arts&life
exhibit
SCAN THIS PAGE
TO SEE PHOTOS OF
THE EXHIBIT.
The Holocaust Unfolds
SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
A new exhibit at the HMC
highlights the important
role played by the
Detroit Jewish News
in delivering war news
to Detroiters.
44
October 11 • 2018
jn
A
t the Newseum in Washington,
D.C., where newspaper history
and highlights open up to the
public, a place is held by the Detroit
Jewish News.
An issue from the 1940s, accessible
in an interactive showcase divided by
years, draws headline attention to the
very beginnings of the Nazi massacre of
Jews, a subject then relegated to slight
attention in a very different issue shown
from the prominent secular press.
Earlier this year, the U.S.
Holocaust Memorial Museum, also
in Washington, launched a special
exhibit that included pages from the
Detroit Jewish News and its predeces-
sor publication, the Jewish Chronicle.
“Americans and the Holocaust: What
Did Americans Know & What More
Could Have Been Done?” references the
critical role of these two papers in keep-
ing the public informed.
The overriding theme of reporting
leadership as shown in both displays is
being extended through a new exhibit
in this area.
“The Holocaust Unfolds: Reports
from the Detroit Jewish Chronicle and
Jewish News” will be on view through
Dec. 28 at the Holocaust Memorial
Center (HMC) in Farmington Hills.
About 25 articles, chosen from many
more archived in the Jewish News
Foundation William Davidson Digital
Archive of Jewish Detroit History (djn-
foundation.org), have been enlarged for
display and summarized through labels.
The exhibit is divided into three
sections — “The Rise of Nazism,”
“Living Under Nazism” and “Life After.”
Docents are scheduled for tours to point
out content in the unremitting coverage
before the word Holocaust came to be
used. A program on Dec. 9 will feature a
concert recalling songs of the Holocaust
(see sidebar) and a reception.
“The content in the Jewish Chronicle
and the Jewish News, including scream-
ing headlines and activist commentary
by Philip Slomovitz — who had edited
both newspapers during this timeframe
— underscore the important and endur-
ing role ethnic media outlets like ours
play when the secular media choose
to largely look the other way or are
late to the game,” says Arthur Horwitz,
executive editor and publisher of the JN
and founder of the DJN Foundation.
Because of involvement with the
Newseum and U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Museum exhibit, he came up with the
idea for the local exhibit based on what
was shown in Washington and what was
experienced in his own home.
“My mother was a Holocaust survi-
vor, and my father was born and raised
in Connecticut. As kids, we occasional-
ly heard discussions around the dinner
table about how much, or how little,
American Jews knew about what was
happening to European Jewry and why
they weren’t more outspoken. Needless
to say, some of these parental conversa-
tions became emotional.”
Horwitz started plans for the exhibit
through discussions with Mike Smith,
Detroit Jewish News Foundation archi-
vist and columnist. The two met with
Eli Mayerfeld, HMC chief executive,
and Robin Axelrod, HMC director of
education, before an exhibit team was
set up with Smith, Sarah Saltzman,
HMC director of events, and Mike
Mulder, HMC exhibitions manager.
“This exhibit will not tell people what
to think,” Smith says. “It will give them
ideas to think about. In those times of
distant upheaval, it was difficult to get
reports from Nazi-occupied nations,
but these two papers sought out the