COMMUNITY VIEWS

Rabbi Leo M. Franklin:
A Man of His Time

HEIDI S. CHRISTEIN
Special to The Jewish News

L

ate in 1898, Leo M. Franklin
accepted the call to the pulpit
of Temple Beth El in Detroit.
For Temple Beth El, the year
is significant because the congregation
would engage the rabbi who would be
their 11th spiritual leader and their
longest-serving rabbi. The year was sig-
nificant for national reasons as well:
earlier in 1898, the Spanish-American
War had begun, and like many Ameri-
can communities, Beth El lost men in
the fighting. And like ministers across
the nation, Rabbi Franklin would
deliver a sermon in their memory.
Four years after delivering his first
sermon in Detroit, Rabbi Franklin
spoke in the building that was to be
Beth El's home from 1903 to 1922.
This Albert Kahn-designed structure
was the first built specifically for the
congregation, and it was in this build-
ing on Eliot Street in Detroit that
Rabbi Franklin inaugurated a practice
unknown in synagogues: He abolished
the selling of pews. By allowing people
to sit where they wished, instead of in
an assigned seat they had paid for,
Rabbi Franklin brought democracy to
the sanctuary where, henceforth, there
would be "no rich man's corner and no
poor man's corner." It was an innova-
tion that other congregations across

Heidi S. Christein is an archivist of
the Rabbi Leo M. Franklin Archive at
Temple Beth El in Bloomfield Township.

the nation would emulate.
In 1914, Rabbi Franklin established
the Jewish Student Congregation at the "" z*
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
-°,„'
This group evolved into the Hillel
Foundation found on all major univer-
sity campuses today. In Detroit, the
Detroit Symphony Orchestra was also
organized in 1914 and Rabbi Franklin
became a supporter of this institution as
he was of so many others in Detroit.
From 1919 to 1921, Rabbi
Franklin served as the president of the
Central Conference of American Rab-
V.
bis (CCAR). In this position, he corre-
sponded with rabbis around the coun-
try and also with agents of the federal
government, for this was the time at
which Prohibition was instituted. Rab-
bis needed Leo Franklin's dispensation
0
as head of the CCAR to show their
,53
-a
local "revenue agents" that they had a
U
legitimate religious reason to have alco-
0
hol at a time when the nation was sup-
posed to be "dry."
0
In 1922, Temple Beth El moved
into a new building, having outgrown
ti
the space the Eliot Street edifice pro-
0
U
vided. The new temple on Woodward
at Gladstone was dedicated that
worst year of the Depression. A popu-
November. It was during this period
lar Beth El story holds that the congre-
that Rabbi Franklin was urging Henry
gation
was not able to fully pay the
Ford to repudiate the anti-Semitic pro-
Rabbi's
salary, and, therefore, a plate
nouncements in the Ford-owned news-
was "passed" at services, so Rabbi
paper the Dearborn Independent. This
Franklin's meager income would be
was also the era when, after receiving a
supplemented
by anyone who was able
.car from Ford each year, Rabbi
to
"spare
a
dime."
While Rabbi
Franklin returned his sedan in a per-
Franklin
shared
the
economic hard-
sonal protest against prejudice.
ships
faced
by
his
congregation,
he
By some estimates, 1932 was the

0

O

0

Above: The Leo M Franklin exhibit at
Temple Beth El.

Top left: Temple Beth El archivist Heidi
Christein included over 100 pieces on
Rabbi Franklin's life and work. In the
background is a photo taken at a party
honoring his 40th anniversary as a
rabbi. The photo has 489 people who
are numbered Visitors can use a mag-
nffing glass to help identify party goers.

Left: Leo M Franklin in his study circa
1941.

continued to work for the good of the
community. In 1932, Rabbi Franklin
was elected president of the Detroit
Public Library Commission. He would
be president of the commission again
in 1938 and in 1944.

FRANKLIN on page 36

LITTERS

non-Orthodox community should be
a luxury, something for those who can
already afford to send their children to
private schools. This is a tremendous
disservice to the middle class and
below, non-Orthodox Jews who
desire, but cannot afford,
such an education. As a
result, the ability of Hillel
to reach out into the com-
munity and save Jewish souls
one at a time through an
intensive Jewish day
school education will
continue to be seriously compro-
mised.
I was a member of Hillel's board for
13 years, on the Budget and Finance
Committee for much of that time,
and chairman of the Budget and
Finance Committee for over four
years. During that time, Federation's

9/11

1998

32 Detroit Jewish News

support of Hillel, as a percent of its
budget, declined. It no longer provid-
ed enough funding to completely fund
the scholarship needs of the school's
constituency. Hillel, committed to
the highest quality secular and
Judaic education, and
committed to hiring
only certified teachers,
continued to raise its
tuition, to be "fiscally
responsible," as it was
urged to be by Federa-
tion. Meanwhile, Akiva
and other Orthodox institutions
sank into debt because they kept
tuition low. The actions taken recent-
ly leave open the question as to which
path was correct — fiscal soundness or
community outreach via low tuition.
As a result, the Hillel student body
has changed. Today, even solid, mid-

die-class families have to think hard
whether they can afford to pay the
tuition. Many cannot. Where is the
sense in that? Where is the sense in a
day school-education becoming such a
luxury? Where is Fedration? And
what does it reward?
I support each and every one of the
allocations Federation has made and
suggest one more. I suggest that Fed-
eration establish a scholarship fund for
Hillel, backed by a $2.5 million
investment, or roughly the equivalent
of the gift to Akiva. Even at 6 percent,
that would generate $150,000 year,
which could be targeted at middle-
class families. That could help another
30 or more students attend Hillel. If
Federation could take the amount
Akiva would have paid on a mortgage
each year, coupled with a fair rent on
the Beth Jacob building, and provide

that as a grant to Hillel on top of any
other annual grants so long as these
schools occupy those buildings, that
might provide over $250,000 per year
of tuition assistance. I am sure that
the folks at Federation can be even
more creative.
A day school education should not
be a luxury for anyone.

Leonard I. Wanetik
West Bloomfield

Theologies
Are Divergent

We were saddened to read of your
sponsorship of the coming program
that traces the road back to Judaism
from the perspectives of Buddhism
("Gazing Eastward" Aug. 28).
It is tragic to us that any member of

