C otter
CLIFTON AVENUE - CINCINNATI 20, 01110
3hfuzclont dArloni DR. gtailithitalt,
Hanukkah, although originally a festival of the re-
dedication of the Temple, has been associated in Jewish
minds with the idea of freedom. The fight of the Mac-
cabees, whatever its political background might have
been, symbolizes magnificently the eternal Jewish fight
for national and religious independence.
It is strange that the same fight has to be fought
all over again in each generation. But hardly any gen-
eration in Jewish history has found itself faced with a
more complex situation than the present one. The quest
for freedom all over the world is stronger than ever—
and at the same time the perils to freedom are greater
than ever. Society is remaking itself. The conflict arises
where economic demands for security seem to become
irreconcilable with political demands for individual
liberty.
As Jews, we are not only caught in the maze of
this world struggle but also have to cope with our own
problems. Our community life is listless and shallow;
it suffers from the indifference and coldness of a great
number of Jews. It not only suffers from this lack of
inspiration but has developed organizational structures
which are far from representing the community demo-
cratically.
The fight for a better and more democratic Jewish
community in this country has just begun. But we feel
that time is of the essence. Events are moving so swiftly
that we may be too late when we finally arrive at a
conclusion. It is time for the American Jewish com-
munity to understand that we need a functioning and
strong democratic Jewish community in America in
C jiff, r it
tt t lir. TiudiA
th
Vol. 52—No. 48<aript:i. 27 Friday, December 1, 1950
10c a Copy — $3 Per Year
UJA Reconstituted
pact With 3 Groups
NEW YORK— (WNS) —An agreement reconstituting the United Jewish Appeal for the
13th consecutive year was signed by the United Jewish Appeal, the Joint Distribution Com-
mittee and the United Service for New Americans, three of the major beneficiary agencies
of the UJA.
Reconstitution of the UJA cam-
paign is effected annually at the
end of the calendar year, when
representatives of the UPA and
the JDC negotiate the details of
the partnership for the ensuing
year. Campaign policy and goals
will be made at the forthcoming
UJA annual national conference,
whose date is expected to be an-
nounced shortly.
• • •
order to give strength to the overburdened Jewish state
whose existence is a matter of life or death for all
Jews in the world.
Our tight for freedom, 2,000 years after the Macca-
bees, is again a fight for survival. The Maccabees fought
for the right to worship in the Jewish tradition. We are
fighting for the right to restore strength to the Jewish
people after one-third of its members have been
slaughtered in cold blood.
In this situation. the Jewish people must concentrate
all its resources and willpower on the one goal of its
existence: namely, to continue to exist. This is a time
to prove that the lesson of Hanukkah is not lost upon
us, and that we still have enough idealism left to work
toward a better future for the Jewish people.
Arab Unrest
Spells Crisis
for Britain
CAIRO — (Special) — The present anti-British feeling
must be attributed to the Palestine affair, according to a
report of the N. Y. Times correspondent, Albion Ross.
The western powers, he writes,
appear to face a political crisis Jordan parliament and the Egyp-
in the Middle East as a result of tian requests for removal of Brit-
Iraqi Premier Nurias-Said's dec- ish troops from the Suez Canal
laration that Britain's treaty of zone.
alliance with Iraq had become
Egypt, Iraq and Jordan are ob-
obsolete.
ligated under their treaties of
alliance with Britain to place
This declaration follows anti-
their transport facilities and ter-
British demonstrations in the
ritory at the disposal of Britain
in the event of war. -
According to Ross, a new trend
of opinion has appeared, which
takes the form of a demand that
the west recognize Egypt and
possibly other Arab states in some
fashion linked to the Atlantic
pact and the western bloc.
• • •
TEL AVIV—(Special)—An ar-
mored force of Jordan's Arab
Legion blocked the main road be-
tween- Beersheba and Eilath in
the Israel Negev Wednesday, cut-
Spinning History's Tales
. NEW YORK — (WNS) — A
group to fight an alleged attempt
on the part of the Council of
Jeweish Federations and Welfare
Funds to gain control of Jewish
fund raising in America, replac-
ing the United- Jewish Appeal,
was organized here.
ting communications with the
southern tip of Israel's desert
area, it was charged by the Israeli
government.
In a note to the Mixed Armis-
tice Commission, Israel charged
Jordan with a "flagrant breach of
the armistice agreement."
Jordan, an Israeli spokesman
said, has taken the law. into its
own hands without waiting for
the armistice commission to act.
The new group, headed by Alex
Lowenthal of Pittsburgh, is
known as the Committee of Com-
munity Leaders to Safeguard the
United Jewish Appeal.
A statement issued by Lowen-
thal charged that "the Council's
blueprint bears all the earmarks
of wishful thinking, particularly
since the partner-s in the UJA
campaign, the United Palestine
Appeal and the Joint Distribu-
tion Committee, are on the verge
of successfully completing nego-
tiations for reconstituting the
1951 UJA drive.
The statement further accuses
the Council with resorting to a
"scare technique" calculated to
undermine public confidence in
the UJA as a prelude to gaining
control of fund raising through-
out the country.
Replying to the charge, H. L.
Lurie, executive director of the
Welfare Council, stated that the
plan of the Council "is a long-
range proposal which can be
studied over the course of years
and may never be put into effect
if the United Jewish Appeal con-
tinues on its present scale as the
major fund raising instrument for
overseas needs."
—Photo by Benyas
Preparation for Hanukkah begins early at the Jewish Community Center's playschool for children
under five. Watching his Dredel spin is Philip Tigel. Anita Rapoport (with book) "reads" the story
of the Maccabees to David Goldfinger, Hannah Silber and Louise Katcher. All are four years old.
Israeli Parties Bargain
for Municipal Offices
JERUSALEM— (WNS) — The
failure of any one party to gain
a clear majority in the recent
elections has led to a situation in
which the parties have taken to
making bargains with one an-
other.
The full election returns show
that the Mapai received 27 per
cent of the vote, the General
Zionists 24 per cent, the Mapam
approximately 11 per cent, with
other parties absorbing the bal-
ance.
Negotiations are going on be-
He added that the basic Coun- tween the parties in the naming
cil proposal is that all fund rais-
ing for the benefit of Israel be
consolidated under a single
agency.
of the mayors of the towns and
cities. An agreement between
the two labor parties struck a
snag at the last moment. In
Jerusalem, the orthodox party
is insisting on the right to name
the mayor. In Haifa, the Ma-
pam is opposing the naming of
C. Huschi, who is secretary of
the Haifa Labor council.
One of the most significant
results in the election was the
great gain made by the Gen-
eral Zionists. Their vole of
80,202 is an increase of 17 per
cent.
U.S. Approves
Israeli Bonds
TEL AVIV—(WNS)—Finance
Minister Eliezer Kaplan an-
nounced that the U. S. govern-
ment has consented to the con-
templated Israel bond drive in
the United States.
At the same time, Kaplan dis-
closed that Henry Morgenthau,
Jr., will not be the general chair-
man of the United Jewish Appeal
in 1951 and that Dr. Joseph
Schwartz, European director of
the JDC, will succeed Henry
Montor as director of the UJA.
Tzena' Israeli Wolf Call., Author Says
Lowenthal charged that the
proposal for a Central Israel Fund
was unfeasible and would fur-
thermore mean abolishing the
campaigns by Hadassah, Hista-
drut and the American fund for
Israel institutions, thus making
for a "drastic reduction in funds
for Israel."
NEW YORK—(WNS)—Issachar Miron, com-
poser of the controversial hit-parade favorite,
"Tzena," revealed the background of his hit tune
this week at the offices of his publisher, the Mills
Music Co.
The Polish-born pianist-composer said the
title "Tzena" was not the name of an Israeli
beauty, but a Hebraic "wolf call" uttered by the
soldiers to the village girls, meaning "Come out
The proposals of the Council —please."
Miron, modest-looking, bespectacled and mar-
will be presented at tits annual
assembly in Washington on Dec. ried, composed the song in 1941 during World
War II, while he was stationed with the British
1-3.
troops in Israel. He wrote the music when a
sergeant gave him the words, which were writ-
ten by a soldier in another camp.
There are now three American versions of the
song, each claiming to be the original. A dozen
record companies in America and three publish-
ing companies are entangled in copyright con-
troversies.
Meanwhile the "Irving Berlin of Israel," who
is assistant deputy of music at the ministry of
education in Israel, is waiting for the outcome of
the legal controversy,
use Koch Says
She Never Had
Riding Whip
AUGSBURG, Germany—(Spe-
cial)—Ilse Koch, the "beast of
Buchenwald," who is being re-
tried before a German court on
charge of participation in 45
murders at the infamous concen-
tration camp, denied that she had
ever seen anyone ill-treated.
The 44-year-old widow of the
former commandant of the camp
also stated that she never owned
a riding whip, so she could not
have hit any inmates with it. All
she did, she asserted, was to take
care of her children.
Mrs. Koch had earlier been
convicted by an American court
of murder and sentenced to life
imprisonment but had been re-
leased after serving seven years
after a review of her trial.
The German prosecutor offered
to produce 430 witnesses to her
crimes.
The trial is expected to last two
months.
A highlight of the indictment
was that she had participated in
a camp program on selecting in-
mates who bore tatooes and hav-
ing them murdered so that the
skins could be prepared for
parchment lampshades and book-
bindings.
The first witness called to
testify agreed, however, that they
had personal knowledge of the
fact that use Koch had her un-
derlings kill select prisoners for
the purpose of using their skins
for lampshades.