Special Report

1900-2000

Downtown
Detroit,
circa 1910-
1919.

On the last day of the 20th century, it
seems fitting to glance backward in
Detroit's Jewish history to see how far
we've come before planting our feet
solidly in the future. The Jewish News
enlisted local historian Sidney Bolkosky
to help us make sense of Detroit's rich
history as it dovetails with national
and international events of the last 100
years. Photographs and memorabilia
from local Jewish archives help tell the
story.

SIDNEY BOLKOSKY
Special to the Jewish News

I

n 1899, Sigmund Freud's Interpretation of
Dreams was published in Vienna; French
army major Alfred Dreyfus received a presi-
dential pardon, not yet acknowledging his
innocence of the specious charges that had ruined
his career and life; and Rabbi Leo Franklin, spiritu-
al leader of Temple Beth El in Detroit, engineered
the founding of the United Jewish Charities (UJC).

Freud's Jewish identity dis-
turbed him; Dreyfus, in his pri-
vate life, had eschewed any
Jewish identity; and Rabbi
Franklin cautiously invited east-
ern European Jews to join him
in a collaborative effort "to make
men and women out of our
dependent classes." His goal was
to Americanize poor immigrants.
These three disparate exam-
ples are indicative of the trou-
bling question of Jewish identity,
a theme that runs continuously
through these last 100 years.
As Freud entered the 20th century, he would
grow increasingly uneasy about that identity
because he feared it fostered the idea that psycho-
analysis was a "Jewish science." Dreyfus, despite his
reluctance to identify as a Jew, became the light-
ning rod for French and then European anti-
semitism — prompting Zionist Theodor Herzl to
declare that Jews would never be safe outside their
own state. And Rabbi Franklin, striving to
Americanize his flock, compromised tradition and
Jewish ritual for that cause.
I have chosen three rather obscure moments to
mark the start of the 20th century. Instead of try-
ing to identify a single theme or motif that charac-
terizes Jewish life in those 100 years, I would like
to offer a montage of what might be considered

JEWISH DETROIT

"I-Iadassah
Corners" at 7
Mile and
Livernois
roads in
1955. From
left, Fay Moss,
Bess Ravitz,
Sally Jaffee,
Helen Rom.

on page 17

12/31

1999

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