Metro Detroit's Jewish
Assisted Living Community
Tina Bassett and her the'', Morris Abrams
"My dad is feeling great since coming to Elan Village!
The "heimishe" atmosphere allows him to be independent,
while at the same time feel safe and secure. He's made new
friends and the staff are caring and kind."
Tina Bassett, family member
Elan Village's monthly rate includes:
• 24 hour Personal Care Assistance
• Three Kosher Meals Daily
• Housekeeping and Personal Laundry
Services
• Social, Cultural and Educational
Programs Daily
• On-Site Licensed Nurse and Medical
Services
• Medication Management
Dementia & Respite care also available
Call today to schedule a tour
JANET ANTIN (248) 386-0303
26051 Lahser Road • Southfield, Michigan 48034
Elan Village provides
Care that Changes with You
12/31
1999
18
Preferred Provider of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit
would be the only path to success in
America.
In 1920, under the auspices of the
Americanization Committee of
Detroit, mothers' classes were institut-
ed in English and over 10,000 hand-
bills were distributed in Italian,
Polish, Hungarian and Yiddish. The
committee sought the collaboration of
the UJC to encourage all Jewish
immigrants to learn and use English
so they could become naturalized.
Russian Jews already had begun to
reject organized assistance from
Jewish agencies, feeling patronized or
estranged. Independent immigrant
associations — landsmanshaftn —
with foreign-sounding names, like the
Radomer Aid Society, sprouted spon-
taneously. Such groups often worried,
antagonized and embarrassed the
established Jews of Detroit.
The "Survey of the Detroit Jewish
Community" of 1923, commissioned
by the UJC, indicated a lack of sym-
pathy and understanding on the part
of UJC social workers, especially
regarding the "Orthodox Jewish com-
munity." Many of the recent Jewish
immigrants developed what one
observer called a mixture of "gratitude
and resentment" to organized Jewish
charities and to the "organized Jewish
community." Troubled times fre-
quently produced extreme behavior
and some immigrants returned to
Europe, finally convinced Jews could
not live as Jews in America.
TO MELT OR NOT TO MELT?
For many Jews, the '20s were a time
of origins. They began businesses, syn-
agogues, families, careers, and went
about daily life in newly formed Jewish
neighborhoods as Americans and as
Jews. Brimming with patriotism, many
Jews assumed increasingly assimilation-
ist attitudes. For others, Jewish identity
suddenly included a Zionist dimension
— a dimension that confused and
even polarized the Jewish communi-
ties.
In that new element, Detroit had a
personal and important connection:
Isadore Levin, son of the distin-
guished Detroit Rabbi Judah Levin,
had served in France in 1917. Felix
Frankfurter, former U.S. labor admin-
istrator, invited young Levin to serve
with the American delegation from
the Zionist Organization of America.
Through Levin, in part, Detroit
became identified as a seedbed of
Zionist support — a characterization
disapproved by the majority of Jews
in Detroit at that time. And Shaarey
Zedek quickly gained a reputation as
Detroit's "Zionism Center.''
Despite questions about dual loyal-
ty, Justice Louis Brandeis wrote that
"there is no inconsistency between
loyalty to America and loyalty to
Jewry . . . The Jewish spirit, the prod-
uct of our religion . . . is essentially
American."
Rabbi Franklin disagreed and lev-
eled a barrage of protest to which
Rabbi Abraham Hershman orShaarey
Zedek responded forcefully. Declaring
his American loyalty, Rabbi Franklin,
and the majority of American Jews
then, perceived Jewish identity as
essentially religious and therefore apo-
litical. His voice carried authority for
many Reform Jews in Detroit and
America. Nevertheless, because of a
handful of dedicated pioneers, Labor
Zionism steadily gained strength.
To melt or not to melt loomed as
the question for American Jews. All
over the country, Reform Judaism
tried to accommodate religion with
American life — services were
changed from Friday nights to
Sundays, kashrut was abandoned, rit-
ual took on, as one observer noted, a
distinct Methodist tone. Yiddish was
taboo, as were references to old coun-
try practices and ceremonies.
In the wake of such dramatic
changes, the 20th century would sore-
ly test allegiances to the broader, even
global, Jewish community. To some
extent, replacing a religious core, the
organizational center for Jews in
Detroit and America increasingly
became the concept of tzedaka, trans-
lated by some as "charity" and by oth-
ers as philanthropy or compassionate
consideration.
JEWS AND THE LIFELINE
Jews in Detroit could boast consid-
erable success in the business world in
areas like dry-goods, clothing and
linen, retail, scrap metal ("Detroit's
scrap metal aristocracy") and, eventu-
ally, in the automobile industry's sup-
port services.
Significantly, however, with the
exceptions of Meyer Prentis, who
became General Motors Corporation
treasurer; Ed Levy Sr., whose compa-
ny hauled slag for Ford Motor
Company; and Louis and Aaron
Mendelssohn, who reached promi-
nence in the Fisher Body
Corporation, Jews in Detroit seemed
mysteriously removed from Detroit's
"life-line industry." That mystery
linked to insidious forms of anti-
semitism.