THE JEWISH NEWS

raga Six

THE JEWISH NEWS

Friday, Juno 19, 1942

U.S. Rabbis'
War-Time Tasks

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First Articles in Symposium
Participated in by Reads of
Jewish Theological Seminar-
ies, sponsored by Jewish
Telegraphic Agency in Co-
operation With Dr. Israel
Goldstein, President of Syna-

MAURICE H. SCHWARTZ and PHILIP SLOMOVITZ, Publishers

gogue Council of America.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Philip Slomovitz
Maurice Aronsson
Isidore Sobeloff
Fred M. Butzel
Abraham Srere
Theo:lore Levin
Henry Wineman
Maurice IL Schwartz

By DR. LOUIS FINKELSTEIN

President, Jewish Theological
Seminary of America

The chief difference between
the rabbi's wartime duties and
those of peacetime, derives from
the fact that during a period of
nntional crisis more can: be
achieved, as many are more like+
ly " to listen to the basic truths
of religion. Furthermore, the'
assembling of large numbers of

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ,

On this Sabbath, the fifth day of Tammuz, the ' following

selections from the Torah will be read in the Synagogues: Penta
teuchal portion, Num. 16:1-18:32; Prophetical portion, I Sam.
11:14-12:22.

VOL. 1—NO. 13

JUNE 19, 1942

An Awl in the Ear of a Slave

One of the most shocking demonstrations of the spirit
of serfdom appeared in a recent issue of the Wall street
Journal. Expressing editorial alarm over the worldwide
nature of constructive peace programs now under con-
sideration in the United States, this organ of "big busi-

U. S. Navy Given

2 Law Scrolls

g0114

0 10

ears
■
ness" states that "there are not four but five freedoms for
which the war must be fought. The fifth is the freedom
of any people to reject the first four for themselves, if that
is their wish. And what they shall have in political and
social organization is for them, not for us, to decide."
- University of Michigan's Hillel Foundation has
This is the negation of all principles of justice. Just
because.some Jews wanted to remain slaves in Egypt was reached maturity.
no reason for permitting slavery. Because some Negroes
After 15 years of service to the Jewish students on
preferred to remain in bondage during the Civil War was
the
campus,
Hillel will have its own home in Ann Arbor.
not sufficient reason for condoning serfdom. Because the

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The New Hillel House

Wall Street Journal would permit some nations in the

world to remain enslaved is n o t sufficient ground for
abandoning the struggle for international peace and
justice, without which this war will be another bloodbath
resulting in failure to achieve decency for mankind.
The analysis of the aims of the present conflict made
by President Roosevelt time and again corresponds with
established principles that either the entire world is made
free or we are all in danger of enslavement.
The best lesson for the Wall Street Journal is offered
by the Bible. We wish to remind the editors of the Wall
Street Journal of the following in Deuteronomy, XV:
1 2-17 :

With the aid of a group of devoted Jewish leaders from
the Bnai Brith lodges in the state, the new building ac-1

NEW YORK (IPS) — Two
Hebrew scrolls of Jewish law
were presented to the United
States Navy by the Educa-
tional Alliance in New York
at graduation exercises of the
Religious School.
Chaplain Joshua L. Gold-
berg, U. S. N. R., accepted the
scrolils on behalf of the Navy.-
The ceremony and present-
ation was preceded by talks
by the graduates on the theme
of "Judaism and American-
ism."

men in the

quired by Hillel will provide facilities that were hitherto it essential that men of religion
unobtainable for the students at our leading state uni ; guide them in meeting their

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duties and facing their trials.
I The present war differs from
As has been indicated by the leaders who were re- all that preceded it in scope, in
sponsible for this important move in the direction of intensity, and in the stakes in-
giving our Hillel Foundation real status, the student move- volVed. To paraphrase the an-
meat is of great significance as a trainer of Jewish leaders. cient Midrash, "If we merit it
, the end of the crisis may bring
The Bnai Brith leaders are deserving of congratula- ; us the fulfillment of the verse
tions for taking the step in the direction of acquiring the.: "rhou bringest them and Thou,
new home, and it is to the credit of the men who have con- plantest them in the mountain
If thy brether to said unto thee, and serve thee six years;
Such
tributed to the fund for this building that they have of Thine inheritance.' "
then in the seve:Ith year thou shalt let him go free from thee.
w
must consist of
participated
pated in a great effort towards strengthening the merit. however,
And when thou lettest him go. free from thee, thou shalt. not
more than either pious resol u-
movement among the Jewish students in Michigan,
let him go empty: thou shalt furnish him liberally out of
:bons and political activity. It
thy flock, and out of thy thresivaig-floor, and out of thy wine-
involves nothing less than a re-
press: as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give
turn of men and women every-
unto him. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a
!where to the spiritual and moral
bondman in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed
thee: therefore, I command thee this thing today. And it shall
Two eminent Christians have made important state-' standards held by the prophets
be, if he say unto thee, I will not go out from thee because he
meats regarding the Jewish position which have great and the later Sages. This re-
Ioveth thee and thine house, because he is well with thee; then
turn can be achieved in our time,
significance at this time.
thou shalt take an awl, and thrust it through his ear unto the
provided we find a keener aware-
door, and he shall be thy bon:lman forever.
In his preface to the report of the Commission of ness of God's being and of the
That an important American newspaper should Churches for International Friendship and Social Re ! Divine significance of the tre-
recommend the right to choose slavery for any people in sponsibility, the Archbishop of Canterbury declared that mcndous events through which
the present world struggle, is most deplorable. All we can "doing justice to the Jews will be one text of a juster we - are passing.

versit y .

Justice to the Jew

-

recommend for such advisers is the awl to be thrust world order."
We have demonstrated before
through their ears unto the doors, so that they alone may - .A ,Iarshall Field, the publisher of New York's
our eyes the great truth of Pro-
news-j
be bondmcn forever.
religion, that "Man cloth
paper PM, and of Chicago's Sun, speaking before the Na - phetic
not live by bread alone, but by
tional Negro Publishers Association in Chicago, stated: everything that proceedeth out

Jcws Under Nazi Rule

A report released by the Independent Jewish Press
Service indicates that Germany's Jewish population of
500,000 before the assumption of power by the Nazis has
decreased to 110,000.
On the face of • it, it would appear as if the Nazi
threat to make Germany "Judenrein"—free of Jews—is
becoming reality. But there is another angle to this Nazi
claim. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports from Lis-
bon that the German authorities in Nazi-held Poland claim
to have 2,000,000 Jews under their control. Thus, while
the Jews of Germany have emigrated, other Jews, in
vastly larger numbers, have fallen under the Nazi heel.
As long as there is Nazism, there is no security for
Jews. The only security lies in the complete elimination
of the evil of Hitlerism throughout the world. Only a com-
plete victory for the democracies will re-establish the
principle that any effort to make a portion of the globe
"free" of a human element is merely another attempt to
enslave people—whether the term used is "Judenrein" or
refers to any other people.

In Tribute to Russia

June 22, the anniversary of the invasion of Russia
by the Nazis, will be an important day on the world
calendar. It will be an occasion for tribute to the Soviet
armies for their valor. It will. be the occasion also for
reaffirmation of faith in the principles which unite the
democracies in the fight against the nations that seek
to terrorize humanity.
In the certainty that justice will triumph, June 22
will be a day on which messages of hope will go forth
from one end of the earth to the other to the men and
women engaged in the battle for decency. They will be
signals, on •a par with the revolts now occurring in the

lands conquered by the Nazis, that never again shall forces
which seek to enslave mankind be permitted to gain
control anywhere on earth.

"When y o u call attention to discrimination against of the mouth of the Lord doth
Negroes, you are doing a good thing—but you are doing man live." A generation which
a thing which is expected of you. But when you lead the has witnessed these demonstra-
people who believe in you into battle against anti Semitism tions of religious truth. may be
.. . then you speak with the voice of righteousness and persuaded, as none before it. to
return to faith.
you carry conviction."
It is the duty of the rabbi,
Such declarations are heartening in a time of crisis. and of all other religious teach—
They should give Jews the courage to carry on the battle ers, to make every effort to bring
for justice and not to yield until righteousness is restored our generation to understand and
hearken to this call.
in the world.

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* *

When Negroes Take Stock

When a persecuted group takes stock of its position,
it should make it a point not to misrepresent other groups,
especially these who may similarly suffer from prejudice.
Our complaint against pre-war Poland has been that its
people had not learned the lesson of suffering under
Czarism when they turned against the Jews. We had
similar complaints against other people who, upon acquir-
ing freedom, used the same tactics against Jews that others
had used against them.
Now our complaint is directed against a Negro writer
in the People's Voice of New York, who failed to check on
facts and figures before making a statement which may,
in the long run of events, militate against the Jews. This
writer, Theophilus Lewis, discussing Detroit as a "median
city of interracial relations," makes the assertion that here
"commerce (is) largely in the hands of Jews." There is
no other reference to Jews.
There would be no reason for apologies if commerce
were in the hands of Jews. But this sweeping statement is
not true. The fact is that only four of the large downtown
stores are Jewish-owned and that in the main commerce
is about evenly divided among various elements of the
population in proportion to their numerical strength.

By DR. STEPHEN S. WISE
President, Jewish Institute of
Religion

The wartime task of the rabbi
is to be the representative on the
home front of the ideals of his
country and of his faith. Thrice
happily for us, these details are
interchangeable. Democracy and
Jewish ideals are near akin. Jews
are the historical people of strug-
gle and battle for freedom. We
must make our comunities see
that this is not a war in the
common sense of the term, but
that we and all our fellow-Jews
throughout the land stand with
our beloved country in resisting
that which is worse than war,
for it threatens every value by
which we live.
There are wartime tasks to
strengthen and encourage the
timid, to ring comfort to those
who are stricken and bereft, to
minister but with the will to avert
the tragedy of Hitlerism or any-
t h i n g approximately thereto,
Sweeping generalizations are dangerous as slogans coming to harrass and again
for rabble-rousers, and they should not be resorted to in break the heart of the world.
making studies of racial groups.
(Copyright, J.T.A., 1942)

