From the DJN
Davidson
Digital Archive
looking back
Baseball has always been a popular sport for
kids and adults, especially in the early years of
Detroit’s Jewish community. Many boys’ clubs
and teams met at the Hannah Schloss Building
(the Jewish Institute, built in Detroit in 1903).
The Washington Progressive Club, affiliated with
United Jewish Charities, fielded a baseball team,
as did the Young Men’s Hebrew Association. •
T
he June 5, 1942, issue of the JN
was very interesting, with sev-
eral stories that were out of the
ordinary thus far. It was an extraor-
dinary year for America in the midst
of World War II, but, to this date,
beyond the steady
reporting on news
from Detroit’s Jewish
community, the
larger focus in the JN,
as well as for most
American newspa-
pers, was on events
in Europe and the
Mike Smith
trauma
created by
Detroit Jewish News
the Nazis. This issue
Foundation Archivist
was a bit different.
It began with this
headline: “20,000 Jews Trapped in
Japan Doomed Without Prompt Help.”
While Asia might not be the first place
one names when thinking of Jewish
communities, this story does point to
the fact there were — and are — Jews
living around the world. In this case,
there were 20,000 refugees trapped in
Japanese-occupied Shanghai, China,
more than 7,000 had been working in
the city until the Japanese entered the
war against the United States.
Another non-European story cen-
tered on Palestine and Detroit. David
Ben-Gurion, at that time chairman of
the World Zionist Executive, was com-
ing here to give the opening speech to
the Pioneer Women’s Organization of
America on June 10, 1942, at the Book-
Cadillac Hotel. This would not be the
last time Ben-Gurion would come to
our city. The Detroit Jewish commu-
nity provided crucial support leading
to the establishment of Israel and Ben-
Gurion as its first prime minister.
I also wish to note there was a new
addition to the Schmidt’s Beer adver-
tisement for this issue. In addition to
tanks and bombers, it’s now beer and
battleships! I do love these ads •
Want to learn more?
Go to the DJN Foundation archives,
available for free at www.djnfoundation.org.
54
June 1 • 2017
jn
Washington Progressive Club, probably 1920s.
Courtesy of the Leonard N. Simons Jewish Community Archives, Small Collections,
Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University.
Historic photos are curated by the
Jewish Historical Society of Michigan.