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Detroit 100 Years Ago

What a difference a century makes — to the city and its Jewish community!

Editor’s Note: Here, local historian Irwin
Cohen takes a look back at the year 1916.
For readers who want to delve further into
Detroit Jewish history, an entire century of
Detroit Jewish Chronicle and Detroit Jewish
News issues going back to 1916 is available
online, digitally searchable and free, through
the William Davidson Digital Archive of
Jewish Detroit History. For access, visit www.
djnfoundation.org.

A

ctor Kirk Douglas is looking
forward to celebrating his 100th
birthday this December.
Born Issur Danielovitch in Amsterdam,
N.Y., 28 miles northwest of Albany, in
1916 to a father from Moscow and a moth-
er from the Ukraine,
he changed his name,
found fame and fortune,
and experienced the
American dream.
Others born in 1916
who would go on to
celebrity status included
Walter Cronkite, Glenn
Irwin Cohen
Ford, Jackie Gleason,
Special to the
Gregory Peck and
Jewish News
Francis Rose Shore,
a Jewish girl from
Tennessee who would change her first
name to Dinah.
The year 1916 was when Jeanette Rankin
of Montana became the first woman elected
to Congress. It was the year activist Emma
Goldman was arrested for lecturing on birth
control and the year Einstein’s “Theory of
Relativity” paper was published.
In Detroit, only 16 days before the cal-
endar morphed into 1916, Congregation
Shaarey Zedek dedicated its large new
synagogue on Brush and Willis. There were
1,432 seats in the large sanctuary, plus a
400-seat auditorium, seven classrooms, an
impressive gymnasium, a kitchen, a din-
ing room and staff offices. Ushers dressed
in black waistcoats and striped pants were
in charge of maintaining decorum during
services.
At Shaarey Zedek, spiritual leader Rabbi
A.M. Hershman wore black clerical robes
but wore white on Yom Kippur. He began
his sermons with “Jews and Jewesses.”
Cantor Abraham Minkowsky, a biblical
scholar who had studied at a Talmudical
Academy in Russia, was a graduate of the
Imperial Conservatory of Music at Moscow
and brought new vitality to the services via
his own musical compositions.

The Majestic Building at Woodward and Michigan, looking north

HADASSAH ROOTS
In 1916, Henrietta Szold, founder of the
new organization of
Hadassah, visited Detroit
and stayed with Bessie
and Joseph Wetsman.
Their daughter Sarah
(the future mother of
William Davidson), who
taught at Shaarey Zedek’s
Sunday school, became
Henrietta Szold
an ardent supporter of
Hadassah. The cofounder
of the Detroit branch and its first elected
president was Miriam Hershman, wife of
Rabbi Hershman.
Szold told of Hadassah going to Palestine
to cure trachoma and to rid the swamps
of malaria. She asked for funds, as send-
ing nurses to Palestine, housing them and
providing them with supplies called for a
considerable amount of money.
Because the aim of Hadassah was to
improve the lot of Jews in Palestine, the
main supporters of the organization came
from Shaarey Zedek and the Orthodox
community. Members of Temple Beth
El didn’t support the Zionist cause of the
return of Jews to their biblical homeland.
The Divine promise of the Land of Israel
wasn’t part of the Reform brand of Judaism.

The Reform clerical leadership had excised
mention of the return to Zion from their
prayer book. Women of the Reform move-
ment were extremely devoted to helping
Jews in their own communities and to the
plight of Jews around the world, but not
to the cause of the re-establishment of the
Jewish state.

JEWISH CHRONICLE FOUNDED
On March 3, 1916, the Jewish Chronicle
(later the Detroit Jewish Chronicle), made its
debut. Samuel J. Rhodes was the editor of
the new weekly, and Anton Kaufman was
general manager.
Four weeks later, Detroit Jews raised
$110,000 for the relief
of World War I sufferers
in Europe. About 2,000
Jews poured into a rented
hall to hear reports from
Europe. Community
leaders and rabbis were
seated in a semicircle on
Rabbi Stephen
the platform facing the
S. Wise
crowd. The most impres-
sive speaker, according to
Anton Kaufman of the Chronicle, was Rabbi
Stephen S. Wise.
Here is Kaufman’s opening paragraph in
the April 14, 1916, issue.

“Then the chairman announced the
orator of the evening and, in answer to
the outburst of applause which greeted
his remarks, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise arose
and with measured step advanced to the
edge of the platform. A striking figure he
made, standing there for a moment or two
in silent contemplation of the assembled
thousands.
“The squared shoulders were those of
the athlete; and the firm stride and massive
build spoke of massive strength and reserve
power. His remarkable personality was
stamped upon every feature. The set, tena-
cious jaw denoted it. The keen, scrutinizing,
almost frowning glance expressed it. The
heavy, shaggy hair betokened it. The man
looked every bit of what he is: the central
figure among American rabbis, the fore-
most orator in the Jewish pulpit.”
Kaufman went on to describe Wise’s
moving description of the “sufferings of
Jews in the war zone,” while people sobbed
openly. Kaufman concluded his report with
the following paragraph:
“The speaker’s tones grew louder, more
compelling, more resounding. Towering
above his audience, his countenance trans-
figured by the depth of his emotions, he
reminded me of the historic figures of the
ancient Hebrew prophets. His language and

continued on page 40

38 April 14 • 2016

