118 | JULY 14 • 2022 

other investors, Horwitz purchased the 
JN and continued as publisher. 
Both Slomovitz and Horwitz are now 
ensconced in the Michigan Journalism 
Hall of Fame.
Horwitz remained publisher until 
Oct. 1, 2020, when the JN became the 
property of the Detroit Jewish News 
Foundation. On Jan. 1, 2021, the 
Foundation was restructured to manage 
the publishing of the JN and the William 
Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish 
Detroit History under the leadership of 
Board Chair Gary Torgow and Senior 
Advisor to the Board Mark Davidoff.
The past 80 years have been exciting, 
often tumultuous, to say the least. When 
the JN was established during WWII, 
it had the important, but particularly 
horrific duty of reporting the slaughter 
of Jews at the hands of Nazi Germany 
— the devastation into the abyss of the 
Holocaust. At the same time, the JN also 
reported about the Jewish community 
development in British-mandate Palestine. 
In May 1948, the news was joyous — the 
State of Israel was declared on May 14, 
1948. This was the lead story for May 
21, along with reports of celebrations in 
Detroit. Since then, the JN has followed 
events in Israel with a keen eye.

A KEEPER OF HISTORY
As Detroit’s Jewish community moved 
from the city to the northwest suburbs, 
the JN followed. Its offices moved from 

the Penobscot Building in Downtown 
Detroit, to Seven Mile, to several 
locations in Southfield, and to its current 
home in Farmington Hills. It also 
continued to provide extensive reporting 
about and announcements of local 
communal events, as well as other stories 
from Metro Detroit’s and Michigan’s 
Jewish communities.
The JN itself had a dramatic moment 
on Jan. 27, 2002. Its offices in Southfield 
were destroyed by fire. For the only time 
in its history, the JN was published late. 
In a remarkable feat, while temporarily 
housed in the ballroom of the nearby 
Embassy Suites Hotel, using borrowed 
equipment, the JN staff pulled together 
and published the weekly JN. This issue 
was, however, only one day late!
The fire also led to another significant 
achievement. Miraculously, the back 
issues of the JN were saved. The Jewish 
community nearly lost an invaluable 
record of its history. Publisher Horwitz 
then established the Detroit Jewish News 
Foundation with a mission of digitizing 
all back issues of the Detroit Jewish News 
and making them available to the public. 
It was a great success. 
In October 2013, the online Detroit 
Jewish News digital archive was launched. 
Two years later, the Detroit Jewish Chronicle 
was digitized and added to the Archive. It 
was then renamed the William Davidson 
Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History 
in honor of a major grant from the 

William Davidson Foundation. In 2018, 
the Archive also became a permanent 
collection at the Bentley Historical 
Library at the University of Michigan. 
Nothing mentioned above, however, 
could have been accomplished without 
JN editors and leaders such as Philip 
Slomovitz, Gary Rosenblatt, Phil Jacobs, 
Robert Sklar and Arthur Horwitz, 
and current Editorial Director Jackie 
Headapohl and Foundation leaders 
Gary Torgow and Mark Davidoff. 
Hundreds of dedicated reporters, editors, 
writers, columnists like Danny Raskin, 
advertising salespeople, and publishing 
staff contributed their creativity and 
talent to the task. Indeed, neither 
paper nor websites make a successful 
journal — it is the staff who create and 
distribute the JN. 
This leads to the final point of this 
brief history. The JN would not exist, 
let alone enjoy an 80-year run, without 
you, our readers. You are the people 
whom we strive to engage and to serve. 
The JN’s mission, as stated in each 
issue, is, in part, to “inform and educate 
the Jewish and general community to 
preserve, protect and sustain the Jewish 
people of greater Detroit and beyond, 
and the State of Israel.”
Thank you for your loyalty and 
support for the Detroit Jewish News. 

Want to learn more? Go to the DJN Foundation 
Archives for free at www.djnfoundation.org.

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