JULY 14 • 2022 | 117

80 Years Serving 
the Community
O

n March 27, 1942, the first issue 
of the Detroit Jewish News was 
published. Eighty years later, 
the JN is still published every week. 
It has been a remarkable run for one 
of America’s prominent 
English-language Jewish 
newspapers.
The Detroit Jewish News 
was not the first Jewish 
newspaper in Metro 
Detroit, nor was it the first 
English-language Jewish 
newspaper in the city. The 
latter honor belongs to the Detroit Jewish 
Chronicle, 1916-1951. The JN, however, 
developed a reputation that extended 
well beyond the Michigan border.
The JN saga began when Philip 
Slomovitz (1896-1993) resigned as editor 
of the Detroit Jewish Chronicle in 1942. 
Editor of that newspaper since the early 
1920s, Slomovitz was not happy with 
limits upon his personal ideas regarding 
the role of a Jewish newspaper. The 
Chronicle’s tepid reporting regarding the 
events of Kristallnacht was the last straw 
for him.
Slomovitz was not alone in his 
opinion. He quit the Chronicle, and with 
investments from the Jewish Welfare 
Federation (now the Jewish Federation 
of Metropolitan Detroit) and prominent 
Jewish Detroiters such as Leonard 
Simons, Fred Butzel, Federal Judge 
Theodore Levin and Maurice Schwartz 
(co-publisher), he launched the Detroit 
Jewish News. 
At that time, American Jews faced 
several massive ideological questions, 
with divided opinions among the 
members of the religiously diverse 
Jewish community in America and 
Detroit. 

One important question: In an era 
of rampant antisemitism, led by right-
wing populists like Father Charles 
Coughlin and G.L.K. Smith, should 
Jews aggressively call out their 
antisemitic speeches and behaviors? 
Or would such protests increase 
hatred toward Jews? 
Also important were these 
questions: Should American Jews 
support the Zionist vision of a 
homeland in Middle East? Or would 
it be better to just concentrate on 
promoting themselves as good 
citizens of the United States? What 
communal groups should the 
local Jewish community support? 
WWII was raging in 1942 — what 
should America do about the atrocities 
occurring to Jews in Nazi-occupied 
Europe? And, how should America deal 
with the problem of Jewish refugees 
before, during and after the war? 
Then, as now, there was a wide range 
of opinions about these questions as 
well as other important issues facing 
American and Detroit Jews.
In 1942, Slomovitz decided the JN 
would take firm positions on the leading 
issues of the day. While attempting to 
listen to all voices, the JN, nevertheless, 
staked out principles that were largely 
his personal convictions. 
The newspaper would educate its 
readers on the local, national and 
international affairs that affected 
Detroit’s Jewish community. It would 
fight antisemitism wherever and 
whenever it was found; it would 
promote the growth of and participation 
in local Jewish communal organizations; 
it would be a staunch supporter of 
Zionism; and, as Slomovitz stated, the 
JN would “never be silent whenever 

there is the 
merest semblance of injustice 
anywhere.” 
These original principles have served 
the JN well throughout its history.

THROUGH THE YEARS
Within a few years, Slomovitz bought 
out the investors and became the sole 
owner and publisher of the JN. In 1951, 
he bought the Jewish Chronicle and 
merged it with the JN. Along the way, 
Slomovitz become widely known as 
the “Dean of English-Language Jewish 
Editors.” Not a bad career for a Russian-
born immigrant with eyesight so poor 
that, in the later years of his life, he was 
legally blind. Slomovitz continued to 
write a column for the JN until 1990. He 
passed away three years later at age 96.
In 1984, Slomovitz sold the Jewish 
News to Charles “Chuck” Buerger, the 
grandson of the founder of the Baltimore 
Jewish Times. Two years later, Buerger 
hired Arthur Horwitz to lead the JN. 
Horwitz moved to Detroit, beginning a 
36-year career with the JN. In 2000, with 

Mike Smith
Alene and 
Graham Landau 
Archivist Chair

continued on page 118

Looking Back

From the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History 

accessible at www.djnfoundation.org

