jews d in the BENTLEY HISTORICAL LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN looking back Lasting Legacy U-M’s William Haber turned his focus to post-WWII refugees. CINDA NOFZIGER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS T In 1948, William Haber, left, traveled to Germany and Austria as Special Advisor on Jewish Affairs to Gen. Lucius Clay, the American Commander-in-Chief in Germany. a person who, while not a household he slightly out-of-focus image name, was well-known for his hard work shows a group of men, some in and dedication to betterment of Jewish uniform, and boys in suits, smil- people around the world. ing uncertainly. The note on the back Haber was a professor at U-M and states, “Wm Haber, … J Officer and the Dean of Literature, Science children in (Germany?), W.W. and Arts there from 1963-1968. II(?).” The question marks on As an economist, however, the inscription make the photo Haber also put his skills to work even more intriguing: Who are to improve the lives of labor- these children? Where are they? ers, Michiganders struggling When was the photo taken? through the Depression, and What happened to the kids? both Jewish and non-Jewish And, what was William Haber refugees and displaced persons. doing there? Born in Romania in 1899, I am a reference archivist at William Haber Haber came to the U.S. in 1910. the Bentley Historical Library, He grew up in Milwaukee. University of Michigan, which After earning degrees at the University means I get a lot of questions and of Wisconsin and attending Harvard, search a lot of archival collections for the answers. Along the way, I’ve become Haber became an economics professor at U-M in 1936. familiar with significant Jewish figures In 1939, while on leave from U-M, from Michigan, such as Albert Kahn Haber organized and directed the and A. Alfred Taubman, men who made National Refugee Service in the United buildings and had buildings named States. This private organization coor- after them. Their collections are at dinated efforts of other agencies to the Bentley. But, I didn’t know William resettle refugees from Nazi-controlled Haber. Intrigued by the photograph, I Europe. dug deeper into his papers. In 1948, Haber traveled to Germany Although I didn’t find the answers to my original questions, in Haber’s papers and Austria as Special Advisor on Jewish Affairs to Gen. Lucius Clay, the and in the online archives of the Detroit American Commander-in-Chief in Jewish News, I discovered the history of Germany. They toured camps of dis- placed persons, eventually establishing resettlement opportunities around the world. In letters to friends and acquain- tances as he traveled throughout Europe, and upon his return to America, Haber strongly advocated that displaced Jewish people be relocated to Israel. In 1949, the Detroit Jewish News detailed his report to the World Jewish Congress, and other Jewish organiza- tions. Haber stated that, after Israel’s creation in 1948, Jewish displaced per- sons “dropped their complaints that they were ‘trapped’ and ‘imprisoned’ in Germany and Austria and went about their business of preparing themselves for migration to that country.” Haber credited his time in Europe as the catalyst for his interest in the Organization for Rehabilitation through Training (ORT), a Jewish vocational training organization that is still active today. Shortly after his return to U-M in 1949, Haber became ORT president. In a 1955 interview with S. Regensburg of the Jewish Daily Forward, he described how he “observed youth in Israel, once D.P.’s in Germany — whom he had encoun- tered as a counsellor to General Clay. Once shattered humans, they are now proud citizens, participants in Israel’s economic upbuilding.” Haber’s work with ORT took him around the world — North and South America, Europe, Israel and various cit- ies within the United States. Haber also served the state of Michigan and the U.S. government in the 1930s as Michigan’s State Emergency Relief Administrator and as a member of the Federal Advisory Council on Social Security. In an early example of community-engaged learning, he designed a project for which his stu- dents helped to write the Michigan State Unemployment Insurance Law. Haber also made time for his fam- ily; he and his wife, Fannie, had three children. He continued to work for U-M until he was well into his 80s. Haber died in 1989. During celebrations of modern Israel’s 70th anniversary, William Haber’s work for Jewish people around the world is worth remembering. Although no build- ing is named in his honor, a chair in U-M’s Judaic Studies holds his name as does an ORT scholarship. I like to imag- ine that his work directly helped the young boys in the photograph. • Cinda Nofziger, Ph.D., is a reference archivist at U-M’s Bentley Historical Library. From the DJN Davidson Digital Archive W hile writing about the JN from 1942-43 over the past year, several times I referred to fascinating advertise- ments from Schmidt’s Beer, the beer that (per its ads) contributed so mightily to the effort to win World War II. I guess I miss writing about Schmidt’s beer ads, so this week, I decided to see just what I could find about beer in the pages of the Davidson Online Archives. Now, I will admit, I don’t know a lot about beer. I know the difference between Budweiser and a craft beer, but when it comes to on-the-spot decisions, I have to rely on sage advice from my good friend and outstanding beer adviser, Don Cohen, also a JN contributing writer. When entering “beer” into the search box for the archives, you will find more than 9,000 entries. That’s a lot of reading about beer. Mike Smith Detroit Jewish News Unfortunately for the historic Detroit com- Foundation Archivist munity, there were only 13 entries that cited 126 May 24 • 2018 jn “Free Beer.” I also found entries for Israeli beers, Gold Star and Maccabee. The first article about these beers appeared in the Dec. 2, 1977, issue of the JN about Gold Star and Maccabee winning gold medals at the Monde Selection, a world judging of beers in Brussels and Luxembourg. The best beer news, however, can be found in the Apr 7, 1916, issue of the Jewish Chronicle. On page 9, the advertisement for Detroit-made Goebels Beer had some very useful “scientific” infor- mation for readers. Did you know that doctors will tell you “there is not a more efficient strength-builder for the convalescent — nor a more nourishing food for the young mother — than Pure Beer?” And, of course, any “physician who has studied the beers … will unhesitatingly recommend Goebel Pure Food Beer.” Who knew? I feel a bit slighted. My mom only gave me Vernor’s Ginger Ale when I was sick. • Want to learn more? Go to the DJN Foundation archives, available for free at www.djnfoundation.org.