4

March 31, 1944

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle

Detroit Jewish Chronicle

and THE LEGAL CHRONICLE

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

General Offices and Publication Bldg., 525 Woodward Ave.

Telephone: CAdillac 1040
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To insure publication, all correspondence and news matter
must reach this office by Tuesday evening of each week.
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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.

Cntered 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—Lev. 6:1-8; 36.
Prophetical portion—Mal. 3:3-24 or II
7:3-20.

MARCH 31, 1944

Kinge

NISSAN 7, 5704

How Not To Do It

resolution, but we do believe that they
blundered.
There is reason to believe that some-
thing could have been done about the
abrogation of the White Paper had other
tactics and procedures been followed.
The fact that President Roosevelt has
declared, upon two occasions, that the
Government of the United States never
approved the White Paper is significant.
Had the matter been brought to his at-
tention by a unified group, there is good
reason to believe that he would have
given serious consideration to the matter.
The President is probably still receptive
and may still be persuaded to use his
moral authority and kind offices to con-
vince the British that it is for the best
interests of all that the White Paper be
abrogated.
The whole unhappy mess is evidence
that violence, pressure, obscuring issues
and bickerings have not achieved tha
desired results.

A Gloomy Picture

The refugee picture is as black as it
Everybody condemns and deplores the
terroristic violence that has done much has been at any time since the Nazi
damage to Palestine Jewry. Now we learn hordes began to march,
We had confidently hoped that with
that certain Arab newspapers are charg-
ing all the Jews of Palestine with respon- the establishment of the War Refugee
sibility and culpability for the outbreaks. Board that some of the doomed in the
These accusations should not surprise satellite states would be rescued. Now
anybody. The Arabs will take advantage that hope is indeed very slender, if not
of any episode that will strengthen their non-existent.
position.
Had the War Refugee Board been
When the riots first broke out we could created at the time of the Bermuda Con-
see them as only something that would ference, many of the now trapped refu-
injure the Jews of Palestine and help gees could have been saved. It is futile
the Arabs, and that these riots may have to rail against the procrastination that
been provoked by agents provocateurs. prevented and delayed the establishment
The Jewish Agency now charges that of the board. From present indications
the destructive hand which committed we are back to Bermuda. Nothing can be
these crimes is unwittingly or maliciously done until the war is over is the gloomy
helping the enemies of the Jewish people. prospect that faces those who are now
If we take a charitable view, we should exposed to Nazi wrath and brutality.
If we do accept the seemingly inevi-
say that the perpetrators of these crimes
are doing it unwittingly and are either table frustration of all our hopes to save
dupes or fanatics, but whether unwit- the victims of Hitler, what are the pros-
,- tingly or maliciously, the fact remains pects of saving those remnants that sur-
that there are men who believe that they vive?
The attitudes of our exclusionists in the
can attain. their ends by violence and
murder. The direct actionists have played Congre'ss' are not calculated to raise our
right into the hands of the worst Arab hopes very much that any of the survivors
reactionaries. The conflict that rages is will find a refuge in this country. For
not between Jews and Arabs, but between instance, that great statesman, Represent-
Jews and the Birtish police. The Stern ative Jennings Randolph of West Vir-
Gang' or whoever they may be believe ginia, introduced a bill in the House to
that by this method they can persuade shut off immigration until five years after
the British to abrogate the White Paper. the war ; and Senator Tom Stewart of
Only an infinitesimal minority agrees Tennessee sponsored a measure to deny
with the Stern Gang, but there are many admittance into the United States of all
who believed and perhaps still believe immigrants while the unemployment here
that pressure inside and outside Palestine is one million or more.
It is true that Attorney General Francis
can convince Britain of the incorrectness
Biddle and Earl G. Harrison, Commis-
and injustices of the White Paper.
Those outside Palestine who believed sioner of Immigration and Naturalization,
in pressure proceeded on the theory that have attempted to mitigate this anti-alien
the greater and louder the protests, and feeling, yet we should not delude our-
the more sweeping the demands, the selves into believing that the anti-alien
more readily would Britain accede to exclusionists will not press for the most
their demands and protests. Perhaps they stringent exclusion measures that have
wanted only the abrogation of the White been written into our laws.
Nobody can tell at this time what will
Paper, but if they did they succeeded in
making most people forget about the be the national attitude toward immigra-
White Paper and succeeded in making tion when the war is over. We do know
them concentrate only on commonwealth that the exclusionists are bitter and deter-
now. All the conferences that were called mined men who have a fanatical belief
passed resolutions demanding common- that aliens should not be permitted to
wealth status immediately. All attention enter this country, and even during war
was focused on commonwealth, and abro- time are immune to any appeals of mercy
gation of the White Paper became of and reason. We know that they would
minor importance. All this agitation was erect walls so high and thick that nobody
finally crystallized and the Wright-Comp- could penetrate them. They have made it
ton Resolution was sent to the House abundantly clear to us that they are not
Foreign Affairs Committee, and here concerned with any clamor for justice
again the commonwealth issue dominated. for the oppressed nor to our obligation
The spectacle of the pro and con com- to work cooperatively with other nations
monwealthers before the committee was so that a just and enduring peace may
not too pretty. All this public bickering be achieved.
If we are to render more than lip
could have been avoided if the real issue,
the abrogation of the White Paper, had service to the cause of helping the refu-
been presented to the House Foreign gee, by opening wider the doors of
Affairs Committee. In fact, it is our opin- America, we must make it clear to those
ion that no public hearings would have who seek our vote at the next election
been needed if only the question of the that we expect our representatives to
White Paper were before the committee. enact laws that will prove that we are
It seems to us to follow logically that if no longer isolationists and exclusionists.
there had been no public hearings, then To demand less than this of our repre-
the resolution could have been passed sentatives is a tacit admission that we
without arousing the Arab world, and are still exclusionists and isolationists,
without making the War and State De- despite our oft-repeated assurances to the
partments parties to the action. contrary.
We do not question the honesty and
This is a very serious matter, and delay,
sincerity of those who were responsible in formulating some program, may be
for the hullabaloo raised over the corn- catostrophic for many who could be res-
monwealth, and the procedure on the cued from shattered and desolate Europe.'

Plain Talk...

by Al Segal

•

One Man's Religion

A

DETROIT gentleman writes:
E
E WAS not a regular attend-
"Your recent column in ap- I-1. ant at the synagogue, though
preciation of Jesus suggests that he faithfully paid his dues. Ile
you are quite mixed up. It seems believed in supporting a union
on the day you wrote it you of men dedicated to the ideals of
wandered by mistake into the Judaism. Had he been a rich num
wrong church. .How about it? he, with a good conscience, might
No! I am still a member in have given his financial support
good standing of Bnai Jeshurun also to other religious groups
and hope to be able to keep on that were faithful to the idea of
paying my dues for a long time. I a righteous order in the world.
feel sure that when the melan- He thought that among the
choly time comes my standing in Jews, in recent years, too much
Bnai Jeshurun will still be such emphasis had been placed on the
as entitle me to burial services. politics of being a Jew, on irri-
If the rabbis consider it appro- dentist aspirations, on nationalis-
priate to make a few remarks on tic programs.
that occasion I wish they would
To his mind, being a Jew still
say something like this:
was primarily related to living
Segal was a Jew who didn't a good life, to the fulfillment of
believe that his being a Jew what the prophet said about deal-
wrapped him up in exclusive vir- ing righteously and walking hum-
tue. He respected and revered bly, to the Erthics of the Fa-
the ethical prophets of other then.
faiths. He knew that all religions
He thought the teachings of
came out of the same stream of our rabbis has gone far from
human experience.
these fundamentals of being
He did not stand in stiff-necked Jewish. Their sermons went to
pride of his own religion. He far-off shores where the Medi-
knew it as one of the several terranean washes an ancient land,
good ways of life that man had to 10 Downing Street to preach
hewn out for himself. He fol- to a Prime Minister.
lowed the way to which he was
Not that Segal wishes to have
born but he could feel at home it believed that he himself ideally
in the religious houses of other fulfilled the ethical function of
mess since their ethical teaching being Jewish. He fell far short
was like his own. but it should be said for him
It hurt him that out of the that he did try to attain what he
non-essential differences betwee:s believed to be a Jewish life its
religious men had derived vile its ethical meaning. He regarded
and lasting hates. The ethical that meaning the prime element
likenesses in all religions could of the Jewish identity.
have united them from brother-
hood. They preferred their un-
E DID not believe, though,
important differences and on them i i that the righteousness of Ju-
they sharpened swords of hate daism could be lived in a vacuum.
and malice. At times he felt A good Jew could not wrap the
quite discouraged with the hu- robes of his virtue about him and
man race, in his righteousness hold himself
He was resolved that in his separate from the world. He must
own self he would preserve no go into the world and give to the
feeling of hateful difference. He guidance of mankind the social
could not regard the fact of his light that is in the Jewish teach-
being a Jew as a point of separa- ing. Segal knew that his own sal-
tion between him and other men vation as a Jew was not separate
who were of other communions. from that of the rest of mankind
He could go along with them if oppressed by special privilege and
they were going in his direction persecuted by injustice and dev-
toward a world more just and astated by war. A Jew could not
lovely. withdraw in solitude to cry out
If, nevertheless, he had to his own pain; his pain was only
walk alone he could be content. a piece of the agony of mankind.
Segal liked to read Leviticus 19
He had been faithful to his own where he found good social teach-
way of thinking. ing: "The stranger that dwelleth
Segal's idea of being a Jew with you shall be as one born
was not geographical nor was it among you, and thou shalt love
essentially synagogal. It had noth- him as thyself" . . . "You shall
ing to do with a distant spot on not do unrighteousness in judg-
. . "When you reap the
the earth's surface; it was not ment"
the
bounded by the lines of a na- harvest of your land, thou shalt

H

u

tional state.

See SEGAL—Page 9

aYk

a

* Oa

y A. M. CROSS

K

NOWING. THAT PLASMA
AND PROMPTNESS SAVES
LIVES, U.S.ARMY MEDICAL
CORPSMEN GIVE TO WOUNDED
MEN ON MOVING LITTERS
PLASMA TRANSFUSIONS
FROM BLOOD DONATED
THROUGH THE RED CROSS IN

AMERICA MOMS BEFORE

MORE THAN
17,000 SERVICEMEN
DROP IN AT THE RED
CROSS RAINBOW CLUB
IN LONDON EVERY
DAY

4 1/

v 'S

YOUR RED
CROSS IN 175 DISASTERS
IN 12 MONTHS AIDED A
NUMBER OF MEN,
WOMEN, AND CHILDREN
SUFFICIENT TO PEOPLE
24 TOWNS OF-5,000
POPULATION

4\ <7.

