in a big way. More Recently From its inception, shortly utter the War, Mr. Welt has been an ardent worker in the interests of the Community Fund. Ilas worn chevron, bar and star dur- ing campaigns. Been awcrded justly deserved kudos at noon meetings for leading the day, more than once, in returns. The key-positions he has been given were in recognition of his abili- ties. When the Community Fund Campaign was divided geographic. ally, Mr. Welt headed Division "A." He is today a member of the board of directors. Drafted into the Jewish Wel- fare Federation, Mr. Welt was succeeded in the Community Fund Campaign set-up by Clar- ence Engguss, who subsequently followed him into Federation. Active in ninny phases of the work, this coming Sunday Mr. Welt will serve as chairman of the second of the series of Four Fed- eration Days. Especially inter- ested in the work of child. caring agencies, last year he was chairman of the Detroit Service Group's Child Care Committee. Ile is a governor of the Jewish Welfare Federation; on the board of the Child Placement Bureau, and of the Jewish Social Service Bureau. He is a former presi- dent of both the Jewish Social Service Bureau and the Jewish Child Care Council. Sonia years ago, during a particularly intensive drive, Mel Welt was paired with Adolph Finsterwald as a soliciting team. So remarkable a record was the result of this happy combination, that it was continued, with equally interesting totals, in sub- sequent campaigns. An early member of the old Phoenix Club; was president of Redford and chairman of that country club's House Committee. Member of Franklin Iiills. Charter member of the Grill Club, founded 25 years ago with Julian Krolik, Emanuel Frank, Clarence Enggass, Edmund Slo- man, Jesse Hirschman, Irving Hirschman, and Joseph Welt. The Club a literary cot- erie much given to discussion—is catholic in the range of its sub- jects. Monthly for a quarter of a century—first at the Phoenix Club, now at the Belerest—the members meet to dine and dis- sertate on Einstein, politics, in- stallment selling. Has travelled the U. S. A. and Europe. The Welt home, out on Bal- moral Drive, is authentic 18th Century, English, decorated by Mrs. Welt (Belle Oberfelder, of Chicago). A collector of an- tiques; most recent addition is a landscape that occupies the place of honor, up over the fireplace in the huge living room. The Welts have two daughters: Janet, who attend,ed Smith, but took her degree from the Univer- sity of Chicago; Elizabeth---called Betty—whose alma mater is Vassar. Close-Up Out of ESQUIRE—there is six feet of stalwart Mel Welt. (lair dark, a little thinner than when he looked like he had been written by Rex Beach — (and that was about the time Rex Beach heros were the "tops")— greying at the temples. Golf—he can take it, or leave it alone. But Bridge—that's an- other story! Considered one of the best players in the city, with a reputation that has travelled considerably beyond the confines of the Great Lakes Club, Mel Welt would rather play than eat, and has often ignored the clock, din- ner and other social demands while making good on a dangerous bid himself, or setting an op- ponent on one that looked a hun- dred per cent. Born to the purple--if inher- ited material possessions, social position, success in the business world is any claim to the Tyrian —Mel Welt has the true cosmo- politan touch of social-minded- ness. Is a Conservative, but has a definite feeling that the present state of society falls short of be- ing the ideal one. No iconoclast, and probably one who would be very much disturbed by a com- munistic or socialistic coup d'etat, nevertheless,—like V oltair e— though he may not believe in what you advocate, will defend, with his life, your right to advo- cate it! SILBERBLATT TO GIVE FEDERATION NEWS ON JEWISH RADIO FORUM The Federation Newsgram, a regular feature of the Jewish Ra- dio Forum, will be presented on Sunday evening, Feb. 16, at 6.30 o'clock, by Aaron Silberblatt. Mr. Silberblatt will give a resume of newsworthy Jewish Welfare Fed- eration agency activities. Aaron Kurland is chairman of the Jew- ish Radio Forum. Women's Auxiliary of B'nai B'rith to Meet Feb. 19 The next meeting of the Wo- tri n's Auxiliary of the B'nai B'rith will be held Monday eve ning. Feb. 19, at Stotler Hotel, at 8:30. Entertainment will be furnished by the dramatic group. Member, and their friends are in- vited. The membership drive is still in progress. All persons wish- ing to join should call Mrs. David Diamond. The Federal Drama Project in New York is planning an Anglo- Jewish theater for playgoers who don't understand Yiddish. Clean—COAL & COKE---Dry East Side Coal Co. "A Fuel Without a Fault" Only the highest quality at prices you pay for ordinary grades. Get the most for your money by calling— DAVID GOLDBERG, President PLAZA 0200 • 810 beautifully furnished outside rooms. All with private tub and shower baths-at lowest possible rates in down- town Detroit for permar ent guests. You can live in luxurious comfort inexpensively. O CADILLAC S UARE AT BATES AN EVENT OF NOTABLE IMPOR- TANCE IN THE WORLD OF MUSIC I STEINWAY GRAND PIANO FOR ONLY AND ON VERY LIBERAL TERMS SIZE-5' 1" to fit the modern room PRICE—to fit the modern budget QUALITY—Steinway throughout IT 13 with the greatest PI that Steinway & Sons announce the new model "5," a Steinway Grand piano at the extremely low price of $8851 This superb new Instrument Is • true Steinway in every sense of the word. It Is as per constructed ... of as fine material, ... as the Steinway Center, Grand. used In recital by Hofmann, Paderrwski and Raehmaninoff. Craftsmen, many of whom have been with this company for ten, twenty, thirty years, apply their rich experience to Its building. In our sincere opinion, this In the finest piano obtainable at the price ... Its only superior • larger Steinway. Here again, Is the incomparable Steinway tone ... the glorious singing 'mire which has made the Stein- way the one perfect instrument of concert ball, radio, and home. The :.ztion Is sensitive beyond all presious ideas of mnsithlty. For the new piano has the Steinway At-cc/ernes-A Action ("the greatest improve- ment In pianos in the last thirty years") ... as well a every other exclusive Steinway refinement. You are cordially Invited to our showrooms daring "Stein. way Week"— to see, hear, play this amaving new instrument. And while you are here, we shall be glad to explain the Steinway plan of pigment. Exclusive Steinway Representatives GRINNELL BROS. 1515.21 Woodward Ave., Datreit—and branches THE INSTRUMENT OF THE IMMORTALS 1 still find a home. But no, Pales- ica keeps its doors closed. The est Jews on earth." Perhaps they tine is still denounced as "a puer- prominent Jews of America, that! did not try. I don't know. If you ile undertaking." Neither Down- is the German Jews, the rich Jewa, I cannot get into a Coyish golf-club ing Street, nor the Quai d'Orsay, the Americanized Jews, who have yourself and can't get your daugh- nor the man in the Palazzo Vene- no truck or trade with Zionism,t ter Into Bryn Mawr or your son zia, nor Smuts, nor Masaryk, nor and never had because the Goyim into Princeton you are apt to be- Remain Rolland, nor Hammy , might accuse them of a dual come discouraged. I can under- MacDonald, nor Roosevelt or Sta. , loyalty or a dual nationalism, stand that. lin or even the Mufti of Jerusalem! who have made it abundantly But when you realize your own. think Palestine • puerile under- , clear that they are quite different, Impotence and your own morn. taking. That is left to an Ameri-' persons than that turbulent noisy breakdown as • group and 01• ran rabbi to say at • moment mob of East-side Yidden and Zion- uselessnes.; of the philosoph., when his kinsmen in Germany, ist coffee - house philosophers, keystone of that group and y.r., panting like exhausted hares in those influential Jews had no little then start to "schimpf" on so—e- the chase, are finding a refuge In influence in s critical hour with ons else who has indeed bp'. , Eretz Israel. their Goyish friends that they through to the light, then • Ah, yes, if only America had could not prevail upon them to Goyim don't even call it provided that asylum! But Amer-1 let in a few thousand of "the fin- We call it trazie.