Americo lavish periodical eCi
DETROIT "JEWISH CHRONICLE
Page 4
Detroit Jewish Chronicle
Published Weekly by the Jewish Chronicle Publishing Co., Inc.
WOodward 1-1040
900 Lawyers' Building, Detroit 26. Michigan
SUBSCRIPTION
$3.00 Per Year. Single Copies. 10c; Foreign, $5.00 Per Year
Entered as Second-class matter March 3, 1916, at the Post Office at
Detroit, Mich., under the Act of March 3, 1879
SEYMOUR TILCIIIN
Publisher
GERIIARDT NEUMANN
NORMAN KOLIN
Editor
Advertising Manager
Nisan 21, 5711
Friday, April 21, 1951
Year of Emergencies
The 1950 annual report of the Joint Distribution Com-
mittee tells a dramatic story of that "year of emergen-
cies," when it helped 174,500 Jews leave the hostility-
laden atmosphere of their homelands in the Near East
and eastern Europe.
An estimated 400,000 men, women and children are
still dependent on JDC's aid during the present year,
according to the report.
Altogether, more than 450,000 Jews received aid from
JDC, with funds provided by the United Jewish Appeal.
Approximately 162,000 were transported to Israel, with
other emigrants going to the United States, Canada, Aus-
tralia, South America and other places.
The report discloses that in 1950 JDC appropriated
$36,516,000 for its program in 19 countries.
There is another side to this story, however. Jews
had to be moved in a race against real or implied dead-
lines, and we regret to say that help could be given only
to a limited extent.
"The funds available to JDC," states Edward M.
Warburg, JDC chairman and general chairman of the
UJA campaign, "were insufficient to cover emigration
costs, and to meet also the still sizable needs of Jewish
populations in Europe, North Africa and other areas.
"By October JDC's 1950 emigration budget was ex-
hausted, and there were still tens of thousands of 'now or
never' emigrants clamoring to be moved. Faced with this
grave situation, JDC was compelled to cut back relief pro-
grams for tens of thousands of the needy."
Originally an emigration of a maximum of 146,000
Jews was planned. But the pressures for immediate de-
parture became so strong that by the year's end 174,500
had been moved.
The report reveals that one of largest relief pro-
grams this year has to be carried out in Hungary, where
"as many as 60,000 men, women and children can look
only to JDC for food, child care and medical aid."
What remains to be done this year is:
1. relief for 170,000 needy Jews, especially under-
nourished children in Moslem lands;
2. assistance for a minimum of 25,000 to reach the
United States and other countries,
3. expansion of JDC's medical and rehabilitation
program for the "hard core" cases in Israel, and
4. assistance to additional thousands to become self-
supporting.
This report shows the urgency of the UJA campaign
this year, and the need for the raising of an extraordi-
nary sum through the Allied Jewish Campaign in Detroit
and the respective agencies in other cities.
Being able to extend help is a privilege. "Let anyone
who is hungry, come in and eat; let anyone who is needy,
come in and make Passover," we read in our Hagada
last week. We hope that all Jews knew what they were
reading and made a vow to follow the philosophy of their
forefathers.
Jewish Life in Poland
"Poland Today," a magazine published by the Polish
Research and Information Service, dedicates its April
issue to the eighth anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto
uprising and paints a glowing picture of Jewish life in
Communist Poland.
It states that less than 100,900 Jews are left and that
the Polish government looked upon the "unorganized
emigration in the early post-war years with an indulgent
eye." Polish Jews are now in "productive" occupations,
the article asserts, they enjoy religious freedom, their
own Yiddish school system, and there is no anti-Semitism.
Having stated this, the article goes on to explain what
the government is doing to stamp out anti-Semitism.
"The law," it says, "makes anti-Semitism a crime punish-
able by imprisonment, and where it leads to violence,
carries the penalty of death ... Campaigns are conducted
in the press, in the schools, in the army to show how
racism in any form is dangerous to the interests and
welfare of the country." Then follows a cheery note:
"The very atmosphere of Poland is such that anti-Semit-
ism cannot possibly thrive."
Could it be that the life of the Jews left in Poland
is not so rosy after all?
Sen. Vandenberg Mourned
The passing of Sen. Arthur Vandenberg is mourned
deeply by the Jewish community of Michigan.
Vandenberg always proved a friend of Jewish causes.
He exercised his influence in favor of the Zionist hopes
and dreams, although many a time he was up against
antagonistic forces.
When President Truman recognized Israel shortly
after it had declared its independence, Vandenberg heart-
ily endorsed this action as "a logical step."
The great Michigan legislator and far-seeing states-
man will be greatly missed by all of us.
'Miss Israel' to Aid Bond Drive
Friday, April 27, 1951
Koestler Paints
Dark Picture of
Europe's Fate
By HAROLD S. COVEN
"TILE AGE OF LONGING,"
by Arthur Koestler (Macmillan
Co., New York, 1951, 362 pp.,
$3.50).
It is becoming a truism that
once a person is bitten by the
virus of Communism, he can
never escape the mental and
emotional chillblain it produces.
Arthur Koestler is in that physi-
ological state and has won in-
ternational renown for his Her-
culean efforts to shake off the
disease and warn his fellow mor-
tals of the danger of infection.
Ever since his tour de force
"Darkness at Noon," now run-
ninr as a Broadway play, Koest-
ler has reigned as the intellectual
and artistic king of the anti-
Communist liberals.
His right to regency is re-
affirmed with "The Age of Long-
ing." Once again writing with
the fervor and insight that only
a former victim of the disease
can possess, he has brought the
face of the foe into sharp focus.
There is little doubt that he
has not equaled his first success,
Miriam Jaron, 22-year-old "Miss Israel of 1950" arrived in the
but that would be too much to
United States for a tour in behalf of the Israel bond drive. Miss
ask. Instead he has disclosed his
Jaron was chosen from among 2,000 contestants in Tel Aviv.
views of a Europe living in a
world of dream fantasy as the
grim reality of the new Neander-
thal Age is about to descend.
The book is set in Paris about
10 years from now. The unreal,
fascinating air of a dying civili-
zation catches the eye. The faint,
sweet odor of putrification filLs
the air. The scene is set for the
self could happily feel this was a
By ALFRED SEGAL
deluge.
small
world,
as
they
say.
Against this canvas, Koestler
THIS IS ABOUT matzot and,
When they had spoken awhile, paints the trivial love affair of an
to be sure, a story of matzot
may seem a bit belated. You of this and that, Mr. Kaplan American girl, deprived of her
grew apologetic: Ile had some- faith, in search of an anchoring
may be fed up
thing to ask for, he said. Maybe rock, and a representative of the
on matzot by
it would be too much to ask for. new order, cocksure, aggressive,
now, but this
all the answers.
story is fragrant-
"What can I do for you?" Mr. knowing
As these two play their grotes-
ly seasoned with
Steinberg asked.
que romance to the inevitable
the historically
"I sordid ending, dozens of figures
Mr. Kaplan hesitated:
sentimental
think it's too much, but, anyway, swirl about, each presenting some
thinking and
it would be a blessing for me and attitude to be found in present-
doing of a couple
a mitzvah for you."
day Europe.
of men; so you
They are all there, the decay-
should be able to
Well, said Mr. Kaplan, Pesach
take a story of
is not far off "It's almost like ing remnant of the old aristocra
Segal
matzot rather.
tomorrow, you might say" ... It tic order, the poet without a
late in the season.
was time to think of Seder and cause, living only for action and
One of the men was a Mr. where there's Seder there must death, the ex-Communist intel-
Cartagena there lectual, reciting in a Paris cafe
Kaplan of Cartagena in Colom- be matzot. In
because in a free environment he
are no matzot.
bia, South America; the other,
cannot produce, the fellow trav-
• • •
elers of all hues, the rigid-
Mr. Ely Steinberg who is in the
WOULD MR. STEINBERG help minded western Reds, shouting
radio business in our town.
him to find matzot somewhere, in their meaningless slogans to mask
Mr. Kaplan was as far away the world ... "In your own city, their insecurities.
from matzot and Jewish life as maybe? When you return to the
And over it the all-pervading
Cartagena is from New York. In United States maybe it will be in fear, fear of another war, of an-
Cartagena Mr. Kaplan has a your goodness to send me matzot other occupation, fear of depth.
Koestler's thesis is clear, Eur-
stand in the arcade. He sells for Pesach. Mind you, I am not
ope has lost its will to live, to
needles and pins, beads and all asking for matzot free. Matzot resist. Only America and Russia
are the one rich thing a poor can act, and the Russians by vir-
kinds of notions.
man can have."
tue of the lie they believe in,
You'd guess Mr. Kaplan has
When of all the good things in the lie of their own superiority
worries enough of his own with-
out carrying in his heart • the the world a man in Cartagena and invincibility.
"The Age of Longing" is far
travails of his ancestors who requires only matzot, the matter
were slaves some 4,000 years ago. of getting them to him becomes from flawless. It is wordy, there
That was what was troubling him something like a dedication. Mr. are many caricatures where one
that day in the recent March Steinberg accepted the dedication would like characters, the con-
when my friend, Mr. Steinberg, and no sooner was he home than clusion seems overly pessimistic,
came strolling through the Car- he wrote to the Manischewiiiz but it remains an outstanding
novel.
tagena arcade where Mr. Kap- people in Jersey City:
Koestler's flair for irony and
lan has his stand. Mr. Steinberg,
"Gentlemen: While in Carta-
on a southern cruise, was enjoy- gena, Colombia, I met a Jewish ridicule is never better displayed
ing the noisy enchantment of gentleman who advised me he than in his scene at a "peace
Latin-American life when all at could not buy matzot there. He rally" in Paris. And his talent for
once he heard a familiar greet- pleaded with me to send him probing the emotions of a high
ranking Communist intellectual
ing.
some for the coming holiday.
who has reached a parting of the
Please
send
to
this
party
(I
give
"Landsmann!"
ways with his ideology stands
his
address
below)
25
or
30
• • •
out, as the fall and decline of
pounds of matzot and ship this
MR. STEINBERG could feel
Leontiev echoes the fate of Ruba-
immediately to arrive in time.
sure that he was the one who Send me the bill and transporta- shev in "Darkness at Noon."
was meant. He turned in the di-
If any "type" remains a mys-
rection whence it came and there tion charges."
tery to the author it is the Am-
So Mr. Steinberg completed the erican. He respects , and even
stood Mr. Kaplan behind his
, market stand. You couldn't have mission, and that brings us to the admires the American, if only
picked out Mr. Kaplan as a Jew gustatory and nutritive attributes for his ability to act in a time of
from among all the native Co- of matzot. And have you ever had crisis.
lombians in the arcade. His matzot fried with salami? Ah,
But he has no understanding of
countenance was as swarthy as that's a dish for you! One lingers the sources of the American's: be-
theirs. Mrs. Kaplan was there, over it to stretch its pleasure.
liefs which motivate him.
too. She was much darker than
To this reviewer the picture is
But Mr. Steinberg's encounter
he. She spoke Yiddish, as Mr. with Mr. Kaplan in Cartagena a bit too gloomy. One wonders
Kaplan himself did.
suggests that there is even much if Koestler is not overestimating
"You are truly a landsmann?" more to matzot than to make of the enemy as well as underesti-
it a dish that can be fried taste- m a t in g Europe's recuperative
Mr. Kaplan asked.
Yes, Mr. Steinberg replied, if fully wih salami. It can be bread powers.
Dark as is the picture he paints,
by that Mr. Kaplan meant to ask for the soul. Mr. Kaplan's soul
Koestler, and those like him, may
whether Mr. Steinberg was Jew- hungered for it even when, amid
prove instrumental in stiffening
ish. He certainly was. Mr. Kap- the needles, pins and beads of his
lan was delighted to discover an- meager livelihood his stomach the backbone of Europe and
' other Jew in Cartagena and, for must have had certain claims, creating the unity so necessary
to escape a common fate.
that matter, Mr. Steinberg him- too.
Maim, In Far-Off Land
May Be Bread for Soul