Thursday, March 16, 1950
DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE
Page 3
Frisch: Man of the Masses, Advocate of Good Will
By WILLIAM ZUKERMAN
HE untimely death of Daniel Frisch came as a
T shock
to many people, Zionists and non-Zionists,
•
who knew hint personally. Although it was known that
he had been ailing and his sickness showed visibly
at his last press conference upon his return from Israel,
no one thought of the possibilty of his death.
The impression that he made as a person, not as a
party leader, was that of an amiable figure, a man of
considerable Jewish shrewdness mellowed with kindli.
ness such as one often meets among American well-
to-do immigrant Jews who have not lost all of their
old-world idealism.
•
•
•
It was from his native fount of kindliness that his
entire social 'philosophy,' if it can be described as such,
emanated. It was a philosophy which taught that good-
will between Jew and Jew (not however between Jew
and non-Jew) and a willingness to compromise can
solve all Jewish problems.
His faith in his ability to apply this philosophy
successfully to the solving of the party differences
within the Zionist movement, shone in his eyes and
was echoed in his words when a party of Jewish journ-
alists nearly a year ago, he announced his candidacy
for the ZOA presidency.
He was a much sadder and disillusioned man when
he faced the same crowd of cynics after his return
from Israel. But his fundamental faith in good Will
and in the ability of the Jew to settle differences by
compromise evidently did not leave him to the end,
as his pathetic letter from his deathbed shows.
•
•
*
Another human quality that characterized Frisch as
a person, not as political leader, was his real and
unaffected democracy. He was•a man of the people
and his democracy emanated from himself, not from
any principle.
Snobbishness, whether intellectual, social, financial
or of any other kind was unthinkable in the man.
Ile was the first 'non-intellectual' president of the ZOA,
one who was not a rabbi, a spiritual, or intellectual
Maimonides Luncheon Affair
to Feature Fashion Show
Highlighting the fifth annual
fund raising luncheon of Maimon-
ides Medical Auxiliary at 12:15
p.m. Wednesday, March 22, at the
Book-Cadillac Hotel. Saks Fifth
Avenue will present a spring fash-
ion show of designers' originals.
Mrs. Charles Gitlin is general
chairman of the event.
Proceeds from the luncheon
will go for supplying artificial
limbs for Israel veterans. The
Auxiliary also provides scholar-
ships for needy medical students
both locally and in Israel.
Maimonides women, who now
number 185 in Detroit. have work-
ed for such community campaigns
as Red Cross, the cancer drive,
the March of Dimes and Allied
Jewish Campaign.
During World War II, they
MRS. CHARLES GITLIN
manned a bond booth daily at the
• • •
Maccabees Bldg.. and received a
Treasury Department citation for their contributition to the war
effort.
Working with Mrs. Gitlin on
plans for the luncheon are Mrs. I.
Walter Silver, luncheon chairman;
Mrs. Morris Kazdan, souvenir
book chairman: Mrs. Sol C. Gross-
man, publicity chairman; Mrs.
LeRoy Atler, door prize chairman;
and Mrs. Henry Small, table ar-
BERLIN—(WNS)—The official rangements chairman.
Reservations may be obtained
Jewish community paper "Der
Weg" this week listed 81 con- by calling Mrs. Silver, TR. 5-0079
verts and people of mixed mar-
riages who filed appeals that
they be accepted into the Jewish
community.
Of the applicants 54 were con-
verts who espoused Christianity VIENNA — (WNS) — A single
many years before the ascent of wooden Star of David and thou-
Hitler.
sands of crosses mark the
In the past four years the Jew- graves of 60,000 Jews in a cem-
ish community has received etery close to the notorious The-
about 458 such applications. resienstadt concentration camp
Among the applicants were in Czechoslovakia.
many German women who were
Jewish organizations in
married to Jews but considered
Czechoslovakia protested
themselves Christians. But there
against the decision of the gov-
wasn't a single application from ernment to establish a national
a German male who married a
cemetery at Theresienstadt.
Jewess.
If at any time it should be
The Jewish community consid-
ers each application individually. decided to remove the sole Jew-
Most of the people who were ish sign on the cemetery, there
asked to explain their action said will be nothing to show that the
they were either disappointed cemetery holds thousands of
with German "nationalism" or Jewish victims of Nazism.
upset by the resurgence of Ger-
A welcome gift for any occasion
man anti-Semitism. Most of
them indicated they would like is a subscription to the Jewish
Chronicle. Call WO. 1-1041.
to settle in Israel.
Dutch. Jew Wins
Literary Prize
AMSTERDAM — (WNS) —
Joseph Kahn, a Dutch-Jewish
writer, was awarded a prize of
a thousand gulden for a novel he
submitted in a national literary
contest.
The contest was sponsored by
the Amsterdam City Council, with
43 prominent Dutch writers par-
ticipating,
Beth Tikvah Plans
I Annual Banquet
Congregation Beth Tikvah and
its. affiliated groups will hold
their annual banquet Sunday at
Rainbow Caterers.
"All members are invited to
attend as the congregation needs
funds desperately," Hy Freed-
man, banquet chairman, an-
nounced.
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Among the Jewish middle-class, he was unique as a
leader who was not above his people in any way, but
was just a replica of them.
Williams Asked to Ease Jews'
Dilemma in Primary Voting
The Internal Relations Com-
mittee of the Jewish Community
Council has taken cognizance of
the fact that the city primary
election this year falls on the
first day of Rosh Hashanah.
In accordance with the com-
mittee's recommendation, the
Jewish Community Council has
requested the governor to ask
for the necessary statutory
change at the forthcoming spe-
cial session of the legislature
making it possible to vote by
absentee ballot.
The primary date is set by the
city charter for the second Tues-
day in September. This year the
second Tuesday, Sept. 12, marks
the beginning of Rosh Hashanah.
The only recourse available to
those who wish to vote without
religious scruples is to make use
of absentee ballot provisions.
Under existing law, this is not
possible because absentee ballots
are available only to individuals
unable to vote by reason of ill-
ness or absence from the city.
The change requested by the
Comunity Council would make it
possible to utilize absentee bal-
lots in cases where religious
beliefs. make it impossible to
vote on the date set.
In its letter, the Community
Council pointed out that such
legislation as the Selective Serv-
ice Act made allowances for the
religious beliefs and urged that
the Michigan statute be modified
to make similiar allowances in
cases where religious beliefs
prevent voting.
Listen to the Jewish Chronicle
Hour, the best in radio, at 10:45
a.m. Sundays over WKMH.
For'FingerTiVSteering
81 Berliners
Ask to Join
Jewish Ranks
Czechs Hide
Jewish Graves
leader. He was not of the people, but THE PEOPLE.
His people—the poor masses of Yiddish-speaking
East-European immigrants who came over to this
country in the thousands in the beginning of this cen-
tury and rapidly got rid of their poverty and became
a part of the American well-to-do business class—were
his world and he could not leave them even if he
wanted.
But lie never wanted to leave them. lie was a typi-
cal representative of his group and he expressed its
wishes and thoughts better than any rabbi or intellec-
tual leader could do.
It was this native and deep-rooted democracy that
made him the unique leader of American middle-class
immigrant Jews. The German Jews of an earlier gen-
eration, and Jewish labor of his own generation,
have produced many such leaders.
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