THE JEWISH NEWS

Page Two

Heard in
The Lobbies

By DAVID DEUTSCH

(Copyright, 1943, Independent
Jewish Press Service)

CONFUSIUS

The above is not a mispelling. The
reference is to • the strange confusion in
Jewish life. Take for instance the be-
fuddlement of Mr. Philip Meyers of Cin-
cinnati. His father is a friend of the
Labor Zionists, and he himself is a
member in good standing of the ZOA.
And yet, Mr. Meyers accepted the chair-
manship of the local chapter of the
American Council for Judaism. Don't
blame him. Blame the ineffective Zion-
ist propaganda which has failed to edu-
cate Zionists sufficiently to enable them
to see the discrepancy between the
Council and the ZOA, and that you can-
not possibly share both views at the
same time, regardless of your strong de-
sire for unity.

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FASCISTS AND ANTI-FASCISTS

A black cat has passed between Ger-
ald L. K. Smith and Senator Reynolds,
who only recently was offered the Pres-
idential nomination of Smith's America
First Party. It seems that Reynolds feels
that he can get along without Smith,
thank you, and is readying his own out-
fit for the field. Smith is furious, yet
being shrewd he realizes that it would
be unwise for him to wage open battle
against Reynolds. So he is just biding
his time, and eating out his heart.
We think that the following is a
crackerjack of a story. When you'll read
it, you'll understand why Herbert Mor-
rison, British Home Secretary, who re-
leased Sir Oswald Mosley, sees no joke
in it. It is the story of a tourist in post-
war London stopping off to buy a news-
paper. He recognizes in • the newsboy
Herr . Himmler. The former Gestapo
chief admits his. identity, adding: "The
British are so, wonderfully , forgiving."
He then . recognizes a restaurant chef. as
Herr Goering, Who admitting his iden-
tity, adds: "The British are remarkably
forgiving." Then he notices a man sit-
ting at the ringside in one of the best
night clubs. "Aren't you Herr Rudolph
Hess?" the tourist asks. The gentleman
adjusting his monocle, replies: "Lord
Hess."
*
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"YIDDISHE MAME"

Quite a fuss was made over Milton
Berle's mother who has recovered from
a recent illness. All the comic's friends
were present at a party in her honor.
Frances Fay sang "My Yiddishe Mame,"
and Mrs. Berle herself proudly kissed
her daughter-in-law, Joyce Berle, who
has scored a personal success in Saro-
yan's panned latest . . Oscar Levant is
telling of passing napkins along, he
passes along his shaggy dog.
*
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BOOK SCRIBBLING—

We hear that Rep. Sol Bloom is writ-
ing a book. Bet you a new something-or-
other that it will appear before the
long-anticipated Bermuda conference re-
port . . . Sophie Tucker is also writing
a book. Predictions are that it will be a
combination of George Jessel's "So Help
Me," Samuel Ornitz's "Haunch, Paunch
and Jowl" and Mike Gold's "Jews With-
out Money."

,Epistie to the Living

Women's Letter on Deportation Eve
From Bulgaria by Nazis Describes
Plight; Unafraid to Die

The following letter was written by a
Jewish woman in Sofia, Bulgaria, to her
brother in a neutral country on the eve
of her deportation with her nine-year-old
child to an unknown destination:
"This is my last letter to you. All Jews
are being evacuated as yet we do not
know where. It is a nightmare. I've done
everything possible to rescue my child
and have failed. Thank God Moshe (her
husband) is still- with me, but I doubt
whether they will allow him to come
along with me. All men are being
dragged off to Poland.
"They have expropriated everything.
Our lives are the last possession they
can deprive us of. And that they are
doing right now. I'm facing them proud-
ly, with head raised high, and with un-
quenchable love for husband, child and
for you, my dear brother. I am parting
from this world as our proud, long-
suffering father would have wished it—
unbroken, unafraid, at peace with my
fate."
The letter was released by the World

Jewish Congress,

Friday, December 10, 1943

Quotation of the Week

"In every speech Hitler has made, he never failed to attack the
Jews. In no speech made by United Nations statesmen was Hitler ever
answered.
"The tragedy of the Jews has been our own apathy. At present
we are engaged in a debate to determine whether we shall do some-
thing about it. If the decision be negative, I say without hesitation that
our professions • of a better world, of justice and decency will be so
much sham and mockery."

—DEAN ALFANGE, Titular head of the American Labor Party,
in statement to Foreign Affairs Committee of U. S. House of
Representatives at hearings on Resolution to speed rescue of
Jews suffering in Nazi-held Europe.

Purely
Commentary

By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

WHEN JEWISH BOYS ARE HURT

A Jewish boy under the age of Bar
Mitzvah died a tragic death, and a com-
munity is disturbed.
The youngster who pulled the trigger
of the gun that discharged the bullet
which killed the Jewish youngster may
be held as a delinquent, and his father
was fined $50 for failing to register the
gun.
These are unimportant incidents in a
society which often kills the spirit of
people quicker than it destroys their
bodies. Else, the mother of the dead boy
would not have charged "discrimination"
in the death of her boy.
What difference does it make now
whether it was an accident or not;
whether the father was fined sufficiently
or insufficiently?
What does matter, however, is that
people continue to murder the spirit of
little children in brutal and discrimin-
ating fashion.
• When the Ann Arbor tragedy was first'
being investigated and . newspaper re-
'porters spoke to the friends of the slain
boy,, it was reported_that. playmates of
Barry said that "he, was a nice kid, but
some of the boys picked on him because
he was Jewish." Then, suddenly, these
evidences of discriinination were hushed.
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PREJUDICES AND CURES

Between
You and Me

By BORIS SMOLAR

(Copyright. 1943

Inc.)

POST-WAR PROJECTS
Thirty projects for post-war Jewish
immigration and settlement are now in
the hands of the officers of the Inter-
Governmental Committee for the Settle-
ment of Jewish and other refugees from
Europe . • . Only a few of them are be-
ing taken seriously . .. Some argue that
even these few may lose their value for
Jews . These sceptics believe that
there will hardly be any Jewish emigra-
tion from Europe after the war ... They
point to the fact that few Jews have ever
emigrated from Hungary where there
are now about a _million Jewish inhabi-
tants . . Similarly, Jewish emigration
was always meager from Rumania and
will be even more so after the war,
when the Jews of Bessarabia and North-
ern Bukovina will remain under Russia
. . No one doubts that there will be no
Jewish emigration from Czechoslovakia,
the • Low 'countries, the Scandinavian .
countries, and France . . As to the Jews
of Poland,. who haVe suffered most in.
the wale_ many of the 300,000 who are
believed to be still alive are in the part
of Poland claimed by Russia ... The re-
mainder may figure out that under a
democratic regime which will prevail in
a liberated. Poland, it • would- pay for
them to remain on the spot and start
their life all , over again - in their native
country rather than to emigrate to dis-
tant and little-deVeloped parts of the
world .
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THE YOUNG GENERATION
Ninety per cent of the Jewish youth in
America, up to the age of 24, are Ameri-
can-born, a survey shows . . . Whereas
85 per cent of their parents are immi-
grants from Europe . . . Those who think
that Jewish youth is inclined towards
assimilation will be surprised to learn
that more than 150,000 Jewish young
men and women ranging in age from 16
to 24 are actively affiliated with at least -
a dozen .Jewish. youth organizations . .
The largest of them are the Junior. Ha=
dassah, - the Young Israel, the Youth
Judea, the Aleph .Zadik Aleph, the. Na-
tional Council .. of Jewish Juniors, the
Young Circle League and the Temple
Youth Organization . . . Not to speak of
the many thousands of Jewish students
affiliated with. the Hillel Foundation in
more than thirty universities' .ancl: col-
leges . . . Not to mention the Y.M.H.A.
and the Y.W.H.A. as well as • the Jewish
Centers which at the end of 1942 had a
membership of 410,000 ... It may be in-
teresting for some to learn that more
than 12 per cent of the Jewish youth in
America have never attended a syna-
gogue . . . About 73 per cent of them at-
tend synagogue services on high holy-
days only, while 10 per cent attend syna-
gogue services once a week . . . The re-
mainder visit the synagogue once a
month.

W.2 are fully aware of the contention
that little good can be accomplished by
constantly referring back to evidences
of discrimination and by carrying a chip
on the shoulder. In a recent address be-
fore the Institute for Religious Studies
at the Jewish Theological Seminary in
New York, Senator Thomas of Utah ad-
monished our people:
"The Jew must not think that the
whole world is against him. The Jewish
case, to be sure, is an old one JeWish
persecution has been wide, but it has
not been universal. The Jew; too, has
been quite as intolerant of his neighbor
as his neighbor has been intolerant of
him. Like begets like; dislike begets. dis-
like."
It is doubtful whether Senator Thomas
could prove the point that the Jew "has
been quite as intolerant of his neighbor
as his neighbor has been intolerant of
him. But we are prepared to accept the
first point, that the whole world is not
against us; and to admit the warning
that "dislike begets dislike." And on this
score we charge that blindness to reali-
ties and a hush-hush policy in matters
of discrimination are harmful to the'
general cauW.,of American principles of
decency and justice.
Just because the whole world is not
against us, we should shout in protest
against every symptom of injustice, arnd
the non-Jews should be the first to con-
demn prejudice. Just because "dislike be-
* * *
gets dislike," all Americans must join
VARIETY
hands in avoiding the spread of dislikes
Twenty-five - year-old Leonard Bern-
and hatreds.
stein who is now the sensation of the
* • *
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musical world as . the youngest conduc-
SOCIETY'S RESPONSIBILITIES
tor of the New York Philharmonic Sym-
To return to the problems of Ann Ar- phony Orchestra, hopes to write a Jew-
bor and Boston, Brooklyn and other corn- ish opera . . He already . has completed
munities where Jewish youth face dis- a symphony • entitled "Jereniiah" . .
crimination:
Born in Lawrence, Mass., he was gradu-
What must concern all of us, Chris- ated from' Harvard at 21 . . . His parents
tians and Jews, is whether society will immigrated from Russia . . . After Pearl
permit other Jewish boys to go through Harbor he wanted to enlist in the Navy,
the agonies of environments, in free but was rejected because of asthma . . .
America, which are permeated not by For the same reason he was later reject-
the ideals of our Constitution and the ed by the Army . . Asked what his
Bill of Rights, but by the spirit of the favorite dish is, he replied: "Herring and
Nuremberg laws and Nazi philosophy.
potatoes.". •
This is a social problem, and it must
•Irving Berlin, who moved the Queen
be faced squarely and frankly. It is not of England to tears this week with his
the Jew's position alone in society that song "My British Buddy" is a gloomy
is at stake, but the entire structure of self-critic . . Ever since he rose above
American idealism. For the protection the job of a singing waiter, Berlin has
of American ideals, the prejudices which composed hundreds of songs which were
affected a 12-year-old Jewish lad in melodic quicksilver .. . Yet his own list
Ann Arbor, and Jewish youngsters in of his best 11 leaves out, "Oh, How I
Boston, must be destroyed wherever they Hate to Get Up in the Morning" and
become evident.
"God Bless America" . • •

Strictly
Confidential

By PHINEAS J. BIRON

(Copyright, 1943, Seven Arts Feature'
Syndicate)

ROOSEVELT IN PALESTINE

Flash! . . . This is a real scoop — .
When the full story of the Roosevelt-
Churchill-Stalin meeting will be
made known it will be revealed (and
we hope the news doesn't break be-
fore you read this) that the American
President and the British Premier on
their way to the conference, visited
Palestine together ... Both gave quite
some attention to the Jewish develop-
ments there, agricultural and indus-
trial . . And this may add to the
sensational nature of the story: Weiz-
mann and Churchill had a long con-
ference before the British leader
went to Cairo , . . Marshal Jan Smuts
participated in this conversation .. .
Smuts, you must remember, is now
Vice - Premier of Britain — and a
staunch supporter of Jewish aspira-
tions in Palestine ... But don't get us
wrong . . . The White Paper has not
been repealed, and pressure, public
pressure, is needed now more than
ever.

* * *
BIRTHDAY PARTY

Last week, in a large and artistically .
furnished New York apartment over- .
looking the Hudson, a moving scene : took
place ... About 9 o'clock in the evening
there gathered, in the home of -i‘..-leyer .
&nd Shirley . Weisgal, 50 7,ioniste leaders'
.Among .their. , were .Stephen.: S.
Abbe Hillel Silver and• 'Nahum-
mann, . . :They .had assembled to hoirbt
Louis- Lipsky on his 67th birthday
Harry Sherman, head of the
the-Month club and a life-lOn'g friend=
Lipsky's,. also was there i. and. e an-..
nounced to the celebrator (to whom_. the
party was 'a complete surprise). that his..
friendS
had • arranged to establish a .Louis.
,
Lipsky Chair in the Hebrew • University
at Jerusalem . . On this unusual -eve-
ning—made particularly delightful by:
the famed Weisgal hospitality (and- the
liquor - was fine, we would have you
know)—all the old friends of the ZioniSt
dean . felt that real Zionist unity had
been. reestablished . , . P. S.: The Chair
at theUniversity costs $75,000 . . . Sher-
man himself contributed $10,000, and
we're told that money is pouring in un-
solicited ... The $75,000 will be reached
soon . So if you want to be in on it,
send your check to Meyer Weisgal for
the Louis • Lipsky Chair.

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ABOUT PEOPLE

* *

Lillie Schultz, for many years execu-
tive secretary of the American Jewish
Congress, has quit . . . She may join the
UNRRA. staff.

The Joe Richards whose painting was
one of the prize-winners at the Washing,
ton exhibit, of 79 works of art by United
NationS . merchant seamen is a son of
Bernard G. Richards, dean of English-.
Jewish:. journalists.

M. Ben-Ami and Dr. A. Hadani, two of
the Palestinian leaders of the Committee
for a Jewish Army in this country, are
serving' :as volunteers in the American
Army . Both were inducted recently,
and shoUld make A-1 soldiers.

The . .tWo sons of Edmond Fleg, . the.
distinguished French Jewish man Of
letters;:..have been killed in the war
One, a,aptain in the French Army, died
in an ,:airplane accident, and the other' l
lost his life while fighting for the French
underground.

Phiiio-Semite

By HAMABIT, In New Judaea, London

The Jewish people have lost a great
friend and admirer through the death
of Dr. - Edwyn Bevan. - Scholar, philoso-
pher and historian, the late Dr. Bevan
has written much on Jews, Judaism and
Jewish history. He has also taken a keen
interest in and warmly supported the
establiShment of a Jewish State in Pal-
estine. 1.His essay on Hellenistic Judaism
is a classic exposition of its role in the
developMent of Christianity. He traced
the relationship between Judaism and
Hellenism and dealt especially with the
influenCe of Philo, whose ' writings he
regarded as the greatest among the lit-
erary .products of Hellenistic Judaism.
He also: showed how the Christian church
was influenced by Hellenistic Judaism
before • Christianity had spread in the

Roman Empire.-