Page Four

THE JEWISH NEWS

THE JEWISH NEWS

His Biggest Booster

Member of Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Independent Jewish
Press Service, Seven Arts Feature Syndicate, Religious News
Service, Palcor News Agency, Bressler Cartoon Service, Wide
World Photo Service, Acme Nei,vsphoto Service.
Published every Friday by Jewish News Publishing Co., 2114
Penobscot Bldg., Detroit, 26, 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 the Jewish Welfare
Federation of Detroit, at 40 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.

By DAVID MORANTZ

Where Alexander Found Wisdorril

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ, Editor

As the Editor
Views the News -

DECEMBER 3, 1943

IM

Truth Triumphs in Boston

Jacob Hodus and Harvey Blaustein are the two Jewish
boys who were convicted in the Dorchester, Mass., District
Court last month on charge of "participating in an affray" re-
sulting from the Boston anti-Semitic outrages.
A few days ago, the case was quashed by the Massachu-
setts Attorney General, Robert T. Bushnell, who now re-
veals that there is "evidence of unprovoked and brutal as-
sault" upon these boys by a police sergeant.
Thus, truth is beginning to triumph in Boston.
The Massachusetts Attorney General now informs the
public that the disturbances in which the boys were accused
of participating were the result of "acts of lawlessness be-
longing in the classification of anti-Semitic."
Explaining the reasons for nolprossing the case, the At-
torney General states that the two Jewish boys, whose experi-
ences served as a challenge to injustice and intolerance, were
not brought into criminal court a result of a - fair and
honest attempt on the part of the Boston police authorities
to enforce law impartially."
Did this aspiration for fairness and honesty exist when
the attacks upon Jewish men, women and children in Dor-
chester were at their height, and before they were exposed
by PM?
It would be interesting to get an answer to this question
from all concerned.
In the meantime, however, it is encouraging to know
that truth is sprouting forth in Boston..

The Leo Frank Case

Would that Louis Marshall were alive today to know
that he was fighting for a just cause when he appealed to the
United States Supreme Court in behalf of Leo Frank, the
innocently-convicted young Jew who was later lynched by
a Georgia mob for a crime he did not commit.
Would that Oliver Wendell Holmes were alive today to
learn that he is now being vindicated for having written a
minority opinion in which Charles Evans Hughes concurred,
urging a re-trial in the famous case that stirred up feelings
of hatred and passion between the North and the South—
simply because a young Jew from New York happened to be
the scapegoat in a wave of passion that resulted from the
murder of a young girl in his uncle's pencil factory in
Atlanta, Ga., back in 1913.
Only Leo Frank's surviving relatives are here to know
that this young man was an innocent victim in a tragic mis-
carriage of justice.
If only those who know the case will be able to apply
its lessons to the future—so that the mistakes of the past may
never again be repeated!

The Synagogue Desecrators

In Mineola, Long Island, the Hebrew Congregation was
desecrated for the fourth time in as many months. Anti-
Semitic and obscene writings and crude swastikas were
found on the building, and Rabbi Moritz Speier has decided
to leave the markings on the building "so that the residents
of Nassau County can see for themselves how evil these
people are."
The perpetrators of these obscenities were undoubtedly
those who are now generally referred to as "juvenile de-
linquents." But in Germany, too, the young Storm Troopers
began as juvenile delinquents—and they never outgrew their
delinquency.
Desecrations of synagogues and cemeteries and other
abuses have been all too frequent in many American com-
munities to warrant silence. Too many elements are involved
here for the issue to be ignored. The home, the school, the
police—all are to blame for laxity which makes a situation
akin to Nazism possible in this country.

This Week's Scriptural Selections:
This Sabbath, the seventh day of Kislev, 5704, the following
Scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:

Pentateuchal portion: Gen. 28:10-32:3.
Prophetical portion: Hos. 12:13-14; 10 or 11:7-12; 12;

or 11:7-14:10.

Talmudic Tales'

(Based upon the ancient legends and
philosophy found in the Talmud and
folklore of the Jewish people.)

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
MAURICE ARONSSON
FRED M. BUTZEL
ISIDORE SOBELOFF
ABRAHAM SRERE
THEODORE LEVIN
HENRY WINEMAN
MAURICE H. SCHWARTZ

VOL. 4—NO. 11

Friday, December 3, 1943

The Right to Self-Defense

Palestine Jewry's right to self-defense is the major issue
involved in the current difficulties our people are experi-
encing in Eretz Israel. The declarations made by David Ben
Gurion and Moshe Shertok that Jews will not give up their
right to defense against those who seek to uproot what they
had built, will undoubtedly be supported by public opinion
every where.
But there are other angles which involve threats to the
freedom of our people in Zion. Ten newspapers were sus-
pended because they had dared to publish the truth with
regard to the incidents in Ramat Hakovesh. Now, the British
administration in Palestine announces that the newspapers
will be permitted to reappear on a stagger system. Again, in
a spirit of self-respect, the Jews of Palestine rejected the
government's offer, and the newspapers have let it be known
that they will all reappear simultaneously on the day the last
ban is lifted, as a demonstration in defense of freedom of
the press.
A third issue involved in the Palestinian troubles must
not be ignored. The "incident" at Ramat Hakovesh, which
resulted in the death of one settler, Shmuel Molinietz, injury
to a score of others and the arrests of 35 colonists, began
when the British troops instituted a search for Jews who
had "deserted" from the Polish army. Now it has become
known that Polish Jews are demanding transfer to other
United Nations forces because they are unable to endure the
"vicious anti-Semitism" of the Polish troops.
Here you have a combination of thfee principles for
which the Jews of Palestine, with the help of Jews every-
where, must fight to a finish: the right to self-defense, the
freedom of the press and the opportunity to live in an
environment that should be completely free from bigoted
anti-Semitism.
A justified demand has been made by the Amefican
Zionist Emergency Council that the officials responsible for
the trouble in Palestine and for the murder of the Jewish
colonist Shmuel Molinietz be removed from office. The sooner
the British administration corrects the terrible blunders it
is committing in Palestine, the better for all concerned.

The Need for Frank Discussion

Attorney General Francis Biddle's important address at
the annual dinner of the Jewish Theological Seminary, in
New York, last week, in which he called for organized action
on a national scale for education as an antidote to growing
racial prejudices in this country, was significant from many
points of view.
In the first place, as the Man who directs that part of our
Government's functions which will have to deal with some
of the subversive forces responsible for the growing tensions
in America, we hope that Mr.. Biddle's assertions may be
interpreted as indicating government action against the dis-
seminators of hatred.
Equally as important, also, is Attorney General Biddle's
assertion that frank and intelligent discussion of the problem
is necessary as a prerequisite to effective action if the evils
of the situation are to be eradicated.
Groups engaged in the fight against intolerance should
take this to heart. Prejudice cannot be fought behind closed
doors, or by encouraging secrecy. The situation in Boston
might have been remedied had Jews and -non-Jews spoken
sooner in condemnation of the anti-Semitic outrages. In-
stead, , community leaders and the press waited until PM, the
Christian Science Monitor and other liberal periodicals ex-
posed the existing menace. They waited until boys were
seriously hurt before acting.
Our Attorney General is right.
Frank and intelligent discussion is necessary if the evils
are to be eradicated.
But if our Attorney General means to limit action to
discussion of the issues by Jews and others affected by preju-
dice, and if our government is to remain inactive in stamping
out bigotry, then the basic principles of American democracy
are in danger of being destroyed.
In commending our Attorney General, we also plead with
him to throw into the fight all the resources at the command
of our government, so that there may be an end to discrimina-
tion in America.

On one of his expeditions
Alexander the Great approachee,
a city that was entirely governed,
by women. As he was marchir4
upon the city to attack it, th(
gates of the city opened and
tall stately woman of noble ap J
pearance came forward.
"What bringeth thou to ou ]
land and what desireth thou?'
she asked.
"I am Alexander the Great,''
he replied, "Alexander, the Cori.
queror, and I have come to ta -k(
thy city."
"Are the men all dead," she re al
turned, "that thou hast come t( 1
battle with women? Thou mayesi
find it more difficult than tholJ,
thinkest to vanquish us but ever
shouldst thou • be victorious,'
wouldst thou have it that th(
great Alexander was a conquero r
of women? Suppose that wc
should be the victors, how colosl
sal would be thy disgrace to hay(
it known that the mighty host.
of Alexander the Great had beer
vanquished by an army of worn
en. Go from our country an
conquer foes more worthy of th3
valor."
Alexander was so entrances
With the charm of her bearini
and impressed with the magniff
cence of her courage that he ex
claimed:
"Thy charm and thy braver:
have impressed me greatly. Ma:
there be only peace and friend
ship between us."
Ordering his army to turf '
back, he, before riding away
drove up to the gates of the citi
and inscribed thereon:
"I, Alexander the Great, afte
having conquered so many court
tries, have come to this land, an
learned wisdom from a woman.'

(Copyright by David Morantz)

For a handsome 195 page, auto,
graphed gift volume containing 12
of these tales and 500 Pearls of Wis
dom, send $1.50 to David Morantz
care of The Jewish News, or phon
Plaza 1048.

Zionist Head Flays
Houston Temple for
Barring Observers

WASHINGTON, D. C.—Thi
action taken by the reform con
gregation Beth Israel of Hous
ton, Texas, in voting, approval o
a "statement •of principles'
without precedent in the annal
of American Jewish congrega
tions barring from voting mem
bership all believers in "th
Rabbinical and Mosaic law
which regulate diet" and in the
precepts of traditional Judaism
was branded as a "callous of
frontery" toward the concepts o
Judaism and an act of intoler
ante, in a statement issued her
by Dr. Israel Goldstein, presi
dent of the Zionist Organizatiol
of America.
The "statement of principles'
adopted by the Congregation
which is headed by Rabbi H.
Schachtel, one of the leading
figures in the anti-Zionist "Am
erican Council for Judaism," ob
ligates each voting member t(
"reject the Rabbinical and Mo
saic laws which regulate diet
priestly purity, dress and similai
laws which originated in age:,
and under influences of idea:,
and conditions which today aryl
entirely unsuited, unnecessa,
and foreign to the beliefs and
observances of progressive Ju
daism in modern America . . .
The pledge required from eacl
member also repudiates the Hel
brew language as "unintelligibl
to the vast majority of our co
religionists; therefore, it muss
make way, as is advisable uncle]
existing circumstances, to intel!
ligible language in prayer which
if not understood, is a soulless
form."
Terming the action of th( 1
Houston Congregation as "ar
amazing phenomenon in Ameri!,
can Jewish life," Dr. Israel Gold!
stein, in his statement, assert:
that in voting approval of th(
pledge the congregation reveal
ed "an inner- demoralizat.ior
which makes them not only in)
ferior Jews, but inferior Ameri
cans."