THE JEWISH NEWS
Page Two
Strictly
Confidential
By PHINEAS J. BIRON
(Copyright, 1943, Seven Arts Feature
Syndicate)
YOU SHOULD KNOW
The Aug. 1 issue of "The Ghetto
Speaks," issued by the American Repre-
sentation of the General Jewish Work-
ers' Union of Poland, publishes a report
called "Tremblinka Death Camp in Po-
land" . . . Now we've read all kinds of
descriptions of Nazi atrocities against
Jews . . . This report, however, is the
most realistic story ever published any-
where, telling how Jews who were
shifted to Poland from other countries
are asphyxiated wholesale . . . Every
American soldier should read this story
before going into battle against Hitler's
hordes . . . If he does we promise you
that he won't take any German prisoners
alive.
Pretty soon the Axis powers will be-
gin to wonder whether they didn't start
something they couldn't finish when they
called the present conflict a "Jewish
war" . . . Now it's 2nd Lt. Pincus Pesso
of Brooklyn who made the headlines by
leading an American patrol to the end
of the Munda airfield, thus ending the
Battle of Munda.
Quotation of the Week
"It is true that Judaism like Christianity is a universal religion.
As there may be American Catholics and Protestants, English Catho-
lics and Protestants, so there may be American Jews, English Jews
and French Jews.
"History, however, has shaped Judaism differently from Christ-
ianity . .
"Christianity was never a religion of one people .. .
"The entire history of the Jewish religion since the destruction
of the Temple has been the "history of one people .. .
"Inwardly and outwardly the Jewish religion continued as the
religion of one people. Thus the Jewish religion by its philisophy is
like Christianity, a universal religion embracing all races and nation-
alities; however, by historical circumstances, Judaism is a religion of
one people. We may say that Judaism is a national religion."
—PROF. SOLOMON ZEITLIN, Dropsie College
in article "Judaism as a Religion" in current
issue of Jewish Quarterly Review.
Between
You and Me
By BORIS SMOLAR
Heard in
The Lobbies
By DAVID DEUTSCH
(Copyright, 1943, Jewish Telegraphic
Agency, Inc.)
(Copyright, 1943, Independent
Jewish Press Service)
WASHINGTON BACKGROUND
CONFERENCE MEMORIES
Don't take any bets on the presidency
of the Zionist Organization of America
being a closed matter . . . It's true that
Rabbis Israel Goldstein and Abba Hillel
Silver have come to an understanding
. . . But if anything is going to interfere
with Silver's taking over the leadership
of Zionist political affairs in actual fact,
and not merely . in name, the Silver dele-
gates will take the bit in their teeth
and run away at the convention—and Sil-
ver may find himself elected, willy-nilly.
Reports to the contrary notwithstand-
ing, and although delegates from various
parts of the country are already en route
to the American Jewish Conference, that
conclave may yet be postponed at the
eleventh • hour, or curtailed.
Zionist leaders in America are now
making an attempt to see Churchill in
connection with the new policy which the
State Department seeks on Palestine
until after the war . . . One of the Zionist
leaders left for Canada the day it be-
came known that Churchill reached,
Canada from London.
There is new cause for Zionist alarm
over the State Department's approach to
the Palestine issue . . . We learn that the
State Department intends to bring over
to the United States a son of King Ibn
Saud . . . The latter is practically re-
sponsible for the sudden anti-Zionist turn
taken by officials in Washington and the
coming of his son to Washington would,
no doubt, be taken by the Arabs as a
clear indication that the American gov-
ernment is beginning openly to flirt with
Arab leaders at the expense of the Jews.
When the American Jewish Confer-
ence opens in the Waldorf-Astoria, New
York, on Aug. 29, many of those attend-
ing will compare personalities, problems,
possibilities with those of another session
25 years ago; the first American Jewish
Congress . .. The opening session of the
latter was enlivened by a battle for the
permanent presidency of the Congress.
. . . Judge Julian W. Mack, Louis Mar-
shall and the poet, Yehoash, were nomi-
nated . . . Marshall declined in favor of
Mack, who was elected by a vote of 232
to 61.
PUTTING NAZIS IN THEIR PLACE
AMERICAN JEWISH CONFERENCE
JEWISH NEWS
With the preparations for the opening
The story in these parts, supposed to
be straight out of the mouths of guards of the American Jewish Conference
in charge of Nazi prisoners, is that the practically completed, it is safe to pre-
Germans stare incredulously when they dict that the Conference will ignore the
steam into New York Harbor and see Biltmore Declaration . . . This despite
the famed Manhattan skyline intact . . . the fact that the majority of the dele-
It seems that for the past year all good gates are good Zionists . . . It is felt
Nazis have believed (because Hitler told even in some Zionist circles that a less
them so) that the Luftwaffe had razed extreme program on Palestine will reflect
our skyscrapers . . . One of the things the present sentiment of the Jews in
Nazi prisoners like least is the search to America . . . Thus, many Zionists will
which they are subjected when they're suggest that resolution be adopted which
taken captive . . . Officers, particularly, will urge free immigration to Palestine,
are annoyed when the search is con- but will not mention the establishment
ducted by mere privates of Uncle Sam's of a Jewish Commonwealth in Palestine
Army ... The American officer in charge as stipulated by the Biltmore Declaration.
Non-Zionist leaders in American pro-
of a certain section of the Tunisian
theater is said to have picked Jewish vincial cities are addressing letters to
privates to do the searching . . . Our 'Judge Proskauer, • Rabbi Stephen Wise
Jewish boys got an additional kick out of and Henry Monsky complaining that the
the proceedings by telling the Aryans • non-Zionists are not sufficiently repre-
about their "race," and- then watching sented at the Conference . . Impressed
their faces grow still longer.
by these letters, the executive committee
ABOUT PEOPLE
in charge of preparing the conference
Now we can tell you that Pierre van took up a Zionist suggestion that at least
Paassen's new book will be called "The 30 Jewish community leaders from the
Forgotten Ally" . It will deal with provincial cities who had not been elected
the Jewish problem, with special empha- to the Conference, should be co-opted as
sis on Palestine . . • Van Paassen's new delegates . .. Louis Siegel, supported by
volume is so chockful of dynamite that Judge Morris Rothenberg, have, how-
it will blow some complacent British ever, secured the defeat of this sug-
colonial officials sky-high.
gestion.
Edward G. Robinson of the screen, who INSIDE ZOA
already can converse in 10 languages,
It seems that the peace reached within
and broadcast in half a dozen of them the ranks of the Zionist Organization of
for the BBC when he was in England, is America with regard to the question as
now adding to his accomplishments by to who shall be the ZOA president for
learning Russian.
next year is for the time being only an
armistice . . . There are still points of
differences between the pro-Silverites and
the pro-Goldsteinites as to the composi-
tion of the ZOA executive . . . The
peace settlement which Dr. Stephen S.
Wise brought about provided also that
the slate for the new executive should
25 New Jewish Villages Established
be worked by both groups to their
mutual satisfaction . .. It seems that the
During First Four Years Since
group backing Dr. Israel Goldstein is
Outbreak of War
now trying to get out of this provision
JERUSALEM (Palcor) — During the . . . This, despite the fact that Dr.
first four years of the war, 25 new Jew-
Goldstein himself has agreed to it . . .
ish villages were established in Pale-
The group which named Dr. Abba Hillel
stine, thereby making the total number Silver feels that this is a violation of
of Jewish settlements 274, with 246 of the agreement . . . Thus the fight is not
them agricultural settlements. Six of the
over as yet.
25 new villages are in Galilee; seven oth-
We believe that now when Dr. Silver is
ers are in the South. Twenty-three of summoned to share with Rabbi Stephen
them are located' on Keren Kayemeth S. Wise the chairmanship of the Ameri-
land, one on land owned by the Palestine can Emergency Committee for Zionist
13 ot ash Company to the north of the Affairs and to become also the chairman
Dead Sea and the twenty-fifth on Pale- of its executive, Zionist political activi-
stine Jewish Colonization Association ties in America will no doubt assume
land.
a new impetus . . . Dr. Silver is not the
The length of asphalted roads was in- kind of a leader that likes to be a chair-
creased 43%, reaching 2,558 kilometers,
man just on stationery . . . Once he
as compared with 1,784 in 1938. During
assumes leadership over an organization,
the war the sale of electricity for farm- he certainly becomes the most active
ing purposes increased 71%.
person there.
274 Settlements
Formed in Zion
1
..
+A
At
tle • 2, • .I. • oi 4, IN.A ••• xit . A sil • AI •*/ NA At .44 ...
.
.
.
.
A. I.
•4■AA, A44•
AAA 44.4 "
• 4...• •
An attempt to have a presidium in-
stead of a permanent president was over-
whelmingly rejected by the delegates .. .
Among the hundreds of messages re-
ceived by the Congress, the only one list-
ed in the proceedings as coming from a
national government official was a brief
word from Secretary of the Navy Jose-
phus Daniels, who declined an invitation
to attend the Congress . . . There was
also a brief message from the Italian am-
bassador, over the signature of the
charge d'affaires . . . One session of the
Congress met in Independence Hall.
Of the delegates elected by the com-
munities to the 1918 Congress, only 15
were elected to the American Jewish
Conference by the same . . . Here's the
list . . . Rabbi C. Hillel Kauvar from
Denver . . . Louis Sachs from New Haven
. . . Judge Harry M. Fisher from Chicago
. . Sidney L. Herold from Shreveport,
La. . . . Dr. Herman Seidel from Balti-
more . . . Samuel Barhett from New
Bedford, Mass . . . Morris Shapiro from
St. Louis . . Gedaliah Bublick, Rabbi
Israel Levinthal, Meyer Brown, David
Pinski, Louis Lipsky, Dr. Samuel Mar-
goshes, Morris Rothenberg, all from New
York City.
PERSONALITIES
The J. Z. Lurie who was scored by Ar-
thur Robb, Editor and Publisher's editor,
for co-authorship of the piece "Scandal
in Newsprint" in The New Republic, is
Jesse Zel Lurie, who was at one time a
printer's devil on the Palestine Post, of
which his brother is now a co-editor.
Lurie, together with E. E. Hyman, had
pointed out that the newspaper industry
vvas not co-operating in reducing news-
print tcnnage.
Octavus Roy Cohen, whose name is
more closely identified with stories of
Negro life than any other American au-
thor, will have his fiftieth book publish-
ed this month. It's another mystery,
"Sound of Revelry," issued by MacMil-
lan. The 50 do not include the scripts of
30 motion pictures.
Why doesn't somebody teach the ad-
vertising manager of the Coca-Cola com-
pany his business? That was a stupid ad
as part of the current series on "have a
`coke' and make a pal." The one devoted
to Palestine showed American soldiers
on a desert giving Arab camel drivers a
`Coke.' "How Americans make pals in
Palestine" is the legend for as amazing
an ignorance of the facts of Palestine life
as could be dreamed up by a shlemiel in
a New York air-conditioned office.
When 'Cokes' are distributed in Pales-
tine they are the gift of Palestine Jews
to the American boys welcomed to Eretz
Israel rather than a jeep-driver's gift to
an Arab. The advertising department
ought to look up the name of the person
who has the franchise to bottle Coca-
Cola in Palestine. It's about time that
Mark Twain notions of Palestine were
banged on the head.
Friday, August 20, 1943
Purely
Commentary
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
ITALIANS NOT ANTI-SEMITIC
To the credit of the Italian people, let
it be recorded that they were not and
most prObably are not anti-Semitic.
Turning back the pages of current his-
tory to January, 1939, it is worth exam-
ining the conditions which placed Italy
in the lap, of Nazism and led to the proc-
lamation of racial laws by the Fascists,
at the command of Benito Mussolini.
Anne O'Hare McCormick was in Rome
on Jan. 29, 1939, and wirelesssed her
views to the New York Times, stating
in part:
"If a fair plebiscite vote were held in
Italy on the government's policy toward
the Jews the popular vote would be
about 89 per cent against it. In talks with
dozens of Italians during the past fort-
night this corespondent met only two or
three who did not deplore and condemn
the measures taken. These are so uni-
versally unpopular that on this subject
no one seems to hesitate to speak openly.
"It is said that leaders of a group of
young Fascists offered 25 lire to any boy
whc would smash the window of a Jew-
ish shop, and net a boy in the group
would take the offer. Certainly there
have been no anti-Jewish demonstra-
tions. Placards' designating a firm as
`Nationalist' or 'Aryan' were distributed
to all shopkeepers, but in Rome, at least,
they are not displayed."
THE FORGERIES OF THE AXIS
Miss McCormick related in her dis-
patch that a campaign was conducted in
the course of which forgeries were dis-
tributed to show that there was a "Jew-
ish conspiracy" against Italy. Her con-
clusions, which throw light on the back-
ground of Italian-Jewish relations, are:
"There is reason to believe such evi-
dences actually were sent to Rome in an
effort to induce Premier Mussolini to join
Chancellor Hitler's crusade. Diplomats
who have heard these documents think
they were forged for this purpose. A
confusion of contradictory tales cannot
obscure the fact that for 16 years, despite
the agitation of Farinacci, Tevere and
other extremists in the party, the Fascist
government insisted that there was no
Jewish problem and Mussolini laughed
at the 'childish conception' of a pure
race. The turn came with a turn of the
screw of the Rome-Berlin axis. Though
this is the explanation that all officials
hotly deny, it is obvious to the most
simple Italians."
COMPENSATION AND RETRIBUTION
But the Italian people were helpless,
and there was no compensation for Jews
in their opposition to the vile anti-Semit-
ism of Nazi-Fascism. As Miss McCorm-
ick pointed out, in 1939, "evidences of
the unpopularity of the anti-Semitic
policy and the half-heartedness with
which it is executed cannot compensate
Italian Jews for the material and moral
suffering inflicted on them."
The complete story of the survival of
the small Italian Jewish community,
numbering less than 40,000, is yet to be
told. But in 1939 it was already evident
that some of the best brains were lost
to Italy, Jewry and the world.
On Feb. 2, 1939, in a letter to the New
York Times, Michele Cantarella of North-
ampton, Mass., pointed out that there
were many Jewish suicides in Italy, and
among them he listed the following:
Dr. Angelo F. Formiggini, foremost
Roman publisher; Colonel Segre of the
First Regiment of Artillery in Vercelli;
Prof. Maurizio Pincherle of the Univers-
ity of Bologna, president of the Interna-
tional School of Pediatrics; Grand Officer
Jarach, Milanese banker, and scores of
others.
The "compensation" so far has been a
tragic loss for Jewry, and only time will
tell the extent of historic retribution for
Nazi-Fascist crimes.
His Favorite Song
By BEN SAMUEL
Copyright, 1943, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.
(This column is based on information
supplied by the National JWB).
A tall young serviceman walked into
the Jewish Welfare Board's Burlington,
Vt., USO club, and settled himself in a
corner to watch the entertainment. A
young lady had just begun to sing Rose
Ann of Charing Cross.
Another soldier walked over and
nudged the tall serviceman. "That's my
favorite song," the second soldier said.
"Do you like it?"
The first serviceman nodded. "It would
have to be my favorite," he said. "My
name is Kermit Goell. I wrote it."
.1•i•
.,!.-