E

ighty years ago, there was much to 
talk and read about. America was still 
reeling from the Japanese sneak attack 
on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Japan 
declared war on the United States and Britain 
after the attack on Hawaii and Honolulu. The 
following day, the United States declared war 
on Japan, and three days later, Germany and 
Italy declared war on the U.S, after which 
the U.S. declared war against them. Detroit’s 
newspapers on Dec. 15, sorted out the facts 
and destruction eight days earlier.
At Pearl Harbor, six warships were 
destroyed, 2,729 men killed and 656 wound-
ed. One of the 2,729 killed was a 27-year-old 
Jewish Detroiter, Harold Eli Shiffman. A 
graduate of Central High School, Shiffman 
enlisted in the Navy in 1940 and was sta-
tioned on the battleship Arizona as a radio-
man. 
My uncle, Sammy Cohen, was married 
at the Beth Tefilo Emanuel synagogue, then 
on the corner of Taylor Street and Woodrow 
Wilson in Detroit, on Dec. 7, 1941. He was 
a member of Young Israel of Detroit and 
so were most of the guests. The talk at the 
wedding was war, and the young men knew 
they soon would get an invitation from 
Uncle Sam to report for induction. My Uncle 
Sammy was ticketed to report for duty on 
the second night of Passover. My older cous-

in related that the family was together for a 
seder, and Uncle Sammy had to leave early. 
Uncle Sammy saw military action in Italy 
and was wounded storming enemy lines. He 
was awarded the Bronze Star, Combat Badge 
and Purple Heart for his heroics and spent 
months recuperating at military hospitals. 
He died in 1990 at the age of 80, but was 
proudest that his children, grandchildren 
and great-grandchildren were all observant 
Jews. Today, the number is over a hundred, 
and each and every one is an observant Jew. 
“That’s the way to beat Hitler,
” he used to say. 
Uncle Sammy knew the way the torch of 
religious Judaism would pass on to the next 
generation was to send his children to Jewish 
day school, and his five children all graduat-
ed the Yeshiva Beth Yehudah in the 1960s.

JEWISH SCHOOLS
However, 80 years ago in 1942, there were 
no Jewish day schools in Detroit. The 
Yeshiva Beth Yehudah, then an afternoon 
and Sunday school, housed over a hundred 
students in six grades in a four-flat (two units 
on the first floor and two above on the sec-
ond floor) on Elmhurst near Linwood while 
the new YBY building, in partnership with 
Congregation Mogen Abraham on Dexter 
and Cortland, was in the finishing stages of 
construction. 

At the time, the United Hebrew Schools, 
also offering a Hebrew studies program, 
was headquartered in the Rose Sittig Cohen 
Building on Lawton and Tyler, and the sys-
tem had a staff of 42 with almost 1,500 stu-
dents spread around several school buildings. 
Samuel and Leah Bookstein donated 
$25,000 toward the purchase of a building 
on Linwood and Elmhurst to be transformed 
into Yeshivath Chachmei Lublin. Rabbi 
Moshe Rotenberg, a graduate of the insti-
tution in Lublin who had come to America 
earlier in the year, served as dean of the 
school. 

JEWISH NEWSPAPERS
In 1942, Detroit had a population of over 1.7 
million. The city had seven radio stations 
and three daily newspapers, the Detroit 
Free Press, the Detroit News and the Detroit 
Times. The Jewish community had its publi-
cations, too.
For 26 years, since 1916, the weekly 
Detroit Jewish Chronicle reported on the 
happenings in the Jewish community. Most 
people saw no need for another local Jewish 
weekly. However, several community mem-
bers formed an advisory board and financial 
backing behind editor Phillip Slomovitz.
Slomovitz had emigrated from Russia in 
adolescence and mastered writing English. 
He began his journalism career as a night 
editor on the University of Michigan’s 
student publication and graduated to the 
Detroit News copy desk as a reporter and 
editor. His interest in championing Jewish 
causes and issues led to editorships with 
the Jewish Pictorial, the Jewish Telegraphic 
Agency and the Detroit Jewish Chronicle.

80 Years Ago

14 | JANUARY 20 • 2022 

OUR COMMUNITY

HISTORY

In 1942, Joe Biden and the Jewish News 
were both born.

IRWIN J. COHEN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

Yeshivath 
Chachmei Lublin

Phil Slomovitz, circa 1990

