August 15, 1941

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and the Legal Chronicle

P urely Commentary •

Sammy's Relatives Get Slapped

A fair Jewish lady, thoroughly Aryan-looking,
came in to a D e t r o it department store
and asked for a copy of Budd Schulberg's "What
Makes Sammy Run".
"It is the story of an obnoxious Jew," the
saleslady commented. Fair (Jewish but Aryan-
looking) Lady was incensed. The idea of anyone
passing such a remark! She was hurt. She
thought it was what some of our "emancipated"
landsleute call "Rishus".
But it was, in reality, a very innocent remark.
The book is about an obnoxious Jew; in fact,

the book is an obnoxious book.

Who is the one to be incensed? The wrong
lies not in a non-Jew's interpretation of the
plot, but rather in the Jews' failure to recognize
an article that needs to be rejected.
Sammy's relatives are flocking to the castigat-
ing irons. Instead of deploring insult and self-
abuse (it is sheer selbst-hass--self-hatred, nothing
more), we make it lucrative for Sammy's creator
to pass his cheek around.
Fair Lady should not have blamed the saleslady
who sold her a copy of "Sammy". She should
have turned around and let herself be kicked
for financing a nasty book—a book whose in-
dividual character may exist somewhere but who
represents a wild exception to the rule—just
the exception Coughlin and Hitler would like
to find in order to be able to kick the entire
People Israel around. And when Jews make it
possible for a Jewish author to spread this
venom, they do just the thing they would kick
about if the author were a non-Jew. Then, the
cry would be anti-Semitism.
When will Jews learn? Hear (wake up!), 0
Israel! and stop giving comfort to the enemy by
means of your own pocketbooks and your own
self-castigating authors.
•

A Belated Balfour Story

-

*1

A bit belated, an interesting story is now
told about the late Earl of Balfour, who, as
Arthur James Balfour, member of the British
War Cabinet, in 1917 issued the historic Balfour
Declaration viewing with favor the establishment
of the Jewish National Home in Palestine.
When Balfour made his important visit to this
country in 1918, he was a guest in a well known
hotel in Washington where all the dining room
waiters were colored men. On his first evening's
stay there, un-familiar with the menu, he dis-
carded the food card, gave the waiter a 50-cent
tip and said, "Just bring me a good dinner".
The eminent statesman enjoyed the dinner im-
mensely and repeated the practice for a fort-
night. Before he left for England he thanked
the waiter for his fine service, and received the
following reply: "Dat's all right, sah; an' good-
by an' good luck. An' when yoh or any of yoh
friends come heals what caint read, jes' ax foh
Calhoun Clay."
The next time you discuss the Hebrew Uni-
versity, at the opening exercises of which on
April 1, 1925, Balfour was the principal speaker;
or when you have occasion to speak of the Bal-
four Declaration, spring this story. I wonder if
it will compensate anti-Zionists for their in-
ternal xenophobia (dislike by Jews of the unlike
Jews).

•
Lazaron and Nock

VAr

The Rev. Dr. Morris S. Lazaron of Baltimore
is not a newcomer in the ranks of the appeasing
Jews who nauseate you with their diabetic at-
tempts to humor and mollify the non-Jews. Very
often he does it uninvited, and more often than
not he sets out to be ambasador to the non-Jews
without portfolio in a spirit that leaves the im-
pression that he relishes the idea of teasing his
fellow Jews.
Well, he did it again. This time, he joins none
Other than Albert Jay Nock whose misrepresenta-
tion of the Jewish issue, he endorses in a letter
to the Atlantic Monthly.
Several camps appear to have united in con-
demnation of Nock's articles. James Marshall,
who is certainly far removed from nationalist
ranks, called Nock a defeatist. Maurice Samuel
(lid the best job of all in his dissection of the
vicious Nock outbursts, in his two articles writ-
ten for the militant new Jewish journalistic
enterprise—the Independent Jewish Press Serv-
ice. But Lazaron dissents.
For which, Lazaron should be thanked. It
would be unreal and ill-fitting that he should
suddenly prove to be on the right track. Since
he is consistent in mocking the position of his
fellow-Jews, it is not so hard to take his self-
mockery. (Selbst-bass, such actions have been
called). The argument continues with Nock alone,
and Nock has been well taken care of by Jews
who call a spade a spade and who refus? to hide
behind the smile-and-pat-on-the-back of our
charming friends some of whose best friends are
Jews but some of whose words are deadlier than
poison.

•
Hitler, Brauchitsch and the German High
Command

Add to the many rumors the story that Gen-
eral Brauchitsch has been removed from the
German High Command.
Which lends greater significance to the story
that came a short time before the death of the
former Kaiser Wilhelm from Doom. The Kaiser
called Hitler a bumptious upstart, and after the
rape of France he told one of his old generals
that he believed Hitler to be merely a tool of
the German High Command. He said he was
convinced that Hitler himself knew nothing about
strategy. The general pleaded Hitler's case and
assured the Kaiser that Hitler was a military
genius who had himself planned the invasion of
the Low Countries. Whereupon the Kaiser re-
marked: "Why then, that proves how magnificent

By Philip Slomovitz

was the training in the Imperial Army. See what
it has done for a corporal."
Rumor confirms suspicion that the German
High Command is disdainful about Hitler's mili-
tary opinions; time will prove whether the Kaiser
is right about Hitler being merely a tool in the
hands of the High Command. In either case,
it is clear that not all is well in Nazi-land. The
gods will soon destroy those whom they have
already made mad.
•

The Congressional Record—and the
Hereafter

On page 6321 of the Congresional Record,
under date of July 21, 1941, appears a request
made by Congressman J. Buell Snyder of Penn-
sylvania for permission to insert in the Record
the article by Walter Lippman from Life Maga-
zine. There was no objection to this request,
and the following notation appears in parenthesis:
"The matter referred to appears in the hereafter
in the Appendix."
Judging by some of the material appearing
in the Congressional Record (at the taxpayer's
expense), "the hereafter" is undoubtedly the best
place for what some Congressmen consider au-
thoritative literature.
•

Birkhead Sees It More Clearly

Non-Jew Leon M. Birkhead, militant director
of Friends of Democracy, knows better than the
average Jewish leader. He is more far-sighted
and has better vision for the future.
There is a factual incident worth relating at
this time. Early in December 1940, Birkhead
came to Detroit to address a meeting of the
American Jewish Congress. He was concerned
with two persons—Henry Ford and Charles A.
Lindbergh. He felt that Ford ought to be reached
with a sound plea to call a halt to the circula-
tion of anti-Semitic literature bearing his name.
(Eight months of effort in this direction went
to naught, necessitating the issuance of Birk-
head's pamphlet "Ford Must Choose"). And he
warned that Lindbergh is the tool of the anti-
S e m it e_s and that he has been chosen by
Pelley and Coughlin and McWilliams and their
ilk as Presidential candidate on a pro-Nazi plat-
form.
The fact that Birkhead was one of the first
to warn against of the Lindberghian aspirations
is half as important as the fact that Birkhead's
appearance at a public meeting in Detroit was
the signal for the FIRST public anti-Semitic out-
burst in the city of Ford-Smith-Coughlin and the
Black Legion. The high school auditorium in
which he spoke was filled before the meeting
started with Coughlinites who waited for the sig-
nal—the first mention of the name Lindbergh.
Then came sneezing powder, hissing and booing,
a typical anti-Semitic demonstration. The sane
(Jewish) element patiently out-waited the hood-
lums who were finally compelled to leave in a
body—without police escort—after several more
demonstrations. They were not satisfied, however.
They called the newspapers and told them there
was "a riot". The press checked on the story,
and then the truth became known.
The moral? Instead of backing up Birkhead,
Jews became suspicious. Before that (historic for
Detroit) meeting, there were wealthy Jews who
urged that the meeting be called off. They ad-
mitted they were afraid that Smith and Ford
may be attacked. They suspected nothing about
Lindbergh. But Birkhead knew better. Ile had
watched the anti-Semites, he discovered their
technique, he knew, as he knows now, that Jews
ought not to be afraid.
When you study the background of Birkhead,
you get an idea why he pleads so earnestly with
Jews not to be afraid.

TEMPLE ISRAEL RECEIVES
GIFT OF A SEFER TORAH
Rabbi Leon Fram to Be Inaugurated at Reli-
gious Service on Sept. 12

At the meeting of the execu-
tive committee of the new Re-
form Temple, Temple Israel, held
last Monday night at the offices
of the congregation, 1006 Fox
Theater Building, it was an-
nounced that Mrs. Alexander
Freeman has presented the new
Temple with a gift of a Sefer
Torah, the parchment scroll of
the Law of Moses.
The Scroll which Mrs. Free-
man presented was made in Pales-
tine. It is bedecked with an
embroidered white silken mantle,
and adorned with a crown,
breastplate and pointer made of
pure silver. The new Scroll will
be used for the first time and
dedicated at the Rosh Hashonah
service at the Detroit Institute of
Arts on Monday morning, Sept.
22.
The executive committee is the
temporary governing body of the
congregation which will adminis-
ter its affairs until the election
of officers and a board, which will
take place after the High Holy
Days. It consists of: Harry C.
Grossman, who a few weeks ago
completed his second term of
office as president of Congrega-
tion Beth El; Herman Warren,
Ellis Thal and Morris Garvett,
who were formerly members of
the board of Congregation Beth
El; Jacob Albert, Mrs. Leon B.
Cowen, Dr. Samuel B. Danto,
Alexander Freeman, Arthur J.
Hass, Benjamin E. Jaffe, Harry
L. Jackson, Dr. Charles Lakoff,
Robert Mazer, Harry M. Raden,
J. A. Sarason, George M. Stutz.
Morris Garvett is temporary
chairman of the committee. harry
M. Raden is secretary.
The committee decided that a
religious service to dedicate the
new congregation, and to inaug-

urate Rabbi Leon Fram as Rabbi,
be held Friday night, Sept. 12, in
the auditorium of the Detroit In-
stitute of Arts.
The High Holy Day services
of Temple Israel ,will also be held
at the Detroit Institute of Arts,
beginning with the New Year
Eve service on Sunday night,
Sept. 21.

Nazis Burn Rare Jewish Volumes
in Vilna Bonfire

Rare volumes in Hebrew and in
Yiddish which cannot be dupli-
cated, taken from the famous
Strashun Jewish Library in Vilna,
have been publicly burned by the
Nazis in a great street bonfire, it
is reported from German-occupied
Lithuania.
More than a thousand books
from the library, which was one
of the Jewish institutions which
made Vilna the spiritual and cul-
tural center of European Jewry,
were burned in this modern au-
to-da-fe.
The library was founded by a
Vilna Jew named Strashun early
in the 19th century and had al-
most since its founding been the
center of non-religious learning
of Vilna Jewry, as the old syna-
gague of the city had been its
Jewish religious center.
Volumes which were not burned
were sent by the Nazis to their
Institute of Jewish Research in
Frankfort, recently established by
the arch Jew-hater, Alfred Ro-
senberg as an organization for
the study of anti-Semitism.
The Germans, in a public an-
nouncement, have termed the
burned books "dangerous Bolshe-
vik literature." Those sent to
Frankfort will be used to prove
"Jewish aspiration to world domi-
nation."

54

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•
An Internal Tragedy

Your Commentator is inclined to take Pages
12 and 13 of the July 13 issue of the New
Palestine and to preserve it in deep black.
It is cause for mourning because it represents
one of the saddest tragedies in our internal
set-up.
The two pages represent an airing of views.
Louis Lipsky finally spoke his mind and un-
burdened himself of an inner hurt. For more
than 40 years he had been in key positions in
the American Zionist movement. But now, a new
king has arisen in Israel, and the king and his
cabinet know not the men who had built the
Zionist movement.
It is not material at the moment whether
Lipsky is right or wrong, whether he should have
plunged into active Zionist work in spite of hav-
ing felt—as he states in his letter to the New
Palestine—that "obviously, in this rejuvenation
I did not fit into the picture." What does matter
is the reply that was given the Zionist pioneer.
The "Editor" of the New Palestine proceeds to
quote the record. Lipsky had been asked to write
articles for the New Palestine and he refused.
The "minutes" of ZOA executive meetings are
supposed to show that what Lipsky advocates
and approves had been discussed in his presence,
and now he speaks of them as if they were
new things. And to top off the argument there
is a letter from Dr. Solomon Goldman, also in
reply to the Lipsky letter, in which the former
ZOA president declares: "Just now, while Ger-
many is plowing over another three million Jews
and advancing on Moscow, and London, with the
approval of Washington, is maintaining its non-
committal, or shall I say, appeasement policy in
Palestine, I consider the Emergency Committee
and the whole Zionist set-up, a subject for
tragedy, comedy or farce, but not for partisan
debate."
Here you have summation of the issue: it is
not comedy or farce—it is tragedy. And it is

(Continued on Page 12)

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