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May 21, 1948, cover reports
on Israeli statehood
T
he world would come to know
it as the Wannsee Conference, a
nondescript name for the most-
catastrophic episode of Jew-hatred ever. It
was there, in the Wannsee locality of Berlin,
that top German leaders convened on Jan.
20, 1942, to charge the military and civilian
wings of the duly elected Nazi government to
develop a systematic slaughter of European
Jewry.
The Nazis, ignited by Hitler's charismatic,
anti-Semitic fury (which captivated young
Aryans especially), targeted other ethnic
and national groups for murder, includ-
ing Gypsies, homosexuals, disabled people,
Polish intellectuals and Soviet POWs,
but only European Jews were marked for
systematic annihilation. The choice of
Sonderbehandlung or "Special Treatment:'
for Jewish men, women and children: Zyklon
B, the trade name for a poisonous gas.
By the spring of 1942, Nazi Germany had
opened six death camps
along rail lines in Poland — the most
infamous being Auschwitz and Treblinka.
Support camps involved such heinous acts
as slave labor or strict confinement.
Hitler and his henchmen were adept at
publidy hiding the stark dimension of their
"Final Solution" to what they perceived as the
world's worst ills. But clearly, as World War II
raged, American Jews were aware something
terrible was happening to their brethren in
Nazi-controlled parts of Europe.
Expressive Pages
Against this dark backdrop, veteran Jewish
journalist Philip Slomovitz, armed with
a zeal for Palestine becoming a sovereign
Jewish state, founded the Detroit Jewish
News. The JN has never quit exposing the
horrors of the Holocaust and promoting the
hope for an independent, secure Zion.
Today, we publish the Jewish News' 70th
anniversary issue with the same zest for the
Jewish homeland that the founding pub-
lisher and editor heralded for decades. We're
Changing
Leadership
p
hilip Slomovitz sold the Detroit
Jewish News to an acquisition
group including Baltimore Jewish
Publisher
Charles Buerger in March
Times
1984. Slomovitz remained as publisher-
editor emeritus.
In December 1985, Arthur Horwitz
arrived at the Jewish Times from the
44 June 14 • 2012
Charles
Buerger
Gary
Rosenblatt
Baltimore Sun's parent company A.S. Abell,
where he managed research, marketing
and planning. He was named Jewish News
associate publisher the following May.
the
be responsible II, war breaAcs
.tor cat
ailsv,:er to israel's request
n -
David Be
"Di-r----I-1-6.er
Founder built an enduring
dream into the keystrokes
of the Jewish News.
ion
crisis:
proud to have published every
You sensed his craving for
week for 70 years, even on Feb. 1,
a publication reflective of the
2002, the week when a fire swept
highest ideals of professional-
through our Southfield offices.
ism and integrity as he sought
Were equally committed to cov-
to capture the readership of
erage and support of Israel — its
15,000 Jewish families in Detroit,
people, its culture, its heritage, its
700 Jewish families in Flint, 700
security and its land.
Jewish families in Grand Rapids
Gritty, driven and a master
and hundreds of other Jewish
at raising capital, Slomovitz,
Robert Sklar
families in Pontiac, Lansing,
fresh off 20 years as editor of the
Contributing
Saginaw, Bay City, Mount
Detroit Jewish Chronicle, pub-
Editor
Clemens, Ann Arbor and else-
lished his first issue of the Detroit
where in Michigan.
Jewish News on March 27, 1942, barely two
months after the Wannsee Conference. He
Elevated Standards
knew the urgent needs of the Detroit Jewish
Accepting the higher calling for a newspaper
community and he understood the diaspora
during a time of war, Slomovitz expressed
yearning for widespread return to the ances-
how the Jewish News would fully inform
tral Jewish homeland — two journalistic
pillars that would give him instant credibility Jews and non-Jews about. the Jewish posi-
and support. The Jewish Chronicle closed not tion,"whose chief interest it is to advance the
morale of our people and to hold high the
long after.
banner of democracy, religious freedom and
In explaining his desire in that first issue,
good will among all faiths; to fight against
Slomovitz described the Jewish News as the
fraud, deceit and misrepresentation, and, in
only community-sponsored Jewish newspa-
that spirit, to set a high example for ethical
per in the U.S. — "as an organ for the mold-
conduct in our community."
ing of Jewish public opinion, as an instru-
Later in that unsigned editorial, he added,
ment to strengthen the Jewish community
"The Jewish News dedicates itself to the
and for the advancement of the morale and
cause of alleviating suffering among the
courage of American Jews in this hour of
While continuing to
be based in Baltimore
as Jewish Times editor,
Gary Rosenblatt suc-
ceeded Slomovitz as
Jewish News editor.
Buerger built the
Jewish
Times into one
Phil
of
the
great
American
Jacobs
weekly newspapers. He
saw in Jewish Detroit
some of what he saw in the Baltimore Jewish
community — a similar-sized Jewish popu-
lation, a compact Jewish community and
a similar relationship between the Jewish
newspaper and the Jewish community.
One lesson Buerger quickly learned was
those similarities didn't override the two
communities' distinctiveness. So the Jewish
News was encouraged to blaze a distinctive
path within the Jewish Times framework.
Phil Jacobs moved from the Jewish
Times staff into the editorship of the
Jewish News in 1993, when Rosenblatt
became publisher and editor of the
Jewish Week in New York.
In 1998, Jacobs returned to the Jewish
Times as editor and Robert Sklar fol-
lowed him as editor of the Jewish News.
Sklar retired in 2011 and became con-