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DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE

Detroit Jewish Chronicle

and THE LEGAL CHRONICLE

Published Weekly by The Jewish Chronicle Publishing Co., Inc.,

Entered as Second-class matter March 3, 1916, at the Post-
office at Detroit, Mich., under the Act of March 3, 1879,

General Offices and Publication Bldg., 525 Woodward Ave.

Telephone: Cadillac 1040

Subscription in Advance

Cable Address: Chronicle

$3.00 Per Year

To insure publication, all correspondence and news matter
must reach this office by Tuesday evening of each week.
When mailing notices, kindly use one side of the paper only.

The Detroit Jewish Chronicle invites correspondence on sub-
jects of interest to the Jewish people, but disclaims responsi-
bility for an indorsement of the views expressed by the writers.

Sabbath Scriptural Selections

Pentateuchal portion—Ex. 6 :2-9 :35.
Prophetical portion—Ezek. 28:25-29:21.
Rosh Chodesh Shevat Readings of the Law.
Thursday, Jan. 11—Num. 28:1-15.

JANUARY 5, 1940

TEBETH 24, 5700

Immigration: Lowest Since 1840

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The impression has been broadcast that
a new wave of immigration is flooding the
country, and the result has been to encour-
age a new spirit of suspicion of aliens.
One of the reasons for such exaggera-
tions is the consistent and sincere advocacy
of a return to an open door policy by this
country on the part of many great liberals.
As an instance of such appeals, we refer
our readers to the radio address delivered
on Nov. 21 by Elliott Roosevelt. In the
course of his talk, in which he condemned
the persecution of Jews and expressed hor-
ror over the establishment of "ghettos"
and "concentration camps", Mr. Roosevelt
said:

"Despite all the fine talk of the last
year, despite the known fact of daily
torture, of incredible hardship, of de-
humanization, of sheer, stark horror
—the Jews are being slowly strangled
on political red tape. Let's consider
our own country. We are under-popu-
lated. The United States could easily
stand another hundred and thirty mil-
lion on top of the number she already
has. If we welcomed fifty thousand
Jews, which would mean only about
one thousand to each of the 48 states
—they wouldn't even be noticed. I
myself am unable to understand why
they haven't been brought here. A lot
cf people in this country are solidly
against this. They have their reasons,
and I respect their RIGHT to those
reasons. But somehow, somewhere,
some way there will HAVE to be a
solution. Each day's delay makes the
situation just that much more intoler-
able. Why can't we SHOW the world
that humanity—as well as Democracy
—is STILL in flower here—and al-
ways will be so long as we remember
to think of others—as well as our-
selves."

This is a magnificent gesture. It is the
echo of generations of appeals by Ameri-
cans in behalf of the downtrodden. Unfor-
tunately, it is little more than a gesture,
since, as Mr. Roosevelt has pointed out, "a
lot of people in this country are solidly
against this." In the meantime, many
among those who are against admitting the
persecuted read into an address like Mr.
Roosevelt's, and of others who speak like
him, an entirely different meaning, and
give the impression that large numbers of
Jews are actually invading America.
What are the facts?
Social Work 'Today has just published a
study of the refugee situation in this coun-
try prepared by Protestant, Catholic and
Jewish groups, proving that the present
number of immigrants coming to our
shores is the lowest since 1840. The report,
which appeals for the maintenance of
America's traditional policy of hospitality
to the immigrant, shows that 457,675 im-
migrants entered the United States during
the years 1931 to 1939, and that this num-
ber is the lowest since the decade of 1831
to 1840, when 600,000 people settled here.
An editorial in Social Work Today
signed by three members of the advisory
editorial committee, consisting of the Rev.
Dr. John P. Boland, chairman of the State
Labor Relations Board ; Dr. Eduard C.
Lindeman of the New York School of So.
cial Work ; and Harry C. Lurie, director of
the Council of Jewish Federations and
Welfare Funds, declared that the North
American Continent in three centuries had
"peopled itself with those seeking a new
life free from national, racial, religious,
economic and political repression." The
editorial compares present sentiment to-
ward immigration from a perspective of

January 5, 1c41

• STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

time asserting that "It is our belief th at
when history offers a larger perspecti ye
still, it will not indicate that the Ameri ca
Tidbits from Everywhere
of these times was the loser because of a ny
By PHINEAS J. BIRON
limited willingness she may be showing t o
enrich herself. Rather the question will be BEHIND THE FRONT
fact that his own natal anniv,r.
asked : 'Why in this particular period, w as
Wi.shington inside circles de sary falls on the same date .0
she so hesitant upon honoring a traditio dare that the Allied blockade o - F. D. R.'s When you see t} is
upon which her greatness was built?' "
Naziland is so effective that by f hit play, incidentally, you might
1,
spring
Hitler will have to order keep in mind that the brothel
The existing situation is an extreme
'
a
big
military
to take Ger called Whitney on the stage, whc
unfortunate one. Not only are newcome rs man minds off drive
physical hunger — - in real life is named Julian Dny,
to our shores limited in number, but th e and the failure of that drive will was once associated with a Brit.
firm named Salomon and Coil
size of the new immigration is being grea t- bring an immediate peace. If you ish
pany. During the world war Jul.
have
any
appreciable
amount
of
ly exaggerated, thus making it all the mor e
Mil served with Lord Allenb ∎ 's
gold in your dental equipment
difficult for the friends of liberal immigr a- keep
out of Naziland, where den- forces in Palestine, and was ,o
tion to gain a hearing. The United States is tists have been instructed to re- severely wounded in the battle of
that he was reported dead,
today suffering from a wave of suspicio n move the gold from their patients' Jericho
and on his recovery from his in
of and prejudice against the alien cause d teeth and turn it over to Hitler. juries
had a hard time convincing
The British government is now
by the propagators of foreign isms, wit sponsoring.
military authorities that he
Friedrich Wold's anti- the
the traditional policy of keeping our door s Nazi movie, "Professor Mamlock" was really alive.
open being sacrificed. The greatness o f —while Dr. Wolf himself, like so If the theater is one of your
hobbies be sure you get a copy
America, due to such traditions, will even many ether German refugees in of
Bernard Sobel's "Theatnr
the
country
that
is
Britain's
ally,
tually be reclaimed, provided liberal S is confined to a French concentra- Handbook" The Jewish angle on
carry on their fight for the old America n tion camp. Charlie MacArthur's the pioneering days of the movie
policy, and provided also that there is n O Christmas greeting: to Adolf Hit- industry includes the fact that
Sennett's first Keystone com-
let up in giving encouragement to their po _ ler was a cable reading "What Mack
are you waiting?" and signed edy was entitled "Cohen at Conny
sition.
"Captain Hans Langsdorff". Did Island," that Broncho Billy, the
One of the best arguments in defens e you know, by the way, that when first movie celebrity, was born
of the refugee appeared in a recent co! _ the Graf Spec was in Montevideo, Max Aronson, that the first "jun-
Capt. Langsdorff hinted that if gle film" was made by the Selig
umn by Walter Winchell, as follows:
Company 30 years ago and that

His name was Fritz Casten . . . A Jewish
refugee from Nazi Germany . . Came to this
country four years ago . . . He was a mil-
lionaire spice and groceries manufacturer in
Berlin but, under the Hitler Government, lost
all his property and his savings were burgled
. .. He landed here with $500 and was able
to rebuild his business in the United States,
and regain some of his fortune . . . Casten
died last week . . . Among the bequests in his
will when it is probated, will be found an item
of $20,000 "to the City of New York in the
name of Mayor LaGuardia" for the "oppor-
tunity that was given me when I arrived from
Germany four years ago."

This is reality defying libels and misrep-
resentations. This is truth to be broadcast
to offset the spread of unfortunate exag-
gerations which serve to destroy the great
American tradition for justice and refuge
for the downtrodden of the world.

The Palestine Conference

American Jewry's eyes are directed at
Washington this week-end, and the tens of
thousands of Jews in war- and pogrom-
stricken countries will await eagerly the
decisions that will be reached there. For
leaders of the Jewish community of this
country are now in the nation's capital to
make further plans for the colonization of
Palestine and for the expansion of the
great opportunities that are offered
through Zion to save the unfortunates
from the inferno in which they now find
themselves.
As we have emphasized in these col-
umns time and again, the major problem
facing us today is that of Jewish homeless-
ness. Jews must be provided with homes,
with an opportunity to reconstruct their
lives so that they and their families may
live normal lives. Every opportunity
should be utilized to settle Jews in lands
that are ready to receive them. Unfortun-
ately, such opportunities are limited, and
Palestine remains the major haven of
refuge for the body and soul of the Jewish
people.
The National Conference on Palestine,
meeting in Washington, D. C., this week-
end, is faced with great responsibilities.
Its delegates must plan for great action.
for unprecedented activities which will
make possible the reconstruction of the
lives of hundreds of thousands of Jews.
They must face the problems that arise
today with determination to make the
movement that aims at solving the prob-
lem of Jewish homelessness the major re-
sponsibility of our times.
Privileged to meet together with Jew-
ry's outstanding modern personality — Dr.
Chaim Weizmann the Washington con-
ference assumes an important role in Jew-
ish life today. The genius of this great
leader, his knowledge of conditions affect-
ing Palestine as well as the Diaspora, his
position of prominence in the inner circles
of European nations, combine to make his
visit to this country an event of great im-
portance.
It is well that Detroit will be represented
by a delegation of able men and women at
the Washington conference. They, too,
have a responsibility—to bring the inspira-
tion they will have gotten in Washington
to the Jews of Detroit, to strive for greater
interest and better results in the work of
rehabilitating the unfortunate Jewish
masses of Europe. May the work of the Na-
tional Conference on Palestine be crowned
with success.

the Uruguayans weren't co-opera-
tive he might be compelled to shell
their town? And that both Captain
Merit and Radio Operator Bennett
of the U. S. Tuscaloosa, which
rescued the Nazi crew of the scut-
tled liner Columbus, are "non-
Aryans?"

INFORMATION

the first world-famous star to be
featured in an American film was
Sarah Bernhardt.

GIGGLE HERE

We can't resist passing on this
gag, gleaned from Winchell. A
man says to another man that he
had a strange dream last night.
He dreamed Hitler died. And he
went to the funeral. It was the
darndest thing, he said. "They let
the coffin down into the grave,
poured earth on it, patted it down
and then pulled it up again. They
lowered it and raised it at least
half a dozen times, going through
the same business each time"
"But why?" asks the other guy,
"did they do it so many times?"
"On account of the applause" is
the retort.

If you want to know all there
is to know about assimilation or
anti-Semitism, Arabs or Aryan
legislation, artists or athletes,
Americana or the Australian Jew-
ish community, be sure you get
the first volume of the Universal
Jewish Encyclopedia, just pub-
lished and the first such reference
work to be brought out in this
country in 35 years. The other
nine volumes of the Encyclopedia
will appear as quickly as the doz-
ens of scholars who have been
laboring on them can ready them. ABOUT PEOPLE
Did you see that article in The
Congratulations to Bernard G.
Synagogue Light, monthly maga- Richards, until now the head of
zine of Wall Street Synagogue, in the Foreign Language Department
which Dr. David I. Macht and of the National Democratic Com-
Moses B. Macht declare the pa- mittee, on his appointment to the
triarch Jacob to have been the Immigration and Naturalization
discoverer of the Mendelian prin- Section of the U. S, Department
ciple of heredity? It was by the of Labor,
application of this principle that
Now in this country and start-
Jacob bred his flock of speckled ing all over again in the ship-
goats and brown sheen, say the ping business is Arnold Bern-
Machts.
stein, from whom the Nazis took
In Bethlehem, Palestine, birth- the fortune he had built up in
place of Jesus, Christmas is cele- that line in the 1920's and early
brated three times every year— '30's.
Publicity masterminds of the
on Dec. 25, by the Catholics, on
Jan. 6, by the Greek Orthodox Paul V. McNutt Presidential
Church and on Jan. 18 by the nomination campaign are Leo Be-
Armenians.
zel' and Morris Jacobs of Omaha.
Disraeli ha I 21 fiancees before Among recent arrivals in this
he acquired his wife.
country is Mordecai Newman of
Some years ago one Senora Sal- Palestine, head of the Hebrew
(mica Wolf had her husband's pic- publishing firm which has brought
ture tattooed on her tongue in out authors like H. G. Wells,
expiation for having nagged him George Bernard Shaw and Thomas
to death.
Mann in Hebrew translation. He
s the brother of artist Elias New-
DRAMATIC STUFF
1 nan, art curator of the Pales-
ine Pavilion at the New York
What Oscar Serlin, producer of World's Fair, who last week had
"Life With Father," finds most a fine exhibit of Palestine theat-
thrilling about the command per- r ical sketches from the Pavilion's
fo•mance of his play scheduled c ollection at New York's Hudson
to take place at Washington on Park Library.
the President's birthday is the
(copyright, 1940, S. A. F. S.)

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