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for openers

Let It Go To Your Head

W

ere you aware that
ing through his hat. When
when it was intro-
proven wrong, he may have to
duced to society,
come, hat in hand, and make
the top hat was banned
amends.
because it tended to frighten
Some may make extravagant
folks? Early clergy (11th
claims of their abilities, knowl-
century) wore skullcaps to
edge, etc., so hang on to your
keep the bald patch of skin
hat when they get started. If
Sy Manello
on the top of their heads
one of their projects should
Editorial Assistant
warm. Before central heat-
ever come into being, I’ll eat
ing, people wore nightcaps
my hat. Of course, at the out-
to keep their heads warm as
set, they may caution you to
they slept.
keep the plan under your hat. Their
Considering all its permutations,
boasting is, of course, old hat.
the hat retains a large place in the idi-
When we encounter a need in the
oms of our everyday talk.
community, we may be encouraged to
Do you know someone who can
pass the hat and alleviate some of the
spout off as an expert on anything at
suffering.
Some citizens, when deciding to
any time? He can be said to be talk-

enter the political arena, may toss
their hats into the ring. A win for
some would be like pulling a rabbit
out of a hat. They may expound on
their platform at the drop of a hat and
some may impress you by being mad
as a hatter.
Have you many abilities? Are you
proficient artistically and physically?
You may be said to be able to wear
more than one hat and my hat is off
to you. (Archaically, I give you a tip of
the topper.)
Well, wherever you hang your hat
— the place where you can comfort-
ably read the Cat In the Hat or come
in with hat hair — you know that con-
versationally you can now be aHEAD
of the game. •

publisher’s notebook

Marking 75 Years Of The Jewish News

T

Arthur Horwitz

he world was an exceed-
ingly dangerous place
— especially for Jews
— when Philip Slomovitz
published the first issue of the
Jewish News on March 27, 1942.
Coming just months after the
Japanese sneak attack on Pearl
Harbor, and with Hitler’s war
machine overrunning most of
Europe and singling out Jews
for slander, degradation and
destruction, Detroit’s Jewish

“Lay before the public the achievements and
associations of Jewry. Interpret for us the
tolerance, the charity, the love for human freedom
under God that fires your people. Do it, not only
for the Jew’s sake, but also for the sake of us
who are not Jews.
“Make us see that the whispered word of
bigotry is a lie, and that the lie spreads and
undermines the security of the whole nation and
all that is good in American democracy. Hitler
sowed racial hatred and reaped the hatred of
every people he conquered. You, by effective
sowing of friendliness and understanding, can
reap friendliness and understanding for the
Jew and can help us preserve our democratic
tradition…”

— Murray “Pat” Van Wagoner, Governor,
State of Michigan, in a March 13, 1942,
letter congratulating Philip Slomovitz on the
upcoming launch of the Detroit Jewish News

community needed a strong,
unifying, trusted voice who
could rally it in the midst of its
darkest days.
Framed by the internationally
disseminated anti-Semitic rants
of locals Henry Ford and Father
Charles Coughlin, Detroit Jews
had been feeling the sting of
bigotry for decades. It was
Slomovitz, a diminutive man
with Coke-bottle-thick eyeglass-
es and a passion for Zionism,
who pushed back against these
demagogues via his writing for
the Detroit News and the Detroit
Jewish Chronicle.
Displeased with the editorial
direction and business practices
of the Jewish Chronicle, and con-
vinced it could not bring the
community together at a time
of great peril, key community
leaders backed Slomovitz as he
launched the competing Jewish
News.
The Jewish News Slomovitz
edited was mostly serious stuff
as was fitting for the times.
Huge headlines and front-page
stories told of the demise of
European Jewry, and included
Slomovitz’s calling out Rabbi
Stephen Wise, Abba Hillel Silver
and other global Jewish lead-

ers for not doing enough to
save our brethren. Pages were
devoted each week to our men
and women in uniform, sharing
collective pride at their heroism
and sorrow upon news of their
capture or demise. Slomovitz
was a full-throated supporter
of the annual Allied Jewish
Campaign and an incessant
peddler of War Bonds.
But the Jewish News also
had the stuff of life — birth,
engagement, wedding and
anniversary announcements,
specials at Cunningham Drugs
and Gardner-White Furniture,
the weekly social scene column
that was his generation’s ver-
sion of Facebook … and “Detroit
Youth’s Listening Post,” a weekly
column by Danny Raskin that
appeared in the very first edi-
tion and whose purpose was
to “bring youth closer together
in their work, social endeavors
and play, and to inform them of
what others are doing — to co-
operate and help you in every
way possible in whatever tasks
you may partake and to be your
‘listening post’ on whatever
information or situation may
interest you.”
Seventy-five years later, and

My
Story

When Dr. Jesse Kane was an
undergraduate student, his mother
suggested he apply to Hebrew Free
Loan for an interest-free college loan
to help pay for his education. He
applied, was granted a loan, paid it
off, then applied for another loan to
help pay for dental school.
“The William Davidson Jewish
College Loan Program has been an
amazing resource,” Jesse said. “When
you think about lending institutions,
you picture uptight people in suits
who spout rules at you. The people at
HFL were nothing but nice and warm
and on my side. I’m now using it for
my dental specialty education, which
is prosthodontics. I graduate in a few
weeks with experience in prosthetics
like implants, dentures, and crowns.”
When Jesse was in dental school,
his experience with patients was that
there were a few times those patients
needed more than he, and sometimes
his instructors, could ﬁx. “They often
had complex or multiple needs,”
Jesse said. “Then a prosthodontist was
called in, and he or she was calm and
offered options. I marveled at it. Now
I will be that person.”
Jesse has large plans when he
ﬁnishes his education. He interned at
a private practice, and now wants to
open his own ofﬁce in Ann Arbor.
Jesse says he might come back to HFL,
but this time to the Marvin I. Danto
Small Business Loan Program.
“Leaving Michigan has never been an
option,” Jesse said. “Opening a prac-
tice feels right. I’ve always wanted to
be a dentist, and I’m lucky that I love
the work. HFL supports the success
of Jewish people in Michigan, and
with HFL and my work, it’s possible.”

Become an HFL Donor.
Click. Call. Give Now.
www.hfldetroit.org
248.723.8184

Health. A fresh start.
A good education.
The next great business idea.

Hebrew Free Loan gives interest-
free loans to members of our
community for a variety of
personal and small business
needs. HFL loans are funded
entirely through community
donations which continually
recycle to others, generating
many times the original value
to help maintain the lives of
local Jews.

6735 Telegraph Road, Suite 300 • Bloomfield Hills, MI 48301

Hebrew Free Loan Detroit

@HFLDetroit

continued on page 6

jn

March 23 • 2017

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