50

1942-1992

THE JEWISH NEWS COMMEMORATIVE ISSUE

EVOLUTION

Over 50 years,
the newspaper
has changed as the
community and
world events
changed.

BY SIDNEY BOLKOSKY

Special to The Jewish News

R

eading The Jewish News may
be one of the few activities that
Detroit Jews hold in common.
Philip Slomovitz, the dean of the
English-Jewish press in the United
States, referred to this activity as the
"Every Friday Phenomenon." On Friday
nights in Detroit, some Jews light
Sabbath candles, attend religious
services, share a Shabbat meal. Others
disregard the Sabbath in any religious
way. Detroit Jewry reveals aspects of its
multiform character in its varieties of
Sabbath observance.
But on Friday night, virtually
all Jews in Detroit — Ortho-
dox, Reform, Conservative,
secularist — sit down with
The Jewish News.
Detroit's first Jewish-
English paper was the
Jewish American, pub-
lished by Temple Beth El
and edited by Rabbi Leo
Franklin from 1901 to 1911. Its focus,
of course, was its temple.
In 1916, the Jewish Chronicle, be-
came Detroit's first independent English-

8

THE JEWISH NEWS COMMEMORATIVE ISSUE

Jewish paper. It lasted until
1951, when it merged with The
Jewish News.
Philip Slomovitz edited the
Chronicle, left it to edit Palestine
Pictorial in New York, returned
to edit The Detroit Jewish Herald
in 1927, which was absorbed by
the Chronicle later that year. Mr.
Slomovitz edited the Chronicle
until 1942 when he established
The Jewish News.
The more serious Jewish
weeklies in the United States
frequently relied upon the
Jewish Thlegraphic Agen-
cy (JTA), which provided
wide-ranging denomina-
tional and adenomina-
tional news and feature
articles. As one of its foun-
ders, Mr. Slomovitz drew upon
it heavily, along with the Inde-
pendent Jewish Press Service, the
Seven Arts Feature Syndicate, the
Religious News Service of the National
Conference of Christians and Jews, "plus
complete local Jewish news coverage!'

But according to one critic,
the JTA depends financially
on the Jewish federations and
consequently their items
regarding Israel and Zionist
affairs almost always received
first priority. Further, it is
limited in terms of its local
coverage, minimizing regional
distinctions.
The Jewish News, like other
English-Jewish weeklies, did
mediate to American Jews
Jewish news that failed to ap-
pear in the general press.
And, if it did not become what
Mr. Slomovitz claimed it was,

"the spiritual guardian of
Judaism," it did perform im-
portant functions locally, na-
tionally and internationally.
This included providing ob-
jective accounts of events; of-
fering a forum for comment
and criticism; and devising a
way of reaching all the Jews
of Detroit. The primary ques-
tion remained how well it
would fulfill those functions. It
was a question that Mr.
Slomovitz took very seriously
and addressed immediately.
In 1986, Mr. Slomovitz
described his lifelong goals for