rage Four

THE JEWISH NEWS

As the Editor
Views the News

Symbol for Grim Days Ahead

Facts You Should Know

Answers to Readers'
Questions About Jews

Witch-Hunting

Congressman Frank Hook of Michigan has
initiated- an effort to secure reconsideration
of the action taken by the U. S. House of
Representatives to continue the so-called
Committee of Un-American Activities, for-
merly known as the Dies Committee.
His indictment of the committee is strong.
He calls the action taken by the House of
Representatives last week an effort to es-
tablish a "permanent Gestapo". It is a strong
term, but the Dies Committee deserves it.
Opposition to it stems from the fact that it
was primarily a witch-nunting body.
It is to be sincerely hoped that Congress-
man Hook will succeed in securing defeat of
the required budget for the witch-hunting
committee.

On the first page of your issue of Dec. 29
you quote the phrase "huddled masses yearn-
ing to breathe free." Please state where the
quotation comes from. A. B.
The quoted phrase is taken from the sonnet
"The New Colossus" which appears on the tablet
affixed to the Statue of Liberty. It was written
in 1883 by Emma Lazarus (1849-1887), one of
the great American-Jewish poets. The complete
text of the sonnet reads:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land,
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning. And her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome: her mild eyes
command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me.
I lift my lamp beside the Golden Door!"

Immigration Dreams

A Melbourne report, received by the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, reveals that
Australian Jewish leaders are bowing to the
inevitable with an admission that there is
no prospect that the government will recon-
sider its objection to the establishment of a
Jewish settlement in Kimberly.
The JTA report states that the Execu-
tive Council of Australian Jews has decided
to submit to the government a memorandum
asking for ordinary immigration of Jews
along the same lines as immigration of other
peoples from European countries.
Here we have a return to the old condi-
tions and the retention of the status quo.
The Australian Jewish plea to their govern-
ment emphasizes the fact that Australia has
benefited from past *migration and that
future Jewish immigrants will produce sat-
isfactory citizens.
It is the old story of constantly pleading
for havens of refuge and all indications are
that only, a handful will be welcomed by
each of the democratic countries, including
our own.
The position of the homeless Jews thus
remains tragic.

A Course for Policemen

Considerable interest has been aroused
by the course . in racial and minority-group
problems to be offered beginning with this
month for the police of Boston and Cam-
bridge, Mass.
A statement issued by Thomas S. J.
Kavanaugh, deputy superintendent of Bos-
ton police, visions an enlightened police at-
titude on problems of inter-group relation-
ships. Mr. Kavanaugh, who will teach the
new course, believes that the police can
handle riots if they occur, but he adds that
"what we want to know is what makes
people intolerant."
It is encouraging to know that Boston's
leaders are seeking the. roots of bigotry. The
introduction of the course for policemen is
undoubtedly the result of intolerant out-
bursts of the sort experienced by Jews in
.Boston and Negroes in Detroit. If the police
will take a firm stand against the bigots
after the root of the trouble is discovered, we
may look forward to internal peace among
all Americans.

THE JEWISH NEWS

Member of Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Independent
Jewish Press Service, Seven Arts Feature Syndicate,
Religious News Service, Palcor News Agency, Bressler
Cartoon Service. Wide World Photo Service. Acme
Newsphoto Service.
Member American Association of English - Jewish
Newspapers.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publish-
ing Co. 2114 Penobscot Bldg., Detroit 26. Mich. Telephone
RAndolp
h 7956. Subscription rate, $3 a year; foreign,
$4 a year. Club subscription of one issue a month,
published every fourth Friday in the month, to all
Subscribers to Allied Jewish Campaign of the Jewish
Welfare Federation of Detroit. at 40 cents a club sub-
scription per year.
Entered as second-class matter August 6, 1942, at the
Post Office at Detroit, Michigan, under the Act of
March 3. 1879.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
MAURICE ARONSSON
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
FRED M. BUTZEL
ISIDORE SOBELOFF
THEODORE LEVIN
ABRAHAM SRERE
MAURICE H. SCHWARTZ
HENRY WINEMAN

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ, Editor
A. R. HRASCH, .Advertising Counsel

VOL. 6—NO.. 17

Friday, January 12, 1945

JANUARY 12, 1945

The Week's Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the twenty-eighth day of Tebet,
the following Scriptural selections will be read
in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion—Ex. 6:2-9:35.
Prophetical portion—Ezek. 28:25-29:21.
On Monday, Rosh Hodesh Shevat, Num. 28:1-

15 will be read at services.

•

* * *

Peace in Zionist Ranks

Palestinian and British Jewries have directed appeals to
the Zionist leaders of America to adjust their differences and
to establish unity in the ranks of the movement for Pales-
tine's redemption.
These calls for unity add significance to efforts being
exerted by American Jews to heal the breach from which
Zionism is suffering today.
The American Association of English-Jewish Newspa-
pers,- in convention in Chicago, adopted a resolution which
declares that the editors and publishers 'of English-Jewish
newspapers "recognizing necessity for speedy development
of Palestine as the major rescue movement and having gone
on record in favor of a militant program for the reconstitu-
tion of Palestine as the Jewish Commonwealth," regret the
rift in Zionist ranks; and that the association "calls upon the
responsible leaders in the movement for Palestine's redem-
tion to heal the breach in order that a great cause may
prosper and that Jewish needs may not be hurt by un-
necessary internecine strife."
This statement reflects the sentiments of all Jews. It
is important that the Zionist movement be kept strong, that
important leaders should be encouraged to lead the cause,
that there should be no "purges" in time of great stress.
Men of the stature of Dr. Abba Hine' Silver must be
kept in the movement.
Young men must be encouraged to assume leadership.
Young and old must cooperate in assuring victory for
the cause of Jewish rehabilitation.
Peace must, therefore, be restored in Zionist ranks.

Confusion Over Refugees

Prejudiced views on the status of refugees in this country,
inspired by the generally-prevalent dislike of immigrants, haS
caused confusion over the status of newcomers to America.
At the meeting of the Senate Immigration Committee,
it was revealed by Senator Ferguson (R.-) of Michigan and
Senator Maybank (D.) of South Carolina,- that they had re-
ceived communications 'questionin-g official attitudes on ref-
ugees. Senator Ferguson cited claims of doctors who charged
that they had to compete with physicians from foreign coun-
tries.
Attorney Gen. Francis Biddle's reply is of great import-
ance. He stated that there are very few real refugees in this
country and explained that a refugee is a person who was
granted only temporary shelter and is placed in a camp for
the duration. The foreign physicians, Mr. Biddle said, are im-
migrants, not refugees; who entered the U. S. legally under
immigration quotas of their countries of origin and as im-
migrants are entitled to practice their profession and are eli-
gible for naturalization.

*

*

Very few immigrants have been coming to the United
States in recent years, and their number is decreasing. Never-
theless, the suspicions of newcomers persist.
It is fortunate that the U. S. Attorney General is fair in
the matter. But if we are to believe the charges that were
made in the U. S. Senate by Senator William Langer of North
Dakota, who accused James C. Dunn, newly-appointed As-
sistant Secretary of State in charge of European affairs, of
sabotaging the War Refugee Board's efforts to rescue - 250
Polish Jews from occupied France and facilitating their set-
tlement in Paraguay, then we continue to face a serious sit-
uation within our own. government.
If members of our own government will continue to
place obstacles in the path of the handful of people who can
be saved, then the basic principles of our democracy, which
boasts of our having been an asylum for sufferers from reli-
gious and political persecutions, are being abused.
This is a situation that must not be glossed over lightly.
Liberal-minded Americans will have to be on constant
guard so that the humanitarian principles in rescue efforts
should not be sabotaged or abuse9. in any way whatever.

What small town in Germany became
famous for its Hebrew printing presses?
—M. M.
Roedelheim, a small community near Frank-
furt-on-Main, gained fame for its Hebrew print-
ing presses since the middle of the 18th century.
It was especially known for the Oriental and Oc-
cidental Press of Wolf Heidenheim and Baruch
Baschwitz which produced clearly and flawlessly
printe(I Hebrew works whose circulation was
worldwide.
* *
Are the books of the Old Testament ac-
cepted as canonical by both Protestants and
Roman Catholics?
—B. A.
Although the books are sometimes named dif-
ferently by the respective groups, both Protest-
ants and Roman Catholics accept the books of the
Old Testament as canonical.

Talmudic Tales

By DAVID MORANTZ

(Based upon the ancient legends and philosophy found in
the Talmud. and folklore of the Jewish people dating back
as far as 3,000 years).

PEARLS OF WISDOM

"The best cure for a bad dream," says the
Talmud, "is a day's fasting."
"Sometimes those with most wealth are the
most needy."
"Take not off your shoes before reaching the
water."
"The spoken word, like the arrow once shot,
cannot be recalled."
"Be not one who is liberal in etiquette but
miserly in. acts."
"A broken cord can be retied but there will
always be the knot in the center."
"In a country of blind people, the one-eyed
man is a king."
"Vows made in storms are forgotten in calms."

(Copyright by David Moi:antz)
For a handsome 195 page, autographed gift volume con-
taining 128 of these tales and 500 Pearls of Wisdow, send
$1.50 to David Morantz, care of The Jewish News, or
phone Plaza 1048.

Children's Corner

Dear Boys and Girls:
Hamisha Asar b'Shvat is one of the most inter-
esting of the minor Jewish holidays. Like all our
holidays, it originated in Palestine. It is the
Jewish Arbor Day and is known in Jewish tra-
dition as Rosh Hashanah Le-Ilonoth, the New
Year of the Trees.
On this festival—which occurs this year on
Jan. 29—The children and adults of Palestine
plant trees and observe the day as the occasion of
the blossoming of the trees in Palestine.
In this country, too, the occasion is being made
use of for the planting of trees in Palestine to
enable the land to be fruitful. It is not too early
to plan home and school celebrations on this
occasion.
Yours for a speedy victory, and wishing you a
pleasant Sabbath.
UNCLE DANIEL

*

THE SONG OF WORK AND TOIL

By HAYYIM NAHMAN BIALIK
English Translation by Jessie Sampter
Oh, who can save us hunger's dread?
Who always gave us ample bread,
And milk to drink when we were fed?
Whom shall we praise, whom shall we bless?
To work and toil our thankfulness.

Oh, who shall clothe us when it's cold?
And make the darkness bright as gold?
And bring up water from the mold?
Whom shall we praise, whom shall we bless?
To work and toil our thankfulness.

Who planted trees with "fruit to eat
And pleasant shade against the heat?
Who in the fields has sown the wheat?
Whom shall we praise, whom shall we bless?
To work and toil our thankfulness.

Who made our house a cozy nest?
Who fenced our yard, our vineyard dressed?
Who worries, plans and works with zest
Preparing feasts and Sabbath rest?
Whom shall we praise, whom shall we bless?
To work and toil our thankfulness.

So let us work, a busy hive, .
Through all the week, while we're alive.
It's hard to strive, it's grand to strive;
And when we've time ; the songs arrive;
Our songs of praise and thankfulness
To work and toil and skillfulness.

