i ewisi Periodical @ter
94
January 3, 1941
S
DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and the Loco, Chronicle
Purely Commeptary
Defense Methods: Demands or Flattery?
The question that more than any other dis-
turbs Jews today is that of the methods to be
pursued in defending our rights. Are they to
be hush-hush and sha-sha programs, or are de-
mands to be made publicly, without hesitation?
One of the most interesting discussions of
the subject is to be found in an exceedingly
fine book, "An Introduction to Philo Judaeus"
by Prof. Erwin R. Goodenough of Yale Univer-
sity. This brilliant study of the great Jewish
philosopher of the First Century of the Christian
era relates how Philo interceded in behalf of
Jews with prefect and, emperor. Prof. Goodenough
points out that "when the Jews of Palestine
angered the Romans by insistent demands and
assertion of their 'rights' they were far less
realistic politicians than the Greeks who met the
Romans with flattery and deification." Stating
that Philo was aware of this situation, Prof.
Geedenough quotes the following from Philo's
writings to show the Jewish leader's attitude of
caution in appealing for Jewish rights:
"As the good man is an observer not only
of human life but also of things in the uni-
verse, he is well aware how mightily may
blow the winds of necessity, chance, oppor-
tunity, force, and lordly power, as well as
what plans and achievements, though mount-
ing to heaven, these same forces have scat-
tered and destroyed by merely holding their
breath. Consequently he will feel obliged to
shield himself with caution, for caution is
the proper protection against one's suffering
sudden calamity, since it seems to me that
caution is for an individual what its wall is
for a city. So then are those people not out
of their wits, completely mad, who are rash
enough to display inopportune frankness, and
dare at times to speak and act in defiance of
kings and tyrants? They do not seem to per-
ceive that they are not only like animals put-
ting their necks under the yoke, but that
the y are betraying their whole bodies and
souls, as well as their wives and children
and their large kindred crowd and commu-
nity of companions and relations. Now it is
possible for the charioteer and driver with
all freedom to goad his horses and urge them
on, or to check them and hold them back and
mete out any treatment small or great just
as he wishes. So they are branded and beaten
and mutilated and suffer before they die every
savage and pitiless torture, and then are led
away to execution and killed.
"These are the rewards of untimely frank-
ness, not of frankness as used by people
of discriminating judgment, but the rewards
allotted to silliness, madness, and incurable
insanity. What? you say. When a person sees
a winter storm raging, and a heavy adverse
gale, and a hurricane rushing down and piling
up the sea with waves, a time when one ought
to li e in a harbor, does he set sail and put
out to sea? What pilot or skipper was ever
so drunk or maddened by wine that while such
storms as I have described were raging he
would want to cast off, when his ship would
be swamped by the seas rushing over it and
be swallowed up with its crew? The man
who wants to sail in safety must wait for a
favorable wind, one that is propitious and
gentle. And what? When a person sees a bear
or a wild boar or a lion sweeping down upon
him, and ought to pacify and mollif y the
beast, does he inflame it and tantalize it,
until he actually offers himself as a banquet
and feast to the pitiless carnivores? Is it
tru e that one gets nothing by trying to oppose
spiders and Egyptian asps and other creatures
which bear destructive poison and inflict sure
death upon those they attack. Surely it is far
better to use incantations and make them
manageable and so to escape suffering calam-
ity from them.
'Are there not certain men who are more
savage and treacherous than boars, spiders,
and asps, men whose treachery and hostility
can be escaped only by mollifying and pro-
pitiating them? So for example Abraham, the
wise man, did obeisance to the sons of Chet
(whose names means those who 'disperse'),
because the emergency convinced him he must
d o so. He did not consent to this act of
obeisanc e because he honored those who by
race and habit were the natural enemies of
reason, and who 'disperse,' fritter away, and
piteously squander education, the coin of the
soul; but he feared their present power and
irresistible strength and took care not to pro-
voke them. In this way he could preserve that
great and powerful treasure and achievement
of virtue, that best dwelling place of wise
souls, the double cave, which he could not
occup y when fighting and warring, but only
whe n he was cultivating and serving reason.
"What? Are not we also, as we loiter in
the market place, often 'dispersed' by the
rulers, and 'dispersed' by the beasts of bur-
den? But we 'disperse' for each from a quite
different motive; for we give way to the
rulers out of honor, but to the beasts out
of fear lest we be injured by them. Now
whe n occasion offers it is a good thing to
oppose our enemies and to destroy their
power of attack, but lacking such opportunity
it i s safe to keep quiet, while if one wishes to
get any benefit from them it is advantageous
to propitiat e them."
This is familiar language. Spokesmen for an
important group in American Jewry still use these
arguments, and continue to advocate a policy of
caution and silence in dealing with our attackers.
The surprising thing is that this quotation from
Philo Judaeus has never been used by this ele-
ment in support of its contentions.
Of course, conditions today are different, and
it can be argued with ease that what was appli-
cable in the year 40 is not logical in the year
1940. In an age of the radio and the newspaper
and wireless and deadly propaganda; in an age
CLIFTON AVENUE - CINCINNATI 20, OHIO
••
S
Detroit Delegation
By Philip Slomovitz Goes to Pittsburgh
For 'Y' Conference
in which the wild boar and the spider and the
asp are replaced by Hitler and Coughlin, the
approach must be different.
Would Philo have used the arguments we have
just quoted had he lived in our day? We doubt it.
The differences of opinion on the approach to
the anti-Semitic issues have often set Jew against
Jew, and instead of uniting Jews in defense of
their rights have divided them. An interesting in-
cident was recorded by H. L. Sokolow in the fol-
lowing brief article on "Yielding to Blackmail":
One of the worst features about anti-Semit-
ism is that it makes cowards of Jews. The
late "Sholem Aleichem" dealt with this in a
number of stories, particularly in a story
which he called "The Four Questions," based
on the traditional four questions which are
put by the youngest to the head of the
family in the cours e of the Passover service.
Wh y was it, Sholem Aleichem's small boy
asked, that the meanest goy had more in-
fluence on Jews than the wisest Jew? And
why was it, he queried, that Jews try to
outdo themselves to do the goyim services?
The same conditions often are true of
Canadian Jews with less reason than they
were of Russian and Polish Jews. An example
was given to us recentl y which we cite be-
cause it is typical. A Jewish business man
made a canvass of his friends for the purpose
of selling them a certain type of service. He
cffered them a lower price and better accom-
modation and a number of them availed them-
selves of his offer, cancelling the existing ar-
rangement with a non-Jewish firm. Naturally
the other firm resented the loss of business
and if its competitor had not been a Jew
would have had nothing to say. But not being
able to attack on the merits of the case, this
firm attacked on the lines of anti-Semitism
with this result: some of the non-Jewish firms
which had given the Jew the business refused
to change even though he was a Jew and some
of the JeWish firms which had changed came
back to the non-Jewish firm at the higher
price and the lesser accommodation. Upon
investigation it was disclosed that the thing
which had caused Jew to shun Jew even at
a loss was the anti-Semitic argument made
by the manager of the non-Jewish firm. He
had hinted darkly that it would not look any
too well for Jews to ignore non-Jewish trade
at this time and had succeeded in selling
them the idea.
This is just the sort of cowardice that
makes matters worse. It is a sort of black-
mail which never can b e paid for and which
devils its victims increasingly. The cowards
do not seem to realize that they die a thou-
said deaths. If they would only meet the
issue like men, they would understand that
they cannot better their position by being ser-
vile nor can they make it worse by standing
up to their enemies. If we are going to suffer
from anti-Semitism in this country we will
suffer irrespective of any policy of appease-
ment we fellow, and if we manage to down
the evil, it will not be by means of yielding
to blackmail. The only way to conduct busi-
ness is on merits. Th e racial question both
for Jews and non-Jews is a trap full of dan-
PITTSBURGH.—Plans are be-
ing made by the local Commit-
tee to entertain Detroit guests
to the second annual inter-city
youth conference of the Ohio
district of the Midwest section
of the Jewish Welfare Board on
Feb. 1 and 2, in the Pittsburgh
Y. M. & W. H. A.
Sunday's Round Table ses-
sions, in which delegates from
each of the seven cities will be
represented, is centcred around
the conference theme, "Contribu-
tion of Jewish Youth to the Sur-
vival of American Democracy."
The Round Tables will take place
in the morning and afternoon
with a luncheon holding the mid-
day interest.
Arrangements have been made
to house the guests from the
six Ohio and Michigan cities in
a hotel, situated a block from
the "Y". A tour of the city's
civic and industrial sites has been
arranged for Saturday afternoon.
A dance, honoring the guests,
will be held in the "Y" Audi-
torium, Saturday night.
The Pittsburgh "Y" it situat-
ed in the city's civic center. The
building is surrounded by the
Mellon Institute of Industrial Re-
search, Carnegie Institute, which
houses the Museum, Art Gallery
and Libaary, the Board of Edu-
cation, Bldg., and the famed Ca-
Call
TYLER
5-8400
Leader
Dirt
Marches Ir}—
Marches Out!
•
RUGS CLEANED
bY LEADER
are Clean E? Beautiful
•
LEADER is not just a cleaner
—LEADER is a specialist in
cleaning Rugs, Carpets and
Upholstered Furniture.
LEADER
Carpet Cleaning Company
CUSTOM MADE QUILTS
J. TRAURIG
TYLER 4-6728
8823 12TH ST (our only store)
U
0
1=10=0=10=01=101=0=011
FREDSON'S 0
KOSHER
Restaurant and Dining Room
For Home Cooked Meals in a
Wholesome Environment
12017 DEXTER BLVD.
NOrthlawn 9786
0
S=0=10=0=0=t0===ioa o =to
BUICK' S Best Bet
ger and difficulty.
The old Philo thesis can easily be attacked
today on this ground: democracy, if it is to sur-
vive, must become articulate; just causes, if they
are to overcome the assault that comes from Naz-
ism, must assume the offensive and must not
merely content themselves with defending their
positions.
This applies also to the position of the Jew.
While there are occasions when caution is neces-
sary, while at times we should—as we do—ignore
stupidities, on the other hand we must often
lead in the attack against the aggressors.
Maurice Samuel, author of the interesting "The
Great Hatred," reviewing his own book in the
Congress Bulletin, pointed out: "Two lessons are
clear: one is that anti-Semitism is aimed at the
destruction of human liberty everywhere. Two,
that anti-Semitism to be defeated must be at-
tacked. The nests, the breeding places. the mobi-
lization centers of anti-Semitism must be uprooted.
There must be an ideological offensive."
While there is just ground for differing with
Mr. Samuel on some points in his program, liber-
tarians today are commencing to concede that
on offensive is necessary on the part of the demo-
cratic elements in the world. Without an offensive
on the part of England against Nazi centers in
German-occupied territories and upon Italian mili-
tary points, the war situation, too, would have
been different today and England might have suf-
fered the fate of France.
Strong defense of the position of those who
believe in the necessity of being articulate will
be found in the opinions of the fathers of this
great republic. For instance, Wendell Phillips, in
his famous "Public Opinion" address given at
Boston on Jan. 28, 1852, said: "The manna of
popular liberty must be gathered each day or it
is rotten." Is liberty to be gathered by stealth,
in silence, by hiding?
In his very signficant book "Witch Hunt: The
Technique and Profits of Redbaiting," published
by Modern Age Books, George Seldes makes in-
teresting points for the position of the articulate
in our democracy. He writes, towards the end of
his important book: "An author is apparently
expected to write a conclusion giving a formula
by which the ills of which he treats may be cured.
If he fails to do so, if he merely investigates a
matter, produces the documentation, exposes the
evil. on the assumption that 'vice is a monster
of so frightful mien, as to be hated needs but
to be seen'—he is immediately branded a muck-
raker. Muckraker itself is a smear-word, a pre-
decessor of the term red; it was first used by
Theodore Roosevelt, who had encouraged the great
Lincoln Steffens and others in their work, but
who later branded them muckrakers when they got
(Continued on Page 12)
thedral of Learning of the Uni-
versity of Pittsburgh. Close by
is spacious Schenley Park, the
country's largest Zoological Con-
servatory and Carnegie Institute
of Technology.
GET IN TOUCH WITH
Jack Alkon
You Will Do Much Better
ALKON MOTOR SALES
Detroit Phone I
Vinewood 2-3060
SALES AND SERVICE
Wyandotte
Phone 0650
Wyandotte, Mich.
2400 Biddle Avenue
KADIMAH HEBREW SCHOOLS
ONE OF THE MOST MODERN IN THE STATE
NEW PUPILS NOW BEING ENROLLED
at 11812 Linwood Ave., corner Tuxedo, upstairs
SIMON RICHARDSON, Principal
Private Lessons Can Be Arranged
Transportation furnished for children who live at •
distance from the school.
For information call TOwnsend 6-1698
EXPERIENCE
ABILITY — SERVICE
APPROVED F.H.A. MORTGAGES
We invite your mortgage business.
It will receive our careful considera-
tion from inception to completion.
•
General Discount Corpor2 pion
1605 BARLUM TOWER
•■•