niday, June 118, 1948

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE

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W orld Politics

Detroit Jewish Chronicle

Published Weekly by Jewish Chronicle Publishing Co., Inc., 548 Woodward, Detroit 26, Mich., CA. 1040

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SUBSCRIPTION; $3.00 Per Year, Single Copies, 10c; Foreign, $3.00 Per Year
1879
Bowed as Second-class matter March 3, 1916, at the Post Office at Detroit, Mich., under the Act of March 3,
GEORGE
WEISWASSER,
Editor-in-Chief
SEYMOUR TILCHIN, President

Vol. 50, No. 22

Friday, June 18, 1948 (Sivan 11, 5108)

Detroit Zionist Council

An active and spirited Zionist Council
of Detroit that can flute the different
Zionist factions into a working entity will
be a bulwark to Zionism at large and the
Jewish community here in particular.
Zionists, particularly the moderates, will
not find it easy-going now with the estab-
lishment of the Jewish State, and if they
are to continue to recruit Americans as
active supporters of Israel they will have to
offer a program that is lucid and compell-
ing.
We wish the new officers of the coun-
cil here a most successful administration.
At their head is Sidney Shevitz, Labor Zi-
onist leader who has a wise head on his
young shoulders and vision and courage in
his makeup, despite his strong partisanship.
If his hands will not be tied by the ar-
bitrary actions of a few self-appointed
"elder statesmen," we can expect a council
under his leadership that will infuse vigor
into what has been universally recognized
as a do-nothing group.
We think, however, that the council has
made a weak start. It had been tentatively
agreed that there would be a demonstration
before the offices of the British consulate
here en June 7. That was postponed "to
view developments." Now the demonstra-
tion has been dropped on the basis of the
four-week truce in the Palestine fighting.
That truce is another contemptible Bri-
tish trick to weaken Israel. We should do
everything we can, by refusing to buy Bri-
tish goods and by picketing British consular
offices, to protest continued British knavery
and vindictiveness.
On June 2, hundreds of pickets carry-
ing banners denouncing British betrayal of
the UN and its arming of the Arab aggres-
sors, paraded before the British consulate
offices at the Empire State Bldg. in New
York. Picketing started at 4 p.m. and con-
tinued until 6 p.m.
On the same day, protest rallies were
held in Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh,
Chicago, San Francisco and in other cities
in which British consulates are maintained.
But Detroit Zionists did nothing.
This is still in the do-nothing spirit of
the last administration which failed to call
Zionist rallies at the time of Britain's crime
against humanity in the Exodus '47 affair,
at the time of the approval of partition
by the UN on Nov. 29, and at the time
of the Truman reversal on partition.
But, to be fair, this inaction cannot be
blamed on Shevitz or his colleagues. They
have just taken office and have not yet had
an opportunity to get all their bearings.
We have confidence that they will by
• their initiative and devotion to a united
Jewry reorganize the council activities and
reinvigorate them. To this end, we feel
that the community should agree to finance
an office for the council to iategrate its ac-
tivities.
We hope that the council will fulfill its
plans for an anti-British demonstration at
the first sign of British sabotage of the
peace negotiations being carried out by the
UN.

.

Jewish Council Acts Wisely

The staff of the Jewish Community
Council acted intelligently and expeditiously
in the Leon Mosley shooting case. Mosley
is the Negro boy who was killed by a po-
liceman's bullet as he ran from him after
a chase.
The Council directors at once joined
other liberal civic groups in demanding an
impartial investigation of charges that the
shooting was deliberate and wanton. R is
good to know that our Council is not timid
about demanding respect for rights of the
individual, Jewish or non-Jewish.
Realizing that in the heat of anger
against the white police, Negroes might be
moved to vent their rage on white shop-
keeperkin Negro neighborhoods, the Coun-
cil arranged for extra police protection dur-
ing the funeral demonstration for the dead
youth.
When he learned that Communist lead-
ers were planning to use the killing and the
protest procession for their own ends, Oscar

DETROIT

SEE ROI!

26, MICH.

Cohen, executive director of the Council,
presented his information to Negro and
white civic leaders and to the police. They
at once took precautions to avert an open
clash during the funeral parade.
The Council staff is to be commended
for its circumspection and its good judg-
ment. It is incidents like these that demon-
strate what an effective group of workers
they are for the welfare'of the city at large
and the Jewish community in particular.

_ Unspenknble Bevin

Several recent statements by that mad-
man in the Foreign Office, Ernest Bevin,
underscore the fact that, despite his appar-
ent concessions to the UN on Palestine,
following conferences with the U. S. am-
bassador, Britain cannot be trusted to look
on the Palestine issue with a fair and open
mind.
Bevin told the House of Commons last
week that the attack on Jerusalem by the
Arab Legion does not "oblige the British
government to review their obligations to
the Transjordan government." In other
words, though the Arabs are aggressors in
the eyes of .the world and have attacked a
city supposedly under UN jurisdiction and
revered by the three major religions, Bri-
tain would not 'stop subsidizing the Legion
to the tune of $8,000,000 a year.
Bevin followed this remark up with the
stupid assertion that "the Arab Legion did
not start the fighting at Jerusalem." We
must assume from this that he believes the
Legion invasion of Jerusalem, a UN enclave,
was a matter of course.
Which all leads up to the conclusion that
if Britain is to regain the respect it has
lost in America because of its treachery
and cupidity, she had bettei get rid of
Bevin instead of grooming him for prime
minister.

Campaign on Last Lap

The accomplishments to date of the Al-
lied Jewish Campaign have been magnifi-
cent. With $5,500,000 pledged, there re-
mains but $700,000 to be raised. All
indications are that this greatest of all Al-
lied Jewish Campaigns will go over the
top.
The Women's Division and the Junior
Division, which have virtually ended their
efforts in the drive, deserve the applause of
the community for their spendid showings.
It is now up to the trade and professional
divisions alone to finish the job, and if their
devotion and industry in the 'past are any
criteria, they will most certainly succeed
in boosting the total over the $6,200,000
goal.
Just new, it is important that everyone
begin paying up his pledge as soon as pos-
sible so that more cash can be rushed to
Is rael.
The new State counts upon the United
Jewish Appeal as its main source of reve-
nue in this timo of crisis. Let us speed out
support to her.

Joshua Loth Liebnum

The extraordinary success of Joshua
Liebman's "Peace of Mind" must have been
due in part to the appeal of its subject and
title, meeting as they did the groping need
of a generation that had come through a
depression and a great war, and had
searched for inner quietness and found it
nowhere. But unlike many books that are
cleverly exploited to meet a popular need,
this one had substance, and it revealed
behind it an author of integrity and faith.
Rabbi Liebman had himself passed
through the doubts to which modern men
seem peculiarly susceptible; he had explored
the resources both of psychiatry and re-
ligion, and in his own victory had found
the wisdom, while still at a youthful age,
to bring counsel and help to others .. .
It was the irony of his fate that in
meeting the calls as a lecturer and preacher
which then came to him he outreached his
bodily faith. The inner serenity he had
achieved and strove to impart to others
could not save him from the blow which at
forty-one was to close all his exertions. .. .

—N.Y.

Herald Tribune.

Letters to the Editor

RAPS ZIONIST COUNCIL

Dear Editor:
Years back, Dr. Stephen S.
Wise addressed the student body
of the University of Michigan.
Preceding the event, Prof. Hobbs
of the University faculty, made
certain aspersions on Dr. Wise's
Americanism.
In an exchange of verbal shafts
which followed between the two,
the Zionist leader more than ac-
quitted himself. The next day,
another member of • the faculty,
Prof. Wenley, during his lecture
on ethics, delivered himself
somewhat as follows: "Prof.
Hobbs, who is a geologist, nat-
urally mingles with soil, and is
bound, once in a while, to get
muddy, but he cannot get Wise."
This story was brought to
mind when, as Revisionist dele-
gate to the Zionist Emergency
Council of Detroit, I had occa-
sion to observe the conduct of
that body.
I have often wondered to
what extent its leaders have in-
evitably introduced the methods
acquired by them in their busi-
ness relations into the public

p

work. Certain of the petty po-
litics employed in the council
was hardly consistent with un-
divided devotion to the Zionist
cause.
For that reason I hail the elec-
tion of Sidney Shevitz as the
new president. I hope that his
professional training will stand
him in good stead in eliminating
some of the unsavory features
of the council's work.
I am sorry that I was unable
to vote for him; this was ac-
counted for by the fact that my
nasty mailman has, I believe,
for the third time failed to de
liver the notice of the Council
meeting to the Revisionist dele-
gate, although I have been as-
sured that the same was duly
posted.
At any rate, that is the story.
I have no other way of explain-
ing the failure of notices to reach
the addressee.
May I take this occasion of
commending you on your splen-
did editorials, particularly those
in your issue of June 4, concern-
ing the Jan Peerce concert. Keep
up the good work.
M. M. MERZON.

-

1.11101111111111Mtinil

Random Thoughts

•
By Seymour Tileirm imoommoisimemmumbmig gd

WEEK again, I have been upon the people of this com-
requested by several groups munity not to support any other
and individuals to advise them army but the recognized army of
whether they should support Israel, the Haganah.
• • •
Irgun or Haganah and where the
CHRONICLE SUBSCRIBERS
money should be sent.
MANY COMPLAINTS have
I had a committee meet with
me from an outlying congrega- been pouring into the office of
tion which was split on the ques- the Jewish Chronicle by people
tion. While in that par4icu4ar who have failed to receive the
case, for the sake of harmony Chronicle in the past few weeks.
The failure to receive your
within the congregation, I sug-
gested a compromise, there is paper may be due to any num-
one obvious solution to this ber of causes such as a slip on
the part of the mailer; getting
whole problem.
'Irgun must merge 'with Ha- lost in the mail proper; or if
ganah in and outside of Israel. you live in an apartment, some-
There is only one ultimate aim, one else picking up your paper.
Efforts are being made to cor-
the defense of the Jewish State.
If Irgun wants support from rect this. It is gratifying, how-
Jewish people everywhere, all it ever, to realize that people are
has to do is to consolidate com- anxiously looking forward to the
pletely with Haganah and it will reading of the Chronicle and are
very much disturbed when they
get that support.
As an underground movement don't receive it.
• • •
before the creation of the Jew-
ish State, it had a right to exist, ADVICE TO BERNADOTTE
THERE HAS been a little con-
I believe. Now there is no such
fusion as to whether Britain was
justification.
If the Revisionists who claim invited by Count Bernadotte to
to support the Irgun have a right become a neutral observer over
to maintain an army, the same Israel or whether Britain merely
would apply to Mizrachi, the gen- invited herself. In all fairness to
eral Zionists and all other par- Britain, since she has always
been "neutral," we suggest that
ties in Palestine.
I see no justifteation for politi- she be appointed to patrol the
cal parties to maintain armies. border of Transjordan to make
(Continued on Page 14)
They merely create chaos. I call

THIS

