Page Four

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle

Detroit Jewish Chronicle

l

And the LEGAL CHRONICLE

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

SUBSCRIPTION: 83.00 Per Year, Single Copies, 10c; Foreign, $5.00 Per Year
I ntered as Second-class matter March 3, 1916. at the Post office at Detroit, Mich., under the Act of March 3, 1879

CY AARON, Publisher
CHARLES TAUB, Advertising Manager

Vol. 48, No. 47

GEORGE WEISWASSER, Editor•in-Chief
NATHAN J. KAUFMAN, Managing Editor

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1946 (Heshvan 28, 5707)

Wanted: Men of Decision

President Truman's bungling of the Pal-
estine issue may be attributed in great
measure to his inherent weakness as Pres-
ident, particularly to his failure to be
decisive.

The good ladies of Hadassah at their
convention last week offered him some
solace with a resolution of thanks for his
flabby attempts to persuade Britain to
permit the entry of the 100,000, but the
election returns the week before perhaps
were more outspoken as an appraisal of
those efforts.

Harold J. Laski, British Labor Party
leader, explains Mr. Truman's ineptness
on Palestine succinctly, and we quote the
following excerpts from his statement:

"President Truman is a weak President
because he has not the special kind of
resolution which makes a strong Presi-
dent. He would like to be on good terms
with everyone; he cannot make up his
mind that a strong President must begin
by realizing that much of his strength con-
sists in his choice of enemies. This irreso-
lution has been made evident • .. in his
handling of the problem of Palestine.

I

f

"Once he agreed to set up the Anglo-
American Commission of Inquiry, he
had obviously acquired a right to share
in the decisions to be made about its
recommendations. That was even more
the case since he was aware that the
British Foreign Secretary had given the
members of the commission an under-
taking to implement its recommenda-
tions. His right, moreover, was rein-
forced by a strong resolution of support
for him from both houses of Congress
and by the fact that British policy in
Palestine was a grim and obvious
failure.

"Yet he allowed himself to throw all
his cards away by an irresolute unwil-
lingness to step into the center of the pic-
ture and demand that attention for his
proposals which would have been com-
mensurate with the influence he might
have exerted.

Detroit 26, Mich.

When one recalls that Michigan's
Jewish population in 1865 was barely
200 families, the listing is all the more
remarkable since, obviously, every Jew-
ish househod must have sent one volun-
teer to the wars and some, two or three.
Nor were these volunteers old-time
Yankees steeped in American traditions
they sought to safeguard. The overwhelm-
ing majority were recent immigrants,
many of them just off the boat, who
showed their gratitude to America by
hastening to the defense of her ideals.
Let these facts be cited to any detract-
ors who say Jewish loyalty is only in com-
pensation for the material blessings of
our land. In Civil War days the material
blessings had not yet appeared; but Jews
rose as one man to help perpetuate her
spiritual gifts.

Congratulations, Rabbi Glazer

Friday, November 22, 1946.

19w r ER

Box

FROM IIISTADRUT
The so-called "Histadrut Haov
dim Haleumit" was created by tb,
Dear Editor:
American Jewry is beginning to Revisionists as an anti-union or
see a new Revisionist scheme un- ganization. Its aim was ti attract
fold In this country. To the ple- to the Revisionist movement var1
thora of Revisionist "Leagues," oul labor elements and thus breali
there has been added a new one the united federation of Jewish
with a familiar ring: the "League workers, the Histadrut Haovdim
Haklalit.
for Jewish National Labor in Pal-
In recent years the Revisionists
estine," which speaks on behalf
of the so-called "Histadrut Haov- in general and their "labor organ.
ization" in particular have not
dim Haleumit."
Several releases about this or- brought a single ship of refugee
ganization have already appeared immigrants to Palestine. The fie.
in the press, and we find it our vislonists cannot name a single
duty to inform the public that this colony that they have established
freshly cooked-up Revisionist dish for the purpose of absorbing these
is in no way connected with the refugees from the European hell
No one in Palestine has ever
Histadrut, the General Federation
of Jewish Labor in Palestine, or heard of the extraordinary ex-
the League for Labor Palestine ploits of the Revisionist "Histad-
(which recently merged with the rut Haovdim Haleumit" either in
Poole Zion and is now known as the cities or in the villages.
the Labor Zionist Organization of
NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR
America).
LABOR PALESTINE
We are obliged to make the fol.
JOSEPH SCHLOSSBERG,
lowing facts known:
National Chairman

.

.

Lack of Prophets in the Rabbinate
of Israel Is Deplored by Columnist

(Continued from page 3)

mixed up with the fact that I
am a Jew. In what way, I asked,
can I best express myself as a
Jew in my will? After pondering
a couple of minutes I wrote as
follows: '$100,000 for the encour-
agement and maintenance of a
Jewish prophet.'
I I I
PROPHETS NEEDED

When Dr. B. Benedict Glazer came to
Detroit from New York five years ago to
take over the pulpit of the beloved Dr.
Franklin at Temple Beth El, there was
the usual skepticism about the ability of
a virtually unknown young man to estab-
THAT at the current
lish himself in the affections and esteem I FIGURE
rate of interest—about 25, in
of his community.
$100,000—there would be just about
keep a prophet
Next week, Dr. Glazer celebrates his enough—$2,000—to
per year. For a long time I have
20th year in the rabbinate and his fifth been painfully aware of the total
in his ministry at Beth El. In his very first lack of Jewish prophets, despite
days at Beth El, Dr. Glazer began de- the good salaries our pulpits pay.
voting himself with abnegation to the So I have come reluctantly to
welfare of his flock and the people of his the conclusion that maybe big sal-
community. He endeared himself to the aries are no good for prophets.
Maybe, I thought, having to
older members of his congregation and
upon a congregation for
to the youth and the children. He earned a depend
salary discourages authentic
the respect and plaudits of the whole prophets, and what would Isaiah
state.
himself have amounted to if, in
order to keep his income, he had
Dr. Glazer's name has become a badge to
measure his words to the ideas
of honor among Jew and Gentile, and all of the K.K. Temple Ansho Ge-
Detroit's Jews of whatever background borim.
are proud to claim Dr. Glazer one of So I have decided to endow a
prophet in my'will. I don't believe
them. We know that they all join the that
prophets should be allowed
Jewish Chronicle in offering him felicita- to starve and the $2,000 a year
tions on the commencement of his sixth
year of service in Detroit and wishing him
Godspeed for the many years to come..

should just take care of one, COM.
fortably but not richly. He'll have
sufficient to eat, a clean bed to
sleep in and $30 suits to wear.
That's about enough.
I * ■
PROPHET'S TEACHINGS

MY WILL SHALL say: 'This
endowment shall go to
person who can persuade Israel in
the United States to follow him
out of its lazy Indifference; who
can teach many Jews to feel about
Judaism as many Christians feel
about Christianity which they re-
gard as the perfect way of life;
who can cause Jews to understand
that being Jewish is not a matter
of fighting anti-Semites but has to
do with the dignity of a man who
knows the long way of his history
and Is not frightened by dogs
barking along the road; who can
teach every Jew to know that as
a Jew he is under double obliga-
tion of examplary behavior — to
himself and to his people.'

This is my idea of a Jewish
prophet worthy to be endowed with
my $2,000 a year. He need not be
an ordained rabbi. He will have to
drop whatever else more gainful he
is doing In order to apply himself
fully to the function of being a
prophet in Israel, on a salary just
about enough to keep him fed and
decently clothed.

Poster for Jewish Book Month

The Visiting Editor

"He assumed the posture of a dissatis-
fied complainant when it was open to him
to insist upon his right to share in the
making of direct decisions. And the weak-
Overgrown Congregations
ness of this attitude was the greater be-
cause it increased the victimization of the
News of tremendous upsurges in mem-
very people he was anxious to assist."
berships of the large congregations
As long as Mr. Laski makes the point, throughout the United States continue to
may we ask why, since Mr. Laski seems come in, yet as far as The Post knows
to recognize indecision quickly in others, no discussion, except in a desultory man-
did he fail to put his foot down and de- ner has been held of this problem, the ill
mand that the Labor Party, of which he effect of which not only is felt by the
was then chairman, live up to its cam- memberships involved, but also by the en-
paign pledges on Palestine as soon as the tire community.
Rabbi William H. Fineshriber, 'whose
Attlee government took over?
congregation is well over the 1,000 mark,
Had he been as resolute as he urges 18 years ago urged that congregations be
Mr. Truman to be, his party and Britain split up in order to make possible the
would not now be enmeshed in as intri- service that the members should have, the
cate and uncomfortable a problem as Pal- expansion of the rabbinate, and an inroad
estine has turned out to be because Jews, on the growing number of unaffiliated,
after 2,000 years, had decided for once to now totaling three out of every four, Jew-
be resolute themselves.
ish families in the United States.
That was eighteen years ago, and no
It seems Britain as well as the United
States could have used a man of decision doubt the same complaint was voiced by
others long before that.
when Palestine policy was determined.
The problem has since becom e such
that only herculean efforts will solve it,
yet if more time is wasted, Judaism in
Jews in the Civil War
the United States will continue to suf-
fer.
That Michigan Jews can hardly be
The Post recommends that the subject
called newcomers whose patriotism took
be
explored, that religious bodies, both
. long in developing is evidenced by the
naming of 176 of them who fought for lay and rabbinical, place the subject apart
the Union in the Civil War in the scholar- on their agendas, and that some action
ly chapter last week of our "History of leading towards a solution of the prob-
Jews of Michigan," by Irving I. Katz. lem be adopted and implemented.
The National Jewish Post
Altogether, 210 Jews from the state
fought in the Civil War.
Indianapolis, Ind.

.

7:""••••••'4'.

B OOKS shall tie

thy companidhsT book
cases — 6nd- shakes,
thy pleasure- nooks ,

and gardens. co(,, .oir.,
=4.11:cuLram....,A...t.s

"1"-mtZ, Z.:=.1117

'

The is a reproduction of the illuminated poster designed by Arthur
Sz)ic for the 1948 observance of Jewish Book Month, which ends
Dec. 15. The observance is under the direction of the Jewish Book
Council of America, sponsored by the National Jewish Welfare Board.

