Page Six

THE JEWISH NEWS

Friday, Fa6ruary 19, MO

Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself

BROTHERHOOD WEEK, FEBRUARY 19th to 28th

No Monopoly on Good
Will and Character

Brotherhood Reaffirms
The Democratic Ideals

liarvestbig the Fruit
Of Good Will Movement

By EDGAR A. GUEST •

By M. HUBERT O'BRIEN

By HENRY WINEMAN

Protestant Co-Chairman of Detroit Round Table
of Catholics, Jews and Protestants

Catholic Co-Chairman of Detroit Round Table
of Catholics, Jews and Protestants

Jewish Co-Chairman of Detroit Round Table
of Catholics, Jews and Protestants

Whenever I hear the harsh voice of intolerance
• I wonder how many times that man must have
been. shamed by the friendship of those whom he
condemns. There is no Protestant of my acquaint-
ance who has not . at some time or other thanked
God for the tender friendship of a Catholic and
no Protestant or .Catholic who has not been help-
ed or comforted by a Jew.

The celebration of Brotherhood Week is a re-
affirmation of the fundamentals of the democratic
ideals which inspired our republican form of gov-
ernment. When our founding fathers came to this
New World they were fleeing from a government-
al oppression of their priceless individuality which
in the Old World had become intolerable. The
freedom they sought were the God-given rights to
live, work and worship as they chose, subject only
to accepted communal restrictions imposed by a
representative government of their own selection.
It took a revolution and a civil war to chrystalize
these rights into a national framework which in
turn has won our Mother England to adopt a simi-
lar national philosophy.

Nearly 15 years have elapsed since the founding
of the National Conference of Christians and Jews
by two great Americans, Charles Evans Hughes and
Newton D. Baker.
Today, we are reaping the harvest. The seeds
of the movement for good will have been sown.
The fruit is ripening. We have confidence that the
three faiths—Catholic, Jewish, Protestant—will
continue to strive for that unity of purpose in
cementing the friendly relationships among all ele-
ments of our population, to the end that intoler-
ance may no longer be permitted to raise its ugly
head.
It was a happy thought- which led the leaders of
the Nationl Conference of Christians and Jews to
select the week of Washington's Birthday as a
1.eriod for the observance of Brotherhood Week. In
1790, replying to a message of the Hebrew Con-
gregation of Newport, Rhode Island, our First
President made the following declaration:
"It is now no more that toleration is spoken
of as if it were by, the indulgence of one class
of people that another enjoyed the exercise of
their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the
Government of the United States, which gives
to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no as-
sistance, requires only that they who live under
its protection should demean themselves as
good citizens in giving it on all occasions their
effectual support."
These sentiments, which have survived the test
of 150 years of American history, always emerge
to strengthen us in our convictions that the founda-
tions for American liberalism and justice are strong
and that the ideals which have made possible- the
union of the three great faiths in the National Con..
ference of Christians and Jews can not be destroyed.
That which we have built on the interdenomina-
tional good will front in this country is taking root
everywhere. We hear its echoes in the resistance to
Nazism in Belgium and Holland and Norway,
among the great Christian churchmen who refuse
to accept the Quislings and traitors to their faiths
who aim to impose a yoke of slavery upon them.
We see the results of our work in England, where
a British Council of Christians and Jews, just form-
ed, has adopted our pattern for brotherhood and
good will.
When the good will movement was formed in
England, the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, Dr..
Joseph H. Hertz, issued this statement:
"Jews solemnly endorse their fine plea for
the primacy of the spiritual in the life of men
and nations, as well as their reaffirmation of
the absolute reality of everlasting distinction
between right and wrong in human conduct."
In this spirit, Jews everywhere rejoice that the
spirit of good will and true brotherhood survives
all the intolerant tendencies which are responsible
for the horrors of the last ten years of Hitlerite
activities throughout the world. But Nazism is
coming to an end, and justice will rule on earth
as a symbol of the '"primacy of the spiritual in the

I have yet to discover -a race or a religion, a
sect or group, a club. or lodge or an affiliation of
any sort that is either all good or all bad. The love
of God is unlimited; it goes out to His Children
all.

There is no monopoly on character or on good
will; no one church has God's favor unto itself
alone; no honest prayer that's uttered in vain. I
have yet to hear of a Protestant in distress who
scorned the friendly hand of Catholic or Jew. •The
bitterest bigot I have ever known would take his
cup of water from whomever brought it first.

"There are no atheists in fox holes," said an
Army Chaplain, and no bigots either, I would
add. About to die they seldom question a priest
or rabbi, as they take his hand . . . Where peril is
no little thoughts can stay; there are no narrow
minds when need is great; the open raft makes
brothers of all men; all men are brothers on a
sinking ship; all prayers are welcome in the face
of death; hunger and thirst and privation cleanse
every mind of bigotry; men then are men, Jew
Christian, black or white, are either brave or
cowardly. One standard only then remains and
that's of true or false, or weak or strong.

Who pulls an oar is never asked his creed; who
shares his food is never asked his race; who dies
to save another, dies a man though Jew or Gentile.

I had it from my father and my mother, and
they were Christians.

"This way we pray," they said, "as we were
taught, and so will you because we teach it so.
But there are many altars here and some are
strange, but all to God are raised and alt are built
for good. Take friendship where you find it; of
little minds beware. You'll hear men whisper,
"Catholic" or "Jew," but pay no heed. God has
no chosen people; all are His and all are seeking
Heaven. Black sheep are born to every flock, but
do not hate the flock for that and do not turn
your back on any gate through which a friend
may pass."

Perhaps when war is over and our young return
some old time Christian bigot sitting with his sold-
ier son may learn from him how like his prayer
was that a rabbi prayed. Once more at home a
Jewish boy may tell his father of the Catholic
priest who found him lying wounded in the jungle,
and bore him on his back to safety. If out of war
shall come this growth of brotherhood then we can
hope that war may never strike again.

In the evolution of human society the present
global war, in succession to World War 1, may, we
devoutly hope, represent the final clash between
the ideologies of the old and new worlds. Such a
clash is inherent in those conflicting governmental
systems they represent, and has currently been prec-
ipitated by the shrinkage of the earth's surface
during the past half century's spectacular progress
in transportation facilities.
Until an acceptable substitute is found to settle
international differences, resort to arms will pre-
vail as the final method of arbitrament of inter-
national disputes. Yet the futility of war as a rem-
edy for such purpose is increasingly recognized.
Modern warfare decides nothing save the stamina
of its participants to resist attrition. The most like-
ly substitute lies in world education of this fact.
When the war shall have ended and the disillusion-
ed troops of the warring countries are returned to
their sorry lands and homes to take up the task of
their rehabilitation, it is fair to assume they will
have gone far and firm in the field of that educa-
tion.
The National Council of Christians and Jews
is consecrated to that educational program. It gives
affirmative answer to the scriptural query placed
in the mouth of Cain, "Am I my brother's keep-
er?" Testing only by the rod of personal sincerity
and neighborly duty, it champions the right of the
individual to live his own life and worship as his
conscience chooses, as of the essence of human
freedom superior to governmental dictate. This
message it is carrying to our armed forces in the
nation's military camps throughout the world,
where men of every creed and color live and fight
together under one command. In the cities and
homes to which sometime they are to return, it
joins reverently in the spirit of Brotherhood Week
and its message of true democracy.

Next Week's Feature

"Jewish Population Studies" is the title of the spec-
ial feature article to be published in next week's issue
of The Jewish News. Prof. Samuel M. Levin of Wayne*
University, author of this article, will outline the sur-
vey of Jewish communities, including Detroit, which
was prepared by the Conference on Jewish Relations.

.

life of men nations."

