Driving down Woodward Avenue shortly after arriving in 1986 to publish the Detroit Jewish News, I was greeted near its intersection with 12 Mile Road by a 100-foot limestone tower sculpted with a 28-foot-tall Jesus – the Charity Crucifixion Tower, I would later learn was its name.
This was the Shrine of the Little Flower, the parish of Father Charles Couglin. The “Radio Priest.” The father of hate radio, his audiences in the 1930s once numbered more than 30 million and spewed a stream of venom toward Jews.
My first introduction to Father Coughlin was at our funky, Formica grey and chrome kitchen table in far-off New Haven, Connecticut. I was an eight-year-old spectator to a spirited discussion between my Holocaust survivor mother and American-born father.
Mother: “Why did you (American Jews) do nothing to try and save us?”
Father: “It was different in America for Jews then.”
He defaulted to mini-lectures about subjects I barely understood, such as the antisemitism of Henry Ford, the Ku Klux Klan, America Firsters, Black Shirts and – yes – Father Coughlin.
After listening to his line of defense, my mother delivered a resounding verdict:
“Cowards!”
My youthful takeaway from the confrontation:
Why does everyone hate us?
It was with these words in mind when my friend, Monsignor Alex Brunett – newly reassigned in 1991 from St. Aidan’s in Livonia to the Shrine of the Little Flower – invited me to the rectory for a light meal and conversation. Doubling as the ecumenical officer for the Archdiocese of Detroit, we talked periodically about current events and activities within the Jewish community.
Aware my mother was a Holocaust survivor, Msgr. Brunett wanted to meet her and my father – perhaps someday during one of their visits from Connecticut. Someday became never when I informed them of the location of his new posting. It might as well have been Wolf’s Lair, Hitler’s military bunker.
I went in their stead, feeling Coughlin’s vitriol oozing from the room’s dark-paneled walls. Perched on a nearby table was the current edition of the Detroit Jewish News. Msgr. Brunett’s name was on the mailing label. I wondered if under his vestments, he wore the free JewishNews t-shirt subscribers received with their paid-in-full order…
In the following years, two Jewish News change of address requests came from Msgr. Brunett. The first was as the new bishop of Helena, Montana. The second – and last – change was as the Archbishop of Seattle. He retired from that position in 2010 and passed away in 2020.
In the midst of rising antisemitism, today’s religious leaders – from all denominations – must embrace the spirit of Archbishop Brunett’s ecumenical efforts by extending their hands and raising their voices in support of a Jewish community in need of their leadership.
Does everyone still hate us?
More than 80 years after the Holocaust, it’s a question that
remaining survivors, their children and grandchildren shouldn’t need to be asking.
But we are …
Rachel Kapen
Born in the State of Israel, theJewish State, even though it was before its establishment, we called it: המדינה בדרך, the state on the way, all I knew were Jews like us. Only when coming to America, did I realize that we are only a minority and there are many who,don’t like us. Still, my late husband who worked at the Detroit V.A.Medical Center, worked with people of all religions and all countries, I got to know the and they me, On a personal basis, and most fortunately, I never felt any hate, only love and admiration. However, I do know it exists, and more severely lately.
Carla
An interesting tidbit—Years ago I drove around Michael Medved who had a radio show.He was in town for the Jewish Book Fair. He insisted on broadcasting from The Shrine of the Little Flower in the exact room where Father Coughlin spewed hatred. He said it was karma for a Jew to broadcast there. Nice article, Arthur. We must stand up to antisemitism!