Friday, August 27, 1948
DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE
Page Four
Crocodile Tears
Detroit Jewish Chronicle
Published Weekly by Jewish Chronicle Publishing Co., Inc., 548 Woodward, Detroit 26, Mich., CA. 1040
SUBSCRIPTION: $3.00 Per Year Single Copies, 10c; Foreign, $5.00 Per Year
entered as Second-class matte: March 3. 1916, at the Post Office at Detroit, Mich., under the Act of March 3, 1879
SEYMOUR TILCHIN, President
Vol. 50, No. 32
GEORGE WEISWASSER, Editor-in-Chief
Friday, August 27, 1948 (Ab 22, 5708)
New High School in Northwest
After a delay of several years, ground
has finally been broken for the badly-needed
Samuel Mumford high School at Wyoming
and Thatcher avenues.
Classes in the first unit are expected to
open with the new term in September of
next year. It Will accommodate 800 students.
The building program calls for extensive
up-to-date fac,ilities• to house 2,500 students
eventually. Adjoining the building will be a
huge athletic field which together with the
building will cover 20 acres bounded by Wy-
oming, Thatcher, Mendota and Santa Clara
avenues.
The announcement that building of the
long-awaited high school is about to start is
of particular interest to the Jewish commu-
nity. By the time the complete school is up,
it is expected that about 50 percent of the
Jews in Detroit will have their homes in the
general area served by the school.
It is obvious that there is a general move
ment of Detroit Jewish families going on
from the Linwood-Dexter area to the Six
and Seven Mile section. In fact, if more
homes were available; the shift would be
much swifter and more dramatic. Everyone,
it seems, wants to move to the newer areas
in the northwest section.
Up to now, Central High School has served
virtually all Jewish children in the new dis-
trict. There are several reasons for this. The
most significant, perhaps, is the fact that
Central was about as close as any other
school, and as long as 'there was a choice,
parents felt their children should attend the
same classes as their friends in the Linwood-
Dexter section.
Another reason for Central's popularity is
the understandable reluctance of parents to
send their children to high school where
frictions and hostilities might develop be-
cause the Jewish students were few in num-
ber and might be subjected to antagonisms
from students from bigoted homes.
Then there is the wish of all parents that
their children should have regular contacts
with other Jewish children because of social
and religious pressures.
Now, with the establishment of a new
high school in the heart of the growing
northwest section, Jewish parents will no
longer be cdnstrained to send their children
long dIstances• to Central to be with other
Jewish children. Mumford will offer all the
facilities of Central eventually alting with
large enrollments of Jewish children. -
We are inclined to believe that the new
school will not be large enough within the
next few years to accommodate all the boys
and girls who will wish to enroll there.
There is a very good chance that building
in the area will be more considerable than
the average and that the section will become
pretty well crowded. The board of education
is not sufficiently forward-looking, it seems
to us, if it plans a high school for only 2,500
students in that area.
We suggest that the Jewish Community
Council and organizations in the northwest
neighborhood, such as parents-teachers
groups and Synagogue sisterhoods, bring to
the attention of the board the prospects for
an above-average shift of population to the
area before the board completes its plans to
set up inadequate facilities for the high
school boys and girls who will be clamoring
to enter Mumford in the next few years.
Misery in Cyrus
British insistence on holding 12,000 Jews
in Cyprus is another example of English du-
plicity and vindictiveness. Four thousand of
the refugees are women and children.
On May 11, just before Britain's "legal"
right to imprison Jews on Cyprus ended, the
British Foreign Office announced: "Illegal
Jewish immigrants into Palestine at present
detained in Cyprus will be freed when Bri-
tain lays down the Palestine mandate (May
15). Grounds for their detention no longer
exist after termination of the mandate."
Hesitating to risk the lives of the Cyprus
refugees because of the danger from Egyp-
tian ships and planes, the Israeli government
delayed until its vessels were armed.
When the Jewish ships were ready to
sail, Britain suddenly decided that no man
DETqOIT 26, MICR.
of military age could leave the island al-
though the UN truce terms had thrown out
the military age clause.
Count Bernadotte, the UN mediator, said
that he had Po objection to the transfer of
Jewish men to Israel as long as those of mili-
tary age were interned upon their arrival.
But Britain refuses to let any more Jews go
saying that she was determined to prevent
the men from joining the Israeli army.
Here we see again an example of British
unilateral action in utter contempt of the
prerogatives of the UN. Here again is a
British move that benefits the Arabs, for
while any number of Moslem fighters can
cross into Palestine without anyone to say
no, there is a barrier set up by Britain for
possible aid to Israel even outside the mili-
tary field.
British cruelties have brought new bitter-
ness and desperation to the 12,000 in Cyprus.
When ships kept arriving bringing new
prisoners or others left with the monthly
quota for Palestine, there was something to
buoy up the spirits of the refugees. But now
there is no such hope and the moot! of the
Jews MO are left is a growing one of frustra-
tion and despair.
Let those who continue to guzzle British
SEEK IVAN ALDER
Scotch, view 'British films and wear British
tweeds remember that they are helping to Dear Editor:
make life easier for the barbarians who make Information is being sought
life miserable for Jews as a matter of •princi- on Ivan Gordon Alder or Martin
on behalf of his wife and six
ple.
Letters to the Editor
`Chutspah' of WJR
We Jews have a word to describe the re-
quest of MR that the Jewish community in-
dorse its petition before the Federal Commu-
nications Commission for the right to estabr
lisp a television station in the area. The
word is "Chutspah." In English, it might be
inadequately translated as "nerve" or "gall."
WJR's past is not savory as far as the
Jewish community is concerned. We shall
never forget that it was the downright
bigotry of the management and ownership
of that station that was responsible for the
regular broadcast of the vilest villification of
Jews ever heard in public.
The station had it in its power to gag
the hate-inspired mouthings of Charles
Coughlin and bar him from the air, but it
callously and arrogantly rejected all pleas
of American Jewry and liberal non-Jewish
leadership.
WJR was in great measure responsible
for some of American Jewry's deepest agony
in the mercurial thirties. For the reason
alone of its bigotry and pitilessness in that
era, it does not deserve extension of its
broadcasting facilities by an agency that is
a guardian of American liberties.
But there is another and more timely
reason for refusing WJR television rights.
WJR's recent record is not clean either. There
is ample evidence to support charges against
its owner who has been accused of deliber-
ate and unconscionable anti-Semitism and
other un-American acts.
We say 'to the FCC: No, Detroit Jews
haven't a good word to say for WJR.
HCL in Israel
Interesting facts on the economic condi-
tion of Palestine were recently released by
Dr. Israel Goldstein in his capacity as na-
tional chairman of the United Palestine Ap-
peal.
-
The highlights of the situation are: An
average Israeli family must have at least
$300 a month to maintain its pre-war stand-
ard of living; in new building constructions
the average rent for a room fluctuates be-
tween $30 and $50 per month; retail food
prices have risen about 260 percent since
1939 while wages and salaries have risen
about 125 to 150 percent.
To meet the gap between average earn-
ings and expenditures it is imperative that
at least two memberS of a family are em-
ployed.
Even these meager figures emphasize the
colossal task facing the new state of Israel
in maintaining its economic equilibrium.
They also demonstrate what efforts lie
ahead for the UPA agencies in their task of
adjusting the new arrivals to Israel during
the early period of their resettlement.
is requested to communicate
with the National Desertion
Bureau, 105 Nassau Street, New
York 7, N.Y.
SAMUEL EDELSTEIN,
minor children with whom he
Assistant Secretary.
has failed to communicate or
contribute toward their support
MAX KAPLAN RESIGNS
since February, 1948, as a result
of which his family now find Dear Editor:
After building the dormitor-
themselves in destitute circum-
stances and in dire need of his ies, and other work which I
have done for the Yeshivath
financial assistance.
Alder or Martin was born in Chachmey Lublin, I have de-
Canada on Aug. 22, 1918. He cided to resign as president of
is about 6 ft. 1 in. tall, weighs the Yeshivath Chachmey Lublin.
180 pounds, has brown hair, blue
From this day I will not be
eyes and is a laborer by occu- responsible for the activities of
pation.
the Yeshivah.
Anyone aware of his location
MAX KAPLAN.
rinsf oni0i iimosiiinivimoimmusimationitmintiptimmomesimasoimagnriminil
Random Thoughts 2k4
By Seyrno tr Tilchin
witiorsmommtimm il
JOHN of the Britons they accused of espion-
R New York Star
in an inter- age recently.
OBERT ST.
view with both Menahem Beigin
"I have moral influence with
and David Ben Gurion states the them but they are free to make
position of each as follows: Said their own decisions. If Jerusalem
Beigin on the question of inter- is declared an international city,
nal peace: "If a free state is or is given to Abdullah, as the
formed here with a free life for British Foreign Office and Count
the people, and free political Bernadotte wish, then I am sure
competition, there is no possi- Irgun there will continue to
bility of armed conflict. We of fight.
the Irgun shall never use arms
"If they are forced to g6 un-
against our fellow Jews unless derground they will do so. But
we are forced to. We wish deci- they will still fight."
sions to be made by ballots, not
• • •
bullets. If and when a free elec-
PREMIER'S STATEMENT
tion is held, we shall abide by
SAID BEN .GURION: "This
the decision at the polls."
man belongs to the school which
Said he on the question of
partition: "The Irgun will never introduced the rule of the gun
recognize it. We would not take Into Jewish life. He has imposed
immediate armed action, howev- certain attitudes on a certain
er, because this is a dangerous percentage of our population at
the point of a gun.
moment in Jewish history, our
"He is a newcomer to us. He
people being surrounded by ene-
mies. Instead, we would continue has never shed a drop of sweat
to intensify our campaign to in the building up of Palestine.
educate the people, especially We are not going to be taken in
the youth, on the necessity of by his sophistry. He says Irgun
soldiers will refuse to lay down
an undivided country."
their arms in Jerusalem if the
• • •
Holy City is not put under Jew-
EXCLUDE HOLY CITY
ish rule.
AS FOR JERUSALEM, he
"The foreign policy of any
said: "When we agreed to merge state must be indivisible. One
our military forces with those cannot defy one's government by
of the liaganah into a govern- force of arms in the field of for-
ment army, we specifically ex- eign affairs. The Jewish position
cluded our troops in Jerusalem in Jerusalem is not for the State
because, under the partition of Israel to decide. There must
plan, Jerusalem was to be an be no gangsterism.
International city outside the
"We are also not going to be
jurisdiction of the Israeli gov- taken in by Beigin's claim that
ernment
he has no authority over the
"We have today a very con- Irgun in Jerusalem. Beigin and
siderable number of our best sol- his followers will be given full
diers there. They have their own freedom of action when elections
high command. They are not un- are held.
der orders from our headquart-
"If they win, they can estab-
ers in Tel Aviv. I did not know lish an official Israeli policy. If
in advance, for - example, of not, then Beigin and his follow-
their plan to arrest the five•
(Continued on • Page 10)