JULY 21 • 2022 | 61
T
he past year has been a
good one at the JN. We’ve
had some interesting
stories to report regarding the
Michigan, American, Israeli and
global Jewish communities.
However, one huge element
has been missing. For the first
time since the JN was founded,
over the past year,
the newspaper did
not publish any-
thing by Danny
Raskin (1919-
2021). Danny
passed away at the
age of 102 on July
26, 2021, and since
then, we’ve missed his weekly
column. More to the point,
everyone at the JN has missed
Danny Raskin the person.
Danny was an icon at the
JN. He wrote for six different
editors, including the legendary
Philip Slomovitz, who hired
Danny from the Detroit News
in 1942. Subsequently, Danny
wrote every week for the JN
until his final column on June
26, 2021. Indeed, just search for
“Danny Raskin” in the William
Davidson Digital Archive of
Jewish Detroit History and you
will discover that he was cited
on nearly 11,000 pages. It is
good to know that Danny will
live on in the Archive.
When I began working
with the Detroit Jewish News
Foundation in 2012, I soon
learned there was a legend in
the house. Much like “Elvis,” the
type of celebrity that needs no
introduction, at the Jewish News
that person was “Danny.”
Danny’s first columns were
his “Youth’s Listening Posts.”
He was 23 years old and wrote
largely about young Jews fight-
ing in World War II. I especially
liked his poem in the Oct. 23,
1942, issue of the JN: “When
Hitler’s Goose is Cooked.” His
work in the Feb. 2, 1943, JN,
was much more poignant: “To
Master Sgt. Meyer Levin” is
a poem about a bombardier
on a combat flight. It was
dedicated to Sgt. Levin, who
was unfortunately killed in
action.
After the war, Danny’s
weekly “Listening Post”
became the place to read
about social happenings
for the young in Detroit’s
Jewish community. In
1964, he debuted a second
column, his famous “Best
of Everything.” From
then until 1986, Raskin
wrote two columns a
week, and worked as the
paper’s top ad salesman!
Danny’s reviews
of local restaurants
were the core of his “Best of
Everything” columns, but he
also added society news, old
(sometimes corny) jokes and
shared mazel tovs for individu-
als. Readers loved it; restaurant
owners were especially enam-
ored with Danny’s work.
Danny had a distinct philoso-
phy regarding restaurant reviews:
“I’ll never bum-rap a restaurant
because I know how much it
costs just to put that damn key in
the door! ... If I had a bad experi-
ence, I would tell the owner what
to do to fix it.” For more insights
in Danny’s own words, see David
Sachs’ interview with him in the
June 14, 2012, JN.
Looking Back
From the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History
accessible at www.djnfoundation.org
Remembering a Legend
Mike Smith
Alene and
Graham Landau
Archivist Chair
continued on page 62