Beth El to Honor Irving I. Katz, Its Noted Executive Secretary
Temple Beth El Executive Sec-
retary Irving I. Katz, nationally
known as a pioneer in the develop-
ment of the field of synagogue ad-
ministration, will be honored at
Beth El Sabbath services March 7.
The occasion will mark the con-
clusion of his 30th and beginning of
his 31st year as Beth El's chief
administrator.
Prior to assuming his present
post at Beth El in 1939, he served
as executive director and educa-
tional director of the Oheb Zedek
Congregation in Cleveland and the
Anshe Emeth Temple in Youngs-
town, 0.
He received his education at the
Hebrew Gymnasium, Hebrew
Teachers' Normal School, and Rab-
binical College in Riga, Latvia, and
Spencerian Business College and
Westein Reserve University in
Cleveland. He is a certified Fellow
in Temple Administration.
Since coming to Detroit, Katz has
made many notable contributions
to the life, vitality and growth of
TRYING I. KATZ
Beth El and has taken a prominent
role in the general community. He
is the founder and past-president
of the Council of Synagogue Ex-
ecUtive Directors of Metropolitan
Detroit, a founder and past presi-
dent of the Jewish Historical So-
ciety of Michigan and presently
editor of its journal Michigan
Jewish History, board member of
the Detroit Service Group of the
Jewish Welfare Federation and the
Professional Division of the Allied
Jewish Campaign, past-chairman
and presently adviser of the Syna-
gogue and Schools Division of the
Campaign, member of the Jewish
Community Council Culture Com-
mission, charter member of the
board of trustees of Wayne State
University Press, member of the
Michigan Civil War Centennial
Observance Commission and De-
troit Civil War Centennial Com-
mittee, member of the Economic
Club of Detroit and a member of
numerous other public committees
and local and national organiza-
tions.
During the American Jewish
Tercentenary he served as sec-
retary of the "Detroit Committee
of 300" and as chairman of ex-
hibits and publications. He was
also a member of the Detroit
Citizen's Committee for the ob-
servance of the 250th anniver-
sary of Detroit. He received a
citation from the U.S. Treasury
Department for his home front
activities during World War II.
On the national scene, Katz was
the founder of the National Asso-
ciation of Temple Administrators
(NATA), an affiliate of the Union
of American Hebrew Congrega-
tions (UAHC), served as its first
president and was elected honor-
ary president for life. He is a char-
ter member of the executive board
of the UAHC Great Lakes Region,
a member of the executive board
of NATA, a member of the Com-
mission on Synagogue Administra-
tion of the Union of American He-
brew Congregations and the Cen-
tral Conference of American Rab-
bis (CCAR), a member of the
board of certification for temple
administrators of the UAHC-CCAR-
NATA, and a member of a number
of UAHC national committees.
Katz was the first temple ad-
ministrator in the country to lec-
ture on synagogue administration
to the rabbinical students at the
Hebrew Union College-Jewish In-
stitute of Religion, and to speak at
the national conventions of the
UAHC, CCAR and NFTB and at the
regional conventions and Institu-
tes for board members of the
UAHC.
He has been in demand as a
consultant in synagogue adminis-
tration surveys of individual con-
gregations from coast to coast. He
received a citation from the
UAHC for outstanding religious
leadership.
Katz received a citation of high
merit from the Hebrew Union Col-
lege—Jewish Institute of Religion
"for his important and distinguish-
ed contributions to Jewish his-
torical research, and for his pio-
neering work in Michigan Jewish
History," in 1964.
He was honored by Temple
Beth El with life membership in
the Jewish Chautauqua Society
on his 60th birthday in 1967 and
was awarded a citation for dis-
tinguished leadership by the Re-
form Jewish Appeal last year,
when he also was appointed to
the national cabinet of the ap-
peal as a vice-chairman.
Former president of the Metro-
citation from the Department of
Michigan Jewish War Veterans "in
grateful recognition of devotion
and effort in formally chronicling
Jewish patriotic and military con-
tributions in the Civil War."
Urban Culture at Wayne State
University.
A prolific writer on the subjects
of synagogue management and
Michigan Jewish history, Mr.
Katz's articles have been publish-
ed in The Jewish News and na-
tional synagogue and church
periodicals. He is the author of a
series of pamphlets on various
aspects of synagogue administra-
tion, published by the UAHC, and
co-author of the book, "Successful
Synagogue Administration," now
in its second printing, published in
1963 by the UAHC. Katz is the
author of "The Beth El Story—
With a History of Jews in Michigan
Before 1850" (Wayne State Univ- •
ersity Press, 1955), "History of
Jewish Community Services in De-
troit" (Jewish Welfare Federa-
tion of Detroit, 1960), and "The
Jewish Soldier From Michigan in
the Civil War" (Wayne State Univ- 1
ersity Press, 1962).
He has also written the histories
of a number of Jewish congrega-
tions and organizations in Mich-
igan. Katz was honored by the
American Jewish Archives of the
Hebrew Union College-Jewish In- /
stitute of Religion by the estab-
lishment of "The Irving I. Katz
Collection on Michigan Jewish His-
tory." He was the recipient of a
Katz is married to the former
Gail Peres. They- have two daugh-
ters, Nina Claire (Mrs. Lawrence
A. Isaac) and Myrna (Mrs. Mel-
vyn K. Adelman).
Katz was presented with an
honorary life membership in the
Hannah Schloss Old Timers As-
sociation for his comprehensive
history of the Hannah Schloss
politan Detroit Cemetery Associa-
Memorial Building, Detroit's first
tion, he also is a member of the' Jewish community building and
advisory committee for the Pro- predecesor of the Jewish Com-
gram of Studies in Religion and
munity Center.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, February 14, 1969-21
Latin Immigrants Land
HAIFA (JTA)—The Israeli pas-
senger liner Theodor Herzl arrived
here from South America with
550 immigrants, mostly young peo-
ple. The newcomers compromise
115 families, among them "yor-
dim"—Israelis who once emigrat-
ed. The Jewish Agency will pro-
vide them with all facilities grant-
ed new immigrants.
A COCKTiIL
WHEN YOU
c..P -IC Cad 'II g
.,TED 641141:13 • CEIPOIT C S a • .210)01
A FULL WEEK IN THE
SUNNY CARIBBEAN $469
*7 Nights at the Aruba-Sheraton, based on Modified American
Plan (breakfast and dinner)*,'
* Round-trip air fare from Detroit
* Transfers and sightseeing in Aruba
LIMITED SPACE AVAILABLE: Departure MARCH 2 RE-
TURNING MARCH 9, 1969 (or take an extension to
Montego Bay, Jamaica)
TO: BEE KALT TRAVEL SERVICE
4626
N. Woodward Avenue
Royal Oak, Michigan 48073
TEL. JO 6-1490
LI 9-6733
I enclose my deposit of $50.00 per person for the March
2 departure.
Nome:
Address: Street:
City: ......
Telephone:
/
Zip Code
Party of:
Based on double occupancy of twin-bedded rooms.
Murray Teigh Bloom Puts Lawyers
in Place With Eye-Opening Book
"We properly honor the found-
ers of our great "industries, the
Edisons and Fords whose daring,
ingenuity and hard work helped
create a useful industry providing
employment for thousands where
only a vacuum existed before. But
the founder of the still-growing
American injury industry has been
overlooked. The man who almost
single-handedly set the industry
on its modern path and invented
most of its illicit angles, the man
who showed generations of Amer-
ican lawyers the road to its surest
dollar, has never been honored."
Thus, Murray Teigh Bloom ir-
reverently introduces Abraham
Gatner, the first "ambulance chas-
er," in his book "The Trouble With
Lawyers," a book that tells what
is wrong with some members of
the legal profession, who take the
middle-class client for a ride.
Published by Simon and Schu-
ster (630 Fifth Ave., NYC), "The
Trouble With Lawyers" docu-
ments the ways in which such
lawyers are able to take ad-
vantage of their clients through
excessive fees, ddays, legal in-
competency and often fraud. He
also outlines possible methods of
reform.
Bloom writes of Gather:
°In 1907 he was a fresh-faced
hustling lad of IS who had two
years of high schooL But he looked
fl the future and sensed it could
work well for him. He became our
first ambulance chaser. The place
was Manhattan, which then had
only a few hundred automobiles—
more than enough for a hustling
chaser . .
"Gatner persuaded a law firm
to take him on to give his idea a
chance. His self-made job was to
hang around police headquarters
at 9 a.m. and get a list of the
previous day's accidents from a
newspaper reporter, who was given
one dollar. With the list, Gather
would run out to get the accident
victims signed up on retainer agree-
ments for the law firm . . .
"He prospered, as did his law
firm; he got a commission on each
case as well as his salary. In 1912,
when he was 23, Gatner took a bold
step. He quit his pioneering job
as chaser and joined the ' enemy
as an insurance company ad-
juster."
Gatner's checkered career, as
well as those of other lawyers,
are related in Bloom's book, which
contends that the relationship be-
tween certain lawyers and their
clients grows more lopsided every
year as lawyers make themselves
bigger and greedier partners of
their middle-class clients. They
do this through minimum-fee price-
fixing agreements that are support-
ed by our courts—the same courts
that denounce price fixing when
it's tried by business or industry.
Observe the unspoiled innocence of chil-
dren. Everything in their world is a thing of
wonder. There is no hate or fear; only a driving
curiosity and a desire to understand.
Difficult? Maybe—but it would make the
world a much better place for all of us.
It isn't too late change your ways. Not if
you're a real grown-up. But it is something you
Why don't we, the older and wiser, act
have to do yourself. Even these children could
like children? Why don't we do some deep
not teach you how to act. Because, they're
not acting.
soul-searching and discard some old habits?
Why don't we act their age?
Are you big enough to take your first step?
lit NW MOURN