THE JEWISH NEWS
Page Two
Between
You and Me
By BORIS SMOLAR
(Copyright, 1944, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)
POLISH TRENDS
Is it true that Polish officials in the
U. S. are sending reports to their gov-
ernment in London to the effect that
anti-Semitism is increasing in the United
S tates? . . And is it true that some of
these officials are making special efforts
to meet Jews in high positions in order
to furnish their government with per-
sonal impressions of them? .•. . The Jew-
ish Labor Committee is now receiving
praise - from all sides for the outspoken
attitude it has taken with regard to the
anti-Semitism in the Polish Army . . .
Less admired, however, are other Jewish
bodies in . America which are keeping
quiet on thiS subject for some mysterious
reason.
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Quotation of the Week
"A Fascist is one whose lust for money or power is combined with
such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, partieS .,
classes, religions, cultures, regions, or nations as to make him ruthless
in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends. The supreme god of
a Fascist to which his ends are directed may be -money or power; may
be, a race or a class; may be a military clique or an economic group;
or may be a culture, religion, or a political party.
"The perfect type of. Fascist throughout recent centuries has been
the Prussian Junker, who developed such hatred for other races and
such allegiance to a military clique as to make him willing at all
times to engage in any degree of deceit and violence necessary to
place his culture and race astride the world. In every big nation of the
world are at least a few people who have the fascist temperament.
Every Jew baiter, every Catholic hater is a Fascist at heart. The
hoodlums who have been desecrating churches, cathedrals, and syna-
gogues in some of our large cities are ripe material for Fascist leader-
ship."
.
—VICE-PRESIDENT HENRY A. WALLACE
Purely
Commentary
RESCUE TALKS
The latest appeal for rescue of Jews
is now being 'sounded by the Women's
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
International League for Peace and Free-
dom. . . . From its Washington office the
DAVID SCHWARTZ AND LUKE
League is conducting a campaign de-
David Schwartz of the staff of the
manding that our immigration laws be
administered so as to place the fewest Jewish Telegraphic Agency is your Com-
mentator's favorite among his journalis-
possible obstacles in the way of refugees
tic confreres. He is a splendid fellow, a
seeking to enter this country under the
good newspaperman and is usually very
immigration quota. . . . It also demands
accurate.
that the British authorities, in the light
of the changed military situation, admit
But David pulled. a blunder in his la-
more Jews to Palestine. . . • At the same
test release. Writing on the meeting of
time, the League also advocates the
Jewish publishers held in Indianapolis
sending of food to Jews in Nazi-occupied
he used the famous quotation from the
territories. . . . The League urges every
Second Book of Samuel (1:20), "Publish
American to address letters to the State
it not in Judea, proclaim it not in Gath"
Department and to President Roosevelt
("Al tagidu b'Gath . . . "), and then pro-
asking for urgent alteration of the U. S.
ceeded to state: "'Proclaim it from the
Immigration laws. . . . Such letters, the
housetops," says the prophet.
League points out, can be a powerful and
Your Commentator f o u n d the latter
constructive factor in speeding action to
quotation not in the Prophets but in
save many Jews in Europe.
Luke 12:3. -
* * *
• The closest his quotation comes to Old
ON. THE JOB
Testament references are the following:
Though the Joint Distribution Com-
Proverbs, 9:3: "Proclaim upon the high-
mittee planned a $17,009,000 budget for
est places of the city"; Amos, 3:9; Pro-
this year, it seems that it -Will need at
claim it upon the palaces in the land of
least ,$25,000,000 . . . It is too bad no de-
Egypt."
' tails can be released of the reports de-
And so, David, thou hast blundered.
livered at the JDC conference in Chicago
But thou remainest a good fellow, nev-
_ . . . But one can reveal that these reports
ertheless. * *
presented a picture of rescue activities of
• which Jews in the United States should
"FREE PORTS" FOR REFUGEES
feel proud . . . Sufficient to say that
The plan for the establishment of
many millions of dollars have been al-
"free ports" for refugees in this country
lotted by the . JDC for ships carrying
had been introduced on several occasions:
Jews from Balkan countries to • their
Mordecai Ezekiel spoke of it several
freedom in Palestine through Turkey .. .
years ago. Perhaps the best analysis of
And similar staggering figures are spent
on getting Jews froln inside Nazi. Eu-
the plan was made by Samuel Grafton
• rope to Spain . . Thousands of these
in - one of his syndicated columns in
which he stated:
. Jews will soon proceed from Spain to
Casablanca for permanent residence
"We need a system of free ports for
there until the war is over, or -until they
refugees. These would be reservations,
secure immigration visas toAmerica or.
fenced and guarded, which any person
Palestine . . JDC is especially active in.
could enter without formality, no mat-
saving children from Nazi lands . . The
ter how homeless or statelesS he might
American Government still considers
be. Until we set up free ports fOr refu-
valid its promise to admit to the United
gees we shall be asking the refugee to
States 3,000 Jewish children from
stand on one foot while we solve his
- France . . . Thus something is being done
problem, a position in which a man
to smuggle as many children out of
can wait just so long, and a child less
France into Spain as possible . . . Sev-
"No rights would be acquired by any-
eral thousand Jewish children may also
one who entered such a reserved area,
still be saved from the Balkan countries
except the right >to sit down, which is
if certain plans of the War Refugee
a rare right at the present moment in
Board materialize . . . The War Refugee
civilization's majestic march. By an
. Board depends to a very great 'extent on
easy legal fiction, entrance into a free
JDC for financing its • rescue activities
port would not constitute legal en-
.. . The JDC is even giving large sums
trance into the country and stay in the
of money monthly to the Histadrtith in
Palestine for rescue activities . . No _, free port would not constitute • resi-
dence in the country.
avenue of rescue is. overlooked by JDC
AA
. . . But JDC is under instructions from
"We have used this same legal fictio/1
International Red Cross to say, in pub-
to establish free ports for goods. For' -
lic, as little as possible about the rescue
reasons much too dull to tell , you about
plans now in operation is in the interests
here, these are of great advantage to
of the work in which we are all in-
our foreign trade in time of peace.
terested.
"If we cannot give our friends at least
(Copyright, 194.4,
the same rights we give our enemies,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)
. then a host of questions are raised, in-
cluding whither ' are we drifting and
what is wrong with our heads.
"The refugees could be visited by
consular and other officials of their own
BY• BEN SAMUEL
nations in these free ports, they could
(Copyright, 1944, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)
be investigated, picked over, and per-
haps, in time, outfitted with papers and
Chaplain Henry Tavel called on for-
thus gradually raised to the lofty level
, .1n-1er New York State Governor Lenman,
of legal existence, as distinguished
last month. The latter was recuperating
from the inconsequential level of mere
from an accident somewhere • in North'
physical existence. •
Africa. Lehman was "carrying on just
as actively from his bed," according to
"Meanwhile, those Americans who do
Tavel. He assured the chaplain that his
not want refugees here could have the
"immobilization" was only temporary.
- assurance that they were not legally
here at all; while Americans of a more
"I saw ,him for: a few moments shortly
humanitarian • turn of mind and heart
after he was put to bed," Chaplain Tavel
could have the assurance that refu-
reports. - "Yesterday I. went back . . . I
gees were being cared for and this is, •
carried a packet of items we are ac-
therefore, a democratic solution, in
customed to present to soldiers—a Jew-
harmony with the traditional ingenuity
ish Welfare Board prayer book, a Jewish
and resourcefulness of Anglo-Saxon
Welfare Board calendar, a mezuzzah,
law making.
• and a Book of Jewish Thoughts. The
"As one looks it over, it seems, also,
governor received them with thanks and
Nvaiv interest."
)4 be a fairly repulsive solution, But
•
Gift for Gov. Lehman
Friday, May 5, 1944
Heard in
The Lobbies
By ARNOLD LEVIN
(Copyright, 1044 Independent Jewish
Press Service, Inc.)
IMPENDING COURT SUIT
The legal committee of the Emergency
Committee to Save the Jewish People of
Europe has decided to bring a suit
against The Protestant magazine and its
editor Kenneth Leslie, for carrying a re-
cent article by Pierre Van Paassen
against the Committee. Stating that the
article libeled the Committee and its
leaders, the Bergson group nonetheless is
undecided about bringing suit against
Van Paassen himself, but it feels that it
must do so in order to sue the publisher.
Spokesmen for the Committee have
charged that the article was not written
by Van Paassen.
*
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OBJECT LESSON
-It is comforting to turn away from
such "Reverends" and "Fathers" as G.
L. K. Smith and Coughlin and write a
note about Rev. Karl M. Chworowsky of
the Flatbush Unitarian Church of Brook-
lyn, N. Y. In the week of the Ghetto
Battle anniversary he devoted a Sun-
day's service to the memory of the Jew-
ish martyrs. The service closed with the
playing of Hatikvah. Incidentally, his
parish is in a neighborhood that seethed
with Christian Front activity prior to
Pearl Harbor (and probably still does).
But the .Rev. Chworowsky is a courage-
ous,_ defiant man.
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ABOUT A. A. BERLE JR.
A. -A. Berle Jr. is back from London.
Speculation is still rife, and disagree-
went is still strong, as to whether or not
he is sympathetic to Jewish demands re-
garding Palestine. Some will tell you
that he ranks with Hurley, the oil emis
sary, as an opponent of Jewish aims in
Palestine, but being a good listener he
has listened at length, and has shaken
his head sympathetically, to pleas of
Jewish delegations and that, of course,
gave many the impression that he was
sympathetic.
* *
THANK YOU, CONGRESSMAN,
Thanks, from the bottom of our
hearts, to Congressman White of Idaho,
who for the second time has risen in the
House to propose a Homeland for the
Jews. Its location—Peru. He conceded
that the region needs water, but still—he
recommends it as a homeland. Without
going into the demerits of all these "sub-
stitute homelands" intermittently pro-
posed for' the Jews, we would like to
call the Congressman's attention to the
fact that the Jewish people already has
a Homeland, Palestine. We are not im-
perialists, and are not seeking additional
Homelands. However, we are• most
grateful to him for his concern. His
heart may be in the right place, but his
information- is lagging . behind 1922, or he
would know that the Jewish National
Home in Palestine has been internation-
ally recognized. by 53 governments.
•
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that is all the refugees ask for-7-a re-
pulsive solution. Can. we give thein
less?"
•It is a depressing business, and at best
the plan involves, 'as Mr. Grafton says;
repulsive solutions.-
But even the repulsive solutions have
been slow in materializing.
Will the War Refugee Board consider
the plan sympathetically, and will it
lend the matter a sense of dignity?
After all, the fate of hundreds of thou-
sands, possibly millions, is involved, and
this country has a stake in decent solu-
tion of the wor.ld's. - -
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•
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,
Strictly
Confidential
By PHINEAS J. BIRON
(Copyright: 1944, by Seven Arts
Feature Syndicate)
FISH IN TROUBLED WATERS
The 30 accused seditionists on trial at
Washington, • who are attempting to
transform their treason indictment into a
springboard for an anti-Semitic cam-
paign, are only the small fry of the Fas-
cist leadership in this country . . . The
big fish are scared to 'death lest they be
brought in as character witnesses for the
defendants . . . One prominent Midwest-
ern political figure got so hot and both-
ered about the prospects of a subpoena
that he has left for Mexico for a visit of
indeterminate length.
We wonder how columhist George. E.
Sokolsky feels about the approval Fas-
cist-minded George E. Deatherage has
given him . . . Deatherage, a confirmed
anti-Semite, recently described Sokolsky
as "a Jew, but a fair one."
Haj Amin' El Hussein, former Grand
Mufti of. Jerusalem, has received from
Hitler one of the fancier Nazi decora-
tions, together with the promise of an
independent Arab Palestine.
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LISTEN HERE
Culled from the London Jewish Week-
ly: "Some of our American guests are
leaving us: like the thief of Jonah, they
come in the night and leave in the night
. . . Almost desperately they seek pub-
licity: press conferences, flying -visits,
broadcasts, anything, as long as there is
a story for the folks at home . . . I heard
of one gentleman who made an appoint-
ment to visit the Chief Rabbi and turned ,
up complete with photographer! . . . The
group was duly photographed shaking
hands, sitting around the table, discuss-
ing - world problems . . . The picture hav-
ing been taken, the meeting terminated
- " We wonder whom the writer had
in mind.
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LITERARY DEPARTMENT
What promises to be an ,excellent
Brandeis biography is in the making . .
Thee author is Susan Brandeis Gilbert,
daughter of the late jurist.
Audrey Wurdemann, the gifted young
poet' who-is the wife of poet Joseph Aus-
lander, is a direct_ descendent of the fa-
mous English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Trude Weiss-Rosmarin is America's
outstanding Jewish woman scholar .
Be sure you read her latest book, "Juda-
ism and Christianity."
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SETTING THINGS STRAIGHT
Don't put too much credence in that
Washington rumor that Judge Samuel
Rosenrnan may be chosen to fill the. next
vacancy on the U: S. Supreme Court.,
Sidney Wallach is not, as we reported,
a few columns ago, the publicity adviser
of the Jewish Theological Seminary.
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ABOUT PEOPLE
A • probable visitor to this country in
the early fall will be Dr. Chaim Weiz-
mann. .
..
Roy J. Stone; past president of the Co-
lumbus, 0., Zionist District, may be his
State's next Lieutenant-Governor . . . He
is the Republican candidate . . • Fred
Yenkin,. present Columbus Zionist prexy,
thinks that - Roy is one of- this country's
outstanding Jewish leaders.
Meyer W. Weisgal was offered the ex-
ecutive directorship of the American
Jewish Conference we understand, how-
ever, that he will decline it.
'The Common
Thread'
A Collection of Stories by a New
Author, Michael Seide
•
The name Michael Side is certain to
figure prciniinently on the booksellers'
lists, judging by the excellence of his
first collection of short stories, "The
Common Thread," published by Har-
court, Brace & Co.
The book has 10 stories about BroOk-
lyn, and . the characters, the Bellinsons
and the Spewacks and the youngsters
who hail from former Brest-Litovsky
families emerge as interesting people
who are finding their way in the Ameri-
dan . environment.
It is a set of stories that -reveals the
conflict between the old and new gen-
erations; the struggle between therelig-
iotis and the ,irreverent, the magnetism
of the .movie as against the poWers ,, of
. Jewish _traditions.
It is not a happy collection. The pathos
of the newcomers to • this country, the
struggle of, yoxing and ,old, the battle ,for
exhiroa
T
stenze,_ e reflected in, "The , Common.
ColleCtion is well worth reac;144.