2
Friday, February 8, 1985
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
PURELY COMMENTARY
■
Immumilm
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Preserving Documentaries Dependent Upon Historic Recording
Judge Avern Cohn
Historic records demand thoroughly-
researched documentation for their
preservation. -
To attain it requires the devoted ef-
forts of the concerned who are aware of the
urgency of retaining the facts in their own
generation for the successive ones.
An important contribution to such an
obligation is evidenced in the revelations
of American, British media and church
elements and officialdom to provide aid for
Jewish victims of Nazism, documented in
The Abandonment of the Jews by Prof.
David Wyman. This Wyman indictment
has become a challenge to the indifference
that spelled guilt for the six million victims
of Hitlerism.
The accusatory in the Wyman
documentations of the crime of silence and
indifference keep arousing concern and
interest in the historical records as they
affect the conscience of mankind and the
knowledge and the memory of the genera-
tions that follow the Holocaust. Judge
Avern Cohn is one of them. He became
anxious about the manner in which the
newspapers in Detroit treated the events
under Hitlerism, concerned whether they,
like most in the American press, have the
guilt of having ignored the warnings of
what was occurring. He assigned a re-
searcher to study the records in the Burton
Historical Collection at the Detroit Public
Library. He came forth with massive
material, which he shared with this com-
mentator. He produced a file which this
writer is turning over to the Holocaust
Memorial Center for the preservation of
the records.
Judge Cohn, by his action and inter-
est, increases his role as a concerned citi-
zen who shares the desires of a concerned
group that the Detroit Jewish historical
records should be preserved before they are
lost, ruined or forgotten. What he has done
with his personal task of gathering the
data about the Detroit newspapers in the
Philip Adler of the Detroit News
period of mass slaughter of Jews may help
cure the unnecessarily long-delayed
methods of assuring the publishing of a
Detroit Jewish communal history.
Madison's Glorious Page In American, Jewish Literature
Charles Madison
Charles Madison leaves a glorious re-
cord as an author, linguist, historian, a
writer whose credo was rooted in truth re-
sulting from his skill as student and re-
searcher.
His death last week leaves a pall among
many who benefited from his skill as an
evaluator of events and personalities.
He bylined many important works and
he wrote them fearlessly. In the McCarthy
era, when his sketching of the works and
aspirations of labor leaders became a mat-
ter for witchhunting by members of Con-
gress, he retained a high role as editor of
many works, as anthologist, as portrayer of
the experiences of a generation that had
been put to many tests.
He authored a history of the Jewish
press in which he included a thorough
evaluation of the Yiddish newspapers. As a
master of Yiddish he was highly qualified
to pursue that task, and that volume
among the many he had published remains
a means of studying Jewish publishing and
attitudes toward it.
He struggled as an immigrant. Before
the age of 12 he had already become a par-
ticipant in supporting his struggling fam-
ily in Detroit, and it did not prevent him
,
from striving for higher education. He at-
tained that goal, graduated with honors
from the University of Michigan, and was
the winner of the first essay contest con-
ducted by the Menorah Association, which
preceded Hillel as the American university
students' Jewish movement.
It was upon earning his M.A. from Har-
vard that he was confronted by a test which
probably could not occur now. He told his
professor of American literature, an emi-
nent scholar, that his aim was to teach
English in a university. His professor ad-
monished him: "You have two strikes
against you: you stutter a bit, and that's a
handicap. It is not conducive to teaching.
And you are a Jew, and heads of English
departments in American universities are
not employing Jews. You are an excellent
writer and a good student and researcher.
Why don't you apply for a job as a reader in
a publishing house?"
(The head of the English department at
the University of Michigan at that time —
it was in the early 1920s — was a Jew and
Madison knew that he, too, was not kind to
Jewish applicants).
Charles Madison followed the advice. He
went to New York, applied at the Henry
Holt firm, was employed as a reader. Then
came what could have been a shock, and he
survived that one as well. When he arrived
on Monday morning to start work, he was
greeted by the personnel man at Holt's:
"Good morning, Mr. Madison. Did you
have a good weekend? Did you go to
church, Sunday?"
Madison: "No. If I were to go anywhere
I'd go to the synagogue on Saturday."
Then he heard: "Oh my God! If Mr. Holt
knew he would throw you out of the win-
dow, and me after you."
Madison assured him he need not be con-
cerned, he had not started, he could leave.
"You are . already here. Stay on." That's
how Henry Holt, who hated Jews, was de-
fied. Madison remained on the job 33 years.
He was the author of a history of the Henry
Holt company which later became Holt and
Winston and later Holt, Rinehart and
Winston. The history was published by an-
other firm.
Madison had many unusual experiences.
When he struggled to earn enough to go to
college he was given a job at the Ford Motor
Co. It was to be the sensationalized $5-a-
day. When he came for his check he was
paid half that amount. He exposed the
truth a few years ago in an article pub-
lished by a University of Michigan maga-
zine.
He was high class, a man of dignity, a
dear friend, a classmate and confrere. He
was highly deserving of the admiration ex-
pressed for him.
Nathan H. Scholnick:
Communal Pioneering
Nathan H. Scholnick was very short in
stature. He was tall in spirit and in com-
munity structuring. Washington
Boulevard in its heyday owed as much to
his effort as it did to the Himelhochs, to
Sammy Soffrin and his associates in the
Wonder Bar where this writer and Nate
often lunched.
That's the point: Nate Scholnick was a
creatively imaginative man who brought
his many dreams to fruition in establish-
ing an unforgettable men's shop in the
heart of Detroit.
There was something else about the
man who was soon to be a nonagenarian
and whose passing is not being overlooked
by those seeking memories of Detroit's
past. His father, the late Jacob Scholnick,
really laid the foundation for the firm that
gained fame as Scholnick's. The elder had
written a book,— reminiscences novelized.
It did not secure a publisher. But son
Nathan propagated it, made certain it was
properly edited, took pride in it. Someone
in the family surely still possesses that
document.
Thus, another man with a pioneering
spirit has gone to the Great Beyond.
Nathan H. Scholnick has left interesting
marks on the community he loved and
whose fellow citizens in turn admired him.
Judge Cohn's Action
Revives Interest In A Great
Newspaperman, Philip Adler
The massive data that has become
available as a result ofJudge Cohn's inspi-
ration, the vast amount of clippings from
the Detroit News about the Nazi horrors in
the early 1940s, brought to light the jour-
nalistic labors of the late Philip Adler. It
was due primarily to his reporting that the
Nazi horrors were brought to light in some
measure by his newspaper.
Here is the biographical note about
him provided by the Detroit News:
"Philip Adler, member of editorial
staff, the Detroit News and writer on Inter-
national Affairs. Born, 1891 in Vilna, Rus-
sia (now Lithuania). Came to America in
1907.
"Education - elementary and inter-
mediate schools, Vilna, Russia. University
of Wisconsin, A.B., 1917 in philosophy.
Post graduate work 1917-1918, same sub-
ject. Taught International Relations and
Economic Geography, University of De-
troit 1924-1927. Served with A.E.F., 50th
Coast Artillery, during World War.
"Newspaper experience - Wisconsin
State Journal, St. Paul (Minn.) Daily
News, Minneapolis (Minn.) Journal,
Continued on Page 28
Prof David Wyman
.