Importance and
Security of
Investments
In Israel
Read Editorial—Page 4
& Commentary, Page 2
TH,F,„ W
NEWS
e ekly
of Jewish Events
VOLUME 16—No. 17 708-10 David Stott Bldg.—Phone WO. 5-1 1 55 Detroit 26, Michigan, January 6, 1950
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Israel, Jordan Jerusalem
Claims Upheld in New UN
Council Holy City Proposal
A Century of Progress
Jewish Community
I Marks Centennial
Direct JTA Teletype Wires
to The Jewish News
LAKE SUCCESS, N. Y.—A new
United Nations plan for the inter-
nationalization of the Holy Places in
Jerusalem which would not deprive
Israel of the New City was reliably
reported to have been drawn. up Tues-
day under the guidance of Roger
Garreau, president of the UN Trust-
eeship Council.
Detroit Jewry had an important part in
the upbuilding of this great city and con-
tinues to contribute to-its : growth,
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
VROM THE TRADITIONAL _Minyan in 1850,
troit Jewry has grown to a community of -nearly -
J.00,000 people. It now rates a place among the
seven largest Jewish centers on • this continent, to-
gether with New 'York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Bos- •
ton, Los Angeles and Cleveland.
Although there is a record of Jews who had
lived in Detroit as early as the year 1763, the his-
tory of Jewry as an organized Community in Detroit
did not begin. until 1850.
Since Jewish tradition designates that a "min-
yan"—a group of 10 men who are at least 13 years
of aRt—is required for the holding of congregational
services, the "minyan" has become the symbol of
community organization.
The First Minyan
T WAS NOT UNTIL the beginning of 1850 that
I the number cif Jews in Detroit grew to the tit.;
ditional "minyan." Their predecessors included-
Jewish traders who probably were among the first
arrivals at the trading posts along the Great Lakes.
At the time of Chief Pontiac's conspiracy in 1763,
two Jews, Levy and • Chapman, were captured by
the Indians. Old records show that Chapman set-
tled in Detroit and lived here until 1796.
Another Jewish. pioneer, Solomon Ben Isaac
Halevi, who lived in Detroit in 1783, is mentioned
as a witness in a matrimonial case before the Beth
Din—the Jewish court—of London. Names of other
Jews in the early Detroit records, prior to the for-
mation of the Detroit Jewish community, include:
Isaac Moses, whose name appears in the 1798 and
subsequent records - of the first Masonic Detroit
lodge; A. J. Solomon, who was, en route to Macki-
nac, among the 10 passengers whose names were
listed in the Gazette of June 17, 1820, as satisfied
with the "arrangements and accommodation" of
the steamer "Walk on the Water" ; Louis Benjamin,
a merchant who may have been Jewish, who was,
according to Michigan Territory records awarded.
a lot in Detroit to indemnify him for losses in the
fire of 1805 ; and, according to the records of the
Common Council, an Alex Cohen was on the payroll
for grading a street in 1835.
The First Settlers
THE FIRST DIRECTORY to be published in
I N. Detroit,
in 1837, there was not one name among
the 1,100 that was certainly Jewish. In the second
directory, published in 1845, there were only two
•
Jewish .names,--.Solomon Bendid and Moses Rinds-
koff. In the directory of 1850, in spite of the
marked increase in Detroit's population which then
numbered. 21,000, there were only three Jewish
firms and' five individuals listed : S. and H. Bendid
& Co.; dry goods ; Si'lberman & Hersch, cigar manu-
facturers ; S. Freedman & Brothers, dry goods; Alek
Grunwald, Leopold Rappenkeimer or Rappen-
heimer, fancy goods ; F. E. Cohen, portrait painter;
Solomon Cohen, pedlar.
Detroit Jewry's history began m1850 with the I
coming to Detroit of Isaac and Sophie Cozens who
were followed by other Jews, mostly from -Bavaria.
Available documents show that among' these first
settlers were the following- pioneers who assisted
in the establishment of the Detroit Jewish com-
munity : " Amberg, Breslei, Franke, Friedlander,
Heineman, Hirschman, Kanter, Lang, Newman,
Prdll, Schloss, Sloman and Springer.
Formation of Beth. El
E
AGER FOR RELIGIOUS services, Mr. and Mrs.
IA Cozens converted their home on Congress street
into a synagogue and Sabbath -services were held
there regularly until Sept. 22, 1850, when the found-
ing group organized itself into the Beth El . Society
which served as the beginning for Michigan's first
Jewish congregation—the 100-year-old Temple Beth
El of Detroit.
Joseph Newman was temporary cFairman of
the newly-formed Beth El Society. Later, Jacob
Silberman—to whom went the distinction of being
the founding president of Temple Beth El, was
chosen the first head of Detroit's first community
organization. Marcus Cohen, who came here early
in 1850, was the first acting spiritual leader of the
congregation until, later that year, he brought from
New York his friend Rabbi Samuel Marcus who
served the small synagogue as rabbi, cantor and
schochet. Rabbi Marcus served here until 1854 when
he fell as one of the victims in the cholera epidemic
of that year and was buried in the first Jewish cem-
etery, the half-acre plot that was acquired by Beth
El in 1851 for $150 on Champlain Street in what is
now the city of Hamtramck.
Shaarey Zedek Organized
11 YEARS, Beth El was Detroit's sole syna-
F OR gogue.
A hall was rented as a place of worship
on Michigan Grand Ave. in 1859. In 1861, property
(Continued on Page 2) .
According to the plan embodied
in M. Garreau's working paper on
Jerusalem, the area to be interna-
tionalized would be reduced to a
small enclave patterned after the
position of the Vatican in Italy. em-
compassing a maximum of 30,000
Jews and Arabs in that area. The in-
ternationalized sector would include
parts of both the Old and New Cities.
It is noted here that General
Assembly's demand for a UN re-
gime in this area Would best be
satisfied by this plan, and at the
same time neither Israel nor Jor-
dan would be deprived of their
respective political claims in the
Holy City. The proposed enclave
would be run by a UN Commis-
sioner and policed by a small con-
tingent of several hundred recruits
from Israel and Arab populations.
Israel's first unofficial reaction
to the plan is a negative one. The
proposal is expected to be submit-
ted to the Trusteeship Council
when it meets in Geneva Jan. 19.
It is learned that the Garreau plan
is of purely French origin in an
effort to save the world body's
prestige in an unpopular decision,
and that neither the U. S. nor the
British UN delegations, which are
maintaining a "hands off" policy
in the entire issue, had anything to
do with its formulation.
During the past week-end Israel
challenged the legality of the Trus-
teeship Council's resolution calling
upon Israel to remove government
offices from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv,
and Jordan was expected to annex
the Arab portion of Palestine to Ab-
dullah's kingdom.
It was announced that Dr. Ralph
J. Bunche, former UN Palestine
mediator, will not proceed to Geneva
to participate in the session of the
Trusteeship Council. This was taken
as an indication that no important
results. are expected on Jerusalem
froni-the Geneva meeting.
JERUSALEM—A 10-hour debate-
on foreign policy followed an address
by Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett
in which he expressed the govern-
ment's willingness to accept any
solution and give guarantees for the
security of the Holy Places.
(Continued on Page 3)
Z-Day Sunday
The Zionist Organization of De-
troit will observe Annual Z-Day for
the enrollment of new members and
the reenrollment of former Zionist
affiliates on Sunday. The day's solid-,
tations will commence with a brunch
for workers at the Mayfair, 13305
Dexter, at 10 a.m. Rabbi Leon Feuer
of Toledo will be the guest speaker.
(Story on Page 20, Editorial on Page 4)