L JLJ

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BEAM, ELUL, THE
GANG'S ALL HERE

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
Associate Editor

S

andy Feldman had an uncle
named Sam, who had a
brother named Henry, who
died of decidedly unnatural

causes.
"We heard he ended up in the
Detroit River," Feldman said.
The death was work related.
Henry and Sam Shorr were mem-
bers of Detroit's notorious Purple
Gang, a group of mostly Jewish mob-
sters who controlled the city's under-
world in the 1920s and '30s. Their
tour de force was rum-running.
Sixty years later, a few members
of the gang are still alive, and their
descendants reside throughout

9/19
1997

8

the area.
Stephen Rosman has been thinking
about these descendants for a long
time — for months, in fact, ever since
he started working on an exhibit,
"Jewish Detroit in the 1920s and '30s:
Revisiting Our Past." He also has
been thinking about why Jews should
tell the truth about history and not
ignore its sordid elements.
"We won't let anyone else censor
their past," he said. "Why should we
censor ours?"
Sponsored by The Jewish News, the
exhibit will begin next month at the
Maple-Drake Jewish Community
Center and feature a gala opening
with a nostalgic dance and guest
speaker. The main aspect of the pro-
gram is a collection of more than 900

But they
wouldn't be,
if some
community
members had
their way.

Purple Gang members Louis
Gillerman, James Powell, Joe
Burnstein, Sam Burnstein, Sam
Vassallo, Jacob Levites and John Wolf.

photos showing Jewish life around
Hastings Street, Oakland Avenue and
12th Street. They include synagogues,
restaurants and schools, sports heroes,
buildings designed by Albert Kahn, (.\-_-!\
and the west Michigan resort area of
South Haven.
It's a certain 30 of those pictures
that have some community members
less than eager to take a sentimental
C
journey.
"We think an exhibit about the
Jewish community should disclose and
reveal the positive values of that com-
munity," said Rabbi Irwin Groner of
Congregation Shaarey Zedek, one of
the organizations that opted not to
participate in the project because it
would include 30 pictures of the
Purple Gang. "We would like to pro-
tect and preserve the good name of
the Jewish community
"The Purple Gang would have a
prominence [in this exhibit] that was
unseemly," he said. "We would not

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