Page Eight
tt-_ _

Friday, March 8, 1946

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle

STORY OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY COUNCIL

Committees Dealing
With Problems

(Continued from page 1)
year-round, day-to-day fight, in
which THE JEWISH COM-
MUNITY, in anticipation of de-
velopments, establishes perman-
ent relationships with all the
elements, forces, and institutions
in the general community. For
this the Jewish community must
he organized, in the fullest sup-
port of those who represent it,
and in a manner which will
always make the actions of the
representatives subject to co111-
y control.

informal committee which has not
yet designated a chairman.
The committee on liaison work
with Veterans' organizations is
Fighting antl-Semitism and
headed by Harry T. Madison and
building better understanding Harry J. Schaeffer as Chairman
between Jews and their non- and co-Chairman.
Jewish neighbors is a complex
Problems of Real Estate dis-
business. It requires an ap- crimination have been dealt with
proach which is as complex, as by the professional staff, with the
all-embracing, as continuous as advice of real estate people. How-
the problem itself. Accordingly, ever, the plan is to organize a
the Community Council has a formal real estate discrimination
number of committees dealing committee in the near future, be-
with various aspects of the cause the present housing situ-
problem. Over all policy is made ation has made the discrimination
by the Community Relations problem more acute.
Committee. This, like all other
The V. Committee is a group of
Council • committees, is respon-
sible to the elected Executive volunteers, composed of Huai
Committee, and ultimately to Brith members, who are render-
the Assembly of organizational ing valuable service In covering
delegates. This committee, on meetings, checking publications,
which the present writer serves securing Information, and doing
as chairman, with Mr. Harry other chores in some of the de-
Yudkoff as co-chairman, meets tail work in community relations.
'regularly every two weeks, from This committee has Mr. Robert
Nathans and Mrs. S. S. Aaron
12:30 to 2:00 p.m. The present
membership of this committee as chairman and co-chairman.
The story of each of these corn-
is as follows:
mittees, their membership, and
Rabbi Leon Fram, chairman, the specific character of their
work will be told in future arti-
cles by the various committee
chairmen.

Liaison with Detroit
Police Department

A striking illustration of demo-
cratic community controls and ad-
vance planning occurred about
two years ago, when Detroit's or-
ganized Jewry had become
alarmed over the reports of nu-
merous anti-Jewish acts of hood-
lumism and violence in cities like
Boston, New York, Philadelphia,
and elsewhere. Detroit had been
comparatively free of such inci-
dents. At one of the delegates'
conferences, on the heels of a re-
port of the Community Relations
Committee's work, an Insistent
demand was voiced that the Com-
munity Council establish a close
working relationship with De-
"troit's police department, to the
end that incidents of violence may
be prevented and cases that need
police attention be fully looked
into.
This was a signal for action by
the Council's Community Rela-
tions Committee. The Council's
professional staff assembled the
material with reference to anti-
Semitic situations in other cities,
to police action, to the kind of
preventive work that is necessary,
and to the type of liaison relation-
ships that would benefit the city
most. A conference with the Po-
lice Commissioner was arranged,
In which the Council's President,
its Executive Director, another
member of the Communty Rela-
tions Committee, and the present
writer represented the Jewish
community, and spoke on behalf
of the Council's affiliated organi-
zations. Out of this and subse-
quent conferences grew new de-
velopments in Detroit's police de-
partment. A procedure of refer-
ral of anti-Semitic incidents to
the Commissioner and thence to
the particular Precinct Inspector
for immediate attention was
vi•orked out. The program of ori-
enting members and new recruits
in the police department on the
subject of minority groups was
accelerated. The Sergeant In
charge of investigating and seizing
obscene literature was assigned
the added responsibility of in-
vestigating anti-Semitic literature.
Methods were worked out for
handling cases of juveniles in-
volved in anti-Semitic violence.
As a result, Detroit's police
department has been alerted to
the danger that anti-Semitism
constitutes to democracy and to
the tranquility of a community.
Individual cases have been han-
dled skillfully and expeditiously.
Anti-Semitic literature has been
seized and destroyed. Printers
have been warned, in a special
communication from the Police
Commissioner, against printing
hate literature. The alertness and
foresightedness of the police de-
partment on the problem of anti-
Semitism was best evidenced last
Fall, when a minor adolescent
fight on Dexter Blvd. might have
flared up into a series of retali-
atory gang fights and perhaps
even riots if the police had not
given the situation the most care-
ful and complete attention over a
considerable period, with the co-
operation and advice of the Com-
munity Council's administration.

Principles of
Community Relations

HARRY YUDKOFF

The growth and development of
Nazism in Europe made it force-
fully clear that anti-Semitism is
not exclusively or even primarily
a Jewish problem, but rather a
problem for the whole of society.
Anti-Semitism cannot and should
not be fought by Jews alone. Jews
are most immediately aware of it,
and the Jewish community has
the special obligation of spark-
plugging the fight. But the entire
community of non-Jews as well as
Jews must be organized to com-
bat it. All the available resources
in the life of a community must
be mobilized in order to strength-
en democracy, to combat hate,
and to disseminate correct in-
formation and authoritative
knowledge about Jews. Seen in
this broad perspective, the pro-
gram includes in it the following
elements:
1. Investigating and exposing
organized subversive anti-Semitic
and anti-democratic movements.
2. Dealing, on behalf of the or-
ganized Jewish community, with
well-intentioned individuals and
institutions, whose prejudiced or
discriminatory practices can be
corrected.
3. Inoculating the vast American
public against the virus of hate
through an extensive program of
public education, employing every
educational approach that is avail-
able.
4. Developing, on behalf of the
representative body of Detroit's
Jewry, an authoritative Bureau of
Jewish Information, to which non-
Jews as well as Jews may turn
for all kinds of educational mate-
rials on Jews and intergroup re-
lations.

Harry Yudkoff, co-chairman, Lil-
lian Aaron, Sidney Alexander,
Samuel G. Bank, Lawrence W.
Crohn, Wilfred Donor, Mrs. Louis
Fields, Lewis C. Frank, Rabbi
Moses Fischer, William Friedman,
Michael Gimbel, Dr. B. Benedict
Glazer, Abe Kasle, Leon Kay, Dr.
Sharmia Kleinman, Julian H. Kro-
lik, Aaron Kurland, Morris Lieb-
erman.
Mrs. Sam Linden, Mr. Isaac Lit-
wak, Mrs. D. Sheraga, Mr. Leon-
ard Simons, .Mrs. Harry Singer,
David Sislin, Nathan Milstein
Robert R. Nathans, Mrs S.. Pad-
over, Samuel J. Rhodes, David I.
Rosin, Mrs. J. S. Sauls, Harry
Schaeffer, Henry Wineman, John
M. Wise, Paul J. Weisselberg,
David Wilkus, Rabbi Max J.
Wohlgelernter, Aaron Droock,
Rabbi Milton Aron, Mrs. Charles
Makie, Sidney &cider, Morris Kap-
lan.
In addition, there is a commit-
tee which deals with Employment
Discrimination. Chairman and co- •
LENDING
chairman of this committee. are .
LIBRARY
Lewis C. Frank and Benjamin
Wilk, respectively.
The Inter-Group committee deals
GIFTS
with the difficult problem of Ne-
gro-Jewish relations. This com-
mittee has been headed by Dr.
Leo M. Franklin, whose recent ill-
GREETING
ness has forced him to become
CARDS
temporarily inactive.
The Legal Committee, dealing
SAM GINSBURG
with legal and legislative problems
in the field of group relations, is
headed by Messers Nathan Mil-
stein and Paul J. Wieselberg.
and Gift Shop.
The Fact-finding work, which
11525 DEXTER BLVD.
deals with the investigation of
HOgarth 1160
subversive, anti-democratic or-
ganizations, Ls attended to by an • 4 •• ■ ••• We Deliver
∎••∎• ■ •• ■ •••

Exposing Anti-
Semitic Movements

There are vicious, subversive,
anti-democratic movements which
are systematically spreading anti-
Semitism. Their aims are either
those of political fascism, or of
plain shakedown rackets. Some of
these movements operate national-
ly, with part of their activities
reflected in Detroit. Others are of
purely local vintage. It is gratify-
ing to report that the number of
these movements, and the number
of people they reach, is signifi-
cantly smaller today than they
were a number of years ago. Part
of the credit for this must un-
doubtedly go to the program of
exposure of these movements.
Whether it is a Charles E. Cough-
lin, a Gerald L. K. Smith, a Na-
tional Workers' League, a Ger-
man-American Bund, a Ku Klux
Klan, or any of the lesser move-
ments or rackets, our fact-finding
department keeps a close watch
over them, studying all their ac-
tivities and plans.
Their literature is analyzed,
their purposes studied, their as-
sociations checked, and the
sources of their funds investi-
gated. This information is fur-
nished to appropriate govern-
mental agencies. This was par-
ticularly true during the war,
when bureaus and departments
of the Federal, State, and Mun-
icipal governments sought and
obtained from our files much
valuable information which was
used in many prosecutions. Our
national agencies, who coordin-
ate this work nationally, were
also given the information about
Detroit.
However, in addition to legal
action against the subversive ele-
ments, their moral repudiation by
the American public is import-
ant. Anti-Semitic and anti-demo-
cratic activity falls just short of
breaking the law and being sub-
ject to prosecution. Many news-
papers, In Detroit and in other
cities, many magazines, many
radio commentators, many writers
of books, are eager to fight this
danger to America by exposing it
to their readers and listeners. To
such molders of public opinion
our files have been opened, and
our Information made available.
Single articles and series of arti-
cles, analyses and exposes, pam-
phlets and books, from coast to
coast, have told the American
public about these movements and
their danger. The information
about Detroit became available
through our fact-finding work. In
this fashion the decent, respon-
sible multitudes in America are
warned against being hoodwinked

t CENTRAL

iFlorist

Conferring with Indid
victuals and Instituttorll

There is an important difference
between the vicious peddlers of
hate, and the respectable, well-
intentioned individuals who fall
into patterns of prejudice or dis-
crimination. The latter are some-
times merely misguided persons,
At other times they are guilty
only of accepting uncritically so.
cial prejudices that happen to be
in fashion. With such instances
we deal through the conference
method. An appointment is sought
with the guilty party, and repre-
sentations made on behalf of the
organized Jewish community.
Speaking in the name of 222 or-
ganizations is a potent and effee.
tive weapon, and results are fre-
quently gratifying, and always
effective in that they make evi-
dent the vigilance of the coin.
munit: .
During such conferences it is
the assignment of the lay and
professional representatives of the
Community Council to document
their case, to show how the be-
havior or practice of the accused
party fits into a pattern of anti.
Semiti , anti-democratic activity,
to exhibit the implications of such
practice for the well-being of the
community as a whole. and to
seek a change of policy. Much has
been accomplished in this proce-
dure. Many an objectionable pol-
icy has been changed. The edu-
cative process in such conferences
has brought enlightenment on
these problems to a large number
of individuals and agencies who

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•. ...•••....4.44

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