looking back

After her 1942 graduation from Wayne (State) University with a bach-
elors of fine art in industrial design, Elaine Jacob, pictured here in the
1950s at a trade show, followed in her grandfather’s footsteps and
began working for the company he had founded in 1885, M. Jacob
and Sons, a glass container business. She was the first female in the
family lineage who not only worked for the company, but also paved
the way for other women to rise within the business and throughout

the packaging industry. Ahead of the national trend, Jacob recognized
the future of plastics packaging and soon convinced others in the com-
pany to invest in the new technology. This led to her taking an active
role with the National Association of Container Distributors. In 1977,
she became the association’s first female president, serving until 1979.
In 2017, three years after her death, Elaine L. Jacob was inducted into
the National Association of Container Distributors Hall of Fame. •

Photo courtesy of the Jewish Historical Society of Michigan and MJS Packaging.
Elaine Jacob’s story and photos are part of JHSM’s Michigan Women Who Made a Difference Collection.

From the DJN

Davidson Digital Archive

I

had an interesting conversation last week with Rabbi Eli
Mayerfeld, CEO of the Holocaust Memorial Center, Robin
Axelrod, HMC director of education, and Arthur Horwitz,
editor/publisher of the Detroit Jewish News. We discussed a
wide-range of historical topics, as well as the 75th anniver-
sary of the JN and exhibits at the center. An
intriguing question came up: When did the
term “the Holocaust” first appear in the JN?
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah,
did not become universally known as the
Holocaust until the post-World War II
era, when the Nazi’s “Final Solution,” their
plan to eliminate all Jews, became known
to the world — visually through photos of
Mike Smith
Auschwitz and other death camps, as well
Detroit Jewish News
as through documentation and, shortly after
Foundation Archivist
the war, the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war

46

June 29 • 2017

jn

criminals. To say nothing of the personal stories of survivors.
So, I looked at the Davidson Archive to see if I could find
a definitive answer to the question above. First, a search for
“holocaust” brought 20,033 hits. I could not locate a first
usage of “the Holocaust. As early as 1916, the term was used
generically to describe ultra-violent acts in the world. As near
as I could figure, the first use of a related term in the JN was
in the 1930s, when reports began to cite the “holocaust in
Europe,” or the “European Holocaust.”
But, 75 years ago this week, in the July 3, 1942, issue of the
JN, there was a chilling, ominous headline that related directly
to the Holocaust: “Nazis Massacre 700,000 Jews in Poland: Gas
Adds to Horror.” Yes, horror indeed. •

Want to learn more? Go to the DJN Foundation archives,
available for free at www.djnfoundation.org.

Historic photos are curated by the
Jewish Historical Society of Michigan.

