46 | JULY 9 • 2020 

Looking Back

From the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History

accessible at www.djnfoundation.org

W

e are living in tumultuous times. 
First, the pandemic strikes America, 
and our daily lives have been 
dramatically changed. 
 Then, we have experienced a 
series of massive protests against 
police brutality following the death 
of George Floyd at the hands of 
a rogue officer in Minneapolis. 
While largely peaceful, 
unfortunately, in several cities, the 
early stages of the protests were 
accompanied by rioting, looting 
and civil unrest, all unrelated to the 
reasons underlying the cause. 
On May 30, 2020, the Jewish Community in 
Los Angeles was a target for 
those assorted lowlifes who saw 
an opportunity for vandalism. 
Synagogues were defaced and 
several stores burned and 
looted. Anti-Semitic graffiti 
was plastered throughout the 
neighborhood. 
One of the targets for defacing was a statue 
of Raoul Wallenberg. Neither a Confederate 
General during the Civil War nor a slave-owner 
or racist figure from America’
s past, why target 
Wallenberg? Because he saved tens of thousands 
of Jews from the Nazis during the Holocaust. 
Sad to say, this was not the first time that the 
Wallenberg memorial in LA that opened in 1988 
was defaced by anti-Semitic graffiti. Indeed, 
Wallenberg statues in other part of the world, like 
the one in Budapest, Hungary, have also been 
periodically damaged by anti-Semitic vandals.
I decided to search the William Davidson 
Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History to see 
how the JN covered the story of Wallenberg. I 
found that he has had an ongoing presence, cited 
on 419 pages, beginning with the Oct. 19, 1945, 
issue of the JN, and as recently as April 4, 2018. 
The 2019 issues of the JN will soon be loaded into 
the Archive, but I’
ll bet Wallenberg is mentioned 
at least once.

Wallenberg also has a local 
connection. He studied architecture 
at the University of Michigan and 
graduated in 1935.
However, it was his work during 
WWII that made Wallenberg 
extraordinary. Using his Swedish diplomatic 
credentials and every personal skill he possessed, 
Wallenberg saved tens of thousands of Hungarian 
Jews from Nazi death camps. He continued to 
help Jews until January 1945, when 
he was taken into custody by agents 
of the Soviet Union. Wallenberg was 
never heard from again. As reported in 
the Dec. 3, 2016, issue of the JN, he was 
officially declared dead that year by the 
Swedish government.
Certainly, Wallenberg 
deserves every honor 
bestowed upon him, 
from his designation as 
“Righteous Among the 
Nations” at Yad Vashem 
in Israel to his honorary 
American Citizenship, which only he and 
Winston Churchill enjoy; from the University 
of Michigan’
s Raoul Wallenberg Award to 
Raoul Wallenberg Place SW in Washington, D.C., 
the address for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial 
Museum; and, from the bust of Wallenberg at 
Congregation Beth Shalom to memorials in 
his name at synagogues and temples around 
the nation.
And, for all this, Wallenberg’
s statue in LA 
was defaced. It is another sad sign that the 
fight against ignorance and anti-Semitism 
must still be waged. 

A correction to my last Looking Back: Randee 
Freedman wrote to me about her grandfather, 
Joseph Chodoroff, not Joseph Newman. The B and 
C building in Royal Oak was a formerly a “B and C 
Market,” not its HQ. My apologies for the errors. 
Want to learn more? Go to the DJN Foundation 
archives, available for free at www.
djnfoundation.org.

Wallenberg Statue 
Defaced — Again

Mike Smith
Alene and 
Graham Landau 
Archivist Chair

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