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DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and the Legal Chronicle

Detroit Jewish Chronicle

and THE LEGAL CHRONICLE

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

JACOB H. SCHAKPIE

President

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

.

General Offices and Publication Bldg., 525 Woodward Ave.
Cable Address: Chronicle
Telephone: Cadillac 1040

. .$3.00 Per fear

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JACOB MARGOLIS
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
MAURICE M. SAFI R

Publisher
Editor
Advertising Manager

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-
fects of interest to the Jewish people, but disclaims responsi-
bility for en endorsement of views expressed by the writers.

Sabbath Scriptural Selections

Pentateuchal portion—Gen. 44:18-47:27.
Prophetical portion—Ezek. 37:15-28.

Fast of Tebet Readings of the Torah, Thursday,
Jan. 9

Pentateuchal portion—Ex. 32-11-14; 34:1-10.
Prophetical portion—Is. 55:6-58:8.

TEBET 4, 5701

JANUARY 3, 1941

Moral Collapse vs. Mergers

Two weeks ago, it was announced by
the Jewish Welfare Federation of De-
troit that plans are under way for the
merger of the Jewish Children's Home and
the Jewish Child Placement Bureau.
Last week, the news was heralded by
two national fraternities — Phi Lambda
Phi and Phi Beta Delta—that they have
merged into one.
If this were an indication of a tendency
that might spread widely in Jewish com-
munities, then we would be healthier as an
organized Jewish body.
We are overorganized. There are too
many conflicting agencies on all fronts.
Most of those we have should be merged,
to avoid duplication and to strengthen the
functions of the community.
It is necessary to merge our cultural
efforts, to give up some of the lecture
courses by merging educational activities
—for the good of the community at large.
But on the larger front comes saddening
information. The General Jewish Council,
which was intended to become a unifying
force on the defense front, has collapsed.
The United Palestine Appeal and the Joint
Distribution Committee have broken a
long-standing partnership and the United
Jewish Appeal is no more.
Would that mergers were in order! In-
stead, we are witnessing the moral col-
lapse of movements to unite American
Jewry.

The Late Daniel Frohman

0(4

The play is the thing—and to make the
play effective and an element of joy to the
large populace, men of genius are needed
to give reality to the thesis that "all the
world's a stage, men and women merely
players."
Daniel Frohman was a genius of the
stage. At 89—his age at the time of his
recent death—he remained alert to the
needs of the acting profession. He con-
tinually contributed to the betterment of
the actors' lot and the advancement of the
theater. He was among the very promi-
nent Jews who made great contributions
to America.
The curtain falls on the life of Daniel
Frohman, but it rises again on a stage
made more beautiful by his efforts.

Pelley's Shirts and Books

William Dudley Pelley, leader of the
White Shirt movement and author of anti-
Semitic obscenities, has announced the dis-
banding of his organization but affirms his
intention to continue to "write" and to
publish "books".
Americans must not be misled. Pelley's
followers were too few to count when
they sported the prestribed shirt of his
movement. What the goateed scribbler of
anti-Semitic rubbish did do, however, was
to poison the minds of many people who
read the lies he circulated through the an-
ti-Semitic press.
The venom that flows from his pen is
the thing to watch, and it is especially
important that the FBI and the Dies Com-
mittee learn the source of his income. It
would not surprise us to learn that a
strongly pro-Nazi purse is the motivating
force that greases the Pelley machine.

- rmarewascw, -..-

"Men Who Are of God"

"Men who are of God can not in good
conscience surrender to . . . invitations to
hatred . . . Anti-Catholic prejudice, anti-
Protestant bigotry, anti-Semitic hatred, are
all in the same category."
This is the encouraging editorial decla-
ration in the Catholic Courier, official
weekly of the Roman Catholic Diocese
of Rochester. This leading article was en-
titled appropriately, "Thou Shalt Love Thy
Neighbor as Thyself."
It is good to know that this season of
the year is being utilized for encourage-
ment to those who seek better relation-
ships between all faiths.
May this spirit live for all time!

The Gewerkshaften Drive

Palestine labor's campaign—known as
the Gewerkshaften drive—is again in
progress here. It is an annual event of
significance for this reason: Next to the
Allied Jewish Campaign, the Gewerk-
shaften attract the major support of any
other Jewish appeal from the Jewish or-
ganizations. The masses of the Jews of
Detroit respond loyally to the plea for
support of the Palestine labor movement,
and their annual monetary gift is fairly
liberal.
The Histadruth, the Palestine Labor
Federation, which gains support through
the Gewerkshaften, is at present doing an
important piece of work in aiding the un-
employed in Palestine, in feeding the
needy, is assisting in providing care for
stranded refugees in the Jewish Home-
land. Their burdens, multiple in normal
times, are greater today than ever before.
Thus, the Gewerkshfaten's position as-
sumes ever greater importance in the
present crisis. As Dr. Stephen S. Wise
said on the recent 20th anniversary cele-
bration of the Histadruth :
"Given the opportunity as it ought to
be given the opportunity, the great mem-
bership of Histadruth will show that just
as it did in order to re-create Palestine,
so it is prepared to give all in order that
Palestine remain free, =invaded and un-
broken by the Axis powers. Prophetic
idealism has been brought to life within
the framework of the rebuilding of Pal-
estine by the ideals and practices of the
Histadruth whose twentieth anniversary
celebration we hold today. This celebra-
tion should not be held without making
clear to England that because we love
England, because Palestine is a part of
the great British commonwealth of peo-
ples, we are deeply pained by the deci-
sion which the Palestine government has
seen fit to make in respect to those im-
migrants who have been denied admis-
sion to Palestine. We cannot reconcile the
attitude of the British Government with
our concept of British love of freedom.
These people, denied admission to Pales-
tine may have dwelt in the land of Hitler
and in lands which he has destroyed, but
they are just as much his victims as the
slain of the Coventry massacre. Are Hit-
ler's victims to be doubly penalized be-
cause they are Jews? In the name of jus-
tice we appeal to the justice-loving sense
of Britain to halt those vessels and to wel-
come back their passengers to the Pales-
tine of which they are doubly a part,
since their exile, enforced and brutal,
from the lands of Hitler. Let me conclude
this brief message to the celebration of
the Histadruth by saying it has grown
strong by reason of the devotion, the
sacrifices of its men and women. These
have brought strength and honor alike to
Palestine, and they constitute a group to
which freedom and justice-loving young
Jews the world over may repair."
We are confident that as in previous
years the Gewerkshaften campaign will
again receive the response it deserves
from the Jews of Detroit, thus enabling
the work of the Palestine labor groups
to go on without hindrance. There are
other labor groups—especially the reli-
gious labor groups represented through
the Mizrachi ranks by the League for
Religious Labor in Palestine—who should
not be forgotten. It is to be hoped that
in the course of time there will be prac-
tical coordination of efforts to assure fair
dealing with all groups. In the meantime,
the Gewerkshaften retains a positon of
great importance in the work for Pales-
tine's reconstruction and should be aided
unstintingly.

January 3, 194'

• STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

Tidbits from Everywhere

e

By PHINEAS J. BIRON

FROM ABROAD

Since Mussolini entered the war
his compulsory collaboration with
Hitler has so depleted Italy's
food supply that even the Fascist
leaders are beginning to get wor-
ried . . . Fruit and vegetables
particularly, of which Italy used
to have an overabundance, are
now becoming rare delicacies
throughout the peninsula . . .
Latest newspaper reports at the
time of writing have the Nazis
en route to Hellas .. We'd like
it better if the last two letters
of Hellas were omitted . . . Which
reminds us . to tell you that if
the Greeks continue routing the
Italians Hitler may teach Mus-
solini a lesson by taking over
Northern Italy and the rest of
France . . . We have it on the
authority of a distinguished anti-
Fascist Italian that the grand-
mother of Count Ciano, Musso-
lini's son-in-law, bore the maiden
name Halevi . . . Winchell glee-
fully reports a Berlin broadcast
of a couple of weeks ago in
which the Nazis went to special
trouble to explain that they did-
n't care if Walter and Bishop
Manning were opposed to Hitler-
ism, because nobody had ever
heard of Winchell or the Bishop,
anyway . . . From England comes
the story of the small boy who
was comforting an old lady
frightened by a thunderstorm . .
"That wasn't Hitler, lady," said
the air-raid-hardened youngster,
"that was God—and he won't
hurt you."

STAGE AND SCREEN

Charlie Chaplin, the last hold-
out against the talking film, may
yet find himself featured on the
sound-track of a film in which
he won't appear at all . . . It
-seems that his .Hitler speeches
in "The Great Dictator" sound
so much more like Adolf than do
the efforts of any other Holly-
wood actor that Paramount is
going to ask Charlie to lend them
his voice for a picture in which
they need such a speech.
Al Jolson has arranged that
any man in Uncle Sam's armed
service can have a free ticket
for his musical comedy success,
"Hold Onto Your Hats."
The East Side now has its
own Yiddish vaudeville house, in
the Clinton Theater, operated by
Louis Weiss.

JEWISH NEWS

The leaders of New York's
Yeshiva College nurse the for-
lorn hope that Chief Rabbi Isaac
Herzog of Palestine, who now is
on his way to this country, may
be prevailed upon to become the
successor of the late Dr. Ber-
nard Revel in the presidency of
the College . . . To us, it looks,
however, as if the one who will
inherit Dr. Revel's seat is Rabbi
Leo Jung, who combines scholar-
ship with administrative ability.

THE AGE OLD STRUGGLE

TRUE STORY

The recent visit of Governor
John Moses of North Dakota—
he's not Jewish, by the way—to
the White House recalled to the
President a curious coincidence
that took place a quarter of a
century ago, when he was As-
sistant Secretary of the Navy . • .
It seems that he had chosen the
name Israel, after an American
Captain, for one of the Navy's
new destroyers . . . While Roose-
velt was going over the person-
nel list for the destroyer an aide
.came into his office with another
personnel list for another destroy-
er, named Moses . . The coin-
cidence struck Roosevelt as so
funny that he burst out laugh-
ing, whereupon the aide inquired
whether there was anything
wrong with the crew lists . . .
And the question made the future
president laugh some more--for
the lists of officers for the -two
boats were headed by the names
Murphy and O'Reilly.

ABOUT PEOPLE

Painter Elias Newman, who
was the art curator of the Pal-
estine Pavilion at the World's
Fair, has gone to Cleveland,
where he is supervising the in-
stallation of the Palestine section
of the international exhibit in
the Cleveland auditorium . . .
After completing this job New-
man will go to Mexico, to con-
centrate on painting for a num-
ber of months.
Night club warbler Hildegarde
has an accompanist who used to
teach at the Massachusetts In-
stitute of Technology and who
supervised the installation of
England's first sound film equip-
ment . . . His name is Leo
Kahn.

HERE AND HOW

Congratulations to PM, which
after six months still is known
as Manhattan's new afternoon
paper, for its expose of Fifth
Columners and anti-Semitic in-
filtration in these United States.
. . . Felicitations to the Overseas
Press Club on getting rid of
member George Sylvester Viereck,
a prominent Hitler-lover . . . The
power behind the anti-English
propaganda here, they say, is
one W. R. Davis, an oil man
with big business relations with
the Nazis . . . What's this about
anti-Semitism in the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra? Jewish
members are growing scarcer
than hen's teeth, we hear, since
Hans Lange became boss there.
. . It's Walter Winchell whose
tip on the Princess Stefanie Ho-
henlohe, that "Honorary Aryan"
whom Hitler can have with our
compliments, led to the deporta-
tion proceedings against her . . .
And we must pass on to you
his latest descriptive phrase for
the atmosphere in New York's
Nazi section—"malice in Builder-
land."

By

BRESSLER

