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Friday, August 14, 1947
THE JEWISH NEWS.
Page Six
Dean of Michigan kwry Reminisces
Fred M. Butzel, 70 This Month,
Ifteviews Our Community History
;
V RED MAGNUS BUTZEL, lawyer and corn-
' munity leader, has been given countless
tributes and awarded innumerable titles, leading
up to the all-encompassing "Dean of Michigan
Jewry."
Lawyer, teacher, counselor, administrator—we
would add yet another to his list of occupations—
that of troubadour of the Detroit Jewish com-
munity. The troubadours were the lyric poets of
the Middle Ages who toured continental Europe,
reciting, in the great halls of medieval castles,
extravagant tales of courage and adventure and
romance, to entertain the lords and ladies.
Fred Butzel's tales have different characters
and settings, but are of the same nature — they deal
with the courage and adventure and romance of the
growth of one of America's greatest Jewish commu-
nities, and of the people who helped lay its foundations.
• • • •
N HIS quiet, modest office overlooking the De-
troit River, from an old-fashioned swivel chair
stationed before a crowded roll-top desk, Fred 'Butzel
the troubadour, recalls the days following the turn of
the century, when charitable and educational societies
were just beginning to assume a prominent place in com-
munity life.
One of the first of these came into being in the
1890's, before the organization of the United Jewish
Charities, Butzel related. Led by the dynamic Hannah
Schloss, a group of Jewish women formed the Ladies
Sewing Society, meeting weekly to make garments for
the poor.
Like that society, most of the charitable groups
then in operation concentrated mainly on direct relief.
Mrs. Sarah Krolik was critical of this type of social
service, and proposed a plan of education by which
young people could be trained to help themselves.
To this end, she organized the Self-Help Circle,
at which young women of the community volunteered
their services to teach sewing to girls of poorer homes.
The classes had great practical value, inasmuch as do-
mestic science had not yet become a part of the public
school curriculum. But, Butzel emphasized, the girls
also learned neatness and manners, as they acquired
skill with their needles.
Mrs. Krolik herself collected, arranged and pub-
lished a book of stitches needed in progressive sewing
education. Later, the Self-Help Circle expanded and
offered instruction in cooking and table-setting, often
taught by the young women who had been trained in
previous classes.
• • • •
I
from wealthy children, the directors of the building or-
ganized a music school, conducted first by Boris Gan-
opol, later by Bendetson Netzorg, both well-known in
Detroit music circles.
Although the school would have liked to instruct
all who applied, it was thought best to limit the stu-
dents to those showing special talent. Many of the
graduates of that program are now professional musi-
cians or music teachers. One exception to the rule was
made for an unhappy boy who was hard-of-hearing
but still was possessed of a great love for the violin.
Given lessons, he acquired emotional stability, and
proved to have much talent. With his concentration
on music, his hearing improved, and today he is one of
the leading violinists in a major American symphony
orchestra.
• • • •
ASIC EDUCATION, too. played an important
role in activities at the Memorial center. Young
people of the wider Jewish community, cognizant of
the immigrants'peed for training in English, organized
an amateur schon Two-hour sessions were held twice
a week, employing the most modern conversational
teaching methods. The adults learned English in the
terms they knew and used in their work, rather than
with elementary grammars. The small classes and inti-
mate atmosphere helped speed their progress.
Another departure from the practical was Jewish
Art Week, an extensive display which occupied the
efforts of the entire community. Begun at the instiga-
tion of Blanche J. Hart, then superintendent of the
building, it was an opportunity for both wealthy and '
poor homes to exhibit their own possessions of Jewish
interest.
Poor families displayed the fine embroideries, cro-
cheted articles, samovars and other domestic articles
brought from middle and eastern Europe. Religious
articles also were on exhibit. It was a good lesson
for many-of the young people, teaching them to ap-
preciate the evidence of the artistic and cultural heri-
tage that their parents had brought with them from the
"old country."
Later, after Mary Caplan, now advisor to the
M45thers' Clubs program at the Jewish Community
Center, came to Detroit, the Jewish art shows were
continued. Exhibits of Jewish artists' work were
brought here from other cities, and the domestic as-
pect of the show disappeared.
• • • •
rip HE EXIGENCIES of changing economic and cul-
tural patterns in the community were not ignored
at the Hannah Schloss Building. As the jazz craze
took hold of the young people, more and more dances
were scheduled at the center. "In fact," Butzel said,
"we were more or less in competition with the cheap
dance halls, and managed, by offering the young people
jazz in a good atmosphere, to improve the tone of the
dancing."
"At one time," he chuckled, "there was so much
dancing going on at the Hannah Schloss, that we had
to rent a hall and sponsor a dance there, in competi-
tion with one at the center, to allow for a little peace
and quiet."
At the opposite extreme was the way the bu;lding
management came to the aid of - 'those without shelter
during . the depression after World War I. For a while
the gym in the Ginsburg Memorial was closed and filled
with beds, a dormitory for homeless men.
The building was very recep-
tive to all kinds of societies, But-
zel said. Charitable, cultural, all
kinds of interest groups met there,
even an anarchist society. The
latter, however, used the facili-
ties "on condition that it refrain
from using the address publicly
or involve the building or man-
agement in any way."
rr HE BOYS were not forgotten in the Jewish corn-
"- munity's program of practical training for its
youth. After the Hannah Schloss Memorial Building
was erected at Vernor Highway (then High St.) and
Hastings, classes in manual training were organized
under the supervision of Homer T. Lane, a gentile
teacher who later became the first superintendent of
the Ford—Republic.
For many years, Butzel said, these were the only
manual training classes offered for boys on the east
side of Detroit. After the Bishop School, and others,
began manual training and domestic science classes,
these departments were closed at the Memorial. Al-
though the classes there were excellent, the Jewish
community • preferred that its children receive their
training in the public schools.
• • • •
T THE Hannah Schloss Building, the boys or-
ganized into clubs, elected their own officers,
planned their own programs, and negotiated directly
with the' building management for their rights and re-
sponsibilities there.
"The adults in attendance served only in a limited
advisory capacity, and the boys had full control and
responsibility," Butzel stressed enthusiastically. The
clubs attracted wide membership among boys from 11
to 17. It was the Detroit Jewish community's early
answer to threatening juvenile delinquency.
He cited the famous Tri-Square Club, whose mem-
bers, even the adult advisors, paid weekly dues of two
cents. The youngsters of those clubs are now the
"backbone of the community," Butzel declared.
• • • •
ATER, when the Ginsburg Memorial was added,
the clubs benefitted by enlarged club rooms and
ex-
a well-equipped gymnasium. The club program
panded to include picnics, literary exercises and ex-
tensive athletic activities such as basketball, football
and baseball. Here, too, the boys had complete respon-
sibiilty, with adults serving only as advisors.
The Hannah Schloss Building, with the Ginsburg
Memorial addition, was more than just a building, But-
pointed
out. From 1900 to 1920 it was an integral
zel
part of community life among Detroit's Jewish popula-
fondly,
tion. It was a homey building," Butzel recalled
"and even took its place within the personal life of
the family."
He was referring particularly to the fact that
the building contained almost the only bathing
facilities east of Beaubien, and Jewish families
made the habit of reserving the facilities for the
entire household weekly. Towels and soap were
furnished at a charge of 10 cents per family.
• •
HE CENTER maintained a clinic to provide for
the minimum medical needs of those applying for
of the
relief. Dr. Louis J. Hirschman was first chief
project. He was succeeded by Dr. Hugo A. Freund
and later by Dr. Max Bellin. The project later expanded
into the North End -Clinic.
A weekly "clinic for well babies" also was estab-
lished, conducted by Dr. David J. Levy under the spon-
sorship of the Babies Milk Fund. Mothers were given
assistance and advice with formulas and other prob-
lems concerning the health of their infants. Like other
services offered at the Hannah Schloss, the baby clinic
was open to the entire neighborhood.
But health and hygiene were not the only consid-
erations of the Hannah Schloss program. Recognizing
the need for musical instruction for talented, but far
A
L
T
,
B
BY RUTH MIRIAM LEVINE
Jewish News Staff Writer
A LMOST ALL of these activities were directed by
11. volunteer workers, Butzel emphasized. Social work
was not as extensive a profession then as it is now,
and there were only five or six professionals directing
all Jewish relief and community work in Detroit.
Of these, Blanche-J. Hart, for many years super-
intendent of the Hannah Schloss Memorial, received
eloquent praise from Butzel. -Miss Hart had no specific
work training and little theoretical background; she
"grew up with the work." An extremely human per-
son, she brought to it enthusiasm, love and warmth,
which made of the Hannah Schloss Memorial a "real
community 'center, where everybody met everybody,
and all who came felt a strong sense of possession and
of belonging."
Another of the community aid societies with
headquarters at the Hannah Schloss was the De-
troit branch of the Industrial Removal Bureau.
This organization, with units in cities throughout
the central and western states,- urged people to
leave the New York ghetto and settle across the
country. Many came to Detroit, and the Bureau
helped them to secure housing and employment.
• • • •
HAT THESE varied activities needed financial
support was self-evident. Fund-raising in Detroit
was in its earliest infant days. The United Jewish
Charities operated on a budget of $4,000 a year, around
the turn -of the century, covering total salaries and
relief allotments.
Though the amount was many times smaller, -it
was as hard to raise $4,000 then as $5,000,000 is today."
Butzel admitted. Collections were not organized, and
were made largely on an individual basis, with volun-
teers approaching members of the Jewish community
for donations. One hundred dollars, then, was a large
single contribution.
Relief allocations were determined by a committee
which also met in informal weekly sessions at the
Hannah Schloss. Talking over coffee and sandwiches,
a group of five to 10 men, aided by the recommenda-
tions of the meagre professional staff. made small ap-
propriations to fin the immediate needs of: relief appli-
cants.
The entire fiel4, of social and philanthropic work
was much more personal then, Butzel said. With vol-
unteers, rather than professionals, directing and carry-
ing out the activities, the workers were much closer
to the people themselves.
• • • •
El RED BUTZEL, the troubadour, ended his tale.
L He had omitted, however one major aspect of
the fine work of the Hannah Schloss Memorial—his
own posts there, ranging from membership in the Tri-
Square Club to presidency of the United Jewish Chari-
ties.-
Though he is loathe to admit it, it was his continu-
ing leadership that sparked much of the volunteer
work which brought that human element into the
activities of the Hannah Schloss Building. And when
the Jewish population left that neighborhood and the
site was abandoned, Butzel's activities and eminence
grew. as the community grew.
He is 70 years old this -month, and acclaimed by
every circle in Michigan, as well. as by all of American
Jewry. Untouched by fame, he retains his old-fash-
ioned roll-top desk, and the deep interest in his fellow-
man, that made him a leader of the community at the
.Hannah Schloss Memorial, and makes him, today, the
"Dean of Michigan Jewry."
T
-
• •
HE HEBREW FREE LOAN
Society met there weekly
and even kept its safe, from
which it brought forth home- and
life-saving dollars, in the build-
ing's office.
The workers' organizations be-
gan to use the building exten-
sively after George Avrunin of
the Arbeiter Ring became a
member of the board of the
a;
United Jewish Charities.
After the Kishinev massacres,
Detroiters organized to raise mon-
ey for relief of the survivors.
The money raised from the city-
at-large, was used mainly as a
"revolving fund" to bring people
in Russia and Poland to mem-
bers of their families in Detroit.
The administrative committee of
that project also had its head-
quarters at the Hannah Schloss
Building.
The Fresh Air Camp, now flour-_
ishing at Brighton, Mich., had
its origin at the center. A group
of young women, meeting at the
building, planned excursions to
parks and "fresh air" areas for
slum children in the summer, -
and in the winter served delica- -
cies to shut-ins. Later they rent-
ed a house in Canada where they
"took children during the summer
months.
Rental difficulties caused the
society to campaign for funds
with whiCh they purchased a site
and constructed buildings near
Mt. Clemens on Lake St. Clair.
This proved inadequate after sev-
eral years, however, and Mr. and
Mrs. Edwin. Rosenthal donated
the large tract of land on Blaine
Lake near Brighton.
T
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