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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