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Friday, November 13, 1981
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Purely Commentary
Domestic Potpourri ... The Retirement of an Able Communal
Administrator and Elevation of a Detroiter to a Post of
National Importance ... Honors for the Prominent Schavers
values. That is why the tribute to Moshe on the 20th an-
niversary of his passing is such a meritoriously appropriate
mark of respect for a person who was distinguished in his
lifetime.
Sol Drachler Enhances Record
as Federation Directing Head
Sol Drachler was challenged to emulate very suc-
cessful predecessors when he assumed the position of
Jewish Welfare Federation executive director. He had an
excellent teacher in Isadore Sobeloff. His immediate pre-
decessor, William Avrunin, pursued the task of keeping the
Detroit community in the highest ranks of Jewish
achievements. Drachler exceeded them all with the new
records set philanthropically under his direction.
More than that: he had a deep
understanding of the educational
needs, and he pursued them. He
came from a family devoted to
Zionism and Jewish culture, and
he did not deviate from it.
His retirement takes place at a
time when the Metropolitan De-
troit Jewish community can boast
of unmatched attainments in
many spheres. He has helped set
the educational system in order.
He has encouraged the expansion
of the Federation Apartments
SOL DRACHLER
program. He gave a measure of
encouragement to the movement to protect the retarded
and less fortunate.
Such is the fashion in which he has established prece-
dents for devoted services for whoever succeeds him.
An appreciative community surely wishes him well
both in his retirement and in whatever services he may
choose to render in his new capacities to follow his splendid
career of 25 years of labors for the organized Jewish ranks
here.
Martin Citrin's Role in CJF:
Recognition for Detroiters
At the General Assembly of the Council of Jewish
Federations, in St. Louis, this weekend, a Detroiter is due
to gain national recognition.
Martin Citrin's expected elevation to the presidency of
CJF is, in a sense, a continuing process of leadership for
Detroiters in national ranks.
The first Detroiter to be chosen for the CJF presidency
was Max M. Fisher.
Irwin Field rose to a top role when he became national
chairman of the United Jewish Appeal and Paul Zucker-
man preceded him in that national role.
George (Mike) Zeltzer served as chairman of CJF
Large Cities Budgeting Conference.
Jennie (Mrs. Harry L.) Jones was national chairman of
the UJA Women's Division.
Citrin, as a past president of the Jewish Welfare Fed-
eration of Detroit, held many local as well as national
positions. Thus, he, too, rose from the ranks to be honored
with national leadership.
Of interest to this community is the rise to major lead-
ership positions of Robert Naftaly, who is slated to become
the chairman of the Large Cities Dudgeting Conference,
and the planned elevation of Mr. Zeltzer, a former LCBC
chairman, to the presidency of the National Foundation for
Jewish Education. The role of Detroiters attests to the high
level of communal achievements continually accredited to
Metropolitan Detroit Jewry.
Moshe and Nehama: Jointly
Dignify the Name Schaver
Moshe (Morris) and Nehama (Emma) Schaver were a
team. Their names continue to influence, jointly, many
movements.
That is why, as the Lubavitch-Chabad movement pays
honor to the memory of Moshe, on the 20th anniversary of
his passing, by naming the auditorium in the movement's
headquarters as a tribute to him, his wife's name remains
an inspiration.
Moshe Scheyer was a remarkable man. He was a typi-
cal Russian-Jewish immigrant of the early days. He was
inspired Jewishly, and when he recited "Ma-ayin yovo ezri
— whence cometh help," he provided the answer that the
immigrants of the early years of this century created for
themselves. They labored, they struggled and they
emerged victorious over poverty and want.
What a legacy they provided for future generations!
They began by living from hand to mouth and they knew,
therefore, how always to treat the underdog, the im-
poverished, the needy and oppressed.
Moshe rose to leadership. He became a leader of his
many followers. He was the lover of Zion who demanded
and secured cooperation for similar devotions from scores
upon scores of associates.
His impassioned adherence to the principles
enunciated by the Histadrut, the Labor Zionist cause, and
its related movements had the same flavor of love and
identification as his attachment to the Chabad.
By Philip
Slomovitz
Warsaw Ghetto 'Uprising'
Now Also Among Hidden
Facts As If Jews Didn't Resist
EMMA and MORRIS SCHAVER
He sang too, and if ever there was a Hasid with an
inspired faith it was imbedded in Moshe Scheyer.
That's where his love for the young Nehama Emma
Lazaroff fits in. From childhood, Emma loved to sing, and
she captivated audiences, in the Westminster and Delmar
Ahavath Achim Synagogue to start with, and then in many
other assembly halls, from the age of 12. Then came her
international career as an opera singer — Morris being a
guide and her chief acclaimer.
It was a love affair rooted in music. It gained power
from the gifts made musically by Emma to the survivors
from Nazism in the displaced persons camps, as well as in
the ranks of Jewry everywhere.
This is a scratching of the surface in the recollections of
the gifts to the Jewish people and to human causes by
Moshe and Nehama. Hebrew University, Keren Kayemet,
the Jewish school and all centers of learning ... all are
linked in Moshe's legacies and Nehama's assuring their
continuity. Chabad was central in their judging of spiritual
A church in the vicinity of Detroit had an exhibit of
photos portraying "an uprising in Warsaw during World
War II."
It had been assumed that there was no secret about the
most courageous resistance to the Nazis in April of 1944;
that the courageous, who became the martyrs, who con-
fronted an entire German battalion were Jews who would
not submit to Nazism; that it was during Passover in the
Warsaw Ghetto.
But there was not a word in the newspaper report
about the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto; that it was in the
ghetto set up for Jews; that the event was recorded by the
Nazis themselves as the most daring of the entire war.
In the report about the church exhibit there was no
mention of Jews, just as the RusSians have been hiding the
truth about the 33,000 Jews who were murdered, many
buried alive in the Babi Yar ravine, just as many in Poland
speak only of Poles when referring to Auschwitz.
It is horrifying enough that Jews should have been the
victims in Auschwitz and at Babi Yar, and the resentment
is over the failure to indicate the Jewish sufferings. This is
especially outrageous when the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is
clouded in unneeded mystery.
If the bestialities are not to recur, the facts must not be
hidden. If Jews are to havea measure of pride in the resis-
tance, especially in the Warsaw Ghetto, the truth must not
be erased. In the newspaper report about the indicated
exhibit, at least, there was an inexcusable hiding of truth.
Bnai Brith History Lists Movement's Values
Bnai Brith is a move-
ment that represents the
cross-sectional groups of
American Jewry. It has
earned an unusually im-
pressive history compiled
by a highly-qualified histo-
rian and researcher.
"Bnai Brith and the Chal-
lenge of Ethnic Leadership"
(State Univeristy of New
York Press) is this sort of
story. Authored by. Vassar
College Prof. Deborah Dash
Moore, its less than 300
pages contain a compilation
that is all-inclusive as an
evaluation of the movement
and its branches serving
adults and youth, college
students and the many
other associates.
Ms. Moore is professor of
Jewish studies at Vassar
and the author of important
works dealing with major
Jewish topics.
Her account of the Bnai
Brith record contains all
of the movement's asso-
ciates, the Bnai Brith
Women as well as the
men's groups, AZA and
the youth counterparts.
It tells the story of the rise
of the Hillel collegiate
foundations and it pro-
vides an account of the
civic protective activities
and the manner in which
the Anti-Defamation
League was founded In
1908 by Sigmund
Livingston.
There is a tribute in the
Moore volume that will
make Bnai Brith members
proud of their association
with the movement. Prof.
Moore states in her summa-
tion:
One hundred thirty years
after its founding, it re-
mains the secular
synagogue. In the lodge
meeting, at institutes and
HENRY JONES
conventions, members keep
discovering the irrelevance
of Jewish denominational
loyalties. It does not matter
to Bnai Brith whether one is
Orthodox or Reform or any-
thing in-between. It does
not even matter if one does
not believe at all. The secu-
lar synagogue opens its
doors to all Jews, and em-
phasizes their ethnic sol-
idarity.
"Indeed, its secular
ethnicity has served as a
mortar of American-Jewish
life, preventing deep
ideological and religious
differences from fracturing
American-Jewish com-
munal efforts.'
"Bnai Brith's Jewish
secularism has com-
plemented its American
nonsectarianism,
encouraging tolerance
for all forms of religious
behavior. Thus the order
has continued to provide
a model of pluralist inte-
gration.
"Bnai Brith has also re-
tained its emphasis on
fraternity, while Bnai Brith
Women have stressed soror-
ity. Brotherhood and sister-
hood have established not
years after his arrival in
only a common emotional
New York City had led
relationship among mem-
bers but a hierarchy of lead- . Anshe Chesed, one of the
new congregations. Dis-
ership as well.
satisfied with a purely
The founding fathers and
religious approach to
the manner in which the
Jewish life, he had also
movement gained its footh- joined in the 1840s a
old is described interest-
newly founded 'cultus
ingly. The beginning is thus
verein,' the Mendelssoh-
alluded to:
than Society.
"None of these activities,
'Because native-born
however, completely satis-
Jews were too much
fied Jones or the other reg-
American and too little
ulars at Sinsheimer's.
Jewish, the established
While they welcomed the
Jewish community was
opportunity to create new
unable to facilitate the
Jewish
institutions in
immigrants' adjustment
emancipated America they
to living Jewishly in the
saw
the
absence
of com-
new land. Instead the
munal constraints bring
community stimulated
unexpected troubles in its
the newcomers' creativ-
wake.
ity.
"Internecine wrangling
"This situation led ulti-
fostered a proliferation of
mately to the establishment
new congregations, and in-
of Bnai Brith. Faced with a
stitutional competition
native American-Jewish fractured Jewish fellow-
community unresponsive to
ship. The debates between
their needs, German-
the nascent Reform and Or-
Jewish immigrants pro- thodox partisans filled
ceeded to create their own Jewish gatherings with bit-
institutions, thereby de-
terness. Though the friends
stroying the unity of kahal
at Sinsheimer's had wanted
and congregation — of to foster a spirit of coopera-
community and synagogue tion among Jews in the city,
— established earlier by by 1843 they realized they
New York Jews.
would have to avoid reli-
gious issues in order to suc-
"The new immigrants
ceed."
thus opened up the
American-Jewish commu-
While this volume could
nity to reconstruction, reor-
be used as the most power-
dering the activities of the
ful means of enrolling Bnai
traditional European-
Brith members, the Moore '
Jewish community.
story serves the important
purpose of providing an in-
"Given the permissive
teresting chapter in Ameri-
American environment and
can Jewish history. "Bnai
an absence of energetic
Brith and the Challenge of
Jewish leaders, the prolif-
Ethnic Leadership" is a
eration of synagogues and
highly-commendable
work
organizations seemed in-
and
a tribute to-a very able
evitable.
historian whose researched
"Henry Jones, a reg-
facts will fascinate students
ular at Sinsheimer's and
of American Jewish life and
a born organizer, a few
activities.