March 2b, 1943
DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Cl,ronicle
Detroit Jewish Chronicle
and THE LEGAL CHRONICLE
Published Weekly by Jewish Chronicle Publishing Co., Inc.
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.
office at Detroit, Mich., under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Sabbath Readings of the Law
Pentateuchal portion—Leviticus 6.1-8.36;
Numbers 19.1-22.
Prophetical portion—Ezekiel 36.16-38.
MARCH 26. 1943
ADAR 19. 5703
The Giraud Decrees
The abrogation of the Vichy laws by
General Honore Giraud included the
Cremieux decree of 1870, which conferred
French citizenship upon the Jews of
Algeria.
The abrogation of the Cremieux decree
puts the Jews and Arabs on an equal foot-
ing, and means that Algerian Jews and
Arabs must make application for citizen-
ship of they are to enjoy these rights.
The action of General Giraud has
evoked a storm of protests. The Jews of
Algeria who enjoyed the status of French
citizens since 1870 are now deprived
of that right. This is a serious deprivation,
and unless the General has excellent rea-
sons for this deprivation of rights, no
good purpose can be served by such dis-
criminatory action.
Our State Department raised no ob-
jection to the decree, which it must have
studied. This fact leads us to believe that
there must have been some strong and
moving reason for the action by the
Giraud government.
Our French policy, from the day the
Armistice was signed, has been designed
to keep the French within our friendly
orbit. This has often irritated those who
want strong, decisive action, but who can
say that the policy has not been the cor-
rect one, or that it has not borne good
fruit?
The Giraud decrees have restored civil,
economic and social rights to the Jewish
people of Algeria. These are very im-
portant, and even the failure of the gov-
ernment to give our people political
equality must not make us lose sight of
the fact that civil and economic equality
are of paramount importance.
It is entirely proper for Jewish organi-
zations to ask for an explanation from
the State Department. Whether the State
Department is in a position to make a
clear and definite statement on the sub-
ject, we do not know, but in any event
we should keep on prodding and demand-
ing that all rights be restored to our peo-
ple whereever they have been deprived
of them.
However, we are confident that Alger-
ian Jewry has a friend in General Giraud,
and it is not due to wilfullness or enmity
that the Jews of Algeria may temporarily
be deprived of political equality.
Man's Faith in Crisis
The theme of the convention of the
Union of American Hebrew Congregatons
to be held in New York, April 2-4 is
"Man's Faith in the Present Crisis".
Many men who are actively partici-
pating in the war effort have faith in a
victory over aggression and brutality, but
what of those who are conquered and
must look on while the gales of uncer-
tainty and suspense engulf them, and the
spectres of hunger, want and death sur-
round them. And what of the faith of
those most unhappy of all, the Jews of
Poland, Ukraine, White Russia and the
Baltic States?
It is true that the Christian world has
been preoccupied with the vast and mani-
fold problems of the war, but yet can
one blame our Polish, Ukrainian, White
Russian and Baltic Jewish brethren, if
they have lost faith in all humanity and
human protestations of decency, kindli-
ness and neighborliness?
Have the Christian leaders of the
United Nations done what they could to
inspire faith in these indescribably
wretched, and by now misanthropic, men
and women?
If there is not one among them that has
a shred of faith left, that would be
understandable. Even those of us who
have experienced no deprivation often
question whether man can become a de-
cent social animal after the catastrophe
that has overtaken the innocent and help-
less millions of our people.
If European man now has little or no
faith, it is because, since the end of
World War I, he has gone from despair
to greater despair, and now has reached
the ultimate despair. In his futile, con-
fused, childish efforts to save himself he
has created a Frankenstein in the form
of a million-headed police military super
state 1 which has squeezed every drop of
faith, individuality and dignity out of
him. He is so perplexed and frustrated
that he cannot do anything to overcome
this monster of his own creation.
This period of regression will last un-
til peace again comes to the world. How
long it will take after that for man again
to get on to the road of progress is a
matter of prophecy in which it were
foolhardy to indulge.
We believe that civilization will sur-
vive and that man will create a decent
world fit for human beings to live in.
A Doleful Hitler
Plain Talk
•
. • by Al Segal
Zilch and Blitz
LL PEOPLE who are sick and
A
tired of living in the debating
society called American Jewry
will be glad to hear of the Amer-
ican Jewish Assembly—a union of
all varieties of Israel—which has
been projected by henry Monsky
as president of Bnai Brith.
A debating society is a center
of pleasant intellectual recrea-
tion for an evening, and not too
many evenings at that. Even to
endure a debating society for a
week would be something that
would impinge too horribly on the
nerves. Yet to be a Jew has been
to suffer a continuous debate.
As a democratic spirit I can
not advocate a totalitarian Jewry
in which all members think alike.
Debate is the circulating medium
of ideas in .a democratic society.
But; debate is reduced to ab-
surdity when it never arrives at
any decisions. It is the essence of
democracy that its debates must
eventually come to conclusions
voted by the majority and accept-
ed by all.
This, it appears, is the aim
of the American Jewish Assembly
—a kind of parliament that will
speak to the conscience of man-
kind and to the authorities of the
nations in whose hands the doing
of justice lies.
All this brings me to the case
of the Last Jews which came to
me the other evening out of a
cloud of pipe smoke. His name
was Zilch and he was the last
Jew in the world. Life had been
bearable for him as long as Blitz
lived. Blitz was the second last
Jew. As long as Blitz lived there
was some one to argue with
about Jewish life.
I don't know how it came to
pass that these two were the
last Jews in the world, but it
appears they had grown to man-
hood in a considerable Jewish
community. In this community
they had been brought up on the
idea that Jewish life was a fight
that a zealous Jew should never
allow to die clown. It was the
practice for one group of Jew
never to agree with another
group on anything, never to give
in, never to compromise.
I I
I
TN OTHER sections of society
people managed to get along,
despite disagreements that from
time to time divided them. They
felt that for the sake of its sur-
vival the human race should
compose its differences and prog-
iess in unity toward its goals.
The dissidents eventually went
along with the majority and even
helped all they could to imple-
ment the decisions of the ma-
jority.
But not so among. the Jews.
Nothing ever was settled and
Jews rode in all directions •
being Jewish and the community
was full of the tumult of diverse
voices. It may be that it was o
account of these irreparable di-
visions in Israel that ultimately
t here were only these two Jews
left in the world.
Anyway, that's the way it was.
The two surviving Jews decided
to keep up Jewish life in the
sense of the ancient battles. Well
they knew that their arguments
never would lead anywhere, since
there were no more Jewish goals
left to lead to; but then, in the
olden times, the same debates
never get anywhere either. They
kept up the fight by reason of
old habit of Jewish upbringing.
It was one manifesto and ;m-
other that they hurled at each
other through the public prints.
If one day a manifesto had to
do with Zionism, the next it re-
lated to some particular brand
of Zionism; a manifesto on the
nature of the Jew which argued
that to be a Jew was to be a
member of a nation; a mani-
festo which asserted that being
Jewish was a religious identity
only; a manifesto attacking
those 96 rabbis who had been
dead 100 years; manifestors of
excommunication.
Zilch and Blitz passed each
other on the streets without a
nod. of recognition. The only
sign that they were aware of
each other's existence was a stab-
ging glare of their eyes.
"He calls himself a Jew," Zilch
thought.
Blitz said: "That Zilch! Audi
mir a Jew!"
Zilch felt that it was only the
grace of God that let an 1.111-
Jewish Jew life Blitz keep on
living.
Yes, the ancient recriminations
continued even to these last two
Jews. Neither would let the other
have the last word. When, at
last, Blitz lay on his deathbed,
his one regret was that Zlich
would have the last word on the
latest manifesto. It was on the
matter of the Jewish army con-
cerning which there had been
such furious controversy back in
1942.
B
I
I
f
UT ZILCH was sincerely sorry
to hear that Blitz was dying.
He felt that with Blitz gone there
would be no more Jewish life,
since the debate at last would
conic to an end, and what could
there be of Jewish life without
the heat of controversy. Even if
The speech of Hitler on Heroes' Day
was somewhat belated, as it was to have
been delivered a week earlier. Belated or
not, it was one of the most uninspiring
See SEGAL—Page 10
ever delivered by him to a weary and dis-
illusioned Germany.
The Bolshevist and Jewish bogeys were Bnai Brith Given Treasury Department Citation
trotted out. He assured his hearers that
those who have delivered themselves
more and more into the hands of the Jews
will experience collapse and meet their
end one day from Bolshevist poison.
If the recent speeches of Hitler, Goeb-
bels and other Nazi leaders showed a
defensive atlitude, this went even fur-
ther and regaled a state of depression
Action Now
and weariness.
It may well have been that the Fuehrer
Congressman Emanuel Celler of New
had
to stick to the text of the speech that
York calls for the liberalization of our
was
probably prepared by somebody else,
immigration laws in order to provide a
yet this could hardly have been respon-
haven for refugees from Nazi terror.
No one who is concerned about the sible for the doleful character of the text.
fate of the Jews of Europe can object to Perhaps the fact that he reported the
a liberalization of the Johnson Act, but at death of 542,000 victims of Nazi mad-
this time is would be a most difficult un- ness may have had something to do with
dertaking to persuade the present Con- his apparent lack of enthusiasm.
The people of Germany and those
gress to change the law that represents
dragooned
workers from the satellite and
the immigration policy of this country for
conquered
countries must be infinitely
more than two decades.
What is needed is emergency legisla- more weary and unenthusiastic than was
tion that will remove the quota principle the fanatic Hitler on last Sunday. It is
The Greater Detroit Bnai Brith Council was presented with
from the law. Even if the quotas were this lack of enthusiasm and war weari- the Treasury
Department's official citation for going "over the top"
ness
that
will
eventually
break
the
Ger-
increased, that would not solve the prob-
in its one-month drive to sell $1,000,000 in War Bonds and sponsor
man
will
to
resist.
The
hopelessness
of
lem for the Jews of those countries whose
two submarine chasers. Mr. Hill, a member of the staff of the
the situation must be clearer tp the Ger- United States War Bond Program for Michigan, is shown presenting
quotas were negligible.
It goes without saying that Britain man masses today than ever before in the citation for the sale of $1,490,000 to Mrs. Lillian Aaron, presi-
dent of Pisgah Auxiliary, and Max Goldhoff, treasurer of Pisgah
should remove all barriers that now limit the decade of Nazi rule.
Lodge, who were co-chairmen of the Greater Detroit Bnai Brith
The German heroes now have the con- Council's successful drive.
the number that may enter Palestine.
This drive was participated in by the- following groups: Pisgah
Good will action is what is needed now,olation that "In future the people with
t
Louis Marshall Lodge, Theodor Herzl Lodge, East Side
and there can be no better good will ac- true
culture will be neither Jewish Bol- Lodge,
Lodge, Pisgah Auxiliary, Business and Professional Auxiliary, Theo-
tion than measures to rescue the Jews s shevist or Jewish Capitalist," if the dor
Herzl Auxiliary, East Side Auxiliary, Louis Marshall Auxiliary,
prophet Hitler can be believed.
who are in the Nazi grip,
the junior Bnai lirith organizations, A. Z. A. and junior girls.