THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Friday, December 23, 1977 19
LEASE
Beth El's Rabbi Adler and the 5 Fast Days
By IRVING KATZ
Executive Secretary,
Temple Beth El
The first rabbi of Temple
Beth El, Samuel Marcus,
died in 1854 during Detroit's
cholera epidemic. The con-
gregation consisted at that
time of 25 families and was
holding its services and
meetings in a room above a
store on Jefferson Ave.
The leaders of Beth El
communicated with Rabbi
Isaac M. Wise of Cincinnati
for recommendation of a
new spiritual leader.
Rabbi Liebman Adler,
.!wly
arrived from Ger-
_
rnany and seeking a posi-
tion, was visiting his rela-
tives in Cincinnati at that
time and was introduced to
Rabbi Wise who informed
him about the Detroit va-
cancy.
Correspondence ensued
between Rabbi Wise and
Beth El, resulting in the
engagement of Rabbi Adler
as preacher, cantor, shohet
and mohel. Nothing, evi-
dently was, stated in the
correspondence about Rabbi
Adler's salary.
Rabbi Adler, his wife,
Zerlina, and their five chil-
dren arrived in Detroit be-
fore the High Holy Days of
1854. At the end of the first
month, the treasurer of
Beth El visited Rabbi Adler
and handed him $30 as his
monthly salary.
Rabbi Adler was taken
aback and politely indicated
to the treasurer that $30 a
month would total-- $360 a
year and since there are 365
days in a year the salary
allowed to him would be
less than a dollar a day to
feed his five children, his
Wife and himself.
Whereupon the treasurer
responded calmly, "But,
Rabbi, did you forget that
there are five fast days in
the Jewish calendar?"
The response of Rabbi Ad-
ler to the explanation of the
treasurer is not known but
in the course of time Rabbi
Adler's salary was raised to
$500. In addition, he earned
$300 a year from perquisites
(congregational ads in Cin-
cinnati's weekly newspaper,
The Israelite, were offering
rabbis a combined income
of $800).
By 1860, four more chil-
dren were born to Rabbi
and Mrs. Adler and in order
to sustain the family Mrs.
Adler opened a millinery
shop.
Beth El grew to 60 fami-
lies and moved to a rented
hall over a drug store on
Michigan Grand Ave. (now
Kennedy Square), which
was transformed into a
synagogue.
Discouraged that some of
his reforms met with oppo-
sition and that the congre-
gation did not as yet have a
regular synagogue building,
Rabbi Adler accepted in
1861 an offer from the
K.A.M. Temple in Chicago,
a larger congregation and
Chicago's oldest, to serve as
pastor, preacher, school ad-
ministrator and teacher.
His starting salary was
$1,200 a year.
Rabbi Adler was a
staunch protagonist of the
Union cause during the Civil
War. His son, Dankmar, el-
dest of the nine children,
served in the Union Army
and later became a nation-
ally-known architect.
1978
BUICK Regal Coupe
W8, auto, A/C, t. glass, p. steering, p.
brakes, custom belts, cony. package, rear
defogger, mats, sport mirrors, body side
moldings, AM radio, w.w. radials, Landau
V/roof.
For 27 months
For 30 months
50 + tax
$1 40
tax
$1
40,000 miles, closed end lease.
License plates included.
Leasing all makes
Call Dave Madison
MORRIS BUICKCO.
Leasing Division
342-7100
You helped us to start it
now help us to complete it
the summer youth camp
Ex-Zionist Leaves Israel,
Now Rejects the Movement
Morris Alexander was in-
spired by experiences of
life, with his wife and fam-
ily, in Israel and he tells his
story in "Israel and Me,"
published in Chicago by
Two Continents Publishing
Co.
The z...xj.,:anatory note un-
der a photograph with Da-
vid Ben-Gurion explains the
author's objectives. It also
appears on the front of the
book's jacket and it reads:
"A behind-the-scenes look
by a long-time U.S. Zionist
leader and returned immi-
grant."
Every Israeli settler's ex-
perience is, of course, of
great interest. Alexander
has lived in Israel and con-
fronted many of the ob-
stacles. He is a returnee
and advice from him can
not be ignored.
A summation apparently
prepared by Alexander
states:
"Israel's model is the
United States, good and
bad. It is a country that, in
_ miniature, is developing a
fOrmidable - military-indus-
trial complex that in-
fluences
its economy much
:
the way it does in the
United States today.
"The campaigns to bring
the Jews of Soviet Russia to
rael are essentially an
rican and English and
nch agitation. They de-
rive from guilt felt by Jews
in these communities, an
,- inheritance of their general
silence at the time of the
Nazi and Stalin pogroms.
"The Zionist movement
did not establish the nation
. . . it was created by forces
and events neither directed
nor controlled by Jews .. .
the continued existence of
Israel and the course of its
future will depend largely
on world political forces
much more than on what
the Jews inside or outside of
Israel do or do not do."
Alexander's book will
arouse debate. It will cause
puzzlement. Perhaps he
would have written differen-
tly after the emergence of
Beginism and the affirma-
tion of the new Israel prime
Minister that it is his Zion-
ism that is at the root of the
Israeli nationhood.
It is doubtful whether he
could gain an audience for
his view that Zionism did
not create Jewish statehood,
even in the admissibility of
the effectiveness of the
Holocaust in inspiring set-
tlement of immigrants in
Israel. But Israel without
the First, Second and Third
Aliya would not have been
an Israel as it has devel-
oped.
Zionists will be dismayed
by Alexander. They also
will be in discord with a
view that may carry very
little weight.
—P.S.
Songs for Peace
Sung in Tel Aviv
TEL AVIV (JTA )—More
than 120,000 Israelis, nearly
a fifth of the population of
Tel Aviv, massed in the mu-
nicipal square late last Sun-
day night for a peace-song
festival that lasted well past
midnight. Clearly elated by
recent political events, the
throngs ignored the winter
chill—temperatures were in
the thirties—and some
plunged into the ornamental
pool opposite the town hall.
Police diverted traffic
from streets leading to the
square and permitted only
pedestrians to enter the
area. Mayor Shlomo Lehat
and members of the city
council were on hand.
More than 80,000 people,
one in every four of the
displaced persons in World
War II, passed through ORT
vocational centers.
4e4
Approach to the Summer Youth Camp sponsored
by the GREATER DETROIT WOMEN OF JNF in the
AMERICAN BICENTENNIAL NATIONAL PARK in Israel.
48th Annual Donor Tea
12 Noon, Tuesday
Congregation Shaarey Zedek
27375 Bell Road
Southfield
GUEST ARTISTS
MICHAEL EINGORN
VICTOR SHULMAN
Russian Emigre to Israel
Russian Emigre to Israel
Outstanding Xylophonist in
Singer, pianist, composer
the USSR. First prize winner
and conductor.
international music
Repetoire includes Yiddish,
competition in Moscow.
Hebrew and Gypsy renditions.
Also popular American songs.
Multi-faceted talents give old familiar favorites new life
GUEST SPEAKER
RABBI WILLIAM BERKOWITZ
of Congregation B'nai Jershurun,
New York
Noted author and lecturer. Newly
elected National President of
Jewish National Fund
for information call:
JEWISH NATIONAL FUND 22100 Greenfield, Oak Park 968-0820
DIANE (MRS. LOUIS) LEVINE,
President
BETTY (MRS. FRANK) SILVERMAN,
Fund-Raising Chairperson
SHIRLEY (MRS. JULES) KRAFT,
Program Chairperson