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THE JEWISH NEWS
THE JEWISH NEWS
Member of Independent Jewish Press Service, Jewish Tele-
graphic Agency, Seven Arts Feature Syndicate, Religious News
Service; Palcor News Agency, Bressler Cartoon Service, Wide
World Photo Service.
Published every Friday by Jewish News Publishing Co:, 2114
Penobscot Bldg., Detroit, Mich. Telephone, RAndolph 7956. Sub-
scription rate, $3 a year; foreign, $4 a year. Club subscription of one
issue a month, published every fourth---Friday in the month, to all
subscribers to Allied Jewish Campaign of Jewish Welfare Federa-
tion of Detroit, at 50 cents a club subscription per year.
Entered as second-class, matter August 6, 1942, at the Post
Office at Detroit, Michigan, under the Act of March 3, 1879.
MAURICE H. SCHWARTZ and PHILIP SLOMOVITZ, Publishers
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
MAURICE ARONSSON
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
FRED M. BUTZEL
ISIDORE SOBELOFF
THEODORE LEVIN
ABRAHAM SRERE
MAURICE H. SCHWARTZ
HENRY WINEMAN
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ, Editor
VOL. 2—NO. 16
FEBRUARY 5, 1943
This Week's Scriptural Portions:
This Sabbath, Rosh Hodesh Adar Rishon, the following
Scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues; Penta-
teuchal portion, Ex. 21:1-24:18; Num. 28:9-15; Prophetical
portion, Isaiah 66.
As the Editor
Views the News
The Proposed National Assembly
The conference held in Pittsburgh last week, at the
initiative of the Bnai Brith, represents a revival of
programming on war and peace problems introduced
during World War I. Twenty-five years ago, the move-
ment to unite all elements in American Jewry, to act
in a representative and democratic fashion for the pro-
tection of Jewish rights, was called into being by the
American Jewish Congress. Now, the 32 organizations
who responded to the call of the Bnai Brith propose to
'cement Jewish activities on the war and peace problems
under the name American Jewish Assembly.
Thus, the new movement is not new in Jewish com-
munal planning. That, however, does not detract from
its great importance. The fact that the leading Jewish
movements in America, with the exception of only two
organizations which are also expected to join in a united
effort to deal with our pressing problems, are cooperating
in setting up machinery to defend Jewish rights at the
peace table, is to be heralded as a healthy sign in com-
munity planning.
The program of the American Jewish Assembly
provides for the election of a delegation to work in co-
operation with duly accredited representatives of Jews
throughout the world to consider action on problems
relating to the status of Jews in the post-war world and
to deal with matters looking to the implementation of
Jewish rights in Palestine. These represent the major
issues in Jewish life today, and Mr. Henry Monsky, the
president of Bnai Brith, struck the correct keynote at
the preliminary Pittsburgh conference when he declared
that "we must discipline ourselves to produce a common
program of action."
We echo the sentiments of Mr. Monsky that the
deliberations of the proposed assembly "be characterized
by tolerance and a proper perspective of the whole of
Jewish life ;" that we must "think in terms of the preser-
vation of the vital spirit of Judaism, the great contem-
porary Jewish movements, the lessons of Jewish history,
a courageous self-respecting Jewish community, and,
above all else, the indomitable will to live as Jews."
American Jews have a chance to prove that they have
earned the right to speak for Israel in this crisis, provided
we avoid unnecessary controversy and learn to cooperate
in striving for the solution of our major problems.
. Giraud Echoes the Bigots
Shake 'em Out!
Friday,.February 5, 1941
The Weekly
Sermonette
Word of God From Cincinnati
By ARTHUR J. LELYVELD
(Rabbi of Temple Israel, Omaha, Neb.)]
The Office of War Information
was quick to sense a practical
and immediate value in the
American Institute on Judaism
and a Just and Enduring Peace,
convoked last month at the He-
brew Union College in Cincin-
nati under the auspices of the
Commission on Justice and Peace
of the Central Conference of
American Rabbis.
The OWI obviously was inter-
ested in the propaganda value of
the declaration on the post-war
world on which the rabbis were
working. Let the suffering peo-
ple abroad know that groups in
America — religious groups and
among them the organized forces
of Judaism — are thinking in,
terms of a better world order for
all men of all nations and races.
The Cincinnati meeting had a
deeper reason for being than the
incidental fact that its convoca-
tion served certain purposes of
the OWI. It was necessary that
such a conference be held so that
the voice of Judaism speaking in
clear and statemanlike terms its
There is no end to shocking news from Nazi-held vision of the post-war world
Europe.
might be heard in harmonious
chorus with the voices of Prot.,
From Tripoli comes the information that prominent estantism
and Catholicism.
Nazi Murders Go On
Jews were executed by the Germans before the territory
was surrendered to the triumphant British Eighth Army.
The United- Press reports that armed Nazi guards enter-
ed the Ghetto Friday night, Jan. 23, and shot leading
Jews in cold blood to prevent them from being useful to
the Allies.
A report to the New York Times from Berne, Switz-
erland, reveals that Feb. 15 has been set as the date for
the "total liquidation of the Jewish problem" in the "New
France," by means of deportations and internments of
30,000 to 35,000 Jews.
This is symbolic of the tragic position of our people,
and there is no help in sight anywhere. The demand for
immediate relief, proposed to the British Government by
a Parliamentary committee, may lead to partial solution
of the problem. In the meantime only bloodshed appears
to be in store for our people, as the darkest chapter in
history is being recorded as a warning to future genera-
tions never to stop fighting for the ideals which will pre-
vent recurrence of the horrors dominating the world
today.
Urgent Relief Needs
The urgency of war relief needs to save and rehabilit-
ate suffering Jews throughout the world was forecast last
week in the statement of the Joint Distribution Commit-
tee that $10,000,000 will be required to carry on mercy
efforts during the coming year.
Responsibilities for the current year include aid for
6,000 refugees now in Spain; care for 1,000 children who
have been removed from refugee camps and established
in foster homes in Switzerland ; assurance of new opportu-
nities for emigrants to Palestine and the Western Hemis-
phere ; rehabilitation of 12,000 refugees in Algeria and
Morocco and resettlement work among refugees in Latin
American countries.
It is clear that these needs will call for uninterrupt-
ed efforts to gather large funds for relief and reconstruc-
tion work through the United Jewish Appeal, for the Dis-
tribution Committee, the United Palestine Appeal and
the National Refugee Service. Communities that are co-
operating with the War Chests will be called upon to as-
sure the allocation of maximum sums for Jewish relief
needs. In other communities, strenuous efforts will have
to b e made to raise the maximum funds in order that the
necessary activities to save the unfortunate sufferers
from Nazism should not be curtailed.
General Giraud made the statement last week that
he was willing to give the Jews of North Africa back
their property, which was confiscated by the Axis, and
to allow Jewish children in the schools.
But—this ruler of North Africa added that "these
Solomon Shmulewitz, author of one of the most pop-
moves must be made gradually," and that the Jewish ular Yiddish folk songs of a generation ago, "A Brivele
question is "an internal one in which the world as a der Mamen," ("A Letter to Mother"), is no longer among
whole has no interest."
the living. He had dedicated his last song to President
' This is disturbing not merely as a disappointment Roosevelt, only four days before his death, but his life's
that the lot of the Jews is not being made easier immedi- work was an uninterrupted dedication of love and devo-
ately, as .was expected as a result of the occupation of tion to his people.
"A Brivele der Mamen" echoed the sentiments of
North Africa by American troops, but because the Giraud
statement echoes sentiments that are representative of hundreds of thousands of Jews who flocked to the shores
the excuses that had been offered by bigots in the past. of this country during the early years of this century. It
The claim of the Jewish question being an "internal represented the love and affection in the hearts of immi-
one" is similar to those made by the Czar of Russia, the grants for their mothers whom they left behind in Russia,
early Nazi refusals to heed appeals from this country not Rumania and other European countries. Shmulewitz
caught the spirit of the time and his song will live as long
to persecute Jews and similar replies that have been as
Yiddish is spoken.
made by Rumania and other backward countries which
The deceased folksinger was known for the many
persecuted Jews during the past 40 years.
melodies he had written for prominent Jewish actors,
If this policy is to be condoned by the democracies in among them Paul Muni, Jacob P. Adler and Boris Thom-
North Africa, then we may indeed begin to become seri- ashefsky. His memory will live in the 500 folk songs and
ously concerned over the status of our people.
plays he had produced in an active lifetime.
The Author of "A Brivele"
Same Religious Goals
The Christian leaders under
whose guidance these great state-
ments had been drawn up, looked
eagerly for Jewish championship
of the same high-minded religi•
ous goals.
Their eagerness was testified
to in the greetings sent to the In-
stitute and by the fact that the
Archbishop of Canterbury, John
Foster Dulles, chairman of the
Federal Council's Commission to
Study the Bases of a Just and
Durable Peace, and Msgr. John
A. Ryan of the National Catholic.
Welfare Conference, sent essen-_,
tially the same message.
"Those of us who start from
the foundation of the ethical
truths of the Bible should at this
time be standing in support of
our principles before the world,"-
the Archbishop wrote.
"When Jews and Christians
seek to translate their religious
beliefs into practical action they
will be found working side by,
side for common objectives," said
John Foster Dulles.
An Old Paraphrase
The Conference did not fulfill
the hopes of those who had called
it into being. What Was to have
been a representative American
Institute on Judaism attracted
only the blessing of the Conser-
vative and Orthodox rabbis—not
their presence and participation.
Except for one intrepid and eag-
erly welcomed Orthodox col-
league and two or three Jewish
publicists, the conference was re-
cruited entirely from the ranks
of Liberal Judaism.
But the plaudits that have
greeted the declaration since its
publication, make it likely that
the Cincinnati . document may
well be able to claim. to be rep-
resentative of American Judaism.
Baltimore Jews Close
Stores on Saturdays
BALTIMORE — (Religious
News Service) — Fifty Balti-
more business men of the Or-
thodox Jewish faith have
pledged that they will close
their stores on Saturdays here-
after. This will put the stores
on a five-day-week since they
are already closed on Sundays.
This announcement w a s
made by the secretary of the
Council of Orthodox Rabbis
with a reminder that the Or-
thodox Sabbath extends from
sundown Friday to sundown
Saturday.
A few of the business men
have indicated that they will
open their stores after sun-
down on Saturday.