Friday, wecemliet 1111, 1941

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE

?age Four

Detroit Jewish Chronicle

The Class in ABC

Published Weekly by Jewish Chronicle Publishing Co., Inc., 598 Woodward, Detroit 26, Mich., CA. 1040

SUBSCRIPTION: $3.00 Per Year, Single Copies, 10c; Foreign, $5.00 Per Year
Watered as Second-clan mattes March 3, 1916, at the Post Office at Detroit, Mich., under the Act of March 3, 1879

SEYMOUR TILCHIN, President

Vol. 50, No. 47

GEORGE WEISWASSER, Editor-in-Chief

Friday, December 10, 1948 (Kislev 8, 5709)

• 'What Is the JSSB Afraid Of?

DETROIT 26, Mich.

- with the Jewish Community Center? We

could also ask: What truth is there to
reports that Jewish children are being
letter signed by William Gold, in which he housed by the JSSB in non-Jewish homes?
made general charges that juvenile delin-
These are two carges leveled at the JSSB
quency was being ignored by Jewish wel- in telephone calls to the Chronicle but
fare agencies here and specifically alleged which we refused to recognize because the
that no Jewish group acted on behalf of person making the charges insisted on be-
those who landed in Juvenile Court.
ing anonymous.
The day the letter appeared, we phoned
But we shall not press questions like
the office of Harold Silver, director of the these although they, too, deserve being an-
Jewish Social Service Bureau, in an at- swered, even if capricious. We all help sup-
tempt to get an answer to Gold's charges. port the JSSB. If we want to ask them a
We intended to publish the answer to refute question capriciously, we deserve an answer
Gold's allegations, if they were not true, and some courtesy.
or to determine how the faults he alleged
We therefore demand that the Jewish
could be rectified if they did exist.
Welfare Federation and the Jewish Social
Silver was out of town on a conference Service Bureau write to us in full whether
and he was asked to call the Chronicle there is any truth or not in Gold's charges.
when he returned.
Gold may be wrong or malicious, but he
Subsequently, Mrs. Charles 'Acuff, lay has a right to an answer, if nothing else.
leader of the JSSB, called the Chronicle to
If we do not hear from either agency,
criticize the publication of Mr. Gold's letter. there is nothing left for us but to assume
Mrs. Lakoff denied Gold's charges in full. that there is some truth in the charges
What apparently bothered her most, how- mid that the agencies would rather not
ever, was not that Mr. Gold was apparently discuss them. Which will bring up the
misinformed on most of his charges, but question of whether one should contribute
rather that the Chronicle undertook to pub- during the Allied Jewish Campaign to an
lish the letter without first consulting with agency which refuses to give a courteous
the JSSB.
explanation of it activities when requested
• • •
•
to do so in good faith as this paper has
This kind of thinking is nothing new to done.
the Chronicle. A few weeks ago, the man
who rules the Jewish community, Isidore
Sobeloff, executive director of the Jewish
DP Looks to the 81st Congress
Welfare Federation, almost burst a blood
When President Truman reluctantly' sign-
vessel shrieking at us over the phone that
we had no right to publish the Ilnai Brill' ed the so-called Displaced Persons act en-
letter accusing him and the Federation of acted by the 80th Congress, he blasted the
"sabotaging" the Aid to the People of Israel bill as a discriminatory piece of legislation
aimed primarily against Jews, and at the
drive, without first consulting with him.
We told both Sobeloff and Mrs. Lakoff, same time, he promised that he would do
who is an estimable and earnest leader, all in his power to have the law amended
that because of the undemocratic way in when the new Congress met.
When Mr. Truman made the promise
which Jewish agencies are run in this town,
it would be folly to discuss charges made his political future was uncertain. Now
by citizens before they appeared in the that he has been mandated by the Ameri-
paper, because Sobeloff and his aides would can people to lead the country for the
use all kinds of pressure to prevent us from next four years it seems to us that the
dignity of his office demands that he take
publishing those charges.
Neither Sobeloff nor Mrs. Lakoff would leadership in erasing from our books a
concede our point, of course. Mrs. Lakoff law which, in our opinion, he never should
went on to imply that someone on the have signed.
Since passage of that vicious law there
Chronicle staff had written Gold's letter
and that we had published it maliciously. have been innumerable reports showing
Gold gave his address as a certain hotel. that most of the potential and actual bene-
The hotel says that no one lives there by ficiaries of the DP act are elements who
that name. Why Gold wanted to use a could under no stretch of the imagination
false address is not the concern of this be called refugees or uprooted persons.
The clinching evidence of the types most
newspaper. If the paper had to go behind
every address sent into it in a letter to likely to benefit from our DP law was pro-
the editor or otherwise, we would be kept vided recently in a series of articles by
busy all day on that job alone, and second- David W. Nussbaum of the Overseas News
ly we would be putting forward limitations Agency. The gist of his survey was that
on the freedom of the press. The Chron- the DP camps today swarm with Nazis
icle prints every signed letter—even those and pro-Nazis and that the vast portion
of those . posing as uprooted people are
that attack us.
• • •
Nazi collaborators who refuse to return to
We waited for Silver to call us. Finally their own country for fear of facing the
we called him. Silver told us that he music.
Nussbaum threw particular "light" on
would make no attempt to answer Gold or
explain the situation to him through our the Balts, Poles and Ukranians, the chief
paper because he, too, felt that the letter beneficiaries of the Wiley-Revercomb brain-
storm.
was one we had inserted capriciously.
If the 81st Congress is to interpret the
We find on checking that Gold is wrong
when he declared that no Jewish probation spirit of the American people correctly, it
officer is available to intercede on behalf must make elimination of the shameful
of the few Jewish juvenile delinquents DP law the first act on its agenda.
who may be brought to court. We find,
further, that the Jewish Social Service
No Sympathy for China
Bureau is generally considered to be doing
a good job in the field of juvenile problems.
China is baying her troubles these days,
We learn, in addition, that the JSSB, and and when you read the papers, it seems
we quote an official of the Jewish Commu- that the American people show little sym-
nity Council, "is the best family case work pathy.
agency in the city and one of the best in
Can it be that China's callousness be-
the country." We know that Silver's re- came evident to Americus in general when
putation is one of the finest in the profes- she was the only non-Moslem power to
sion.
side with imperial Britain when the latter
If all this is true, then what is the urged punitive measures against Israel in
JSSB afraid of?
its war of defense against British satel-
We could snipe a little at the JSSB, at lites?
this time, in view of its arrogance and
There must have been a feeling of revul-
contempt for this newspaper that repre- sion against a government that seeks world
sents 18,000 persons in the community, sympathy, yet urges sanctions against a
many of whom contribute to the JSSB. newborn land fighting foreign aggressors.
We could say to the JSSB: Just what China's moral disintegration became too
are you doing to avert the growing ju- prominent for Americans to ignore.
venile delinquency problems in the 12th-
That helps to explain, in part, American
Dexter areas, working alone or in concert coolness to a corrupted China.

In our issue of Nov. 26, we carried It

Letters to the Editor

RABBI SCHULTZ PROTESTS

Dear Editor:
In your newspaper for Nov. 19,
1998, there appears a column,
called "Strictly Confidential," by
one Phineas J. Biron, who is
Joseph Brainin. In this column,
he includes a scurrilous para-
graph about me. The statements
in this paragraph are untrue and
harmful to me.
The matter of my criticism of
Stephen S. Wise may legitimately
be a subject of discussion. My
references to Dr. Wise were mild
and brief. I considered it inad-
visable for Dr. Wise to use his
prestige to encourage certain
front organizations, and to state
in a sermon that Uncle Sam
should donate the secret of the
atom bomb to Soviet Russia.
Incidentally, my printed state-
ments have never been questioned
as to fact, and I have not been
challenged personally on any
fact which I have stated. •
• • •
Mr. Brainin says I "smeared
Rabbi Stephen S. Wise as a red."
This is untrue. Such a statement
is not only untrue but harmful
to me. In every reference to Dr.
Wise, I have been careful to point
out that he is a non-Communist.
Mr. Brainin says that I am "ac-
tive in spreading the red smear
on Jewish organizations and in-
dividuals." This is untrue. The
legitimate organizations of the
Jewish people are the American
Jewish Committee, the Jewish
Labor Committee, Anti-Defama-
tion League, etc.
Not only have I not smeared
them, but I have been continually
pointing out that these are anti-
Communist organizations, a n d
that these represent the Jewish
people. Therefore, Mr. Brainin's
statements are untrue and harm-
ful to me.
• • •
Mr. Brainin is very angry at
me, and it is true that he follows
the party line in his column. I

am amazed, however, not only
that you carried the paragraph
about me, but that you have de-
cided to give him a platform,
without at least pointing out to
the public the background of Mr.
Brainin, so that they may cor-
rectly read his column.
Mr. Brainin was a member a
the board of the notorious Pro-
testant Magazine, which so fol-
lowed the pro-Soviet line, while
appealing to Jews for support,
that it was denounced two years
ago by the National Community
Relations Advisory council as in-
imical to the welfare of the Jew-
ish people. Mr. Brainin is also a
sponsor of the School of Jewish
Studies, which is on the subvers-
ive list of Attorney-General
Clark, and which was organized
by the Communist Party.
• • •

I will set my concern for Am-
erica and for the Jews, on my
record, against that of Mr. Brain-
in, and I have no doubt that the
latter will suffer in that process.
The Ameican Jewish Com-
munity does not have the ma-
chinery, as yet, fully to recognize
Communist propaganda when it
sees it. But I am sure that in time,
with our help, it will have this
machinery, because Americans of
Jewish faith are overwhelmingly
anti-Communist.
I have read and enjoyed your
newspaper, and I shall continue
to do so. I do not have the slight-
est idea that there is anything
wrong with it, because I have
read your editorials, news items,
and I know its general tone. You
are generally to be congratulated
on a fine job.
I am deeply hurt, however, by
the harmful statements about me
by Mr. Brainin in your newspa-
per.
RABBI BENJAMIN SCHULTZ
Executive Director,
American Jewish League
Against Communism.

Labor Backs Same Issues
as Jews, Council Group Told

The link of organized labor
to the American Jewish com-
munity was emphasized in a
talk to the community relations
committee of the Jewish Com-
munity Council by Emanuel Mu-
ravchick, field director of the
Jewish Labor Committee.
The speaker was introduced
by Dr. Shmarya Kleinman, co-
chairman of the committee in
Detroit. Harry Yudkoff, chair-
man of the community relations
group, presided.
Muravchick pointed out that,
while there are only 150,000 Jews
in unions in this country, organ-
ized labor as a whole is com-
pelled by its own interests to
take positions on many issues

similar to those of Jewish groups.
The Jewish Labor Committee
seeks to help labor in its efforts
to proceed in the direction of
more democracy for all men,
he added.
The committee was instrumen-
tal in obtaining AFL and .C10
support for a national.FEPC bill
and for liberalization of DP leg-
islation, Muravchick reported.
This is expected to have a strong
influence on Congress when it
convenes in January, he said.
The talk was one of a series
in which the community rela-
tions committee invites leaders
of national Jewish organizations
to Detroit for discussions• of
work in community relations.

