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Friday, November 15, 1946.
DETROIT JEWISH 'CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle
Strictly Confidential
Anti-Fascist Students
';rack Press Barrier
How College Folk, including Detroit's
Rovetch, Founded Group Is Detailed
By PIIINEAS K. BIRON
HIS IS THE REAL story of the founding of the International
T Union
of Students (IUS) in Prague, Czechoslovakia, a few months
ago. It is a story that the American press surrounded with Its own
special brand of iron curtain. And It is a story of International student
cooperation against fascism that bridged the mythical chasm between
"Eastern" and "Western" clivilizations.
United States students sent 25
delegates to Prague, four Jews, in- Democracy and a host of other
cluding one Detroiter, Warren Ro. student governments . . . A con-
vetch of Wayne University, three vention has been called for Dec.
Negroes, six 27 in Chicago.
American students have needed
Catholics and
r e presentatives something like this for a long
of other minor- time . . . Because American stu-
ity groups which dents of all faiths, colors and
together, are creeds are the only group that
can destroy the fascist "quota" sys-
America.
In Prague tems . •
• • •
they met with
delegations from MALICE UNDONE
all over the PRAGUE HAS THE oldest Jew-
world. They re- 1 ish synagogue in Europe . . .
P. K. Biron
ceived a mes. The synagogue where the legend-
sage of solidarity from students ary Golom was created to destroy
of the Hebrew University of Jeru- medieval Jew halters . . . When
salem prohibited by the British the Nazis were decimating the
from attending. They participated Jewish people of Czechoslovakia,
in framing the IUS program based the chief rabbi of Prague called
on the students' need for democ- on the Gaulieter in charge . . .
racy at the scholastic and the Persuaded him to build a museum
world level. to show the people what the Ger-
A book on the fallacies of racism mans were destroying.
With typical Teutonic efficien-
is being compiled, and plans made
to fight discrimination in colleges cy the Gaulieter gathered a col-
lection of Jewish cultural ar-
and universities.
The 25 American delegates re- ticles from all over Europe .. .
turned home with plans for the Now, after the Czech govern-
organization of a National Asso- ment has removed the libels and
ciation of American Students the lies, the Jewish museum at
(NAAS) . . . . Based on a Prague is the largest and most
world.
program of student self-govern- complete in • the •
•
ment, -Federal aid to all students
on a merit basis, and the strong- HEBREW SCIENTIST
est possible opposition to "quota" y EW SLOTIN WAS the atom-
scientist who stopped a dan-
systems inucation, the NAAS
gerous chain reaction which men-
!ll Include 1,3nat,
.„„f his colleagues
;elation, A merican Youth for
a
lie
Ne
a He'"'
-
Sephardic Centers Personal Problems
in America Adoption Processes
(Editor's Note: One of the least
known of the groups in Jewry
are the Sephardim. Their con-
tributions to our religious life
and culture have been great and
incalculable. Some of our most
famous rabbis, codifiers, philos-
ophers and poets were Sephar-
dim. The author is the executive
director of the Central Sephardic
Jewish Community of America.
Inc.)
By JOSEPH M. PAPO
VEN A BRIEF glance at the
history of the Sephardic Jews
history in this country follows the
pattern established in the Bal-
kans and the Near East following
their expulsion from Spain and
Portugal nearly five hundred years
ago.
Their different language, modes
and ceremonials — in short, all
that constitutes their specific
Sephardic heritage—prevent them
from sharing intimately the so-
cial life of their fellow Jews.
The first Jews who settled in
this country were Sephardim who
arrived from Brazil :n 1654. They
were followed by other Sephardic
immigrants from the European
continent. For 200 years this small
group played an important part
in the building of the commerce
and trade of this country.
Now there are but few Sephardic
descendants of those early sett-
lers, for as strong Ashkenazic con-
tingents of immigrants arrived in
the 1840's and 1880's, the early
Sephardic group became engulfed
by them.
• • •
NEW IMMIGRANTS
and Perils Explained
Dangers in Picking Up an Infant
in Baby Black Market Disclosed
By DR. W. A. GOLDBERG
44WE HAVE BEEN MARRIED for a number of years and have
TT no children. We want a chilid earnestly and can offer him
unusual surroundings and advantages. How do we go about getting
a child?"—Mr. and Mrs. F.
You may or may not have heard about the black market in babies.
No one knows all the details because the principals will not talk.
There is now a scarcity of ba-
bies for adoption. Perhaps this is with greatest emphasis upon the
so because the demand is so great child.
• • •
- and money so
plentiful. B u t
There is protection also af-
enough Is known forded to the prospective par-
about hasty ents. Often they need it against
adoptions to possible blackmailing by the
cause people of mother or unscrupulous persons.
good judgment The furtiveness of many current
to go slowly. adoptions has swept aside these
Adopting a child protections. Such furtiveness In-
Is a conclusive vites unnecessary heartaches and
and final step, disappointments.
t here is no
Most states have found it wise
backing out and to protect the three parties to an
Dr. Goldberg no returning of adoption, the mother of the child,
unwanted children.
and the adopting parents. Women
Many people have suffered un- who give their children out
for
necessary heartaches in their
adoption are generally young and
haste, in by-passing the usual pre. unmarried.
cautionary steps in adoption.
Under the stress of the discovery
The probabilities of your getting
their pregnancy, they often take
a child are limited and more so, of
the easiest way out and often the
since you have apparently set
offered first. The persons
your mind on a boy. The recog- solution
benefiting
nized child - care agencies are deals in financially from such
humanity, the modern
swamped with applications. Many slave-traders,
have been found to
of them have stopped taking new be unscrupulous.
applications.
• • •
Because of the dangers involved,
we feel it may be helpful to many CHILD IS PROTECTED
people like you to explain the THE STATE PROTECTS the
mother because it wishes her
usual steps and the reasons for
them.
to realize well the finality of her
• • •
act and to preclude the possibility
of her wanting the baby after she
DELAYS OF THE LAW
has determined to give it up. It
WISELY AND WITH good ex- has been held' by many persons
perience, every state has working with the unmarried moth-
thrown safeguards around the er that, wherever possible, she
adoption process. The reasons are should keep her child and bring it
many and generally they seek to
11.0 CriirtiT
• • (Conti-
nued oliPale 12)
AT THE BEGINNING of this
century, however, a new wave of
Sephardic immigration took place
mostly from the Middle East and
the Balkans. Speaking neither Eng-
lish nor Yiddish they were virtu-
ally shut off from American life
in general and the larger Ashke-
nazic Jewish community in parti-
cular. They therefore had to rely
upon their own resources.
Today 40,000 of the 55,000 Seph-
ardim live in New York; the rest
in organized communities in De-
troit, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Chica-
go, Indianapolis, Los Angeles,
Montgomery, Portland, Rochester
•,
Sart .4rweindsliteattet
.1
and Wash
Whereasa generation ago their
economic level was low, today sub-
stantial numbers of them have
made their mark in business, in-
dustry and the professions.
At present there are 15 Sephar-
dic mutual-aid societies in New
York City, all providing burial
privileges and a number of them
offering religious, cultural, health
and aid benefits.
• • •
BUILD COMMUNITY
THE ARRIVAL IN this country
in 1941 of Dr. Nissim J. Ovadia,
who had been the chief rabbi of
the Sephardic community of Paris
until his flight from the Nazis,
marked the birth of the present
By CHARLOTTE WEBER
Sephardic community structure.
WASHINGTON—President Truman's statement of Oct. 4, when it
Dr. Ovadia immediately succeed-
" is seriously considered and not taken as a political
By ALFRED SEGAL
maneuver, ed in drawing all the Ladino,
turns out to be a well worded, forceful document setting forth
both Greek and Arabic speaking socie- A
PAMPHLET ENTITLED "There are no Jews" by
our hopes and our committments regarding the solution of the Pal- ties into one all-embracing organi-
M. Chanis, of
estine problem,
zation: the Central Sephardic Jew-
Columbus, 0., has been going around the country. It is intelligently
The statement brought reaction from all quarters, including a ish community of America, Inc. handled and well-written and its title is Chanis' interpretation of the
letter which King Ibn Saud of
His untimely death in 1942 proved ideas of the anti-Zionist Council for American Judaism.
Saudi Arabia forthwith sent off to
a tragic loss to the infant com-
It means to suggest that these anti-Zionists are people who are
government
would
tako
no
action
munity.
President Truman. Ibn Saud's let-
trying to establish that there are no Jews in the sense of peoplehood,
that
would
be
hostile
to
the
Arab
Following the pattern of the like Scotchmen or Irishmen; that
ter said, in effect, that the Presi- people.
dent, by his statement, had viola-
old world Sephardic Kehillah, Jews are just Americans or En- as no sign of intellectual weakness
Was this country then, abandon- the community, composed of all glishmen or Swedes of the Jewish but as a symptom of a youngish
ted previous promises made to the
Arabs.
ing the policy of President Roose- the New York mutual-aid socie- faith.
mind and heart of which he is
Chants insists
rather proud.
In making public his answer velt in taking such a stand? The ties, several out-of-town Sephar-
• • •
to Ibn Saud, the President has question must have been upper- dic communities and individual that we are a
added another significant cog to most in Ibn Saud's mind when he members, placed a chief rabbi, people with a
TYPICAL EXAMPLE
good family tree
I N SHORT, SEGAL is like a great
our rapidly coagulating policy sent his pointed message to Presi- Dr. Isaac Alcalay, at its head.
dent Truman.
One of the primary tasks facing whose roots run
toward Palestine.
I many other humble men in Is-
•
•
•
Just as the practice of law is
the community is to improve the deep In the spir-
rael. They are rather confused in
founded on the great body of le- NOT HOSTILE ARABS
status of the Sephardic Talmud itual history of
all this tumult of Israel's leaders
gal precedent, so this latest state- A DROITLY THE PRESIDENT Porahs to make religious education man, even as
riding in many directions of be-
ment of the President adds an- .1-1. answered the unspoken ques- available to a larger number of the roots of the
ing Jewish. So when we consider
other solid block in our attitude tion. "I do not consider," he said, children and to raise the educa- Greeks reach
the case history of Segal we may
deep down to
toward the difficult problem in the "that my urging of the admittance tional standards.
be looking at an authentic sam-
Pericles and
'', '[ addle East.
• • •
ple of the common man in Israel.
of
a
considerable
number
of
dis-
Alfred Segal
Plato.
• • •
Segal's idea of being Jewish
placed Jews into Palestine or my SCHOOLS UNITED
Well,
that
brings
up
an
old
ques.
111S AT BRITISH
UNDER THE SPIRITUAL lead-
statements with regard to the so-
tion: Just who and what are we? is a spiritual concept. He be-
HIS STATEMENT of Oct. 4 lution of the problem of Palestine ership of its chief rabbi, the com- For answer I shall try to give the lieves that Jewish statehood be-
" the President let it be known in any sense represent an action munity has brought about an case history of a Jew whom I lies that idea and puts him in a
amalgamation of two synagogues shall call Segal. What does Segal class with a Yugoslav or Italian
to the British that he was an- hostile to the Arab people."
yearning for Trieste or a Bul-
noyed with their failure to effect
Mr. Truman, in a gently chiding and their respective Talmud To. make of his status as a Jew?
garian demanding a slice of
a decision at the London Confer- way, called Ibn Saud's attention rahs In one section of Brooklyn
Segal is not an Important man Greece.
ence and jabbed at their con- to the independence that all the where the Sephardim are concen- in Jewry. He is seldom seen at
He knows very well that the
science with increased promises of other Arab states enjoyed as a trated in large numbers.
the speakers' tables in Israel. He
The community also has launch- pays his proper dues to Jewish Jews were a nation in Palestine
American aid.
result of their liberation by the
only a short time compared with
In his letter to Ibn Saud he Allies in World War I. "I am ed a youth program with a full causes. He prefers to stay at home
has tried to make our stand happy to note that most of the time professional youth director in on those evenings when Jewry in their long history. Sometimes he
clear to the Arabs and by the l iberated peoples are now citizens charge. Today there are five chap- his town is summoned to one of thinks that their dispersal may
stress placed on American sup- of independent countries," he said. ters of the Sephardic Youth those interminable d e bat es in have been in the benificent design
Dort of a Jewish National Home "The Jewish National Home, how- League, with additional chapters which Israel likes to have a good of God. He wonders whether Jews
planned.
the second statement comple- ever, has not as yet been fully
time, without ever settling any still would exist if all of them had
Only in maintaining and devel- thing.
been allowed to remain under the
ments the first.
developed."
oping their heritage can Sephar-
of successive conquerors in
The letter is the first public
He is a man in middle age and, feet
The fact is that three out of the dim live a fruitful life. And cul-
Palestine.
Pr onouncement along this line, di-
therefore, almost If not quite set-
four
states
that
were
'placed
un-
rected to the
By being scattered they man.
Arabs themselves, der mandates by terms of the tivating their particular heritage tled in his convictions. This is to
to live.
since President Roosevelt told the Treaty with Turkey in 1920 are will be their greatest contribution say that even at his age he is still ged
Are
to the wealth of the whole Jewish willing to change his mind
we a nation? Well, Segal
Saudi Arabian monarch that this now independent states.
in a
people.
changing world. He regards this a}'s, that's what Hitler said. He
(Continued on Page 4)
Capital Letter
Pap
Answer to Ibn Saud
Bolsters U.S. Policy
Truman's Adroit Reply to Monarch
Strenghtens Position on Palestine
„
Plain Talk
Nationality: American
and Religion: Jewish
Statehood Belies Spiritual Concept
of Jeivishness, Columnist Declares
A
- mu
•