the

cover

•

I

y

Detroit Jewish News Foundation

begins digitizing Detroit

Jackie Headapohl

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

fall, those pages will be added
than 270,000 pages of Detroit
Jewish history from the Detroit Jewish News

Come this

to the

more

already contained in the William Davidson
Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History,
online at www.djnfoundation.org. Once the
Chronicle is digitized, the public will have
an entire century of Detroit Jewish history,
completely searchable, at its fingertips.

Microfiche copies of the Chronicle could

1916, according to the Reuther, with the
publication of the Jewish Chronicle. The
paper's first editor was Samuel J. Rhodes, but
its best-known was Philip Slomovitz.

The Chronicle

(and,

as

it was

known from

1932-1947, the Detroit Jewish Chronicle and
the Legal Chronicle) was published until

I

Managing Editor

f.
l'

who has been practicing

for 25 years, has a personal
interest in how historical

"Records

are a

critical part

the

founding

was

and longtime editor. The

Detroit Jewish News, which began in 1942,

was a

competitor

to

the Chronicle before it

A Public Boon

By digitizing the 50,000

>.

pages of the Detroit
Jewish Chronicle, "we're

I

Labor and Urban Affairs at Wayne State

The Reuther

Library
Library of Labor and
Urban Affairs, housed in a glass- fronted
building on Cass Avenue on the WSU

says Smith, who so far has
only had the chance to

campus, is the preeminent labor archive in
North America. The collection also includes

will

The Walter P. Reuther

Reuther

Library held

a

microfilm copy of the
Chronicle among its

than 2,000 archival
collections. "It is filed

more

Mike Smith

under the broad

of'JCA

Detroit

heading

Jewish

Newspapers:" says Smith, who is now the
archivist for the DJN Foundation.

No

one

at the Reuther knows who the

benefactor was that

originally paid to have

the Chronicle stored on microfilm and

given

library. "Whoever it was:' Smith says,
"they made a big investment in preserving
Detroit Jewish history. We're benefitting
from it today"

to the

urban affairs, with

emphasis on the history

of Metropolitan Detroit.

It also

serves as a

storehouse of Jewish

pistibusinessman

the Leonard N. Simons

Fisher,

Jewish Community

ning

of the United

and has

expanded

Jewish

to

charities in 1899

include more than 2

the

growth
chronicling
development of the Federation and its

agencies.

''A lot of that history is still on paper,
waiting to be digitized in the future:' Smith

says. "In the meantime, these records are
very difficult to search and access unless one

travels

to

the archives to

When theDJN
Foundation contacted

Temple

Beth El, whose Rabbi Leo M. Franklin
served as editor, with Goldsmith as pub­

on

May 12,

1911.

were

successful did not begin until March 16,

12 July

30

•

2015

While the pages
chronicle the local his­

tory of Jewish Detroit,

"there is much

Erik Nordberg

to

learn

The first issue of the Detroit Jewish Chronicle

When the DJN Foundation was founded
in 2011, its initial focus was to preserve,

digitize

and make available to the

public

"We like the

DJN Archive, we'll preserve the memories of

longer with
generations:' he adds.
"Their accumulated knowledge and wisdom
will continue to shape this commu­

thousands of those who

us as

well

as

are no

future

nity and its families:'

Digitizing the collection took a

lot of time and

resources

to

get off

ground. "Through the gener­
ous support of hundreds of people

the

and executive editor of the Jewish

inside and outside the Detroit

News. "Because we

Chronicle content,

Jewish community, were pleased

owned the

was

we

the

Arthur

Horwitz

Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History was
made public in November 2013, more than
40,000 unique viewers have logged in to

search the database.

I've visited

eteries in Metro

anywhere will be able to search the records

sometimes wonder who these

for free:'

What kind of lives did

as

completed in late fall,
Digital Archive of
Detroit
Jewish
History will hold 320,000

Chronicle is

Since the William Davidson

"Over the years,

digitization of the Chronicle is

under way:' Horwitz says.
Once the digitization of the

well:'

open-access philosophy
of the Foundation, which means anyone

Nordberg, a Wayne State-trained archivist

"With the addition of the Chronicle to the

1951:' said DJN Foundation presi­
dent Arthur Horwitz, also publisher

as

Nordberg.

sorrows?

Chronicle, which began in 1916, and
was absorbed by the Jewish News in

and asked to utilize the

Reuther archivist Erik

all

270,000 pages of the Detroit Jewish News.
"In the course of digitizing the
IN, we also thought about the

the Reuther Library

digitizing, "we were
happy to do it:' says

relinquished the

several short-lived attempts
at other Detroit Jewish papers, but the most

There

,

thought it
only natural to eventually digitize it

Chronicle collection for

role of editor, but the paper continued as

issue of the paper appeared

personally see the

collections:'

Cleveland, Ohio.
On Oct. 18, 1901, after being purchased
by Soloman Goldsmith, the Jewish American

1908 and, in 1910, the paper was no longer
the official voice of Temple Beth E1. The last

f\

�

global status of Jews as well
as the history of the greater Detroit commu-
nity,' Smith adds.

member

Goldsmith died in

f1

-

placed the bulk of its archival holdings in the
Reuther Library in 1991.
The collection dates back to the begin­

According to the Reuther Library, Detroit's
first English-language Jewish newspaper
began with the Oct. 5, 1900, issue of the
Jewish American, published weekly. Emanuel
T. Berger was the editor and it was pub­
lished by the Jewish Review and Observer of

temple.

f,' ·

in those pages about the

and

the voice of the

,

Archives, also available through the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, which

million documents

lisher. As of 1904, Franklin

as

:j

the world

they might live:'

Detroit's .Jewish Press

became the official organ of Detroit's

munity member, no mat

lections of the Chronicle, it also houses the
papers of Philip Slomovitz and philanthro­

well

i�

�eo;����::���le

everyone, whether a
scholar, student or com-

ter where in

as

h

through the first few
issues. "Once digitized, it

read

history. The library not only holds the col­

Max

...

or so

doing the whole world
of research a good turn:'

did not know that the

�

July 20,1951, when it was acquired by the

Detroit Jewish News, where Slomovitz

took over.

Mike Smith said that he

I THE JEWI$H CHRONICLE I
t ,.".�-�:;.���::,::',:��; t£2d

of understanding identity:'
Nordberg says.

only a few places nationally,
the
Walter P. Reuther Library of
including

Former director

,

public records are used.

be found in

University.

Jewish Chronicle.

Jewish cem­

Detroit:' Horwitz says, "I

people were.

they live? What were

their families like? What were there joys and

the William Davidson

a full 1 00
pages of searchable content
other
Jewish newspaper in
years. "No

-

America

can

match this

resource

and

accomplishment" Smith says.
And with each new edition of the

Jewish News, additional history is being

captured. 0