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

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