All/erica Apish Periodical Older
CLIFTON AVENUE - CINCINNATI 20, OHIO
DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle
eptcmber 11, 1942
Good Will In Action
1
In the thoughtless Twenties, a
handful of social-minded vision-
aries, searching for a cure for
the prejudices engendered by
w„,1,1 War I, sowed the seed of
the organized inter-faith good
will moment. Fertilized by the
traditional American attachment
to fair play, watered by the mem-
ory of those who died to make
America what she is and tilled
by the millions who were de-
termined to keep her that way,
the seed sunk such (loop roots
that by World War II it had
sprouted throughout the land.
Weathering two decades of un-
precedented changes in the na-
ton's economic, poltical and social
climate and successfully resisting
the drought of neglect, storms of
ignorance and the pestilence of
propaganda, good will grew into
the rich harvest that did so much
to enable America to withstand
the locust swarm of hate and
bigotry that destroyed other coun-
tries.
Of the many varieties of good
will, the best and most useful
is the species known as good will
in action, or the kind which con-
verts inter-faith speeches, resolu-
tions and mass meetings into what
President Roosevelt has aptly de-
scribed as "the practice of broth-
erhood", as Americans, need tame
than armaments and armies to
make safe our democracy."
For the past three years, this
writer has made it his hobby to
appraise annually the scope and
character of good will in action.
It is good to be able to report
It Happened in America
By BERNARD POSTAL
Director of Bnai Brith Publicity
EDITOR'S NOTE: While hate and prejudice had their innings last
year, good will hit harder and scored more heavily. Mr. Postai
points out in his fourth annual appraisal of good will in action.
that this year's crop of good will
in action is as bumper as ever.
Although periods of national
emergency often exacerbate exist-
ing prejudices, the mobilization
of the national wealth and man-
power on behalf of the war effort
has contributed greatly to the
growth of good will in action.
The men in the armed forces,
who are fighting to preserve de-
mocracy, have been particularly
productive. Last Christmas, in vir-
tually every Army camp and
Naval station, Jewish soldiers
and sailors voluntarily accepted
double duty and additional assign-
ments in order to permit their
Christian comrades to have Christ-
mas furloughs. At Passover time
the Christian soldiers returned
the good deed. In many communi-
ties the same kind of good will
in action was in evidence in the
case of Jewish and non-Jewish
members of the Home Guard and
State Militia. At Fargo, N. D..
for example, 50 members of Bnai
Brith spent Christmas eve and
all day Christmas patrolling the
city's airport, radio range sta-
tion, bridges, waterworks and
other utilities so that non-Jewish
guardsmen could spend the holi-
day with their families. The same
Rosh Hashonah Greetings—A Year of Happiness to All
Seward Hotel
59 SEWARD AVE.
SINCERE HOLIDAY uu•riNGs
FEDERAL ENGINEERING CO.
DAVID M. LeVINI:
8'30 OAKMAN BLVD.
TOWNSEND 8-7222
FINGS
SINCEIU, 1101.11)A1'
SIARTO MACHINE & TOOL CO.
A. SI AWE()
REdford 7550
21000 WEST 8 MILE ROAD
MAY THIS BE 'IHE
HAPPIEST NEW YEAR EVER!
STEWART'S
"CHICKEN IN THE ROUGH"
East Side
West Side
15923 E. WARREN
16805 LIVERNOIS
At Haverhill
Opposit: U of D
TU. 1-4040
UN. 3-7909
NEW YEAR'S GREETINGS TO ALL
HARRY MARLIN
Of the Piano Department of Grinnell Brothers
ExtPnds an Invitation to His Many Friends to Visit Him at
1515 WOODWARD AVENUE
Where He
Ca. Display to Them the Latest Piano Creations
kind of good will in action was
shown by the members of Bnai
Brith at Salem, Mass.
The Rosh Hashonah and Pass-
over holidays were especially rich
in the crop of good will in action
incidents among the men in uni-
form. On board one Navy vessel
a Disciples of Christ chaplain
(t•rang.ed Passover services for 45
Jewish seamen while their ship
was on the high seas. Two Jewish
sailors read the Hebrew parts of
the ritual and the Christian chap-
lain read the English parts. At
Rockingham, N. C., Rosh Hasho-
nah and Yom Kippur services
for Jewish men on maneouvres
with the First Army were ar-
ranged with the help of a Protes-
tant chaplain, and the services
were held in a Methodist church.
At Passover time the handful
of Jewish families in an Okla-
homa town sent word to the com-
mander of a nearby post asking
that he send them Jewish soldiers
as seder guests. The commander
spread the invitation so well that
250 Jewish boys showed up. The
result was a novel demonstration
of good will in action. The spa-
cious auditorium of the Methodist
church was thrown open for the
seder. The Baptist church vol-
unteered the loan of its acces-
sories and from the army post
itself came 16 _chaplains of all
denominations to help wait on the
Jewish troops.
Out at Fort Riley, Kansas,
Jewish soldiers were anxious to
hold regular Friday evening serv-
ices, but no Jewish chaplain was
available. Stepping into the
breach, came Protestant Chap-
lain Campbell, who not only or-
ganized the services but acted as
rabbi, delivered the sermon and
led the Jewish boys in singing
"Arlon Olom". The following week
the Jewish Welfare Board as-
signed civilian rabbis to take over
the services. The same thing hap-
pened in Greenland, where Father
Walsh, a Catholic chaplain, helped
organize Jewish religious services.
Even more striking an illustra-
tion of good will in action is the
story told by a Jewish Welfare
Board representative of the Chris-
tian chaplain who was pressed
into emergency service while vis-
iting a base hospital. One of the
Jewish boys who was to be op-
erated on the following morning.,
asked for a Hebrew prayer book.
The chaplain found one and
flashed his light on the page and
told the boy to proceed. "Sir,
said the ill young soldier_ I'm
Orthodox. Would it be possible to
get a hat?" Without a word the
Christian chaplain removed his
own hat, put it on the boy's
head, and said, "Go ahead son."
Col. John W. Oehmann of
Camp Claiborne, La., is the hero
of another piece of good will in
action. So the men in his com-
mand could worship as they fight
—together—Colonel Oehmann as-
sembled the entire body of en-
listed men. officers and their
wives in three groups. each ac-
cording to his own faith. Volun-
tarily and simultaneously, Jews,
Catholics and Protestants gather-
ed to pray, each according to its
own conscience. with chaplains of
their own faith participating in
the services.
Something even more unique
happened in Wilmington, Del.
When word came that Sgt. Ben-
jamin Fineman was Delaware's
first war hero, hundreds of men
and WOM011 thronged St. Anthony's
Catholic Church to pray for the
soul of the Jewish soldier. Fa-
ther .1. Francis Tucker, pastor
of the church, who conducted this
requiem mass for a Jewish sol-
dier. lit a vigil light in the alter
of St. Anthony's as a continuing
prayer for the health and welfare
of Rabbi Henry Tavel. of Wil-
mington's Temple Beth Emeth,
when the Rabbi enlisted as a
chaplain. "The light will he kept
burning until Rabbi Tavel re-
turns to his home and congrega-
tion," Father Tucker said.
And if you think that's strange
look at Jefferson Barracks, Mo.,
where it Roman Catholic and a
Jewish soldier, both sculptors, did
the statuary for the chapel used
by all faiths. Private Benjamin
Kaplan from Columbus, Ohio, and
Private Martin Pucetti, complet-
ed a crowned head of Christ as
•
the first piece. And they worked
in the house of the Protestant
chaplain!
No wonder Lt, William Nolan
of San Diego, Calif., could say
that "Pearl Harbor created in me
a love for my fellow man that
I never had before. Race, color
or creed makes no difference to
these men. Thy work side by side
. . . There wasn't One man who
felt that he was any better than
the other. All of us were Amer-
icans and proud of it."
But this kind of good will in
action is not confined to the men
in uniform. It is being practiced
by War workers on the home
front, too. The Ilnai Brith's Wo-
men's Auxiliary of West War-
wick, R. I., were anxious to organ-
izze a Red Cross first aid class.
But because many of their mem-
bers live in East Greenwich, where
they are enrolled in a local first
aid class, the West Warwick wo-
men could not enroll the 30 mem-
bers needed to form their own
class. They then requested the
Red Cross to add to the Bnai
Brith unit any other women not
already enrolled in first aid
classes. As a result half of the
Bnai Brith-sponsored class in-
cludes Protestant and Catholic
women and the instructor is a
Catholic of Italian parentage.
In San Francisco common War-
time problems have created a
novel "know your neighbor" move-
ment, with whole blocks of neigh-
bors of all races, creeds and
colors organized in local clubs
which met in churches, syna-
gogues, cellars, garages and pri-
vate homes. One of the principal
purposes of the clubs is to break
down all racial and social bar-
riers between neighbors by get-
ting them together for social pur-
poses during blackout periods. To-
day you find men and women who
never knew their neighbors and
cared nothing about them playing
cards and chatting amicably in
these clubs during blackouts.
As a matter of fact civilian de-
fense officials everywhere report
a striking increase in neighborli-
ness attributed to the contacts
arising from mutual service in
civilian defense projects.
These dramatic examples of
good will in action growing out
of the war are matched by others
in the sphere of religious coopera-
tion. What is destined to become
one Of the major centers of inter-
faith amity in the country has
been established in New York
See GOOD WILL—Page 13
5703 - HAI'PY NEW YEAR - 1942
KERSCHER
ELEVATOR CO.
4624 HAMILTON AVE.
TEMPLE 1-7840
A
NEW YEAR'S
MESSAGE
FROM
Governor
MURRA Y D.
VAN WAGONER
In spite of the hysterical waves of prejudice. which
from time to time rise up. the good common sense
of the American people can be trusted to go for-
ward with that fine spiritual friendship and broth-
erhood which know no sectarian lines and certainly
no religious or racial ones.
Anyone who has given any thought at all to the
principles upon which our nation is founded cannot
but be conscious of the spiritual liberty and fairness
to all which they were intended to maintain.
I am very glad to present my greetings to the
Jewish people of Michigan in the hope that it
may bring every citizen peace. happiness and pros-
perity during the coming year.