LOOKING BACK
In Retrospect:
Philip Slomovitz ends a 70-year
career as commentator. But he
will continue as a participant.
ALAN HITSKY
Associate Editor
hilip Slomovitz has
chosen to close a
chapter in his seven-
decade career as an
observer, defender and in-
itiator of projects for the
Jewish people. But it is a
chapter, not a conclusion.
At the young age of 94, he
has deemed it time to step
back from the weekly stress
of compiling a column — his
beloved Purely Commentary
— which has been a fixture
on the Detroit Jewish scene
since the early 1920s. His
life and career have mir-
rored some of the most tragic
and some of the most awe-
inspiring moments in Jew-
ish history. Yet his legacy to
the Jewish people moves far
beyond that of a mere
observer.
Mr. Slomovitz would be
the first to object to the idea
that he is "retiring." While
he has decided to step back
from writing, he will con-
tinue to come into The Jew-
ish News office, to catalog
his voluminous files of ar-
ticles about, and cor-
respondence with, most of
the Jewish and many non-
Jewish luminaries of the
20th century. The files, and
his Purely Commentary
columns, deal with presi-
dents and farmers, saints
and anti-Semites, Jewish
holidays and history, and
most of all, scholarship.
Think of the span of time.
At his birth in 1896 in
czarist Russia, the first
World Zionist Congress had
just been held in Vienna
with Theodor Herzl sowing
the seeds for a return to the
Zionist homeland. The ugly
Kishinev pogroms would not
occur for five more years and
p
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Vol. XCVIII No. 15
2
Dec. 7, 1990
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1990
Philip Slomovitz reflects on a seven-decade
labor of love.
in 1910, when Mr. Slomovitz
came to Bayonne, N.J., at
age 14, World War I was still
four years away.
As a student at the Uni-
versity of Michigan, he
became involved in campus
activities that have guided
him the rest of his life: Zion-
ism and journalism. He was
a staff member of the Mich-
igan Daily and president of
the Intercollegiate Menorah
Association, the forerunner
of the campus B'nai B'rith
Hillel organizations
throughout the country.
After graduation from
U-M, Mr. Slomovitz worked
as a reporter at the Detroit
News for several years. He
made community contacts
that would shortly be in-
valuable after he was named
editor of Detroit's Jewish
Chronicle. During this same
time period, he also organiz-
ed Young Judaea, the
forerunner of today's Detroit
District of the Zionist
Organization of America.
But as his illustrious ca-
reer was just taking hold,
the first storm cloud ap-
peared on the horizon, the
first in a series of major
events that would mark each
decade of his Jewish jour-
nalism career.
Henry Ford had
transformed Detroit with his
automobile, the assembly
line and published promises
of a $5 a day salary. The
promise of work and wealth
drew thousands to the city
from throughout the United
States and the world. But in
the 1920s Mr. Ford also
began publishing anti-
Semitic articles in his Dear-
born Independent; in the
1930s a photograph of
Adolph Hitler hung promi-
nently in his office.
Mr. Slomovitz reported the
Jewish community's at-
tempts to change Mr. Ford's
views and the public battles
launched by Rabbi Leo
Franklin of Temple Beth El.
The by-then veteran editor
even met with Ford's hen-
chman, Harry Bennett, who
tried to convince Mr.
Slomovitz that Ford was not
an anti-Semite. Mr. Bennett
claimed Mr. Ford's gift of
$5,000 to notorious anti-
Semite Elizabeth Dilling
was not an important issue.
The Bennett affair
resulted in one of the few
times that Mr. Slomovitz
pulled his punches. He wrote
a scathing editorial exposing
Mr. Bennett, but was ad-
vised by attorney and friend
Morris Garvett not to
publish it. "They'll call you
a liar just like they called
Rabbi Franklin a liar," Mr.
Slomovitz recalls Mr.
Garvett advising.
Mr. Slomovitz had no more
success with Detroit's other
notorious anti-Semite,
Father Charles Coughlin of
the Shrine of the Little
Flower in Royal Oak. Father
Coughlin gained a national
following as the Radio Priest
during the Depression years
and through his Social
Justice newspaper. His calls
for social justice took on an
increasingly strident tone as
he followed Hitler's line in
blaming Jews for ruining
the world's economy.
Mr. Slomovitz had several
meetings with Father
Coughlin, bringing along
prominent Jews, Christians
and written material in a
vain effort to prove that
Jews were as anti-
communist as the crusading
Royal Oak prelate. It was
not until the early 1940s,
after several years of world
war, that the Vatican and
others stepped in to silence
the Radio Priest.
During this time, Mr.
Slomovitz pioneered numer-
ous other efforts. He was an
early supporter of the Jew-
ish Telegraphic Agency in
New York, the worldwide
His opinion was a
weekly feature in
Detroit since the
1920s.
news-gathering organization
that continues to serve Jew-
ish newspapers throughout
the world. He was a vice
president of JTA from 1942-
1985 and remains a board
member.
He also was a behind-the-
scenes organizer of the
American Christian
Palestine Committee, a
group of leading Christian
clergy who worked during
the '20s, '30s and '40s for the
establishment of Israel.
But in 1941, right after the
tragic events at Pearl Har-
bor, a crisis developed for
Mr. Slomovitz which became
a turning point in his career.
The owners of the Chronicle
wanted to move family
members into the business,
and after 20 years as editor,
his days at the paper were
numbered.
Within a few months, the
groundwork was laid for a
competing paper, The Jew-
ish News, which began
publication in March 1942.
With the commitment of a
dozen backers, including the
late Fred Butzel and two as-
sociates who remain friends
of Mr. Slomovitz to this day
— Leonard Simons and
Walter Field — The Jewish
News began. It included an
advisory committee of 250
community leaders.
Despite community sup-
port, The Jewish News was a
family business. Mr.
Slomovitz' wife, Anna, was
an unpaid worker, boosting
circulation and classified
advertising. Carmi
Slomovitz, at the age of 10,
became the office expert on
the Addressograph machine
which printed the mailing
labels for the weekly paper.
After graduation from col-
lege, and army service dur-
ing the Korean War, Carmi
became The Jewish News
business manager.
The sad facts of the Holo-
caust were hidden from, and
discounted by, the American
people and the Roosevelt
administration during these
years. As the truth became
known, articles in The Jew-
ish News illuminated the
tragic proportions of the
Holocaust. On April 7, 1942,
just weeks after the paper
began, it published the
following JTA report:
Hundreds of Dutch Jews
Die In Nazi Forced
Labor Mines
Slovak Jews
Lose Citizenship;
Jews Told To Mark Doors
With Yellow Stars;
Barred From
Receiving Rations.
LONDON (JTA) — The
Netherlands Government
in Exile announced this
week that 1,200 Dutch
Jews, sent by the Germans
to enforced labor in the
sale and sulphur mines at
Mauthausen, have died
and that the Germans had
deliberately sent them
without protection into the
"poisonous vapors."
"The protests of the
civilized world, when in-
formed by the Netherlands
Government were unavail-
ing," the announcement,
made on Radio Orange,
said.
Continued on Page 66