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January 08, 1931 - Image 4

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The Detroit Jewish Chronicle, 1931-01-08

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H EVEMOITIEWIS/letRONIGUR

T

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7itE1EIRDITIEWISII9IRONICLE

Published Weekly by The Jewish Chronicle PublIshlai Ce., lac.

Entered as

Second•clays nt•tter
office at Detroit. Mirb., under

1

.,:

3:.

/larch 3, 1916, at the Poet.
the Act of Harsh t, 1579.

General Offices and Publication Building
525 Woodward Avenue

Telephone: Cadillac 1040 Cable Address: Chronicle

L

Office:

14 Stratford Place, London, W. I, England

Subscription, in Advance

To Inure publication, •11

$3.00 Per Year

correspondence and new. matter

reach this Mee by Tuesday •venIng of each week.
When madigg notices, blot!. use one side of the paper only.

When

The Detroit Jewish Chronicle invites correspondence on nub.
of Were.: tr the J•wish people, bui disclaims responsl.

kris
blItty

for •n Indorsernint of the views exprt4sed by the writer.

Sabbath Readings of the Law.

Pentateuch
portion—Ex. 1 :1-6 :1.
Prophetical portion--Is, 27:6-28:13; 29:22-23,

T C 4

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SiJ

r

January 9, 1931

Tebeth 20, 5691

Great Britain's Guilt,

After the riots ill Palestine in November
1929, and in response to the White Paper
which came a year later, Jews charged that
the anti-Semitism of British officials in Pal-
estine is responsible for placing obstacles
in the path of Jewish effort for the recon-
struction of the land. It was charged by
Jews that Britain has given encouragement
to Arabs to riot unrestrained because mis-
leading statements with regard to Palestine
were creating mistunderstandings among
the ignorant Moslem masses.
Proof of this came last week, when a
group of Arabs clashed with Jewish set-
tlers near Herzliah. Arab agitators were
reported to have caused a disturbance over
the eviction of Arab tenant cultivators,
though the Jews had compensated the
Arabs. On the way to jail one of the Be-
douins is quoted as having declared: "Af-
ter we heard the White Paper had been is-
sued, we were told that all the lands be-
longed to the Arabs. Therefore we came
to take possession."
This is the kind of propaganda that was
created by unfriendly British statements.
These are the kinds of ideas that were born
in Arab minds as a result of the unfairness
of the present Labor Government. British
officials must be blind not to realize that
their actions may eventually serve to bring
trouble upon their own government, be-
cause in the long run peace must reign be-
tween the kindred Arab and Jewish peo-
ples.
On the question of Arab-Jewish peace it
is interesting to quote the opinion of Me-
nachem Mendel Ussishkin, international
head of the Jewish National Fund, whose
visit to Detroit on January 18 and 19 is
eagerly looked forward to by this commun-
ity. Speaking in Washington, D. C., last
week, Mr. Ussishkin, criticizing the Brith
Sholom Society of Palestine, quoted the
Biblical injunction, "Hoemes ve-husholom
yehavu," "ye shall love truth and peace."
Pointing out that truth is placed before
peace, Mr. Ussishkin said: "We want peace
with the Arabs but we cannot surrender the
truth to obtain peace. The truth holds pri-
ority over all else. If we Jews wanted to
give up the truth for peace, this is not the
first opportunity in our history that we have
had to do so. Israel's uniqueness among
the nations is that it always placed truth
foremost and was prepared to suffer for
it."
This falls in line with the Jew's ideal for
'justice, out of which he strives to attain
love and peace. Certainly justice must tri-
umph, and with such triumph will come
tranquility in Jerusalem, the City of Peace.

Reform Rabbis and Zionism.

-■

The inauguration, by a group of Reform
rabbis, of an anti-Zionist campaign is, at
this time, as amazing as it is unfair. Corn-
ing as it does on the eve of the opening in
Philadelphia of the thirty-second biennial
council of the Union of American Congre-
gations, it is a shocking display of some-
thing which may result in a split in the
ranks of Reform Judaism, and in the pre-
vention of unity in all Israel. Because it
was with Zionism, or Palestine, as a basis,
that Jewish leaders representing all groups
in Israel were able to meet on common
ground for great constructive effort, and to
disrupt unity at a critical time like the pres-
ent is hardly commendable.
This is not the time for such an anti-Zion-
ist campaign. If only for the reason that
such an effort may harm the existing com-
munity in Palestine, it ought not to be done.
And the anti-Zionist Reform rabbis ought
also to remember that Palestine is one of
the growing centers /ViliCh is attracting the
Jewish wanderers who are everywhere else
excluded.
It is well to remember that some of the
greatest leaders in Zionism, even among the
movement's founders. were Reform Jews
and Reform rabbis. The late Dr. Gustave
Gottheil was a pioneer Zionist. His son,
Prof. Richard Gottheil of Columbia Uni-
versity, was the first president of the Ameri-
can Zionist Federation. The late Dr. Max
Heller and Dr. Joseph Silverman were
staunch ' Zionists. Outstanding Reform
rabbis of our own day are leaders in Zion-
jam, among them being Dr. Stephen S.
Wise, Dr. Louis I. Newman, Rabbi James
Heller, Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, Rabbi Mor-
ris A. Lazaron and others. In the event of
an open break on the question of Zionism
at the Philadelphia convention, it can
hardly benefit the Reform movement, and
the anti-Zionist elements will be wiser not
to stir up strife.

O IS4.9•9-9 *

bel)

tb'eh'

A Picturesque Figure Is Gone.

The death in New York last week of Nis-
sim Behar, 83-year-old Jewish leader, phi-
lanthropist and defender of the rights of
his people, robs American Jewry of one of
the most picturesque figures who have
played a part ill the development of the
community of Israel on this continent.
A strikingly attractive personality, Mr.
Behar has even in his lifetime already be-
come a legendary figure. As the represen-
tative of the Alliance Israelite in this coun-
try, and prior to his coming here in the
Orient, and as one ready at all times to be
in the thick and thin of the battles for Jew-
ish rights, he won the esteem of his people.
It will be recalled that in the demonstra-
tions against the betrayal of Jewish rights
in Palestine, New York Jewish parades of
protest acquired a note of dignity and add-
ed importance because they were led by
this octogenarian. Mr. Behar at the head
of a line of young and old Jews crying out
for justice gave a romantic touch to the as-
pirations of the oldest people which insists
upon remaining young.
Those who have known Nissim Behar, or
have watched his activities, will not for-
get him.

A Polish Jew Honors the Sabbath,

Our London contemporary and name-
sake carries an interesting story from its
Warsaw correspondent to the effect that
expert evidence is being taken by a judge
in a case in which the facts are as follows:

The landlord sued the tenant because the
latter filled his bath every Thursday, to keep

alive in it the fish he bought for the Sabbath

meal, This, argued the landlord, is an en-
tirely superfluous luxury and is a wicked

waste of water for which he, the landlord, has
to pay. The tenant did not deny the fact of

his filling the bath to keep the fish in it, but

based his defense on the assertion that there
was no question of any unnecessary waste.
According to Jewish tradition, he said fish for

the Friday repast is a part of the ritual, and
the keeping of the fish fresh and fit to eat on
the Sabbath is a mitzvah and cannot therefore
be considered wasteful.

The decision in the case is unimportant
compared with the facts which reveal that
tradition is not yet dead in Israel. The cus-
tom of preparing the best and tastiest foods
in honor of the Sabbath has been observed
religiously by Jews, and that Warsaw Jew's
experience is a display of the continued
existence of sacred devotion to the prin-
ciples of the Sabbath and its observance.

Einstein Pokes Fun at Self.

Dr. Albert Einstein continues, in spite of
his dislike of publicity, to remain in the
limelight. To Jews he is great because of
his devotion and his readiness at all times
to aid his less fortunate brethren. His great-
ness did not, as generally happens with
notables, estrange him from his people. To
humanity as a whole he is great for his con-
tributions to science and for his idealism,
as was evidenced in his address on paci-
fism.
His greatness is often mirrored in his hu-
mor anti his very human actions. Interest-
ing evidence of his sense of humor was giv-
en upon his arrival in this country, when he
poked fun at himself in a verse which the
ordinary mortal would interpret as offen-
sive. Professor Einstein autographed a
sketch of himself made by Fred A. Mayer
of New York, a former Berlin neighbor of
his, and underneath his signature wrote
this verse;

Dienes tette satte Schwein
Soli Professor Einstein sein.
(This fat, well-sated pig you see
Professor Einstein purports to be,)

Well done, Herr Professor!

Arab•Jewish Amity

The British Colonial Office is doing a lot
of talking about the need for co-operation
and amity between Arabs and Jews in Pal-
estine, but its failure to do anything con•
crete in thegreat effort for the reconstruc-
lion of a wasted country subjects its chief
spokesman, Lord Passfield, to comparison
with the man in the old rhyme:

"A man of words and not of deeds
Is like a garden full of weeds."

But the poor Jewish colonists in Palestine
do not talk; they act. The former radical,
Sidney Webb, now possessor of the title
Lord, may still expound theories of Social-
ism, but the Jewish pioneers practice while
he preaches. Thus, while Britain is prom-
ising loans to the Arab farmers, the Jewish
settlers in the Plain of Esdraelon, which is
now mostly populated by Jews, set aside a
sum of $10,000 to be used for extending
loans to poor Arabs whose crops were de-
stroyed by the recent mice plague and who
are otherwise impoverished because they
use primitive methods of scratching the
soil they cultivate.
In this way, and by fraternizing socially,
the Jewish pioneers in Palestine are paving
the way for peace and harmony with the
Arabs. In a similar way Hadassah extends
medical aid to the Arabs and continually-
invites peaceful co-operation between the
two peoples that populate Palestine. Pass-
field's perfidy is thus defied by a people
whose mission is peace.

'Iataae.

rt.

BY-THE-WAY

Tidbits and News of Jew-
ish Personalities.

By DAVID SCHWARTZ

GOODBYE, 19301

If Harry Houdini were alive he'd
say "No wonder." An odd com-
bination was this super-maagi-
cian—this son of a small-town
Wisconsin rabbi.
lie would perform spiritualistic
phenomena which would make men
like Conan Doyle gape with won-
der and explain: "You have spirit-
ualistic, supernatural powera"
And Harry would say: "Fiddle-
sticks. They all can be explained
in a natural, common sense way.
There is no supernatural."
But if Houtlini were assigned a
hotel room, the integers of whose
number summed up to 13, he
would raise a Comanche yell. He
didn't believe in the supernatural
—he wasn't superstitious, but
"13," well, he didn't want to have
anything to do with that number.
- • -

BLAMING IT ON THE NUMBER

And so, I say, if Houdin' were
here, and reviewing the year 1930,
he would say "nil wonder." Its in-
tegers add up to "13." Is it any
wonder that in the Jewish world
it was the year of the unfortu-
nate White Paper, and in the gen-
eral the bigger world of humanity
—the year of the stock exchange
crash, and general hard times.
Somehow I, myself, cannot
blame all this bad luck on an in-
nocent combination of numbers,
though I am aware of the profes-
sions and philosophy of the mod-
ern numerologists, and know that
this number monkey business has
even a decided Jewish angle—in
the Kabbalah, the Agatlah and
Jewish mystic literature gener-
ally.
When Neysa Mchlein, the artist,
declares that she wasn't a success
until she no modified her name as
to conform to this so-called science
of numbers, she could almost go to
the passover Ilagadah for justifica-
tion
Yet, nevertheless, I file my de-
murer—but it has been a re-
diculous year nevertheless, if you
will pardon the expression.
Depression did not hit poetry.
While business may have been
bad, however, and troubles have
beset us from other directions, I
am glad to say that one business is
still running on a full time basis.
I refer to the manufacture of Yid-
dish poetry.
The fact that most of these Yid-
dish poems will never be read, ex-
cept on those occasions when the
author just can't refrain from
reading them to his friends, mat-
ters not a whit to these scribes of
the muse.
I chanced to visit one of these
shops this week, "Have you the
Jewish weakness, too," said one
of the poets, toiling over his
proofs.
"The Jewish weakness"—this
writing of verse.

FLOWERS AND FRUITS

Plato wanted to deport all poets.
And many of the great Jewish
sages have felt similarly. The
great Maimonides seemed to look
down upon poetry with a good deal
nn contempt, and even Yehuda Its-
levy, who himself wrote beautiful
poetry, said a bit disdainfully of
the Greek poetry that it had flow-
ers, but not fruit. But despite
I'lato and Maimonides, th epoets
keep "poetizing" in greater pro-
fusion than ever. I am told that
it has been estimated that there
are enough amateur poets in New
York City to make a city almost the
size of Indianapolis. And I am
speaking by the book when I say
that a very heavy proportion
would be the Jewish segment,

EVERYBODY'S DOING IT

And even those who aspire not
quite to the empyrean realms of
the muse seem unable now and
then to refrain from dabbling in
rhyme. The doctors will tell you
that at one time or another every
person has had tuberculosis, and
so it might be said of "versifico-
sis." It seems that even Einstein
is addicted to this rhyming busi-
ness. A fellow passenger on the
boat with the professor asked him
to write something on the bottom
of a sketch which he had made of
Einstein, and this is what Einstein
wrote underneath his picture:
"Dienes tette satte Schwein
"Soil Professor Einstein win."
Loosely translated. I suppose, it
would read something like this:
"This fat, sated swine
Is none other than Einstein."

EINSTEIN. GOETHE AND
LINCOLN

This habit of detracting of one's
self in rhyme seems to be a fairly
commonplace characteristic of the
great. You remember Goethe la-
mented:
"And here, I stand with all my
lore,
Poor fool, no wiser than before."
And Lincoln, as a youth, auto-
graphed a book something like
this:
"Abraham
m Lincoln, his hand and
his pen
He willhe7,
when iser, but God knows

(I believe I must have s word
or two of the last wrong, but in
substance it is right—I am quot-
ing from memory.)
And you recall Wilson's rhyme
in which he so spoke so disparag-
ingly of his own physiognomy:
"For beauty, I am no star.
There are others handsomer by

But nip face. I don't mind it
For I am behind it,
The people in front get the jar."
—a--
ONE OF LIFE'S PARADOXES
Theatrical life is supposed to be
rather irresponsible. A thousand
writers your out a couple of rivers
of ink each year painting the sord-
idness of Broadway. Street of
fair weather friends. As deceitful
as it is seductive. Et cetera and
more to cetera.
Yet all this to the contrary not-
withstanding, I'll wages that if a

(Turn to Next Page)

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aVzIt ■ SNT,.:C7..41.:Q:Vt,'XIX•te

hrT.1



Washington and Jerusalem

Charles ff.Joseph

I SPOKE the other night at a banquet given by the
delegates to the national convention of the Phi
Epsilon Pi. I was glad of the opportunity to speak
to a couple of hundred Jewish college boys who I
believe are trying to do something to promote at
least a JEWISH recognition of their fellows'
achievements. Beautiful cups were awarded to
the chapters who excelled in campus activities, in-
cluding, of course, scholastic achievement. But I
was very much interested in the suggestion that
was made that in addition to their other contribu-
tions to Jewish cultural and educational life, that a
fund be raised by the various chapters to adventure
still further in search of something that would en-
rich JEWISH life among the Jewish undergradu-
ates. While I am not a "frat" nian and never ex-
pect to be, I believe that fraternities have their
uses, and can be of value at least in developing a
socializing influence. Minority groups need this
sort of thing: it is stimulating. One thing I must
commend this fraternity for, and that is in giving
the income of $10,000 annually for scholarships at
the National Farm School.Jewish boys desiring
to make scientific farming their career should
receive every possible encouragement,

Nissim Behar is dead. It wasn't more than a
S O .few
months two that I inquired about him,

wondering if he was still with us or whether he had
passed on. Ile was a remarkable num. In 1882 he
founded the first academic and training school in
Palestine under the auspices of the Alliance Israe-
lite Universelle, of Paris. Ile came to th e United
States in 1900 and founded the National Liberal
Immigration League. And I want to say that there
are some men and women reading this paragraph
who should bless the name of Nissim Behar for had
it not been for his extraordinary efforts the restric-
tive immigration laws now in force would have
been adopted in this country 25 years ago. And
some l•llo are here today would never have been
able to enter., I worked with Mr. Behar and know
the wonderful work he did for his brethren. lie
was 83 years old when he died. lie was an inter-
esting personality and even in his advanced years
displayed remarkable vigor. And he never ate
meat. And he proved, to my satisfaction at least,
that one could live actively and vigorously to a ripe
old age by subsisting on a few vegetables and
chocolate candy.

Tills

is an interesting item. The Community
Church of New York City, of which our friend
Dr. John Haynes Holmes is pastor, has announced
the establishment of an annual prize to be given
to the man or woman who has made the most
notable, beneficient or original contribution to the
progress of religion in this country. The judges
will be Dr. Holmes, Rabbi Stephen Wise and Dr.
Frank Hall, pastor of an Universalist church in
New York. I am very much interested to see who
the winner is to be and for what contribution. One
can easily imagine that a Fundamentalist isn't likely
to have much chance to obtain such an award
with those judges. I am sure of one thing, and
that is when the award is announced the pulpit of
this country will have something to preach about
for nine Sundays!

MILTON W. GOLDBERGER, editor of the He-
brew Watchman, of Memphis, Tenn., has raised
a most interesting point, one which has been the
subject of considerable discussion for a great many
years. And I am especially interested because I
have for 25 years been associated with committees
having the responsibility for obtaining lecturers for
the men's society of a temple, as well as for other
Jewish organizations. Mr. Goldberger in an edi-
torial criticized the men's club of the Temple in
Memphis for bringing Lewis Brown e there to lec-
ture. The charge made against Mr. Browne, who,
as our readers know, is the author of "Stranger
Than Fiction," "This Believing World," etc., is that
he derided and ridiculed the Jewish religion in a
Jewish temple before a Jewish audience. The
president of the men's society, replied, taking issue
with Mr. Goldberger that Browne had derided the
Jewish religion. But he took a broader position
in this statement:

". . . it was surely going too far . . .
to speak of it being a sacrilege to have had him
speak in the Temple auditorium. Ile came on
a week-day, at which there were no religious
services, with an address that was open to
the general public. There was no religious
significance associated with his appearance. His
subject, which was "Morality for Intelligent
People," is in itself interesting and the group
before whom he spoke were presumably intelli-
gent. They (lid not need to agree with Mr.
Browne's idea of morality . . . but all they
needed was the open mind that is willing to
listen and that reserves the right to reject.
It has always seemed to me that Judaism itself,
with centuries of tradition back of it, is
strong enough to withstand the utterances of
any speaker and does not need to fear to open
its pulpit to a speaker who may express views
that are not in accord with its own."

BOTH Mr. Goldberger and the president of the
men's club may be interested to know that on
other occasions rabbis have taken exception to cer-
tain men appearing in their pulpits,
k compromise
has been made by permitting their appearance in
the assembly room. I can easily appreciate Mr.
Goldberger's attitude becaus e Lewis Browne is a
radical. And he has no respect for what we choose
to term "conventions." Ile has the courage of his
convictions and speaks as he pleases. I have known
many thin-skinned persons to feel uncomfortable
by his rather facetious deferences to things and
persons they hold sacred. And knowing Lewis
Browne and having heard him on many occasions,
I appreciate how easy it is for him to shock his
hearers. But should he or should he not have been
permitted to speak in the Temple? Mr. Goldberger
has opened up a topic for discussion which I am
sure will prove interesting.


WELL, here we have that old question being dis-
cussed by rabbis as to whether we should or
should not permit our children to have Christmas
trees. Thus far I have heard of no r•ligtous casual-
ties among the ranks of the Jewish children who
have dared to have trees. Though I believe that
trees were to be found in only a very few Jewish
homes. Most Jewish families for the sake of their
children compromised a little by letting the kiddies
hang up their stockings and you will find many
stockings but few trees. I am not prepared to say
whether the stocking is worse than the tree. But I
fancy that even such a clear thinker as Rabbi Men-
delsohn of the Sentinel of Chicago, who writes con-
cerning the Christmas tree in the Jewish home, will
agree that hanging up a stocking is not quite as
objectionable as having a tree in a Jewish home.
I have purposely avoided the subject this season as
I always seem to get into a lot of troubl e every
time I discuss it. And so here I am in trouble all
over again despite my resolution,

I AM still a little puzzled why dignitaries of the
Catholic Church, both prelates and laymen, are
apposed to Einstein and his theory'. In a recent
issue of the Commonweal, a Catholic publication,
Dr. James J. Walsh draws upon various authorities
to ridicule the whole idea of Einstein's and to dis-
pose of it as childish nonsense. And in the same
article another Jaw, Freud, is also laughed out of
court. If this w, re the first occasion of a Catholic
attack on Einstein it would he passed unnoticed.
Rut it is but one of many. The only explanation
that occurs to me is that the Catholic Church dis-
likes to see the world at large converted to a theory
that may in some way run counter to its own
theories.

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.....<

By MEYER LEVIN

Editor's Note. Menachem Mendel Its-
sishkin, world president of the Jewish
National Fund, I, one of the personalities
poke n •s • possible successor to
Chaim W eirmann as ' , resident of the
World Z ta i t Organization. lie Zi
re •re
POMP Of hi, views of current onist
problems.

Menachem Mendel Ussishkin is
being spoken of as one of the
most likely candidates to the presi-
dency of the World Zionist Organ-
ization, to he chosen at the Feb-
ruary Zionist Congress in Karls-
bad. Zionist leaders know of his
ability as an administrator, since
he has for years been the world
president of the Jewish National
Fund, living in Jerusalem and
watching over the purchase and
development of Jewish land. His
work is somewhat in the nature
of that of a Jewish ambassador-at-
large.

Menachem Mendel Ussishkin in
now in America, having come here
after a lapse of 10 years to re-
visit the great Jewish population
of America, and to strengthen the
position of the Jewish National
Fund.

Recently AL M. Ussishkin visited
Washington. There he was es-
corted through .the government
buildings. lie visited the great
house of justice, where a Jew. and
a leader in Zionist thought, and
curiously enough another of the
personalities spoken of as a likely
choice for the next World Zionist
president, sits in the Supreme
Court of Justice.

Old Capitol Speaks to New.

Speaking before a distinguished
audience that massed the Jewish
Community Center of Washington,
M. M. Ussishkin said, "I bring
greetings not merely from Jewish
Jerusalem to the Jews of Wash-
ington, but from Jerusalem, the
oldest capital, the city whose very
name means peace, to Washington,
the newest capital, the city of
freedom and liberty. Jerusalem is
the oldest cultural center of the
world; Washington is the most im-
portant city of the new world.
Both those cities have dreamed
the same ideal.

"From the city of Zion there
went forth the message of peace
which was of universal import.
From Washington, through the
words of the late President Wil-
son, there went forth the message
of equality and freedom for small
peoples as well as great peoples.

"That peace has not been ob-
tained in Palestine," said M. M.
Ussishkin, "is not the fault of the
prophets who traversed its paths,
but of others in whose hands it
lay to secure the emancipation of
Israel. Sad to relate, in the holy
city of Jerusalem, blood has been
spilled under the flag of Great
Britain, that banner which meant
truth and justice to all nations,
and whose meaning was particu-
larly cherished by the Jews. An
obligation rests upon the English
people, the people of Shakespeare,
Gladstone and Balfour, to vindi-
cate it by doing justice to the Jew-
ish National Home which they un-
dertook to facilitate,"

Declarations of Freedom,

Mr. Ussishkin spoke of the hope
of the Jews to make a Washington
out of new Jerusalem. "I have
visited in Washington," he said.
"anti seen the great Congressional
Library and other magnificent
state buildings, but of all the grand
features of thin city, two things
impressed me most. One was the
shrine which encases the historic
American Constitution and the
Declaration of Independence. As
I gazed upon the hallowed setting
in which those documents reposed,
I thought of the day when we, too,
should be able to set up, in Jeru-
salem, a shrine containing not
only the Declaration of Cyrus and
of Balfour permitting us to return
to our home, but containing our
own self-asserted Declaration of
Independence."
There was a loud applause at
this utterance.
"The second feature which most
impressed me was the Supreme
Court of Justice, set in the center
of the two great legislative build-

lags. The place of highest honor
had been reserved for that court
in which justice and right hold
sway, a court in which, to the
credit of American Jewry, there
sits one of its own sons.
"And to the American nation,
which in that manner has empha-
sized the great store it sets by
righteousness, I would appeal to
insist upon Justice for the Jews,
The American Congress in 1922
passed a resolution supporting the
establishment of the Jewish Na-
tional Home in Palestine, and
righteousness: demands that that
resolution be observed and trans-
lated into reality."

rS

"We Devise Plan."

He pointed out that the Zionist
principal of national ownership of
the In was aprinciple that fol-
lowed 1111 1111111 reforms introduced
in England.
"We desire peace in Palestine,"
he said, "but it must be based on
truth. We have 110 quarrel with
any of those who live in Palestine.
Our own law commands us to treat
the stranger as ourselves,
"There was a time when private
ownership of land was considered
an invulnerable principle. But as
man progressed it was seen to be
wnorg for one man to possess wide
areas of land while another, anx-
ious to till the soil, was possessed
of no soil to till. And so, particu-
larly in England, under liberal
Gladstone, land reform was intro-
duced to insure equity.
"Another illustration of changes
in our conception of what is right
is to be seen in the granting to
minorities of political and national
self-determination, a principle in-
sisted upon by a great American
president, although at one time it
was considered proper for those
minorities to be under the thumb
of the numerical majority.
"If our conception of right in
regard to individual ownership of
land has been modified, the same
might be true in regard to people's
ownership of territory, The Arab
people enjoys vast territories, not
only Arabic, but Iraq, Egypt, Syria
and Morocco, its regions stretch
from Damascus to Bagdad. The
Jewish peopl e as a people has
hitherto been denied any land
whatsoever? Is it right that its
own single territory shall be de-
nied to it?"

Heart of Jewish World.

The president of the National
Fund then spoke of Palestine as
the heart of the Jewish World,
while all Jewry formed the limbs
and body. "The heart is but a
small thing physically, but on its
health depends the health of the
entire structure."
Ile demanded that the tempo of
work in Palestine be strengthened
and increased, He pointed out
that positive achievements in the
land determined the political fu-
ture. "The existence of the set-
tlement of Metulah in the north
ensured the inclusion of Upper
Galilee within the boundaries of
Palestine under the mandate. Had
these been Jewish settlements in
the Trunsjordan area, that area,
too, would no doubt have been in-
cluded in the provision for the
Jewish National Home." This
may, to some, seem a dubious po-
litical postulate. Ussishkin has
always been known as a realist,
who centers all Zionist hope in a
strong land policy.
The Jews of America are
4,000,000; they provided half a
million dollars a year for the Jew-
ish National Fund. They could do
more. If you have a regard for
the future of your children as con-
scious Jews, then you must redeem
the land of Eretz Israel for your
sake and for theirs. The time will
come when they will seek that
that haven of a Jewish National
Home."
Mr. Ussishkin was received in
Washington by Mr. Louis Siegel,
president of the Zionist District
of Washington; by Mrs. Alpert,
president of Washington Hades-
sah, and by Mr. Danzinger, chair-
man of the Jewish National Fund
council of Washington.

(Copyright. 1931. J. T. A.)

Spain Sanctions a Synagogue, and
Where is Torquemada?

By MEYER LEVIN

Editor's Note:
After nearly half •
file lam of denial. Spain •gsin com-
pie!, ly acknowledges the rights of the
Jews. News. through the Jewish Tek,
gr aphic Agency. of the official ..nction
o f a synagogue in Madrid. •nd of the con-
secration of ground for • JPIViA h ceme-
tery. marks the rinsing episode in •
dram• played from 1452 to 1930. This
article tells of the new status of Jews in
Spain.

It has taken 438 years. But the
Jews again have a synagogue in
Spain's chiefest city, a synagogue
recognized and sanctioned by the
government of Spain.

And at the same time there is
issued in America a book, purport-
ing to be the work of a scholar, in
which proof is attempted that Tor-
quemada was a mild and gentle
man, and that after all the cen-
turies of shouting horror! horror!
it must be realized that only about
2,000 Jews were burned at the
stake during the Inquisition in
Spain. Two thousand out of a
possible 2,000,000 ought to prove
that Torquemada was a mild and
gentle man!
I'erhaps the Inquisition never
existed, perhaps the Inquisition
was a dream of "creative' histor-
ians.
Certainly as modern Spain, anx-
ious that the darkest blotch of
medievalism be more and more
confused with the general darkness
of remote backgrounds, each year
comes more emphatically forward
in her assurances of full rights for
the Jews, the racial memory?scar
inflicted by the edict of Ferdinand
and Isabella becomes less painful.
Last year, for a time, there was
a rumor that Spain, realizing that
her economic decline so a world
power began in 1492 with the ex-



pulsion of the Jews from he
realm, and anxious in modern
times to recover her gone import
erica., was encouraging a wholesale
return of the Jews to Spain. In
vestigation of the rumor prove(
that the "wholesale" was exagger-
ated emphasis — perhaps Jewish
emphasis. But various Spanish of
ficials did admit that Spain stil
watched the scattered descendants
of Spanish Jews, and tried, in the
words of the Duke of Albo, "as
much as possible to foster their
sentimental attachment" to Spain,
though their wholesal e return was
not encouraged as economic con-
ditions in Spain would not bear of
a heavy rise in immigration.

But during the last centuries,
as the laws of the Inquisition and
the edict of expulsion were long
in disuse, Jews have seeped into
Spain, and many descendants of
alarrnaos--Jews who on compul-
sion accepted the Catholic faith—
have reasserted their Jewishness.
There has been a tacit recognition
of such Jews.

Now, on Dec. 24, 1930, came
the news that the first recognized
synagogue to be established in
Spain since the Jews were exiled
in 1492 had been opened in
Madrid.

Synagogues in Spain have been
spoken of before. One writer,
Morris Goldberg, mentions "sev-
eral synagogues in Barcelona" and
a "magnificent synagogue" rebuilt
after the war in the street of
1, umbreeras in Seville, which
he
says is "destined to become the
most important and active Jewish

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