Page Ten

THE JEWISH NEWS

Friday, 'April 16, 1943

When Freedom Comes .. .

By DR. ABBA HILLEL SILVER

WITHOUT BEING un-
duly optimistic, one is
justified i n believing
that deliverance is on the
horizon. Even though it
is as yet no bigger than
a man's hand, the pro-
mise of it is unmistak-
able. The war will end
before very long in vic-
tory. Hard fighting is
still to be faced.
But the Great Infamy
is doomed. On the step-
pes of Russia and on the
sands of Africa it is
bleeding to death. The
Nazi-Fascist gangsters know themselves to be beaten.
They now must goad their people on to continued
resistance by the fear of being conquered and being
subjected to the same treatment as they subjected
the peoples whom they conquered.
There is dawn on the horizon! Our faith in civiliza-
tion is being revived. Tomorrow may be the perfect
day for mankind. Tomorrow will witness not the
consummation but the approximation of our hearts'
desires. For a quarter of a century mankind has been
descending into the valley of death.
At the close of the war it will begin the slow ascent
to the higher plateaus, to the hills, where there is
life and light and bracing winds and open vistas.
New and great efforts will be made to reconstruct our
world on juster and surer foundations of freedom
and co-operation.
There is dawn on the horizon also for Israel! The
first faint glimmer of light is reaching us not only
out of the prospect of the approaching Allied victory,
but out of the new attitudes of peoples everywhere,
and especially among the peoples under Nazi domina-
tion.
Many are coming to understand that they had been

duped and tricked by anti-Semitism, and that anti-
Semitism has proved a terrible boomerang. Anti-
Semitism is not being liquidated in Europe, but in
very important sections of the populations, in spite
of all Nazi propaganda, it is being. discredited.
The United Nations have begun to plan for the
postwar. Planning for tomorrow has now become a
definite, a major task of all governments. Jewish
statesmanship too, while deeply involved in the im-
mediate problems of rescue and relief, also should
proceed to plan for Jewish life after the war.
Jewish leadership must insist at the peace con-
ferences that such political conditions be established
and such international machinery be set up as will
protect the Jewish minority and all other minorities
against a recurrence of those discriminatory activities
which prevailed after the last war almost to the day
when the Second World War began. A charter of
human liberties must be proclaimed, subject to no
restriction or cancellation by any government what-
soever.
The second task which will confront Jewish leader-
ship is the upbuilding of Palestine. There will be
very large numbers of Jews who will have to emi-
grate from Europe after this war, and there will be
no places for them to go. It is idle to expect that
even well-disposed governments will consent to the
admission of large numbers of impoverished Jewish
immigrants into their countries.
It is because Palestine is the Jewish Homeland that
we have the right to insist upon unrestricted im-
migration, and the Mandatory Government, in purs-
uance of this fact and in recognition of "the his-
torical connection of the Jewish people with Pales-
tine" and the mandate "to reconstitute their national
home" there had undertaken, by solemn pledges, "to
facilitate Jewish immigration" into that country and
the "close settlement by Jews on that land."
The third task which will face Jewish leadership
in America is to vitalize the spiritual life of our peo-
ple and to strengthen and expand all institutions of
Continued on Page 32

The Feast
of Freedom

By WALTER ROTHSCHILD

(Chairman, Army and Navy Committee,
Jewish Welfare Board)

IT WAS a Seder service unique
and beautiful such as was held
centuries ago when Jews were
still a pastoral people. Hidden
deep in woods, with the evening
sky for a roof, a white-covered
table though made up of cots and
trunks, its participants tense with
feeling, their voices ringing out
the responses from the Haggadah.
Each wore the uniform of the
United States Army, and each
found in the familiar ritual and
symbolic food new inspiration
and strength.
This was an actual scene last
year somewhere in the swamps
of Louisiana during maneuvers.
This year the same essential
scene, with few differences, will
be repeated a thousand times
over here at home, in our distant
outposts, in battle stations over-
seas—amid the foxholes of the
Solomons, in the South Sea
Islands, and close to the very
thick of fighting in Tunisia—
wherever they are—American
soldiers of Jewish faith will be
able to observe the Passover.
So that this may be possible,
the Jewish Welfare Board has
made wide and thorough plans,
with the cooperation of Army
authorities, chaplains, USO-JWB
workers, and individuals. Here
in America, home hospitality for
thousands was arranged. Com-
munity Seders . were organized
for synagogues and Jewish com-
munity centers and within camps
where the number of Jewish men
was too large to be cared for
by the neighboring community.
Jewish soldiers in isolated posts
are not forgotten. Whether they
man anti-aircraft guns on deso-
late coastal points, or on duty in
a small Coast Guard unit; whether
there are several Jewish men in
a group or a single one—they
have been sent Passover supplies
and wherever possible, 'arrange-
ments have ben made for their
observance of the holiday.
A directive sent by the USO
to all its mobile and maneuver
workers outlined the needs of
Jewish men, and stated that "in
most cases owing to the present
emergency the men may be re-
stricted to the vicinity of their
posts and we are asking you to
cooperate in making possible the
observance of this holiday by
Jewish men of the Armed Forces
at the posts and military organiza-
tions with which you are in
contact."

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

Traditional Passover Plate

Opening part of Seder Service in the Prague
Haggadah, Printed in 1526.

What Is Freedom?

By DAVID SCHWARTZ

PASSOVER is the festival of freedom. Today, Pass-
over should mean more to us than ever in history.
There is a great war on—all about freedom. The word
"freedom" is on every man's lips. Yet if we began
to ask—what is freedom?—we may be a little em-
barassed.
If we consult books to find the answer, we shall
find many definitions and we shall end up in a fog
perhaps greater than that in which we started our
search for a definition. Spinoza has one definition
for freedom and Hegel another and Bertrand Russel,
still a third. Yet let us not be discouraged, John
Dewey is there to offer consolation. He says that the
common man's point of view about freedom is sound.
I remember one time a young woman asking a
rabbi how she was to know when she was in love.
He told her that she would know when she got
there.
That is the way it is with freedom. We don't need
to define it. We feel it. Freedom is what you haven't
got when there are concentration camps, Gestapos,
Storm Troops, Hitlers and Nazis.
Freedom is like the oxygen in the air. It is invisible.
We never have much regard for it while it is pre-
sent. But remove the oxygen—and we collapse.
There was for long a disposition to laugh at such
idealistic words like democracy and freedom. The
great Boston lawyer, Rufus Choate, snarled at the
statements in the Declaration of Independence—as
mere "glittering generalities."
What we need today is more of these "glittering
generalities." The Atlantic Charter is one effort in
that direction, but it is not enough. The Four Free-
doms to be sure, are not without glitter, but they
must glitter more. The Declaration of Independence
was adopted by the whole Continental Congress, read
before every unit in the Revolutionary army, read
before assemblages in every community of the Ameri-
can states. The Four Freedoms will glitter more
when they are adopted by the American Congress
and children learn them by heart.

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

Hope and Not Despair .. .

By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

(A Commentator's Outlook on Passover)

ONE OF THE FREEDOMS
PASSOVER is approaching and free-
dom is. the topic of the day. In Pass-
over we have the foundation for the
Magna Charta and the Bill of Rights,
and in its ideals are inherent all . the
yearnings of a people for freedom.
Just say "Passover" with meaning and
understanding, and you no longer need
elaborate explanations of the "Four
Freedoms" or any other aspirations in
the world's battle for liberty.
Nevertheless, Jews remain without
the basic freedoms inherent in the
world's dogmatic promises for the
future. We face the Passover with
trepidation because the one right we
aspire to win in the war—that of self-
determination in Palestine— is not
being granted to us.
We are facing a terrific struggle for
this right, and it will not be a pleasant
battle. Repetition of "protest meetings"
and adoption of resolutions are not
very palatable in a period in history
when we had begun to expect that our
basic needs would be • recognized "as
of right and not on sufferance."
LOOK AT WASHINGTON
If this approach to Passover appears
too gloomy to our readers, let them
look to Washington for evidence in
proof or refutation of our arguments.
Even the mildly optimistic among
us will be chilled by what is transpir-

ing in Congress. The over-optimistic
will be shocked out of their wits.
Here is a typical example of what is
transpiring in the sacred halls in the
Capitol of our nation. An anti-New
Deal Republican delivered a long har-
angue against the administration and
he wound up by declaring that there is
a criminal attempt on the part of the
R.00seveltians to force four freedoms
upon the world.
From the Jewish point of view, such
an attitude would call for leading the
rejector of freedom to a doorstep and
thrusting an awl through his ear.
You know the Biblical injunction:
that when a man refuses to accept
liberty, "then thou shalt take an awl,
and thrust it through his ear unto the
door, and he shall be thy bondman
forever."
HOPE FADETH
When leaders in our government
speak mockingly of freedom for man-
kind, what hope is there for Jews and
Palestine?
The congressman we quote is a mem-
ber of the American Palestine Com-
mittee. He is personally a splendid
fellow and we like him—up to the
point of his wild hatred of Roosevelt
and the New Deal. Then he becomes
a candidate for the awl and the door-
step.
Batriiterthreat to our freedom is not

the congressman with bias but the
Jew who encourages such bias and the
Jews who . succumb to it.
It is easy to fall prey to fear of the •
demonstrations that have taken place
in Congress during the past few weeks.
In the main, however, they have been
merely outbursts in the Congressional .
Record and can be overcome—provided
we do not permit them to overcome - us.
TO DO OR DIE
What's to be done, you ask?
Don't let go of the reins! Passover
is a good time for us to resolve not to
permit the elements of despair and
destruction to get the best of us.
As the weeks go by, and the threats
to Jewish existence, especially on the
Palestinian front, continue, we must
remobilize our forces and renew the
battlecry for recognition of our rights
everywhere.
We must begin to -ask certain ques-
tions: What's happening to the Ameri-
can Palestine Committee? Where are
our friends in the non-Jewish ranks
and the defenders of our rights in our
own midst? Who is silent and who
speaks up?
The answers will provide the solu-
tion. When those who are pledged to
protect our position speak up, and those
who are silent are either forgotten or
made to speak, then we will get places.

(Copyright, 1943, Independent
Jewish Press Service)

