THE . ..JEWISH NEWS

Paige Twelve

LIVES OF OUR TIMES

JACOB. HEHRY SCHIFF

Friday, July 4, 1947

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Simon Shetzer: In Memoriam

The Tribute to the Memory of the Eminent Detroit Jewish
Leader, Spoken at his Funeral Service on May 30, 1947

By RABBI MORRIS ADLER

"The memory of the righteous shall
be for a blessing"—Proverbs 10:7

Editor's Note: The Jewish News is pleased to publish the
folio ing excerpts from Rabbi Adler's stirring tribute to the
memory of Simon Shetzer. Memorial services for the departed
leader %vill be held at the annual convention of the Zionist
Organization of America, in New York, this week-end. Special
memorial services are planned for a later date by the Zionist
Organization of Detroit.

It is hard to speak in the past tense of a friend who for
many years waS.closer than a brother. The three years of
Simon Shetzer's enforced withdrawal from activity as a
result of illness, have not reconciled us to the thought that
his place is now vacant in our midst. One's mind rebels at the
unjust decree of fate and refuses to accept, at this moment

of our intense grief, the absurd .,
joining of two such incongruous
thoug.i,s as Simon Shetzer and
death. For he always represented
to us enthusiasm, vitality, inex-
haustible energy and a limitless
readiness to serve. His frail
frame. constantly being further
enfeebled by the demands which
the dynamic .character of his ac-
tivities made upon it, seemed to
us through the years to be a
reservoir of unending mental and
spiritual power. We cannot there-
fore hope to give any adequate
estimate of the dimensions of his
life, or the extent of his heroic en-
deavors. We are too deeply in-
volved in the bereavement of his
family. and too painfully respon-
sive to a sense of personal im-
poverishment and loss - to be
capable of a competent appraisal.
In Simon Shetzer were joined
in fruitful union a lucid mind
possessed of surgically analyti-
cal powers, and a heart sensi-
tive and vital. Such a combina-
tion of clarity of thought and
depth of feeling is not common.
His mental gifts enabled him to
study a problem critically, with
the detachment required for
rational examination and sober
judgment.
Simon Shetzer was a partisan.
No good man can escape being
partisan. There are crucial issues
in the life about us, as well as in
the sphere of Jewish living and
thought, about which it is inde-
cent to be neutral and passive.
But his was never the narrow
partisanship that exhausts itself
in blind and total loyalty to an
organization. He was the partisan
of ideals and purposes. In the
economy of his life organizations
were properly relegated to their
status as instrumentalities and
means. Partisanship in his case
meant neither contraction of view,
nor abdication of judgment and
independent thought; but rather
the concentration of zeal and the
consecration of energy in behalf
of a; significant cause. He could
not entertain "half-way" loyalty
or a fractional faith. Before the
term "all-out" was current, Simon
Shetzer practiced it.
Simon's interests were breath-
taking in their comprehensive-
ness and scope. "KIRI Yisroel"
-torical
was for him r
embellish
phrase with whic•

a public statement or round out
a platform address. "K'lal Yis-
roel" was a vivid and ever-
present reality which colored
his approach to any specific en-
terprise or movement. In a time
of dissolution and fragmenta-
tion he steadfastly maintained
his hold - upon the totality of
Jewish life, its encompassing
entirety, its authoritative com-
pleteness. In Simon Shetzer's
budget of activities, one en-
deavor was never permitted to
cancel out another. His interests
complemented one an o t h e r.
Philanthropy was no substitute
for the Synagogue; community
organization no exemption from
work in behalf of Jewish edu-
cation; social service did not
spell immunity from the obli-
gation which the vision of Zion
restored imposes upon us; nor
was effort in behalf of Palestine
interpreted as a release from
activity in the Galuth.
1p his personal life he never
permitted communal leadership
to dim the obligation of building
a vitally Jewish home for his
family and himself, nor was the
chronic multiplicity of meetings
he attended or speeches he de-
livered an absolution for him of
the obligation to read and study.
It was eminently characteristic
of his approach, that he should
be the- prime architect of the
Jewish Community Council in
our city. He would frequently
journey at great personal incon-
venience and physical difficulty,
to other communities to advance
the idea of a comprehensive and
democratic council of Jewish
affairs. No layman in American
Jewry has contributed in greater
measure to the development and
clarification of this idea. He
served as president of the Detroit
Jewish Community Council from
its inception until the day he left
our city to take up his duties as
the Executive Director of the
Zionist Organization of America.
Eretz bract and the Synagogue
Eretz-Israel held a special place
in his affections. Of a piece with
his faith in the vital possibilities
and significance of all of Jewish
life, Eretz Israel represented in
an unique way and to a superla-
tive degree the challenge and ex-
biliration. of Jewish living in the

Non-Relief Funds
Mauston in N. Y.
UJA Is Criticized

NEW YORK—Urging that the
needs of the DPs and of Pales-
tine must - be given priority,
Henry Hurwitz, editor of The
Menorah Journal, in the leading
article of the current issue, de-
mands that the full New York
quota of $65,000,000 be given to
the three constituent relief agen-
cies of the United Jewish Appeal
before a single dollar is diverted
to any other organization. The
UJA is currently seeking to raise
$170,000,000 throughout the coun-
try for overseas relief and reha-
bilitation purposes.
The article charges that secret
agreements have been made to
guarantee several million dollars
to propaganda and other non-
relief agencies whether or not
the $65,000,000 is raised.
"These organizations were ar-
bitrarily tacked on by the small
group of men who are running
the campaign in New York, as
the result of behind-closed-doors
pressures that have nothing what-
soever to do with either the
merits, the needs or the programs
of the Joint Distribution Com-
mittee, the United Palestine Ap-
peal and the United Service for
New Americans," Hurwitz de..
dares.
Non-relief organizations named
in the article are the American
Jewish Committee, Anti-Defama-
tion League, American Jewish
Congress, National Jewish Wel-
fare Board and Jewish Tele•
graphic Agency.
The article reveals that accord-
ing to a reliable source a mini-
mum total of $2,500,000 has been
guaranteed to the Anti-Defama-
tion League and the American
Jewish Committee jointly.

contemporary world. He too could in us the belief that the Ameri-
have said with humility and rev- can scene could nurture this emi-
erence "Zionism is the Sabbath nent type of Jewish layman.
of my life." Judaism for Simon
Simon Shetzer's life was • a
Shetzer was not chiefly a problem symphony, albeit an unfinished,
but a solution; not a burden but symphony. Many are the unvoiced
an opportunity; not a disability thoughts, the unplumbed possi-
but a privilege. The great national bilities, the unrealized visions that
adventure of rebuilding the fate has decreed shall not be}
homeland was replete for him brought to fruition. All of his
with all the affirmative and crea- adult life was of a hormonious
tive qualities of our history.
pattern, beautiful In the rhythms,
Simon Shetzer saw the Syna- fashioned by an elert mind and
gogue as something other than a pure heart.
His place remains vacant in
another agency to be limited to a
restricted corner in the communal our midst. Humbly shall we strive
pattern. The Synagogue appeared to compensate for Simon Shet-
to him not as a static repository zer's absence, by the intensified
of a tradition, a museum of inter- loyalty, the deepened understand-
ing, the fortified sense of duty
esting but irrelevant antiquities.
which his life and gifts have
He felt that the Synagogue should stimulated in us. May God grant
s e r v e, in Bialik's immortal that his memory remain a bene-
phrase, as a "bet ha-yotzer l'nish- diction.
mat ha-umah," the foundry of
JACOB STEINBERG DIES
the Jewish soul and character;
JERUSALEM, (JTA) — Jacob
the assurance of the continuity Heads Committee for
Steinberg, noted Hebrew and
of Jewish experience; the spur to JWV 1947 Encampment
Yiddish poet and author, died
rootedness by Jews in their his-
here of a heart attack. He was
tory, faith and literature; the
60. He had published numerous
stimulus to constant revitaliza-
volumes of poetry, esays and
tion and renewal of the past in
short stories in both languages.
terms of contemporary signifi-
Born in the Ukraine, he lived in
cance.
Kiev and Warsaw until 1914,
when he migrated to Palestine.
Wherever we turn in our com-
munity there will be occasion to
recall him. He delivered from this
very spot a Memorial Day ad-
dress which our local press be-
lieved to merit publication in full
Tasked Dews
on its front page. The pulpit from
regularly
speak
to
my
which I
people, was occupied by him on a
number of memorable occasions.
CLSANIU) IMF YOUR
At meetings of the Board of Gov-
1
11101‘1
ernors of the Jewish Welfare
Federation, of the Executive
e.,13 •
Committee of the Jewish Com-
munity Council, the Zionist Or-
ganization, the United Hebrew
•
Schools, his voice and counsel
were always heard with attention.
How much work his weak body
Rudolph M. Hennick, of Water-
could accomplish. How ,rich the bury, Conn., is the convention
achievements of his short life.
aneel I f
chairman of the 1947 J. W. V.
Our memories of Simon are
encampment.
A
former
Connecti-
linked with memories of his
late and equally unforgettable cut State Commander, and the
father, Lspze Shetzer. The gap publisher of the Naugatuck News,
between the generations was he - serves as the personal repre-
and
bridged in the relationship be- sentative of National Commander
tween the two by a mutuality of Milton H. Richman.
interest, Jewish responsibility
easditat
and regard. From his father the
son drew the inspiration for his
•
I will seN my home on
zealous participation in Jewish
affairs. Isaac's example was the
orthlawn at a fair price i
incentive for Simon's activity.
The father's profound and logi-
you can find me a lower
cal mind was duplicated in the
case of the son. The elder's love
flat to rent.
of Judaism and his affirmative
Phone UN. I-3728
attitude towards it were rein-
carnated in the youth. The
Shetzer home alive with devo-
tion and loyalty was more than
a residence in our community.
It was a sanctuary of Jewish
character and nobility presided
Was's, urns, pitchers, flasks, candle sticks, figurines, statuary
ovre by a high-minded father
sad other keepsakes converted lain artistic table bumps.
and a saintly mother.
on lamps electrified.
LAMP SHADES MADE
Simon Shetzer lived on the
LAMPS MODERNIZED,
AND RECOVERED
REPAIRED
&
REFINISHED
heights. To be in his presence was
Old style floor lamps made Custom made and recovered.
to breathe of clear and refreshing
Styled to your hump. Largo
late in
and
stock on display.
toreheres.
Iansps
air and to become charged with
1PICICUP AND DELIVERY ALL PARTS OF DETROIT
new faith and feeling. He was
the heartening symbol of the pos-
sibility of developing on American
soil a Jewish laity of insight, un-
16841 Livernois Ave., % Block South of Sin Mile
derstanding and rich sentiment.
Phone UN. 2 - 1133S
Open Wed. Fri. so ill F. M.
Simon Shetzer's life encourages

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