Thursday, December 1, 1941 DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE Page 3 STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL Verdict Reversal Strikes Blow at Anti-Semitism By PHINEAS J. BIRON ILLINOIS APPELATE COURT has struck a mighty blow for the prestige and honor of Ameri- can justice. It did not content itself, with merely unanimously reversing the verdict in the case of Joseph Mc- Williams et al. vs. the "Sentinel" but flayed the court proceedings of the original trial which took place two years ago in the Superior Court of Cook County presided over by Judge Donald McKinley. Lawrence Dennis, Joseph McWil- liams, E. J. Parker Sage, George E. Deatherage and other defendants in the Washington sedition trial sued The for libel because the Biron Chicago Anglo-Jewish weekly had reprinted on Dec. 1944, a telegram urging the attorney general to ntinue the trials, ended by mistrial because of• the ath of the presiding judge. • • • • Judge McKinley awarded the plaintiffs judgments to the total amount of $24,100. Now, Justice Scanlon of the Illinois Appelate Court THE i ,, in reversing the verdict said: "We found it difficult, at first, to believe that the evidence and the arguments to which we have referred form a part of the transcript of the record of a .trial in an American court. "The 'arguments' in behalf of plaintiffs are more vicious, rabble-rousing appeals to religious and racial passions and prejudices, and the harm done to de- fendants by the appeals was greatly aggravated by the fact that the court remained silent while they were made, although the 'arguments' constituted a grave affront to justice." The ''Sentinel" and a small group of supporters never lost confidence in the integrity of the American court and made the necessary sacrifices to appeal the case. They have been vindicated, and anti-Semitism received an important setback. • • • "I READ YOUR STORY about the agreement be- tween the American Jewish Committee and the Israeli government about calling off the Chalutzim movement in the United States. But somehow more recent re- ports from Israel seem to contradict your report about the new pact between the Zionists and non-Zionists in this country. "Recently the "New York Times" featured an OFF THE RECORD In Joint Recital Italian Village Adopts Judaism, Goes to Israel By NATHAN ZIPRIN THE TREK BEGUN toward Judaism by 80 Italian Chris- tians some 18 years ago has ended for some of them in the realiza- tion of a dream which is by far more fantastic than their conver- sion to the ancient faith. San Micardo, the village they hailed from, was no different from the typical Italian village with its song and wine loving peasants. Its inhabitants had long been rooted to soil and church. Love of God was as real with the villagers as love of country. At- tachment to church, tradition, priest and nun was honest and simple. The men tipped their hats when passing sanctuaries and the women never missed making the sign of the cross. The shadow of religious doubt probably never settled on the thresholds of the villages. School and church were one. Priest and nun were one with child, family, community. Life in the village moved in wren tempo and it is question- able whether the village chronic- lers ever had occasion for blush- ing when dipping quill in ink. If the daily routine fell heavy on the dwellers, no overt expression of the unrest had ever been re- corded. • • DREAM OF A MYSTIC This went on, for centuries perhaps, until the year 1931. And then a man's dream fell on the town, and it dented souls and habits and a faith. For years Dante Manozzo had been the spiritual leader of San Micardo. His word was not law but his sagacity was never ques- tioned. Poor and rich, the learned the ignorant, the clergy and aity, respected his word. For years he had been an exemplary Christian, never missing a mass or other church service, catering to the ill of body and spirit, read- ing the sacred word to the illiter- ate and the blind and spreading the light of God as seen through the eyes of Jesus. But now he had a vision of another faith. For months he had been tormented by the thought of t o . Speaker Likens Zionists to Nazis NASHVILLE. Tenn. — The Nashville Jewish community, ac- cording to a report in the Na- tional Jewish Post, was thrown into an uproar when Rabbi Irv- ing Reichert, vice-president of the American Council for Juda- ism, likened in an address Zion- ists to Nazis. Rabbi Hertzberg of the West End Synagogue demanded a re- tvaction but Reichert refused. becoming converted to Judaism. These thoughts he kept to him- self, holding on to the externals of his inherited faith while strug- gling fur synthesis between the concept of monotheism and the adoration of the holy trinity. • • • VILLAGE CONVERTED HE FOUND NONE to his satis- faction. And then Manozzo had a dream. He was to become the leader of a movement to convert the inhabitants of Micardo to Judaism. The faith of the San Micardoites in Manozzo was great and they fell under the gentle persuasion of their leader. Eighty villagers, almost the entire popu- lation of San Micardo, became Jews, the men entering the new faith after undergoing the tradi- tional Abrahamic rites. They shed their Italian names and assumed Jewish names. Since 1931 they had been living in a hostile world in more than one sense. Rebels are rarely for- given and religious rebels are anathema to kith and kin. In time they became forgotten men, except to curiosity seekers. How they managed to escape extermi- nation in the days of Hitler domi- nance over Italy is still an un- written chapter. But when Israel emerged their stilled voices join- ed the chorus of the wanderers who were returning to home and hearth. Now the first group of the San Micardo Jews has settled in Israel and the rest are to follow soon. What will happen to the genera- tions of the Micardoites is a story for the future. For our purpose it is interesting to record that these Jews by conversion were settled in a village near the an- cient city of Safad, close to the site of the grave of Simeon ben Yehai, the great Jewish mystic and author of the Kabbalah. It was a mystic force that brought them to Judaism and the pattern that brings them close to that great Kabbalist is as mystifying as everything around us. JULIUS C H A J E S, composer and pianist, and Zinovi Bistrit- sky, violinist and member of the Detroit Symphony Orches- tra, will be heard in a joint re- cital on Monday evening, Dec. 12 at the Institute of Arts. The program will include sonatas by Mozart and Brahms, as well as Chajes' own composition "Sonata in A-Minor." article by Gertrude Samuels in which she quoted Premier Ben Gurion to this effect: "I believe we will have some 3,000,000 Jews in this country (Israel). And I would say that this is the primary objective of the State, primary because only in this way would we have real security." • • • "Could you tell me how Mr. Ben Gurion expects to get three million Jews into Israel? According to statistical data there are six million Jews in Anglo- Saxon countries including the United States and close to three million Jews in Eastern Europe including the Soviet Union. "Outside of Latin American which has 600,000 Jews all the other countries including all Arab or oriental countries have less than 1,400,000 Jews. "Now, since Eastern European countries are said to have stopped emigrants from going to Israel it would seem that Ben Gurion expects approximately 1,500,000 Jews from England and America. Does he expect to get more than a million Jews from the United States without a campaign for Chalutzim?" The letter is signed by a Jewish woman leader who prefers to remain anonymous. We reserve our answer for a forthcoming column. Victims of Hitler Discover Heirlooms at U.S. Auction NEW YORK—(WNS)—A col- lection including religious art objects, candelabra, vases and an- tiques confiscated by the Nazis went on auction at the Plymouth Galleries. The German loot, recaptured by the Allied force; and turned over to the International Refugee Organization, had been purchased by the gallery for sale. When the auction opened its pre-sale ex- hibition, hundreds of people who escaped Hitler's clutches came to view the objects, among them the wife of Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, former Rabbi of Satner, Romania. As she examined seine objects, she recognized an antique snuff box bearing a Hebrew inscription of her husband's father. Encour- aged by the find, Mrs. Teitelbaum and Rabbi Joseph Ashkinazi, a friend of her husband, began a more thorough inspection and found among the silverware ,a tray and 14 silver cordial cup holders of an original set of 18. The heirlooms had been taken from them by the Nazis in 1944 and they themselves were sent to the Belsen concentration camps. Rabbi Ashkinazi had lost his wife and seven children in the death camps. The snuff box was also recog- nized by a young man who had studied under Rabbi Teitelbaum and who shared a common fate with his teacher as an inmate at the Belsen camp. The owners of the Plymouth Galleries said they would return any of the silverware, believed to exceed one million dollars in value when new, to rightful own- ers without charge if they can properly substantiate their claims. 1111119S1/1 S Admiral Tells Einstein: 'Go Back to Hitler' BOSTON—Rear Admiral James Fife, commander of the submar- ine force of the U. S. Atlantic Fleet, was quoted by the Asso- ciated Press as stating that if Prof. Albert Einstein "does not like Americanism or our nation- alism, then he should go back where he came from and try Mr. Hitler again." Speaking here, the admiral de- clared: "About three years ago I got a form letter from Mr. Albert Ein- stein. In it he referred to atomic energy making nationalism obso- lete or outmoded. As we all know, he is a World Fede—list or a One Worlder, or whatever you want to call it." The Jewish Chronicle news deadline is noon on Mondays. 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