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
hing
ed.
n
ounc-
rican