4
DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and the Legal Chronicle
Detroit Jewish Chronicle
and THE LEGAL CHRONICLE
'ublished Weekly by 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.
Telephooe: CAdillac 1040
Subscription in Advance
Cable Address: Chro.licle
$3.00 Per Year
JACOB MARGOLIS
Publisher-Editor
MAURICE M. SAFIR....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 paper only.
The Detroit Jewish Chronicle invites correspondence on sub.
jects of interest to the Jewish people, but disclaims respon•
sibility for an endorsement of views expressed by its writers.
Sabbath Reading of the Law
Pentateuchal portion—Numbers 1:1-4:20.
Prophetical portion—I Samuel 20:18-42.
First Day of Exodus Friday, May 22
Pentateuchal portion—Numbers XXVIII, 26-31.
Prophetical portion—Ezekiel I.
MAY 15, 1942
IYAR 28, 5702
Call a Halt
Since the emergence of the Klu Klux
Klan at the end of World War No. 1
there has been a definite organizational
anti-Semitism in the United States. These
organizations had all but disappeared by
1933 for the Klan had been exposed as a
venal . racketeering political organization
while the Dearborn Independent, the
other focus of infection, had decided to
cease publication. This happy state of
affairs was not to continue for long. In
fact with Hitler's coming to power in
Germany, anti-Semitic organizations and
publications spread over the land like
noxious weeds, until there was no area
free from them.
American Jewry has carried on an
uninterrupted campaign of defense and
attack against these sowers of discord ;
and fomenters of hatred ; and by their
vigilance and resistance have succeeded
in exposing and destroying many of
them. The Jewish editors, authors, pub-
licists and lecturers all joined in the good
fight. They have been on the alert for
any sign of anti-Semitism for so long that
they have lost their sense of discrimina-
tion.
This sensitivity to the odor of anti-
Semitism has resulted from their keen
sense of detection which they had to de-
velop because of the many and varied
forms which anti-Semitism have taken.
Attack, sensitivity, power of detection
are excellent when they are means, but
become harmful when they became ends
in themselves. It seems that many of our
articulate representatives have become so
accustomed to attack, so highly sensitized
and anxious to detect anti-Semitism that
they are ready to open fire with the
whole armament of invective and vilifica-
tion against anybody who dares to criti-
cize, dissent or oppose.
This is the ever present danger in all
crusading activities. The late Anthony
Comstock started out to exclude porno-
graphic literature and pictures from the
mails and ended by attacking master-
pieces of literature and art, if in his cru-
sading, perverted opinion, they did not
measure up to his standards of purity.
Hitler's crusade against the Jews ended
with the liquidation of every dissident
group, organization and individual in the
Third Reich.
Our crusading spirit is carrying us far
on the dictatorial road. We would silence
or liquidate all criticism, dissent and op-
position even though that criticism, dis-
sent and opposition is honest and sincere
albeit it may be mistaken or unscientific,
as it has a right to be in a land where
free speech and press are still the in-
alienable right of every inhabitant.
All of this is evoked by the merciless
and immoderate attacks upon Judge Jer-
ome Frank and Milton Mayer for their
articles in the Saturday Evening Post and
the attacks upon the Saturday Evening
Post for publishing these articles.
Judge Jerome Frank and Milton Mayer
are Jews. It is hardly credible that
Judge Frank could have been confirmed
by the Senate of the United States if he
were a man of questionable character.
Nobody has been able to discover any
record of dishonesty or duplicity on the
g illihimilime
part of Milton Mayer. Then why should
their critical articles in the Post have
met with such vituperation and billings-
gate. They are not traitors and betrayers.
They are not venal agents of foreign
powers. They are not Benedict Arnolds
and Quislings. They are two high-minded
perfectionist, critical Jews who are pri-
marily concerned with the problem of
Jewish unity and integration. They are
not anti-Semites. They are philan-
tropes.
If one would have taken the time or
had the patience to examine the articles
"Red, White and Blue Herrings" and
"The Case Against the Jew" and com-
pare them with the noisesome stuff in
Social Justice, the Gallilean or any of
the 90-odd anti-Semitic periodicals, he
would have realized that the Post ar-
ticles were constructive, helpful, upbuild-
ing criticisms, while the diatribes in
the recognized anti-SemitiC journals were
destructive, hurtful and down tearing.
Our crusaders do not end their attacks
with the demand that Judge Frank and
Milton Mayer be silenced and excom-
municated, but they castigate the Satur-
day Evening Post and some wanted the
Post Office Department to exclude the
offending issues from the mails.
The issue with many of our editors
and rabbis is no longer the Case Against
Judge Frank and Milton Mayer, but the
Case Against the Saturday Evening Post.
It is time to call a halt. Let us see
where we are going. Do we in our zeal
to destroy anti-Semitism want to deny
the freedom of speech and press to all
those who do not see eye to eye with us,
but who are just as honest, sincere, and
humane as we are. The Four Freedoms
are really precious and we must render
more than lip service if they are to be
preserved and perpetuated.
•
Salute the Judiciary
Adolph Hitler is displeased with the
judges in Germany. We do not know
the specific number or character of the
cases in which the German judges ren-
dered decisions based upon credible evi-
dence and the law. It is reasonable to
suppose that the number must have been
considerable, for certainly the Fuehrer
would not have singled out the judiciary
for special condemnation if there were
but a few isolated and unimportant
cases. This is the second time in recent
months that the judiciary has displeased
Hitler. The supposedly hand picked
judges who sat in the Riom trials in-
sisted upon trying the case against Blum,
Deladier, Gamelin and Reynaud accord-
ing to the rules of evidence and the law
of the French Republic.
The neutral correspondents who re-
ported the proceedings found the judges
to be dignified, patient, reasonable, fair
and learned.
Hitler was chagrined and disappointed
because they were not hangmen. Fanati-
cal, arbitrary, violent despots are always
incapable of seeing any side but their
own, consequently the German and
French judiciary are a thorn in the side
of this frustrated maniac * i yvho is ob-
sessed by his queer idea of legality for
even when he purged hUndreds of his
former comrades and now plans , to purge
more hundreds, it must be according to
his law.
The executioner does his gruesome job
legally and this is the kind of legality
Hitler understands. Any other kind is
wholly foreign to him.
Men like Hitler are psychologically in-
capable of understanding men with judi-
cial temperament. They cannot realize
that men can be trained and conditioned
to hear both sides; to weigh the evi-
dence; to evaluate motives and preju-
dices; reconcile contradictory stories and
make fair, impartial and just decisions.
Despite all that has happened in Ger-
many and France there are many men
who were trained and conditioned in a
happier time, when civil authority was
supreme and public law was the law of
the land. Even the brutal edicts of Hitler
cannot eradicate the deeply rooted ideas
of justice, fairness and decency with
which they have been indoctrinated.
•
May 15, :.42
°I. STRICTLYCONFIDENTIAL• • •
by Phineas J. Biron
NEWS FOR YOU
book on Scholem Aleichein,
Ith
The reports of Bernard M • excerpts from the writing, of
that immortal Jewish huon,,, st
Baruch's ill health are consid . . . The opening chanty] ;n
erahly exaggerated . . . When Associated Press Correspond, nt
asked about it, he recently said: Roy Porter's forthcomin g I—„k,
"There's nothing wrong with my "Uncensored France," is s•
heart that the fall of Hitler and thing you'll really enjoy
Company wouldn't cure" . . . v ery brief—less than a 1,age
One of Naziland's greatest come- long—and we'd love to quote it
dians, relates Harry Hershfield, for you . . . but since till,- is
is in the cooler for telling an a family paper we'll refrain, and
audience: "Sure, 98 per cent of you'll just have to wait till
e
the German people love Hitler book is published, which v
—but it's funny how I keep be for quite sonic time.
running into the other two per-
cent all the time" . . . Meyer THIS AND THAT
Davis, whose orchestras have for
If refugees of your acquaint-
years been featured by the
Greenbrier Hotel at White Sul- ance suddenly begin to speak
phur Sprngs, where the Axis English with a perfect accent,
diplomats are interned, was asked don't be surprised . • • Tim
to supply only a single organist National Refugee Service now
this season . . . So the musician enjoys the co-operation of The
who entertains the anti-Semitic Key Reporter, official bulletin of
"guests" is one Nathan Portnoff Phi Beta Kappa, in finding vol-
. . . When you see an anti-Nazi unteer teachers of English in
film called "This Is the Enemy", the 700 American cities where
watch it attentively . . . It was the NRS has active local com-
originally a Nazi propaganda mittees . . . We suppose you've
film, which the U. S. Navy seized read about the protest raised
on a Nazi warship bound for by a number of New York law-
South America—and with the yers named Ferris when a
narrative supplied here it makes Bronx attorney named Adolph
excellent anti-Nazi stuff . . . E. Finkelstein had his name
Was that a Freudian slip on legally changed to Arthur E.
the part of New York Herald- Ferris . . . The protests not-
Tribune typist or linotyper which withstanding, the erstwhile Mr.
caused Leon Henderson to be Finkelstein is now Mr. Ferris
quoted as saying the public . . . We wouldn't mention the
should "blame the Germans and incident at all if it didn't re-
the Jews for wartime restric- mind us so vividly of the oldie
tions on civilian life?" . . . concerning the Adolf Finkelstein
What Mr. Henderson actually who appealed to Hitler himself
said, of course, was "the Ger- for permission to change his
noose on the grounds that Adolf
mans and the Japs," and the was
a terrible moniker . . . For,
Tribune was quick to make a
believe it or not, the new Mr.
correction and apology.
Ferris' argument in his plea be-
for the court specified that he
BOOK STUFF
had found the name Adolph a
That Bible which the commit- great burden since Adolf's rise
tee for a Jewish army presented to power.
to Pierre van Paassen is the
first Hebrew Bible to have been ABOUT PEOPLE
published in this country . . .
Headed for the rank of briga-
It was one of the choicest items
in Dr. A. S. W. Rosenbach's dier general, we hear, is Daniel
collection . . . Now we hear Arnstein, of Burma Road fame.
Enjoying the rank of private
that Wendell L. Willkie will
have an article in the Saturday in the army is Edward M. M.
Evening Post in answer to Warburg, chairman of the Joint
Milton Mayer's "Case Against Distribution committee.
the Jews" . . . With all clue
Another distinguished citizen
respect to Mr. Willkie, it seems who will soon be a private is
to • a bit startling for him to playwright Irwin Shaw, who is
have been chosen to write on a enlisting next month.
subject of which he necessarily
Octavus Roy Cohen is a fa-
knows so little . . . A man line mous literary name, and it would
Maurice Samuel should have be a little confusing if another
been given the opportunity to writer of the same name were
demolish the Post's amateur ex- suddenly to appear in the pages
perts on the Jewish question of our more popular magazines
. . . Just out is Samuel's trans- . . . That is why Cohen's gifted
lation of Sholem Asch's "Chil- young son has taken his mother's
dren of Abraham," a collection maiden name as his nom-de-
of short stories . . . They show plume . . . So when you come
Asch at his best, dealing with across a story by one Roy
everyday Jewish types . . . All Lopez, read it carefully—for
of which reminds us that Sam- Lopez is the second-generation
uel is planning to bring out a Cohen.
"Well, it can't be good news every day! If it makes you so blue
why don't you go and buy another U. S. War Bond? That always
seems to help."