Page Two

THE JEWISH NEWS

Heard in
The Lobbies

By ARNOLD LEVIN

iCopyright, 1944 Independent Jewish
Press Service. Inc.)

SOVIET AND ZIONISM
We do not vouch for the authenticity of
these rumors which we are passing on to
you for what they are worth ... Soviet
Russia, according to the grapevine, will
support Jewish demands for unrestricted
immigration into Palestine, but take no
position as to the country's status . . .
While Zionism as a movement will re-
main taboo in Soviet Russia, emigration
to Palestine will be permitted and rela-
tions between Palestine and Biro Bidjan
will be fostered ... Soviet Jews will even
be permitted to contribute financially
toward Palestine . Resumed restiveness
among the Arab nationalists and failure
by Communists to yield a noticeable in-
fluence in Arab politics is one of the
motives for the change of policy.
The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in
Moscow will be dissolved shortly after
hostilities cease and will be reconstituted
as the "foreign office" of Soviet Jewry,
its leaders chosen by the ballot . . . We
repeat: we do not vouch for the authen-
ticity of these rumors . . . Time will show
whether they are true.
*
*
*
CUTE
The Hebrew Committee of National
Liberation has openly declared, and reit-
erated on many occasions, that it has
"suspended" political demands with re-
gard to Palestine, pending the termina-
tion of hostilities. Through its other com-
mittees it has charged the Zionists with
"sabotaging" rescue - by introducing a
Jewish Commonwealth resolution in Con-
gress, instead of a resolution restricted to
the demand that the White Paper barring
Jewish immigration be abolished . . •
Nonetheless, now that both major parties
have included planks endorsing Jewish
political demands in Palestine, the "boys"
are circulating a letter claiming the credit
for themselves . .. This is why they are
now referred to as the "credit boys."

,

Partition
For Palestine?

In the Yiddisher Kempfer, published
by the 'Labor-Zionist Party, Dr. Hayim
Greenberg, editor of both the Kempfer
and the monthly Jewish. Frontier, dis-
cusses rumors regarding a new British
plan to establish a Jewish Common-
wealth in a partitioned Palestine.
Dr. Greenberg writes: "rumor has it
that Britain has already made a 'defin-
ite' decision: Jews demand a Common-
wealth in Palestine—they shall be given
one in part of the country, while in the
other (larger?) part a sovereign Arab
state will be established, or it will be
merged with a neighboring Arab state
. . . It may be symptomatic that an im-
portant non-Anglo-Saxon country, which
takes the whole matter seriously, has al-
ready learned through its own channels
about the possibility of such a decision."
Those Zionists that were ready to ac-
cept a partition plan in 1937, he points
out, felt that that would be Jewry's sac-
rifice in the days of appeasement on the
altar of peace. "At any rate, no one ask-
ed the advice of Jews and the political
course was not dependent on us." But
the motives that prompted "our own"
to agree to partition no longer retain
their validity.. "There is no logical basis
for the belief that as regards the U. S.,
Russia and Britain, they will find it
much easier than before the .war to
handle both the opposition of their de-
feated opponents and of their dubious
Allies . . . From this viewpoint we - .Jews
should be in a better position to press
for the implementation of the full meas-
ure of our political and territorial de-
mands than before the war."
On the other hand, however, "forth-
coming victory will find us much weak-
er than we were a few years ago. Our
weight as a people is much smaller in
1944 than it was in 1941, before the
mass-extermination of the largest Jew-
ish communities of Europe had begun.
We have lost several million people—
according to some estimates a quarter of
the Jewish people—and the reservoir
from which Jewish migration to Pales-
tine drew its manpower for many years,
has dried up in a catastrophic extent."
In view of this, Dr. Greenberg says,
"we should not be surprised if we shall
hear in the course of time from certain
official quarters that under present cir-
they will generously repeat the word
cumstances there no longer exists — and
`unfortunately' many times — the need
for a larger territory in which to settle
the destitute, indigent Jews."
He warns that this "motive" will be
used to full advantage at the proper mo-
ment.

Quotation of the Week

"This is our proposition: that the sin of race hate be solemnly declared
a crime.
"What makes this difficult is the conservative fear of raising issues. Let's
admit that this fear is often no more sinister than an honest dread of going
to the dentist. But let's respect the effectiveness of reactionary manipulations
of that fear, which is the fear of anarchy and revolution. It is put to wicked
use against the same general welfare conservative opinion seeks to protect.
Forced to acknowledge Hitler's enmity, conservatives are loathe to admit
that even as he surrenders in Europe, he may succeed in America. Let con-
servatives evaluate the impudent candor of fascism in 'Argentina and be
reminded that the heroic survival of our liberty is no proof of its immortality.
"Our liberty has every day to be saved from marauders whose greed is
for all things possessed by the people. Care of these possessions is the hope of
life on this planet. They are living things, they grow—these fair possessions
of democracy—and nothing but death can stop that growth. Let the yearners
for the past, the wilfully childish, learn now the facts of life, the first of
which is the fact of that growth.
"In our hemisphere the growing has begun, but only just begun. America
can write her name across this century, and so she will if we, the people—
brown and black and white and red—rise now to the great occasion of our
brotherhood."
—ORSON WELLES, in an Editorial "Race Hate
Must Be Outlawed," in Free World.

Strictly
Confidential

By PHINEAS J. BIRON

(Copyright. 1944, by Seven Arts
Feature Syndicate)

YOU SHOULD KNOW
Helen Gahagan, wife of screen star
Capt. Melvyn Douglas and in her own
right an actress, singer and California
Congressional candidate, became active in
political affairs after a concert tour
through Central Europe in which she was
forbidden to sing songs by Jewish com-
posers and witnessed the social ostracism
to which her Jewish accompanist was
subjected . . . After this experience she
canceled her outstanding European con-
tracts and determined to do all in her
power to prevent similar conditions from
arising in this country.
Father Ford, of the Corpus Christi
Catholic Church, will soon be the recipi-
ent of a great and well-deserved honor
from an unexpected quarter . . . Ford is a
Roman Catholic priest who has given
much time to a study of the Jewish
question.
*
*
*
FROM THE FIGHTING FRONTS
Privates Michael De Luise and An-
thony Aquilina, with our fighting forces
in Italy, are most popular with the Jew-
ish boys of their division because of the
drastic lesson they taught to one of the
boys who in his relations with his Jewish
fellow soldiers proved that he didn't
know what we are fighting for . .. From
a letter written by Private Michael J.
Higgins, Jr., shortly before his death in
action, to columnist Ed Sullivan: "Once
at a field mass I saw a Jewish friend of
mine kneeling in the mud . . . Afterward
I remarked casually to him of my aston-
ishment . . His answer was: 'Mike, what
kind of religious services you go to over
here don't count . . . What does count
if I get it next, the Boss will know that I
tried'."
*
*
*
READER'S GUIDE
We do hope that the Warsaw Ghetto
Diary now running serially in the Yid-
dish Jewish Morning Journal will be
published in English sometime soon . . .
The author is a 19-year-old American
Jewish girl who lived in Warsaw from
the first day of the war through the be-
ginning of 1944. . Finally she reached
these shores on the Gripsholm, in ex-
change for five important Nazi prisoners
. . . Her diary reveals some amazing facts
about the underground heroes of the
ghetto.
Some of - the book reviewers have
pointed Out, in Dimitri Marianoff's book
on Einstein, an unfortunate passage con-
taining an anti-Semitic implication . .
Marianoff, Einstein's son-in-law, is a lov-
able fellow . . . A Jew himself and a man
of honor, he is incapable of anti-Jewish
thinking ... . The wording of the paSsage
must be due to Marianoff's faulty Eng-
lish.
Prof. Lowdermilk's "Palestine, Land of
Promise" is now in its fifth printing . .
Its British, Hebrew and Yiddish editions
are doing equally well.
*
*
STRAWS IN THE WIND
At a recent auction sale held at Stock-
holm a portrait of Hitler was sold, frame
and all, for the sum of one krona—two
bits to you.
On Broadway they're saying that house
painter Hitler will soon be back on the
scaffold—with a rope around his neck.
In England they've found an answer to
the question of where the Luftwaffe is:
It's standing by to take Hitler out of Ger-
many . . . Then there's the story of the
English prison camp where the Nazi pris-
oners used to . watch the robot bombs
streak across the sky and shout "Heil
Hitler" after each one . . . -Until one of
the robots landed a few hundred yards
away from the prison . . . Then the Nazis
suddenly became very polite—as they ap-

Purely
Commentary

By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

THE LATE LORD DAVIES
Very little—too littlehas been said
about the late Lord Davies, whose recent
death farther reduced the ranks of the
great friends of Zionism and the entire
Jewish people in the British House of
Lords.
We have met and heard him during his
brief visit in this country in 1927. He de-
livered -four or five addresses before
Zionist gatherings during his stay in the
U. S.
But his great contributions to the cause
of justice for the Jewish people were
made in the House of Lord. Together
with the late Lord Wedgewood, the late
Lord Snell and Lord Strabolgi, he formed
a quartet of fighters for Jewish rights.
Lord Davies was eloquent in his philo-
Semitic talks. This great aristocrat was
one of the sincerest friends we had.
We had occasion alsc‘, to meet his son
who made writing his career and was a'
publishers' reader in New York for sev-
eral years.
Interesting people, these Englishmen,
and they are especially impressive when
they fight for a cause as zealously as
Lords Davies, Wedgewood and Snell
fought for Zionism.
Their names will never be forgotten in
our history..
* .*
*
BRILLIANT NEGROES
Confrere Walter W. Fuller, writing in
a recent issue of the Detroit News on his
experiences on a D & C cruise, excoriates
the stupidity of some people who imagine
that Negro waiters are necessarily ig-
norant people.
Friend Fuller points out that one of the
passengers asked his waiter whether he
had acquired the elementary knowledge
of reading and writing, not realizing that
the Negro was better educated than he
was, having earned degrees in Kentucky
and at Columbia University.
Well, Walter, OUR waiter, who im-
pressed us at once with his manners and
excellent vocabulary, possesses degrees
frOm Fiske, Missouri and Columbia Uni-
versities. He, too, teaches at Kentucky
college. I would bet on him in an argu-
ment against anyone.
People often have the same views
about Jews. Some still imagine that Jews
have horns, or that their bodies are
shaped differently from their neighbors.
You are right, Walter Fuller, it is ig-
norance that causes such • beliefs about
Jews, Negroes or any group that seems to
have been selected for persecution.
But these peoples are getting ahead. If
their neighbors would only realize that a
friendly nod can help build a better
America from which the majority, too,
would benefit, we would be building a
better world.
It is not too late to learn, you SUPE-
RIORS who are really INFERIORS.

proached the camp commandant to ask
for transfer to another location.

ABOUT PEOPLE
Dr. Stephen S. Wise, who, we must re-
mind you, is a septuagenarian, jumped
into the ice-cold waters of Lake Cham-
plain the other day to rescue his grand-
son, who was having trouble in an un-
charted whirlpool.
Sam Behrman, one of our brilliant
playwrights, whose stage version of "Ja-
cobowsky and the Colonel" is still pack-
ing them in, will be leaving soon for
overseas on a special mission.
Maurice Schwartz, dean of the Yiddish
theater, vehemently denies the report
that ill health may force him to retire,
and announces that he'll be back on
Second Avenue after giving some recitals
on the Coast.

Friday, August H, 1944 '

Between
You and Me

By BORIS SMOLAR

(Copyr+glit, 1944, JTA. Inc.)

THE ARAB-JEWISH FRONT
We don't know who's behind the Coun-
cil on Jewish-Arab Co-operation which
was formed this month in New York .
The name of the chairman, Seymour Mel-
man, means nothing to Jews in this coun-
try, nor do the names of the other mem-
bers of the Council . . . But we see that
the group is a sort of branch of the
League for Jewish-Arab Rappoachement
which the well-meaning H. M. Kalvaris-
ky of Palestine organized years ago in
Jerusalem . . . We remember that about
four years ago certain leading Arabs in
America met with Jews in New York in
an attempt to form a - body for Arab-
Jewish co-operation . . . Nothing came of
this attempt ... We do not see the names
of any Arabs on the list of members of
the Council, which leads us to believe
that for the time being the Council is
nothing but a one-sided meager affair
. • . The Council- holds that it is possible
to develop in Palestine such economic
and political conditions as will permit co-
operation between Jews and Arabs there
. . . It leans heavily upon the program of
Mr. Kalvarisky's League for Jewish-Arab
Rapprochement which advocates the es-
tablishment of a bi-national order in Pal-
estine on the basis of non-dbmination of
one nation by the other.
Congressional circles 'believe that Con-
gress may soon appeal to Premier
Churchill to disregard the White Paper
and open Palestine for Jewish immigra-
tion.
OVER THERE
Now that a good part of Poland has --
been liberated by the Russian Army, the
problem of reaching Jews remaining
there is attracting the attention of inter-
ested Jewish groups in America . . . Jew-
ish organizations are also studying the
problem of restitution of Nazi-Confiscated
property to Jews in Poland . . . One of
the most serious problems is the question
of Jewish communal property in the lib-
erated part of Poland . . . This property,
which includes synagogue buildings,
cemetery plots, Jewish hospitals, and
other institutions, amounts to no smIll
sum ... A question that arises is: who is
to inherit the Jewish communal wealth in
towns where the Nazis have left no Jews
alive and where no Jewish communities
will probably be established for many
years to come . . . This is aside from the
property which the Germans looted and
confiscated from individual Jews in Eu-
rope and which is estimated to amount to
more than fifteen billion dollars . . .
Many consignments of Jewish religious
supplies have- reached overseas military \
bases for distribution among American
Jewish servicemen during the forthcom:-
ing High Holidays . . . They include a
million Rosh Hashanah greeting cards
forwarded by the Jewish Welfare Board
to men in all branches of the armed
forces, 50,000 leaflets explaining the. sig-
nificance of Rosh Hashanah and Yom
Kippur, tens of thousands of prayer
books, 200 Shofars made in Palestine, and
ample stocks of prayer shawls and skull-4
caps.

A "Hold Up"

A Letter From Jerusalem
By DAVID. DAINOW
Slowly walking up a little lane in the
Ben Maimon Road, I suddenly had a
gun pointed at me. It took me a moment
or two to realize that it was not a real
gun. I was informed by the leader of
the gang of some twenty youngsters. that
I could not pass unless I delivered the
password. Two little girls aged seven and
nine took me into "custody" and brought
me before their "court," in session up
the lane.
The judges persisted: "what was the
password?" Then one of them noticed a
printed tag pinned on the. lapel of my
coat, it was evidence of my donation to
a street collection for the Jewish Na-
tional Fund. "You have the password,"
they said, releasing me. The "arrests"
were intended to have people pay up the
day's tribute to- the Jewish National Fund.
I was escorted out of the "court" pre-
cincts by my two little guards. I could
not resist looking back on reaching the
end of the lane. I saw a rather stout
lady, going through the process of "ar-
rest." She could not produce a tag and
so was "sentenced" to pay into the Jewish
National Fund collection box produced
in Court. In vain the woman protested
that she had no time now, that she had
always given to the Jewish National
Fund, that she had in fact that very
morning thrown in a coin in the collec-
tion box. Nothing prevailed with the
"judges," two boys and a girl, until she
produced a coin.,
.(Copyright, 1944, I.J.P.S.).

