looking back

Rabbis Morris Adler and Abraham Hershman are joined by Cantor
Jacob Sonenklar at Congregation Shaarey Zedek on Chicago
Boulevard, circa 1950. The three clergy served together for many
years. Adler came to CSZ in 1938 as an assistant rabbi but soon
enlisted to serve as the U.S. Army’s first Jewish chaplain during

World War II. After Adler’s return, Hershman retired, having served
Shaarey Zedek for four decades and in three synagogue buildings.
In his retirement, Hershman published scholarly books, pursued his
hobby of chess and was an ardent Tigers fan. He passed away in
1959. Adler died in 1966. •

COURTESY OF PROF. SAMUEL AND LILLIAN LEVIN ARCHIVES OF CONGREGATION SHAAREY ZEDEK.

From the DJN

Davidson Digital Archive

T

he headline, “Spain Balks Escape of
Jewish Refugees,” in the Jan. 8, 1943,
issue of the JN seemed a lot like the
headlines of 1942. Every week during the war
brought reports of bad news for Jews. Inside
this issue, however, there were also several
very positive stories.
The JN’s headline referred to the fact that
Mike Smith
Spain had refused to give visas to 5,000
Detroit Jewish News
Jewish men of military age. These were
Foundation Archivist
Jewish men and boys who had escaped
from the Nazis. No surprise here. At that
time, Spain was a fascist dictatorship under
Franciso Franco, a friend of Hitler.
The JN also had a couple of stories related to the number
100. First, on the front page, there was a respectful political

54

January 11 • 2018

jn

cartoon about B’nai B’rith. As the oldest Jewish service orga-
nization in the world, with a largely American membership,
B’nai B’rith was celebrating its 100th birthday. The cartoon
depicted one of the 12 German Jewish founders of the organi-
zation, Henry Jones, along with its contemporary president,
Henry Monsky.
There was another celebration in that issue involving the
same number — a photo on page 8 showed Rabbi Joseph
Levenson being sworn in as the100th Jewish chaplain for the
American Armed Services during World War II.
And, on the home front, there was another celebration.
Hyman Altman was celebrating his 13th year of having a
featured show on WJLB radio in Detroit. Apparently, Altman
was quite popular with the local Jewish community. In his
honor, over that weekend, nearly 400 trees were planted in the
Altman Grove in Palestine. Moreover, the story predicted that
the final goal of 1,000 trees would be met in 1943. This is cer-
tainly worth of a mazel tov (albeit 75 years later)! ••

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.