NOVEMBER 16 • 2023 | 69
J
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Looking Back

From the William Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish Detroit History 

accessible at thejewishnews.com
Happy Birthday 
 to Our Archives
T

his month marks the 10th birthday of 
the William Davidson Digital Archive of 
Jewish Detroit History, one of the lead-
ing English-language digital Jewish newspaper 
archives in the world. And it began with a devas-
tating fire. 

On the evening of Jan. 27, 2002, Arthur 
Horwitz, publisher of the Detroit Jewish News, 
and his wife, Gina, were about to 
go out to dinner when he received 
a call. Fire alarms were sounding 
at the JN offices. Arthur and Gina 
rushed to the scene where they 
witnessed a “sea of flashing lights” 
with “flames shooting through the 
roof of the building.
” The JN offic-
es burned beyond repair.
Undeterred, the staff of the JN went to work. 
The Southfield Embassy Suites hotel generously 
offered their ballroom as temporary headquar-
ters. Local Jewish and non-Jewish organizations 
and businesses such as the Jewish Federation 
of Detroit and JARC provided the Jewish News 
with computers, fax machines, phones, a paper 
waxer and other crucial supplies. Advertisements 
were reconstructed, pages redesigned and stories 
rewritten. The cover story was revised to address 
the latest breaking news — a devastating fire at 
the offices of the Detroit Jewish News!
To publish that week’s issue of the JN was a 
remarkable feat. For the first and last time in 
its 81-year history, however, the newspaper was 
published one day late.
Miraculously, the back issues of the JN sur-
vived the blaze. Although covered with ashy 
residue, they survived intact. 
The single most important documentary 
resource for Detroit Jewish history in the 20th 
century was nearly lost. This was an epiphany for 
Horwitz, and the beginning of a 12-year quest to 
preserve JN back issues. It is a saga with a happy 
ending for historians, researchers, students and 
Jewish Detroiters … and for me.
In 2011, Horwitz formed the nonprofit Detroit 
Jewish News Foundation. It had a singular goal 
— to digitize all back issues of the JN. He had 
the support of a large cadre of prominent Jewish 

Detroiters such as Bill Berman, A. Alfred 
Taubman, Mary Lou Zieve, Federal Judge 
Avern Cohn, Florine Mark and Eugene 
Applebaum, among many others.
The mission was accomplished on Nov. 

18, 2013, when the Detroit Jewish News 
digital archive was launched as a word 
searchable, online, open-source database. 
The Detroit Jewish Chronicle was added 
in 2015. 
The William Davidson Foundation 
provided a major $2 million grant for the 
project. In honor of Bill Davidson, one 
of Detroit’s leading entrepreneurs and 
philanthropists, the Archive was renamed 
the William Davidson Digital Archive of 
Jewish Detroit History.
On Nov. 5, 2018, the William 
Davidson Digital Archive of Jewish 
Detroit History became a permanent 
collection at the Bentley Historical 
Library at the University of Michigan. 
The Library recognized that the Archive was 
worthy of permanent preservation. 
Today, the Archive 
holds 344,475 word-
searchable pages. Every 
year, the previous year’s 
annual issues of the JN 
are added to the Archive. 
As Horwitz wrote on 
Nov. 14, 2013: it’s “The 
DNA of the Community.
”
I’ve been along for 
most of the journey. I 
was a consultant in the 
early years. Since 2013, it 
has been my honor and 
distinct pleasure to be the 
archivist for the Jewish News Foundation, now 
the Alene and Graham Landau Archivist. And 
every week, I get to bring you great stories about 
Jewish Detroit from the Archive. It’s a lot of fun. 
Thanks for reading. 

Want to learn more? Go to the DJN archives, available 
for free at thejewishnews.com.

Mike Smith
Alene and 
Graham Landau 
Archivist Chair

