Page Two

THE JEWISH NEWS

Strictly
Confidential

Quotation of the Week

PHINEAS J. BIRON

(Copyright, 1943, Seven Arts Feature
Syndicate)

REPORTAGE

Anti-Semitism is on the rampage in
Kings County, New York . . . And its
active agents sneak around almost in-
visibly and on rubber soles . .. No pub-
licity and no organizational set-up—but
they use the pincer strategy against
Jewish storekeepers by applying a quiet
yet terribly efficient boycott . . . Those
who are organizing this squeeze move-
ment are getting plenty of money from
very wealthy and "respectable" citizens.
The textbook Commission to Elimin-
ate Anti-Semitic Statements from Amer-
ican Textbooks, of which Kenneth Leslie
is the chairman, will soon be making
the headlines.
The Committee of Jewish Writers
and Artists is launching a campaign that
will mobilize outsanding intellectuals
for the building up of American-Russian
friendship.

FORESEEN

Pierre van Paassen's war prediction
for 1943 is that Hitler will loose an all-
out spring offensive—a peace drive, pos-
sibly to be launched through Spain or
Italy—Should this fail, he will, in a
last desperate gamble, make a gigantic
assault on the British Isles . . . 1943
will, largely because of that peace offen-
sive, bring the acid test of the morale
of the democracies, declares Van Paas-
sen, adding that just before or immed-
iately after the winter of 1943-44 Hitler's
home front will crumble . . . Speaking
of forecasts, our own Chief Cabbalist
reminds us that he has always claimed
that this year 5703 would be a "year of
exile," and events in, Nazi-occupied Eu-
rope do seem to be bearing him out . . .
The C. C. adds that we should look out
for the month of Adar, when, he claims,
"the presumptuous will be brought low"
. . . Then there's Dr. Nahum Goldman,
who's not at all happy about the accur-
acy with which a prophecy he made a
year ago was fulfilled—but he does feel
that the Yiddish newsmen who at the
time called him unduly pessimistic
should now admit that he was right . . .
For what Dr. Goldman predicted a year
ago was that a million or more Jews
would die in Europe in 1942.

ABOUT PEOPLE

In case you're interested in the
whereabouts of Lieutenant-Commander
Edward Ellsberg, naval salvage expert
who did some spectacular work for the
Navy back in the 1920's, he's on active
duty again at his old task . . . Only
this time he's salvaging scuttled Axis
ships in an African harbor.
Due to tour South America this year
on a good will mission is Virtuoso Ye-
hudi IvIenuhin, who will let his violin
speak to our good neighbors in the in-
ternational language of music.
Albert Lasker, who just retired from
the advertising business, is slated for a
big job in Washington.

The Jabloner Rebbo, one of the most
scholarly and Orthodox of Rabbis, who
lived in Palestine for years is now a
riveter in a California defense plant.
That indefatigable Zionist worker,
Isaac Carmel, was considerably surprised
by the surprise many of his friends
expressed when his articles on the re-
cent Detroit JNF conference were pub-
lished in The Day . . . Apparently many
people have forgotten that some decades
ago Carmel was one of the best-known
Yiddish journalists of London, where he
was associated with the newspaper Die
Zeit.

Tickling the News

By MARTIN PANZER

(Copyright, 1943, Independent
Jewish Press Service)

WE FIGHT TO LIVE TOGETHER
AS ONE FAMILY: F.D.R.—Headline.
And let's hope we don't live together
and fight like one family.

ITALIANS FIGHTING IN RUSSIA
TO GET JEWISH PROPERTY—Head-
line. Don't believe all you read in the
papers. Fact is the Italians ain't fightin'
nowhere for nuttin'.

*

Huge bonfires of Yiddish books
marked New Year's Eve celebrations in
Slovakia. What the Nazis there have
yet to find out is that those bonfires
will never go out.

*

JEWISH NATIONAL FUND TO
RECLAIM 2,000,000 DUNAMS OF LAND
—Headline. That's what we call a truly
dunamic program.

BOHEMIA AND MORAVIA ALMOST
"JUDENREIN"—Headline. North Africa,
however, which is much larger, is now
almost "Nazirein," as are great stretches
of Russia.

.

"The situation in Europe is simply beyond words. The Hitler
regime is a matter of sheer bestial slaughter. The Catholic
Church in Germany and in every country under the heel of Hitler
at the moment knows what suffering is. The attitude of Hitler
towards the Jewish people is diabolical. Time and time again,
that attitude has been condemned by Pope after Pope and, in
the clearest possible terms by the late Holy Father, Pope Pius XI
who made the statement that all of us were spiritually Semites
and laid down once again the old, old teaching that no Catholic
can be a true Catholic and have anything of anti-Semitism in his
heart. This principle is fundamental in all Christian teachings."

The Most Rev. Michael J. Curley,
Archbishop of
and Washington.

Purely
Heard in
Commentary the Lobbies

By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

(Copyright, 1943, Independent
Jewish Press Service)

By DAVID DEUTSCH

(Copyright, 1943, Independent
Jewish Press Service)

Friday, January 15, 1943

Between
You and Me

By BORIS SMOLAR

(Copyright, 1943, Jewish Telegraphic
Agency, Inc.)

SUGGESTIONS

Dr. Weizmann, we hear, has received
a cable from a group of Jewish leaders
in Palestine urging him to establish a
"provisional Jewish Government - in -
Exile" along the same lines as other
governments-in-exile • . . The cable sug-
gests that Dr. Weizmann approach all
factions of American Jewry, in order
to have the projected Jewish Govern-
ment built on a wide coalition . . . While
the idea of a "provisional Jewish Gov-
ernment" will undoubtedly not meet
with a particularly favorable response
among Jewis in America, there is no
reason why Jews should not be repre-
sented on the Inter-Allied Information
Committee in Washington which is now
compiling utterances of Allied statesmen
and other authorities on the problems of
post-war reconstruction . . . The Corn-
mittee has representatives not only of
the United nations who,- like the Jews,
have no armies of their own but fight
in the ranks of the Allied armies . . .
It was this committee that recently is-
sued the statement in behalf of the
Allied Nations describing in detail the
Nazi atrocities against Jews in each of
the occupied countries . . . Though this
statement presented the case of the Jews
with great clarity and sympathy, it
would have been only logical to have
a Jewish member aid in the preparation
of a statement which concerned the
Jews directly • . . Similarly there is no
reason why Jewish views on post-war
reconstruction problems should not be
heard at this committee when the repre-
sentatives of other people will be heard,
even though those people are not offi-
cially members of the United Nations.

ABOUT PAPERS
WHEN JEWS MEET IN UNITY
Somebody ought to whisper the facts
There is so much talk about unity in
Jewish life—and mainly the lack of it of life to the omniscient editor of the
—that the sessions of the Jewish Na- New York Times who, in an editorial
tional Fund conference in Detroit were a few days ago, insisted and kept on
a source of calming relief in a situation repeating that Ilya Ehrenbourg, famous
marked by pent-up emotions..
Russian-Jewish novelist and war corres-
Although the J. N. F. is now 41 years pondent, is a "she." Ilya is about as
old, the Detroit conference was only the stalwart a he-man as the Soviet Union
fourth, since the first convention of its boasts . . . The Times, which didn't
kind was held, also in Detroit, six years hesitate to express its displeasure a few
ago. Nevertheless, these sessions are as- years ago with a brilliant correspondent
suming nationwide significance in Zion- in Spain whose pro-democratic dis-
patches angered the Catholic Church
ist ranks.
It is a fact that the Detroit sessions here, doesn't seem to mind it that its
stod out for the unity of purpose and Middle Eastern correspondent, Joseph
action with which the participants ap- M. Levy, now in the U. S. A., is cir-
proached their problems. Even the very culating widely with his anti-Zionist talk.
heavy convention schedule did not mar Levy is said to be the godfather of
Arthur Hays Sulzberger's anti-Zionism.
a single moment of that assembly.
A leading American Jewish weekly is
Since the J.N.F. gatherings are assum-
ing great importance, some of the side- scheduling the publication of an article VARIETY
lights on the sessions deserve a special by Joshua Bloch, head of the Semitics
The family of the late Justice Bran-
column.
Division of the New York Public Library,
deis, we understand, is somewhat dis-
containing
serious
charges
against
the
BEST CONFERENCE STORY
appointed at the fact that not a single
American Jewish Committee.
Zionist leader came to Washington to
Irving Berlin, as is now well known,
attend the memorial ceremony recently
_made an appearance at the conference PERSONALITIES
banquet which was arranged in honor
The American Academy of Jewish when leading public officials paid ho-
of ' Dr. Israel Goldstein's 10 years of Research is a strange hideout for politics. mage to the late Justice of the Supreme
service as president. When he came to The story is that at its recent annual Court . • • The absence of Zionist lead-
the "mike" he announced that he would meeting, which elected Prof. Salo Baron ers was all-the-more noticeable due to
sing "White Christmas." The audience as president, several well-known Jew- the fact that the Hadassah, the women's
sat aghast. But in the next breath he ish scholars were blackballed when Zionist group, was represented at the
said: "Time is short. I think we shall their names came up for election as gathering by Mrs. Rose Jacobs.
only sing 'God Bless America.' "
Fellows. Among them was the distin-
American Jewish Congress, we hear,
It was Mrs. Goldstein who, in a flash, guished Professor Saul Lieberman of is contemplating sending a representative
told Berlin, when he made known his the Jewish Theological Seminary. That's to North Africa to look into the Jewish
"Christmas choice," "Just sing 'God Bless the second time in succession he's gotten situation there . . . We will not be sur-
America.'." It worked and saved general the blackball. Why?
prised if Rabbi Irving Miller is the man.
embarrassment.
The. American Federation of Labor
Forthcoming visitors to the U. S. A.
Equally as interesting is the discus- from Palestine: Rabbi Meyer Berlin for has received a lengthy cable from the
sion that followed this incident at a the Mizrachi, Goldie Myerson for the Histadruth with a proposal on what
meeting .the following day. Several curi- Laborites and Isaac Gruenbaum, former should be done to save the Jews in
ous women, having Irving Berlin in member of the Polish Seim and now on Europe from Nazi massacres . . . The
mind, wondered whether intermarriages the
Jewish Agency Executive, to mo- 2 plan will be transmitted to the State
are permitted in Catholic churches, even
bilize interest in the plight of Polish Department by William Green, president
when the Vatican has granted permis- Jewish
of the A. F. of L.
refugees.
sion for such a marriage. One of the
Samuel
Reshevsky,
31-year-old
chess
women called a church and spoke to the
priest who gave her a lengthy explana- champon of the U. S. A., former De-
tion of Catholic rules on the subject. troiter, who came into prominence,
He then volunteered the information that many years ago as a lad in Poland,
for the duration of the war there will earns a living as an accountant.
be no further grants of the right to in-
By DR. ALEXANDER M. DUSHKIN
termarry, between Catholics and non- GOSSIP AND FACTS
Those boys shooting off their mouths
Catholics, by the Pope.
(Copyright 1943 Seven Arts
about the break-up of the United Jew-
Feature Syndicate)
NEXT BEST STORY
ish Appeal because of the anti-Zionist
The
war
is affecting the conduct of
Some may rate the next best story as activity of some of its leaders are just
Jewish schools, both in matters of prac-
actually being the best story of the practicing their lung-power.
tical administration and in the spirit of
J.N.F. conference. One of the Mizrachi
Albert D. Lasker discontinued Lord & the instruction given. But the schools
women had made arrangements for
three hot meals to be delivered to her Thomas to give time to public affairs eagerly adjust themselves to calls from
to the hotel for the entire Sabbath. When but the withdrawal of the leading per- war emergency projects, and many of
a charming Wayne University student sonalities in the great advertising cor- them are also beginning to realize the
finally reached the Book Cadillac with poration in the last few years helped. psychological aptness of the moment for
a basket, covered with a towel, contain- Among these is his son, Edward, an revitalizing Jewish teaching.
ing the meals, soup and chicken and all officer in the Navy. Lasker, who
Jewish educators have realized that
that goes with Detroit hospitality, she started in Lord & Thomas at $10 a week, now is the psychological moment for
was told that the lady who was to re- placed $750,000,000 worth of advertising pointing up the close connection between
ceive it had checked out. Thereupon, during his 44 years with the firm.
ideals of democracy and the ideals
the Detroit J.N.F. president found a
Some of those glamor stories about the
of the Jewish ethical tradition. There
"customer" for the meals—a Mizrachist Bernard M. Baruch fail to give credit to is
a decided trend among Jewish edu-
who expressed a desire for kosher meals. his hearing mechanism and even the
The basket was turned over to him. But newspaper photographers seem to re- cators to make democracy a focal point
an hour later Detroiters found a fam- gard it as a courtesy never to picture in teaching, to be used as a basis for
ished lady in the lobby who was waiting the telltale little black circle in the evaluating what elements in the Jewish
classic tradition are more important and
for the basket of Shabbat meals. The right ear.
and which are less pertinent to
young lady messenger had been given
That was mighty swift progress for vital,
the wrong information regarding her capable Saul Spiro, who graduated from our needs.
"customer's" checking out.
There is also a demand that Jewish
a Hebrew school teaching job in Ver-
The Mizrachist was a sport. He re- mont to one in Pittsburgh to a Zionist teachers make the understanding of the
turned the basket. But as a reward he Organization field director job in Chi- spirit of Hebrew prophecy the basis for
received an invitation to share the De- cago and now has succeeded Morris a constructive critique of current demo-
troit breakfast.
Margulies as membership director of the cracy, with a view to teaching our
This story merely illustrates the fact National
children that the peace must be won not
Z. 0. A.
that kashrut is a rather weak affair,
only in the realms of economic regula-
even in communities like Detroit, where
tions and political reorganization, but
there is not a single strictly kosher res- organizer, Hebraist and good speaker, is also in the realm of human attitudes.
taurant, although there are many kosher the only girl field worker for the J.N.F. part of the same trend are efforts As
to
caterers. In Cleveland a kosher restau- . . . Sidney Kusworm's Scriptural inter-
the meaning of the terms
rant is subsidized by the orthodox com- pretations brought him the reference of reformulate
"national" and "religious" as applied
munity, else it could not exist. To our "Midrash Kusworm" from Abba Hillel to
Jewish education.
knowledge, only the states of New York Silver . . . William Hordes, Detroit's
The war emergency has increased the
and New Jersey strictly enforce kosher J.N.F. president, was a most genial host,
laws.
ranging from menial services as guide social importance attached to Jewish
to delegates to that of entertainer at education, as to all religious education
OTHER SIDELIGHTS
midnight after-session parties . . • Dr. in America. There is a greater sense of
Other J.N.F. dinvention sidelights:
Alex Wolf and Prof.. Gustave Klausner, dependence upon what men call God
Max Rudensky read from Ezekiel, at both of St. Louis, both pioneer Zionists, during periods of uncertainty and con-
moving memorial service for victims of were among the most popular delegates fusion; and it seems natural that at this
Nazi atrocities, like a Prophet, and he at the conference . . . Simon Shetzer, time there should be particular emphasis
rose to great heights in his use of Habara Detroit's gift to the Z.O.A., established upon the God of the Jewish-Christian
Sefarclit, the Sephardic pronunciation ... a new record as an "attraction speaker" tradition in view of Nazi antagonism and
Mendel N. Fisher, national executive di- when more than 1,000 people came to persecution. In consequence, there seems
rector, came in for a lot of deserved hear him at Sabbath Eve , service at to be developing a readier response to
praise . . . Delegates learned that charm- Shaarey Zedek during the conference Jewish education in all sections of
our
ing Esther Wise of Racine, Wis., able week-end.
community.

Jewish Education
In Time of War

