Page Two

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle

Early Troubles of Zionist Leader
Abba Hillel Silver, Prepare Him For Today

By PHILIP DAVIS

say this is to pay them a high sity had insisted that every stu-
At this time when Bnai Zion tribute indeed, for the club in- dent learn Hebrew and that after
is nationally honoring Dr. Abba cluded many boys who as men the American Revolution, as H. L.
Hillel Silver at its special "Order have come to occupy very import- Mencl(en has pointed out, a num-
Day" exercises, it may not be ant positions in the Jewish and ber of Americans suggested that
Americans adopt Hebrew as the
amiss to turn back the pages of general world.
Among the boys were Emanuel national language.
time. The child is father to the
Anyway, the British T.Aor Gov-
man, says the old adage. Certainly Neumann, the present. viCe-pres-
the career of Abba Hillel Silver ident of the Zionist Organization; ernment should have Ps way as
Sol Cohen, long an active figure much as Dr. Fielschr , iul had! Sol
bears this out.
It was at the death of Theodore in the Zionist movement; George Cohen still recalls how Abba Hil-
Herzl that Abba Hillel Silver, then Sokolsky, the well known column- lel Silver rose and calmly told
ten years b:zf, first threw himself ist of the New York Sun; Rabbi Dr. Fleischman that the Hertzl
Barnett Brickner, of Cleveland; Club in harmony with the ideals
into the Zionist movement.
If it was given to Herzl to wit- Eliezer Sheinmark, who as Brent of the movement would continue
ness from some Heavenly point Mark was at one time the editor to emplo'y the language which Da-
the mourning of his people at his of a New York daily newspaper; vid had found suitable for his
passing in 1904, he could have Rabbi Jesse Schwartz, a leading psalms and Isaiah fit to vision his
been pleased with nothing so figure In the Zionist movement in dreams of universal brotherhood.
much as the way the Silver boys Canada; David W. Pearlman, rab-
The Dr. Herzl Zion Club 'con-
reacted.
bi in Stamford; the Jewish educa- tinued to meet at the Educational
The Jews of the world were tor, Israel Chipkin; Dr. Reuben J. Alliance, but their troubles were
bowed in grief, which they vent- Holland, prominent New Jersey not over. Abraham Goldfadden,
ed in meetings, eulogies, the re- physician, and Reuben Grossman the famous Yiddish and Hebrew
cital of the Kaddish for the dead who has been acclaimed as the playwright became interested in
leader.
first American born Hebrew au- the boys' group and wrote a play
Young Abba Hillel Silver and thor and poet.
in Hebrew especially for the Club.
his brother, Maxwell, vented their
It was plainly an all-star boys' The name of the play was "David
grief in a constructive action, de- club. It would seem that many
ha-Milchama" — David at War.
signed to carry on the work of communities would have welcom-
Again the authorities at the Ed-
Herzl. They addressed themselves ed such an aggregation. But then
ucational Alliance blocked the
to their school mates at the Vol- these boys were Zionists, and if
way. Their auditorium would not
°shiner Yeshiva on the East Side the pious Orthodox did not want
be used for the performance of a
and formed the Dr. Herzl Zion them, the pious Reformed Jews
play in Hebrew, they proclaimed.
Club.
didn't think them kosher either. The members of the Club got to-
It was the first Zionist youth Dr. David Blaustein, the superin-
organization established in the tendent of the Educational Alli- gether and Sol Cohen was depu-
United States. It was in the course ance, a staunch Zionist, who was tized to See Jacob Sapirstein, the
of the establishment of this club chosen as the first Nassi of the publisher of the Jewish Morning
that Abba Hillel Silver first learn- Order Bnai Zion had, true enough, Journal. Sapirstein got in touch
ed that Zionism was not only a allowed them to meet in the Edu- with the Educational Alliance and
vision, and a philosophy but a cational Alliance. But then Dr. warned them that if they prohibit-
battle. Our minds do not have to Blaustein had been succeeded by ed the Herzl Club from using
travel far back to remember when Dr. Henry W. Fleischman, and their auditorium, the next morn-
Abba Hillel Silver began to take one day Dr. Fleischman, accom- ing there would appear an editor-
ial in the paper giving the Edu-
up the cudgels for Zionism among
panied by Julia Richman (the Ju-
his colleagues of the Reform rab-
lia Richman High School in New
binate, but it is often forgotten
York is named after her) came
that in the early days of the
into the room in which the Herzl
movement, pious orthodox Jews
PASSOVER GREETINGS
club was meeting and to their
fought it as strenuously. The au-
consternation found the members
thorities at the Yeshiva on the
AND BEST WISHES
speaking in Hebrew. Dr. Fleisch-
East Side where the Silver boys man could not have been more
studied would have nothing of this flabbergasted if he had found the
Zionism, which seemed to them boys playing dice. Dr. Fleischman
to affront their doctrine that the and Miss Richman gave the boys
BNAI DAVID
Messiah would come, bringing de- a lecture on Americanism and
liverance to Jews, riding on a lit- warned them that speaking He-
tle white pony, in God's good brew was taboo. Dr. Fleischman
MEN'S CLUB
time. It was a considerable time of course did not know that in
before some in the fold of tradi- early America, Harvard Univer-
tional Judaism could get that lit-
tle white pony out of their minds.
Perhaps the coming of the auto-
mobile hastened the process of el-
PASSOVER GREETINGS
imination. We remember that even
Sincere Passover Greetings
in Palestine it has not been very
AND BEST WISHES
long since some of the Jews ob-
jected to the speaking of Hebrew
WAYNE STORAGE
as the language of workaday
world, holding that it was to be
FENSTER 8
reserved for the synagogue.
MOVING and STORAGE
It happened that the two Silver
boys had In their father, Reb Mo-
3328 JOY ROAD
she Silver, a man who came to
their side so strongly that they
400 E. JEFFERSON
TYler 5.8900
were able to preserve their or-
ganization. Reb Moshe Silver was
.0-0-tX1-0-0-04X1-0-0*-0-0*-0-ar.S.HMOO
a teacher at the Machsikei Tal-
mud Torah, a staunch Zionist and
a man of considerable scholarly
attainments. An elderly man now
Sincere Passover Greetings
living in Palestine, a few years t=1 Sincere Passover Greetings g
back Reb Moshe Silver composed
a
a commentary on one of the books
ROBERT S. JAMISON
of the Bible which was highly
praised by discerning critics.
ROOFING AND SHEET
Reb Moshe Silver encouraged
JEWISH FOLKS
his young sons and the two Silver
METAL WORK
boys reorganized the liquidated 6
CHORUS
organization. Maxwell Silver was
15369 HOLMUR
the first president of the organiza-
UN. 1.5561
tion and, a year later, Abba Hillel
was elected president. The selec-
tion of one member of the family SII I 1011111111111111111111111:11111111111311i1111111111i11111111111111E111111 ■ 1111111113111:1thld
to follow the other cannot be at
tributed to any juvenile nepotism.
It was simply that both of the
boys had been the principal activ-
ators of the society and both pos-
sessed qualities of leadership. To

Co.

Friday, April 12, 1946

cational Alliance "Hail Columbia."
The Educational Alliance bowed
to the inevitable. But there were
still troubles ahead. The play was
in Hebrew, the number of Jews
who could understand Hebrew
was even then not too large — yet
audiences must be gathered. It
was Abba Hillel Silver who solved
the problem.
Silver was deputized to visit
the various landsmanshaften and
Jewish organizations to sell tick-
ets. Selling them tickets for a
play in Hebrew was not too easy
a thing. Young Abba Hillel had
recourse to a Tom Sawyer device.
Rising to make an appeal for the
buying of tickets, Abba, as Sol
Cohen chuckingly recalls, would
concentrate on one individual in
his audience. "You," he would
say, pointing his finger at the se-
lected individual, "understand the
importance of promoting Hebrew
culture. You are a man of cul-
ture yourself, you see the signi-
ficance of developing the .Hebrew
drama," and so on and so on.
The man, so flattered by young
Abba, had no alternative. Inevi-
tably, he rose after the conclu-
sion of the speech and made a
motion that the landsmanshaft
buy so many tickets.
The Dr. IIerzl Club grew. In

time it had branches in HMlem
and New Jersey. It was the first

youth group to send a delegate to
the American Federation of Zion-
ists convention. That delegate
was Abba Hillel Silver, who ad-
dressed the convention in 1907
in Hebrew, making a profound
impression. Out of the Dr. Herzl
Club grew the Young Judea Or- 11-
v •
ganization.

"Entering Hebrew Union Col- n i
lek'Where M thelimn Dr. Kauf-

''.

(enntinned

ge 15)

•

PASSOVER

GREETINGS!

from

•

SIDNEY KRANDALL
COMPANY

Jewelers — Diamonds

Watches — Silver — Costume

Jewelry — Mountings

SEASON'S GREETINGS

SKY REAL ESTATE

CA. 0366

629 E. McNICHOLS

TO. 9.5300

fl

1550 Broadway near

Grand Circus Park

P ASSOVER

G REETINGS

James E. F. Moorman

1719

DIME BLDG.

CADILLAC 9148

P ASSOVER

G REETINGS

Upon this important occasion

we express our felicitations

—

We Join in Extending

Best Wishes to the Entire
Jewish Community for a

Season's Greetings

JOYOUS PASSOVER!

Family Theater

Cadillac Square
E. E. KIRSHNER, Mgr.

•

Season's Greetings and
Best Wishes

Brown
Tire E.1 Appliance
Distributing Co.

Radio,. Refrigerators, Stoves.
Electrical Appliances. Etc.

16006 Woodward at Ferris
HIGHLAND _PARK*

ti

SHERWIN WILLIAMS CO.

6 STORES

Downtown, 2036 Woodward

West, 9341 Grand River

East, 12927 E. Jefferson

West, 14495 Grand River

East, 14212 Gratiot

Dearborn, 14233 Michigan

to the entire community. May

you all be blessed with good

health and an abundance of

happiness, comfort, security.

\

