46 | NOVEMBER 12 • 2020 

PHOTO CREDIT

Looking Back

From the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History

accessible at www.djnfoundation.org

A Look Back 100 Years Ago
I

t occurs to me that, sometimes, 
researching in the William Davidson 
Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit 
History is a bit like prospecting for gold. 
The Archive is indeed a great big “gold 
mine” of information from the past 104 
years of Jewish history. And to gather 
research from this mine does take some 
digging. Every now and then, however, 
there is a big, flashy, golden 
historical nugget just lying 
there, waiting for you.
I found this week’
s nugget 
while searching for infor-
mation on another topic. As 
I was mining the Archive, 
the front page of the Oct. 
29, 1920, issue of the Jewish 
Chronicle attracted me. I 
soon discovered that the entire issue was 
most interesting.
The headline on the front page read: 
“Beautiful New Edifice to House Temple 
Beth El.” This was accompanied by an 
image of a rendering of the Albert Kahn-
designed structure. This synagogue, 
the third Temple Beth El, opened on 
Woodward Avenue in Detroit in 1923, 
and would be the congregation’
s home 
until 1973, when it moved to its current 
Minoru Yamasaki-designed facility in 
Bloomfield Township. The main story 
also celebrated 70 years of progress at 
Temple Beth El, as a congregation, and as 
an indicator of the growth and strength of 
the larger Jewish community of the era. 
The Temple Beth El story was really 
good news, but there are contrasting 
reports within the issue. On page 3, there 
is a headline: “The International Jew, The 
New World Menace.” The headline is cer-
tainly disturbing, but it is a bit mislead-
ing. What follows is an address by Rev. 
Bradford Pengelly of St. John’
s Episcopal 
Church in Detroit. He succinctly states 
the problem: “A violent and unfair 
attack has been made upon millions of 
American citizens who are of Jewish 

blood ...” 
The attack he refers 
to is the publication 
of the “Protocols of 
Zion” in Henry Ford’
s 
Dearborn Independent,
which was indeed a 
vicious and unfound-
ed assault on Jews. 
Page 7 of the issue 
features another 
response, an “Open 
Letter to Henry Ford” from the American 
Hebrew, that rebukes Ford for publishing 
such a “stupid, clumsy forgery.” Indeed.
The editorial page reinforced the 
above stories. There was praise for 
Temple Beth El as a sign of a healthy 
Jewish community. But there was 
also an op-ed: “Einstein and German 
Anti-Semites.” Only the most igno-
rant would dispute the genius of 
Albert Einstein today, but in 1920, 
he faced a wave of antisemitism denounc-
ing his discoveries.
One other story was very interesting. 
It was election season that year and 
Rabbi Leo Franklin urged a “no” vote 
on a proposed amendment to ban paro-
chial or religious schools in Michigan. 
Considered to be a largely anti-Catholic 
action, Jews found common ground 
with Catholics. On Oct. 31, 1920, a rally 
of 100,000 people against the ban was 
held at Navin Field, home of the Detroit 
Tigers. The proposed amendment was 
defeated.
This Jewish Chronicle issue was a “gold 
nugget,” to say the least. The content is 
about contrast, the accomplishments of 
and the issues facing the Jewish commu-
nity 100 years ago. Aside from simply 
interesting reading for its own sake, in 
many ways, the reports and articles are 
still relevant reading for 2020. 

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

,

from the American 

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