Looking Back

From the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History

accessible at www.djnfoundation.org

L’ Shanah Tovah Through the Years
I 

read an article with a good line 
that summed up Rosh Hashanah 
in 2020/5781 — “The Shofar will 
be heard in new ways.
” Indeed, the 
High Holiday season this year will 
be during a still-to-be-conquered 
COVID-19 pandemic. There will be 
new ways of celebrating, including 
Zoom services on your computer 
and masks on the end 
of shofars. Regardless 
of how they have 
evolved, the High 
Holidays have survived 
for centuries and a 
pandemic won’
t stand 
in their way, not now 
or in the future. 
Every year, over 
the past century, the JN (since 
1942) and the Detroit Jewish Chronicle 
(1916-1951) have published Rosh 
Hashanah stories and announce-
ments. So, I thought I would visit the 
William Davidson Digital Archive 
of Jewish Detroit History to see 
how the front pages from Detroit’
s 
Jewish newspapers devoted to Rosh 
Hashanah have evolved with the hol-
iday over the years.
I began with 1920, after the last 
surge of the Spanish Flu and two 
years after WWI had ended. The 
front page of the Chronicle for Rosh 
Hashonah 5681 was simple (note the 
spelling used), with a greeting, and 
a poem, all in black and white, of 
course.
Rosh Hashanah 1945/5706 was 
another step in the evolution of 
Jewish reporting in Detroit. First, the 
spelling changed, and the JN’
s front 
page also featured a large photo of 
the shofar being blown and a poem 
by Dr. Noah Aronstam, which wel-
comed the promise of a New Year, 
but with an emphasis on peace and 
freedom. WWII had just ended.

I thought maybe Rosh Hashanah 
in 1948, during the year of the 
founding of Israel might be interest-
ing. The front page of the JN used the 
same photo as in 1945, but the mes-
sage had changed reflecting the cause 
of the new nation: “Blow the great 
shofar of our freedom to gather our 
exiles, and bring our scattered ones 
from among the nations and assem-
ble our dispersed from the ends of 
the world.
”
By the 1970s, there was a minor 
evolution: just a bit of color began to 
be seen on front pages of the JN. The 
1973 front page featured an illustra-
tion by Saul Raskin wishing everyone 
a happy new year for Rosh Hashana 
5734 (another spelling difference). 
It also featured color, a bit of green 
ink. However, I could not help but 
think that, within a few days, the 
High Holidays that year would end 
with onset of the Yom Kippur War 
in Israel. 
A major revolution in the JN’
s Rosh 
Hashanah coverage occurred in the 
late-1980s. Henceforth, with only a 
couple of exceptions, the front pages 
of the JN became works of art, in full 
color. Visually speaking, the JN had 
moved out of the dark ages forever 
and the art on front pages during the 
last three decades has been wonder-
ful.
As I write this, I am looking for-
ward to a New Year, to a new cover 
page for the JN, and hopefully, the 
eradication of COVID-19. That 
would indeed make 5781 a happy 
and sweet New Year. From Arthur 
Horwitz, Tessa Goldberg and me at 
the Detroit Jewish News Foundation 
— L
’
 Shanah Tovah. 

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

78 | SEPTEMBER 17 • 2020 

