Looking Back

From the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History

accessible at www.djnfoundation.org

Antisemitism Deja Vu
T

his is not the 
“Looking Back” 
that I first 
thought I would write 
for the JN’
s annual 
“Back to School” issue. 
Of course, 
in the midst of a pandemic, 
it will be a much different 
return to classes for children 
and college students this year. 
So, I thought I would explore 
the William Davidson Digital 
Archive of Jewish Detroit 
History and see if I could find 
any parallels to school days 
during the Spanish Flu epidemic a century 
ago.
I found a big fat nothing. The Spanish 
Flu peaked during the late-fall and winter 
of 1918-1919, with a brief resurgence in 
spring 1920. I could not find any articles 
related to children, the flu and a return to 
school.
I went to Plan B. I searched for plain old 
“Back to School” articles from 100 years 
ago. There were plenty of advertisements 
for fall fashions and sales at Hudson’
s 
and Himelhoch’
s, as well as piano sales at 
Grinnell Brother’
s. Since it was an election 
season in 1920, there were also plenty of 
political ads. There was nothing regarding 
the back-to-school season we have come to 
expect. It did not develop until some years 
later. There was a poem by Enoch Mebs in 
the Aug. 27, 1920, issue of the Chronicle, 
“The Hurried Parting,” about children leav-
ing home for their first days at school.
However, I did find an interesting — 
albeit disgusting and unfortunate — article 
that relates to current affairs today. One 
that reminded me of the primary reason 
for the JN’
s antisemitism project this year.
You may have read last week about 
an article twice-published in the Polish-
language newspaper in Toronto, the Glos 
Polish weekly, that blamed Jews for the 

coronavirus pandem-
ic. While conducting 
research for this week’
s 
column, I found an 
eerily similar article 
on the front page 
of the Aug. 6, 1920 
issue of the Detroit Jewish 
Chronicle: “Polish Newspaper 
Repeats Articles Defaming the 
Jews.” 
This headline referred to a letter 
from Mr. Kuzelewski, published in 
one of Detroit’
s contemporary Polish-
language newspapers, the Polish Daily 
Record. He wrote that, along with 
Russia, Germany and Austria, Jews were 
“the fourth and most important enemy 
of Poland …” Furthermore, “the Jew … 
took our Father’
s soil from us, who sold 
our white women into slavery… is and 
wants to be in the future a parasite on 
our nation.” It was despicable and full of 
the tropes that, unfortunately, we still see 
today.
Ironically, the letter was written during 
the Polish-Russian war of 1919-1920, when 
Poland was fighting for its freedom and 
rights. Freedom was relative, it appears. As 
reported in the Chronicle, pogroms against 
Jews in Poland were commonplace during 
this era.
The Detroit branch of the ADL as well 
as local citizens rallied against the Polish 
Daily Record. Chagrined, its editor claimed 
that its readers knew “that its policy is not, 
nor ever was, anti-Semitic.” Right. Same 
thing the Canadian newspaper claims. 
Then, why print such letters?
In the end, my hunt for interesting 
back-to-school articles resulted in a his-
tory lesson about antisemitism that I did 
not expect. It’
s not a fun topic but it is a 
necessary one. 

Want to learn more? Go to the DJN Foundation 
archives, available for free at 
www.djnfoundation.org.

Mike Smith
Alene and 
Graham Landau 
Archivist Chair

54 | AUGUST 20 • 2020 

AntiSemitism

the

Project

k’
s 

ter
in

ere
y
…
ld
d
n

of
see

ring 
when 
nd 
rs. As
gainst 
ring

ll

