Friday, September 14, 1945
The Legal Chronicle
DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and
reel' hour
Plain Talk
Detroit Jewish Chronicle
and THE LEGAL CHRONICLE
Woodward Ave., Detroit 26, Mich., Tel. CAdillac
Published Weekly by Jewish Chronicle Publishing Co., Inc., 525
By AL SEGAL
1040
fruit or even if they gave only
shade that will be alright, too. In
the coolness of their shade the
toilers will rest.
"Thank God," the toilers will
say, "for this shade in the heat
of the day. Thank God there is
this rest for us and fruitful work
as well. This is Zion."
Or, if they are olive trees, the
workers will be thankful. .
"Thank God for this fruit of our
labor. How fat are these olives!
The work of our hands has been
well rewarded. This is Zion."
Segal can feel that he has done
well by his dead relative who was
also a Zionist, though Segal can't
be sure he was one in favor of a
Jewish Commonwealth in Pales-
tine. (There are so many vari-
eties of Zionist nowadays. Many
of them are people who would
feel successful enough if Pales-
tine were made flowing with milli
and honey for the homeless a nd
impoverished. They don't care at
all about Palestine politics.)
Segal himself is one of the lat-
ter. He thinks that the trees he
has planted for his deceased rela-
tive have a much better chance
of growing up if politics isn't
mixed with the soil of Palestine.
His relative was a fine gentle-
man and it wouldn't serve his
memory well if the trees withered
and died because of politics.
If these trees grew and flour-
ished, the ghost of his relative
could feel that he, in death, has
attained Zion in Palestine. It was
being Zionist enough.
BANS POLITICS
A FINE MEMORIAL
You see, Mr. Miller, Segal is
Yes, he thought, that's a most
desirable memorial. The trees will a Zionist who believes that the
(Continued on Page 13)
grow to stately height and give
A gentlemen, writing to one of
the Jewish press, expresses the de-
SUBSCRIPTION: $3.00 PER YEAR, SINGLE COPIES, 10c; FOREIGN, $5.00 PER YEAR
1879 vout hope that this Mr. Segal will
Entered as Second-class matter March 3, 1916, at the Postoffice at Detroit, Mich., under the Act of March 3,
turn out to be a Zionist after all.
CHARLES TAUB, Advertising Mgr.
He is Mr. Simon Miller of In-
JOSEPH J. CUMMINS, President and Editor
dianapolis.
Vol. 47, No. 37
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1945 (TISHRI 7, 5706)
(Mr. Miller was feeling that
Detroit 26, Michigan
hopeful because Segal, in one of
The trial proceeded for 119 court days these columns, had confessed he
and ended with the death of Judge Eicher hadn't paid his $2 dues to the
Spiritual Inventory
American Council for Judaism.
During the High Holy Days when Syna- on Nov. 30, 1944.
This is the anti-Jewish common-
In the intervening time the sedition wealth group. This group says
gogues and Temples are filled with wor-
shipers many rabbis take the occasion to cases have not been scheduled for retrial. that Jews are Jews only because
of their religion and haven't any
upbraid their congregations for lack of There has been a great deal of pressure foreign political connections. Se-
attendance in the Houses of Worship dur- on Attorney General Tom Clark to get gal hasn't paid his $2 because the
ing the rest of the year. They temper this him to drop the cases. The recent 5 to 4 American Council for Judaism
isn't doing much, if anything,
scolding with a fervent plea for religious decision of the Supreme Court in the about Jewish religion, though its
education and for a return to the piety of Bund cases which resulted in the freeing thesis is that we are only a re-
of 24 Bundists held for conspiracy to ligion. A lot of its members know
our forefathers.
very little about Jewish religion.
The Holidays are a time for stock tak- counsel evasion of the draft has placed Segal isn't putting up $2 to em-
ing in the pulpits. A great number of rab- the Department of Justice in a defeatist phasize the negative, as they say
bis are frankly pessimistic regarding the mood. Some feel it would be impossible to in the song.)
Well, Mr. Miller, you should
future of the Synagogue and Temple. sustain a conviction.
know that Segal is already a
We are going to try the Nazi and Jap Zionist. If "Zionist" means a
They see the influence of the Houses of
war criminals. Why not try those who are man who is in favor of making
Worship waning.
a happy Zion for many
Orthodox rabbis are complaining that accused of conspiring with these foreign Palestine
homeless Jews, then Segal cer-
the younger generation is staying away foes? We should write to the attorney tainly is a Zionist.
from the Synagogue ; that the boys and general and let him know our views.
A few months ago a cherished
relative of his up in Minnesota
girls do not know how to carry on the tra-
died and Segal thought of what to
ditional worship, that the old customs
Fleeing to the American Camp do properly to memorialize his
seem to have no thrill for the youth. They
Reports continue to come in that many good name. To his local Zionist
organization he sent a sum of
mourn that the Synagogues are empty all
Polish, Hungarian and Czechoslovakian money by which trees may be
year and that many may have to be
Jews who returned to their home towns, planted in Palestine in memory
turned into clubs or community centers.
after being liberated from the concentra- of his relative.
Reform groups are concerned that the
number of Reform congregations and rab-
bis is reaching the saturation point, that
the movement has lost its momentum xnd
is not gaining enough new adherents to
counterbalance those who have passed
away. They see too many rabbis gradu-
ating for the number of available pulpits.
As long as there seemed to be an in-
exhaustible reservoir of Judaism in Poland
and Lithuania and the rest of Eastern
Europe the occasion for alarm was not so
acute. Immigration replaced those who
had dropped away from the customs of
their fathers.
However, now, there is no spiritual
reservoir. American Judaism must depend
upon its own resources to survive. How to
keep the allegiance of the coming genera-
tion is the greatest problem facing Ameri-
can Jewry.
Defeat of Justice
The report that the government will not
try the 29 defendants accused of sedition
is a blow to all who believe in justice. It
will hearten the enemies of this country
while it will sadden those who are sin-
cere patriots.
Twenty-one of the 29 accused of plot-
ting against this country are out on bail
free to continue to spread their poison.
Eight are in jail for other acts.
These 29 have an acknowledged record
of aiding the Nazis. They sought by every
means to split this country into factions,
to propagate the Hitler theories. There
was a worldwide conspiracy to overthrow
democratic governments, including our
own, and replace them with Nazi and
fascist regimes. These 29 (there were 30
but one died) were linked with such a
conspiracy which had its headquarters in
Nazi Germany. They were indicted for
conspiracy to commit acts with intent to
undermine the loyalty of the armed forces
of this land.
The indictments were handed down in
January, 1944. The defendants were
brought to trial before a jury in the U. S.
district court for the District of Columbia
on April 11, 1944 with Judge Edward C.
Eicher presiding. Most of the defendants
began a typical Nazi effort to disrupt the
proceedings.
tion camps, are making haste to return to
the camps in Germany and Austria in the
American zones of occupation.
These reports must be very disquieting
to those who are concerned with the fate
of the surviving Jews of Europe.
Their cup of suffering has been so full,
that the least that might be expected was
to hope that now, after their liberation,
they would find peace in their home towns.
But their arrival in their home towns
has brought disillusionment. A letter re-
ceived by a Swiss Jewish organization
from a Polish Jewish girl says, "We had
thought we were at the end of the road of
our suffering, but it appears we are simply
at the beginning of a new road of misery.
We have nothing left—save our eyes to
cry with."
The flight of the Jews to the American
camps in Germany is of course against
army regulations, and border patrols have
sought to prevent them. We can realize
therefore all the more how desperate must
be the plight of these Jews when they
dare, in the face of them, to flee back to
the prisons which once held them.
The High Holy Days
The liberation of the world, signalized
by the occupation at last of the full terri-
tories of Japan, was further symbolized
by the fact that for the first time in a
great many years the Jewish synagogues
throughout the world were able to freely
observe the High Holy Days.
The two most significant aspects of the
observance of the holidays this year were,
first their wide observance and secondly,
the seemingly conspicuous part which
American Jewish troops played in these
observances.
In Paris, the synagogues, of course, had
many French Jews, but American Jewish
soldiers made up a not insignificant part
of the congregation. Their presence must
have been reassuring to the French Jews.
In faraway Guam, the military authori-
ties ordered a huge hangar converted into
a temporary synagogue, and Christian sol-
diers cheerfully helped in preparing the
structure for the purpose of Jewish wor-
ship. This too is a characteristically Amer-
ican gesture. The great heart of the Amer-
ican people is sound.
Strictly Confidential
By PHINEAS J. BIRON
NEW YEAR GREETINGS
We're sorry that our first col-
umn of the new year is rather
pessimistic in tone , . . Domestic
Fascism until recently obscured
by the headlines from the battle-
fields is lifting its visor and
shamelessly baring its ugly face
. . . Today's column reflects a
somber panorama • . . The only
way to change its complexion is
to expose the source of the dark-
ness .. .
THE PICTURE .. .
Let's face the facts . .. Anti-
Semitic incidents are on the in-
crease throughout the country • •
Brooklyn and the Bronx, N. Y.,
report gang beatings of Jewish
youngsters and extremely lax po-
lice protection„ not to mention
negligence of police action after
the deed . . . From Boston comes
information concerning the dese-
cration of a Jewish cemetery .. .
In Springfield, Mass., city of the
widely overpublicized Springfield
Plan, the windows of a synagogue
and of a Jewish Center were
smashed recently . . . Summer re-
sorts in Northern Michigan have
witnessed anti-Semitic riots . .
In Philadelphia and vicinity beat-
ings of Jewish kids occur regu-
larly . . . And the same com-
plaints reach us from Newark,
N. J. . . These incidents are per-
haps not very serious when
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ANOTHER PHONY RECORD