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Haym Salomon

A Michigan Jewish Timeline

1654: The first 23 Jews in North America, including 13 children, arrive by boat in
the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, now New York. Gov . Peter Stuyvesant is ordered
to allow these Jewish refugees from Recife, Brazil, to remain - one of the first
examples of religious liberty in America. (1)

1701:

Antoine Cadillac establishes a trading center for France in Detroit - the
oldest city west of the Appalachians. In 1761, the British defeat the French
and rule Detroit.

1761: Michigan's first Jew, Montreal fur trader Ezekiel Solomon, arrives by
voyageur canoe at Fort Michilimackinac at the lower peninsula's tip. (poster cover)

1920s: Hastings Street (where 1-75 is now) is the new Jewish
neighborhood, now grown to about 35,000. Central High, the College of
the City of Detroit, shops and 20 "shuls" are in walking distance. (27)

1924:

Kirby.

1926-1942: Father Charles Coughlin delivers anti-Semitic radio
sermons and publishes hate attacks in Social Justice. He is silenced in
1942.

1776: The Declaration of Independence: "... We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal..." This great idea holds forth new promise to the
Jewish people.

1926: The North End Clinic is established by Dr. Harry Saltzstein.
For the next 40 years, volunteer Jewish doctors give quality medical
care to all Detroiters. (28)

1776-1781: About 100 Jews serve as soldiers in the American Revolution.
A 1975 U.S. postage stamp honors the vital support of patriot Haym Salomon.(2)

1926: The Jewish Welfare Federation of Detroit is founded under
the leadership of Fred Butzel. (29)

1787: "No person ... shall ever be molested on account of his mode of worship or
religious sentiments ..." The Northwest Ordinance, which includes the territory of
Michigan, states the first written promise of freedom of religion in the new United
States of America.

1929: President Herbert Hoover sends Detroiter David Brown to
China to report on the famine emergency. Brown had been United Jewish
Appeal national chair.

freedom.

1837: Michigan is admitted as a state and is represented on the flag by the
middle star. (3)

1840s:

The new Michigan Central Railway brings Jewish immigrants to towns all
across lower Michigan. The Weils are the first Ann Arbor Jewish family. (4)

1845-48:

A Jewish feminist, Ernestine Rose speaks to the Michigan legislature in
favor of abolition, women's right to vote and ending child labor. (5)

1850:

1929-1930s: During the Great Depression, Jewish soup
kitchens feed the hungry and the Jewish Federation helps with relief
for the jobless.

1850s: Rabbi Leibman Adler (left) preaches abolition. Emil Heineman (right) and
volunteer policeman Mark Sloman work in the Underground Railroad, helping runaway
slaves escape to freedom in Canada. An historical sculpture marks the crossing. (r,)

1937: The Jewish Community Council is established to respond
to the dangers of anti-Semitism and the growing threat of Nazism
to European Jewry.

1856: Edward Kanter, a banker, is elected to the Michigan State Legislature. He
makes friends with the Native Americans, learning their languages. (8)

1942: The Detroit Jewish News is founded by publisher and editor
Philip Slomovitz. (32)

1860: The Michigan legislature approves free public education through high school.
Detroit's Central High School opens and enrolls Jewish students.

1942: Henry Ford sends a letter of apology to the Anti-Defamation
League. He refutes the false charges in the Protocols of the Elders of
Zion and condemns anti-Semitism. In the 1920s, Ford had published
harsh anti-Semitic attacks on Jews in the Dearborn Independent and
distributed worldwide the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. (33)

1865: Kalamazoo's Bnai Israel is Michigan's first building built specifically
as a synagogue. (9)

1869: Detroit College of Medicine (later Wayne State University) opens. New grad
Frederick Hirschman goes to the U.P. to combat a smallpox epidemic.

1881: Scientist Edward Israel of Kalamazoo joins Admiral Greely's ill-fated Polar
Expedition to the Arctic. He and most of the crew die of starvation just before the mis-
sion's rescue.

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1934: Hank Greenberg, Detroit Tigers' home run king, chooses
not to play in a pennant game on Yom Kippur and attends services
at Congregation Shaarey Zedek. (30)

1930s: Jews become active leaders in the labor movement
of the auto industry. Myra Wolfgang organizes the waitress union. (31)

1861-1865: 181 men and boys from 151 Michigan Jewish families - more
than one per family - join the Union Army in the Civil War, fighting in every major battle.

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1933: Prohibition, which began in 1920, is repealed in the 21st
Amendment. The last of the Purple Gang, several dozen Jewish criminals
rum-running across the Detroit River from Canada, has either been
murdered or jailed.

Isaac and Sarah Cozens open their home for the first minyan in Detroit. The
Beth El Society is formed. About 60 Jews live in the city of 21,000. (6)

1861: Seventeen traditionalists break from the Orthodox Beth El when it becomes
Reform and found Congregation Shaarey Zedek.

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1924: The 1924 Immigration Restriction Act severely limits Jewish
immigration. This closes the doors for many who later needed to escape
Nazi oppression.

Commanding a flotilla of voyageur canoes, his partner Chapman Abraham is
the first Jew in Detroit, remaining for 20 years.

The U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights guarantee religious

your huddled masses...

The United Hebrew Schools opens its building on Brush and

1762:

1789-91:

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1941-1945: More than 10,000 Michigan Jewish men and
women serve in World.War II in every branch of the U.S. Armed Forces -
225 die in service. The Congressional Medal of Honor for heroism is
awarded posthumously to Hamtramck's Raymond Zussman, one of only
two Jews so honored. Upon the German surrender, General Eisenhower
and American Gls, horrified by the reality, liberate the death camps.

Post 1945:

3,500 Holocaust survivors make their home in
Michigan, aided by the Resettlement Service. The National Council of
Jewish Women teaches English classes.

May 14, 1948:

State of Israel is declared! 22,000 people
celebrate at the Central High School sports field.

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