Fred M. Butzel Autobiography

Trisquare Club and the Building of Detroit's Young Leaders

gerers. We had an idea in came from the Bezalel Art be absorbed locally. We
ing out in the solution of those early days that a work School.
hoped that those who mi-
their most complex social test would prevent "pauperi-
Boris Ganapol was in grated in this fashion would
problems. He had a flair for zation."
charge of our first musical come to jobs that were al-
ready waiting for them. The
the Montessori method long
4 .43/.. e...f..conii/ce !.r.,c,: z.:14 t.;;Tel
A great many of our well- school, and with his staff
before Montessori was known, known physicians started gave lessons to talented pu- whole movement was to be
and many an approach de- their practice in the Hannah pils in voice, piano and vio- financed by the Baron de
Hirsch Fund.
zeo.frier.e;:t/IX-C,
veloped much later had been Schloss Clinic. Our public al- lin.
0 .7477/*;;ifede. 14).4rei'l;' :4:7.1-,i;e4ers
used by him in the old days. ways insisted on very high-
Rightfully or not, we in De-
')
t$&
C- _
troit always believed that we
I was always fascinated grade service.
by his methods and, going
Parallel with the clinic for
The Hannah Schloss Me- took more than our fair share
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./ .6.L5.,:54d.nrecl.=PriT
down
to
Hannah
Schloss
our
sick,
the
babies'
milk
morial
Building was hardly of the quota. Our people had
e.
kr,
4,74••
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r
night after night, I watched fund ran a clinic where moth- up before Detroit as well as the emotional effect of the
.d•rrot. vwf
him in action and was be- ers brought their babies for other American cities, be- conference from the begin-
rZez-cle.A..;n4e.9./444e
guiled into spending money periodical examinations and came centers of Jewish im- ning and we outdid oursel
1.
,;.e.).
•
r -vg‘PteXspt-e-7,..r-rnfrt., prze.4e/,‘44,9/a
in accepting removals,
far beyond my means.
milk formulae.
migration.
./-a":„ezapt4t.fre/
nesee.,:tec(
much so, that we must have
As
soon
as
we
acquired
a
When
the
second
National
In
a
short
time,
the
Tri-
,e9iervOec,
)>
4
llntleest? i,"/.-';<e>
,470•-::‘;a1Le
taken more per capita than
gym,
the
boys'
clubs
really
Conference
of
Jewish
Chari-
square
Club
was
conducting
_re.i.,n4W.tfeZYZ7te;11%.;;.‘r, i/vy 44,-;.everreseg•F
began to blossom out and be- ties took place in Detroit in other cities.
debates,
oratorial
contests,
„1)1 Z-,:;707re;,14"zre.41;i9te-t,4,11: ,ae / ..",
Of course, we had our eyes
athletic activities, picnics, fore long we were using a 1902, it put on its feet the
444...ce.d,l;/Z./41411.1X/,740-C,e5V•0•11,G;r/~)- .
Wge7V/4‘1,
great deal of energy in un- Industrial Removal Office. open for funds, too, and every
and
many
other
undertak-
,f:orri-pnedrxelp? arice/./.46,47tet,yose"%re4-_/.4./.04/tere/
ings. The spontaneity and or- tangling the problem of gate Some of the most notable fig- time David Bressler came to
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-eder:///..4//eeeztfreSoad(gli 41)
lef irm;/ . 2761
ures in American Jewish life town we asked for more mon-
iginality of the boys became receipts and graft.
e./.444•/;14,ea,/,rirnit4rif
41/1W5c.)1'^
All the clubs of the city were present at the meeting. ey. We felt that there was no
widely known and many ad-
.7Zfraera-tcer
1,ces.',,rocc7r41:4;.07*-iiese;rye'
(
Among them_ were the sil- sense in doing the job for
ults at various times joined were a. v.ious to come and
,/t9
;rA ,/,445,7.4e>,- fra.,44.wir.
;1 44encert.7e.i..541c
the club, paying dues at the play at the Hannah Schloss ver-tongued Leo N. Levi from nothing when plenty of mon-
and many a night we had Galveston; Dr. Lee K. Fran- ey was available.
rate of 2 cents a week.
However, we had a col.-
'
c ..0,0 's!,4e4Are
The elections were hotly religious battles. As soon as kel, that handsome, brilliant
contested, and the entire scouting came to Detroit, personality who had left the stant fight on our hands with
ghetto took sides. When Sam Troop 23 was organized at field of chemistr-y and was the national office. Bressler
i674/2V/KreY,(/
Buch told his mother he was the Hannah Schloss and was then director of the United wanted us to take the more
.„7",eX
to be elected president, she considered one of the "crack- Jewish Charities of New difficult cases because we
informed the neighborhood erjack" troops of the com- York; Max Senior of Cincin- were getting more money
nati; Judge Julian Mack, then from the Baron de Hirsch
about it, and when he did not munity.
As the educational work head of the Juvenile Court of Fund. Time after time, it be-
win, he got a good spanking
when he returned that eve- grew, there was a feeling Chicago; Cyrus Sulzberger, a came necessary to exchange
that the Jewish masses were business man most active in lengthy correspondence.
ning.
The industrial removal
Among the presidents of not getting sufficient atten- the work of the United He-
the Trisquare Club were tion and so we brought Mary brew Charities of New York; work here in Detroit was un-
Morse Goldman, Isadore Lev- Caplan here from Baltimore. Judge Nathan Bijur of New der the supervision of the
in, Ezra Levin, Dr. Samuel She organized the mothers' York; and Solomon Lowen- United Jewish Charities. We
J. Eder, Mitchell Victor and clubs, canvassed the east side stein, who had left the rab- employed Birdie Pick, a
many others who became and got not only the Jewish binate, and was head of the young society woman, to
Fred M. Butzel received many honors in his lifetime. prominent in the bsiness and but the Italian mothers to HOA in New York, a prom- head the work and she
A Jewish National Fund Forest was planted in what was professional world. Active demand and receive classes ising young Charities leader. stayed with us about three
then Palestine on the distinguished leader's 60th birthday.
members included, among in English and citizenship in The meeting was held in the years, being succeeded by
Mrs. Philip Slomovitz and Judge Theodore Levin were co- others, Gus Newman and the public schools during old Temple Beth El on Wash- Miriam Hart, who remained
for many years the head of
chairmen of the committee that enrolled participants in
Aaron Silberblatt. Ben Gins- hours which would not inter- ington and Clifford.
I shall never forget that the bureau. Miss Pick did a
that project. When he celebrated his 50th birthday, on Aug.
burg and I were elected as fere with their household du-
conference. The real purpose good job, going abroad to
25, 1927, the Detroit District of the Zionist Organization of
members and subjected to ties.
As the organization ex- of it, namely to give the idea the factories in the city and
America, of which he was honorary president, honored
the same rules and regula-
panded, Mrs. Rose Lipson of the Industrial Removal Of- there persuading the various
him with an inscription in the JNF Golden Book in Jeru-
tions as the boys.
salem and with an engraved resolution reproduced here.
In quick succession, many was brought from Boston to fice a. good start, was not foremen to find jobs for our
The resolution was signed by Maurice Zackheim, Detroit
other boys' clubs were head the relief department generally known. Speaker immigrants.
We had been promised by
Zionist Organization president; Dora B. Ehrlich, vice pres- formed, all on the self-gov- under Miss Hart. Later, in after speaker arose and viv-
ident; Abraham J. Kaufman, treasurer; Israel Zilber,
erning basis. These included addition to the paid relief idly described the horrors of the New York office that we
secretary; and Abraham Caplan, financial secretary.
the Homer Lane Club, the workers, the UJC had a re- the congestion of immigrants would be • sent the average
Washington Club, the Tri- lief committee composed of in New York City, especially of the group but we had rea-
BY FRED M. BUTZEL
son to believe that they didn't
square Juniors, the Fred But. lay people, who got into_the on the Lower East Side.
As Told to
Leo M. Levi praticularly always do this. The Russian
zel Club, etc. Every time a habit of holding weekly lunch-
The manual training de- new club was started they eon meetings to discuss the touched all of us with his ac- Jews, who came here fur-
William I. Boxerman
partment
at the Hannah asked me to join. I suppose cases that had come up dur- count of the impossible hous- nished a large number of the
Editor's Note: Fred M.
ing situation and the conse- iron workers in the automo-
Butzel, Detroit's most distin- Schloss Building was ex- I joined every club there was, ing the week.
Social workers today prob- quent demoralization of the bile industries. Especially
guished Jewish community tremely popular not only be- with the stipulation that I
cause it filled a specific need wouldn't be expelled if I ably wouldn't agree with the entire Jewish community. He were they good at "wooding,"
leader of the 1920s through
but
because of the genius of didn't always-attend.
findings of this committee on trotted out the old argument the process of binding the
the early 1940s, conceded to
The Washington Progres- why people became depend- that much anti-Semitism and wood on various auto parts.
requests that he write his its first and only director,
The percentage of compe-
memoirs. In 1937, the editor Homer T. Lane, who had sive Club was organized in ents. Our discovery was that persecution of the Jews arose
tent workers proved to be
come
here
from
Framing-
feeble-mindedness
and
illness
because
of
these
crowded
1915
and
functioned
for
six
of The Jewish News had
years. Since then the mem- were at the root of the trou- conditions and because the great; they were hard work-
asked him to reminisce. On ham, Mass.
immigrants were herded to- ers and were welcomed by
He had charge of the play- bers have gotten together ble.
Aug. 30, 1937, he wrote:
We therefore concluded gether in a modern ghetto, the factories. Later, as ma-
grounds for the public schools every year on Washington's
Dear Phil:—
that until such time as the where they had no opportu- chine work succeeded handi-
in the daytime and gave us
Accept my profound grati- his attention at night. Lane Birthday to r e s u m e old state made better provisions nity to assimilate and become craft, most of them left the
friendships
a
n
d
reminisce
tude for your recent and past founded in the city of Detroit about former activities.
factories and entered the real
for these people, we couldn't good citizens.
and continuous expression of the self-government move-
Cyrus Sulzberger spoke estate business.
make very much progress in
Within
a
few
years
a
group
friendship. With your kind ment for boys.
After the work of the IRO
council was formed, first decreasing the number of ap- and broke down in the mid-
permission I do not think I
plications for relief.
dle of his speech, overcome was under way, there oc-
with
delegates
from
the
boys'
A
natural-born
psycholo-
will reminisce at the present
As soon as the Ginsberg by his own emotions as he curred the infamous Kishir
time. I think I have had my gist, he would always say, clubs only, and then with addition to the Hannah pictured the teeming slum massacres, and Jews cal,
delegates
from
girls'
clubs
"What
is
important
is
not
share of publicity, and then
to this country in droves. The
Schloss was ready, we began areas of the metropolis.
some. With kind greetings to what the boy does with the and even adult groups. This to specialize in dances. The
Ford factory was by this time
Finally,
came
the
concrete
one
Sunday
on
council
met
the better half, the children stick of wood but what the
beginning to attract hordes
dance
craze
was
at
its
height,
proposal
as
a
solution
to
stick of wood does to the morning a month and under-
and yourself, I am,
and two or three nights a these difficulties, the pro- of workers and the newcom-
took
to
make
policies
for
the
boy."
As ever, yours,
In order to govern the building and even to assign week dances were given both posal at which the whole ers were placed quite readily.
Fred
There is an interesting
manual training classes, he club rooms and the gym for the general public and for conference was a i m ed-
specific clubs.
namely, that these immi- sidelight on the participation
Two years later he relent- helped to organize the pupils which we later acquired.
For a number of years in grants who came to New of the non-Jewish population
ed. He dictated his recollec- into a boys' club. This was
Schloss Memorial was so
tions to William I. Boxer- the famous Trisquare Club crowded and uncomfortable succession, Mary Caplan or- York City be dispersed of Detroit in the work of the
man, then a member of the with a membership of about that more space was neces- ganized exhibits of Jewish through a central office, IRO. George P. Codd, who
directorial staff of the Jewish 90. Today it does not sound sary. Bernard Ginsberg built art. She sought to have fam- known as the Industrial Re- was then mayor of Detroit,
Community Council. Thanks revolutionary; but in those a large addition which prac- ily heirlooms, examples of moval Office. David M. Bres- headed a commission which
raised funds for the victims
to the relentless efforts of days the idea of boys having tically tripled our floor space handicraft and religious uten- sler was to be in charge.
Each community was to of the Kishinev pogroms. A
Allen Warsen, Detroit -educa- complete responsibility for and in the new addition we sils of beauty and attempted
tor, these memoirs became their program, membership had among other things, club to tie up the exposition with take a fixed quota of a cer- mass meeting was called and
available f r o m Boxerman and discipline was unheard rooms, a very fine standard- the local community. These tain number of people per a considerable sum of money
and presented here.
sized gym with shower baths exhibits were very popular. month, much as communities was gathered.
of.
The original intention had
The second installment of
In succeeding years, we now try to absorb a certain
Lane's work in the Tri- and a commodious clinic.
the Butzel autobiography fol- square Club was extremely
The clinic in the first place went further and got loans number of Jewish refugees been to send the money di-
rectly to Russia as material
lows:
far-reaching. He seemed to was largely instituted to ex- from out of town, and Jew- from Germany.
Each community had to aid to the sufferers, but this
have the most intimate per- amine persons for relief who ish artists of national re-
idea was abandoned. Instead,
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS sonal relationship with every claimed to be sick and in nown began to display their write and tell the IRO the
(Continued on Page 9)
types
of
workers
that
could
works.
A
great
many
things
many
cases
were
malin-
boy in the club and was help-
8—Friday, March 15, 1974

reltat.Vittut

Newcomers

A
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g7"

Trisquare Club