THE JEWISH NEWS
Detroit's First Modern Orthodox
Rabbi Came Here 60 Years Ago
the orthodox Jewish community
By - IRVING I. KATZ
It is generally known that the of Detroit.
venerable 82 - year old Rabbi
Aaron M. Ashinsky of Pittsburgh,
was Detroit's first modern orth-
odox rabbi sixty years ago.
Rabbi Ashinsky was born in
Poland in 1867 and received his
Smichah (ordination) at the age
Of 19. He came to New York in
1886 when there were a handful
of Orthodox Rabbis in the United
States. In 1887 he received a call
from Congregation Beth Israel in
Syracuse, where he remained for
• ,,,•"••••:„
RABBI AARON M._ ASHINSKY
two years and learned the English
language. In 1889 the orthodox
Jewish Congregations of Detroit,
- comprising Shaarey Zedek, Bnai
Israel and Beth Jacob, were look-
ing for an Orthodox Rabbi who
. would minister not only to the
immigrant population whose mo-
ther tongue was-Yiddish, but also
to the rapidly Americanizing
youth. The leaders of the Detroit
Congregations heard of Rabbi
Ashinsky and extended to him an
invitation to become their spirit-
ual leader which he accepted.
Detroit then had a population of
about 200,000, including about
1,200 Jews. Rabbi Ashinsky im-
mediately instituted a class in
Talmud for those who desired to
preserve and enhance the Tal-
mudic knowledge they acquired
in their school age in the Old
World, and for seven years min-
istered to the spiritual needs of
-
5
Poverty in North Africa
Friday, April 22, 1949
Our Deadline
Young, and with inexhaust-
ible energy, the Rabbi set his
heart to add medicine to his
store of knowledge. He enrolled
as a student • in the Detroit
School of Medicine. For two
years he continued these
studies, winning praise from
the faculty and receiving the
highest marks in his classroom.
These two years began to tell
on his health. His duties in the
community increased and he
was compelled to give up the
study of medicine.
Rabbi Ashinsky remained in
Detroit until 1896, when he ac-
cepted a call from Congregation
Bnai Jacob in Montreal, Canada.
The Detroit Jewish community
was reluctant to see him go. To
express their feelings at his de-
parture, -they assembled in a
large hall on July 20, 1896, and
there presented him with a testi-
monial which read as follows:
Regular deadlines for The
Jewish News are as follows:
For photographs, 12 noon on
the Monday preceding publi.
cation.
For all copy; 11 a.m. on the
Tuesday preceding publica-
tion.
For classified advertisements,
11 a.m. on the Wednesday pre-
ceding publication.
WHERAS, we are about to lose an
intellectual, kind and devoted. gen-
erous and sympathetic friend and
Rabbi, who for the past seven years
has most faithfully ministered to us.
RESOLVED: That in the taber-
nacle of man, like in the great forest,
society has her oaks about which our
fellow-men cling and embrace for men=
tal nourishment and support, and as
one of these great oaks of our society ,
is the noble personage and distin-
guished Rabbi, who is being removed
by a call to other fields, be it under-
stood that he shall ever remain in the
sweet memories of us all, and
RESOLVED: That we shall ever
miss him, for his heart is an ocean of
sympathy and love, and
RESOLVED: That we who are in
the twilight of life and nearing the
approach, the gate, the entrance to an-
other world, will miss him most, for
his presence was to us as the morning
sunlight, and his kind and loving
words stimulated the weary and the
worn; to the tired heart they brought
rest and repose, and further,
RESOLVED: That, to us younger
in years, his humanity proudly sum-
moned us to yield to him the credit of
one of the greatest soldiers upon the
battlefield of thought, one of the
proudest champions and best friends
of man.
And lastly RESOLVED : That the
new field into which he is about to
enter will bloom and blossom under
his charge, as his majestic character
inspires resolution and moral eleva-
those with whom he comes in contact.
Committee on Resolutions:
DAVID W. SIMONS
DAVID GREENSTINE
BERNARD GINSBURG
vited to fill the post of Rabbi of
Congregations Beth Hamedrosh
Hagodol and Beth Jacob. in Pitts-
burgh. In 1922 he accepted a call
from a Congregation in Brook-
lyn, N. Y., but at the urgent re-
quest of the leaders of the Jew-
ish Congregations in Pittsburgh,
he returned the same year to
Pittsburgh. His record of 'achieve-
ments in bOth Montreal and Pitts-
burgh has beeh most noteworthy
and is treated in detail in a vol-
ume published in 1935 in com-
memoration of his fifty years of
service in the rabbinate.
In 1926, Rabbi Ashinsky re-
turned to Detroit to occupy the
pulpit of Temple Emanuel (now
Beth Tefilo Emanuel). Rabbi
Ashinsky was disturbed at the
existing conditions in the Ko-
sher Food Industry and, at his
instigation, a State Kosher Food
Law Was passed which prac-
tically eliminated the abuses
that were practiced at that
time. Through his efforts a
home was acquired for Yesh-
ivath Beth Yehudah, named
after Rabbi Judah L. Levine
who succeeded Rabbi Ashinsky
in Detroit in 1897 as Rabbi of
Congregations Shaarey Zedek,
Beth Jacob and Bnai Israel.
Rabbi Ashinsky remained in
Detroit until 1932 when he re-
turned to Pittsburgh to head a
number of congregations. He
now lives in Pitsburgh- in retire-
More than 1,000,000 Jews in North Africa live in desperate
poverty. Like grandfather and child in this picture.-Their rehabilitation
through medical aid, vocational training and child care program is
an urgent measure being sponsored by American Jewry's $250,000,000
United Jewish Appeal campaign.
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Open Eves to 9 p.m. Except
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.
•
04
abib
FURNITURE CO.
HARRY COHEN
President
7303 W. McNICHOLS
at Monica, 3 biks. west of Livernois
In 1901 Rabbi Ashinsky was in- ment.
THE DAY
SUNDAY, APRIL 24
Will you be ready—on THE Day?
Will you be ready to give for the 200,000 Jews who will enter Israel this year?
For the 2,000 new Americans arriving monthly in this country? .
For the transportation of the last of the DP's from the camps this year?
For the national services of the Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Welfare Board, Amer-
icon Jewish Congress and our social services?
For our important local agencies–the Jewish Home for Aged, Jewish Community Council,
United Hebrew Schools, Jewish Vocational Service — and the other services that
make a strong and healthy local community?
Will you be ready to give, in your own name, for this world of service at home and abroad?
Your volunteer worker will call on you on Sunday, April 24 remember the many causes.
Be Ready to Make Your Pledge on THE Day
Women's Division
250 LAFAYETTE WEST
1949 ALLIED JEWISH CAMPAIGN
Greet Henry Morgenfhau at Campaign Opening Rally, 8:30 p.m. Sunday at Cass High
WOodword 5-3939