THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Modern Jewish Epic: Second Trojan War, Troy, 0.

The first Trojan War, described
in majestic dactylic hexameters
by the immortal Homer, tells the
story of the Greek siege of Troy
in Asia, the stratagem of the
wooden horse and the final con-
quest and sack of the city. This
classical conflict actually took
place about 1200 BCE.
The second Trojan War occurred
over 3,000 years later in the sleepy
little city of Troy, Ohio. Among
the victims were a Jewish couple,
saloon keepers.
This modern-day epic was un-
earthed by Prof. Jacob R. Mat-
cus, the director of the American
Jewish Archives on the Cincin-
nati campus of the Hebrew Union
College. It has been deposited
in the archives for the edifica-
tion and delectation of future
generations of American Jewish
historians.
The second Trojan War was
fought out in the months of Feb-
ruary and March, 1874, in the dead
of winter. Actually the war was
started in 1873 by a Christian
preacher who urged the ladies of
Troy to lead a crusade against
liquor. Those good women at once
created the Woman's Temperance
League of Troy and set out to do
battle for the cause they held dear.

They met in a local Methodist
church, prayed for the strength to
carry on their work and then set
forth on their mission.
One phalanx of these fearless
opponents of the Demon Rum
headed for the Michaelises' saloon
and restaurant across from the
Town Hall. The Michaelises, hus-
band and wife, were German Jew-
ish immigrants recently arrived
from the Fatherland.
The ladies marched through the
swinging batwing doors, delivered
a lecture on the evils of drink
and then urged the Jewish couple
to close their saloon permanently.
The Michaelises, who saw no dan-
ger in liquor, certainly not in beer,
were shocked by the demands of
the temperance group. When the
women asked the couple whether
they could hold a prayer meeting
in the saloon the couple ordered
them out. Righteously indignant,
Mrs. Michaelis, an Amazon in her
own right. firmly assisted two of
the crusaders to move with more
alacrity. The women moved out
but clustered around the doors
praying and singing, making it
almost impossible for eager cus-
tomers to slake their thirst. The
crusade continued all day long as
the women in their fervor knelt

Hebrew Teachers R enew Arbitration
Appeal on Charges of Hiring, Firing

While the United Hebrew
Schools' administration delayed
replying to charges made by the
Hebrew Teachers' Association and
to protests on firing and hiring
from all teaching staffs in local
schools supporting the charges, the
teachers issued a supplementary
appeal asking for arbitration.
The teachers declare that they
are "mindful of the indispensibil-
ity of the United Hebrew Schools
to the welfare of Jewish educa-
tion" and at the same time are
"mindful of the very serious dam-
age the latest hiring and firing

of teachers by the administration
will cause the United Hebrew
Schools and subsequently Jewish
education." They then appeal:
"Eager to prevent any further
broadening of this into a wider
public issue, we again urge the
administration to submit this issue
concerning the latest hiring and
firing of teachers to binding,
arbitration by an impartial arbit-
ration committee."
The appeal is signed on behalf
of the Association of Hebrew
Teachers of Metropolitan Detroit
by its president, Joseph Baras.

and prayed in the mud and the
slush.
Mrs. Michaelis published a
notice in one of the newspapers
requesting the members of the
Temperance Union to pray in
Hebrew in the future inasmuch
as she was a newcomer and not
familiar with the English ver-
nacular. She implied she was
far more at home in the Hebrew.
The first Trojan War lasted for
10 years; the second war lasted
only for weeks, but it must have
seemed interminable to the
anxious Jewish couple.
The women of Troy, 0., con-
tinued to pray and sing and adjure;
the Jewish couple mounted a
counter-offensive by clanging bells
and beating dishpans. But even as
Troy of 1200 BCE fell 3,000 years
ago, Troy of 1874 finally capitu-
lated. At least the Jews admitted
defeat, for they closed their taps
and stored their barrels and silent-
ly, or not so silently, stole away
to Dayton, O., where they found
peace and surcease from the
modern-day crusaders.
It must have been of some com-
fort to them that they were not the
only vanquished Trojans. Another
saloon keeper, a German Gentile,
closed his bar and gave his barrel
of whisky to a local Presbyterian
minister. The minister hauled it
home and triumphantly draped it
with an American flag. Virtue had
triumphed and found its own re-
ward. Two years later the clergy-
man resigned from his church and
fled with one of his more charming
parishioners leaving his wife be-
hind him. There are no authentic
reports on the fate of the barrel
of whisky.

This Week in Jewish History

.

Friday, May 14, 1971-7

Frisco Federation Says S chools Not Only Priority

SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) — In
response to student demands that
the San Francisco Jewish Welfare
Federation increase its aid to Jew-
ish education, Federation President
Melvin Swig has contended that
"Federation has consistently sup-
ported its commitment to quality
Jewish education in this communi-
ty," but that "there must be pri-
orities based on available funds."

eration offices from April 30
through May 1. The students were
pressing four demands, including
one for a "serious re-evaluation"
of the federation's budget priori-
ties.

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Criticism of federation policy, he
added, should not take the form of
"threats or intimidation," a refe-
rence to the action by a student
group called the Jewish Education
Coalition, which occupied the fed-

THAN

'Milan Wineries, Detroit, Mich.

APPEAL FOR ARBITRATION TO
THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE
UNITED HEBREW SCHOOLS

mindful of the indespensibility of the United Hebrew Schools to
the welfare of Jewish education . . .

AND

mindful of the very serious damage the latest hiring and firing
of teachers by the administration will cause to the United
Hebrew Schools and consequently to Jewish education

AND

eager to prevent any further broadening of this into a wider
public issue .. .

WE AGAIN URGE the administration to submit this issue con-
cerning the latest hiring and firing of teachers to binding
arbitration by an impartial arbitration committee.

Respectfully,

JOSEPH BARAS

President Association of
Hebrew Teachers of Metropolitan Detroit

ISRAEL:

There's a wonderful
way for youngpeople
to see and experience
the real Israel!

(From the files of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

40 Years Ago This Week: 1931
The House of Rothschild was credited with helping save Austria's
leading bank, Credit-Ansalt for Trade and Commerce, from financial
crisis.
Seventeen of 20 South German high schoolers writing essays on
"Germany's Rise" called for the expulsion of the Jews.
David Belasco, actor, playwright and for 50-plus years a Broadway
producer, died in New York at age 76.
Broadway star Molly Picon planned a two-year concert tour of
Europe, including Moscow.
The Soviet Union had 18 Yiddish periodicals, including three dailies
and five monthlies and bimonthlies.

10 Years Ago This Week: 1961

The Jewish National Fund's
YOUTH WORK AND STUDY MISSION

An intense program of Kibbutz

living, working, touring, and study

Departs New York June 24, 1971, Returns August 12, 1971

The State Department disclosed that in 1942, U.S. officials in
Europe reported Pope Pius XII's "disinclination" to intercede on behalf
of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. The U.S. minister in Switzerland
reported to Secretary of State Cordell Hull: "The opinion prevails that
the failure of the Holy See to protest publicly against Nazi atrocities
is endangering its moral prestige and is undermining faith both in the
Church and in the Holy Father himself . . . The answer is invariably
that the Pope has already condemned offenses against morality in
wartime and that to be specific now would only make matters worse."
Premier/Defense Minister Ben-Gurion and Chief of Staff Zvi Tzur
warned of a possible new Egyptian attack on Israel.
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Michael Musmanno, who in-
terrogated Nazi leaders after the war, testified at the Eichmann trial
that Eichmann "was practically unanswerable to anyone for the policy
of Jewish extermination." The hierarchy engineering the "final solu-
tion," he said, was Hitler, Bormann, Himmler, Goebbels, Heydrich and
Eichmann. The prosecution charged Eichmann with coordinating the
confiscation of $3,000,000 in Jewish property.
Franz Murer, accused of complicity in 80,000 Lithuanian Jewish
deaths during the war, was arrested in Austria.
Sen. Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota received the American Jewish
Congress' Stephen Wise Award for "substantial and enduring contri-
butions in the fight for human rights, justice, freedom and individual
dignity."
Jewish Agency chairman Moshe Sharett said the agency faced an
"extremely critical" financial situation because of sharply increased
Israeli immigration.
U. S. labor leader Walter Reuther spoke at cornerstone ceremonies
for a youth center bearing his name at Holon, Israel.
Wilhelm Schepman, former commander of the Nazi S. A., resigned
a deputy mayor of Gifhorn, West Germany, after Jews protested his

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