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75th Anniversary

Looking Back,
Looking Forward

Celebrating Mentorship And An Ongoing Community Partnership

T

Arthur M.
Horwitz

Publisher

6

he 75th anniversary commemorative edi-
tion of the Jewish News at your fingertips
is part tribute to the vision and tenacity of
our founder, Philip Slomovitz, and part recogni-
tion of the durability and discerning taste buds of
98-year-old Danny Raskin, who has been writing
a weekly column on people and the places where
they dine since our first edition on March 27,
1942. But at its core, it is a celebration of a con-
tinuing partnership in community building.
Prior to coming to Detroit 31 years ago to helm
the Jewish News, my experience was in secular
media. At a sendoff party by colleagues at the
Baltimore Sun, I was reminded I was crossing
the divide from objective, unbiased journal-
ism (theirs) to advocacy journalism and puffery
(mine). It was meant to be a dig, an insult. And it
stung. But three people helped me to understand
the uniqueness of the Detroit Jewish community,
the ongoing role and responsibility of the Jewish
News in helping to shape and lead it, and that
presenting high-quality journalism wasn’t at odds
with advocating for the unity and survival of the
Jewish people.
Ah, Leonard Simons. I can still hear his shrill
voice on the other end of the phone or across
a table at the old Michigan Inn lecturing me —
there were occasional opportunities for questions
and answers — about how intertwined the Jewish
community and the Jewish News were.
He was among a group of communal lead-
ers who financially backed Slomovitz when he
launched the Jewish News in competition with
the existing Jewish Chronicle. By 1951, the Jewish
News purchased the Jewish Chronicle and put it
out of business. Leonard’s message was blunt and
to the point — the community helped to create
the Jewish News. The community needs the Jewish
News. Don’t let ’em take you for granted, and
don’t screw it up!
He encouraged me to partner with an array of
organizations, leveraging the Jewish News plat-
form to bring religious and secular, young and
old, industrialist and pensioner, Republican and
Democrat together as a Jewish community — on
our pages and face to face. Leonard insisted that
you couldn’t be a leader in the Jewish community
if you weren’t one in the general community as
well. He was both and expected the same of me.
Then, there was Phil Slomovitz. By the time
we met in 1986, he was editor emeritus of the
Jewish News and still writing his weekly Purely
Commentary column. Though approaching 90
and legally blind, he was brought to the office
every day, and was read to, by Percy Kaplan.
Percy would read. Phil would listen. Occasionally,
they would argue. And then, with his chin cradled
in the carriage of his manual typewriter — per-

July 18 • 2017

jn

Arthur Horwitz and Charles “Chuck” Buerger

haps in the hope of getting a foggy glimpse of a
letter or word finding its way onto a page of paper
— Phil would painstakingly peck out his column.
And he’d do it again the next week … and the next.
He modeled the best in “advocacy” journalism
for me — passionate to the end in advancing
Zionism, defending Israel, taking on anti-Semites,
supporting our Federation and other charities
assisting Jews in need, extolling America’s vir-
tues and confronting those who would drive a
wedge between Jews, including other Jews. My
conversations with Phil were always cordial, and
he was supportive of the changes being made to
the Jewish News to significantly expand its local
coverage and engage a new generation of readers.
He left it to Leonard Simons to deliver sterner
messages.
And the third was Charles A. Buerger. Chuck
had been publishing the widely acclaimed
Baltimore Jewish Times when, in March of
1984, he purchased the Jewish News from the
Slomovitz family. I first met Chuck during our
service together on the marketing committee of
Baltimore’s Associated Jewish Charities & Welfare
Fund. Along with key associates Gary Rosenblatt

and Sylvia Stafford, he had been commuting
to Detroit for more than a year to modernize
and upgrade the still vital, but admittedly stale,
Jewish News. Ever the master salesman, he began
recruiting me to leave the Baltimore Sun and
move with my wife and a young son to Detroit for
what he promised would be a sensational oppor-
tunity to lead and reshape the Jewish News. I was
still young, perhaps foolish, and took the bait.
But salesmanship was just one of Chuck’s
virtues. He had a keen eye for design and talent,
and over a Tanqueray on the rocks with a twist,
could negotiate a deal or establish a friendship
with virtually anyone. While he valued having
fun, Chuck possessed a willingness to challenge
Jewish organizations if they were straying from
their communal responsibilities or not chang-
ing with the times. The fact that Rosenblatt was
a Pulitzer Prize finalist for a story that appeared
in the Jewish News and the Jewish Times about
the convoluted allocation process of the Jewish
Agency for Israel — and that the story was con-
demned on the floor of Israel’s Knesset — under-
scored the importance of being an independent,
credible source of news. Chuck passed away in
1996 following complications from heart surgery.
He was only 57 years old.
The pages of this commemorative edition cap-
ture the passion of Phil Slomovitz, the durability
of Danny Raskin, the global leadership of Max
Fisher, the humor of Alan Muskovitz and the
enduring good work of our community’s mitzvah
heroes. They tell the story of our community and
the thousands of people who helped to shape it
over the past 75 years.
I have been honored to follow Slomovitz’s 42
years of service to the Jewish News and the Jewish
community with 31 years of service of my own.
But there was a 10-year period — between 1986
and 1996 — when the hand of Chuck Buerger was
helping to push me forward, but never hold me
back, in pursuit of making the Jewish News “the
best ever,” as he would say. And on those days
when things didn’t go quite right — like when
our building burned down in 2002 — I still heard
Chuck’s voice in the background saying, “So are
you having fun?”
Thanks to a talented and dedicated staff
benefiting from the ongoing guidance of my busi-
ness partner, friend and Chief Operating Officer
Kevin Browett, encouragement from my partners
Michael Steinhardt and Don Lifton, loyal read-
ers and supportive advertisers, yes, Chuck, I am
still having fun as we continue to try to make the
Jewish News — in whatever form it takes in the
future — “the best ever.” May the partnership in
community building continue, and may we go
from strength to strength. •

