Friday, May 9, 1947
DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle
Page Four
'-
Detroit Jewish Chronicle
And the LEGAL CHRONICLE
Letters to the Editor
aMblished Weekly by Jewish Chronicle Publishing Co., Inc., 525 Woodward Ave., Detroit 26, Mich., CA 1040
SIJBSCRIPTION: 83.00 Per Year, Single Copies, 10c; Foreign, $5.00 Per Year
4 a erred as Second-class matter March 3, 1916. at the Post office at Detroit, Mich., under the Act of March 3, 1879
Y AARON, Publisher
CHARLES TAUB, Business Manager
Vol. 49, No. 19
GEORGE WEISWASSER, Editor-in•Chief
NATHAN J. KAUFMAN, Managing Editor
FRIDAY, MAY 9, 1947 (Iyar 19, 5707)
Detroit 26, Mich.
Give Generously
The Allied Jewish Campaign is on.
Either be a giver or a receiver.
Give generously, even more than you can
afford, lest your conscience grind inexorably
into your soul the accusing query: What
have you done to stem the flow of blood of
your brother?
Give generously and be blessed.
Kosher Heat Prices
At first glance, it might seem that -the
Community Council accomplished little if
anything in the kosher meat price situation
by naming a committee to investigate com-
plaints by housewives. Charges of exorbi-
tant prices have been thoroughly canvassed
for months by the Council and it would
seem that, by now, its representatives
should know whether the charges are valid
or not.
We betray no confidences by revealing
that they do know that the complaints, in
general, are warranted. However, instead
of grabbing the bull by the horns, which
here would be a hazardous undertaking, the
Council puts much of the responsibility of
policing prices on the butchers themselves.
The butchers are well aware of com-
munity hostility and anger and have no in-
tention of provoking an open buyers' strike
to force k price cut. They are sincere in
their affirmation of readiness to cooperate
with the Council and to crack down on in-
dividual butchers who have been hoisting
their prices above the limits set by agree-
ments in their association.
It is now up to you as a consumer. If you
feel you have any complaint on kosher meat
prices or treatment by butchers, let the
Community Council know. Call it at CH
1657. Ask for Mr. Fraiberg or Mr. Cohen
and detail your complaint. Both promise
immediate action on their part and the
butchers pledge prompt disciplining within
their own ranks.
With prices in general falling everywhere,
the calls made by buyers of kosher meat
should result swiftly in a correction of
abuses and perhaps a general reduction in
the high prices.
The Community Council is wise, too, in
preparing even this far ahead to take action
concerning the abominable practice of some
Jewish merchants of virtually doubling food
prices just before a holiday, particularly
Passover. Coupled with pressure from the
public, the Council measures should help
in mitigating this evil.
While they are studying Passover prices,
would not be amiss for the Council and
the Vaad HaRabonim to make an effort to
stop the "Chillul HaShem" whereby "Kosher
for Passover" labels are misused so fla-
grantly as to make observance of the Pass-
over a farce.
N TED JEWISH APPEAL
ITO, 000, 000 MUST BE RAISED IN 194T,
I The Visiting Editor 1
Fair Play At UN
When Britain announced her decision to
submit the Palestine question to the United
Nations there was hope that the interna
tional body would give the problem con-
sideration on a level commensurate with its
urgency and magnitude. But if what has
happened so far at the special session is a
key to what will transpire when the issue
comes up at the next regular meeting of the
Assembly, there is the grave prospect that
neither principles of equity nor justice will
be applied in considering Jewish claims.
While it is true that the Arabs have been
rebuffed on many of their agenda demands,
the fact remains that Arab strategy has
managed to circumvent the limited issue be-
fore the session—the appointment of a fact-
finding commission — and enabled Arab
spokesmen to utilize the international plat-
form to air their views and plead their
cause before the bar of world public opinion.
No such corresponding privilege has been
given to Jewish spokesmen. We use the
word "privilege" advisedly because, in out
opinion, the chairman of the Assembly
could have ruled that the special session was
limited to the original terms of reference
and that all statements and demands not
bearing on that problem were not germane
to the issue. Such a ruling would have
silenced the Arabs and would have balanced
Arab silence against Jewish silence.
But once the door was opened to the
Young Israel Plans
Arabs, common justice demanded that it
Very soon now, a small group of devoted also be opened to the Jews. This could have
and zealous young Detroiters are going to been accomplished by a ruling from the
build a center in the heart of the most pop- chair that since the United Nations was the
ulous Jewish community. Though commit- spiritual successor to the League of Na-
ted to doctrines to which, sadly, only a mi- tions, it followed that the Jewish Agency
nority are able to or willing to adhere, this for Palestine had the same status under the
group offers its center to Detroit Jewry at new international organization as it had
large with no strings attached.
under the old body. Particularly so since
The group is Young Israel, small in num- Britain still retains its Palestine Mandate
ber but mightly in faith and in service. It under the old League provisions.
battles for the preservation of Torah and
An attempt to rectify this injustice was
tradition with constancy and fervor, but it made when the Polish delegate offered a
seeks to "convert" no one who does not come resolution urging that the Jewish Agency
to it because of a communion of spirit.
be invited to state its views before the full
Young Israel will mark its 24th anniver- Assembly. lIowever, American and British
sary this Sunday with a banquet at Shaarey weight in opposing the resolution seemed
Zedek. If this celebration is to be wholly to have swayed many of the member states
successful, many orthodox laymen must nto voting it down.
show that they intend to strengthen ortho-
America's alignment with Britain on the
doxy with something more concrete than Agency •issue is, to say the least, baffling,
their own commendable loyalty to tradition. and it certainly does not square with the at-
They must strive to perpetuate Torah t Rude of the American people toward the
into the next generation and they can do Palestine question. Nor is it consonant with
so with no greater certainty than by sup- t he American concept of fair play.
porting Young Israel and its building plans.
SEVEN ARTS FEATURE.
ASSAILS SUBSIDY
Dear Editor:
I, for one, am 100 percent in
back of your paper in its fight to
have the Jewish Welfare Federa-
tion subsidy of the Jewish News
discontinued, and I have spoken
to many others who feel the same
way.
It doesn't seem fair to me that
the Federation should back one
paper and not the other.
But this doesn't amaze me as
much as the fact that contribu-
tions to the Allied Jewish Cam-
paign go to help maintain a
newspaper. All this money should
go to the people it was intended
for—the starving Jews in Europe.
I don't know how the subsidy
of the Jewish News affects the
Chronicle lr, t. I imagine that the
extra money the News receives
gives it an advantage over you.
Your offer to give the Federa-
tion free publicity is as it should
be. After all, a newspaper, espe-
cially a Jewish newspaper, has a
responsibility to the people. I
have never heard of a paper
charging for publicity and the
very idea of the thing seems to
reflect the worst side of journal-
ism.
In the best interests of the De-
troit Jewish community, the sub-
sidy should be dropped immedi-
ately,
B. TAUBER,
3200 Webb avenue
ANSWERS CANTOR
Dear Editor:
I have just finished reading
your "Letters to the Editor" col-
umn of May 2 in which your pa-
per printed a letter by Philip
Cantor. I would like to answer
some of the charges made by Mr.
Cantor in regard to the alleged
"high prices" of bakery products.
I would first of all like to say
that at a time when our country
is going through a very trying
economic period, these unfounded
charges made by Mr. Cantor help
neither the consumer or the mer-
chants of the Jewish community
or for that matter do they help
bring down prices which we are
all concerned with. All they do is
to stir up a great deal of ill feel-
ing.
I have been connected with the
baking industry for some time so
I think I have more than a lay-
man's knowledge of the situation
that confronts the average bakery.
While Mr. Cantor in hi letter
did not mention the word "profi-
teer" it is quite obvious what he
meant, and I for one bitterly re-
sent R. The impression that Mr.
Cantor tries to give that the bak-
eries are trying to overcharge the
Jewish community because they
have a so-called monopoly is not
true and never has been.
1
escaped Mr. Cantor. First, anyone
who has occasion to shop for
baking supplies knows how high
things have skyrocketed up par-
ticularly since price control went
off. For instance, vegetable short-
ening has more than doubled since
price control was so" hastily re-
moved.
Flour, a couple of months ago,
was bringing the highest price in
the history of the United States.
These are only a few of the in-
gredients that have gone up. I
will not bother to go into the
wages being paid the bakers
which are among the highest in
the country as it would take too
much space.
Mr. Cantor is quite right when
he says that prices are too high,
but I fail to see why he singles
out the Jewish bakeries for criti-
cism. Does Mr. Cantor find the
cost of such items as shoes, cars,
clothes and a thousand other
items so refreshingly low that he
finds the cost of bakery products
outrageously high by comparison?
I hardly think so. Then why
blame them for a situation they
have no control over?
MILTON POSNER,
MOURN'S ORUNER
Dear Editor:
The coldly c ilculated murder of
Dov Gruner and the other sainted
Jewish martyrs by Britain leaves
one with an empty feeling of des-
pair and shock.
It was a senseless and vicious
exhibition of savagery that easily
matches anything that even Hit-
ler's fiends have ever done.
That the order for the killings
should have come from Gen. Ber-
nard Montgomery—erstwhile hero
of El Alamein, only emphasizes
the criminality of that Interna-
tional bit of gangsterism. The
Jews of the world should set the
day of that martyrdom aside as a
day of mourning and prayer.
Those luckless victims of Fascist
fiendishness were honorable pris-
oners of war, a war against a
ruthless invader and those re-
sponsible for their untimely deaths
are not a whit less guilty than the
Nuremberg killers.
JACK FREEMAN
FROM PALESTINE
Dear Editor:
The Asher Hoberman family
club, through notices in the De-
troit Jewish , Chronicle, heard
from faraway members In Pales-
tine.
Through no other way than a
family organization could our
cousin, Moshe Novak, have con-
tacted us and received financial
aid which we were proud to send.
G. HOBERMAN,
President.
*
YOU ARE WELCOME!
Mr. Cantor also claims that
Jewish bakeries have raised their
prices unreasonably while non-
Jewish bakeries have not. I ques-
tion this statement. As a matter
of fact, their prices have not only
gone up but the size of the loaf
is smaller than the Jewish loaf.
I would like to call attention to
some facts which seem to have
Dear Editor:
I wish to thank you on behalf
of the Detroit Senior Bicur Cho-
lem for the very fine publicity you
published in your paper regard-
ing our 53rd annual banquet. Our
affair was a very successful one
and we attribute much of it to
your kindness.
(MRS.) BERTHA MERZON
The 'Innocent' Songstress