Page Two

Strictly
Confidential

By PHINEAS J. BIRON

(Copyright, 1943, Seven Arts Feature
Syndicate)

WEEKLY GIGGLE

Winchell says he laughed his head
off at the tale of the Berlin worker who
asked a bank clerk how to invest his
life savings of . a thousand marks . . .
"Buy State bonds," advised the clerk .. .
"But suppose the State goes broke?"
countered the worker . . . "You forget
that the Nazi Party will see that it
doesn't" . . . "But, " persisted the man,
"supposing the Nazi Party collapses?"
. . • "Well," welled the clerk, "wouldn't
that be worth a thousand marks?" . . .
And Harry Hershfield - tells the one
about Hitler calling up Musso on the
long-distance phone to deny another re-
port of his (Adolf's) death . . . "Tell
your people I'm not dead," ordered the
Fuehrer . . . To which Benito replied:
"I will—as soon as they stop cheering."

YOU SHOULD KNOW

Jay Allen, the famous foreign corres-
pondent who covered the American
landing in Africa for the Office of War
Information, and who's now back in this
country, told us that the abrogation of
the Cremeux law by General Giraud is
a definitely anti-Semitic move made
under pressure from former pro-Vichy
officials.
That's a strange combination that the
H. M. McFadden Lecture Bureau is offer-
ing . . . Otto of Austria on the subject
of "Europe in Revolt," and Boake Carter,
the columnist, on the subject "The Bible
Told Me So".
The Baron Eugene de Rothschilds are
right in the groove . . . These titled ref-
ugees are growing a victory garden in
• their country home, and expect to raise
all their own vegetables this year.
Rabbi Meyer Berlin, the Mizrachi
leader who's on a visit to our shores
now, is trying desperately to get ac-
commodations on a clipper that would
bring him back to Palestine in time for
Passover.

FOR ART'S SAKE

If you're wondering what your fav-
orite Palestinian-American artist, Elias
Newman, is doing these days, here's the
news that he's with the Headquarters
Battery at Fort Miles, Del.
Artist Frank Horowitz is having his
series of paintings "Life in the Soviet
Union" on view at the Founders Lib-
rary of the Howard University Gallery
of Art at Washington . . . The Horowitz
oils form an important part of an ex-
hibit that includes the work of a num-
ber of Russian painters and sculptors
. Horowitz's paintings, which con-
stitute a lasting record of those Russian
Jewish agricultural colonies which have
now been destroyed by the Nazi invaders,
have been circulated as a traveling ex-
hibition by the American Federation of
Arts, Washington being the eighth city
to see them.

Jefferson
And The War

By MILTON PERSITZ

On April 13 the nation will mark the

200th anniversary of the birth of Thomas
Jefferson.
When a spokesman of Jefferson's own
state declares in the House of Repre-
sentatives, "I don't want any Ginsburg
to order my boy around in the Army,"
and when other Congressmen speak of
the divine mission which has been given
to the American "white gentile," it is
clear that the nation needs the moral
cleansing of a thorough restudy of our
greatest democrat.
For if Jefferson had sat in the House
when those words were uttered, he
would not have smirked and applauded;
he would have shuddered for the fate
of the democracy which he labored so
long to build.
When Jefferson was born in 1743, it
was a crime to be a Jew in Virginia.
If a Jew found his way into the state
and was heard denying the divinity of
Jesus, the punishment was death at the
stake.
How Jefferson came to symbolize the
struggle against the tyrannies over the
mind and the body of man is one of the
epics of America. In the Declaration of
Independence, which . he set down, is
embodied the sum of his philosophy:

All men are created equal; they
are endowed by their Creator with
certain inalienable rights; among
these rights are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness.
(Copyright, 1943, Independent
JeWish Press Service)
•

THE JEWISH NEWS

Friday, April 9, 4943

Heard in
the Lobbies

Quotation of the Week

"Universal minorityhood is an intolerable condition for any
people. And so it has proved for the Jews. It makes a people too
easily susceptible to slander, persecution and the danger of physical
annihilation. To live in constant fear of persecution creates a terrible
state of mind. To be constantly dependent upon the favor and good
will of the majority makes for a perpetual sense of insecurity and ill
ease. To be everywhere a guest, whether tolerated or unwanted, and
nowhere completely at home, is uncomfortable. To be almost con-
stantly the butt of persecution, discrimination, prejudice and humilia-
tion makes impossible any kind of real physical normalcy or spiritual
stability. All this is damaging to the morale and degrading to the
self-respect of a people."

By DAVID DEUTSCH

(Copyright, 1943, Independent
Jewish Press Service)

STILL OUR FIRST STATESMAN

—Excerpt from "Why a Jewish State" by Rabbi Leon I. Feuer of Toledo.

Between
You and Me

Purely
Commentary

By BORIS SMOLAR

By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

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

THE ALL-JEWISH FRONT

American Jewish leaders who con-
ferred with British Foreign Secretary
Anthony Eden during his stay in Wash-
ington, returned to New York somewhat
discouraged . . . It seems that Eden does
not fully comprehend the Jewish tragedy
in Europe . .. At any rate, the pressure
by many members of parliament, and by
the church and press in England for
urgent and effective steps to save Jews
in Nazi countries seems to have had
little effect upon the British Foreign
Secretary . . . He is especially irritated
when Palestine is mentioned as a possible
haven for Jewish refugees . . . No wonder
that Jewish organizations now place little
hope in the forthcoming Anglo-American
conference on refugees in Bermuda . .
Jewish groups both in this country and
in England would have liked to see this
conference held in London where public
opinion could have some influence on its
outcome . . . With the parley being of
an "exploratory" nature and held quietly
in Bermuda, isolated from the rest of the
world, what immediate aid can it bring
to the Jews in the Nazi clutches? . . .
A plan • submitted by Jewish groups to
Myron C. Taylor for trans?nission to the
State Department and to leaders of the
British Government was apparently
given a cool reception . . Having failed
to secure a sympathetic hearing for the
plan, Mr. Taylor, who is trying to do all
possible for the Nazis' victims, was com-
pelled to indicate to Jewish leaders that
in the future they had better address
themselves to the Governments directly.
. . . It is understood that Jewish organiza-
tions would like the U. S. Government to
address itself, over the radio, to the
German government with a suggestion
that the Reich permit Jews to leave Nazi
countries under a monthly quota system
with the assurance that they will be
given asylum in democratic countries . .
A precedent in addressing the enemy
directly has already been made by Eng-
land in communicating with the Nazi
Government over the radio on the ques-
tion of unchaining British war prisoners
whom the Nazis had fettered.
* *

WASHINGTON ECHOES

Did you hear about the gathering of
all Jewish congressmen in the Washing-
ton office of Congressman Sabbath of
Chicago? . . . The meeting was devoted
to the question of saving the Jews in
Europe from Nazi extermination . . .
This is the first time that Democratic and
Republican Jewish members of the
Congress have gotten together on an is-
sue concerning Jews.
Negotiations are now going on between
Jewish groups in America and the Inter-
national Red Cross concerning supplying
food to Jews deported by the Nazis from
their homes to devastated territories . •
The International Red Cross supplies
food packages not only to war prisoners,
but also to civilian internees . . . Jewish
organizations,' therefore, argue that the
Jewish deportees are also entitled to re-
ceive food through the Red Cross since
they are civilian internees held in iso-
lated camps.
It is now becoming more and more
obvious that Herbert H. Lehman is
destined to play, a much greater role in
Europe than had been imagined . . A
series of conferences concerning food
distribution in Europe will soon be held
following the conference of representa-
tives of 38 nations called by the State
Department for April 27 to map out a
post-war food plan . . . These conferences
will deal with the question of coordinat-
ing the work of feeding . Europe, under
Lehman's supervision, with the work of
the military authorities aimed at main-
taining order in Europe after the
collapse of the Nazis ,

(Copyright, 1943, Independent
Jewish Press Service)

ON THE SAVING OF TRASH

Not all of us are inclined to save the
"trash" that periodically comes to the
desks of people who are on "sucker lists"
either of crackpots or solicitors of funds.
But occasionally some "gems" come
through which help to clarify the minds
of people and the events which make
history.
Your commentator has just come
across an item which helps to explain a
"character" who has figured prominently
in the anti-Semitic spheres. What he had
to say in 1935 may explain his latest
outbursts.

EDWARD JAMES SMYTHE

Edward James Smythe is the man. A
few days ago he told a PM reporter that
Father Charles Coughlin ought to be put
behind the bars and that his former pal,
"Handsome" Joe McWilliams, should be
indicted.
Back in 1935, Smythe was already an
important figure in the then-growing
army of anti-Semites in this country.
The people who should have fought him
then were those whom he abused the
most: the Protestants; because his organ-
ization was called "Protestant Civic Wel-
fare Federation."

"WE" AND JOHN . HAYNES HOLMES

Some of the biggest lights in journal-
ism were carried away by Dr. Chaim
Weizmann's magnificent off-the-record
talk at the Overseas Press Club the other
day. C. W. minced no words and didn't
do any handsprings of joy over what is
in prospect for the Jews . . . There were
many glittering notables there including
H. V. Kaltenborn, the newscaster, who
presided. In his clipped musical phrases
H. V. K. said that after World War I he
could find no country except Palestine
with its blooming hillsides as reflecting
any hope for a brighter future.
There is no doubt about it, Dr. Weiz-
mann is still the Jewish people's number
one statesman. What bothers your sleep-
less _reporter is that some of the top
Zionists in the U. S. are not playing on
the up and up with him and therefore
many of C. W.'s ideas about pepping up
public opinion on the Palestine question
are just gathering dust.

TEMPEST IN TULSA

The splash of Ben Hecht's sensational
advertisement about ransoming Ruman-
ian Jews at $50 a head has caused ripples
and waves of wrath and storm far and
wide throughout the country. In some
cities Jewish community organizations
published ads in reply to the Hecht opus.
In others, no amount of explaining could
calm ruffled feelings or soothe those
Christians and Jews who were rocked
on their heels by the boldness of the
"Rumanian Jews for Sale" stunt . . .
It seems that in Tulsa the local editor
got fed up with all the stories and ad-
vertisement that had been issued by the
Committee for a Jewish Army and he
let all the Jews have it in a below-the-
belt editorial in which he said: "Be a
JeW in Jewland. But here, every inch
an American."
To top it off our Tulsa editor fired a
volley at the Anti-Defamation League,
calling it nothing less than a black-mail-
ing organization. When the editorial ap-
peared, the wires were burned up with
frantic telegrams. Richard E. Gudstadt -
of the A. D. L. hopped on a plane to
Tulsa and together with a delegation of
the local leaders called upon the local
editor.
There was quite a powwow, but the
writer of that diatribe stuck to his guns,
as no doubt many a man from the alfalfa
and blue grass country would after im-
bibing much of former Governor Mur-
ray's demagogic folderol.

Apparently, there were some Protes-
tants who undertook to take him to task.
Smythe wrote your commentator in re-
lation to the Coughlin affairs which were
then—in April 1935—beginning to brew.
He must have received an answer he
did not like, for, in his letter of April 30,
1935, he wrote:
"It is a funny thing, but your • letter is
the same form of answer that Dr. John
Haynes Holmes sent me a year ago when
I had him cornered on • the same ques-
tion."
It is evident that Smythe is now more
than cornered and the poor fellow talks
against his former pals under the influ-
By ABRAHAM BURSTEIN
ence of drink, judging by the experi-
ences of • the PM reporter who got him to
The 90th year of the oldest Jewish
"tell all."
publishing house in America marks not
HIS BRITISH PALS
alone a milestone in the life of a busi-
This is the least interesting part of the ness firm, but in the entire story of Am-
story. Smythe saw fit to send us the orig- erican Jewish life and literature. The
inal of a letter he had received from publishing and printing project instituted
A. S. Leese, director-general of the Im- in 1854 in Cincinnati, by Edward Bloch
perial Fascist League of London, Eng- and Rabbi Isaac M. Wise, has now grown
land. Curiously enough, Leese undertook to be the national center of Judaica,
to convince Smythe that "Mosley is an Hebraica, and every form of Jewish
absolute humbug;" that his "own chil- literary production. Transferred to New
dren are Jewish;" that: "He has had at York in 1901 by the late Charles E.
the beginning strong Jewish money sup- Bloch, son of the founder, the Bloch
port; he was 'thick' with Israel Moses Publishing Company now fills a unique
Sieff & his 'Planning' racket (you call it place in the life . of American Jewry.
over there the New Deal), & then he
In its early years the firm engaged in
`double-crossed' (excuse the American- the publication of periodicals, such as
ism!) Sieff by taking some of his plans the American Israelite, the Deborah, the
for his policy, & they quarreled."
Chicago Israelite, and the Reform Advo-
Damn clever these anti-Semites, espe- cate. It was in the sixties that it began
cially when they always have an the production of prayer bOoks, Bibles,
explanation of their own for such phe- and religious school textbooks for re-
nomena. How can they account for the form, conservative, and orthodox groups.
above charge and the division in their The famed Leesser Bible, first English
own- ranks? Here is what Leese said to version indigenous to America, was also
Smythe: "The Jews saw that Fascism is published by Bloch.
coming so they set out to control it."
In the matter of book distribution the
WHERE COUGHLIN COMES IN
Bloch Publishing Company also takes an
Why should Smythe oppose Coughlin? important place. It is the largest dis-
There is an explanation even of • this tributor of the publications of the Jew-
peculiarity in the make-up of the rabble- ish Publication Society of America, the
rousing anti-Semitic clique in the Leese Department of Synagogue and School
letter to Smythe. Here is what he said Extension, and the Union of American
eight years ago:
Hebrew Congregations.
"I have no great confidence in Father
In 1929 Bloch, established the bi-
Coughlan (his spelling) or any other monthly "Book Bulletin," now edited by
Father in such a fight as this. I prefer to Anna Fisch and Solomon kerst=i
, .in..
see direct leadership by a clean Aryan
The headquarters of the Bloch Pub-
who has never before taken part in poli- lishing Company, in New York, also
tics & who is not obsessed with any comprises a great retail store, at which
particular form of religion, and who is may be obtained any book of Jewish
free from Masonry."
interest, . no matter where or i what
Now, then, try to figure these fellows language it is published, and which
out! You might think they are anti- maintains a complete department of re-
Catholic; but they are also anti-Mason!
ceremonial objects. .
Now you know why 41' ese anti-Semites ligious
(Copyright, 1943, Seven Arts Feattre
are called crock-pots.
Syndicate)

Bloch's 90th
Anniversary

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