Purely - Commentary •

Rabbis Occuping
Michigan Pulpits
By Philip Slomovitz

Coughlin—A Frank Pro-Nazi

Are Yiddishists Forgotten Men?

Detroiters Get Assignments from
Hebrew Union College

Among the Lindbergh associates are men and
women who endorse his views but who dare not
come out in favor of the Nazi program. After
all, pro-Nazism is classed with un-Americanism.
Our government's program is for all-out aid to
the peoples fighting Ilitlerism, and while some
find it necessary to oppose such aid they refuse
to become parties to Nazism.
But one man definitely aligns himself with
the Fascist idea and even predicts a German
triumph. He is none other than Rev. Charles E.
Coughlin of Royal Oak. In one of his most re-
cent issues he had this to say:
The American word-warriors are having a
veritable field day in belittling Adolf Hitel•.
Radio, movies and newspapers vie with each .
other in ridiculing the Nazi Fuehrer. Holding
no brief for Hitler—in spite of what some of
our best critics say—we are inclined to suspect
that the German leader is 'making a monkey'
out -of the word-warriors, whose armies have been
defeated and whose boasts have been reduce to
thin air.
"Now that the Russian campaign is practi ally
decided in favor of Hitler, British morale, which
hoped for a Soviet victory, is lower, than the
bottom-most ledge of Dover Cliff. . . . Germany
is standing firmer than ever and Great Britain's
internal peace is threatened." •
But Coughlin is never satisfied with half-
hearted endorsements. In the same issue from
which the above is culled he predicted a Nazi
victory and went so far as to say that the Na-
tional-Socialists (that's the complete name for
Nazis in Germany) will even take control of
the American government. In an article "We
Predict" Coughlin's Social Justice stated:
"We predict the final banishment from office of
the present New Dealers before the outbreak of
Armageddon seven to ten years hence. We pre-
dict an attempt to establish a Nationalist-Social-
ist Patty in America with emphasis on the word
'nationalist.' We predict that . . . the National-
Socialists in America—organized under that or
some other name—eventually, will take control
of the government on this continent. We predict,
lastly, the end of democracy in America."
This is the Coughlin platform. The Royal Oak
priest who has been licked in many battles refuses
to give up. He is still waiting for the final blow
when Nazism is completely eradicated and Cough-
linism in America with it.
•

Abraham Goldberg is one of the most inter-
esting personalities in American Jewish life. He
is an excellent speaker, and Stephen S. Wise
always pleads with him to orate in Yiddish,
although "Abe" makes a good showing also in
English. He is a brilliant writer, and is a master
in both Hebrew and Yiddish.
Goldberg just published a book—"Unzer Zeit
Kumt" ("Our Time Is Coming"), which is a
collection of one of the most inspiring group of
essays that has ever come our way. It is in
Yiddish.
. Therein, perhaps, lies the rub. Had Goldberg
made his start in English, he might have ac-
quired a different sort of recognition. Noted
writers have been known to receive awards and
prizes—the Pulitzer and Nobel; they have r-
ceived degrees and have been called to occupy
Chairs in Universities.
But Yiddish and Hebrew must be obstacles.
Else, "Abe" Goldberg would surely have been
among those who are chosen for degrees and
honors and the Caps and Gowns. He would have
earned it for his last book alone.
Yiddishists and Hebraists are forgotten men.
They are in exile. Well may "Abe Goldberg"
and colleagues say "anachnu b'Galuth!"

Forty-one
pulpits
scattered
over the country are filled by
students of the Hebrew Union
College during the present high
Holy Day period, according to
an announcement made at the
national office of the Union of
American Hebrew (70 ngrega tions.
Five additional pulpits are occu-
pied by graduates of the College
for the holiday season.
Rabbi Mordecai I. Soloff, for-
mer Detroiter, officiates at Cam-
den, Ark.
Among the students and the
pulpits they fill are:
Alvin S. Roth of McKeesport,
Pa., at Bay City, Mich.; Walter
Plaut of Chicago, Ill., at Ben-
ton Harbor, Mich.; Joseph M.
Strauss of Detroit at Cairo, Ill.;
Robert L. Katz of Waukeegan,
at Petoskey, Mich.; Ber-
nard II. Lavine of Trenton, N.
J., at Saginaw, Mich.

Diplomatic Honesty

Those who marvel at the cruel methods 'of
statesmen and politicians who gamble with the
destinies of their subjects may find the clue
for the evils of mankind in an interesting story.
It is related by Lloyd C. Griscom in his book
"Diplomatically Speaking", as follows:

• 3

5

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and the Legal Chronicle

September 26, 1941

A cabinet meeting was held by King
George shortly after his arrival in Athens
in 1863. To illustrate a point he walked to
a huge map on the wall, leaving his watch
on the table. A few minutes later when he
resumed his seat the timepiece was gone. He
looked around and said, "Will whoever has
my watch please return it?"
The ,.circle of faces stared blankly at
him. The king still could not believe the
disappearance was intentional. "Well, gen-
tlemen, I'm not accustomed to this type of
joke. I'd like to have my watch back."
Nobody spoke or moved.
The king announced firmly, "I'm g oing
to put out the light while 1 count 60. If I
find the watch again on the table, the inci-
dent will be closed."
In the darkness he called the seconds
out loud, and turned up the light. His silver
inkstand had vanished.

A story like this speaks volumes. It describes
the honesty of some government leaders, and
their immunity from punishment.
It will require a day of great enlightenment
to bring about the much-needed reckoning.

•
The Demand for Hitler's Corpse

Central European Observer, semi-official Czecho-
Slovak organ published in London, states that
among the many anti-Nazi brochures dropped on
Berlin pavements or pasted on house fronts is
one with the following text:
"Wir wollen keinen Krieg,
Wir wollen keinen Sieg;
Wir wollen keine Eiche,
Wir wollen Hitler's Leiche!"
In free translation, its meaning is:
"We want no war,
We want no victory,
We want no honors - and decorations,
We want Hitler's corpse!"
And the revolt of the conquered peoples, espe-
cially in France, Holland and Norway, indi-
cates that the craving for the Nazi madman's
body is universal.

•
The Background of the Great

A recent issue of Ave Maria, a Catholic
periodical, carried the following interesting bit
of information:

Famous former movie players: The Duchess
of Windsor who received $5 a day as a
Hollywood extra when she was plain Wally
Simpson; Leon Trotsky who played a bit in
the film, "Rasputin", at Fort Lee, N. Y., for
$3 a day; and Benito Mussolini who ap-
peared as an extra at $2 a day when Samuel
Goldwyn filmed the "Eternal City" in Rome,
20 years ago.

So, this is the background of some of the
great! And does this account for the high-hat-
edness and cruelty of those who started at the
bottom- of the ladder?
Morality and justice, what crimes • have been
committed in your names!

41

•

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Coronet recently carried the following story:
"When a well known Chicago attorney started
work with a legal firm years ago, his first "cub"
job was the routine collection of overdue ac-
counts. Among them was one deemed absolutely
dead, and included in the youngster's list as a
joke. Two days later a check in full payment
of this "dead" account arrived by mail, The head
of the firm; astonished and curious, called in his
new man.
"Walter, I see you've collected Smith's ac-
count. What on earth did you say to him?"
"I didn't know what to say," the other ad-
mitted, "so I just, mailed him the bill with a
letter." '
"We've been doing that for years. Let's see
a carbon of that letter."
It was laid on his desk. A broad grin spread
over the executive's face as he read:
"Dear Mr. Smith:
"Unless we receive your check by return mail
for the full amount of the enclosed bill, what
we will do will amaze you."
We clipped it and stuck it here because it
is remindful of an old Yiddish yarn which may
well be called the parent of the Coronet tale.
The Yiddish story is about a beggar who was
turned away penniless by the servant of a very
rich man. He returned again and again for a
donation, but without success. Fnally he told the
servant: "Tell your master that I'll be back again
tomorrow. If he does not give me a handsome
donation I'll do what my father did ("veil ich
ton vos mein tate hot geton").
The next day the rich man himself met the
beggar at the door and gave him a fine monetary
gift. As the beggar was about to leave he called
him back and said: "Reb Yid, what would you
have done if you had not received this donation?
What did your father do that you threatened to
repeat?" And the beggar replied: "Like my
father, without a nedovo (donation) I would
have gone hunggry ("ich volt gehungert vie mein
tate")."
Apparently there is no story without its
counterpart or some sort of ancestry.

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Poor King Boris

King Boris of Bulgaria is acting on the
side of the Axis. This, too, is not un-
expected.
In his highly interesting book "Men of
Europe," (Modern Age Books), contain-
ing confidential notes of his many years'
experiences as an international correspon-
dent, Andre Simone exposes the Bulgarian
situation and tells the following about
King Boris and the reactions of his sub-
jects:

"There can be little doubt that King Boris
leaned toward Nazi Germany. He sought re-
vision, and he believed, as his Italian-born
wife, Queen Joanna once said, "that Bul-
garia's chances lay with revisionist Nazi
Germany and Fascist Italy.' They alone, he
reasoned, could win back for him the Bulgar-
irn territory lost in the First World War,
which he never ceased to mourn. And they
alone, he believed, could save him from the
menace of Bolshevism, which he regarded as
very real.
"Don't you know,' he once said to the
French envoy, 'that/ my peasants love Russia
more than they do me? Are you going to pro-
tect me alainst them when the y rise again?
They nearly got me in 1923.'"

Apparently the Nazi heel is already on
Boris' neck that is twitching in fear. And
judging by what is happening in other
lands where the oppressed are rising up
against the oppressors, Boris and Joanna
will hear from their "subjects" who have
preferences in their affections.
•

Hitler and Louis XVI

Hitler's latest statement, on the Russian situa-
tion. is reminiscent of the famous declaration by
Louis XVI: "It is legal because I wish it." But
in neither case was it finality. Germans today
accept Hitler, as the French, under compulsion,
accepted Louis XVI. The finality of history re-
jects both. Clip and file Hitler's statement as
something which will rank with the state papers
relegated to a position of utter contempt.

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