10 | JANUARY 12 • 2023 

I

n celebration of its 80th anni-
versary last year, the Detroit 
Jewish News reprinted and 
distributed its first edition from 
March 27, 1942. Like any publica-
tion, this inaugural 
edition provides 
a snapshot at that 
moment of Jewish 
life in both Detroit, 
America and else-
where. 
 A careful read-
ing reveals a local 
community encountering both 
challenges and opportunities in 
the face of latent discrimination, 
antisemitism and desire for accep-
tance during those difficult years 
with the Unites States fighting 
for freedom in Europe and Asia, 
our fellow Jews facing the ravages 
and murderous evil of Nazism 
and fascism, and Jews living in 
mandatory Palestine striving to 
establish a Jewish state. 
It is no surprise then that many 
of the articles and stories in the 
first-ever Detroit Jewish News 
went to lengths to emphasize 
the Jewish community’s patrio-
tism, loyalty and commitment 
to America. Certainly, World 
War II propelled the integration 
of the community’s Jewish and 
American identities, and the 
paper’s coverage of the war effort 
and its direct impact on the local 
Jewish community was necessary. 
Unlike other periodicals of the 
time that likewise covered the 
war, what made, and continues 
to make, the Detroit Jewish News 
unique is its particular Jewish 
angle in its reporting. 
Interwoven throughout the 
initial edition is the empha-
sis of the Jewish community’s 
“
Americanness” and the counter-
vailing and persistent antisem-
itism it encountered, as high-
lighted by articles and editorials 
addressing the hateful rhetoric 
of Father Charles Coughlin. 
But nothing encapsulates this 

communal desire of acceptance 
better than the 1942 Platform 
of the Detroit Jewish News that 
expresses the desires and tensions 
faced by the community through 
its emphasis of the community’s 
responsibilities as Americans, the 
belief in “the American way of 
life” and the “sacred American 
ideal of fair play” and the neces-
sity to “build a wholesome 
American life based on inter-faith 
cooperation.
” 
The 1942 Platform concludes 
with the desire that the paper and 
the Jewish community “acting 
together, [is] in a position to bring 
the most good to America, to the 
ideal for which America stands, 
and to the Jewish communities 
which form an important element 
in the American commonwealth.
” 
It seems entirely reasonable that 
a community enduring continued 
marginalization and discrimi-
nation, coupled with a nation at 
war, would emphatically stress its 
commitment to American ideals 
with the strong desire for acceler-
ated integration into, and accep-
tance by, mainstream society. 
Fast forward 80 years to the 
Detroit Jewish News current suc-
cinct Mission Statement and its 
Vision Statement where the need 
to emphasize our community’s 
commitment to America is no 
longer necessary; it is an undeni-
able and self-evident fact — but 
instead re-positions the focus 
inward: 
Mission Statement: The 
Detroit Jewish News will inform 
and educate the Jewish and gener-
al community to preserve, protect 
and sustain the Jewish people of 
greater Detroit and beyond, and 
the State of Israel. The Detroit 
Jewish News will be of service to 
the Jewish community. 
Vision Statement: The Detroit 
Jewish News will operate to appeal 
to the broadest segments of the 
greater Detroit Jewish communi-
ty, reflecting the diverse views and 

interests of the Jewish commu-
nity while advancing the morale 
and spirit of the community 
and advocating Jewish unity, 
identity and continuity.
In the past eight decades, the 
Detroit Jewish community has 
flourished, and it continues 
to thrive. There is no longer 
a need to prove we belong. 
Jewish participation in all fac-
ets of American life has been 
normal, expected and com-
mon. The impact we have made 
in this community, individually 
and collectively, exponentially 
and disproportionately exceeds 
our numbers. The Jewish pres-
ence and influence in all facets of 
society, including arts, medicine, 
law, academia and politics, is so 
commonplace that it could be 
assumed that this was always 
the norm, yet the origins of the 
Detroit Jewish News itself proves 
otherwise. 
Unfortunately, our acceptance 
into the larger society has not pre-
vented the resurgence of antisem-
itism. The underlying message 
expressed in the Detroit Jewish 
News 80 years ago that inte-
gration was a means to abating 
antisemitism was noble but sadly 
incorrect. We are encountering an 
unprecedented rise in antisemi-
tism that seems to be accelerating 
each week. Most worrisome is 
that this trend is not limited to a 
certain relegated non-influential 
segment of people espousing 
anti-Jewish hatred. 
Politicians, celebrities, athletes 
and others with large platforms 
are frequently expressing and 
endorsing blatant antisemitism, 
whether it is age-old anti-Jewish 
tropes, anti-Israel hatred or overt 
dog-whistle phrases inferring 
Jews without expressly stating so. 
 Antisemitism is becoming nor-
malized. It is no longer limited to 
the extremists, supremacists or 
the dark underbelly of this coun-
try but readily promoted by those 

with a significant public profile 
and sphere of influence. With 
the assistance of technology and 
social media, the amplification 
and substantiation of this hateful 
rhetoric creates an environment 
where public animosity toward 
Jews is frequent, accepted and has 
led to an unprecedented rise in 
violent antisemitic acts not seen 
in decades. 
Has American Judaism reached 
an inflection point? Or worse, a 
tipping point? Antisemitism is 
becoming normative, and like 
Hemingway’s characterization of 
bankruptcy, what began gradually, 
now seems to be occurring all at 
once. 
Those hopes expressed in the 
early days of this paper, con-
firmed by the achievements of the 
Detroit (and American) Jewish 
community in the decades since, 
now provides fertile ground for 
this pernicious resurgence and 
escalation of antisemitism. We 
can neither afford to be compla-
cent nor complicit, and we must 
use all tools available to combat it, 
including continuing to commit 
to living as proud Jews. 

Jeff Schlussel is an attorney at Carson 
Fischer in Bloomfield Hills, a member of 
the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan 
Detroit Board of Governors and a board 
member of the Detroit Jewish News 
Foundation.

guest column
Are We At a Tipping Point?

PURELY COMMENTARY

Jeff 
Schlussel

The inaugural issue of the 
Detroit Jewish News

