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June 07, 1946 - Image 4

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Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish Chronicle and the Legal Chronicle, 1946-06-07

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DETROIT JEWISH CHROrnct 6 and The Legal (...hronte:

,Detroit Jewish Chronicle

end THE LEGAL CHRONICLE

Friday, June 7 1946

Personal Problems

'ablished Weekly by Jewish Chronicle eublIshing Co., Inc., 525 Woodward Ave., Detroit 26, Mich., Tel. CAdillec 1040

By W. A. GOLDBERG, Ph.D.
Director, Counselling Service

SUBSCRIPTION: $3.00 PER YEAR, SINGLE COPIES 10c: FOREIGN, $5.00 PER YEAR
rtered as Second-class matter March 3, 1916, et the Postale° at Detroit, Mich.. under the Act of Mar,h 3, 1879

Copyrighted, 1946, by W. A. Goldberg. Ph.D.

Editor - in - Chief, LOUIS W. ENFIELD

Vol. 48, No, 23

Publisher, CY AARON . ■

Managing Editor, NATHAN J. KAUFMAN

FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 1946 (SIVAN, 8, 5796)

Detroit 26, Michigan

Only a Memory Now

A Man Who Knoz:s

Joseph Patterson is dead. He lived his
life on this earth and he made his im-
pression. The world was not much better
off for his having been here.

Ilya Ehrenburg is coming to Detroit.
He will be here on June 11 and will speak
with two other Soviet writers at the Scot-
tish Rites Cathedral.

As owner of the New York Daily
News with a circulation larger than
any other newspaper in the country,
Patterson was in a position with in-
finite possibility for good. He could
have been a great influence for clear
thinking, for liberalism, for encour-
aging the kind of policy in our gov-
ernment that would have been of the
greatest benefit for millions.

The coming of Ehrenburg is an
event for the city of Detroit. He
brings a message that Americans
ought to heed. For Ehrenburg was
th e ace Soviet correspondent during
the war. His coverage of the Spanish
war was classic.

Instead, he followed an anti-liberal,
anti-Semitic, anti-New Deal line. He em-
ployed columnists like O'Donnel, whose
anti-Semitic sallies recently evoked such
a storm of protest in New York.
The peculiar part of it is that Patterson
started off as a liberal, a member of the
Socialist party, on fire with a burning zeal
for the betterment of mankind. Some-
where within him there was a latent
idealism that might have made him an-
other Marshall Field.

There is a responsibility, a great
social responsibility, that goes with
the possession of great wealth or
great power. People who have the
two, for wealth in this country auto-
matically carries great power with
it, owe a duty to the public to use
that power in the public interest.
Many of them disregard that duty
but it is there nevertheless.

Sadly enough, many of those who have
this power, and the duty, become divided
personalities. All too often, the conflict
between their idealism and their selfish-
ness drives them into the completely op-
posite camp and they pay out their cash
to help Fascist movements and to fight
liberalism.
That is what happened to Patterson.
Except from his own class, there will be
few to say a kind word for him. He will
go down unhonored and unsung, another
case of a great opportunity gone wrong.

As Far Away as Hawaii

Jewish life in Hawaii has acquired a
deeper Zionist consciousness as a result
of the lively Zionist Organization of Am-
erica Shekel Campaign conducted by the
Jewish servicemen stationed on the Pa-
cific Islands.
The 10-day campaign, which started
on May 10, resulted in the purchase of
325 shekolim, receipts for which have
already been forwarded to the ZOA
headquarters in New York.

For the first time, the word, "Shek-
el," anneared in a Pacific newspaper.
Through the efforts of Private First
Class Joseph Fried, in charge of pub-
lic relations for the campaign, the
Sunday Honolulu Advertiser, circula-
tion 250,000, carried a prominent dis-
play, entitled, "The Meaning of the
Shekel," at the top of its editorial
page, accompanied by a 2-column
feature article. The Honolulu Star-
Bulletin aso ran a number of stories.

Several rallies were held, and enthusi-
asm ran so high that even a non-Jewish
Naval Commander offered to buy a shek-
el and "to do his part to aid the suffering
Jewish remnant in Europe." It required
the greatest tact, Private Fried reports,
for the sailor on the Shekel Committee
to tell his superior officer that only Jews
could purchase shekolim.

The Shekel Drive in Hawaii is now
history, but its impact on the com-
munity there will not soon be for-
gotten. It has meant not only 325
votes for the ZOA delegates to the
World Zionist Congress, but a new
awareness among both Jews and
Christians on the islands of the trag-
edy of Jewish homelessness and the
imperative need for a Jewish home-
land in Palestine.

While in Spain, he began to write an
analysis of the psychology of treason and
the dangers of Fascism in France. His
novel was called "The Fall of Paris" and
in it, he forecast the downfall of France
with uncanny accuracy.
Detroiters should attend this talk in
large numbers. There are very few people
on our American scene who have as clear
a grasp of the entire world picture as this
man and the two men who speak with
him on the same platform.

The world is in a perilous condi-
dition today. The political situation is
fraught with danger. We are sitting
on the edge of a volcano which may
erupt any day and heave us into the
vortex of a maelstrom that may mean
the end of civilization. And we Amer-
icans sit complacently and watch our-
selves drift toward destruction with-
out pausing to ask ourselves who or
why.

The purposes of our leaders are not
clear to us. The picture most of us have
of the situation is a hazy one. We cannot
even urge our leaders to do this or that. It
is for this reason that Detroiters should
take advantage of the opportunity to hear
this man of vision, this man of perspec-
tive, this man of knowledge.
Everybody understands that the world
situation is one that calls for hope and
prayer. Few people understand the back-
ground of the difficulty or the solution
possible. The more people, gifted ana-
lysts, we can have from other countries
who can point out these difficulties to us,
the better off we are.

During Vacation

The school vacation time is at hand
and it is awaited with alarm by law en-
forcement officials and parents. When
youngsters have no set routine to .follow,
their restless energy is apt to lead them
into mischief.
Accidents will increase. Many promis-
ing youngsters will be cut off long before
their time. Much juvenile delinquency
will be rampant that can easily be pre-
vented by wisdom and forethought.
It is up to parents to avoid all this dif-
ficulty before it happens. They must see
that in all the schools this matter is dis-
cussed and that plans are made. They
should investigate sources of recreation
in the neighborhood. They should get
their children to join the Jewish Center
and to avail themselves of its advantages,
Above all, they should encourage their
children to make schedules for their days
so that both children and parents have
some idea how each child is going to
spend his day.
A child who has a set routine to follow
and h busy doing the things his parents
approve of is a child who is going to stay
out of trouble. The time to take care of
this is right now.

•Memorial Day Issue Available

Calls have been coming into the office
requesting extra copies of the Memorial
Day issue of the Detroit Jewish Chron-
icle. Copies are still available for those
who want this ara keepsake.
Call the Detroit Jewish Chronicle at
Cadillac 1040 or write us at 525 Wood-
ward, Detroit 26, Michigan, and a copy
will be sent to your home.

All rights reserved

Your questions in personal problems will be answered
by mail as far as possible or in these columns. Send
your question and a stamped, self-addressed envel-
ope to Dr. W. A. Goldberg, 1314 Eaton Tower, De-
troit 26, Mich. a- )3 the Detroit Jewish Chron-
icle, 525 Woodward Avenue, Detroit 26, Mich.

YOUR NEIGHBORS, TOO, RAISE YOUR CHILDREN

"A sixteen-year-old boy was recently arrested and
convicted
of killing his mother. This high school boy had no liberty to play,
no time for play. His mother, according to the newspaper story,
insisted on his spending all his time at prayer imaging. Despite
extenuating circumstances, he is now serving a prison terns. ,
What explanation can there 1w for this boy's action?"

This story, not unusual except as to the method of securing a
release from parental domination, points to a moral. As I reconstruct
this home, the boy was dominated by his mother, whose intentions
were highly motivated. He had become submissive, outwardly a "mod-
el" boy in all respects. Within, he was ill at ease. He thought his home
life had no place for the normal living of all the other boys around
him. He was torn between submission to his mother and a burning
desire to be like other children. The conflict reached the point where
he stabbed his mother to death. His home had unusual demands, not
ordinarily found in the homes of neighbors in this day. As a conse-
quence, the mother is dead and the boy will remain in prison for
many years.

Not all situations arc so extreme and not all homes make such
demarlds. The human being desires to conform. Men wear ties in
stifling heat. Women wear outlandish clothes and feather-brained hats,
just to be in style.

The teen-age period is exciting, with dangers and tremendous
power. The signs cannot be read correctly by parents who are con-
scientious. There are pressures to take a dare, to drive fast, to dem-
onstrate importance visibly.

In ordinary homes, during the war, it was not unusual for six.
and seven-year-olds to have one or two dollars spending money in
their pockets. Parents gave this money to get the child out of thy
house. In homes where sudden wealth has accumulated, a similar sit.
uation existed. A fourteen-year-old boy, on a date, will think nothing
of spending twenty to thirty dollars. This is as much as their parents
earned in one week at the same age. This is as much as the boy, on
his first job, will earn in one full week.

The child can be held blameless, to be sure. Mr. Abernathy wishys
to have his child reflect his sudden advanced economic status. So his
child gets a car, buys orchids, a tuxedo or a girl gets evening gowns
and perfume. The question comes up: Can the child maintain this
standard on his own account? Worse still, it raises group standatd.;
so that the less-well situated cannot compete.. The child of fourteen
cannot understand the failure of his parents to give him the same
things as his friends in school get without much effort.

Adjustment to the Community

This is not an unusual process. It is all around us. It says to the
thinking parent: You do part of the job of raising your child, the
community adds its part. It says: You must fit your standards inta
community standards. If the pattern is undesirable or unsatisfactory,
you cannot meet it by forbidding your child to participate. Your child
will not remain happy. Your job just begins. You must then provide!
your child and those like him with desirable substitute's, acceptable to
the children. If the substitutes are not satisfactory, the children will
resent and disobey the standards you hold dear.

In another situation, there is a school with extraordinarily bright
and aggressive children. Classes are large. Children cannot be handled
individually. The quiet child, whatever his ability, is at a disadvantage.
He cannot compete. The teacher believes the child to be inferior, since
she has no demonstration of ability, since she judges against a highly.
competitive background. The non-aggressive child begins to believe
what the teacher assumes. His work drops. This decreasing self-con-
fidence discourages him. He too wants recognition in work, school,
from friends and associates. Recognition is normal for development.

The rules of the normal home arc always bombarded by the rules
of other homes in the neighborhood. The normal child will try to win
his point by citing other people's rules to you. This pressure of th!
community is best met by adherence to important items and relaxation
in non-essentials. But the important items cannot be outlandishly dif-
ferent than the normal for other children in the area.

"Don't You Read The Papers, Son?"
•,.. .

'WOE DOW EVERY1lllN
WE EAN"-LIS. STATEMENT

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