eeitter

CLIFTON AVENUE - CINCINNATI 20, OHIO

Friday, January 10, 1947

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle

Judaism Can Be
Beautiful

Strictly Confidential

Youths Hit Showing
of 'Abie's Irish Rose'

Film Branded as Race Prejudiced
by Youngsters Picketing Movie

By PIHNEAS K. BIRON

USHING THROUGH Times Square crowds a couple of Saturdays
P ago,
we bumped into about two-hundred youngsters picketing the

race-prejudiced cinema-version of "Able's Irish Rose" . . . They told
us that they were members of New York's American Youth For De-
mocracy, a progressive interracial organization representing 8,000
young people throughout the nat on.

A pretty girl handed us an in-
vitation to a party being given by
the Brooklyn College club of AYD.
The big thrill
of a very pleas-
ant evening
came, for us,
when a group of
students drafted
one of their
number, a Ne-
gro, to lead
them in a coin-
munity sing .
His first selec-
P. K. Biron tion was "Zum
Gall Gali," which you should rec-
ognize as a popular Palestinian
folk song.
Bravos for the way Nat Hol-
man, basketball coach at the City
College of New York, handled Eve-
rett Shelton, anti-Semitic coach of
Wyoming University's netmen .. .
Nat silenced the foul-mouthed Wy-
omingite with his promise to . . .
"punch you right in the nose if
you say anything like that about
my players again" . . .
Bouquets also go to Joe Lap-.
chick, Catholic coach of St. John's
of Brooklyn, who has joined Hol-
man in calling for action against
Shelton by the National Coaches
Association.

of centext and add nothing to
their stories but bigot-appeal.

• •

•

BROADWAY GOSSIP
EN HECHT IS on the sick list,
nothing serious except to the
producers of two pictures he's
working on.
Arthur Koestler will leave Pal-
estine for the west coast glitter-
city to put his "Thieves In The
Night" in shape for the screen.
We hope he'll blue-pencil from the
role of his protagonist such credits
as "I became a Hebrew because I
hated the Yid."
Jascha Heifetz has recorded an
album from the score of the Joan
Crawford-John Garfield hit "Hu-
moresque."
Legal complications may develop
from Milton Berle's cancellation
of his booking at Miami's Copa-
cabana . . . They'd be trying to
force him to accept $12,500 a week!

B

By MORTIMER J. COVEN
'HAVE YOU EVER wanted to
AA read a simple, interesting, yet
authoritative book about Judaism?
Have you ever looked for a volume
to give to someone who wanted
to know something about our re-
ligion?
There are, of course, any num-
ber of books about Judaism, but
unfortunately most of them are so
dry and dull. They tell learnedly
about how to observe the Sab-
bath, the festivals and the holi-
days, and they pile detail on de-
tail about customs and ceremonies
until Judaism grunts and sweats
beneath its load.
Yet we know that Judaism is
far more than the mechanics of
a faith. We have ourselves ex-
perienced the Simchah steel mitz-
vah (joy of the Law). We have in
Judaism a spirit that uplifts and
inspires and gives the Jew a
neaningful place In the world. It
has hewn out straight paths on
which he can walk and there find
peace of mind, courage, worth and
beauty.

INTERNATIONAL FRONT
BRAHAM FRIEDMAN of New
York, the 30 year old author of
"Towards a Hebraic-Spanish Rap-
proachment" has been proclaimed
"a champion of freedom" by the
Spanish government in exile.
Watch the headlines for an an-
nouncement by Jose Giral, leader
of the Spanish Government in ex-
Boos and jeers for Agatha ile, on the Jewish issue.
Ilya Ehrenburg's articles on
Christie, Dorothy Sayers and
other mystery story writers who America, reprinted from Izvestia
in the current issue of Harper's
go out of their way to caricature Magazine, are not only very inter-
Jews in the Streicher tradition. esting but truly informative on
Their vicious portrayals are usu- the status of the Negro in our
ally dragged into their books out country . . .

A

Negro Soldier Looms
Big in Army Plans

O

:

Mothers Over-Protect
Young, Says Teacher

Jewish Children Waited On, Fail
to Leant Cooperation, She Charges

By DR. N. A. GOLDBERG
A TEACHER sends in this comment on American Jewish parents
ti and their children from the city of X:
"As a critic teacher in the elementary grades in a large city school
system, my assignments move me around the city. My pupils arc just
beginning to attend school . . . The difference between children In
Negro, white and Jewish areas amazes me .. .
"Jewish children are waited on
hand and foot. Their mothers are well washed and combed. They
hring them to school and come are polite. They have been taught
back again for
common courtesy, respect for eld-
them at noon or
ers and people in authority . . .
at night. Each
Among our own kind, manners are
mother dresses
not always in evidence.
n d undresses
"If a Jewish mother arrives
her child, ties
at school five minutes early, she
h i s shoelaces,
barges right in to pie room,
puts on his rub-
picks up her child, gets it
dressed and out they go. School
bers. The chil-
hours, discipline, the authority
dren do almost
IDEAL WAY OF LIFE
of the teacher, learning to live
nothing for
"THE JEWISH WAY of Life" t h emselves. If
with group rules seem to mean
by .Rabbi David Aronson, pub- their mothers
nothing. The only Important
lished by the National Academy
thing is that Mrs. Z. wants to
are
late,
they
do
Dr.
Goldberg
for Adult Jewish Studies of the
go home and her child remem-
Jewish Theological Seminary, fills not help themselves or one another bers her example of "I come
but
expect
the
teacher
to
dress
a long felt need. It is modest in
first."
appearance and only about 175 them . . .
"In Negro neighborhoods, older
pages in length, yet sufficiently
comprehensive to deal adequately brothers and sisters or playmates BETTER SCHOLARS
with the many facets of our faith. escort young children to and from “pERHAPS WE CAN substan-
school. These youngsters either
tiate a case for greater in-
Not only laymen will find these dress themselves or help one an-
chapters enlightening and inspir- other, without comment by the tellectual effort and scholastic
ing, but even men of learning will teacher. It seems that they are ability among Jewish children, al-
come upon gleams of insight that encouraged, at home, to be self- though I have seen extreme cases
of the opposite . . . But school,
delight the soul.
reliant as well as by give-and-
Marvelous to tell hero Is a take they find in one another. The in the first grades especially, is
book on Judaism that starts with teacher is not expected to be their the place where the child learns
to subject himself to group de-
a refreshing witticism. "There is servant . . .
mands, to live with people and
a story told of a gay and far
"I find the same thing in non-
from pious Southern colonel... Jewish white neighborhoods. Each to recognize social demands. The
and the author gallops off to child has been taught that he is first one or two grades are not
mainly for instruction but for so-
relate why ho wrote his book.
expected to do for himself. He cializing purposes . . .
"In this new, free world for gets this training early. Maybe
"When a child sees this de-
which we are fighting," the author their parents have too much con- manding example of parents, the
says, "the Judeo-Christian tradi- cern with more vital problems to utter disregard of school rules
tion will play a leading role." His coddle their babies . . .
merely to satisfy parental self-
• • •
volume, written in the war years,
ishness, the school attempts its
endeavors to point out what is the LACK MANNERS
lessons against overwhelming
Jewish contribution to this moral 44MOST GENTILE children are difficulties.
partnership. The author warns us
IT-I- well scrubbed. The Negro
Do you think this teacher is
that he covers but a fraction of babies may be shabby but they right?
"the rich field of Jewish thought
and gives but a glimpse of what
Judaism considers the ideal way
of life."

• • *

CROWDED CHAPTERS
THIRTY-SIX CHAPTERS com-
prise "The Jewish Way of Life."
Some are only two or three pages
in length like those on "Faith"
and "Justice." Others are longer
as the ones that deal with "The
Problem of Evil," "The Syna-
gogue," "The Good Society," and
"Marriage."
The majority of them run from
four to six pages. Each chapter is
crammed full of apt quotations
from rabbinical literature, crowd.
By CHARLOTTE WEBER
cd together like raisins in a tasty
WASHINGTON—The Negro soldier has come in for quite a bit of bun. Vie serious reader will find
" attention since the end of the war. Military authorities who in "Notes and References" the
are planning our postwar army realize that the manpower potential sources of these quotations.
of the United States is just so big and no bigger. Like any good
How does the author achieve
housewife they know that one of the best ways to stretch a static the delightful charm that per-
budget is to make more efficient use of what one has at hand.
vails his book? At first the read-
The Negro, constituting about
er Is puzzled, so subtle Is the
10 percent of this country's popu- ported Incidents of friction be-
art of the writer. Then ho dis-
lation, is being looked upon as tween the races.
covers that the author is a
In
the
European
Theater,
how-
a new r e s e r v o i r of military
master of the story that not
strength, providing he can be used ever, where recreational facilities merely illustrates the point but
more efficiently in the army of the are separated as to race and where makes it. For example, his chap-
future than he was in the army there are no Negro military police
of the past. and no Negro members of the ter on "Mercy." He wants to tell
us that, according to Judaism,
Discrimination, leading to segre- military government constabulary mercy must not be limited to
gation of white and colored troops; force, morale was "far below the one's group or class.
and the incidence of crime and level of the other theaters visited."
• • •
"Among the unclean birds," he
venereal disease among Negro
writes, "enumerated in Leviticus
troops—due to low morale and ANTI-NEGRO PROPAGANDA
NE OF THE MOST disturbing XI, there is the Hasidah (the
many other factors—are all detri-
facts that Ray reported was stork). The Hebrew term Hasidah,
mental to the efficient utilization
that
white soldiers are indoctrin- literally means the 'Pious One.'
of Negro troops.
"The rabbis explain that the bird
ating the Japanese people with
• • •
anti-Negro propaganda. N e g r o is called the Pious One because
troops in Japan have already felt she shows loving-kindness to her
NO BIAS IN PACIFIC
MARCUS H. RAY, civilian aide the effects of this extension of associates. The question then is
the white soldier's bias, he said. raised: 'If so, why is the bird
1Y I to Secretary of War Patter-
At the Hawaii air depot, Negro classed among the unclean?' And
son, handling the problems re.
the reply is: 'Because she shows
lating to the Negro in the armed War Department civilian em- loving kindness only to her asso-
forces, returned to Washington re- ployes found themselves bucking ciates.'" On almost every page
cently from a tour of army instal- a policy of discrimination in hous- shines a golden nugget similar to
lations that took him to Japan, ing and work assignments.
The situation was first brought this one.
the Philippines, Guam, Okinawa,
One must not draw the false in-
the Hawaiian Islands, the Euro- to the attention of the War De- ference that the author deals only
pean Theater, Austria, and the partment through a letter and ac- with simple and easy themes.
Mediterranean Theater. One of companying affidavits from the Nothing is farther from the truth.
his chief duties was "the study President of the Hawaiian Aso- He deals with the profoundest con-
of the implementation of the War ciation for Civil Unity.
The letter pointed out that if cerns of the human spirit. How
Department's postwar policy on
does the Jew think about God?
the utilization of Negro man- local War Department officials What is the meaning of evil? Why
persisted in practicing discrimina-
power."
does God permit the good man
Ile reported that throughout tion they were, in effect, attempt- to suffer? Can prayers be an-
the Pacific Theater, where re- ing to "superimpose upon a prob- swered In a law-abiding world?
creation facilities were excellent lem-free racial relationship" racial
"The Jewish Way of Life" makes
and there was no segregation of practices which eventually would of Judaism a pleasurable and an
Negro and white troops, morale reach them, since they too arc inspiring experience.
was high and there were no re- non-white.

End of Discrimination Becomes
Major Problem for Postwar Forces

,

Personal Problems

• • •

Plain Talk

Capital Letter

r

Pap Throe

Chanukah Ideals Told
Des Moines Teachers

Head of Schools Recounts the Story
to Foster Understanding and Truth

By ALFRED SEGAL

IT IS SEVERAL WEEKS since Chanukah but not too late to tell
how N. D. McCombs of Des Moines observed it. It can never be
too late to speak of an American who understands what America is
all about, and that, as members of a democratic family, we may as
well know and appreciate each other more than we do. Yes, by be-
conling better acquainted, we may be able to get along better than
we do.
Mr. McCombs became aware of of separation of church and state
Chanukah approaching and felt in the American democratic sys-
something should be done about tern, we must not eliminate from
it in the public , the picture of human development
the cultivation of the basic emo-
schools of Des "- •
tional and intercultural loyalties
Moines. Certain-
that constitute the ultimate reli-
ly, the climate
gious faith of the individual.
of public schools
"It is necessary, therefore, that
should be favor-
we as teachers find a common de-
able to the idea
nominator in the various religious
that the Ameri-
faiths that have inspired virtues
can people
and heroic living and determine
should know
those factors of many divergent
each other bet-
life philosophies that merge into
ter.
Al Segal
common principles of action.
Mr. McCombs
"It is essential that we un-
was in an advantageous position to
make something of Jewish life un- derstand some of the interest-
derstood in the public schools of ing, historical facts pertaining to
Des Moines. He is the superin- the symbolism of recognized re-
tendent of these schools. For his ligious groups and the festivities
principals, supervisors and direc- which have significance to mem-
tors he gets out a bulletin. Thus bers of different faiths."
So here was Chanukah. Mr. Mc-
he promulgates his poi7cies which
by the principals, supervisors and Combs spoke of it as "the Festi-
directors are delivered to the val of Religious Freedom." He
had gone to Dr. Nahum Zachal
teachers.
Well, there was a bulletin due to learn what Chanukah was all
on Dec. 3, and with Chanukah about. Dr. Zachai is the director
being only two weeks off, he felt of Jewish education in the city of
he should devote it to that Jewish Des Moines.
•
holiday. Yet, It appears, this was
nothing startlingly new in Mr. FREEDOM OF 'WORSHIP
McCombs' outlook as an American. THEN HE WENT on to tell the
• • •
A story of Chanukah, as given
him by Dr. Zachal. He said lt was
TALKS TO TEACHERS
N HIS PREFACE, Mr. McCombs "the first triumph in recorded his.
I wrote: "While we are obligated tory of the Idea of freedom of
(Continued on Page 4)
by law to preserve the principle