THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

32 Friday, August 8, 1975

• 'SHOP —TO TO.
,DAILY, THURSDAY 'TIL 9

An Immigrant's View of Jewish Detroit, 1892

By IRVING I. KATZ

Executive Secretary of Temple
•
Beth El

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gration of Jews from East-
ern Europe to the U.S., be-
ginning in the 1880's,
numerous reports about
Jewish life in the U.S. ap-
peared in various European
Jewish periodicals.
One such report about De-
troit, written by an immi-
grant, appeared in the June
18, 1892, issue of the He-
brew journal Hatzefirah
(The Dawn), published in
Warsaw.

RABBI ASHINSKY

The following is part of a
translation from the article:

MICHAEL KAPLIT
Photography

Detroit (America). The
City of Detroit in the State
of Michigan is situated on
the Detroit River, and
across the river lies Wind-
sor in the Dominion of
Canada, the possession of
Britain.

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The former has a popula-
tion in excess of 200,000 and
among them about 20,000
Jewish families (actually,
about 5,000). The latter has
about 15,000 inhabitants,
including about 20 Jewish
families.
The Jews of Detroit are
divided into two camps—
Reform and Orthodox. The
reform congregation is com-
posed of German Jews.
They have a beautiful syn-
agogue building and are
known as Cong. Beth El.
Their rabbi, Dr. Louis
Grossmann, is a respected,
eminent gentleman and an
outstanding speaker, who is
urging his congregants to
assist in every way possible
the Russian refugees who
are arriving to this city.
As elsewhere in Amer-

ica, so in Detroit, the Ger-
man Jews constitute the
affluent segment of the
Jewish community. Most
of them are generous in the
dispensation of charity
and in helping their poor
brethren.

The Orthodox communi-

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ty—natives of Russia and
Romania—has three con-
gregations, namely, Cong.
Beth Jacob, comprised of
Lithuanian Jews who are
well versed in Judaism;
Cong. Shaarey Zedek, com-
posed of the rich Orthodox
Jews; and Cong. Beth Israel.
Besides these congrega-
tions, there are tens of min-
yanim (small congrega-
tions), such as the Russian
Minyan with the Sephardi
rite, the Russian Minyan
with the Ashkenazi rite, the
Romanian Minyan, etc., etc.
The spiritual leader of the
Orthodox community is
Rabbi Meier Ashinsky, an
outstanding speaker, but
regretfu. 11y he has been una-
ble to implement his aims as
well as of those who are
truly concerned about our
faith.

With super-human en-
ergy he overcame the ob-
stacles to establish a Tal-
mud Torah. He has
publicized the opening of
the Talmud Torah every
Saturday morning at wor-
ship services from the pul-
pits of the Orthodox con-
gregations of the city. He
has installed charity boxes
in the homes of his congre-
gants.

Despite all this, there is a
shortage of funds to keep
the Talmud Torah open, a
shameful situation for a
community of 20,000 fami-
lies, most of whom are gain-
fully employed. One finds it
incomprehensible why our
brethren are unwilling to
support an institution on
which the honor and future
Of Judaism depends.
The main offenders - are
the presidents of the congre-
gations—they would rather
spend money on various
guest cantors than support
the Talmud Torah.
When Rabbi Ashinsky
insisted that the children
must receive a Jewish edu-
cation and the Talmud To-
rah must be supported, the
presidents decided to hold
back the rabbi's salary.

Bewildered and discour-
aged, Rabbi Ashinsky de-
cided to resign his position
an,d to accept a pulpit in
Tok.onto.

The hopeless situation in
regards to the Talmud To-
rah and the departure of
Rabbi Ashinsky from De-
troit also had an effect on
–the disintegration of the
House of Shelter.
The existence of this insti-
tution depended solely upon
the untiring devotion of
Rabbi Ashinsky. When an
important stranger ap-
peared in the community he
saw to it that he was given
food to eat and a place to
sleep.
When a
penniless
"greenhorn" chanced to
come to Detroit, a warm
welcome awaited him at the
home of the rabbi and
within 24 hours the rabbi
was able to find him a job.

(Editor's Note: As Mr.
Katz indicates in this arti-
cle, the Jewish population
figures were greatly exag-
gerated in the quoted arti-
cle. Rabbi Ashinsky, the
reverend spiritual leader
referred to, was Rabbi

YOUR WEDDING—
BAR MITZVA

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who, during his long ca-

reer in Pittsburgh, where
he settled after leaving

Detroit, became a national
Mizrachi leader and one of
Orthodoxy's chief spokes-
men).

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