Windsor Jewish Community
`Small But Sophisticated'
By CHARLOTTE HYAMS
Windsor, Ontario, just a short
swim away from Detroit, is
often called our Canadian su-
burb.
But the Windsor Jewish com-
munity has a mind of its own.
For while its number is small
(822 families) it is a "close-
knit and independent Jewish
community that is beginning to
resemble Detroit in its sophisti-
cation.
This is the opinion of the
Windsor Jewish Community
Council through its spokesman
Joseph Eisenberg, executive di-
rector.
Independence wasn't always
characteristic of the Windsor
Jewish Community. • Detroit
was looked upon for guidance
up until 1959 when the Philip
Bernstein Jewish Community
Center was erected at 1641
Oullette. With the cent e r
came "more of an indigenous
Jewish life in Windsor."
The $450,000 Bernstein build-
ing is indeed the "Jewish
center" in Windsor, for not only
are recreation, cultural and so-
cial programs arranged here,
but all functions of the Jewish
Community Council are directed
from this building. These in-
clude fund-raising (the c o m -
munity raised $100,000 last year
for the United Jewish Appeal),
family service and central plan-
ning.
Monty Pomm, assistant execu-
tive director in charge of pro-
gramming at the Center, is
proud of the uphill line -on the ,
graph near his desk: 50,000
visits were paid last year to
Center programs. Half the com-
munity belongs to the center,
participating in teen programs,
including four B n a i Br i t h
Youth chapters, a Brownie_
troop, cub pack and Girl Guides
group under _Center auspices; a
Golden Age Club with some "35
devoted and happy" older adult
members; such adult clubs as a
drama group and H e b r e w
classes, and the physical educa-
tion and health club. facilities.
Available also is a children's
day camp, Yo-Mee, attended by
some 200 youngsters.
There is no young adult pro-
gram at the Center. In fact, that
is • where the Windsor Jewish
Community is feeling the pinch.
There are virtually no young
adults, period.
Few college-age young
people stay in Windsor to at-
tend the 1 o cal university,
Assumption. Instead most
prefer to commute daily to
Wayne State and the Uni-
versity of Detroit. The result:
"Intermarriage" with Detroit
Jews and more attractive edu-
cational opportunities h a v.e
drained Windsor of its 18-24-
year olds.
Eisenberg hastened to add
that most of these people even- -
tually return to their home
town "as professionals. We have
a yearly two percent increase
in population and the 'emigres'
are largely professionals."
Still, there is a dearth in
young adult leadership at the
Center, and Pomm is hard put
to find counselors for the youth
groups.
Where young leadership does
exist is in the 30-40 age range.
The latter has provided
great impetus to Zionism in
Windsor. Eisenberg estimated
that 10 per cent of the com-
munity has already visited
_Israel, and Bonds have sold
well ($75,000 last year). He
also attributed the close feel-
ing of kinship to Israel to the
Eastern European origin of
the community.
Eisenberg explained that al-
though the first Jews arrived in
1893, the growth of Windsor
came largely after World War
I when immigration quotas were
set up in the U. S.
Many Russian and Polish
Jews emigrated to Windsor with
the -motive to eventually arrive
in Detroit. Although many left,
many remained, settling in
areas around the old business
district and then branching out
to Sandwich and Ford City,
which are now incorporated into
Windsor, and the newer areas.
There are some 20 Jews living
in the small towns outside Wind-
sor, like Kingsville, Amherstburg
and Essex. They commute for
important functions, such as
Windsor's recent celebrations of
Israel's 13th anniversary.
Although the community has
no "suburb problem", it is trun-
cated into four parts and poses
somewhat of • a transportation
dilemma for the youngsters who
attend Hebrew school.
The Hebrew schools are the
sole responsibility of the syna-
gogues, as are all _ youth educa-
tional and religious functions of
the community. About 80 per cent
of the 500 children attend after-
school classes, including one
Yiddish-speaking school, the
Peretz Shule, which is planning
a new building near Memorial
Park. Twelve youngsters corn-
mute to Detroit's Yeshivah day
school.
Synagogue life in Windsor -
is "on the ascendency", Eisen-
berg feels. There are a Re-
•form temple and three Ortho-
dox synagogues with which
some 65 per cent of the Jewish
population is affiliated, he said.
The largest is Shaar Hasho-
mayim, built in 1930 and
some 360 family mem-
berships. (The spiritual leader
is Rabbi Samuel Stollman, son
of Detroit's Rabbi Isaac Stoll-
man of Cong. Mishkan Israel.)
Oldest among the synagogues
in Windsor is Shaarey Zedek,
which held its first services in
a rented hall on Pitt St., built
its own edifice in 1904 and
erected a new building in 1957.
Its rabbi is Shmaryahu Karelitz.
Tifereth Israel, with just enough
members to form a minyan,
was built in 1917.
The newest house of worship
is the Reform Temple Beth El,
set up last year under the
youthful leadership of former
Detroit rabbi Sherwin T. Wine.
Presently meeting in a leased
building, the congregation is
planning a new temple for its
90 member families in Sand-
wich West, the most suburban
area of the Jewish community.
The liberal movement has be-
gun to enter other synagogues.
Shaar Hashomayim, according to
Pomm, is an "Orthodox syna-
gogue with a Conservative con-
gregation having Reform tend-
encies."
Small as the Windsor Jew-
ish community may be, it is
proud of its favorite sons who
have made good in civic life.
They include David Croll, the
only Jewish senator in Parlia-
ment and a former Windsor
mayor; and such men as Ja-
cob D. Geller, immediate past
president of the Jewish Com-
munity Council, who hopes to
run for Parliament in the next
election; Eli Golden, another
Council past president, Wind-
sor's Man of the Year and a
frequent award winner in the
non - Jewish community; and
Myer Dorn, who has also
played a leading role in Wind-
sor conununal affairs.
Other leaders include the
newly-elected Council president,
young Melvin E. Sorifer, past
chairman of the Welfare Fund;
Harry R. Schwartz, chairman of
the current Welfare Fund Cam-
paign, who has . served as pres-
ident of the Retail Businessmen's
Association and with the Family
Service Society; and printer
Michael Sumner, a pioneer in
Zionist work and an active par-
ticipant in local and national
affairs, including the Canadian
Jewish Congress National Exec-
utive.
The ladies have made no mean
contribution to the prominence
of Windsor Jewry. Mrs. I. Ben-
.Ezra, known for her work in
the non-sectarian civic Council
of Women, is active in Hadassah
national circles, as is Frances
Geller, for whom a Chatham
Hadassah chapter was named.
It takes no more than a brief
-visit to realize that Windsor
Jewry—as well as all Windsor
—is Americanized. . . Its citi-
zens look and act like their De-
troit relatives. Only an occa-
sional symbol of Canada's Do-
minion status is apparent, like
the portrait of Queen Elizabeth
hanging 'in the Jewish Center.
But the Windsor Jewish
-Community is, nevertheless,
very much Canadian, proud of
the liberal tradition of toler-
ance that is the declared pol-
icy of the country, and dedi-
cated to the cause of Canadian
freedom.
In the words of Senator Croll,
who addressed the Senate on
the occasion of the bicentenary
of Jewish life in Canada in
1959:
"We in Windsor have been
blessed in having, among our
citizens, members of the Jewish
faith who are devoted, loyal
citizens, sharing willingly . in all
our undertakings for the public
good . . . Congratulations on
two hundred years of freedom
under The Flag of the Common-
wealth where each of us and all
men may walk as their con-
science persuades them, every
one in the name of his God."
Supreme Court Rules Officeholders
Need Not Declare Belief in Religion
(Direct JTA Teletype Wire to,
The Jewish News)
. NEW YORK — A unanimous
decision by the U.S. Supreme
Court striking down the require-
ment in the constitution of the
State of Maryland that office-
holders declare their "belief in
G o d , ' was described by the
American Jewish Congress Tues-
day as a major victory for "re-
ligions liberty and the separation
of church and state."
In handing down the decision,
the Supreme Court unanimously
reversed a previous lower court
ruling against Roy R. Torcaso,
whose commission as a notary
public was withheld because he
refused to sign the state oath
declaring his belief in God. Tor-
caso's chief attorney was Leo
Pfeffer, general counsel of the
American Jewish Congress.
Justice Hugo Black declared
in a majority opinion that "we
repeat and again reaffirm that
neither a state nor the Federal
Government can constitutionally
force a person to "profess a be-
lief or a disbelief in any religion."
Justice Felix Frankfurter and
John M. Harlan went along with
the judgment but did not join
the opinion.
In hailing the decision, the
American Jewish Congress de-
clared that "we are deeply
gratified' at the court's ruling that
any religious test for public - of-
fice violates the most funda-
mental principle of American
democracy—that a man's• religi-
ous beliefs or disbeliefs are in
no way subject to government
control."
Other states requiring a belief
in the existence of a supreme
being as a qualification for pub-
lic office are Arkansas, Missis-
sippi, North Carolina, Pennsyl-
vania, South Carolina, Tennessee
and Texas.
Jews in South Africa Clarify Stand
,
Toward New Status of the Republic
JOHANNESBURG, (JTA) —
The official position of South
African Jewry toward the South
African Republic established here
was made clear at a meeting of
the South African Jewish Board
of Deputies in a declaration made
at the meeting of the chairman,
Dr. Teddy Schneider, which was
endorsed warmly by the entire
Board. Schneider said:
"Looking back over 51 years of
the Union of South Africa, we
see that the Jews here have serv-
ed the country in all fields. The
religious services which were
held in our synagogues and tem-
ples during the last weekend,
with special prayers for the wel-
fare of the Republic are- a mea-
sure of the Jew's faith in South
Africa, his identification with the
best interests of the land, and
the rededication of the entire
Jewish community to help South
Africa in every way possible in
the future.
"We take off our hats to the
past, and we take off our coats to
the future. Difficult times may
lie ahead. But we, as a commu-
nity, will play our part in facing
the coming tasks as we played
our part in all past national
tasks."
The South African Jewish com-
munity was represented at the
official investiture of the Repub-
lic's first president, Charles R.
Swart, - and at a state banquet
where authorities will provide
special kosher food for the Chief
Rabbi and other Jewish guests.
During the weekend, sermons
in various synagogues stressed the
theme of citizens' loyalties and
government's responsibilities to
ensure the well-being of all sec-
tions of the country's inhabitants.
Editorials in the Jewish press
greeted the advent of the Repub-
lic, affirming the loyalty of the
country's Jewish citizens. Jewish
Affairs, the organ of the Jewish
Board of Deputies, declared:
"South Africa's 100,000 Jews are
a settled, permanent part of the
European population, enjoying
the same rights and subject to
the same duties as other citizens,
and will accord the Republic the
same loyalty they always accorded
the Union. Loyalty to the State
is a precept enjoined upon Jews
by Judaism."
The editorial referred to the
many fields — the professions,
arts, commerce, industry, educa-
tion, science and social services
—in which Jews made a "truly
formidable contribution to the
welfare and progress of South
Africa." The publication express-
ed the confidence they will make
no less a contribution to the
progress of the Republic.
Hebrew Corner
Sick Fund of
Kupat Holim
The members of the 2nd Aliya
(i.e. wave of immigration to Israel)
laid the foundations for the Jew-
ish labor - and labor settlements
—their road was not an easy one.
They arrived in Eretz Israel when
the country was under Turkish rule
and neglected and desolate. The
pioneers of this wave of immigration
were forced to adjust themselves to
a hot climate and an unaccustomed
way of life. The many swamps in the
various parts of the country spread
mosquitoes and spawned disease. The
workers who lived in stables or
miserable Arab hovels fell ill with
malaria, typhoid, dysentery and skin
diseases and there was no one to
care for the sick. The dangerously ill
were transported by wagon to the
hospital, a two-day journey through
difficult and ruinous roads. No won-
der that many of the sick died and
the workers suffered disillusionment
and despair.
One day the. workers convened
and decided to found a sick fund
which would afford patients assis-
tance in time of need. And so in
1911 the first sick fund was estab-
lished which rendered medical as-
sistance to every member who paid
a fixed fee.
When the First World War and its
troubles were over and the General
Federation of Labor was founded
(in 1920)- the sick fund expanded.
It established its own clinics, phar-
macies and hospitals. Today the num-
ber of persons who benefit from its
assistance totals over a million and
at its disposal are nearly a thousand
clinics and two thousand doctors.
Since the emergence of the State
and the beginning of mass immigra-
tion, the sick fund was charged with
absorbing the masses of immigrants,
most of whom medically speaking
hailed from backward countries, and
render them medical assistance and
guidance in matters of hygiene.
(Tra nsyla tB n of Hebrew column
issued b iorit Ivrit Olamit.)
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