Looking Back

From the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History 

accessible at www.djnfoundation.org

Day of Atonement
Y

om Kippur 5783 was Wednesday, 
Oct. 5, marking the end of the 
Days of Awe beginning with 
Rosh Hashanah. It is a somber holiday of 
reflection and atonement.
The William Davidson Digital Archive 
of Detroit Jewish History holds nearly 
9,000 pages that mention Yom Kippur. 
Not a surprise considering that this day 
is the most sacred of all 
Jewish holidays.
As I considered a topic 
for today’s “Looking Back,” 
I thought about the recent 
Ken Burns documentary, 
The U.S. and the Holocaust. 
It is an excellent work that 
raises serious questions 
about American society as the Holocaust 
developed in Europe. I decided to look 
back 80 years in the Archive to the Sept. 
18, 1942, Yom Kippur issue of the JN and 
see what was reported locally at that time. 
By Yom Kippur in 1942, the United 
States had been at war with Japan and 
Germany for 10 months. News of atroc-
ities against Jews and other groups in 
Europe had yet to reach the conscious-
ness of most Americans; most main-
stream newspapers only published mea-
ger reports about Nazi pogroms. 
Moreover, as The U.S. and the 
Holocaust showed, a great divide exist-
ed among Americans, including Jewish 
Americans, regarding the role of the 
United States in European affairs, the 
plight of the Jews in Nazi-occupied lands 
and whether to accept Jewish refugees. 
The cover of the Sept. 18, 1942, JN said 
a lot. The main headline read “Hull Bares 
Treachery of Laval Against Jews.” This 
referred to U.S. Secretary of State Cordell 
Hull railing against Pierre Laval, the 
prime minister of occupied France at the 
time and a notorious collaborator with 
Nazi Germany who sold out French Jews. 
Another headline read “Nazis Deny 
Jews Solace of Holy Days.” It was for-

bidden for Jews in occupied territories 
to observe Rosh Hashanah and Yom 
Kippur. This item also noted the Nazis’ 
“barbarous campaign to eliminate reli-
gion as a whole and the Jewish religion 
in particular.” Of course, the Nazis went 
well beyond trying to eliminate religion; 
they attempted to destroy a people.
Another headline referred to local 
rabbis wrestling with a wartime religious 
question. How should Jews observe the 
High Holidays if they were engaged 
in critical defense work? The rabbis 
asked for no preference from “that 
of other denominations,” but they 
concluded that the holidays should 
be honored, with the proviso that the 
work should be made up. 
Inside the issue, “World Wide News 
at a Glance” reported numerous stories 
of crimes against Jews in Nazi occupied 
lands. The Holocaust was unfolding in 
the JN in real time.
However, many encouraging sto-
ries were also found inside the Sept. 
18, 1942, issue of the JN. For one, see 
“Million Dollar Bond Party Defies Axis: 
Mammoth War Fund Drive Launched 
…” Likewise, see “Jews in the U.S. 
Service” and “War Honor Roll” for 
reports of Jewish Detroiters in the U.S. 
military. In his weekly column, Danny 
Raskin wrote a poem about a young actor 
who was now participating in a much 
bigger show [WWII] for Uncle Sam. Two 
pages of Happy New Year greetings were 
published along with “What’s Happening 
in Detroit,” a compilation of community 
and synagogue news. Life goes on in 
tough times.
Perhaps the JN editorial “Mankind’s 
Atonement” best summed up Yom 
Kippur 5703. It concluded: “This is a Day 
of Atonement for all mankind.” 

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

Mike Smith
Alene and 
Graham Landau 
Archivist Chair

62 | OCTOBER 6 • 2022 

