Looking Back
From the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History
accessible at www.djnfoundation.org
46 | OCTOBER 15 • 2020
Turning the Page
A
s you likely know, it
is a new era at the JN.
The newspaper is now
owned by the nonprofit Detroit
Jewish News Foundation, and
after 34 years as JN publish-
er, Arthur Horwitz is now
publisher emeritus, a well-de-
served honor.
Arthur will
still be active-
ly involved in
assisting the
Foundation (djn-
foundation.org)
with its expand-
ed responsibil-
ities, although
no longer in a board-member
capacity.
As Alene and Graham
Landau Archivist Chair for the
Foundation, it will be a new
era for me as well. Over the
past eight years, I’
ve been on a
most interesting and stimulat-
ing adventure working closely
with Arthur on the develop-
ment of the William Davidson
Digital Archive of Jewish
Detroit History.
It all began when Arthur
invited me to a breakfast in
2012. I had just finished nine
years as director of the Walter
Reuther Library at Wayne State
University and Arthur wanted
to discuss his vision of a digi-
tal archive that would include
every historic page of the JN
in a free, online resource. It
would be, in his words, the
“DNA
” of Jewish Detroit. It
was a great idea. Moreover, I
could see that Arthur had the
skills and determination to
make his vision a reality.
Indeed, to this end, with the
help of many supporters from
the Jewish community, Arthur
launched the Jewish News
Foundation in 2011.
Arthur’
s quest began in the
aftermath of a devastating fire
at the JN offices in 2002. He
was worried. The old copies of
the JN that constituted a pri-
mary record of Detroit Jewish
history had narrowly escaped
destruction. What if this histo-
ry had been lost? It would be
tragic.
So, along with his daytime
job as the JN’
s executive editor
and publisher, Arthur tackled
another mission: to preserve
the historic pages of the JN
for the community. This led
to the establishment of the
Foundation and the creation
of the William Davidson
Digital Archive of Jewish
Detroit History, which debuted
in 2013. The Detroit Jewish
Chronicle (1916-1951) was
added to the Davidson Digital
Archive in 2015. It now holds
over 330,000 images and is
preserved in perpetuity
by the Bentley Historical
Library at the University
of Michigan. And, now the
Foundation will publish the
JN and preserve this com-
munity resource.
I did not know when I
had pancakes with Arthur
in 2012 that I was about to
begin an eight-year adventure.
To say the least, we hit it off.
Moreover, as a professional
archivist, I knew that Arthur
was creating a pathbreaking
research tool, both as an inno-
vative digital newspaper
archive, in general, and
as an essential history
resource for Detroit’
s
Jewish community in par-
ticular.
It is gratifying to have
been an early contribu-
tor to the project, and
I am honored to hold
my current position.
It’
s also been a lot of
fun. The best part of
this adventure has
been the hours spent with
Arthur discussing ideas
regarding local history —
and trust me, the man has
more ideas that one can
keep up with!
Arthur Horwitz created a
great archive, an outstanding
legacy for the Detroit Jewish
community. Many thanks
for bringing me along on the
ride, Arthur!
Want to learn more? Go to the DJN
Foundation archives, available for free
at www.djnfoundation.org.
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