1900-2000

Margot and Warren
•

APARTMENTS

As early as 1916, Rabbi Franklin
and Fred Butzel, who would become
Detroit's premier Jewish philan-
thropist, refused to join President
Woodrow Wilson at the Detroit
Athletic Club because the DAC did
not accept Jewish members.
Ironically, since he had designed it,

extended to an absurdly innocent
tribute to Henry Ford in the Jewish
Chronicle in September 1916 for his
"gracious act" of granting leaves of
absence to Jewish workers to celebrate
the high holy days. Detroit's Jewish
and non-Jewish leaders engaged in
all-American expressions of mutual
admiration and respect.
Americanism appeared tri-
umphant.
As if in cynical defiance of such
19th-century optimism, 91 issues
of Ford's newspaper, the Dearborn
Independent, spewed forth the
breathtakingly open antisemitism
of "The International Jew" in
1920. Touted as Ford's personal
expressions (although he did not
write), this most virulent anti-
Jewish publication stunned the
Jews of Detroit — of America —
and seemed to confirm Brandeis'
assessment of the city.
Reactions to Ford's paper
included that of a young reporter,
Philip Slomovitz, who openly chal-
lenged the industrial magnate to a
debate. For the most part, however,
Jews simply stopped buy-
ing Ford automobiles.
Anti-Jewish invective in
the decade of the '30s
grew more multifaceted
and threatening.

THE ROARING '30s
Nov. 9-10, 1938,
marked the infamous
Kristallnacht, anti-Jewish
pogroms that swept
Germany and Austria. It
seemed to announce to
the world what the Nazis
As a young reporter and later as editor of the Jewish
were about. On Nov. 10,
Chronicle and the Jewish News, Philip Slomovitz,
Detroit heard its Royal
shown above in 1990, openly challenged the unbri-
Oak radio priest, Father
dled antisemitism of industrial magnate Henry Ford
Charles Coughlin, deliv-
and Father Charles Coughlin, Royal Oak's "radio
er an openly antisemitic
priest," above, who was most active in the 1930s and
broadcast for the first
'40s. The Jewish News was founded in 1942.
time.
As Kristallnacht struck at
premier Detroit architect Albert Kahn
German Jews, he launched into an
refused a special membership offer, as
explicitly anti-Jewish tirade. Father
did Rabbi Franklin.
Coughlin maintained Jews had caused
Based on his observation of the
the Russian Revolution and the spread
DAC's exclusionary policy, Louis
of communism and concluded Hitler
Brandeis, upon visiting Detroit, wrote
stood as a "defense mechanism against
his brother that "anti-Semitism seems
the incursions of communism." With
to have reached its American pinnacle
the broadcast, the priest began one of
here." Overt, street antisemitism
the most vitriolic anti-Jewish cam-
existed; but Brandeis spoke of the
paigns in American history.
more devious, subtle and sophisticat-
A chorus of like voices added to
ed type that infected Detroit and
Coughlin's harangues. Detroit-based
much of the country.
Rev. Gerald K. Smith, "the dean of
The polite facade of naivete
antisemites," insisted, along with

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GIL PRATT
Leasing Manager
Your West Side Specialist
(810) 445-6000

Gratiot Ave. at 12 Mile Road
Roseville, MI 48066.
Fax (810) 771-7340

12/31
1999

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