DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Le al Chronicle

Friday, January 17, 1947

Strictly Confidential

How Famed Historian
Died at Nazi Hands

Dubnow Shot in Head by Policeman
as He Stumbled Entering a Bus

By PHINEAS K. BIRON

HE GROUP OF NAZI scientists working for the United States

T Army's research projects will be made citizens of the USA, not-

Jacob H. Schiff
Centennial •

By RABBI LEON SPITZ

(See Page 13 for a picture of
the late Jacob IL Schiff and tho
first YMIIA building which was
donated by this American phil-
anthropist).

Personal Problems

Anglicizing of Names
Is General U.S. Trend

Denying of Jewishness in Change
Held of Little Avail to Renegades

MANY AN AMERICAN JEW-
ISH organization and institu-

tion marked the centennial of Ja-
cob H. Schiff Sunday, Jan. 12, as
a golden letter day on the calen-
dar of American Jewry.
Jewish history has already writ-
ten him down as the prince of
philanthropists. In fact tales are
still circulated how like unto El
Raschld, the sultan of Bagdad,
Schiff used to prowl about the
alleys of the East Side and dis-
tribute alms incognito. People still
recall those occasions when Schiff
would arise from his seat and an-
nounce, "I'll give half of the
money needed for this cause if
the rest of you will contribute the
other half."

Page Three

By DR. W. A. GOLDBERG
MARRIAGES HAVE increased tremendously this past several years.

Inevitably this means more births, [did more births mean choos-
ing names.
Shall the boy's name (and, despite some Papa's wishes, sometimes
it's a girl) be Sam or Sheldon? A girl's name Mollie or Marcia? Does
it make any difference? Some members of our tribe embarrass chil:
Iren with fancy names. The
mother calls her darling Fauntle- queline Oaschefsky sound right to
roy; the kids on the street call you or Marijane Fleischenberger?
• • •
him Stinky.
Life, for old country Jews, was NAMES ARE LABELS
simple. A- child was named after THERE IS A WORLD of dif-
t deceased rel-
ference between changing a
ttive. So we had
Jewish name or choosing a neu-
\ braham, Isaac,
tral name and denying Jewish-
Schiff, the reform Jewish Jacob, Samuel,
ness. I would have nothing to do
leader, re-organized the Conser-
.,ev, Baruch,
with the latter. Some of our
vative rabbinical seminary and
1 a r on, Moses.
brethren have been able to pass
brought the sainted Prof. Schec-
Jarrow Ameri-
as non-Jews by non-association.
ter over from England to head caniz ation, in
But their "immunity" from jibes
its faculty.
and prejudices is rudely shattered
substitut-
when they are found out, as in-
There were those who railed at d Arthur f o r
evitably they are. Their compla-
this. But this writer recalls that Caron, Jack for
cency takes a terrible blow, some-
during his student days Schiff Jacob, Iry ing
times fatally so.
was invariably the host at the
Dr.
Goldberg
Chanukah dinner. And just as in- for Isadore,
All names In this country are
Seymour
for
Samuel,
Leonard
for
variably Schiff would greet the
- becoming Anglicized, whether
Lev.
In
this
generation,
the
Eng
student body with the following
they belong to Jews, Catholics
words of admonition: "We, the lish first name bears no resem- or Protestants. Trace back any
blance
to
the
Hebrew
name.
directors, pay the bills, but your
slightly German name and you
It is well that we have aban- will see, 10 or 20 years before,
master and teacher is Solomon
doned Isadore, Abraham, Isaac be- the full German name. Do the
Schecter."
cause these names were and are same with a person who ap-
* * *
distinct handicaps to children. We pears to be Polish; again you
BOWED TO MAJORITY
live in a predominantly Gentile will see a name with liberal use
• « •
country. We work for, do busi- of "Z" and "ski."
WRITER
recalls
another
THIS
• • •
ILLY ROSE is reported consid-
ness with and meet Gentiles, In
BROADWAY GOSSIP
occasion:
Jacob
H.
Schiff
was
the
ering "Look Mom, I'm Danc-
the main. Therefore, why give a A T ONE TIME it was possible
ARTHUR RANK, the British
treasurer of the American Jewish
J• cinema mogul, will import the ing." ... This show comes after Congress. He had opposed both child a name which blocks him 11 to take a Jewish census by
Marx brothers to England. Lon- many tedious journeys to and Zionism and the Jewish Congress from a source of living even be- picking Jewish names out of the
fore he can demonstrate his a7)11- city directory. But not now. How
don Times' editorials have been from other producers.
of the New York Kehlllah. But
Oscar Levant will face the when American Jewry overwhelm- ity?
many Jewish names do you find
crying for Marx brother films.
More so, there is also the ques- In your congregation, on its board
Groucho Marx, by the way, will White House piano for President ingly voted its indorsement of
be cast in the role of grandfather Truman's dinner to the Supreme both causes, he, like Don 'Isaac tion of fitness. Does the first name of directors? Ten or 20 years ago,
when Sir Stork visits his son Court . . . Gangsters say the chief Abarbanel in Spanish days, de- go well with the last name? Ex- you would have begun to see the
(Continued on page 4)
executive is taking up the violin. cided to remain with his people, cept as a stage name, does .Tac-
Arthur in April or May.
(Continued on page 4)
- even against his own judgment.
Eddie Jaffe, who publicizes him-
Jacob H. Schiff served his fel-
low Jews. He was the first ser-
vant of his people and he never
felt that his munificent charities
were to purchase Jewish souls
and Jewish consciences for him.
He was not afraid of being ac-
cused that he sold out America
to the Jews.
It is not a secret that he aided
in financing the Japanese war
against Czarist Russia as an act
of punishMent for the Czarist po-
groms. The story is told that he
even slammed the door of the
White House in the face of a
President. When President Taft
hesitated to accede to Schiff's de-
By ALFRED SEGAL
mand that the U.S. break off the
Russian-American treaty, Schiff I HAVE JUST HAD a visitor, Albert Richman, a fine old gentleman
By CHARLOTTE WEBER
who called to tell me about his daughter in Germany, and maybe
stormed and raged.
WASHINGTON—The opening shots of the impending major battle
a lot of the readers of this column might care to help her in her
IT over the immigration problem are now being fired over the Capi-
His was the mission to be a blessed work. It doesn't take much for anybody to be helpful; just a
tol. Signs that a fierce skirmish is brewing are becoming Increasingly leader among the builders of matter of sending little things like crayons and' hair ribbons for lit-
apparent.
American Israel, builders in the tle kids.
A number of Republicans in the House and Senate have cast off, truest sense of the word. There
Mr. Richman had in hand quite
in indecent haste, their disguise of sympathy for Europe's homeless was not an institution in New
a package of such things that he now they are wanderers in the
persons and are rushing in with
York City in which he did not
world, though it was to have been
flat-footed statements opposing im- rison, to seek the revision of the have a share. `There was not a was about to
a brave, new, good, bright world
migration of refugees to this coun- immigration laws in order to ad- Jewish institution of national mail to his
after the war.
mit some 400,000 refugees, points proportions which he did not fa- daughter. He
try.
• • «
was proud of
to
the
determination
of
prominent
ther.
His
very
name
was
syn-
Senator Elbert Thomas of Okla-
LOOK TO FUTURE
her, the way
Americans
to
fight
for
American
onymous
with
Zedakah.
homa is opposed to continuing
she has been
MISS RICHMAN HAD written
even established rates of immigra- help for the displaced persons.
*
•
•
faithful to her
ILI to her father about them...
• • *
tion.
dedication as a
"These children arrive bedraggled
ALTAR BUILDER TOO
Almost as drastic was the re- DIAMOND INDUSTRY
social worker in
and malnourished, but with the
port of Senator Chapman never-
the
European
will to have a safe and better fu-
HE WAS AN altar builder too.
HE PALESTINIAN DIAMOND
comb of West Virginia who at-
tragedy
all
tune," she said. There was enough
Was there a synagogue within
A
industry,
one
of
the
proudest
tacked the resettlement plan of
of the basic things for their
hailing distance from the Jewish these years.
and
most
flourishing
in
the
mod-
Al
Segal
the International Refugee Organ-
Others had
needs; the U.S. Army and volun-
metropolis which (lid not enjoy his
ernized
Holy
Land,
is
reportedly
ization as destined to upset the
generosity? Was there in Ameri- become sick and tired of it all teer agencies see to that.
in
serious
trouble.
A
war-time
quota system and warned that un-
But there's much else besides
can Judaism a House of Torah to and had come home, but Ger-
employment and political difficul- boom in diamonds plus the fact which he was a stranger? In his trude Richman was staying on. bread that children need . . . "It
that
diamond
finishing'
centers
in
ties would ensue if we allowed
generation he was the Joseph, the She had been overseas with the Is amazing that the finding of
large numbers of refugees to en- Belgium and Holland were all but Big Brother, of American Jewry, Red Cross through the war and, nails or paint or a hammer or a
wiped
out
by
the
Nazis,
made
the
then, after a brief visit home, had light bulb is the occasion for a
ter the country.
Palestinian industry a first class and he gloried in this role.
• • •
returned to Europe with UNRRA. celebration," Miss Richman said.
one.
-
Schiff belonged to the Euro-
Now, in Germany, she had a "Sad but true."
END BOTTLENECKS
Palestine exported slightly more pean, more accurately German flock of Jewish orphans in her
She, herself, goes about to hunt
N THE OTHER HAND, the than a thousand carats of cut dia-
Jewish, tradition of Jewish
Administration seems even monds in 1940. By 1945 she was ex- aristocracy. Ile was both a care. Eleven hundred of them. for such things; she buys them
more anxious to effect some sort porting to world markets 115 proud Jew and a generous Jew. They were in the meager shelter with packages of cigarets. (Money
of relief work along this line. De- times that many, to the tune of At the same time he would in of a former German army bar- has little value in Germany). But
termined to wipe out some of the $24 million, nearly half the value all probability have chosen for racks, weatherproof all right, but there is much of this needed
scarcely a place to keep kids In. among the 1,100 children and so
bottlenecks that have long ham- of her total yearly exports.
his epitaph, The First Gentle- That was the best to be had, little to be had, and she won-
pered the functioning of the visa
man
of
American
Israel.
Shortly after the end of the war
though, and Miss Richman was dered whether ,she should trouble
program, the State Department re
trying to make It as attractive as Jews In the U.S. to send solne.
cently sent additional visa-expe- it was thought that the great
The
Schiff
Centennial,
coming
diting personnel to the consulate strides made during the war by after the passing of a hundred possible for them. (Yes, a bit of thing. Not cash, just packages of
the Palestinian gem finishing in-
curtain in the windows might little things like curtain material,
in Shanghai.
dustry would take come of the years h a s enriched American help. A gay ribbon in the hair hair ribbons, crayons and pencils.
President Truman's recent action sparkle out of that traditional Jewry, added stature, qualified
• • •
would lift a troubled little head).
in sending four ships to Bremer- leader, Belgium. Now, because of our way of life, fermented ideas
CAN
YOU
HELP?
They
were
children
from
Poland
haven to bring to this country reported labor trouble in the Holy and theories of Jewish thinking
WOULD HER FATHER ask?
and Hungary who had sought ref-
refugees who had already had Land, a slump in diamond buying and created many varied Institu- uge In the U.S. zone of occupa- Mr. Richman had sent packages
tions,
will
servo
as
a
reminder
of
in
American
markets
and
the
un-
their visas helped to clear up an-
tion in Germany. Through the of his own and had gone among
expected resurgence of the Bel- the golden chapter which this war years they had been In con- his friends, who said yes, they
other bottleneck.
man has written in the book of
traffic
in
Pales-
the
gium
industry,
were glad to. But there was so
The formation of a Citizens
the history of Jews in America centration camps or hiding in the
(Continued on page 16)
Committee en Displaced Persons, tinian gems is more or less on the and of the world.
woods or the countryside. Even
which Is headed by Earl G. Har- rocks.

withstanding protests from liberal organizations. Does the U. S. Gov-
ernment have tlr) illusion that it can make these key cogs in Hitler's
machine of destruction into loyal democrats? . . .
An eyewitness story of how the revered Jewish sage, the historian
and philosopher Simon Dubnow,
met his death at the hands of the self as the homeliest press agent
Nazis in Riga, Latvia, in 1941 has in America, is recovering from vi-
just reached rus pneumonia at French Hospital,
these shores .
N. Y.
"Towards t h e
Barney Ross, gallant fighter with
end of the year gloves or gun, has licked the de-
the Nazis began mon dope . . . He's slated for dis-
to kill all the charge from a private sanitarium
Jews in the any day now.
Riga ghetto .
The Great White Way is won-
Dubnow was in dering how a great actor like J.
bed with a fever Edward Bromberg got stuck with
on the evening the vaguely distasteful dialect role
of Dec. 7, the of Toplitsky in the stage play
P. K. Biron day of Pearl "Toplitsky of Notre Dame" . . .
Harbor, but the Nazis forced him Friends who made the blunder on
out of the house and into a bus opening night tell us that this
with the aged and the women who "comedy" will make you wince.
Did you notice, by the way, that
were pregnant.
"Dubnow stumbled, climbing into Walter Winchell has started an
the bus, and fell to the ground. all-out campaign against dialect
A drunken Latvian policeman ran comedians . . . He claims, and we
up to him and shot him in the agree with him, that Jewish co-
back of the head as he lay on medians are the chief culprits.
the sidewalk." The great chron-
The Howard Fasts (he wrote
icler of Jewish history died thus "Citizen Tom Paine," "Freedom
among his people, and was buried Road," etc.) will greet an heir.
in a mass grave in the Riga
* • ■
ghetto.
BILLY ROSE, LEVANT

131

B

J

Plain Talk

Capital Letter

Easing of Immigration
Stirs GOP Protests

Battle Brews Over Truman Appeal;
Committee Pushes Revision of Law

T

S

O

Jewish Orphans Ask
for Crayons, Ribbons

Worker in Reich Children's Center
Lists Small Things Needed Badly

