THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Joseph Soss, Builder of Montana Capital

It's a long way from the Capitol Romania.
of Montana to the Soss Manufac-
When opression against the
turing Co. of Warren. But one man,
Jews in Romania became too
literally, supplied the hinge for
much for Schloss, he migrated
both.
to Canada, worked as a brick-
He was Joseph Soss, immigrant
layer for $2 a day and finally
builder and inventor, who con-
earned enough to bring over his
structed the state capitol of Mon-
wife and child.
tana at Helena and then, by acci-
The next stop was Cleveland.
dent, invented the concealed door Immigration authorities gave him
hinge that helped make the De- his new name, and he found o new
troit automobile the streamlined job: contracting. It wasn't long
job it is today.
before his family had grown —
But the road was even longer two sons and another daughter —
than that for Soss. born Josef and he was building homes, stores
'floss in the late 19th Century and schools.

the Distribution of Public Funds

From the Shulhan Arukh of
Rabbi Joseph Karo (1488-1575)
If a man and a woman ask for
food, the woman is given the
preference; and so, too, if they ask
for clothing. So also, if two or-
phans, a man and a woman, come
to be married, the woman is given
the precedence.
If one comes and says, "Give
me food,' no investigation is made
to see that he is not an impostor,
but he is given food at once. If
he is destitute and asks for cloth-
ing, the c a se is investigated,
and if he is found worthy, he is
immediately furnished wth rai-
ment. _
Two poor men who are re-
quired to give to charity, may pay
their obligations by giving alms
to one another.
(Note by Isserles: This refers

to charity in the ordinary sense.
But if, for some misdemeanor, the
community imposes a fine upon
them to give a certain sum to
charity, they cannot give it to one
another; for that would not be
paying a fine.)
A congregation in n e e d of a
rabbi and a cantor, but unable to
engage both, should give prefer-
ence to the former, provided he
is a distinguished rabbi . . . Other-
wise, a cantor should be engaged.
(Note by Isserles: The r a b b i
should not be maintained out of
the charity fund, as it is a dis-
grace both for him and for the
city; but the community should
provide him with another source
of income. However, gifts of in-
dividuals are perfectly honorable.)
The community authorities may
use even school funds if neces-
sary, for the payment of the an-
NJ Court Rules Non-Jews nual per-capita tax to the com-
mander of the city's troops, be-
May Adopt Jewish Child
cause it is a matter of life and
TRENT ON (JTA) — Couples death; for if they will not come
adopting children through the state to terms with him now, many
of New Jersey are no longer re- poor people, not having the where-
quired to give their religious af- withal to pay, will be beaten and
filiation, nor will a recommenda- stripped naked.—Article 251:8, 10,
tion by a religious leader be re-1 12-14.
quired.
The new ruling follows a settle-
ment of a court dispute here in Trident to Publish
a case involving a couple who chal- New Novel by Rubin
lenged the requirements on the
Dr. Theodore Isaac Rubin, author
grounds that the State Constitution of the novel which was made into
guarantees the free exercise of re- the prize-winning film, "David and
ligion. The ruling was accepted by Lisa." has written a new book en-
the State Superior Court Appellate titled "The 29th Summer," which
Division.
will be published by Trident Press
Under the new ruling, Jewish next week.
couples will be permitted to adopt.
"The 29th Summer" is the story
be permitted to adopt Jewish chil- of Annie Green_sen, a young woman
dren under certain circumstances. on the brink of becoming 30 but
The ruling will not affect adop- still unmarried. During-a stifling
tions through private agencies. New York summer, Annie is beset
which still require a religious state- by anxieties and frustrations as
ment. State law still requires that her family and friends all desper-
through the State, non-Jewish chil- ately try to find her a mate. Here,
dren while non-Jewish couples will in fiction as real as life, Dr. Rubin
adopted children be placed with weaves the moving story that takes
families of the same religious af- place so often in the hearts of many
filiation wherever practicable.
young women 'of that age group.

But Soss realized his big dream
when, in 1898, he was awarded a
contract to build a capitol for the
state of Montana.
For six years, the Soss family en-
dured the cold winters and the ab-
sence of a Jewish life in the town.
Soss suffered great losses when
the price of steel skyrocketed. but
the building of the capitol had
turned into a labor of love. In
1902, it was completed.

Soss returned to building
schools. His finances improved.
Nevertheless, there's always the
"big one that got away." For
Soss, it was a hole in the ground
he decided not to invest in, but
which later made young engineer
Herbert Hoover a rich man: the
hole was a copper mine that sold
for $2,000,000.
Soss became restless again. This
time, he and a friend decided to
build flat-bottomed wooden boats
for use in the newly burgeoning
U.S. Philippine trade.
On the voyage back home, Soss
made a discovery on deck. He
tripped over a projecting hinge,
and an idea was born: the con-
cealed hinge. In Butte, he patented
it, formed a company to manufac-
ture it and sold stock.
It was inevitable that his way
should lead to Detroit and the auto
industry. Here his travels ended.
He died in the mid-1940s, and his
sons keep up the business.
But the .Montana State Capitol
still stands, a living memorial to
its contractor, Joseph Soss.

'African Samson' Like Bible Tate

"Africa teems with good stories,
the full-flavored brews of man's
untutored imagination," Humphrey
Harman states in an epilogue to
his noteworthy story for teen-
agers, "African Samson," publish-
ed by Viking Press.
It is an unusually good story
patterned after the biblical Sam-
son. The setting is in the valley
of Kano. The legendary hero is
Magere the Stone.
Like Samson of old. he is the
powerful unbeatable leader of his
people. He can't be conquered.
As in the biblical story, a
woman makes love to Magere and
learns his secret from him. He
does not bleed, but if his shadow
is struck and made to bleed he
dies. And that's what happens.
And so Opio makes love to him.
She could have killed him herself
but she 1 eaves him, reveals the
secret to her people and states:
"He must be seen to die and at
the hands of a Nandi," the people
she stems from and who found
Magere their unbeaten enemy.
"Begin life again where it left
off," she is told, "get the taste of
Luo out of your mouth if you can.
You've served us well."
Thus ends the story. The author
reveals that there is reality to the
background of his story, that the
legend is told as if it were true.
But resemblance of the Megere
story to the Samson episodes in
the Bible were ''denied heatedly."
In any event, there is the re-

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Day Schools Consolidate

NEW YORK (JTA) — Three
Hebrew day schools on Long
Island, with an enrollment of over
1,600 students. have combined to
form a new central consolidated
Hebrew High School. The schools
are Hebrew Institute of Long
Island, Far Rockaway; the Hillel
School, in Lawrence; and the He-
brew Academy, of Long Beach.
Nucleus of the new school is the
high school of Hebrew Institute,
which has been in operation for
several years.

A cynic is a man who knows the
price of everything, and the value
of nothing.—Wilde

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semblance, and Humphrey Harman
lends it some relevance by calling
his tale "African Samson." Har-
man states: "The similarity be-
tween the Magere story and the
Samson one is remarkable, and I
don't pretend to understand it, but
this tale didn't came from the
Bible. It came from Africa. I
didn't put it there. I found it.
'African Samson' is built around
an oral Luo version which is per-
haps more circumstantial than
most, because, I suspect, a piece
of authentic history. has been
grafted onto the myth. But this
last spreads from the Congo to
Kenya, and I should hate it to be
thought that I claim to have
Africanized something which al-
ready belongs to the people there."

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