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DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle

D etroit Jewish Chronicle

and THE LEGAL CHRONICLE

Published Weekly by Jewish Chronicle Publishing Co., Inc.
JACOB H. SCHAKNE
Pres.-Gen. Mgr.
JACOB MARGOLIS
Editor

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Telephone: CAdillec 1040 Cable Address: Chronicle
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ro

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fhe Detroit Jewish Chronicle invites correspondence on sub.
'acts of interest to the Jewish people, but disclaims respon-
sibility for en endorsement of views expressed
by its writers

safeguarding the vital line of communications
through North Africa. In any event, it is our
hope and desire that means may be found
at an early date whereby Algerian Jews
may resume their status as French citizens.

August 6, 1943

(

Plain

As you are, of course, aware, this matter
is no longer one for a decision by General
Giraud alone, and according to our informa-
tion it is receiving careful study at the hands
of the French Committee of National Libera-
tion. You may be sure that our hopes in this
matter are well understood by the competent
French authorities.

Talk...

by Al Segal

•

W ar and Rabbis

Sincerely yours,

A

MATTER is brought to me more sacred than any of the bo
ys
by a Chicago gentleman who I have seen marching away to '
asks me what I think of it: Until induction center from the draft
This letter gives definite assurances the war is over he would have board office in our neighborhood.
Entered as Second-class matter March 3, 1916, et the Post-
office et Detroit, Mich., under the Act of March 3, 1879. that this vexing problem will be settled all the theological seminaries —
Yet my vote to admit him to
Jewish and Christian—close their the seminary much as said:
as soon as possible.
doors against the admission of
n ec tei fohryth athsi ns nbeotiytyshNili,lhl
p
ieb z
Sabbath Readings of the Law
new students.
v
" eilloe
In
some
matters
we
should
rely
The
gentleman
points
out
that
pains
of
the
earth
shall
not
be
entirely
Pentateuchal portion—Dent. 1:1-3:22.
a young man is automatically ex- allowed to penetrate.
He
Upon
the
good
faith,
good
will
and
integ-
shall
be
Prophetical portion—Isaiah 1:1-27.
enlisted from military duty by safe from the war, since by be-
rity of our State Department, and this entering a theological seminary to ing admitted to this seminary 1!..
AUGUST 6. 1943
permanently
AB 5. 5703 matter of French Jewish citizenship is one become rabbi, priest or Protestant stands
deferred.
minister. He doesn't believe that The boys of his age, the hods
..,,
that we may be sure will be handled prop- the person "of a youth who de- he played with will be sent to :ill
sides to take up religion as his the far-flung battlefields, b u t h
Cremieux Again
erly and expeditiously.
e
profession becomes thereby any may not be touched; the aura of
more
sacred
than
that
of
his
on
his
sanctity
may
not
be
torn
In a letter to Adolph Held, chairman
son who was in the university apart by the cruel hands of Mol-
of the Jewish Labor Committee, Secretary
when he was drafted in the Ar- och. He has been dedicated."
Goebbels Screams
my. . The boy was studying toward
of State Cordell Hull made clear the
I could only feel
1 . ) ■
social service which, in a way of abashed as I look at the awful
position of the State Department on the
The screaming and fury on the right thinking, is a holy cause, too.
power of my vote. Of course, the
matter of the re-enactment of the Cre- is the Nazi propaganda agency of Joseph h.
gentleman isn't addressing law was on my side in this. The
mist,
mieux Decree, the abrogation of which ,
The . to the Protestants and law distinctly establishes Otto-
logical students of all religions in
deprived Algerian Jewry of its French Goebbels denouncing the warning o f Catholics but he does think that logcal
Jewish seminaries could set a class by themselves, to be kept
citizenship.
President Roosevelt to the neutrals not (n the
en n esfoi.t
example:
y so tterh ef; o 1) 1 a y t h en
l as tint -- sr lei m
the
N bn
h rabbinate
i iltoalt until
more
We have held from the beginning that to give asylum to Benito Mussolini ' Adolf er
I t the war!
not e otfa klevInt r. f (I) it.
itler, Admiral Tojo and other Axis
military duty, that they must In ,
Hitler
Ai
the action of General Giraud, and the H
He says: "I am bringing thi s
-
to allowed to grow up to their ful-
a
approval of his action by the State De- criminls.
you because, • I read recently, fillment.
you
have
become
a
trustee
of
partment, was due to military necessity
f 1
,
We do not know whether International one of the Jewish seminaries."
and not to anti-Semitism or cowardly a
Yes, this has been rubbing on S TILL I can't feel sure that in
P- it Law
theological students there k
peasement as some of the impatient and
does provides
not then for a case like this, but if my conscience, too. A little while
c
t th it is
ago, as a member of the board
truculent critics would have had us be-
high
of our seminary, I voted to 'ad- a special privilege that exempts
lieve,
from the current travails
such provision be made. If the law of ntit twelve young men for the them
of other qualified young men of
purpose
of They
bringing
rabbis.
will them
enter up
the to their age. It may be that for po-
Our French allies, who are now united nations had made men like Mussolini, be

Cordell Hull.

laical reasons the law sometime
on the Committee of National Liberation, Hitler and Tojo amenable to its enact- coming autumn. I have been won- conveniently
forgets that consti-
tli eni
ri
i
n
sg
tk
ti
tuonally
and. traditionally there
ev
er
since
whether
I
made
never were anti-Semitic, and surely no- ments and decrees, they may have been I
in voting to let them in is a separation of state from
body in his senses doubts the philo-Semitic deterred from brutally murdering helpless at this t time.
church.
They
are
boys j ust aroun 1
attitude of the present Administration in and inoffensive Jews, Poles, Czechs, and
Anyway, it seems that going
Washington.
20. Ot course, there are on(Iy a 1g2e into the Army or Navy and shar-
may have made them hesitate before they of them and their absence from ing the common lot, suffering the
the Army won't make the least same pains with all the boys of
We believe the following letter of Sec- ordered the execution of hostages.
difference in the war's issue, but, their years, would be excellent
rotary of State Cordell Hull will ease the
it seems to me, it is much more Preparation toward the religiotk
In all probality, the men who formu- than
of taking 12 men ministry for these twelve.
wrote:
minds of the fearful ones. The Secretary fated International Codes never imagined e frdonk at a thio matter
ensmanpowe r of the Unit- deeI pn ti hn eto seminarythey
itivi
(-1
islltoA o
that such ruthlessness and bestiality could
Mv dear Mr. Held:
My vote combined with the
prophets and minor pro-
be used by a modern nation in the 20th voters of the others on the ad- major
phets, archaeology and homiletics,
missions
The receipt is acknowledged of your letter
committee
provided Midrash and philosophy, but when
of July 14. 1943, in
century.
In
this,
they,
as
well
as
most
of
twelve
n which you set forth the
young men with perfectly at last they become rabbis they
us, were sadly mistaken but despite impervious bomb-shelters. I do will be total strangers to cur-
views of the Jewish Labor Committee con-
earning
not in the least question t he sin- rent Alan whom they are dedi-
the abrogation of the Cremieux De-
cre e
codes, the reaction of men everywhere ceritv of their aspirations
and other matters dealing with the
toward sated to serve. Current Man will
position of Jews in North Africa.
against Nazi terror has been definite and the Jewish ministry. I question have experienced in his own soul
only my own wisdom and justice and body an enormous tragedy
unmistakable.
The information at the disposal of this de-
vot in
g that way.
mg
but

,

partment does not confirm the statements
which you make concerning the inability
of Jews in North Africa to return to the
practic e
of the liberal professions. On the
contrary. it is our understandin g
that since
last March specific steps were taken
by the
North African authorities to permit persons
of Jewish extraction to resume the positions
which they held prior to the promulgatio n
of
anti-Jewish measures by the Vichy regime.

The issue of the restoration of the Cre-
mieux Decree was from the beginning of
our entry into French North Africa a mat-
ter deeply entwined in the, local
situation,
and the occupatio n
of those territorie s by
our forces did not in itself enable our Army
or our Government to dictate in questions of
local administration without regard to the
local effect of whatever legislative steps
might be taken.

The responsibilit y for peace amon
g and
noninterferen ce
by the Arab populatio n was
in the hands of the French commanders.
When they quite unequivocall y
informed our
military and civil representative s
that they
could not be responsible for the good-will or
even nonaggressio n of the
Arabs were the
Cremieux Decre e
to be restored at the time
that the Vichy laws generally were repealed,
we had no alternative but to accept their
judgment in the matter. You are aware that
our military situation in Tunisia was at the
moment far from secur e
and the maintenance
of our lines of communication was • of the
greatest importance. You are also no doubt
aware that throughout this period the Arabs
were made the victims of intense German
radio propaganda, directed in large part to
the thesis that the effect of the Allied occu-
pation of North Africa would be to favor the
cause of the Jews and prejudice the welfare
of the Arabs. This being the situation at
the time, you can readily see that the ques-
tion of whethe r
the restoration of the Cre-
mieux Decree would have justified hostile
actions on the part of the Arab population
at the time was not a proper subject for
debate, and that even the question whether
such would have been the effect of restora-
tion of the Cremieux Decree was not merely
academic.

Happily, the successful outcome of the bat-
tle for Tunisia has to some extent altered
the militar y
situation. although we cannot for
a moment forget that the success of the
present operations in Sicily depends o n our

The screaming and fury are indicative
of something even more significant. It
means that the Nazis are slowly but
surely coming to the realization that the
defeat of their armies is inevitable.

Had they the same certainty about vic-
tory as they had when they conquered
Poland, we would have heard loud guffahs
from Berlin. They would not suddenly
discover that the warning of the President
is a violation of International Law. The
reference to International Law does sound
rather curious and ridiculous coming from
men who scoffed at and flouted all laws
of humanity and decency, but yet one
should not be surprised when brutal men,
who are finally trapped, use every trick
and device to escape from the punishment
an outraged humanity feels they truly
deserve.

Some of the neutrals may feel that
their sovereignty was attacked by the
warning of the President. As yet, how-
ever, there is no report that any of the
neutrals have opened their doors to Mus-
solini, and the most likely haven, Franco
Spain, will hardly welcome him, for even
Madrid is veering toward the United Na-
tions as evidenced by the permission
granted to an American broadcaster to
speak from Spain for the first time since
the Civil War.

It may not be long now before Hitler,
Goebbels, Goering, and Himmler may be
in the same boat as their erstwhile Axis
partner, the now deflated Benito Musso-
lini. That day cannot cone too soon.

they will not know hint. since
I I f
they will not have shared with
ERE was one of them whom him.
I shall call Zilch. If you call
Yes, it seems to me that stu-
a man Zilch you can feel fairly dents for the religious ministry
safe that any resemblance to any especially should share in the war
one living or dead is purely co- as soldiers and sailors. By taking-
incidental. Well, this boy Zilch the common lot of pain they wit
was about 18 and tall and hand- acquire compassionate understand-
some to judge by his photograph : )11fgkiiv"0.111 ‘i.ciehdgi cs
which accompanied his applica-
tion.
attain. Their scholarship is for
own
I examined this facsimile of their
illumination;
their
his countenance carefully. There compassion is for the people to
was nothing in it to distinguish serve whom is the main function
him from the millions of other of ministers. Can there be deep-
tall and handsome 18-year old est compassion in ministers whom
boys who are in the Army ano sheltered living has segregated
Navy. I mean there was no sug- from the human tragedy?
gestion in it that this boy had
I think I did make a mistak"
become endowed with any special in voting to admit the 12 young
sanctity by reason of his having ,men to studies for Jewish minis.
thought of joining the rabbinate. try in these times.
All youth may be called sacred.
All this brings up a notable
On this youth's brow there was exception almost forgotten in Ili,•
nothing to suggest that he was

H

See SEGAL—Page 9

PONDS OVER AMERICA *

In lower Manhat-
tan where George
Washington took
the oath as presi-
dent, stands his
statue on the steps
of the Sub-Treas-
ury, a monument
to our fiscal se-
curity.

Help Yourself
Buy War Bonds

G. Washington

In Belgium the Nazis
now are selling prop-
erty confiscated from
loyal Belgians to resi-
dents cooperating
with their Nazi mas-
ters further compli-
cating the fiscal af-
fairs of that troubled
land.

