64 Friday, January 15, 1982
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
`Why Windsor?' Finds Answer in Fascinating
Community Peopled by Eminent Personalities
"Why Windsor?" is the thusiastically in many
title of "an anecdotal his- achievements. He now
tory of the Jews of Windsor holds the position of Ontario
and Essex County" and it Senator and is a leader in
poses a question that the Liberal Party. He has a
calls for a definitive answer. remarkable career.
As Windsor Mayor, he
It was provided by Cong.
Shaar Hashomayim's Rabbi emerged as a man of vision
Ira Grussgott. He has been who came to the aid of the
in Windsor only a matter of needy during the Depres-
some 20 months but has a sion. He helped secure jobs
realistic understanding of and provided food for the in-
the people under scrutiny digent.
and their city.
In the story of David
He comments, in the final
Croll
there is implanted
chapter of this interesting
book by Alan Abrams that the record of the Crolls of
there is good reason for em- Windsor. An entire fam-
phasis on Windsor. It has ily saga is recorded in
2,000 Jews in a total popu- this book. One could be-
lation of more than 200,000. lieve that the name Croll
It is not a young commu- echoes in everything that
nity. It was composed of spells Windsor Jewry.
immigrants and it retains Therefore David's story
• the flavor of immigrant is especially unique — as
influence. It does not forget the sponsor of the most
the past and lives in its liberal legislation, as an
advocate of the needs of
spirit.
Jt is ,a Conservative the less fortunate, the
Jewish kehilla and its con- i _ mpoverished, the aged.
His record in Parliament,
stituents carry on a loyalty
to faith and its ideals. These as a member of the Ontario
are not Rabbi Grussgott's - Cabinet, as Senator, his
words. It's the spirit of what military career in the Scot-
tish . Regiment — much has
he conveyed.
been written about him, and
These lend great sig- it would)take volumes to de-
nificance to a community scribe the totality of his
whose fascinating per- political and social services.
sonalities made Windsor
Unforgettable is the con-
a veritable empire of trol he took in the name of
creativity. The heroei in the crown in the fate of the
this story, so well com- Dionne quintuplets. He
piled by Alan Abrams, an handled that matter with
able journalist, were and the skill which distin-
are dedicated to Jewish guishes him in everything
ideals and needs and par- he has undertaken.
ticipants in Canadian
Politically, Herbert Gray
politics. That is why was more than a successor
Mark MacGuigan, a to David Croll in Liberal
member of the Canadian Party politics, as a member
Parliament and Secre- of his government's
tary of State for External Cabinet. He was an as-
Affairs, had written the sociate as well as a contem-
preface to the book in porary.
recognition of Windsor
Jewry's "intertwining of
the (Canadian) Liberal
Party and the Jews of
Windsor."
The heros in this story
are marked indelibly in the
story of their city and of
Canada.
David Croll continues in
the role of chief architect of
a city that is recorded en-
As in the instance of
Croll, Gray is identified
with the synagogue, with
the Jewish community,
with Zionism, with Bnai
Brith. As a parliamenta-
rian, he gained respect
and he rose high in the
nation's ranks. He is con-
sidered a principal
spokesman for economic
nationalism.
DAVID CROLL
The present Jewish popu-
lation of Windsor is less
than half the size of the
thriving kehilla with which
this reviewer participated
in establishing Young
Judea circles, in supervis-
ing plays, in encouraging
Zionist affairs. That's when
Frances Geller was an ac-
tivist in Hadassah and one
of the movement's national
leaders.
Frances' brother, Jake
Geller, has an important
place in Windsor history.
Therefore the valuable re-
HERB GRAY
collections about him in
"Why Windsor?"
As head of the Windsor
News Co., Jake has risen
high in his city. HiS record is
inerasable from identified
Windsor functions. His role
is historic. He was the first
man to create the comic
book. He did it. He intro-
duced it. But he had hard
luck. He depended on spon-
sors who panicked.
Geller recalls sadly
how he had "followed the
wrong track, how the
Superman he could have
capitalized on became
the product of a luckier
entrepreneur.
Geller had produced
Comic Cuts. They lasted for
nine issues. His early as-
sociates failed to see the po-
tential of a great enterprise.
Abrams has a set of com-
pliments for Jake Geller
worthy of quoting. He refers
to his friendship with the
Canadian parliamentarian
Paul Martin. He states:
" 'It's hard to figure,
Geller. He's doing all right,
thank you. At 81, he's in
great health and spirits.
He's just written an espion-
age novel and only recently
was elected to the board of
governors of the Hebrew
University in Jerusalem.
(Geller has long been an ac-
tive fund raiser for Israel in
the Windsor Jewish com-
munity.)
"Paul Martin still tele-
phones Jake every Sunday
morning, just as he has for
the last 30 years, no matter
where on the face of the
globe Martin may have
been. If Jake were an
American, he might have
been another Bernard
Baruch, the park bench ad-
viser to American presi-
dents. But that's Jake's
book — and another story."
Mike Sumner figured
prominently in the city's
history as a youth and he
was a star actor in the
Young Judea plays.
Then there was the
Levin family. The grand-
parents of Michigan's
U.S. Senator Carl Levin
and State Supreme Court
Justice Charles Levin
lived there for a time.
Abrams also relates,
through William Rogin, a
Canadian basketball star
in the 1930s, the ironic
tale of how Rogin and
another Windsor Jew,
Julius Goldman, almost
ended up on the Cana-
dian basketball team
with Meretsky that
played in Hitler's "Aryan
showcase" Olympic
games.
According to Rogin, the
Windsor Ford V-8s, a team
sponsored by the Ford
Motor Co. of Canada, a team
which won the Canadian,
Not to be forgotten is amateur championship in
David Croll's sister Evelyn '1936, was selected to repre-
(Mrs. David Zack) and the sent the country in the 1936
several brothers and other Berlin Olympics. The team
members of the Croll fam- was allowed to select five
ily, names continually additional players to make
figuring in the neighborly the trip.
Detroit-Windsor history.
"When Gordon Fuller,
but if you were to buy 'a
copy of that first edition
today, you'd be paying
more for it than the com-
bined sales of the entire
first press run earned.
But that's if you could
find a copy.' And Jake
was smiling again.
"Don't worry about Jake
There is an amazing ac-
count in Abrams' story
about Sol Pazner who
struggled, labored day and
night to earn a livelihood,
started selling used auto
batteries and turned it into
a veritable industry. All in
Windsor!
In a chapter dealing with
athletic accomplishments,
Abrams tells the story of
Irving Meretsky's silver
medal, which was won at
the 1936 Berlin Olympics
but mysteriously never
showed up in any official re-
cord of Olympic medal win-
ners.
JAKE GELLER
one of the three coaches of
the team asked me to go — if
I paid my own way, I was
really honored," Rogin said.
"But my father was just
about to go bankrupt and
lose his businesS . . . I had no
way — or method — of rais-
ing the $500 for boat fare,
hotels, meals, everything
else.
"The Ford Motor Co. of
Canada . . . said they had
contributed enough money
and could not support any
WILLIAM ROGIN
additions. I went to the
Jewish community and no-
thing was done. So, I reluc-
tantly had to drop out and it
was a big disappoinement,
the biggest of my life."
Julius Goldman who
now teaches at the Oak-
land Community College
Auburn Hills campus,
was also a member of the
V-8s but was ruled inelig-,
ible to play because he
had been born in the
United States and had
never taken out Cana-
dian citizenship.
Goldman accpmpanied
the team to Berlin to
coach.
But Meretsky, who did
play on the silver medal-
winning team, was some-
how omitted from the offi-
cial record books of the 1936
Games. Ironically, Merets-
ky's name is mentioned in
the unofficial Nazi history
of the 1936 Olympics.
"Why Windsor?" was pub-
lishe(d by Black Moss Press,
P.O. Box 143, Station A.
Windsor, Ontario, N9A
6KL.
Whatever the circulation
this 109-page book will at-
tain, it will remain a
memorable document about
an exciting community fas-
cinatingly peopled.
—P.S.
Mitzpim Give Galilee a Western Look
important developments renewable contracts only
are the establishment of 31 to those who show that
The rugged Galilee ter- mitzpim (lookout points or they are able to care for
rain may not yet look like a settlement outposts), the their herds. No land is
Wild West film set, but the fencing of land and the available for speculation.
Jewish National Fund of planting of new forests.
The hilly land has been
America (JNF) is helping to
There are a quarter- provided with water lines to
turn Jewish settlers into million acres in Galilee, quench the animals' thirst.
cowboys and tens of with 155,000 of those acres On hot days, they nuzzle up
thousands of acres of state- owned by the state. Of that to JNF-planted trees to get
owned territory into area, 76,250 acres have some shade. Those areas
fenced-in grazing land.
been occupied by Arabs, in whose natural underbrush
The JNF has taken sev- addition to their holdingS of isn't tasty or nutritious
eral vital steps to arrest the 88,000 acres.
enough for the cows, sheep
growing tendency among
and goats are planted with
A national grazing
the region's Arab residents
grasses that supply their
authority
was
established
to encroach on public,
breakfasts.
state-owned lands by three years ago, aimed at
Because Arab homes
of
preparing
large
sections
plowing, grazing and il-
have been sprouting like
legally building. The most the rocky, thornbush- mushrooms, and they have
strewn land for grazing of not been torn down by the
cattle, sheep and goats.
authorities even though the
By the end of 1981, the structures are illegal, it was
JNF — which founded decided to quickly construct
the grazing authority and several dbzen mitzpim. The
the Israel Lands pre-fab structures are home
Authority — will have to young singles and mar-
fenced in 600,000 acres of ried couples.
grazing land in Israel —
The majority of mitzpim
using 2,000 miles of metal
fencing. The land is dwellers are not — surpris-
leased through year-long ingly — people who have
By JUDY SIEGEL
Jewish National Fund
housing problems and are
looking for a cheap solution.
Instead, according to the of-
ficials, they are successful
couples with a few children,
a flat, a color TV and a few
overseas trips, under their
belt who are looking for
meaning and challenge.
With the success of the
31 Galilee mitzpim, set-
tlement activities are
now moving south to the
Irron Hills north of Had-
era. This is an area which
had just one Jewish set-
tlement — Moshav
Meiami — before to -
Six-Day War, and o.
one new settlement
added during the next 10
years. Now, six mitzpim
are planned for the area.
The pre-fab homes —
three-room, utilitarian flats
painted yellow — are al-
most ready for occupation.
The place is called Kohav
Yair, in memory of Av-
raham "Yair" Stern of un-
derground fame.