ED
72 Friday, November 2, 1919
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
United Jewish Charities: Detroit's Senior Agency
In a rectangle formed by four streets, Monroe, Wat-
son, Brush and Orleans, the larger portion, by far, of all the
Jews in Detroit have made their homes. Of this whole
district Hastings St. is the business thoroughfare."
The year was 1896, and a writer for the Detroit News
was describing the Jewish "ghetto," where most of the
area's 5,000 Jewish residents lived.
The small community already supported six
synagogues and numerous fraternal, social and cultural
organizations. Charitable work was carried on by groups
with names which may sound quaint today: Ladies' Society
for the Support of Hebrew Widows and Orphans in the
State of Michigan, Hebrew Ladies' Sewing Society, Self
Help Circle, Jewish Relief Society, Hebrew Benevolent
Society.
Poverty and•persecution in eastern Europe and Russia
were having an effect on Detroit, as hundreds of Jewish
immigrants arrived every year.
Leo M. Franklin, the then-new rabbi of Temple Beth
El, recognized the need for coordination of community ef-
forts in helping the new arrivals. At his initiative, commu-
nity leaders met to form "a joint association by which all
charitable and educational work now . being done by the
various societies may be more expeditiously accomplished
During the early years of UJC the forerunners of the
Jewish Welfare Federation's member agencies began to
function. Gemiluth Chasodim, now the Hebrew Free Loan
Association, was organized in 1895; the Assembly of David
and House of Shelter, predecessor to the Jewish House of
Shelter, opened in 1897. The Fresh Air Society was
launched in 1902 by the Fresh Air Committee of the UJC,
and the Jewish Old Folks' Home; now Jewish Home for
Aged, opened in 1905.
United Hebrew Schools was started in 1919 following
the merger of two Talmud Torahs. The North End Commu-
nity Clinic, forerunner of Sinai Hospital and Shiffman
Clinic, was organized in 1922.
The Jewish Social Service Bureau, now the Jewish
Family Service, began in 1925, carrying on the program of
Fundraising has always been an important part
of United Jewish Charities' and the Jewish Welfare
Federation's activities, both to support local agencies
and to help needy Jews overseas. This billboard was
for the 1930 Allied Jewish Campaign.
40,000, the Jewish Welfare Federation was organized.
United Jewish Charities, which laid the groundwork for
this new organization, was a charter member.
Today, as the senior member of Federation, UJC main-
tains responsibility for communal properties and for the
management of endowment funds. UJC has financed and
encouraged the development of many programs in Jewish
agencies and has underwritten agency research and pilot
programs outside of regular operating budgets.
20
The document establishing the United Jewish
Charities was signed on Nov. 21, 1899.
The UJC, now celebrating its 80th anniversary, was
the first association of charitable organizations in Detroit
— and one of the first in the country.
United Hebrew Schools, formed in 1919, was a
charter member of the Jewish Welfare Federation.
Shown is a class in the early 1930s.
United Jewish Charities' free clinic grew into
North End Clinic — which in turn developed into
Shiffman Clinic at Sinai Hospital.
United Jewish Charities' Family Welfare Department.
And in 1926, UJC's Education Department merged with
the Young Men's Hebrew Association to form the Jewish
Centers Association (it became the Jewish Community
Center in 1933 with the inclusion of the Young women's
Hebrew Association).
In the 1920s, community leaders began to recognize
the need for an apparatus which.would be more inclusive of
all elements of the community, which would engage in
coordinated social planning and which would eliminate
duplication of services and sometimes competitive fund-
raising.
A landmark study, surveying all aspects of Detroit's
Jewish community, was conducted and its report, pub-
lished in 1923, became the blueprint for a new community
organization.
On Sept. 21, 1926, with Detroit's Jewish population at
Haifa University Speech
* * *
Charities' 80th Anniversary
Is JWF Meeting Highlight
United Jewish Charities
will be honored on the occa-
sion of its 80th anniversary
at the Jewish Welfare Fed-
eration's 53rd annual meet-
ing on Monday at Cong.
Bnai David. The dinner
meeting begins at 7 p.m.,
following a 6 p.m. reception.
Joseph H. Jackier is
president of United Jewish
Charities.
Also on the agenda are
JWF President George M.
Zeltzer's annual report and
the election of nine
members-at-large to Feder-
ation's Board of Governors.
A highlight of the eve- •
ning will be the presenta-
tion of the Fred M. Butzel
Memorial Award for dis-
tinguished community
service to Stanley J. Win-
kelman.
Reservations are re-
quired for the meeting. For
information, call the Jewish
Welfare Federation, 965-
3939.
Volume from the Philosophical Library
Goldmann Hits 'Internal Crisis' 'Jews Among the Nations' Topic:
the Reasons for Jewish Survival
HAIFA (ZINS) — "If a
catastrophe befallsIsrael, it
will not be because of Arafat
or Syria's Assad, but rather
because of the internal
crisis — because the coun-
try has deteriorated into a
land of cynics and
speculators." So said Dr.
Nahum Goldmann, former
president of the World
Jewish Congress, in a talk
given recently at Haifa
University.
"The state of Israel,"
Goldmann continued, is all
worked up over relatively
unimportant issues such as
territory and boundaries;
and this can only lead to a
disaster, because the coun-
try fails to deal with the
burning internal problems
of the land."
Speaking of Israeli-
relations,
American
Goldmann noted that the
Jewish lobby misleads itself
and misleads Prime Minis-
ter Begin when it paints a
false picture of the attitude
of Washington towards Is-
rael. According to
Goldmann's view, the
NAHUM GOLDMANN
• 1. fa
I,
4. V'
Americans are not behind
Israel as much as they were
during the period of the cold
war.
Goldmann said that the
peace treaty with Egypt
will tend to weaken
American support for Is-
rael and that there are al-
ready some serious indi-
cations that Washington
will lean more and more
towards an accommoda-
tion with the Arabs.
At the same time,
Goldmann stated, there is
no danger to the existence of
the state of Israel, because
the world will not permit its
liquidation. However,
Goldmann continued, Israel
will become more and more
isolated and will be forced to
do things and to make ac-
commodations against her
will.
16 It 0, •
-
•
By ALLEN WARSEN
The author does not standing of their approach
Bernard Lande Cohen in minimize the role of reli- to the Bible.
His observations regard-
"Jews Among the Nations," gion and the importance
subtitled "A Message for of great men in Jewish ing the Bible are illuminat-
Christians and Jews" history. He emphasizes ing: Mohammed char-
(Philsophical Library), that the Pentateuch, -"the acterized the Jews as "The
stresses the importance of towering manifesto" that People of the Book;" Heine
commerce and moneylend- "swung the final decision referred to the Bible as "The ,
against idolatry," has al- Jews' portable homeland;"
ing in Jewish survival.
He traces Jewish com- ways been "a decisive Father Origen coined the
mercial history to the pat- factor for the durability term "Pentateuch,"
the Scribe changed Mir
riarch Abraham, whose of Judaism."
Phoenician script of the
neighbors called him "Pr-
Among the outstanding
ince of the Lord" for his Jews, the author includes Bible to "Ktav Ashurit," the
moral qualities and worldly Joseph, son of the patriarch present Hebrew lettering;
he divided the Pentateuch
possessions.
Jacob, the prototype of the
He cites the German worldly Jew; Mordecai and into five parts and sub-
economist Werner Sombart Esther, the protectors of divided them into "Par-
who refers in his book "The Persian Jewry; Nehemiah, shiot" (portions) which he
Jews and Modern who "was for the Jews of the joined to the "Haftorahs"
Capitalism" to biblical pas- period the equivalent in (prophtic selections).
The author's survey of
sages that extoll material strength of a full army
possessions "as a blessing corps." There were other Jewish history is com-
from the Lord and as the great Jewish leaders who prehensive and all-
tangible means for salva- contributed to Jewish exist- encompassing. It includes
the remote past, the First
tion." The author also ence.
and Second Common-
notes that Thomas Aquinas
Cohen devotes a number wealths, and the Diaspora.
considered moneylending
and commercial activities of chapters to a review of the In the final chapter "Jews,
the principal causes of Pentateuch and to a critique Christians, and Moslems,"
Jewish resistance to con- of the Graff-Wellhausen he considers, inter alia, the
version. He, therefore, ad- "documentary" theory, bet- position of the Jews in Rome
vocated that Jews be forbid- ter known as "Higher Criti- under the Popes and in the
den to engage in these occu- cism." His comments con- Ottoman Empire under the
tribute to a better under- sultans.
pations.