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Rome and Jerusalem

By EDWARD D. KLEINLERER
Former Jewish Telegraphic Agency Correspondent in Rome

Copyright, 1942, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.

After 20 years of Fascism,
Mussolini has reduced himself to
the role of Hitler's Gauleiter in
Italy. Today. the descendants of
the German barbarians who de-
stroyed the Roman Empire are
promenading among the monu-
ments, the palaces and triumphal
arches of Rome. They stroll on
the Roman Forum where the
Arch of Titus stands. Gestapo
agents. Nazi tourists and mem-
bers of the army of occunation
are casting arrogant looks on
their preferred monument—the
arch of the Emneror who was a
forerunner to their Hitler.
Five years ago. Mussolini illu-
minated the Arch of Titus with
bright. multicolored reflectors to
please his guest, the Fuehrer, and
to pay him homage during his
five-day visit in Rome. He then
adopted the Nazi racial credo
and inaugurated the policy of
subservience which made Italy
"an unhappy. abject. subject
province of Germany," to use
Churchill's incitive expression.
Under Nazi pressure, the Italian
Jews are facing days of anxiety
and the Arch seems to come to
life again with the recurrence of
tragedy.
• • •

For nearly 2,000 years the Arch
of Titus has been standing in the
"Eternal City." To the tourists,
it meant one more beautiful ruin
in the city of ruins. To the Ro-
mans, it was a reminder of the
glory that was Rome. To the na-
tive Jewish population it brought
home the epilogue of Jewish na-
tional independence.
The Arch of Titus along with
the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem
are the only visible monuments
rela• •d to the final and tragic
chapter of the Jewish struggle
for independence. That the Ro-
man Emperor must have felt
sure of his victory over the peo-
ple of Israel and proud of his
conauest may be gauged from
the fact _that the triumphal arch
in his honor was erected on the
highest spot of the "Sacred
Road" along which the victorious
parades of ancient Rome used to
march on their way to the Capi-
tol.
It is significant that while mo-
tives of single battles are repre-
sented on the arches of Constan-
tine and Nero, the scene of the
triumphal march proceeding
along the "Via Sacra" is carved
on the Arch of Titus: Roman
legionaries with their "fasces,"
senators in long, draped togas,
soldiers with shields bearing
names of conquered cities, oxen
destined as sacrifices to pagan
divinities. An aged man, leaning
on an urn representing the river
Jordan. was drawn by three le-
gionaries. Rivers in ancient
Rome's mythology were symbols

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of conquered, subjugated prov-
inces.
The most impressive and sig-
nificant detail among the sculp-
tured ornaments on the Arch,
however, is the Menorah, the
seven-branched candelabra of
the Temple of Jerusalem, which
was carried into Rome at the
head of Titus' triumphal proces-
sion.
For generations. the Romans
in their native piety have gazed
upon the Menorah and wondered
what all this glory means. They
even called the Arch "Arco della
Lucerna," and created innumer-
able legends and episodes relat-
ing to the presence of the Meno-
rah in Rome. There was a wide-
spread conviction that the Me-
norah, the trophy plundered
from the Temple of Jerusalem.
brings ill luck and tragedy upon
those who have it in their midst.
They believed the desecration of
the Jewish Temple could not
pass unavenged. Therefore, Em-
peror Maxentius, haunted by the
popular legend. ordered the re-
moval of the Menorah at the cli-
max of the Battle of Pons Mil-
vium, in 306 A.D. And it was
cast in the Tiber. . .
After many generations, the
people of Rome still firmly be-
lieve that the Jewish candelabra
is lying at the bottom of their
river. There is no doubt that
many a pious Italian associates
the precent debacle with the age-
worn legend of the avenging
"enorah.
• • •
The Jews of Rome never pass
the Arch of Titus. There was a
tacit understanding and endur-
ing sentiment against it. The
inhabitants of the Roman ghetto
admonished their children who
played and strolled among the
wreckage of the Forum to avoid
the Arch. It is also said that the
Jewish officers and soldiers of
the Italian Army, which entered
Rome in 1870, dropped out of
the ranks when they approached
the Forum and the Arch of Titus.
In the hearts of the Jews of
Rome, direct descendants of

THE

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Jews, Christians
Join in Basic
Religious Beliefs

WASHINGTON (JPS)—A
group of leading Boston Jews,
including Louis E. Kirstein, chair-
man of the American Jewish
Committee, Rabbi Joshua L. Lieb-
man, Rabbi Herman H. Rubeno-
vitz, Rabbi Samuel J. Abrams
and others, have joined with a
group of Catholics and Protes-
tants in the adoption of a series
of "basic religious beliefs," ac-
cording to a version of the state-
ment inserted in the Congression-
al Record by Senator Henry Ca-
bot Lodge, Jr. of Massachusetts.

throughout America in further-
ing our war work.
Ultimate Objective
For the Jewish people the first
front is Eretz Israel, for from
By MRS. ABRAHAM DANZIG there will go forth the word of
Midwest Regional Chairman of
our God. But we must build an-
Mizrachi Women
other front here—a front of work,
Freedom for all people, a spirit and determination. It must
Homeland for the people of be a front of devotion to the

Israel, rights and justice for all children of Israel and to the
minorities, a life in which all are cause of Eretz IsraeL It must
judged on their merits as human be a front of recognition of the
beings, regardless of their creed, word of our God and the spirit
race or color—this is the purpose of our Torah which have pre-
of the war which the United Na- served us through persecution
tions are waging against the Ha- and tribulation unmatched in the
mans of the modern era with annals of time.
their roots imbedded in the can-'
cerous heart of Nazism.
Mizrachi Women in the Mid-
west Region of the United States
of America know well the re-
those prisoners that Titus brought
to the shores of the Tiber from sponsibility that is ours. We view
Jerusalem, the Arch ever arouses with pride the position main-
poignant memories of humilia- tained by Mizrachi Women
tion and sufferings. It symbol-
izes the destruction of the Tem-
ple of Jerusalem, the sorrowful
event which is marked on the 9th
of Ab. The Arch on the Roman
"Via Sacra" spells to Jews
13311 Linwood
throughout the world tears and
mourning for the homeland they
had, and the splendor that they
• ■ ••11011111V
knew in the land of Israel. This
year, more than any other in the
bi-millenial history of the Dias-
porah, brings out the black
gleam of the Arch more boldly
and casts its shadows more
And may the New Year bring you in abun-
gloomily.
dance, health, happiness and prosperity—
The Arch of Titus has never
and to your household a wealth of Good
carried more significance, and
Cheer!
bor--! more sorrow, to the Jews
than today.
— David Goldberg. Pros.

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Friday, September I I, 1942

THE JEWISH NEWS

Page Thirty-four

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