Friday, April 25, 1947
DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle
Page Four
Detroit Jewish Chronicle
And the LEGAL CHRONICLE
1040
Published Weekly by Jewish Chronicle Publishing Co., Inc., 525 Woodward Ave., Detroit 26, Mich., CA
SUBSCRIPTION: $3.00 Per Year, Single Copies, 10c; Foreign, $5.00 Per Year
Detroit, Mich., under the Act of March 3, 1879
Queered as Second-class matter March 3, 1916. at the Postoffice at
Y AARON, Publisher
CHARLES TAUB, Business Manager
Vol. 49, No. 17
GEORGE WEISWASSER, Editor•in•Chief
NATHAN J. KAUFMAN, Managing Editor
FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 1947 (Iyar 5, 5707)
Only One Life . . . .
The British hanged Nathan Hale all over
again a week ago last Wednesday.
His name, this time, was Dov Gruner and
he, too, regretted that he had but one life
to give to his country.
Just another Jew murdered—one more
life to cast on the heap of the six million
dead because, too often, Christian brother-
hood, Christian justice, Christian civiliza-
tion are just so much pious poppycock.
Britisher in Palestine and Hitlerite Hun
—they are all the same. Each tramples on
the precepts of the ages and scoffs at the
teachings of mercy and brotherly love.
And for what?' For dominion, for power,
for vainglory and for self. All who stand in
the way are crushed.
Dov Gruner was crushed and his broth-
ers Mordecai Alkushi, Eliezer Kashami and
Dov Rosenbaum.
The British flouted a basic principle of
justice to hasten their ghoulish vengeance.
They did not give the men a chance to
complete their last appeal to a higher court.
The British flouted a basic principle of
common decency. They did not give the men
a chance to bid farewell to their families
or to hear the final consoling words of their
faith.
Mighty Britain acted in cowardly haste
because it was afraid—afraid of a hand-
ful of patriots ready to give their lives so
that harried Israel could have a tiny spot
to call its own.
Mighty Britain thought it could silence
the protests against the murders of the four
patriots because the Jews and their pitifully
, few friends would hesitate to speak in de-
' nunciation just before the opening of the
special UN Assembly session on Palestine.
Let us all cry out and confound Britain.
Let all men of justice rise and condemn
this foul, brutish murder of four men who
died because they loved their people so
much.
The Women's Division
Solicitation has been started by the wo-
men's division of the Allied Jewish Cam-
paign. They are asking Detroit's Jewish
women to contribute independently of their
husbands' gifts.
We are confident that the women of De-
troit will respond warmly. They must not
rebuff the volunteer solicitors with a curt,
"My husband takes care of that." The gen-
erous husband can take care of many of
his wife's obligations, it is true, but he
cannot substitute for a sense of duty and
responsibility; he cannot satisfy the voice
of someone else's conscience.
Let every woman give as her heart moves
her, but let her give as an independent ob-
ligation, as an act of personal sacrifice, as
a response to the voice of her own con-
science.
Let her give of her own self.
Gun At His Head
Iraq's Chief Rabbi who publicly "dis-
avowed" Zionism, was forced to do so, of
course, with a gun at his head. The Arab
states, seeking to bolster their argument
that the Jews in many countries oppose
Zionism, have been using threats of death
and expulsion to elicit public condemnations
of Zionism. They are fooling no one. Jews
nowhere oppose Zionism in large numbers
and the world knows it.
Welcome Rabbis, Mizrachi
Two distinguished groups of orthodox
leaders will convene in Detroit over the
weekend. We are proud that they have
chosen Detroit, great center of American
orthodox strength, as their meeting place.
We greet the honored Rabbis and laymen
and with them success in their delibera-
tions during these trying days for Israel.
Welcome to the Rabbinical Council of
Detroit 26, Mich.
America and to the midwest regional lead-
ers of Mizrachi! May their councils prove
the harbinger of the peace and security to
come.
The Visiting Editor
The Palestine Executions
Political cynicism has always been the
chief attribute of British diplomacy. But
the stealthy execution of Dov Gruner and
the three other condemned Palestinian
youths, particularly when the legal remedies
to save them had not yet been exhausted,
stamps the present rulers of Britain with
a degree of depravity that has no parallel
in modern English history.
One need not justify terrorism as a polit-
ical weapon to recognize that the power
to impose the supreme penalty on political
criminals is rarely, and reluctantly, exer-
cised by a democratic state. In fact, it has
been the custom to accord special treatment
to political idealists since, in a free state,
the political malcontent of today may be
the political ruler of tomorrow—a lesson
to which the present British Labor Govern-
ment can so well testify
But in choosing to ignore what is so basic
to orthodox socialist thinking and concepts,
the Laborite rulers of Britain have demon-
strated not only a lack of political acumen
but a total absence of understanding of the
moral forces that are operative even in
these days of trouble and confusion.
The principle behind punishment for crime
is the expectation that the penalty will act
as a deterrent to other would-be perpetra-
tors of crimes. But history has demon-
strated that the idealist who fights for a
political movement or belief cannot be sub-
dued by the thought of paying with his life
for his beliefs. Death in such cases is not
the great subduer, but the impetus to great-
er risks, to greater sacrifices by the sur-
vivors.
And that most certainly will be the effect
of the barbaric execution of the four Pal-
estine extremists.The repeated condemna-
tion of "terrorism" by responsible leaders
of the Yishuv, the persuasive arguments of
the religious elements against the use of
force, the growing recognition of Pales-
tine's youth that the tactics of the dissi-
dents might lead to dissension, and perhaps
to fratricidal warfare, were gradually be-
ginning to have effect.
Moreover, since it became patent that the
ultimate decision on the Palestine question
rested with the United Nations there has
been a lull in "terrorist" activities in the
Holy Land. The rulers of 10 Downing Street
surely were aware of that situation, and
their action in approving the executions
when they must have known that the car-
rying out of the sentences would precipitate
a new wave of violence, is but added proof
that the "statesmen" in London are seeking
to create an "incident" as an excuse for
liquidating the Yishuv.
The Yishuv has been displaying an ad-
mirable degree of self-discipline, despite the
irritations, provocations and incitements to
which it has been subjected by the British
authorities within the past year especially.
There has been bitterness among the Jews
in the holy Land but it was dignity that
prevailed in the end. Now there is sadness
there and in the hearts of all 'Jews every-
where.
When the history of the moral decline of
this generation is written it will record, to
the eternal shame of Britain, that in the
very week when the commandant of the
Oswiecin death camp was hanged in War-
saw for the crime of having murdered hun-
dreds of thousands of Jews, four Jews were
executed in Palestine for the crime of try-
ing to save those of their brethren in Eu-
rope whom Providence had spared from the
hands of the butchers.
SEVEN ARTS FEATURE.
1
Letters to the Editor
CHRONICLE IN CANADA
Dear Editor:
It is amazing to note how far
the Jewish Chronicle does get
around.
Several weeks ago, Mr. Roth-
schild who writes your "Round 'n
Round The Town" column, gave
me a "plug" when I was made
district manager of this agency.
My home office, which is in Lon-
don, Ont., somehow saw the col-
umn through some member of the
staff and sent me back a copy
of it stating that it was nice pub-
licity for myself but it's too
bad the company name wasn't
mentioned.
While this is secondary—it does
show that your paper is read quite
a bit in Canada since my firm is
primarily Gentile.
I want to thank you people in
the Chronicle and a special thanks
to Mr. Rothschild for his excel-
lent column in your excellent
newspaper!
NORMAN L. BERKLEY,
District Manager,
Northern Life Assurance Co.
'
BIRON DISPUTED
forts that the Committee has put
in to develop it. It might be we
to point out that the Political Ac
tion Committee for Palestine ha
received no more than $418 to
ward the implementation of this
plan and has already spent close
to $18,000 as of this day, to fur
ther the plan.
It is in the interest of a bat-
tered and abused people that I am
making this declaration for publi-
cation.
REP. JOSEPH CLARK BALDWIN
Administrative Chairman,
OIL AND PALESTINE
Dear Editor:
Harold L. Ickes' demand that
Britain disavow its closed door
policy in Palestine in exchange
for our help to Turkey and Greece
is timely and very much to the
point.
The aid would be a gesture to-
ward the preservation of Britain's
shaky Empire and the British are
noted for their practicability. It
seems monstrous for us to pour
wealth into the Mediterannean
area and thus enable Britain to
maintain its reign of terror in
Palestine.
It is now revealed that Amer-
ican taxpayers have been de-
frauded of many millions of dol-
lars through the joint connivings
of British and American oil in-
terests in Middle Eastern oil con-
spiracies. Uncle Sam, the sucker,
paid $1.05 a barrel for oil that
Britain bought for 40 cents per
barrel. The cagy Britons were en-
abled to manipulate this deal
through loans to King Ibn Saud
of millions of dollars of our
money.
Isn't it about time that this na
tion begin to assert its mental
and' moral caliber by a determined
stand against these shameful abu-
ses of our Pollyanna confidence
and sense of honor?
JACK FREEMAN
Dear Editor:
In your issue of March 28,
Phineas J. Biron goes out of his
way to ridicule "Exodus by Air"
in a manner exceeding his know-
ledge of said plan.
For the benefit of your readers,
let me explain that during the
first part of March the Politiqal
Action Committee for Palestine,
Inc. and its Congressional Advi-
sory Board, together with its af-
filiate.] organizations, put f award
a plan by Mr. Mark Solo entitled
"Exodus by Air" . • .
Mr. Biron says, and I quote:
"People who ask for your money
to send Europe's Jews on the
many roads to Cyprus should be
cold-shouldered . . . at best they
are fools . . ." It appears that
Mr. Biron h.. confused. It is pre-
cisely the fact "that all Mediter-
annean roads lead to Cyprus" that
AID TO GREECE
prompted us to resort to a me- Dear Editor:
dium which Mr. Biron calls "hare-
My personal opinion about the
brained."
$400,000,000 which our President
■ * a
wants to send to Greece and
We were the first to call to the Turkey is that it would be all
attention of the American public right if it is spent for food. But
and other countries the failure of instead, it is going for ammuni-
repatriation by sea. We have tion to kill brothers and sisters.
refuted with facts, figures and I as a citizen protest. We can
statistics the claims of the so- spend the money to clean up our
called "official Zionists" and other own communists and the KKK
reckless adventurers of bringing and Columbians.
Jews into Palestine.
LAZAR I. KOTKIN,
For God's sake, let us not kid
15844 LaSalle boulevard
ourselves! I say "ourselves"; al-
though I am a Christian, I think
of myself as an integral part of
PRAISES COLUMN
this battle for Jewish survival. Dear Editor:
We here at Michigan State Col-
Why, the only 'few hundred per-
sons known to me to escape the lege get a great kick out of read-
British sea blockade were brought ing Phil Rotschild's column every
in by land by the Political Action week. A great many of the Jew-
Committee for Palestine.
ish students here are from De-
This is a matter of record, and troit, so it gives them a chance to
we are prepared to expose the catch up on some of the doings
documerted evidence to any re- of their friends back home and
sponsible individual who has the of the different schools . . .
interest of Jewry at heart.
MERLE HARRIS,
It is apparent that Mr. Biron
Sigma Zeta Society
has no knowledge of the plan, nor,
of Zeta Beta Tau,
is he avvhr, of the painstaking ef-
E. Lansing, Mich.
-
To the Rescue!