-A A JNOpinion Editorials are posted and archived on JN Online: www.detroitjewishnews.com Improving The Legacy Dry Bones etroit's Henry Ford was an industrial pio- death — Ford turned the company neer — a homespun yet complicated man over to his 28-year-old grandson, wiuu who elevated tinkering to an art form. Henry Ford II, who had just DIGNMRiES„ 4-14PPOQ IF His ingenuity brought the Model T, the returned from the Navy. rto ttA, LtNe Ur first mass-made horseless carriage. It opened the It took years after Ford's death in THE growing middle class to waves of immigrants and 1947 for our parents and grandpar- TO KISS 146 OP blacks lured by the until-then-unheard-of factory ents to even consider buying a pay of $5 a day. It also gave ordinary people freer Ford product. Forgiveness ulti- mobility, which changed the way we live and mately came because of outreach HAN)D. embrace progress. from other Fords, not Born outside Dearborn during the Civil because of any of Henry's War and educated in a one-room school, insincere EDIT ORIAL Jews. apologies to the Ford was drawn to Detroit's bustling machine shops. He didn't invent the auto- As chairman, Henry II mobile or moving assembly line, but he was the first became friends with Jewish leaders to pursue their revolutionary capabilities. During and strove to erase memories of the World War II, he built bombers that helped turn company's dark past. With guid- the tide for the Allies. ance from his friend, fellow civic Despite his manufacturing genius, he's remem- leader and sometimes business bered almost as much for his disdain of Jews. This partner Max Fisher, Henry II trav- week, Jews are greeting the 100th anniversary of the eled to and invested in Israel. Ford Ford Motor Company, which cars, trucks and tractors became Henry Ford founded June 16, top sellers there at the same time 1903, with historical ambiva- the Arab League imposed an eco- lence. More than anyone, he put nomic boycott of the Jewish state. Detroit on the world stage, yet Henry II also gave to Jewish chari- remains a frustrating enigma. ties and welcomed Jews into the He befriended two of Detroit executive suite, with some rising to Jewry's giants, Rabbi Leo vice president. Many Jews, like Franklin of Temple Beth El and Edward C. Levy, became important architect Albert Kahn, while • Ford vendors. finding social allies in Nazi sym- Henry Ford pathizers Father Charles Teaming With Jews Coughlin of Royal Oak and avia- tor Charles Lindbergh, a Detroit This fall, 56 years after Ford died a native. haunted old man of 83 and no because of the inhumane conditions in Ford-built If Ford's anti-Jewish ranting longer a folk hero, the Jewish Community Center of factories under Nazi control. from 1920 to 1927 in his weekly Metropolitan Detroit will dedicate the Ford Motor The Center for Exploration and Discovery will be newspaper, the Dearborn Company Fund-supported Center for Exploration a wing of the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Judaic Independent, and his odd kinship and Discovery at the JCC in West Bloomfield. The Enrichment Center, which will also house the with the maniacal Adolf Hitler $2-million, multimedia education center will trace David B. Hermelin ORT Resource Center. More weren't enough, his automotive Judaism's influence and Jewish culture to spur a than any other facet of the $35 million renovation empire was accused of condoning "total immersion experience into the diversity of to the JCC's two buildings, part of the Jewish Henry Ford II or profiting from forced and Jewish life." Federation's Millennium Campaign for Detroit's slave labor at its German sub- Simultaneously, the Ford Fund gave a similar Jewish Future, the Weinberg Center stands to be sidiary, Ford-Werke, during financial gift to the Arab Community Center for Detroit's centerpiece for informal Jewish culture and World War II. Economic & Social Services in Dearborn, under- learning. In his newspaper, Ford stooped scoring its modern-day commitment to a diverse The Center for Exploration and Discovery also is to printing the thoroughly dis- community, not just a diversified business. designed to appeal to non-Jews. So it should help credited czarist forgery about Henry Ford's dislike of Jews began in grade school dispel myths about Jews while fostering ecumenism. Jewish control of the world, The with his literal reading of Shylock, the vilified Notable as it is, the Ford grant to the JCC would Protocols of the Learned Elders of Jewish moneylender in Shakespeare's Merchant of resonate even more if it inspired other major com- Zion. He also riled Jews with his Venice. Bias was widely accepted at the time. panies, whatever their history, to also contribute to union-busting tactics. As an adult, Ford came to believe Judaism tar- worthy minority causes, Jewish or not. Hitler applauded Ford in his Bill Ford Jr. nished the soul, and that Jews were manipulative Henry Ford would not have foreseen the bonds hateful. book Mein Kampfand and warmongers. He felt that they ran America's that future Ford generations developed with awarded him a "distinguished banks and economy, hastening the 1919 recession, American Jewry and the State of Israel. He may, as foreigner" medal. which hit his company hard. some would suggest, be turning over in his grave. Yet Ford never barred Jewish workers or suppliers. More open-minded, Henry II recognized the But the Ford Motor Company and recent genera- Two years after his only son, browbeaten Edsel, shifting mood of America after the Holocaust and tions of the Ford family have worked hard to make died of cancer in 1943 at age 49 — and after his changed the course of the company bearing the amends for Old Henry's checkered legacy and to grandchildren blamed him for their father's early family name. Current Ford chairman Bill Ford Jr. make the company's 100th anniversary something follows in his uncle's inclusive footsteps. Also, the all Americans — including Jews — can be proud Related story: page 14 company has paid $13 million in reparations of. ri ulloPeAN wukr Burci-t&R BAGHDAD FOUND? -r-HATis SimPLE. ci466-Kc AND Nc!sAi SHAKe vi - 6/20 2003 27