Thursday, September 15, 194t
DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE
Page Three
STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
2nd Peekskill Riot Poses A Threat To Democracy
By PIIINEAS J. BIRON
WE MET FASCISM face to face. It is an ugly ex-
perience. We hope that you and your children
will be spared this nightmare.
On Sunday afternoon, Sept. 4, American de-
mocracy was to be re-affirmed. The police authorities
of Westchester County and a contingent of state police
had been given instructions to pro-
tect the men, women and children -
who had made their way to the
Hollow Brook Golf Club to listen
to a Paul Robeson concert. The
same concert that hoodlums pre-
vented from taking place the
previous week in the vicinity of
Peekskill.
So we went there in company
of many thousands of Jews, Negroes
and a good number of white
Christians. It was a sunny after-
noon and the old golf club filled
Biron
up rapidly. There seemed to be
order and peace, although the approaches to the con-
cert ground were taken up by veteran groups .
non-descript young men and women shouting iisults
as we passed them.
But the police seemed to have the situation under
control. They formed a human fence which pre-
vented the would-be rioters from repeating their
onslaught of a week ago.
• • •
ON THE CONCERT grounds itself, a well dis-
ciplined group of Robeson supporters had organized a
self-defense corps of sturdy young men who formed
an immovable barricade around the audience.
Their faces were turned towards the insulting
shouts on the outside and their serious expression on
their facts clearly said: "they shall not pass." And
they did not pass. But once the concert was over the
picture suddenly changed.
Some state policemen encircled the Robeson de-
fense corps while others hurried the public into their
buses, directing them to the state road, which was
lined by the men and women, who were eager to
"teach tit commies and kikes a lesson."
• • •
IT K. ON THAT road that we saw the face of
American fascism.
Men wearing veteran caps hurling huge stones
through the windows of the buses while the state
troopers forced the buses to slow down to make them
an easier target.
A man of forty came close to the bus in which
we sat, smashed the window glass with a rock and
clubbed a young woman over the head, spitting into
her face "You lousy Jew, you nigger-lover ... Go back
to Moscow."
The behavior of the State police gave to this
nightmarish picture the real fascist-Nazi coloring.
These men, who according to Governor Dewey had
been assigned to maintain law and order, had a
wonderful time.
They encouraged the "pogromchicks," they laugh-
ed out loud when the rocks hit a bus, they tipped off
the rowdies when a new line of busses approached.
OFF THE RECORD
Decline in Bigotry Seen in England
Abdullah Tries Charms
on Bevin, Then Franco
A
By NATHAN ZIPRIN
FTER BREAKING bread with
Bevin at London the Hashe-
mite King Abdullah hurried to
Madrid for the post-meal grace
with Franco. The evident pur-
pose of the visit is to influence the
Spanish dictator into persuading
the Latin-American countries in-
to voting at the next General As-
sembly session in favor of handing
over Arab Palestine to Trans-
jordan.
In return Adbullah will prob-
ably promise Franco to deliver
the Arab vote when the issue of
Spain's admission to the UN is
raised. Vatican circles are watch-
ing this development precisely be-
cause the Rome-Madrid-London
wires were busy arranging the
rendezvous,
• • .
PLAN ENGLISH DAILY
OCT. 17 WILL mark the ap-
pearance of a daily Anglo-Jewish
paper in New York City with
Albert Shulman as publisher and
editor. The newspaper will bear
the name "American Jewish
Daily" and will appear five days
a week. Shulman is the publisher
of the weekly Jewish Review .. •
Kurt Peiser is to leave the
Philadelphia Federation of Jewish
Charities. His destination is the
University of Pennsylvania as as-
sistant to president Harold Stas-
sen .
The start of the demise of the
American Zionist Council is quite
premature. In fact those who
started and publicized the rumor
will be surprised to learn that
with Louis Lipsky as president
the council is planning to launch
a series of highly important activ-
ities. It is this corner's prediction
that Rabbi Jerome Unger will be
asked to serve as the council's
executive director .. .
Trude Weiss-Rosmarin is on a
one-month fact-gathering stay in
Israel in preparation for a busy
lecture season. Her new book,
"Jewish Survival," will be pub-
lished in November by Philoso-
phical Library .. .
BUDGET ISSUE
This issue of national budgeting
will rise to the fore again in the
near future. And the debate will
be more acrimonious than ever.
The advocates of democracy in
Jewish life will carry the battle
to the elements who would cen-
tralize Jewish life in the hands
of the few.
Opponents of centralization
maintain that such an eventuality
would lead to the creation of a
"charity trust" with all the evils
attached to that concept
The stories of diminishing in-
One fat, Jovial state trooper yelled out "Strike One"
when a IN',ck hit a little girl of 10.
We don't know whether Governor Dewey or the
U. S. attorney general will make any real efforts to
punish the uniformed hoodlums who made the first
riot look like a meek rehearsal in comparison with
the wholesale pogrom of the Labor Day week-end.
• • •
WE KNOW HOWEVER, that unless drastic pun-
ishment is dealt out, the ugly face of Westchester
fascism will raise its head again in the future. The
heavy silence from our defense agencies is one morn
proof that the witch hunt, ostensibly directed against
the communists but actually persecuting free Ameri-
-can citizens is succeeding beyond fascist hopes.
Our leadership is so completely intimidated that
it dare not raise even a whisper. Oh, for the voice of
Stephen S. Wise at a time like this.
• • •
The dispatches from London about Yehudi
Menuhin and his decision to play a concert fur a
British charity cause in Manchester on Yom Kippur
are all wet.
Menuhin will not play on Yom Kippur all reports
to the contrary.
It is well-known that the great Jewish virtuoso
has made it an iron-clad rule ever since his debut
not to play on Yom Kippur. The rumors that are
being spread now are sponsored by certain circles
who have tried to villify the violin genius for the last
few years.
Please, play' , fair and disregard these unconfirmed
reports. Menuhin deserves our confidence.
terest in Israel in the American
Jewish communities are without
foundation. To say that the grow-
ing interest in local matters re-
flects a waning interest in the
new Jewish State is akin to say-
ing that a merchant who stocks
his storehouse with a new kind
of merchandise is abandoning in-
terest in the rest of his wares. It
isn't necessarily so.
There is a Yiddish admonition
against "Sich Einreden a Krenk"
(talk ones self into illness). The
false prophets most likely are
those who would like to see
American Jewry abandon Israel
to its own fate at the most critical
stage of its existence. That is
not the mood of American Jewry.
•
•
•
CLIPPINGS FROM ISRAEL
AN AMERICAN tourist and an
Israeli citizen were sitting in a
Tel Aviv cafe reading newspaper
accounts of a sharp political de-
bate that had taken place that
day in the Knesset.
The newspapers reported that
one deputy attacked Ben Gurion
for selling out to Stalin, that an-
other assailed him for selling out
to Truman and that a third one
berated him for selling out to
Bevin., Turning to his Israeli
table-mate the American remark-
ed that he was seriously thinking
of engaging Ben Gurion as the
manager of his business because,
as he said, "an ingenious sales-
man who can palm off one and
the same commodity to differed
buyers would be worth millions
to my firm. . . "
The latest story circulating in
Israel is about the Treasury Min-
ister Kaplan and the Minister of
Supplies Joseph.
While riding In a plane over
Tel Aviv, Kaplan remarked to
Joseph that if he could drop five
hundred tons of 10-pound notes
over the city all the taxpayers
would adore and kiss him. To
which Joseph replied that if he
could drop several hundred tons
of meat over the city tens of
thousands of women would show-
er him with kisses.
The Israeli pilot took the con-
versation in silently and then ob-
served "if I could drop both of
you gentlemen over the city all
men and women in Israel would
run to kiss me."
12TH STREET SCHOOL
The 12th Street Council Cen-
ter is accepting applications for
its play school program for
children between 3-5 years old.
For information, call Hal
Schneiderman, TY. 8 6000.
-
NEW YORK—(WNS) — Inter- London representative of the
nal difficulties in the board of American Jewish Committee, de-
deputies of British Jews are dared at a press conference in
threatening the communal life of New York, following his arrival
Anglo-Jewry, William Frankel, for a six-week speaking engage-
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At the same time he asserted
that the anti-Semitism engend-
ered in England during the con-
troversy which preceded the
establishment of the Jewish State
was on the wane.