PAGE SIX
7iIEDLTROrF/6WIS IQI RON ICLE
RAZEL
By EDITH SCHOOR BECK.
Holiday
Greetings
Ponchu is a small Rumanian
town which harbors about a thou-
sand souls, all told, one-fourth of
these being Jewish. As in many of
the remoter parts of Europe, the
industrial revolution has scarcely
penetrated it, the mode of life re-
maining much the same as it has
been through the centuries; its
very simplicity making life more
di Hie ul t Hazel had here reared
her six children, her graying hair
and weary eyes witness to the
life's vitality shy. had put into her
labor. Then came the war. Hazel's
sores went first, her husband fol-
lowed.
Four years passed, years during
which Razel died innumerable
deaths, years that whitened her
hair, that stooped her shoulders,
that put a question in her eyes, a
question directed at her deity
Jehovah.
The war ended. Two sons re-
turned. It would have been for
better if only one had returned,
the other was smeared with the
war's filth, foul with disease. Iler
husband returned somewhat later.
It was shortly after all Europe
began its peace fiasco that Razel's
son Moishe was born. War, mu-
tual suffering, had not made her
people more kindly. Hazel's co-
religionists said that the boy was
not her susband'a. They recalled
the invasion by the enemy the
previous year. Razel let people
talk and evaded the question in
her husband's eye.
Out of the wreckage, the people
of Europe began to reconstruct
their lives. It seemed, however,
that the war had not spent their
hate. They turned to the Jews,
torturing and restricting them,
now and then running a pogrom,
killing and maiming all unfortu-
nates who could not escape. But
FITZJOHN
MFG. CO.
MUSKEGON, MICHIGAN
SEASON'S GREETINGS
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Muskegon Awning & Mfg. Co.
Film Subjected to Criticism
as Propaganda by
Christians.
NF:W YORK.—(J. T. A.)--Chi-
nese nationalists looked askance at
the presentation in Chinese motion
picture houses of the American
made film, "King cf Kings," ac-
cording to all A SA. I'd Press dis-
patch from Canton, China.
Unlike the motion picture "Ben
Ilur," which was barred because'
of being considered "Christian
Propaganda," the "King of Kings"
was permitted tee be shown, but it
was "the subject of severe criti-
cism on the ground that it Was
Christian propaganda," says the
Associated Press.
In explaining the ban nn "Ben
Heir," the Bureau eef Education of
the Canton government stated:
"The production, being Christian
propaganda, therefore aids imper-
ialists in their literary II ggre,Ai”n
toward China. The picture is a
travesty on truth and reason, (-un-
stituting a most undesirable ob-
stacle to education."
The next day was Friday. At
dusk, before flickering Sabbath
candles, an humble woman com-
muned with her God.
"Forgive nw, 0 Lord, forgive me
for the curse on Itzig. Remove- it.
Let him live his days according
tee Thy will. Forgive see for the
hate I nursed in my heart. Thy
will be done."
Hazel looked up. A great peace
• had descended upon her. She put
her shawl over her head and went
to the synagogue, to the men's sec- OVERWHELMING VOTE
PAV/D A. CIROWA1 MONY-
tion where women are not per-
FOR ZION COMMUNITY
mitted.
"Say the prayers for Itzig's re-
JERUSALEM.—(J. T. A.)—An
the Jews persisted.
They had rationalized, could a child help its Jews packed their synagogues,
covery," she begged. "I have re- overwhelming majority registered
been tortured through too many parentage, the accident which • fasting and praying, "My God, my
moved the curse from him to- in the Kenosseth Israel, the uni-
centuries tee be exterminated. They gave it life? If they referred to God, why hest Thou forsaken
night."
fied Jewish community of Palestin e
hunched their shoulders, sank their the child as "der momzer" (the me?" The night of the third, they
Razel had removed the curse so provided for by the Palestine com-
chins into their breasts, and mut.- bastard), it was never within ear- hid themselves with their women
there was no choice. They were munities ordinance, according to
neared as their ancestors had done, shot of his family. and children in cellars, dank holes
to pray that health might be re- final figures made public here.
"Thy will be done, Oh Lord, Shnia
As spring came on, the Jewish in the ground, until the Ruma- turned to Itzig.
The number who register d in
Yberoel, udonoy elohenu, adonoy inhabitants of Ponchu became very nian's marriage was consummated,
From the synagogue, Razel di- the Kenesseth Israel total )09,985
echod."
much upset. The disturbing now , ' and the incited mob had slept its recteel her steps tee the home of as compared with 4,567 who fa-
The years went by,
Moishe reached them, well authenticated, gorge off.
Itzig. His wife opened the door, vored separate communities as
grew into a quiet, shy child, big, that a national anti-Semitic so- Weary and heavy and bedrag. worn and haggard.
sponsored by the Orthodox world
burning eyes lighting up a deli- ciety, sanctioned by the govern- gird, these hunted beasts crept out
"I have removed the curse from organization Agudath Israel. Of
rate face. Hazel loved him with a ment, was being formed in Ru- , of their holes two days later and
Itzig at the candle blessing to- the number who registered for the
passion she had never known for mania. Stories of outrages were I crawled tee their wrecked homes,
unified community '23,94:i were in
the other children. Life wa s hard repeated, of trains searched and the stories of casualties reaching night," Hazel told her quietly.
"They are praying for him in the Jerusalem, 29,3:16 in Tel Aviv, and
enough under ordinary circum- , Jews thrown off, of ghettos sacked them, tearing out moans from bod- synagogue now. He will get well." 10,059 in Haifa.
stances, one was born to the sins and plundered. They listened and ies inured to almost every conceiv-
Convulsive sobs wracked Itzig's
of the countless ages, but he trembled, never knowing when able horror. Yankel, the sham- wife. "We have suffered enough
It is difficult to be strong and
learned to shoulder his heritage they would be forced to cellars and I mos, who had hidden in his hyna- already, Schaindvsl," Hazel con- not be rash.
through his allotted years, his bur- I retreats before a howling, murder. gogue, had been discovered,
tinued. "Maybe God will be with
den being no heavier than that of sus mob.
dragged out. His body was ter- us now."
his brother. But to be born out
Lincoln—Ford
He had been
In the midst of all this, a die:- ribly mutilated.
Hazel walked down the street,
of a gigantic maelstrom of rapine
and murder and shame—that was tinct shock went through the vii-' faithful to his trust, had not de- already dark. A great understand-
Motor Cars
luge, the people grew sick at heart serted the House of Jehovah, and ing filled her, a great love for her
a heritage too much to shoulder.
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Hazel's heart ached for the child; when they learned that Moishe was yet he must have done something people who had suffered so much
dead and that his own cousin, Itzig displeasing in the eyes of the Lord and yet not enough to understand;
479.495 W. Western
her pain gave birth to an intense Bendier, had killed him. It seemed for his flesh had been torn from a great pity for the goy, the non-
love and passion for him, as if she I that Moishe had gone to Itzig on him before death took place.
Office-23.049
Jew who (lid not understand; who
loved to mak e up for the wounds an errand for his mother, Itzig
Slowly the people resumed their did not love. Her eyes, her face,
Service-23-791
that would necessarily be his in had pushed him as he was about to destruction of the vandals. But her whole being took on a new dig-
FOR
after years. Despite itself, the veil- descend thei
MUSKEGON, MICII.
st.a rs, the
e c
child
e h a, I two
t
d
days
n
i dark
unventilated nity, a new spiritual beauty; she
Ince grew to lace •
Home, Cottage, Store
•
slipped, fallen down the steep lives.
Fortunately the warm was a woman with whom God had
CAMP EQUIPMENT AND
flight and had broken his neck weather was upon them and then communed, in whom God had vest.
This was Friday morning. Friday 'could take all summer to repair the ed His own divinity.
TENTS TO RENT
afternoon the child was buried, in holes played havoc with under-
In the deepening night, the sanc-
HOLLAND AWNING
accordance with the Jewish law nourished, weary bodies. Illness, tified Sabbath night, Raze) made
that does not permit a body to be influenza, and pneumonia swept her way home.—(Brith Shalom
CO.
kept over the Sabbath. through the ranks, filling the ceme- News,)
204 E. Eighth St.
People who followed little teries with new, raw graves.
Phone 2043
Moishe to his grave returned with Another heart-breaking tragedy
sad tales of Hazel. Tears they twisted the hearts of the sufferers. LEWIS L. STRAUS IS
HOLLAND, 111 ICII.
OFFERED POST IN U. S.
could understand, but the stony Little Rivka Cohen, a child of-13,
face, the hard eyes of the mother was coming from a nearby town
DIPLOMATIC SERVICE
frightened them. She watched to care for her grandmother who
them lower the white pine coffin was ill and alone. They thought
WASHINGTON.—(J. T. A.)—
into the waiting gap in the earth, that she could come through on Lewis I,. Straus, youngest member
she heard her husband say the the train safely; it was only a short of the firm of Kuhn, Loeb He Corn-
Monuments and
Kaddish, the ancient Ilebrew distance. But the anti-Semitic so- pany, may be appointed as United
Laketon Division
Memorials
prayer for the dead, she saw them ciety ferreted her out. Its local States Ambassador by President-
fill
the grave up, without a word, representative violated her first, elect Hoover, it Was stated here
Phone 23.157
Phone 22-730
without a cry, without a tear. and then threw her from the rnov- following an interview between
BAUER
BEAMER
"She will lose her mind." they said. ing train. Happily the grand- Mr. Hoover and Mr. Straus.
MUSKEGON, MICH.
That night a tale even more mother died before she could learn
Mr. Straus was formerly secre-
Muskegon, Mich.
terrible swept over the ghetto, of the tragedy. Rivka's mother tary to Mr. Hoover in his Belgian
freezing the bearers anew with lost her mind at the burial of the relief work and was vice-treasurer •
— horror. Raze) had cursed Itzig child.
of the Republican campaign in the
Bendier at the blessing of the can.'
Hazel lived through these trage- East.
dies. Her son told about it. Ile dies, her own suffering fading be-
It was stated here that Mr.
Greenhouse
described her as she stood before fore that of others. Her heart , Straus has been asked tee take an
CENTRAL PARK
the flickering Sabbath candles in however, was still filled with hate important post in the new admin-
238 River
the gathering dusk, hard eyes glit- for Itzig Bendier, the murderer of istration, but this could not be con- •
tering in a white, set face, calling her child. When she learned that firmed. It is likely he will be
Phones 5554-7120
on her deity, not to bless and Itzig had succumbed to pneumonia, named Ambassador if his business
sanctify the Sabbath, but to send her laugh was horrible. "Now ley connections permit.
HOLLAND, MICH.
his curse, to let the hosts of evil him suffer," she groaned, "as I
Where the Cowl Work Conies
loose,
to
set
the
mark
of
Cain
on
have
suffered."
From
Body & Fender Repairing the murderer.
In his delirium, Itzig cried out
Radiator Repairing
"Not death," she had cried. that the face of Moishe came be.
BASEMENT
"Give him life, but let him beg for fore him. He screamed with hor•
Union National Bank Bldg.
Radiators Recored
death; let him live and suffer, the ror as the large eyes in the warm
blood of his heart drawn from him face burned through him.
Phone 22 - 291
98 West Clay Ave.
drop by drop, as mine has been
"I didn't mean it, Moishela," ho
. . .
—clown a flight instead of up
Phone 22-357
Pleaded. "Why should I want to
The ' faces of the hearers kill you? How could I know when
blanched as Mendel's had, as his I pushed you that you would fall
FOR EVERY PURPOSE
Willard Batteries
MUSKEGON, MICH.
Mt' SKEGON. \IICII.
father's had, when the woman had and kill yourself?"
Bosch Radios
hurled her anathemas against the
Itzig's father, old ('ham Bendier,
wretch.
tried to get together a minyon, the •
Starter, Generator,
"Not a tear did she shed," con- minimum of 10 men necessary for
Ignition Repair
eluded Mendel. "She only laughed prayers, to say the special prayers
a terrible laugh like a crazy wo- for Itzig's recovery.
But Itzig
man".
• was universally hated for a mean-
418 Franklin Street
Telephone 4651
Itzig Bendier laughed his scorn tempered, surly brute. "Only for
Phone 777
General Electric Refrigerators
when the tale reached him. There his Kaddish will we get together a
275 E. Eighth St.
Factory and House Waring
seas uneasiness is his laugh, how- minyon," was the answer Chaim
GRAND HAVEN, MICH.
HOLLAND, MICH.
ever.
He
well
knew
that
the
most
Bendier
received.
Repairs and Rewinding Motors
powerful curse, that the most pee-
Hazel listened to these reports
Fixtures—Lamp Supplies
tent maledictions, were those ut- , satisfied; her hate well fed. Itzig
tered by a woman at dusk on Fri; grew worse, could not rid himself
day, at the blessing of the sandles. of the face of the child whose
The Lord dare not ignore the death he had caused. Itzig's people
prayer of the woman sent up tee came to plead with Razed to re.
Him at that hour—that time was move the curse from the sick man.
hers. First came his wife, a young wo-
Phone 32-270
1241 Peck
When many misfortunes follow man, old with the suffering of a
1115 Sanford St.
each other, the last is often for- race. She went and pleaded, but
Phone 22-015
gotten under the stress of the new to no avail. Then came his moth-
MUSKEGON, M II.
So the little Jewish community at er, shrunken and bent, her skin
11USKEGON, MICH.
Ponchu dismissed Raze! and Moi.• dried like an old parchment, lined
-I she and Itzig as the news arrived I with innumerable wrinkles, beg-
s that Gorga Vasili, noted Jew ging Hazel to remove the curse she
hater, local organizer eef the anti- had invoked at the blessing of the
Semitic society, was inciting the candle's. Razel was obdurate. "Ile
peasantry and the proletariat took from me the light of my eyes,
against the Jewry.
He- filled my whole life with (lark-
"They own all the land, they ness. Why should I remove the
run all the stores, they have all the curse? I do not ask for his death.
money, and soon they will control I want him to live but to beg for
us and the government. Let us death."
Telephone 22-868
rid ourselves of them once for all,
After old Laya Bendier had left,
the accursed Jews."
Razed did not get as much joy out
So Vasili had besought his audi- of gloating as she had previously.
ences, ignorant, drunken, poverty. The memory of Lyra's sobbing.
stricken, themselves victims of a dismal and desolate, like a wind
war's hate and exploitation by a that had spent itself, pausing oc-
government. Gorga Vasili was not casionally for new strength to con-
to be satisfied with wiping out a tinue, disturbed her.
few Jews, setting fire to an occa-
"After all," thought Raze!, "he
sional ghetto. Ills plan was de- may be a devil but he's her child."
structieen on a wholesale scale, he
1766 Beidler Street
Muskegon, Mich.
And the following day, some-
would wipe the Jew from the en- how Razel did not feel the full sat-
♦ tire country! He was to be near- isfaction at the recitation of ltzig's
tied on a day in June and the en- struggles with death.
tire country-side was invited to
"They are pumping water from
the feast. Oxen would be roasted his lungs," they told her. Razed
whole, casks of wine and beer Was silent. "Living and suffering."
would be tapped, and to crown the she thought, but derived little sat-
orgy, all the ghettos, the Jewish isfaction from it.
sections, would be pillaged and
All day long, Hazel sat with her
plundered. Goma would sanctify thoughts. "He's living and suf-
his marriage, he would enter its tering," she thought. And what
holy sacrament under a baptism of did she gain of it? Wasn't the
violence and blood. child who had been torn from her
The government was appealed bowels by a war's luster better
to. It declared itself helpless to .dead! People knew that her has--
cope with the situation—Vasili was band had not been the
too powerful a figure for the goy. father. Wasn't the child bett -r
ernment to interfere.
Mendel off not to have to face the taunt
Phones—Office 22-811—Service and Repair 23.868
Freedman, the American who was 'momzer' through t'a years? If
visiting his sister in Ponchu, wired the child haunted It-ie, could it
496.500 West Western Ave.
the American consul in Bucharest get any peace, any rest, in tho
for additional protection.
For other world? ..
rttier's mother
three days before the celebration —after all, one
,s a mother.
/ of Vasill'a nuptials, the trembling Wasn't she suffering, too? Wasn't
GREETINGS
HORACE SHIPP, Proprietor
HOLLAND
AWNING CO.
Phone 23-163
MUSKEGON, MICH.
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t
, her heart aching for Itzig as hers
I for Moishe? And possibly, wasn't
, her heartache twofold, first be-
' cause the child was suffering,
struggling, and then because her
own flesh, the son in whom she
had vested her hopes, all her
dreams, was a murderer, an soy-
east, hated and despised?" The
thoughts raced around in her
mind. "God—what a world. Was
there nee end eef hate, of suffer-
ing?" She reviewed the suffering
of her people. "flow much longer,
Oh Lord, how much longer?"
As Razel pondered, as the
thoughts raced through her he.ziel,
the hardness, the iciness within
her seemed to molt, to diminish,
to disappear. Slowly the truth
dawned upon her. "No wonder
we are suffering. Freon the out-
side they tear us of pieces, from
side they tear us tee pieces, from
pieces. What can we expect from
the goy when we ourselves curse
each other, destroy ourselves?"
Phone 22.026
MUSKEGON, MICH.
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MUSKEGON, MICH.
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NEUMEISTER
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HALL ELECTRIC
COMPANY
Phone 23-482
MUSKEGON, MICH.
Phone 22-443
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