THE DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE
PAGE FOUR
THE DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE
MICHIGAN'S JEWISH HOME PUBLICATION
Published Weekly by The Jewish Chronicle Publishing Co.. Inc.
JOSEPH J. CUMMINS
NATHAN J. GOULD -
.
-
•
•
President
Secretary-Treasurer
Entered as second-class matter March 3, 1916, at the Postoffice at Detroit,
Mich., under the Act of March 3, 1879.
OFFICES, BOOK BUILDING
Telephone Cherry 3381
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Subscription, in advance
To insure publication, all correspondence and news matter must reach
this office by Tuesday evening of each week.
RABBI LEO M. FRANKLIN
-
. - Editorial Contributor
The Jewish Chronicle invites correspondence on subjects of interest to
the Jewish people, but disclaims responsibility for an indorsement of the
views expressed by the writers.
The Changing Tone of Zionism
THE GOLDEN RULE
Jews, we only cling closer together and fight a better fight. But the
enemy .within ottr own household is the one whom, if any, we have
reason to fear.
If men would win their freedom,
They first must learn to live
:1ccording to the rule
Of take, but also give.
\Viten greed no more the tool
Of selfish men and cruel,
\Viso foster fancy's dream—
Salvation's but a theme,
Redemption but a star
In distant skies afar,
That morning light will fade—
False fancy, unafraid,
•Nlan's primitive emotions,
Unbridled as they are,
\Vill turn to such devotions
That false codes never 'Isar.
Law will be our virtues,
Right will he a pleasure,.
Truth will be our birthright,
Duty, each man's measure.
No man can hope for freedom,
\Vhen savage lust fur gain
Controls and dwarfs the soul;
I I is finer feelings slain.
False fancy—unafraid,
Because illusion rocks
This dreaming child to rest,
Shall wake when freedom knocks.
—Enoch Mebs.
,The Feast of Tabernacles
After the sacred holydays which tested the capacity of all our
houses of worship, the more joyous Feast of Tabernacles comes to its,
with its message of the all-Providence of God. Commemorating both
the ingathering of the harvest and the fact that even when the Jews
dwelt in frail tents during their long march in the Wilderness the pro-
tecting hand of God was upon them, Succoth should wake in the soul
of the Jew a sense of gratitude for the blessings spiritual and material
which are being ever renewed for him. To be sure, the Jew is no
longer an agricultural people, and the harvest thought has been em-
bodied in our national Thanksgiving day. But what needs to be pressed
home upon our people is the duty of gratitude.
Too often we ask for pity from the God to whom we seldom give
our praise. We come before His throne in our sadness, but its the
hour of-.gladness we neglect Him. It should lie part of the Succoth
function to correct this situation. Let its actively appreciate the good
that God puts into our lives. Only as we praise God for His mercies
hase We a right to turn to Him in supplication in our time of need.
A Successful Experiment
A
careful reading of the published accounts of the recent Zionistic
Two years ago Temple Beth El of this city conducted its first
convention at Chicago, together with the reports brought by some of Supplementary Services on the highs holydays in an endeavor to afford
the delegates in attendance, and with whom we have had the privilege to the unaffiliated Jews of the community an opportunity to participate
of conferring, indicates a pretty general consensus of opinion among in religious services, should they desire to do so. The experiment
Zionists that so-called political Zionism is on the wane, and that the from the beginning was an unqualified success. Hundreds of men and
present duty of the hour is to unite all Jews in a comprehensive effort women who otherwise would have been deprived of the opportunity of
looking to the physical restoration of Palestine. This changed attitude joining with their brethren in a religious service came and reverently
on the part of Zionistic leaders is not at all surprising, but it is alto- worshipped the God of their fathers. Many of them, the experience
of the past two seasons indicate, who might else have turned from the
gether to their credit.
The only pity is that they should have waited so long to see what synagog altogether, because they felt it to be inhospitable to them, have
(Continued from page one).
was as plaits as day to those who from the beginning have opposed been won to new allegiance and have made real sacrifices to identify
cruelly. I told hint of the case of i receive in audience the American
themselves permanently with the synagog.
political Zionism.
To be sure, the Zionists have not come to their present position
Although the church edifice its which the Supplementary Services Isaac Ciobotaru, who was sentenced journalist, Mr. Leo Wolfson. In an
to death on the testimony of an under interview which lasted more than an
because they agree with the religious philosophy of the non-Zionist, are being held this year was crowded to capacity on Rosh Hashono, officer,
whom the court itself arrested hour, all questions of the day were
who holds that the genius of the Jest' must express itself in religion there is no doubt that there are still hundreds, perhaps thousands, of in the course of the trial fur perjury. touched upon, and especially the Jew-
and not in government. But they' have been brought to their present Jews its the city who still have not been reached. For one thing, many :\ higher court annulled the sentence, ash question.
live too far from ottr place of worship to walk there, and they will not but a new trial will lie •required. I' - Among other things, His Majesty
attitude by practical considerations.
The keynote of the changed position was struck by Judge Mack, ride on the high holydays. Another year some congregation should feel also told the king about the solib, , r • said; 'Up to the present we have nut
Kaufman, who was tried together, been able to solve the Jewish problem
President of the Zionistic Organization in America, when he said: it its ditty to reads these people. No congregation can legitimately feel with two Roumanian soldiers, all tor fur purely economic reasons. In
"We Zionists must not exaggerate. The Balfour Declaration was an that it is doing its whole duty so long as it makes no effort to bring the sante offense. The Roumanian I Roumania there have never been any
endorsement of an offer—an offer we have no reason to doubt will be the message of Judaism to those not affiliated with some religious soldiers were sentenced to five years race or religious persecutions, nor
in prison, while the Jew was given . have there been any pogroms as in
repeated through the l'eace Conference, but as yet no mandate has organization.
the death penalty, which the King other countries. Now• the economic
In
a
number
of
cities
the
Reform
congregations
have
taken
this
himself had commuted to twenty difficulties have disappeared. No
been given."
This is all entirely new tone for the leaders of Zionism to take, view of the situation. Auxiliary synagogs have been established for years' imprisonment. I told him that reason at all exists why the Jews
and the very words contrast strangely with what would have been the holydays in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Cleveland and elsewhere. thousands of such cases exist. should not receive full political rights.
Further, I recalled the disgraceful The promise which I gave to the
spoken a year or even six months ago. This is as it should be. The The movement should become country-wide. We Jews should become
death of the Jew, Nacht, of Yassi, Jewish Committee of \'assi during
claims of Zionists have been too extravagant, and the Publicity Bureau missionaries to the Jews.
who was shot while he was being led the war, has been carried out. This
constantly overreached, itself. In fact, every day brings evidence of a
to rison• and also a number of other has been done through the law de-
greater sanity on the part of the leaders of the movement in whose
such incidents with which I was fa- crees of December, 1918, and May,
miliar. Speaking of the way in which 1919. The first law having presented
official spokesmen Zionists and non-Zionists alike had begun to lose
Jewish soldiers fought for the coun- certain technical difficulties for the
confidence. Even the vote of confidence in the administration and the
try, I declared that in no army in the Jews was altered by the decree which
re-election of the administrative heads of the organization clues not
world would such shameful orders is now in force. Under the provi-
change this fact. It stands out as a clear commentary upon the situa-
be permissable as those which General sions of the present decree, all those
Prosan had given concerning Jews, who wish it may now become citi-
tion that henceforth the directors of the organization are to be elected
nor would such openly anti-Semitic zens'
PROGRESSIVE WORLD STRUGGLE
by popular vote.
"To the statement of the journalist
be published as were
Not the least suggestive fact in this connection is the practical
that the present lay,' contains many
OF THE JEW FOR CIVIL EQUALITY manifestoes
given out by Captain Chitulescu.
restrictions, so that a great number
silence of Judge Brandeis, who in the pre-convention literature had
Impartial Justice.
of Jews are excluded front citizen-
By WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT
been heralded as bringing back from Palestine a message that would
All of the troubles which the Jews ship, His Majesty replied:
set the world agog. But apparently Judge Brandeis, of whose sincere
of Roumania have suffered and are
If it will appear in the working
(Continued Front Last Week.)
interest in the ZionistiC movement there can be no shadow of doubt,
still suffering. I pictured for him in out of the law, that it creates certain
Jewish committees have long been moving words, and finally appealed difficulties, the necessary modification
Jews in United States.
was wiser than the press agent. He remains the "silent head" of
to him to make an end of them. He
From the East End of New York organized to help in securing civil listened with the steepest attention. will certainly Ise made; for the coun-
Zionism.
try is firmly resolved to settle the
For our part, we are very glad to note these nest' developments. and through centers of population in rights, religious freedom, and equal He answered part of my accusations Jewish question once for all.
They presage the day of better understanding among the different this country where Jews are gath- opportunity for the oppressed of their —tried to excuse others—made cer- I "Mr. Wolfson then called the atten-
tain statements and ended with a tine of Ilk Majesty to many cases
sections of Jewry. Once there is clear understanding that Palestine is ered, by the million and hundreds of race.
The influence of the leaders of the
When we finished, I asked where Jews are being persecuted for
to be no more than one out of many lands of refuge for the Jew, and thousands, come the youth of the Jews in Europe and America upon promise.
permission to publish our conversa- occurrences during the war, and es-
race who soon manifest a spirit of
that no Jew will rest content until the Jew everywhere has attained
the Congress of Nations at Paris in tion. The King asked that I write pecially to the unusually severe pun-
Americanisni and get on.
citizenship rights, it ought not to be difficult to establish a spirit of real
They succeed in trade, they suc- behalf of the better treatment of the an account of it and submit it to him, ishments which have been meted out
co-operation among Zionists and non-Zionists and among Reform and ceed in the professions, they suc- Jews has been weighty and we can and after he had read it, 1 would re- to accused Jews. To this His Ma-
an official statement. I wrote jesty replied:
Orthodox Jews, at least so far as political work is concerned. But ceed in business, and they more their be sure that it seas courageously and ceive
a detailed report of all that we had
Impartial Justice.
there must be perfect candor and frankness as to aims, immediate and homes to less crowded districts and wisely exercised.
said about the Jewish situation, and
• remote, and leadership must be put into the hands of men whose acquire all the taste and views and The direct interest we have in the submitted it.
"The severity of the Court Mar-
tials is necessary, but I do agree that
motives and methods no man can question. If one reads between the fashions of their fellow-countrymen. Jewish question in these Eastern
What the King Said.
countries was stated by Secretary
lines of the reports of the convention at Chicago, he is justified in They cultivate little or no solidarity Hay to the signatories of the Berlin A few weeks later, when I returned the same measures should be applied
to all equally. Justice must be meted
in politics, and they manifest a dis-
believing that we are not alone in this opinion.
Treaty in protest against Rumania's to Bucharest, after my trip through out impartially. Those instances
AN INTERVIEW WITH THE KING OF
ROUMANIA.
position to disintegrate as a com-
munity. They retain a loyalty to the persecutions and breach of her treaty
race, but not a strict adherence to obligation, to-wit, that we are the
the ceremonial, and they intermarry world's refuge for such people, driven
This time it is the Episcopalians who plan to save the Jew. with Gentiles.
out by measures of oppression and
According to newspaper reports, the Episcopal Board of Missions is
A number of modern books written restriction, and their coming in great
advocating the Christianization of Jews as a part of a million dollar by Jews deplore this fact. They fear numbers in their present condition
"Americanization" program. So urgent is the need of bringing the that Israel will be swallowed up in imposes an unfair burden upon us.
recalcitrant Jew to the feet of the cross that at least one of the men-. the nations. They are an excellent, We may rejoice that more than
half the members of this great race
hers of the board, one Rev. John I. Zacker, Superintendent of Jewish law-abiding part of our population. have won their long progressive
work in Philadelphia, holds that it waist not even be delayed, as some Of course, criminals come from struggle for merely an equal chance
among them, poor and miserable as
of his colleagues had suggested, until after the Detroit National Con- some of them are, but the criminal with other men; but we cannot tear
ference, which is to take place early in October. We are moved to statistics do not show their percent- cut that distressing page in the his-
smile a bit at the gullibility of our good Christian brothers %vim are so age of criminals to he as great as tory of Christian civilization contain-
ing the record of seventeen centuries
eager to save the souls of the Jew, but we can assure them in advance that of the entire population.
that if previous experience counts for anything they will have to be
\Viten we consider the congestion of persecution.
prepared to spend the whole million in, converting a very few Jews, in New York in the East End of one The Jews in the New States to Be
Protected.
and then they will have no assurance that they will stay converted. million Jews, and that this has conic
More's the pity! For the fellows they get are the kind we want to get within the last thirty years. it seems
The result of the • war and the
remarkable
that
it
has
not
given
more
rid of, since they invariably represent the sort who would sell their
trouble to our civilization and our breaking up of Russia and the giving
souls in a deal that spells personal advantage to themselves.
government than it has. These are reign to the principle of self-deter-
We do, however, resent just a little the imputation that this con- the lessons which an investigation mina•ion of racial units have created
version campaign is part of an "Americanization" programs). We chal- by Russian statesmen into our expe- seven independent European States
in central and eastern Europe. Of
lenge these good missionaries to prove either that their Americanism rience would furnish.
these, the Ilaltic Provinces, Poland
is of a higher order than that of the average Jew whom they seek to
Strength of the Jewish Character.
win, or that the conversion of the Jew to Christianity will make him a The Jews of the world, in coun- and the Ukraine, as well as the
Czecho-Slovak State and the Jugo-
better :\inerican. In fact, we are rather impres-ed with the idea that tries where they have had equal op- Slav State, have many Jewish citi-
this very attempt to con fuse religion and Americanism is a sufficient portunities, have won their way not zens. In addition to this the Greater
attest that the gentlemen of the American Board of M issions must only to great financial power, but to Rumania, which is to recei,e Tran-
themselves learn the very fundamentals of Americanism. So far as places of commanding influence in sylvania from Hungary, is another
their effort to win the Jew is concerned. we are scarcely interested in it. journalism, in the professions, and in State which will have many Jewish
God grant that they be rewarded for spending their million dollars by business. They have retained always citizens.
seeing at least a few utterly worthless Jews converted into "good an acute interest in the welfare of
The German treaty specifically pro-
Christians." Perhaps after all the distance between the two is not as their coreligionists throughout the -ides that the five great Powers shall
world. Their religious training has stake future treaties with Poland and
far as our Jewish ideals, which are rather high, have led us to believe. inculcated in them the duty of char-
with the Czecho-Slovak State secur-
ity to all--Jew and Gentile—and they
have given unsparingly to aid their
brethren in distress.
The real menace to the Jew conics not front Nvithout but from Individuals like Sir Moses !dome-
within. Neither the unscrupulous conversion agent, who tries to buy fiore have given much time. money,
our children with sweetmeats and toys, nor the temptings of the newer and effort all over the world to the
cults that cater to the body while they starve the spirit, affright its in cause of their race. Baron Hirsch
the least. A few Jews of the. more neurotic type may think that one and Baron Rothschild have planned
and carried through rural colonies of
or the other of the new religions will give him more than Judaism the Jews in Palestine, in Argentina,
offers, but it is more than likely that at the first real pain he suffers and in Texas.
he will call in the old family doctor, and at the same time take out a
The Zionist movement to secure a
migration of Jews hack to Jerusalem
membership its the synagog.
The only Jew, so-called, who is to be feared is he who turns his does not meet with the undivided
back on all religion; who scoffs and sneers at everything that his people support of the Jewish people. but it
deem holy; who denies God and who holds himself to be the axis on certainly has substantial strength as
one project for relief of the conges-
which the universe revolves. Far more important is the task confront-
ing our leaders to save those Jews who are going headlong, into atheism tion in east Europe.
During the World War the Jews
and denial, and whose indifference to everything sacred is their boast, of this country and elsewhere raised
than those who in a moment of weakness believe that they can find a hind of nearly $25,000,000 with
spiritual satisfaction outside the faith of their fathers. Of course, even which to aid their poor peoples suf-
they will come back in the last hour, and with their dying breath they fering in the train of the war.
will repeat the Shma \'isroel—but while they live they will be our
In the countries where they have
greatest problem. When outside forces align themselves against the money, power, and influence, great
Saving the Jew
Roumania, Bessarabia, and other re-
gions, I received a letter with the
permission to publish the following
official statement of the Kiiig
"His Majesty was kind enough to
ing the religious liberties of the peo-
ple who constitute a minority in
those States; and it is understood
that similar provisions are to be in-
cluded in the- Austrian treaty in re-
spect to the Jugo-Slav State and
Rumania.
It is to be hoped that the securi-
ties exacted in these treaties will he
of a character more effective than
were the requirements of the Con-
gress of Berlin in respect to Rumania.
Indeed, we can be sure that they
will. The prejudice against the Jews
still remains in those countries, and
cannot of course be culminated by
mere legislation. But Jews Can be
given equal rights and be protected
in those rights, and secure the equal-
ity of opportunity through such pro-
tection.
The League of Nations is to he a
power
Id
continuous body and w.....ave
enough to see to it that treaties of
this character are performed by na-
tions which the war has in fact cre-
ated and which will continue to be
dependent for some years upon the
League for their own integrity and
independence.
Nn address delivered by the ex-President
netore the National .;eographie Snidely
at NV1Mbington. 15. C. iteprinte , 1 from
the National Geographic Magazine.
which are brought before me per-
sonally, I study very thoroughly. I
have always had the friendliest feel-
ings toward the Jews, and I hope that
now that they have become citizens,
their condition will improve. It is
necessary that the Roumanians and
the Jews should understand each
other and get together. For the ac-
complishment of this, it is neces•
nary that both sides should make
every possible effort. For my part. I
shall do everything possible. In the
new Roumania no Jewish problem
will exist. All citizens will enjoy
every right without let or hindrance.
The country's resolve to settle the
Jewish question has been offended in
the Minority Rights clauses, and it
has not been treated as it deserved
by the Paris Conference. I am con-
vinced that the Jews will lie good
Roumanian citizens for the good of
the country, and for their own.'"
According to journalistic ethics,
am not permitted to publish more
than the official statement. Many of
the statements which the King made,
and which I am not at liberty to dis-
close, were most interesting.
It is interesting to note that the
official letter which accompanied the
royal statement says that I may
print the interview only in the Amer-
ican press, but not in the Roumanian
papers. The outside world may
know what the King says concerning
the Jews. The Roumanians and the
Jews in Roumania itself need not
know it. It appears that this official
statement is "for foreign constimp-
tin only." but we shall not bite.
The Real Menace
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