March 12, 1941

UETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle

4

Detroit Jewish Chronicle

Beware of the German Generals

and THE LEGAL CHRONICLE

According to a report of Drew PearsOn
Hitler is not in charge in Germany. His
place has been taken by a triumvirate of
Generals Mannstein, Rommel and Brau-
chitsch.
This report may well be true in view
of the reverses suffered by the German
armies in Russia and in Egypt and Libya,
under the command of the Fuehrer.
We are further informed that as S0311
as the Russian line is stabilized that a
peace offer will be made to Russia by the
generals.
This all adds up, if true, to an attempt
on the part of the military caste to con-
tinue in power even though it means the
throwing of Hitler into the discard.
The military caste succeeded in doing
just this at the end of World War I. The
Kaiser abdicated by the generals re-
mained.
Are Russia and the United Nations will.
ing to deal with these military forces of
Germany that learn nothing and forget
nothing?
Are they willing to allow a group of
men to govern and control whose orien-
tation has been based exclusively upon
the theory that only through force and
violence can Germany have and hold her
place in the sun?
We doubt very much that the Russians
will be taken in by the triumvirate. The
Russians have known from the very be-
ginning of Hitler's rule, that the military
clique has supported the policy of ag-
gression and violence. They surely must
know that any agreement they may now
make with the military groups will only
mean the perpetration of the military po-
lice state in Germany, no matter what
front may be put forward as the rulers
of the Reich.
It is high time that the rule of mili-
tarism as a national way of life come to
an end in Germany. For too long have
the Junker militarists had their say in
German affairs. Their say has meant two
global conflicts that have engulfed hu-
manity in the greatest calamities in the
history of mankind.
Germany must and will learn that its
place in the sun can be achieved by peace-
ful, co-operative means.
Again we must repeat beware of the
German militarists.

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JACOB H. SCHAKNE
JACOB MARGOLIS

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Editor

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Entered as Second-class matter March 3, 1916, at the Post-
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Sabbath Readings of the Law

Pentateuchal portion—Exodus 38.21-40.38.
Prophetical portion—I Kings 7.51-8.21.

MARCH 12, 1943

ADAR 5, 5703

The Late Sam Osnos

Sam Osnos, the founder of Sam's Cut
Rate, who died on Monday, was truly
a merchant prince.
It was not until most men have given
up hope of a successful career that Sam
Osnos achieved his success in the business
world. This success was in many ways
unusual and phenomenal, inasmuch as it
came, not during those periods of indus-
trial expansion and growth that character-
ized American economic development, but
it came during the worst depression years
of the history of this land.
Sam Osnos had both vision and imagin-
ation. These were the two qualities that
made it possible for him to visualize the
possibilities in the application of the prin-
cipal of cut rate to all those commodities
that a buying public with a markedly de-
creased buying power had to have.
Sam Osnos remained, throughout his
life, close to the people with whom he
worked as well as with his customers.
His many years of struggle both in
Russia where he had lived for the first
20 years of his life, and for many of the
early years in America, gave him an
appreciation of the trials and tribulations
of his fellow men; and when fortune fa-
vored him, he increased his benefactions
until they included the subsidizing of the
Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
He participated in the cultural, philan-
thropic and religious life of the commu-
nity. He was not only a merchant prince,
but a prince among men.

Vichy Laws Repealed

General Giraud has issued an order re-
pealing all anti-Jewish laws passed by
Vichy since the Armistice.
Certainly we would all have been hap-
pier if these anti-Semitic laws had been
abrogated on the day the United Nations
army took over in Morocco and Algeria.
Unfortunately, however, things do not
happen that way. It takes time before
such messes as were found in North Af-
rica are cleaned up. It would have taken
much longer if the people of good will
had not continually prodded those in
authority to do something about it.
The anti-Semitic laws of North Africa
is but another instance in the grim and
tragic history of Jewish despoliation and
expropriation.
During the Diaspora the Jews of Eng-
land, France, Spain, Portugal have known
despoilation, expropriation and deporta-
tion if for no other reason than the desire
of the monarch or the church to enrich
themselves at the expense of the helpless
Jews. It has happened that even among
Christian sects that they were deprived
of their civil and religious rights because
the dominant sect coveted their property.
Many of the great estates of Europe
had their beginnings in just such prac-
tices. The ill-gotten property however be-
came legalized by the passage of time.
The despoilers and expropriaters are in
no hurry to give up their "vested" inter-
ests. In fact they will use every means
to hold on to their too easily acquired
wealth. The Axis and Vichy bandits ran
true to form.
The repeal of the anti-Semitic Vichy
laws is a good beginning. Let us hope that
before long all such laws will be but a
hideous memory.

Equality Before the Law

Recently we had occasion to rebuke
Senator Burton K. Wheeler for his de-
mand that the Congress make inquiry
into the methods used by the Attorney
General's office in indicting some 30-odd
persons for subversive activities. At that
time we assured Senator Wheeler that
these defendants would receive a fair
trial ; and should the lower court err; the
error would be cured by the Supreme
Court if the Circuit Court failed to do so.
Our chief objection to Senator Wheel-
er's proposal was that inasmuch as our
government being one of coordinated
branches that one branch should not in-
vade the province of the other.
Now the Supreme Court of the United
States in the case of George Sylvester
Viereck has proved that there is no need
for an investigation of the Attorney Gen-
eral's office by the Congress.
Mr. Viereck was convicted of violating
the law relating to foreign agents. His
conviction was set aside by the Supreme
Court by a vote of five to 2. The Su-
preme Court said he was entitled to his
constitutional rights and it further said
that penal laws must be strictly construed
even ill times of war and even though
Mr. Viereck was an agent of the Third
Reich.
The court vindicated the principal that
all are equal before the law. The decision
made it clear that we are a civil state
and that civil authority is supreme despite
the fact that we are at war.
The country received the decision with-
out any hysterical outbursts. The Amer-
ican people sense, if they do not know,
that we are in no danger from the sub-
versive elements that are still among us.
Mr. Viereck and his friends must rea-
lize however if they violate the laws that
they will be convicted and imprisoned.
If they do not they will be acquitted as
would the most patriotic of our citizens.

Plain Talk... by AI

Segal

•

Zilch and Lapidas

IN

a letter to the Jewish Post is always lamenting. He breaks
of Indianapolis, Rabbi Sydney Mr. Zilch's heart. Mr. Zilch comes
K. Mossman of Hammond, Ind., to the idea that there is nothing
addresses me on a variety of mat- but bleak hopelessness in Jewish
life. Even the rabbi's voice is like
ters including our Mr. Zilch.
(Who by this time doesn't a dirge.
"I've just about given up going
know our Mr. Zilch, the citizen
who is a great help to this col- to the synagogue," Mr. Zilch said.
umn. Sometimes I don't know "Except on Rosh Hashonah and
what I would ever do without Yom Kippur."
Zilch. When the tumults in Is-
It's black enough on the radio
rael are momentarily quiescent, every night and why should he go
when the rabbis for the moment on the Sabbath to watch the rabbi
conduct themselves with brotherly splash even more darkness upon
behavior toward each other, when the scene. It left Mr. Zileh feel-
there seems nothing worth writ- ing weak and helpless and won-
ing about, there's always Zilch.) Bering whether it was worth while
`'Really now," says Rabbi Moss- to go on being a Jew.
man, "don't you think that Mr.
He recalled an occasion the
Zilch suffers from contrast with synagogue that was just like a
the more humorous Sam Lapidas. blackout. Things still were fairly
Wouldn't it be something to—to good then, before the war. But
your ubiquitous Zilch meeting La- the rabbi's sermon was blacker
pidas." than any he had ever given he-
Now that's an idea, and I took fore. "You really can't say that
it up at once with Mr. Zilch him- one black is blacker than an-
self, other," he explained, "but this
‘f ‘O
. h." he exclaimed, "I should sermon was like a night without
a star."
meet Sam Lapidas!"
Mr. Zilch spoke in a tone that
Mr. Zilch sighed. To hear the
suggested a deep sense of un- rabbi tell it, you would have
worthiness in him. It was as if I guessed that the whole world was
had proposed that he meet Roose- falling in a crash tomorrow and
velt or Churchill.
nothing ever would be the same
"Me?"
again. The sermon lay like a
"Yes, Mr. Zilch, that's the heavy cloud on Mr. Zilch's heart
idea."
all that Sabbath day and through
"No!". . . Mr. Zilch said he Sunday, and on Monday it hadn't
couldn't hold a candle to the yet been dissipated.
bright luminosity of Sam Lapidas
Mr. Zilch was mindful of his
. . . "There's a grand Jew for life's work, of the hard-earned
you, Mr. Segal. He's a Jew who assets he had accumulated against
can laugh."
11;s old age. He is far from being
Zilch leaned close to my ear rich, • but he is prudent and
. . . "Between you and me I'd thrifty. In his safety)box he had
rather listen to Lapidas than to 50 shares of Amalgtimated Door-
rabbis" . . . He looked about the knob. He often said to his wife
room to make sure he had not that was something . . . "In our
been overheard . . . "I wouldn't old age it will help to keep us."
say this to everybody, Mr. Se-
But what was anything worth
gal."
after what the rabbi had said.
I, of course, was annoyed by a Even that Monday morning—two
comparison so incongruous and days later—the rabbi's voice was
shocked by an evaluation that set like a voice of doom in Mr. Zilch's
Lapidas ahead of rabbis.
ear. He hurried to the broker's
'Mr. Zilch" . . . my voice was office . . . "Sell my 50 shares of
full of reproach.
Amalgamated Doorknob at once,"
"Mind you," he replied, "I am he said.
not saying anything against rab-
Mr. Zilch pausal for rueful
bis, but Sam Lapidas does lift backward looking.
my poor heart up those evenings
"So I sold, all on account of
at the radio set. And what do I our rabbi, and what do you think?
get from rabbis?"
Within the week Amalgamated
I 1 I
Doorknob went up five points on
COULD see that Zilch had the share."
L snatched Lapidas from my
f f I
hands, you might say, to use him TH E years had passed and he
as a peg on which to hang his I wasn't regretting the Joss of
opinion of rabbis. Rabbis are a money anymore. In the course of
favorite topic of Mr. Zilch, as a life-time a man learns to ab-
they are of all the Zilches. sorb every pain of loss . . . l'in
Mr. Zilch recalled visits to the just mentioning this," he said,
synagogue. He said he always "just to show you how a rabbi can
goes away depressed from the break a man's heart."
synagogue. He knows that having
"Well, Mr. Zilch, what kind of
passed an hour with God in His sermons do you want of rabbis?"
house he should be a stronger and
Mr. Zilch replied that he was
braver man. But no! He feels just a plain citizen and couldn't
more discouraged than ever.
presume to tell rabbis how to give
It's all on account of the rabbi,
he said. In his sermons the rabbi
See SEGAL—Page 9

I

SCRANTON COMMITTEE PACKS A SHIPMENT
FOR THE FIGHTING MEN IT SERVES

Preparing shipments of gifts and com
fort items for soldiers is a labor of love
for this SERVE.A•CAMP Committer
above, for they have ;Icnty of evidence
that the anticipation of these voluntary
"guards" Ilelll is typical of the remp.
lion given each new SERVEA•C.AMP
box. SEliVE•A•CAMP is a unique plan
Fporm‘red by the Women's Division of
the National Jewish Welfare Board. It
offers women's groups in large cities an opportunity to participate in the war
effort . by giving service to remotely situated military posts