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THE JEWISH NEWS
Friday, July 9, 1943
What's Happening in Detroit
DOINTING out that its work is a direct contri-
bution to the war effort, the Jewish Vocation-
al Service, of which E. William Wineberg is ex-
ecutive director, will continue to strive toward
expanding its work, according to the JVS report
for 1942 submitted by its president,
Harvey H. Goldman.
Eight special wartime functions
since the start of the war are
pointed out in the report, which
also reveals that the Jewish Voca-
tional Service will stress more em-
phasis on five major points for
1943.
"Basically," the report states,
11. Goltimall."the job of the JVS in 1943 is to
continue its individual counseling and special
pacement services as it has in the past. In addi-
tion, it will also attempt to broaden community
interpretation of the needs of the war production
program and of selective recruitment for war in-
dustry by means of group presentations at the
. Jewish 'Community Center and other organiza-
tions."
Functions Rendered During 1942
Special wartime functions rendered during
the past year are:
1. Readjustment of dislocated salesmen, clerks,
small proprietors, and others, many without skills
useful in war industry.
2. Guidance and placement of women, seeking
_4... employment for the first time or after extensive
periods of non-employment.
-3: Counseling of youth regarding further edu-
cation, entry into the armed forces, choice of
occupational fields, and other crucial matters.
'4. Placement of older workers, handicapped job
seekers and other marginal workers.
5. Assisting in the assimilation of refugees into
the labor army through training, retraining and
rehabilitation.
6. Recruitment of new workers into the labor
market.
.7. Rehabilitation of men discharged from armed
services.
8. Vocational counseling for employed persons
encountering difficulty in adjustment on their
jobs.
`‘The perplexing paradox of a surplus of man-
power and a scarcity of jobs in times of peace and
a shortage of manpower and a surplus of jobs in.
wartime was never more evident than in 1942,"
the report states. "What peacetime could not do
in 10 years, the threat of war and the fact of war
have done in the short space of two years .. .
"In the manpower shortage era, the primary
economic problem of the Jewish community is not
the question of finding jobs for unemployed per-
sons, nor is it overcoming discrimination, although
discrimination had not disappeared."
Lacked Wide Range of Skills
The report goes on to state that the problem
is the selective recruitment, guidance, training
and placement of suitable workers for war and
civilian industry, involving considerable change
of jobs and in many cases of occupation. This, be-
cause Jewish workers did not cultivate a wide
range of production skills in the past.
Problems of youth in wartime are outlined in
the report, which adds:
"The war and manpower situations have made
young people, still in school, more insecure and
confused with respect to their plans for a stable
and useful life career. Planning for youth is not
out for the duration. Vocational guidance for in-
school youth is needed now more than ever be-
fore—and the Jewish Vocational Service must see
to it that young people get such guidance to pre-
pare them for their role in the war as well as the
postwar period."
"For adults," the report says, "the war has
brought about an unprecedented shifting of
workers from job to job, from non-war industries
and from civilian occupations to the armed forces.
It is confronting millions with new vocational
problems. There are, for instance, new vocational
problems which workers in civilian industries
are facing."
List Other Community Activities
Other community activities of the JVS related
to the manpower program include:
1. Service of the JVS director as chairman of
the executive committee (the Committee of the
Whole) of the Metropolitan Detroit Council on
Fair Employment Practice.
2. Service of the JVS executive director as Re-
employment Committeeman for local boards of
the Selective Service system—providing rehabili-
tation and procuring suitable employment for
discharged servicemen.
3. Service of the placement director as secre-
tary of the Girl's Work Council of Detroit.
4. Publication and distribution of "Are You
Aiming Right?", a manual describing group pro-
grams 6 designed to help club members and leaders
made sound vocational and educational plans in
war time.
A statistical analysis of activities reveals a large
increase in services rendered in 1942 over the pre-
ceding year.
Operating developments and problems of the
Jewish Vocational Service for 1942 also are re-
viewed in the report. The JVS, which left the
Jewish Community Center building for larger
quarters at 5737 Second Blvd obtained a board
of directors after having been directed by a com-
mittee of the Center Board. The agency became
autonomous in Jan. 21, 1942, following an elec-
tion meeting, at which Fred NI. Butzel was elected
"father of the agency."
From a staff of five at the beginning of 1942,
the JVS added a counselor for social. agency
clients; a group guidance counselor to develop a
vocational program for organized groups, and
when the agency moved to its new quarters, a
clerk, and part-time switchboard operator and
caretaker were added.
Officers and Trustees of JVS
Officers and members of the board of trustees
of the Jewish Vocational Service are:
Harvey H. Goldman, president; Charles E. Fein-
berg and Louis Bass, vice presidents; Aaron
Droock, treasurer; Prof. Peter Altman, Joseph
Bernstein, Fred M. Butzel, Herbert Eiges, Jacob
Ellstein, Max M. Fisher, Miss Charlotte Gant,
Morris Garvett, Dr. B. Benedict Glazer, Mrs. Sam-
uel R. Glogower, Samuel.S..Greenberg, Prof. Wil-
liam Haber, Miss Edith Heavenrich, Samuel J.
Hoexter, Herman Jacobs, Prof. Samuel M. Levin,
Henry Meyers, Herbert R. Robinson, Dr. I. W.
Ruskin, Harry Seligson, Isidore Sobeloff, Abraham
Srere, James Wineman, Mrs. A. L. Zwerdling.
Eiges, Seligson and Wineman are serving in the
armed forces.
The staff of Jewish Vocational Service includes:
M. William Weinberg, executive director; Anna
Rose Hersh, placement director; Maxwell M.
Luchs, Leonard S. Abramson and Albert Cohen,
counselors.
Detroit USO Services Duplicated
Q ERVICES offered to enlisted men and women
" by the Metropolitan Detroit USO are dupli-
cated by the National USO on a world-wide scale,
according to a statement from Dr. Paul T. Ran-
kin, Chairman of the USO Executive Committee
here.
Figures just released show that the USO is now
maintaining more than 2,200 separate operations
in this country and abroad, Dr. Rankin says. Of
these, 1,534 are nationally operated USO clubs,
station lounges and mobile units. In addition, ap-
proximately 700 units are conducted locally by
communities such as Detroit.
The Metropolitan Detroit USO is currently op-
erating six clubs and lounges, nine dormitories,
with a total capacity of 1,003, and in addition
makes regular use of twenty agency buildings.
How the National USO operation is in effect
a projection of the Detroit activity on a gigantic
scale is revealed in detail by Dr. Rankin. For ex-
ample:
Under Travelers Aid auspices the Detroit USO
maintains lounges in the Michigan Central Sta-
Twenty Years Ago This Week
Compiled From the Records of the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
VIENNA—Fourteen anti-Semitic terrorists have
been arrested by the pollee and charged with plot-
ting to assassinate a number of prominent Jews and
liberals. A "murder list" containing names of pros-
pective victims was found.
BERLIN—The Russian writer, Maxim Gorky, now
living in Berlin, has completed a scenario entitled
"The Life of the Russian Jews." This is the first
distinctively Jewish work ever written by Gorky.
WARSAW—In an interview with a representative
of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Premier Witos
of Poland denied that his government was anti-
Semitic and stated that it "stands by her constitu-
tional guarantees to minorities." He added that the
"percentage norm" for Jewish students was only a
theory at present.
NEW YORK—Charging that Henry Ford's Dear-
born Independent had libelled him, Herman Bern-
stein, editor of the Jewish Tribune, has instituted
suit against the auto magnate. Bernstein says that
he was described in the Dearborn publication as a
"sort of spy" in the service of a combination of In-
ternational Jewish bankers.
JERUSALEM—Palestine is to have its own news
agency, it was revealed here. The Palestine Tele-
graphic Agency has been registered with the gov-
ernment. It will disseminate news in English, He-
brew and Arabic. Its founders are Jacob Landau
of New York and Meyer . Grossman of London, who
organized the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Eon and Greyhound Bus Terminal. These lounges
serve troops in transit, and provide information,
stationary, and reading materials. The Michigan
Central Lounge is equipped with a canteen and
games, and entertains as many as 20,000 men a
month. Nationally, there are no less than 131
Travelers Aid units in stations, supplemented by
116 comfortable lounges.
The Detroit USO, through the Salvation Army,
operates a. mobile canteen that has served coffee
and sandwiches to as many as 800 men in a single
day. It is active around the clock, and performed
yeoman service recently when thousands of troops
were rushed in to stop the race riots. The National
USO maintains 94 mobile service units. Few of
these serve food, however. On the desert in Cal-
ifornia, in the Carolinas, in Louisiana, in Tennes-
see, USO Maneuvers workers follow men through
their combat training. They provide movies,
games and personal service to isolated detach-
ments.
Three Centers in Warren Township •
In Warren Township, directly north of Detroit,
are three USO Centers designed to promote com-
munity life and bring recreational facilities to
thousands of new defense workers who have
crowded into the area with their families. These
three Centers are operated by the National USO,
as part of its program to help newcomers adjust
to war-time conditions and to keep alive their
family life and their personal interests. Thus the
USO reduces labor turnover in essential war in-
dustries.
All over the United States and the world the
National USO is giving Michigan boys the same
sort of complete service that the Detroit USO is
offering boys from other states, according to Dr.
Rankin. Already more than 70,000 young men
have gone from Detroit into the armed forces, and
the leisure-time welfare of these men is in charge
of the National USO.
USO clubs and mobile units are operating in 72
towns and off-shore bases in the Western Hemis-
phere: Newfoundland, Caribbean, Canal Zone,
South America, Hawaii, Alaska.
And while the leisure-time entertainment of
soldiers and sailors in the combat zones overseas
has been assigned to the Red Cross, the National
USO is in full charge of the theatrical troupes
that have done so much to keep them smiling.
Within its area tie Detroit USO sends as many
as twenty professional and amateur shows each
week to its own clubs and - to camps and posts.
The National USO projects this useful activity.
on a scale never before approached in the history-
of the theatrical business.
Provides USO-Camp Sh ows
"The USO nationally provides USO-Camp
Shows," says Dr. Rankin. "Seventy-six profes-
sional road companies of entertainers go to all
camps and naval stations. More than forty such
units have been sent overseas to entertain where-
ever American troops operate.
"These shows provide for the boys the best
theatrical talent available in the country. It is
all free to the service man. Last winter USO camp
shows played to more than 8,000,000 service men.
"Of course we Detroiters are interested in the
welfare of the more than 70,000 men who have
gone out from Detroit. This is natural. But we
Detroiters are also interested in the service men
from every state in the Union.
"The work done by our local USO is the best
evidence of Detroit's interest in all service men.
I want to assure you that the citizens of Seattle
and San Diego and Beaumont and Miami and
New Orleans and all the other communities in
the country are similarly interested in the wel-
fare of all the service men. .
"USO represents a universal concern for the
well-being of service men whoever and wherever
they may be. I salute the six organizations making
the USO and the numerous other community or-
ganizations who are helping to make the USO
program of service to service men so successful."
Victory Garden Consultants
Detroit's plan for recruiting Victory Garden
consultants has proven so successful that more
than 20,000 gardeners have benefitted by the ad-
vice of the 300 consultants in their neighbor-
hoods, according to Frank M. McLaury, director
of the Detroit Office of Civilian Defense.
"Many pessimists predicted that midsummer
would see much vegetable seed wasted and many
gardens choked with weeds. These predictions
are not being realized," McLaury said.
There are upwards of 300 Neighborhood Vic-
tory Garden Consultants throughout the city.
Any perplexed gardener who needs advice may
obtain the name of the nearest consultant by get-
ting in touch with his Neighborhood War Club
leader or by calling Victory Garden Headquar-
ters, Fitzroy 3840.