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DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle

Detroit Jewish Chronicle

And the LEGAL CHRONICLE

Published Weekly by Jewish Chronicle Publishing Co., Inc., 525 Woodward Ave., Detroit 26, Mich., CA 1040

SUBSCRIPTION: $3.00 Per Year, Single Copies, 10c; Foreign, $5.00 Per Year
Entered as Second-class matter March 3, 1916, at the Post office at Detroit, Mich., under the Act of March 3, 1879

GEORGE WEISWASSER, Editor-in-Chief A. W. SHAFER, Adv. Mgr. Cr AARON, Pub. NATHAN KAUFMAN, Man. Ed.

Vol. 48, No. 37

FRIDAY, SEPT. 13, 1946 (Elul 17, 5706)

Grandpa, What's a Jew?

Our columnist, Alfred Segal, told the
other day how he replied to his preco-
cious grandson who asked him what a
Jew was.

A Jew, Segal said, is a good person, a
good brother to the rest of the world, a
person who is just and kind and goes
along with other people who want to
make this a better world.

"In being a good man," Segal con-
cluded, "you will have made good as a
Jew and that's enough."

But it is hardly enough, Mr. Segal. Be-
ing just and kind and a good brother td
others is not an exclusively Jewish obli-
gation. A Christian should be just and
kind and that will maize him a better
Christian. A Hottentot should be just and
kind and that will make him a better
Hottentot.

A Jew who is just and kind is a
better Jew, but a Jew should be hon-
est and brotherly, not because he is a
Jew, but because, along with a thou-
sand other ethnic groups, he is a mem-
ber of a civilized world, and civiliza-
tion has come to demand of all peoples
that they be honest and brotherly.

No, Mr. Segal, being just and kind does
not make a person a Jew. Being just and
kind makes him a member of the human
family. Your argument, Mr. Segal, is an
easy way out for those who do not want
to be anything more, who fear that by
being a Jew they will have to assume
other responsibilities.

Being a Jew, Mr. Segal, is a distinct
way of life.

Being a Jew is a matter of the spirit
and of the heart.

Being a Jew means following certain
practices and principles.

Being a Jew means faith in hallowed
traditions.

Because we have suffered so much, be-
ing a Jew means having a little more
sympathy for the helpless, a little more
pain when someone is hurt, a little more
understanding of the downtrodden.

Don't shrug it off by saying being a
Jew means only being just and kind, Mr.
Segal.

That is the answer of the superficial
thinker and of the poor of spirit.

Libels on Jews by Jews

Bigots and misinformed Gentiles are
not the only ones who wickedly charge
Jews are this or that, that "they have
lots of money.," that "they use cut-throat
methods in business" and "that they are
greedy."

We found, unhappily, through our
Voice of the Man in the Street last week
that Jews themselves openly make such
igqorant generalizations.

If Jews have to be educated to be
tolerant and unprejudiced against their
own, if they have to be taught that
one dishonest Jew does not make all
Jews dishonest, how much greater is
the task that lies before us and such
organizations as the Round Table to
educate the Gentile to be fair and un-
biased in his appraisal of the Jew.

Among the first lessons of brotherhood
among men is not to attribute the faults
of one or a few to the whole group.

To our Jewish detractors as well as to
the non-Jew, we say: Be open minded
and fair. There are plenty of greedy and

Detroit 26, Michigan

unscrupulous dealers among the Gentiles,
too. If there are greedy ones among us,
they are in no greater proportion than
among other peoples.

Don't be small and infantile in your
thinking. Because you have found one
Jew who cheated you, there is no impli-
cation that others will, too.

On the contrary, brother Jew or Gen-
tile, try to understand us and you will
find us generous, helpful and fair.
So please stop spreading your unthink-
ing misrepresentations.

11 ■ 1111.11111.111

Friday, Sept. 13, 1946

IDE

ERD fog

CHRONICLE ACCLAIMED

FROM RABBI ADLER

Dear Mr. Weiswasser:

Dear Mr. Weiswasser:

May I add my congratulations
to the many others you received,
upon assuming the post of editor-
in-chief of the Detroit Jewish
Chronicle. I trust that you will
find true satisfaction in serving
the Detroit Jewish community 'in
this manner.
I feel certain that the excellent
commentary in this issue, in addi-
tion to the prominent space al-
toted us in the Aug. 20 issue,
bears testimony to the good will
borne our organization by the
Chronicle.
I hope that the coming months
will find Young Israel, In an even
greater measure, meriting - ,our
continued interest.
Sincerely yours,

Kind greetings and congratula-
tions upon your assymption of
editorial responsibility for the D e.
troit Jewish Chronicle. I know that
your interpretation and presenta-
tion of the news will greatly help
in keeping our Jewish community
informed of the events in thir
momentous hour.

May it be given to you and all
our Jewish journalists to be the
conveyers of good and encourag.
ing news in the days ahead.

RABBI MORRIS ADLER

TELLS OF SOVIET TOUR

Dear Editor:

RABBI ALVIN Ivf. POPLACK,
As the national chairman of the
Executive Director,
Jewish Council for Russian Relief,
Young Israel of Detroit.
I recently toured the Soviet Union.
I wish to report to you the fol.
lowing:
My 6,000-mile tour of the USSR
ROTHSCHILD FAN
included Moscow, Leningrad, Sta-
lingrad, Minsk, neighboring Indus.
We are glad that our big-brother Dear Editor:
trial and agricultural regions.
newspaper, the Detroit News, speaks out In this chaotic world of ours, Everywhere I saw unimaginable
it
is
so
good
to
come
across
such
wastelands of ruins and devasta.
so consistently and so forcefully against
a refreshing column as your Phil tion, and everywhere I saw the
the warmongers who comment or write Rothschild's
"Round 'n' Round the Soviet people rebuilding with de-
of conflict with Russia.
Town!"
termination.
Breezy and interesting in a man-
In all these areas, too, I visited
"Talking of inevitable war is the su- ner all his own, Phil Rothschild synagogues, hospitals, children's
manages
to
keep you in touch homes, private dwellings, factories,
preme folly," an editorial asserted. "It
"who's who" and "what's farms. Traveling without any re-
is wholly mischievous, because in the with
what" in good ol' Detroit.
striction whatsoever and, most
end it breeds war."
And we like that, my friends often, without even official guid-
and me. When we receive your ance, I spoke freely and fully to
The News quoted the distinguished very fine paper, we turn first and many
hundreds of Soviet officials
University of Michigan political science foremost to our favorite colum- and private citizens, Jew and non.
nist Phil Rothschild and when we Jew.
professor, Dr. James K. Pollock, who de- are
satisfied as to "who's who"
Above all else, the Soviet peo-
clared that Americans should turn their and "what's what," we continue
ple want peace; and they want
minds to the "tremendous problem of on and read everything in your to
be friends with the Ameri.
securing peace" and to "working with paper.
can people ivhom they greatly
Keep
up
the
good
work,
Mr.
admire.
Russia to assure it."
Editor and you too, Phil!
These were the richest impres-
sions I gathered during my visit
BERNICE
OLSTEIN,
As Jews, we especially have cogent
E045 Blaine avenue to a people whose lives possess
reasons for fighting those who would
particular interest for the Jews of
our country.
have war; for war might mean anni-
For one, they have banished for.
hilation.
SEEKS DETROIT AUNT
ever anti-Semitism from their land.
I did not find a single trace of it
Dear Editor:
anywhere, anytime during my tour,
As Americans and as champions of lib-
beg you to inform me If it
Religious practices are ob-
erty and democracy, we should be in the is I possible
for you 'to find out the served freely and by large num-
forefront of the opponents of war.
address of my aunt, Mrs. Fala bers of Soviet Jews. Jewish cul-
Bette, nee Sculimowibz, who emi- ture—education, theater, litera-
Let us, then, have harmony with and grated from Lodz In Poland to ture, etc.—flourishes.
Detroit about 35 years ago. Her
understanding of Russia.
I know that In common with the
age is about 50 to 55 years.
entire American Jewish connuni.
Let us curb those who scream for blood Her father's name was Alterchill. ty your city will. continue to con-
If my aunt should not live any tribute to the success of the Jew-
and destruction anew.
longer, you could perhaps send ish Council.
the addresses of her sons.
Let us gag the hate press that preaches me
The name of my mother was
LOUIS LEVINE,
world strife.
Chaja Liba Sculimowicz.
New York, N. Y.
At the beginning of the war we
Let us silence the Upton Closes and the were living in Lodz in Poland,
AN APOLOGY
Frazer Hunts who tacitly beat the drums and when the Nazis marched in,
we were placed in a concentra- Dear Editor:
for war.
tion camp.
In your last issue's Man in the
For if they succwd and we have war I was set free by the Americans Street column, you quoted cer-
after the end of the war as the tain statements by me critical of
again, the world is lost.
only survivor of our family.
Jews. I want to say that these
Mrs. Fala Bette's father and statements were misinterpreted. I
two of her sisters and a brother spoke In haste and I realize my
have been burned to death in the words sounded much worse than
I ever dreamed. I regret that I
crematorium by the Nazis.
made such general charges that I
JOSEPH SCULIMOWICZ
know are not true and I apologize
The comic opera Palestine conference
UNRRA Team 514
to your readers if any of them
opened in London under the inevitable
(Ha) Baelinang, Wurtberg, were irritated by my remarks.
aura of futility.
Germany
DAVE YUCHT

Let Us. Have Peace

A Comic Opera Conference

The conference that was to conciliate
differences between the Jews and the
Palestine Arabs was launched with all
the pomp and trappings of British dip-
lomacy, but there are no Jews present
and no Palestine Arabs. Only muddle-
headed Britain would go on with the con-
ference under such circumstances. Once
it was called, the parley had to go on
even if the Brilsh alone were attending.

But the Arabs of seven nations are
there too and the Jewish Agency must
make it clear that if there is to be any
friendly talks with Jews about a pos-
sible 'solution, the invitation must come
from Palestine's Arabs. It is they who
through all the years have shied away
from discussion and from compromise.

Prime Minister Attlee's announcement
That the British are not definitely com-
mitted to the federalization scheme helps
to make the conference more flexible than
at first seemed likely. The danger, of
course, is that the Arabs will conclude
that this is a British hint that Palestine
wil eventually remain Arab.

They must be disabused of such an
iinference.

___411111k_

Operation Doublecross