Purely
Commentary

r

By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

A UNIFYING FORCE
We have just begun a great campaign.
The War Chest must be considered as a
great force not merely because it cam-
paigns for millions of dollars, but because
it is a truly unifying
force in our community.
Its magnitude is more
evident in Detroit than
anywhere else.
For — here we are, a
community of nearly two
million people, whose
Heip the Community
products include not only
WAR CHEST the best automobiles and
airplanes but also the
world's most disgusting bigots.
This is the community that has had its
Coughlin and still has its Smith. We have
our crackpots and our mechanical ge-
niuses.
But the heart of the community is good.
It is American. It is all-embracing.
The Community War Chest proves it.
There will undoubtedly be exceptions to
the rule. But in the main it is a great
fund and a great experience. Any project
that can embrace all creeds, all races, all
nationality groups, is a great undertaking.
Such an undertaking cannot fait It
MUST and it WILL succeed.
* *
NEARLY-REALIZED ZIONIST CAUSE
Anti-Zionist British Colonial officials
would have the world believe that the
Zionist cause has been realized now that
more than 500,000 Jews reside in Eretz
Israel. Those who desire to see justice
clone to the Jews resent such assertions.
In reality, Zionism is nearing realiza-
tion. Both American political parties are
for a Jewish Commonwealth. Both po-
litical candidates are for the Zionist ideal.
Congress may act favorably on the pend-
ing Palestine Resolution before the end
of November.
These were the highlights brought out
at the annual Zionist convention in. At-
lantic City.
It was a convention which proved once
more the genius of Dr. Abba Hillel Silver
as the ablest leader in the Zionist move-
ment whose persistence and energy were
chiefly responsible for the triumphs at-
tained for the Zionist cause in the past
year.
*
*
s
THE OBSTACLE BUMMERS
But Zionist triumphs are not without
their difficulties, and the most regrettable
obstacles in the path of realizing Jewish
dreams come from Jewish ranks. Thus—
The so-called Hebrew Liberation Com-
mittee, which came in for deserved con-
demnation in. a convention resolution, saw
fit to attack the Zionist Organization on
the eve of the convention. One of the
non-Jews on this committee was misled
into assuming- an office in another of its
groups, the League for a Free • Palestine.
Congressman Andrew L. Somers, wired
the convention suggesting that th.e Zionist
Organization of America be reconstituted
as a non-sectarian organization "com-
pletely divorced from internal Pales-
tinian politics. It is clear that this well-
meaning Christian has been misdirected
in his thinking, and • instead of helping
Zionism, he is hindering its progress-.
Lessing J. Rosenwald, head of the
American Council for Judaism, has seen
fit to utilize the occasion of new victories
for Zionism to send a statement to Secre-
tary of State Cordell Hull in which he
wrote: "We oppose the establishment of
Palestine or any locality as a Jewish
State or Commonwealth. We regard as
fundamentally undemocratic the proce-
dure involved in such an establishment,
such as a preferred status in immigration
to those of one religious faith and an ar-
bitrary and indefinite postponement of
self-government." So far as opportunity
for rescuing Jews are concerned, Mr.
Lessing Rosenwald apparently remains
indifferent to Jewish suffering and Jew-
ish needs. •
But these internal trouble-makers are
being defeated. They can not stop the
cause of justice from being realized.

The Front Page
Illustration

The front page illustration in this issue
of the Jewish News depicts two children
who had lost their parents and who had
covered half of the globe in a four-year
search for a home, before finding a haven
in. Palestine. They are now secure, thanks
to the United Palestine Appeal, one of
the agencies of the United Jewish Appeal
for Refugees, Overseas Needs and Pales-
tine, whose income in Detroit is provided
by the War Chest.

Friday, OcTo6er 27, )944

THE JEWISH NEWS

Page Two

GUEST 'EDITORIAL

USO's Important Hole in. War Chest

By HENRY MEYERS

President, Metropolitan Detroit USO; Member, Executive Committee Detroit War Chest;
Vice-President, Council of Social Agencies; Member, Board of Governors, Jewish Welfare
Federation; Member Executive Committee, National Jewish Welfare Board.

United Service Organizations (USO) is one of the principal bene-
ficiaries • of the War Chest. Through their contributions to the War
Chest, the citizens of Detroit "help our fightinc, men" by supporting the
work of USO, which represents the consolidated war effort of six great
' '''''''''''National agencies: Y. M. C. A,, Y. W. C. A., National
Catholic Community Service, Jewish Welfare Board,
Salvation Army and Travelers' Aid. Society.
These organizations, serving through local units and
community conducted operations, care for the recrea-
tional and spiritual needs of the men and women in the
Armed Forces in Continental America. In the theaters
of war and outside of America, USO Camp Shows have
been doing an outstanding job.
All over the world, wherever our men and women
are stationed, they are helped by USO. The service
H. Meyers
rendered them is made possible by your subscription to the War Chest
of Metropolitan Detroit. Many of those men and women are from our
own city of Detroit; some of them are relatives—brothers, sisters, sons
and daughters; many are close friends, neighbors and acquaintances.
They benefit by your giving.
But USO work is not confined to work near camps and adjacent
towns. Here in our own city, USO has been serving the armed forces
of the United Nations.
At our downtown USO and in our twenty agency buildings, we will
before 144 is ended, have catered to over two million men and women
wearing the uniform. At the railroad stations and at the bus stations,
they are received and given help. Before the year ends, 1,200,000 sand-
wiches and 2,000,000 cups of coffee will be distributed. One hundred and
five thousand nights' lodgings will be given. Everything is free at
Detroit USO—food, lodging, entertainment, theater tickets, dances, etc.
How is this done? Principally through volunteer service and gifts
in kind. But money also is required to operate such a huge enterprise.
This money is supplied by the War Chest of Metropolitan Detroit. Only
through open hearted generosity and united support of the War Chest
will we be able to continue our work and retain for Detroit the world
wide reputation it now has as "The Service Man's Paradise."

Strictly
Confidential

By PHINEAS J. BIRON

(Copyrighi. 1944. by Seven Arts •
Feature Syndicate)

REPORT FROM FRANCE
The first thing Yehudi Menuhin did
when he reached Paris on his recent six-
week overseas concert tour was to take
a look at the apartment he had always
maintained in the French capital. He
found it completely denuded of its fur-
nishings—and, worst blow of all, his fa-
mous collection of musical recordings
had disappeared. His biggest thrill on
this trip was giving a concert for GIs
in Brussels less than two miles from the
front line. The next-biggest was being
the soloist at the first concert given at
the Paris Opera House after the Allied
liberation of the city. At that concert,
incidentally, Menuhin played a work
that had been banned during the Nazi
occupation: the Mendelssohn Violin Con-
certo.

*

IDEAS INTO ACTION
Sam Novick is president of the Elec-
tronic Corporation of America . .. Sam
believes in the most progressive sort of
relation.ship between management a n d
labor. He sponsors two radio programs,
Johannes Steel's and William S. Gail-
mor's commentaries. Instead of boosting
his merchandise, his commercial an-
nouncements feature anti-discrimination
messages and urge harmonious brotherly
unity between boss and worker. The oth-
er day Sam Novick was able to shoW tan-
gible proof that his policy works: His
plant was awarded the Army and Navy
E because it topped its production quota.
Sam is a modest, intelligent fellow who
devotes all his free time to fighting Fas-
cism.

tat

YOU SHOULD KNOW
The magazine "Destiny," which con-
tinued its anti-democratic propaganda
after Pearl Harbor, is the official organ
of the Anglo-Saxon Federation; the anti-
Semitic organization from which William
J. Cameron, Ford executive, never re-
signed.
There's tragic irony in the news that
those Jews who, in order to escape the
Gestapo in Vichy France, used false iden-
tification documents during the Nazi oc-
cupation, are now being penalized by the
De Gaulle courts.
The first political move the Zionist
Emergency Council will make after the
election will be the re-introduction of the
Palestine Resolution in Congress.
Major-General Irving Joseph Phillip-
son, now retired after 40 years of Army
service—remember the fine job he had
been doing for Army Emergency Relief?
—may soon take on a big commercial
public relations job.

Heard in
The Lobbies

By ARNOLD LEVIN

(Copyright, 1944 Independent Jewish
Press Service. Inc.)

,

Between
You and Me

By BORIS SMOLAR

(Copyright. 1944, JTA, Inc.)

ZIONIST TALK:
The question of whether Dr. Abba
Hillel Silver is destined to become presi-
dent of the World Zionist Organization is
now being widely discussed among lead-
ing Zionists in this country . . It is
obvious that if Palestine is proclaimed a
Jewish Commonwealth, Dr. Weizmann
will become the head of this Common-
wealth . Many are of the opinion,
therefore, that the Zionist movement
throughout the world has no better man
than Dr. Silver to take the place of Dr.
Weizmann in leading the world Zionist
movement . . . Though much criticism
was voiced against Dr. Silver when the
Palestine resolution met with opposition
by U. S. military authorities, it is ob-
vious now that this opposition was not
broken without Dr. Silver's efforts . .
It is also obvious that the Palestine reso-
lution will now pass both houses of
Congress and thus sanction the Zionist
demand for a ,Jewish Commonwealth .. •
Dr. Silver is thus emerging as practical
fighter Number One for the realization of
Zionist aims by the establishment of a
Jewish State . . . The strength of ,Dr.
Silver's following was seen at the Con-
vention of the Zionist Organization of
America which took place last week in
Atlantic City . . An internal fight de-
veloped when some of the delegates in-
sisted that Dr. Silver address the con-
vention on Sunday instead of Monday
as scheduled in the convention program
A conflict broke out which led to a
division of the delegates into "Sundayites"
and "Mondayites" . . . The special caucus
arranged by some of the delegates sup-
porting Dr. Silver was crowded beyond
expectation . . The ZOA convention
delegates witnessed a fist fight . .. This
had nothing to do with the convention
. . . It was, a private "hand-to-hand"
battle between Menachem Ribalov, editor
of the Hebrew weekly Hadoar, and
Abraham Regelson, Hebrew poet who is
now on the staff of the Jewish Daily
Freiheit.

* *
INTERNATIONAL GRAPEVINE
POLITICAL
NOTES
There is rumored dissension between
London and the Cairo-Jerusalem coterie
While the World Jewish Congress is
of British colonial politicos with regard to convoking next month a conference in
Palestine policies. The dissension is de- New York of Jewish representatives
tectable in the London announcement of from various countries, the American
the formation of a Jewish Brigade and Jewish Committee is sending/a repre-
Jerusalem slurs against Jewish leader- sentative from here to England to con-
ship with regard to recent terrorism.
sult Jewish groups there on coordination
Watch for recurrent slurs and provoca- of political activities ... And a represent-
tions when the Palestine resolution is ation of the Board of Deputies of British
presented in Congress. Iraqi politicians Jews is due to arrive soon in this country
will be the first to move, and the inspira- from London on a similar mission.
tion will emanate from Cairo, not from
the Moslems, but from certain Britishers. GUEST EDITORIAL
President Roosevelt's Jewish Common-
wealth statement, in its commitments
and in manner of presentation, was more
than Zionist leaders had anticipated on
the eve of its publication.
An Appeal for the War Chest
Despite the featured news-reports —
wisely not presented by your columnist
By MELVILLE S. WELT
and his bosses — the Dumbarton-Oaks
At the height of the resistance drive in
conference did not touch on Palestine
France a Jewish refugee girl named
even remotely.
Watch for confusion when Moscow Marianne was working with the Maquis
makes its announcement on Birobidjan. in the Grenoble region. One day she
learned that the Gestapo
The announcement will not mean that
was planning to search
Stalin's reportedly more positive attitude
the countryside for Jew-
on Palestine has changed.
ish children who had
*
been hidden with Chris-
TIDBITS
tian families. In the
The resignation and firing of Premiers
dead of night she round-
in the Arab Orient involves, some con-
:4 ed up a number of the
tend, a three-cornered fight between the
children and proceeded
Kings of Egypt and Saudi Arabia and the
to bring them to the
ruler of Tramsjordania . . . Peace, it's
Swiss border. But in the
wonderful.
early hours of the morn-
ing, Marianne and her
M. S. Welt
Brig. Gen. Julius Ochs Adler was of-
fered a desk job in Washington after charges were overtaken by German
his recent operation, but nixed it by say- guards. She and the children were held
ing that if it is to be a desk job instead at the Nazi headquarters.
of active duty at the front, he can make
When the Maquis attacked the Nazis in
himself more useful to the war effort by that area, Marianne had many opportu-
returning to his desk at the New York nities to escape, but she was determined
Times.
to remain until the children would be re-
Joseph Israels, the writer-correspondent leased. The next day the Germans made
and former advisor to Haille Selassie, is a hasty retreat. And when the local
reportedly negotiating for a script on French Forces of the Interior occupied
the late Al Smith, former Governor of the German quarters, they found the
New York . . . He controls the rights to children half starved in the cellar. But
"The Life of Al Smith," and two other no trace of Marianne. •
Smith biographies. He was one of Smith's
Marianne was only one of the many
closest friends.
heroic men and women who risked their
*
lives to help the refugees escape Nazi op-
pression and deportation. Their sacrifice
SUCCESSOR
Young conductor - composer Leonard should inspire all of us to do everything
Bernstein, recently debuting on Informa- we can through the War Chest of Metro-
tion Please, was really receiving a try- politan. Detroit, in which the Allied Jew-
out. He may replace Oscar Levant on ish Campaign is included, to help speed
the hour. Whereas Oscar is the enfant the rescue of those who are still in the
terrible, Leonard is modest, reserved, grip of the Nazi forces and bring about
but not without his humor ... Incidental- the rehabilitation of those who have al-
ly, he could outdo many a Sunday School ready been. liberated by, the Allied
armies.
teacher in his knowledge of the Bible.

An Unusual Heroine