Page Two
THE JEWISH NEWS
Purely
Commentary
Friday, April 7, t944
Quotation of the Week
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
"M'AVDUTH L'HERUTH"
The central Passover theme is based
on the emergence of the Israelites
"M'Avduth L'Heruth"—from slavery to
freedom.
This theme represents the very root
of the challenge of our time to all
peoples. The chains of slavery, symbol-
ized by oppression and indecency, must
be broken, and not a link must be left
in sight anywhere.
It has been* established as a basic
truth very long ago that- if a semblance
of servitude exists anywhere, it threatens
to undermine the freedom of those in
other lands.
Therefore, the battle for liberty in-
augurated on the first Passover goes on
unterruptedly.
OUR OWN FREEDOM
The genius of America is incorpol-ated
in the freedom which we enjoy today as
American Jews. •
State and War Department officials
have spoken against Jewish hopes in
Palestine, yet we shout our protests
without fear of repercussions. On the
contrary, we believe we are better
Americans if we refuse n stifle our
voices when we feel that ail
a injustice has
been committed.
Whenever we hear evidence of wrong-
doing in governmental circles, we speak
our minds, and we gain strength through
the exercise of our freedom.
We meet in confidence and in freedom
at public assemblies, and we enter and
leave vast public assemblies with a de-
termined will that "none shall make us
afraid." •
In a thousand wayg, we make use of
our freedom.
Passover comes to us with a warning
never—never—to . sacrifice this freedom,
for our own sakes, for the sake of our
children, for the sake of all mankind.
• If ever we were to abandon . an iota
of freedom, we would. open an avenue
for the ,destruction of all our liberties,
and therefore also the liberties of. our
neighbors.
TALK AND REALITY
There is a lot of talk about impending
dangers from the rising tides of anti-
Semitism. The stories that are going the
rounds—on - trains, in churches, in army
camps—are enough to frighten anyone
out of his wits. There are threats of
attacki to be made on Jews after the
war. The threats are in themselves rep-
resentations of moral pogroms. - -
If Passover is to be interpreted as be-
ing symbolic of the major principles of
freedom, it must also represent a warn-
ing for our people not to fall prey to
false reports, and not to become panicky
over threats and dangers.
Passover must make us deal realis-
tically with our problems. If we are
faced with dangers—and . we have never
been completely out of dahger—then we
Must fight for our rights with courage
and with dignity, but never with fright.
The resolution every one of us must
Make' now, especially on the occasion of
Passover, is that we shall never, never
sacrifice our freedoin, and that we shall
not be frightened by threats to decency
that may come from the ignorant and
the misled. As long as we refuse to be
frightened, we remain free.
Jews In Turkey
Dr. Nahum Slousch, writing in the
Jewish Morning Journal, discusses the
plight of the Jews in Turkey. The na-
tionalism of the present-day Turks is
also reflected in their attitude toward
the Jews, he says. "So that alien lan-
guages may disappear in Turkey, all
Jewish schools, but one, ' were closed in
Turkey. There were even demands that
the Jews should use Turkish as the
language of prayer. Jews were not ad-
mitted to governmental positions. The
Turks went even further and began con-
fiscating the property of wealthy Jews.
Turkey's armed peace is an expensive
luxury. The country being poor, the
Government does its all to mulct taxes.
Jews are the first victims in such cases,
Jews and other minority groups . . ..The
Turks learned something *yen from the
Nazis in this respect, especially when
Turkey was deluged by Nazi agents.
Jews who could not pay the exorbitant
taxes, higher than any imposed on the
Turks, were sentenced to hard labor in
the copper and coal mines • . But since
Turkey has taken its clear pro-Allied
stand, the persecution of the Jews has
ceased. A special order was issued that
those Jews employed at the mines be
released and that Jews should no longer
be sent there . . . It should also be
stressed that Turkey is one of the neu-
tral- countries permitting Jews to cross
its borders . "
"It is reckoned that of the 3,500,000 Jews originally in Poland, not a
quarter of a million still live. Those who do are protected by non-Jewish
members of the underground, or live, like cave men, in the Polish forests.
They live to tell a story, not to save a people. The people is gone.
"But those who live have learned one thing: A people without a
homeland of their own is a doomed people. What Theodor Herzl preached
long ago, while the civilized Jews of Europe refused to listen, has been
proved in our lifetime. And from one end of Europe to another, Jews
sit down and weep, aye they weep, because they remember Zion. And I
say: Their word should go out through all the earth and their cry to the
end of the world. And there should be no speech and language where
their voice is not heard!
"The opponents of Zionism are hypocrites. They oppose the Jewish
homeland on behalf of the Arabs. Very well then. What Christian country,
however underpopulated, is prepared to receive all who come? Will Canada
—with a population of a mere eleven million, in a country that could
support fifty million? Will Australia, with a population of seven million,
in a country that could support thirty million? Will Brazil, larger than
the entire United States, and greatly underpopulated?
"The plain unadulterated and brutal truth is that the only spot on
this whole immense earth where European Jewish refugees were received
with open arms, and with acclaim; the only spot where they were received
as assets, and not liabilities—was Palestine."
—DOROTHY THOMF‘SON
Strictly
Confidential
By PHINEAS J. BIRON
(Copyright . , 1944, by Seven Arts
Feature Syndicate)
DID YOU HEAR IT?
A correspondent reports to us that on
a recent broadcast of a nationally
hooked-up radio program of the studio-
audience-participation type the . follow-
ing incident occurred . . . A soldier who
had just obliged with a musical number
was asked by the master of ceremonies
whether he expected to continue with,
his music when he would come back
from the war . . . Whereupon the sol-
dier bluntly stated that the first thing he
planned to do on his return was to "get
rid of those lousy Jews" . . . That was
all our correspondent heard—for an alert
studio .employe opened a switch at that
instant, pulling the entire 1Droadcast off
the. air.
*
STOP, LOOK AND LISTEN
Between
You and Me
By BORIS SMOLAR
Copyright, 1944, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)
WASHINGTON SIDELIGHTS
It seeitis that the British Embassy in
'Washingtion does not consider the Jewish
fight for free immigration to Palestine
to be lost . . . This can be seen from the
fact that it has approached American
Jewish Committee leaders with the sug-
gestion that the non-Zionists submit a
plan with regard to the solution of the
Palestine problem . .
It is understood
that the reply of the American Jewish
Committee leaders was that they are not
inclined to do anything behind the back
of the Jewish Agency of which the non-
Zionists are members . . The official
attitude of the American Jewish Com-
mittee towards the Palestine question is
well-known . . . Though not supporting
the demand for the establishment of a
Jewish " Commonwealth, the American
Jewish Committee has time and again
emphasized its opposition to the White
Paper and demanded free immigration
of Jews to Palestine . . . It might per-
haps be wise for the Zionists to revive
the Jewish Agency in a way which would
make the non-Zionists feel that they are
really partners in this institution.
Many Congressmen who are sincerely
interested in saving Jews from Europe
are disturbed over the actions by some
Government officials to stifle demands
for free Jewish immigration to Pales-
tine . • . Independent of the Palestine
resolution which was shelved for the
time being, there is a strong feeling in
Congress that Palestine must remain
open for Jewish immigration now more
than ever before . . Many Congressmen
are especially impressed with the book
published by Harper's on Palestine by
Walter Clay Lowdermilk, a U. S. Gov-
ernment soil expert, who claims that
Palestine can support about four million
people, and shows how this can be ac-.
complished. „ "
John L. Spivak's new expose of Fr.
Charles E. Coughlin, now running in
the New Masses, is a terrific scoop .
It makes "Under CoVer" and "Sabotage"
look like child's play • . One of the
most amazing incidents by Spivak is his
conversation with the Rt. Rev. Msgr.
Edward J. Hickey, Chancellor of the De-
troit Diocese . . . In other words, ..Msgr.
Hickey didn't express any indignation
against Father Coughlin's renewed un-
patriotic activities . . . When confronted
with the fact that Coughlin has said that
"we will show you the Franco way,"
Msgr. Hickey thoughtfully quoted a
Latin phrase. .
* * *
THE PAYOFF
Another instance of the lack of even
the proverbial honor - among - thieves
among the Nazis is cited in a recent issue
of the Dutch underground paper Ons
Volk, which reports that the Nazi com-
mander of the Vught concentration
camp was removed from his post and
sent to a German concentration camp . .
This not because of his cruelties to the
prisoners, but because he had kept for year-old Wing Commander Lionel Cohen
himself the loot he had stolen from the of England's Royal Air Force, who has
Jews in his charge, instead of sending completed 45 operationtal flights in this
war and who has been awarded the Dis-
it on to his Nazi bosses.
* * *
tinguished Flying Cross for gallantry in
•
action.
MORE TRUTH THAN POETRY
The following parable has been cur-
Moishe Shertok of Palestine, political
rent for many a decade, but it is so ap- director of the World Zionist Executive
propriate in these days of rising intoler- is scheduled to visit our country ,before
ance that we feel impelled to repeat the long.
version Leonard Lyons recently used to
Dr. Joshua Bloch, chief of the Jewish
bring home Ike point that logical think- Division of the. New York Public Li-
ing and anti-Semitic rabble-rousing have brary for the last 22 years, is readying
absolutely nothing to do with each other a thick volume of memoirs.'
.
. - .Thee story ,concerns two stick-up
If your-post-war television set) . brings
men who, preparing to hold up a. store,
you full color reception it may well be
decided that the street would first have
that the process employed will be the
to be cleared of. all people, So that their
one recently developed by Adolph H.
escape wouldn't be. blocked . . . "I'll get Rosenthal of New York.
'em all away from here," said the first
We wonder what was the topic of the
one, "just watch me" . . . He mounted a
soap. box and announced in ringing tones conversation between Dr. Louis Finkel-
that candy was being offered at a place stein, head of the Jewish TheolOgical
three blocks away .. . With great satis- Seminary, and. Lessing Rosenwald, lead-
faction he watched the people running er of the Council of JudaisM, at a recent
to the location he had mentioned and private dinner they both attended • at
then he saw • his fellow burglar running Philadelphia . , .. Incidentally, Sidney
in the same direction . • . "Where do Wallach, now a free lance publicity
agent, is working for both the Seminary
you think you're going?" he shouted .
"If all these people are running there," and the Council.
The real name of Sophie Tucker;
called back his colleague, without lessen-
ing his . pace, "there must be something grandmamma of all the red-hot mammas,
to it"
turns out to be Sophie Ahuza.
* * *
"Prince" Mike Rornanoff, • the former
POT POURRI
Broadway hanger-on who has lately be-
Very disturbing rumors reach us about come a successful Hollywood restaura-
disunity in the Zionist leadership . .
teur, was deeply touched by the faith of
Is it possible that, at a time when the a sailor who forfeited $64 in a radio quiz
fate of Jewry hangs in - the balance, old by publicly declaring his belief that
personal controversies will be permitted Mike's title was genuine . . . So Roman-
to be injected? . • . We wonder if some off sent the sailor the $64, by way of
sort of
• . record can't be claimed by 68- consolation.
-5
•
Heard in
The Lobbies
By ARNOLD LEVIN
(Copyright, 1944, Independent Jewish
Press Service, Inc.)
IGNORANCE BY DESIGN?
Here is how Time, the smart-alecky,
newsmag, opens its report on recent ter-
rorism in Palestine: "Just before mid-
night, the dread Hagana struck." The
report also refers to "Zionist outlaws."
Time's efficient editors should know
that the Hagana is a self-defense organ-
ization formed as a consequence of police
failure to give adequate protection.
Hagana has never acted, except in self-
defense. Responsibility for the terror
has already been claimed by the Irgun
• Zvai Leumi, an illegal body, fighting the
Hagana and Zionist authority. Some
time ago our bosses of the Independent
Jewish Press Service called Time's at-
tention to their error in referring to the
Mufti of Jerusalem as the ex-Mufti. Our
bosses pointed out that he was still
Mufti, and quoted the Colonial Secre-
tary on the subject. Time never cor-
rected the error, and replied by letter
that he was Mufti only technically.
This is splitting hairs. He is still the
Mufti, and it is important that this fact
be stressed as it is indicative of British
policy in Palestine.
Arthur Krock of the New Yorjc Times
refers to Drs. Silver and Wise as "Zion-
ist clergymen." A Zionist is proud to be
identified as such, and a clergyman is
proud to be identified as a clergyman.
But Zionism is not a faith, and to des-
cribe one as a "Zionist rabbi" is erron-
eous at best, and may be an implied slur.
TOWER OF STRENGTH
You may not have paid much atten-
tion to the Reconstructionist religious-
cultural movement in American Jewry.
But it is not unlikely that this move-
ment may, in the long run, exert a
greater influence and be of more sig- r
nificance than all the sound and fury
contained in resolutions and speeches at
Jewish conventions and mass meetings.
Its study circles are rapidly evolving
into what may eventually become units
identified with a definite and positive
way of life. It may be the shot in the
_ arm that American Jewry needs.
On the subject of Hebrew culture in
the United States, we wonder how many
of our readers have heard of the Harofe
Haivri, the Hebrew medical journal,
which is marking its sixteenth year. The
current issue includes papers on "The
Treatment of Gunshot Wounds of the
Head and Brain During The Present
War," and "The Status of Anesthesia in
Military Surgery."
.
The Jewish
Newsman'
EDITOR'S NOTE: Aleph Katz. editor, of the
Yiddish department of the Jewish Telegr
aphic
Agency, is a Well-known Yiddish poet. The foi-
lowing poem was inspired by the hundreds of
.reports concerning the devastation of European
Jewry which have crossed his desk in the past
decade. The "Jewish Newsman" is among the
collected .Yiddish poems of Mr. Katz which are
to be published this Spring . under the title,
ALEPH KATZ
"Once There Was a Story."
I am the : crier of moments afire
That sear the heart of my brothers.
I am the Hub-btib of burning wires
That kindle a grief in me _and in others.
I am the bearer of evil tidings,
The teller of woe and relentless lament
Recording in plaintive and saddening
writings
The horror and pain of each daily event.
Mine is the fate to. be shofer and scribe
Blowing the trumpet and quilling the
story,
Moaning . the anguish and hurt of my
tribe,
Resounding -the echo of destinies gory. ,
Bulletins; mesages, deluge of news
Flow from my fingers in streams.
Funerals, pestilence,, plunder and noose
Quiver a Jangle Macabre of dreams...
Jeremiah laments in many a throat
Calling to stars in the desert sky,
His scattered voice and mournful note
In dungeon, field and forest cry.
Rods of red anger tear at my soul,
Cover my body with shameful shroud,
This is not time for ballads to toll—
Bellow, the plight of the lowly, and proud.
.
.
But I am Mute, a Job without tongue,
My lips are sealed and I,beseech:
0 God, give. thunder to my lungs,
Lightning lend my fettered speech.
Through weeping cables and dispatches
I see Isaiah's plowshare smile,
I hear the message from the scripture;
The eternity of Israel will not beguile.
ACopyright, 1944, J.T.A., Inc.),
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