Page Ten

THE JEWISH NEWS

Friday, March 30, 1945

Why The Zionists Are Right

Jewish youth, many of whom
have had academic degrees,
turned themselves into stone-
F anti-Semitism is
breakers and farmers. More re-
not new, its nature today is
cently, these young men, and
unique. There have been anti-
even young women, have shown
Semitic movements in the world
themselves to be equally fine
before. Russian pogroms under
soldiers, serving with the British
the Tsars are alive in the
Army with special' distinction in
memory of many. But the Jewish
the campaign under General
persecution of our era is peculiar.
Montgomery:
The brand of anti-Semitism
To my mind, the greatest things
which Hitler has introduced to
that Zionism has accomplished
the world is based on the as-
have been amongst youth. For it
sumption that the Jews have not
has removed them from an ab-
the right to live on this planet.
normal atmosphere into one
They are, according to Hitler,
which is normal for the rest of
the source of all evil, the genesis
mankind. It has set their feet
of all maladjustments in society.
upon the earth, earth which they
This anti-Semitism is not direct-
can call their own and defend as
ed against the so-called ghetto
their own. The youthful Zionist
Jew alone, but against the Jewish
is not divided from mankind by
race as such—against the Jew
the fact of his Palestinian and
who has retained his religion,
national citizenship; he is more
against the Jew who has dis-
closely joined to it. Every visitor
carded it, against the conscious
to Palestine has been surprised
Jew, the converted Jew, the as-
to find the Palestinian Jews more
Miss Dorothy Thompson, one of the
similated Jew, and even the par-
Gentile in many ways than those
most eminent Christian exponents of
tial Jew.
the Zionist ideal, outlines her views
who have lived in the Gentile
in
this
article
which
we
publish
by
At last the extent of the hor-
world.
special arrangement with the Ameri-
ror that has been visited upon
can Palestine Committee's publication,
In the past years thousands of
"Palestine."
the Jews has begun to penetrate
young children have been res-
the imagination of the free
cued from Hitler's Europe and
world. The process of humiliation and destruction
brought into Palestine. Immigration has been great-
has been going on for 12 years, but the reaction has
ly restricted by the White Paper, and the conflicts
until now been negative. First, there was indiffer-
with the Arabian world.
ence. Then there was compassion. Perhaps now
To the sufferings which Jewish children share
there will be action—as there needs to be.
with millions of other children in this war-torn
The Bermuda conference underscored a point I
world must be added another suffering which can
have often made during the years that the refugee
have the most corrosive of all effects upon the soul,
problem mounted in scope and tragedy. Too long
the suffering of humiliation. The effect of humilia-
the refugee problem has been largely regarded as
tion upon the young is to create either an aggres-
one of international charity. It must be regarded
sive, obsequious of neurotic personality. That is why
now, and in the coming years,- as a problem of inter-
the possibility of bringing them to Palestine is so
national politics.
gratifying.
No democratic country can wash its hands of this
The difficulties of building the Jewish homeland
problem of the doomed Jews if it wishes to retain
are prodigious. We must admit it. The difficulty,
its own soul. This war is not fought for the rescue
for instance, with the Arabs. That difficulty is also,
of Jews. Neither was the Civil War fought to end
as I see it, a part of the revolutionary upheavals of
slavery but rather to save the Union. Yet, as Lin-
our world. As long as imperialism is still flourish-
coln said, "These slaves contributed a powerful in-
Mg, and the world of the peoples is not yet aligned,
terest," as Hitler's massacres and slaveries have.
fear and panic will attend every new venture. There
In considering the nature and the solution of the
will one day, I trust, be a united Arabian world,
Jewish problem, one fundamental factor must be
self-governing and free of imperialist interference.
kept in the forefront. The Jews ARE a people. To
In that world a Jewish homeland can exist.
ignore that fact is to miss the point of the abnor-
Palestine, which before the last war was subject
mality of the Jewish position.
to the Sultan, was, and is, a mixed state. Arabs and
Jews are there and there to stay. But Arabia as a
Kind of Modern Witchcraft
whole is underpopulated. Modern agricultural tech-
I believe that as long as the Jews do not have a
niques, irrigation and forestry can reclaim for
country of their own, there will continue to exist
Arabia new continents of soil.
a common superstition about them in the Gentile
world. I am convinced that the root of anti-Semitism
More Room For Arabs Than Before
is superstition. I do not mean the cheap and corn-
There is already more room for Arabs in Palestine
mon anti-Semitism which merely arises from a
than there was before the Jews came, because there
desire to wield a cudgel against an able competitor,
or the social anti-Semitism which leads pure Anglo-
is more agriculture and industry. Whereas there
Saxons of ancient lineage to snub others who have
were 600,000 Arabs in Palestine in 1919, there are
not been in the country as long as they, or speak
now 900,000, and the Arab population has grown
with an accent, or eat food flavored with garlic.
as the Jewish has grown. Iraq, properly cultivated
The whole anti-Semitic movement is full of fetish
and modernized, could attract millions of Arabians.
and black magic. _It is a kind of modern witchcraft.
The Jews in Palestine have not dealt with the
Back of this black magic is the fact that, in the
framework of human society as it is organized on
Arabs as our forefathers dealt with the Indians.
this earth, the Jews do lead an abnormal life. They
They are not "conquering" a continent. Every bit
are a cohesive people without a place on earth of
of their land has been bought from the owners and
their own.
paid for at an exorbitant price. The land they
That is why I believe the Zionists are right. I be-
bought was swampy, deforested and eroded. The
lieve that Jewry must have a home and a state.
Arab lands are still in the same condition. The land
of the Jewish colonists has been reclaimed by a
I am not a nationalist, though I trust I am a
system of cooperative land settlements or colonies.
patriot. I believe the world is slowly but inexorably
moving toward greater unity. But that unit will not
The Jews, in building up Palestine, have actually
express itself, I profoundly hope, in some great uni-
created more Lebensraum for the Arabs, and not
versal empire or super-state, but in the idea of
less. For they have taken parched and exhausted
Neighborhood, of the Good Neighbor, of federation,
soil and by scientific methods of soil rebuilding and
of supra-national institutions, such as currency,
soil conservation have created the land on which
mutual protection and control of the air and sea-
they live. And to agriculture they have added in-
ways.
dustry and commerce.
Palestine was a land flowing with milk and
Room Must Be Made for Jews
honey, centuries ago, in the annals of the Old Testa-
In that family of nations the Jews should have
ment. For epochs it lay waste. And it is again a land
their place. Room must be made for them. It need
flowing with milk and honey in the hands of the
not be an enormous state; it need not be a state in
Jewish colonists.
which all Jews must live. All Englishmen and
Britons don't live on the British Isles or even in the
Creator of Individual Prosperity
British Commonwealth. All Swiss do not live in
It has not only been science, but the historical
Switzerland, or all Swedes in Sweden. More Irish
social sense of the Jews that has recreated Pales-
live in America than live in Ireland. But a Jew, like
an Irishman, must be able to say: That is the land
tine. The experiment has proved what every re-
of my fathers, the expression of my people's genius,
ligious society, such as the Catholic monastic sys-
and that is the land, that wherever I am alien, repre-
tem or the Mormons, learned long ago in the field
sents my interests and protects me according to the
of economics, namely, that cooperative organization
law of nations. It is my firm conviction that when
is the creator of individual prosperity.
that happens and happens fully, the superstitions
about the Jews will begin to evaporate.
I believe, moreover, that the Jewish people, as a
What the Jews already have accomplished in
people, have a contribution to make to mankind. I
Palestine emphasizes that the establishment of a
am familiar enough with the social organization of
Jewish state there is not only theoretically desirable,
Palestine to believe that the stone that is being re-
but concretely practical. Between the two wars,
jected by Europe may become the very pillar of the
from which the Jewish people have perhaps suf-
fered most, Palestine has made great strides for-
temple.
ward. There is no good arguing at this date whether
No part of the Christian world can wholly wash
Jewish Palestine should be established. It is estab-
its hands of Hitler's crimes against the Jews. For if
lished. It can only be aided or liquidated.
there had not been anti-Semitism in all societies,
The Jews in Palestine numbered only 75,000 in
if Hitler had not known that everywhere there
1919. They now number three quarters of a million.
would be some to applaud him, he would never have
They have spent hundreds of millions of dollars,
dared undertake his plan of extermination.
donated or invested by people of their race from
The salvation of the Jews must, therefore, conie
all parts of the earth. They have developed beau-
in part as an act of repentance from the Christian
tiful agricultural settlements, built fine cities, con-
world. And this involves recognition of the right
structed roads.
of the Jewish people to create a civilization like
For the sake of building this national homeland
all other peoples.

I

First
For Freedom

By
DOROTHY THOMPSON

By BERNARD

POSTAL

Director of Bnai Brith Information

ECAUSE the spirit of
freedom and liberty for all is an integral part of
the religious and cultural tradition of Israel, the
Jewish people is probably the only one that has
converted an historic event associated with human
freedom into an annual religious festival. Passover
not only commemorates the liberation of the Jews
from Egyptian bondage, but is symbolic of the
Jew's age-old defense of the rights and liberties
of all men.
Today, when millions of Jewish men and women
in uniform are fighting in the armies of the United
Nations, it is appropriate to record the list of
"firsts" credited to Jewish men and women in the
armed forces of the U. S. in World War II. This
list, of course, is a preliminary compilation, based
on material collected only by this writer.

SGT. MEYER LEVIN CPL. WERNER KATZ

st Detroiter to die in service
Capt. Reuben
Iden, who was killed in the Pacific area.
'st American League baseball player to join the
armed forces was Hank Greenberg, now a cap-
tain, of Detroit.
1st Japanese battleship sunk in the war was the
Haruna, sent to the bottom by plane piloted
by Capt. Colin Kelly whose bombardier was
Sgt. Meyer Levin.
American to kill a Jap in the Burma campaign
was Cpl. Werner Katz of New York, a former
refugee.
1st To raise the American flag on prewar Japanese
territory was Lt. Col. Melvin Krulewitch of
New York City, who hoisted the Stars and
Stripes on Namur Island during the invasion
of the Marshalls.
American penetration of German soil was made
by 3d American Division commanded by Maj.
Gen. Maurice Rose of Denver.
three Americans to enter Aachen, the initial
German city captured by the Americans in-
cluded Pvt. Max Finkelstein of Brooklyn.
American assault boat to hit the shore of
,st France on D-Day was commanded by Lt. Abe
Condietti of Brooklyn.
1st Nazi plane shot down for Uncle Sam is cred-
ited to Lt. :William S. Beck of Nashville, Tenn.
st American Red Cross nurse killed in World
War II was Esther Richards of San Francisco,
who died of wounds received in Belgium.
1st B-29 raid on Japan included bombers on which
Capt. William C. Goldstein, Indianapolis: Sgt.
Morris Kramer, Pittsburgh, and Capt. Stephen
Silverman of Boston served.
1st American unit to break through to relieve the
trapped American garrison in Bastogne was a
tank unit commanded by Col. Creyton Abrams
of West Newton, Mass.
st American enlisted man to receive the Purple
Heart in Continental Europe was Sgt. Irving
Allen of Union City, N. J.
st American officer killed in the Philippines was
Lt. Henry D. Mark of Los Aigeles.
1st American killed in action on North American
continent was Pvt. Joseph Sharp of Philadel-
phia, who died at Dutch Harbor during a Jap
air raid.
1st crew of Army airmen to land in Aleutians in-
cluded Lt. Harold Weisman of the Bronx.
st man to bomb Rome was Lt. Sidney D. Gersten-
Feld, of New York.
st all-American air raid on Europe, over occupied
Holland on July 4, 1942, was made by squad-
ron in which Sgt. Chester Davis of New York
served as a gunner.
st American troops to enter Algiers were led by
Lt. Col. A. H. Rosenberg.
st member of the WAVEs to be killed was Eliza-
beth Korensky of Philadelphia.
1st American tank to enter Oran during invasion
of ...North Africa was led by Cpl. Bernard J.
Kessel of New York.
1st American air raid on Romanian oil fields at
Ploesti was made by squadron in which Sgt.
Robert Kessler, alumnus of AZA, from Mc-
Keesport, Pa., served as radio operator and
gunner. •
Gold Star Mother of World War II was Mrs.
Kertrude Kram of New York whose son, Sea-
man Leonard Kram, was killed at sea.
American soldier brought home for burial on
,st American soil was U. S. Marine Sergeant Her-
bert Keilson of Long Island, who was killed
in the raid on the Gilbert and Marshall Islands.

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