Page .Two „
,
Purely
Commentary
T RE - J E:W l - S H NEWS
Friday', April
A Salute to President Truman
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
.1945'
Between
You and Me
By BORIS SMOLAR
THE ROOSEVELT CREDO
As the world pays tribute to the mem-
ory of Franklin D. Roosevelt, it is well
to recall the fact that the late President
was a great democrat who never forgot
that all Americans are descended from
immigrants.
About 10 years ago, President Roose-
velt made a memorable -statement to •the
Daughters of the American Revolution.
Appearing informally befOre the D.A,.R.
convention, the President said:
"I thought of preaching on a text, bUt
I won't. I will only give you the text
and I won't preach on it. I • think I can
afford to give you the text because.it so-
happens—through no fault of my own—
that I . ain descended from a number of
people who came over on the Mayflower.
But more than that, my ancestors on both
sides—and when you go back fOur gener-
ations or five generations it means .32 or
64 of them—every single- one of them—
without exception—was in this land
1776.
"And there was only one Tory among
them. •
- •
• •
"And so the text is this: RenieMber
that all of us, you and I especially, are
descended from immigrants. and revolu-.
tionists." • .
This -may well be recorded as -one of
the most striking statements ever made
by the great President. It was a rebuke
to smuggness and an admonition• to all
narrow-minded Americans who forget for
even a single moment' that "all of-us are
descended from immigrants."
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A FAMOUS LETTER
The speech before the D.A.R. had added
significance in view of the continual
By ARNOLD LEVIN
spread of rumors that Mr. Roosevelt was
(Copyright, 1945, Independent Jewish
of Jewish descent.
Press Service, Inc.)
Our readers may recall the famous
HOLLYWOOD
NOTE
letter he wrote to this Commentator on
A friend of _ movie mogul, Louis B.
March 7, 1935, in response to inquiries
Mayer, asked the newsletter In Fact to
regarding a sincere statement by former
correct its recent report that Mayer- was
Governor Chase Osborn of Michigan that.
a; supporter of the Bu.chmanite MRA
some of the President's ancestors were
Jewish. Mr., Osborn's sincere belief was movement. In Fact nlied on Time (July
31, 1939) which reported: "Louis Burt
picked up for negative comments by Mr.
Roosevelt's antagonists and by anti-
Semites. In his letter to your Commenta-
tor, the President said:
Sedition Defense Attorney
"I am grateful to you for your interest-
Files Suit Against Levin
ing letter of March fourth. I have no idea
NEW YORK (JPS) — Henry H.
as to the source of the story which you
Klein, Jewish defense attorney for
say , came from my old friend, Chase
Colonel E. N. Sanctuary, notorious
Osborn. -All I know about the origin of
Jew-baiter, at the mass sedition
the Roosevelt family in this. country is
trials in Washington, has filed libel
that all branches bearing the name are
suits against the daily newspaper PM
apparently descended from • Claes Mar-
and the Judea Publishing Corpora-
tenssen Van Roosevelt, who came from
tion, publishers of the Brooklyn Jew-
Holland sometime before 1648—even the
ish Examiner. The suit against the
year is uncertain. Where he came from in
Brooklyn Jewish Examiner - names
Holland I do not know, nor - - do I know
Rabbi Louis D. Gross,. its editor and
who his parents were. There was a
publisher, Rabbi Philip R. Alstat, its
family of the same name on one of the
columnist, and Arnold Levin of the
Dutch Islands and some of the same name
Independent Jewish - Press • . Service
living in Holland as lately as thirty or
staff. Among the statements Mr.
forty years ago, but, frankly, I have
Klein alleges to have been libelous
never had either the time or the Molina-
are the: assertions that he -Was " . bereft
ton to try to establish -the line on the
of Jewish dignity and self-respect"
other side of the ocean before they came
and that he belonged to "a pathetic
ever here, nearly three hundred years
group" that is "affiliated with mor-
ago.
bid self hate and spiritual masochism."
"In the dim distant past they may have
At the trial Mr. Klein, defending Col.
been Jews or Catholics or Protestants—
Sanctuary, committed himself to
what I am more interested in is whether
some of his views.
they were good citizens and believers in
God—I hope they were both."
This letter, recorded in 'the President's- Mayer -spoke up for MRA." Buchmanites
offitial correspondence, remains . a great are _using, indiscriminately, names of
document by virtue of the brilliant way
prominent persons to bolster the move-
in which he disposed of stupid attempts
ment's prestige,. and denials 'of these en-
on the part of bigots to inject racial and
dorsements are coming in very fast from
religious issues in American life.
persons named as endorsers.
President Roosevelt's genius over-
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shadowed all attempts at injecting in-
CONFIDENCE
.
tolerance in American politics, and his
A high British official in the U.S. con-
name will live long after the bigots and
fided, unwisely, to prominent non-Jews,
their. bigotry are forgotten.
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that His Majesty's Government has no
intention of invalidating the White
PRESIDENT- TRUMAN ,
Paper.
Tributes to our late President must
mediately be followed by hope and pray-
er that the new President—Harry S.: Tru- :Jewish people and I am of the opinion
man—should be granted the best of
that a resolutiOn such -as this .should be
health to carry on the great work where
very -.circumspectly handled. -.until we
Mr. Roosevelt had left off.
know just exactly where we - are going
All Americans sincerely pledged al-
and why.
legiance to the new President.
"With the difficulties looming :up be.L.
,
May he lead us to - victory over the tween Russia and Poland, and . the Baltic
enemies of mankind and to security for
States and RusSia, and with Great Britain
the entire -people' of this - great land.
and Russia, it is absolutely necessary. to
May he be blessed with the good for-
us in- financing the war. I don't want to
tune to bring to fruition all the hopes and .throw any bricks to upset the•applecart,
aspirations of Franklin D. Roosevelt, to
although -when the right time comes I am
the lasting, glory of both Presidents and : wilIing to help make the fight for a
of the United States' of,Arnerica.
Jewish Horneland in Palestine."
TRUMAN AND PALESTINE
It is *clear that the new President is .a
President Truman is on record on the
friend of the Zionist. cause. May the
Palestinian issue.
realizatiOn of the great ideal of seeing
When the Palestine Resolution was in-
Palestine . reconstituted- as the Jewish
troduced in the U. S. Senate, the thirty,
National Home be credited among the ac-
second President of the United States
complishments - of. President Harry S.
said, about a year' ago, in : his- capacity • Truman whose administratiOn is destined
as U S. Senator from Missouri, said:
to be among the most. historymaking in
"My sympathy, of course, is with The
the annals of our land.
Heard in
The Lobbies
(Copyright, 1945, Jewish Telegraphic
Agency, Inc.)
We salute
PRESIDENT
HARRY S. TRUMAN
with confidence and with
the hope and prayer that
he lead us 'to early
VictCer.y and to triumph for
the highest principles of
humanity.
Strictly
Confidential
By PH1NEAS J. BIRON
Copyright, 1945, Seven Arts
Features Syndicate, Inc:
GOINGS-ON
As you may have read, Walthan, Mass.,
recently has, been the scene of a number
of outrageous anti-Semitic outbreaks ..
The police authorities of that locality in-
sist on calling these organized desecra-
tions of the Jewish cemetery instances of
"youthful delinquency" . . Yet the
police of Walthan surely know that ex-
, actly the same outrages are being re-
ported from Chicago, Philadelphia and
even the Bronx . . . No, not as having
happened in the distant past, but NOW
. . . All these youthful pranks really con-
stitute a strange coincidence, gentlemen.
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TAPS
If Major General Maurice Rose, who
was killed by his Nazi captors, had known
Yiddish, he might still be alive . . . When
the German corporal shouted "Stramm
stehen!" (stand at attention), thought
he was being ordered to disarm, and
reached for his pistol—a gesture that
cost him his life . . . Winchell • reports
that when General Patton heard of the
shooting of General Rose he was Strange ,-
iy ;silent for a long time . . . Then. he
.reached into his- pocket, slowly took. Out
a German-English dictionary—and crossed
out the wOrd "mercy".
We have received thus far the small
total sum of $15 forthe Sgt. Meyer. Levin
Merriorial Fund . One more week re;
Mains tO send in your check and thuS
participate in honoring America's greatest
Jewish hero of World War II.
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ZIONIST NEWS
The Hashomer Hatzair of Buenos Aires
has a membership of 400, and is the
fastest-growing Zionist group. in South
America.
The Silver-Goldstein rift is spreading
from coast to coat, Zionist observers re-
port . . Insiders say that Rabbi Silver
is gaining strength .. . Silver doesn't in-
tend to run for the presidency of the
ZOA at the next convention, but plans to
back one of his supporters for the top
position.
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THIS AND THAT
We're told that Jewish boys in the. U.
S. Annoy make it a practice to attend, en
masse, services in synagogues in liber-
ated Germany .. • They do this to mani-
fest their solidarity with the . Jews Whom
Hitler has driven out of their German
Vaterland.
Our friend Danton Walker claims that
Mexico will be ready to receive 300,000
European refugees when the war is over.
.Mr. Walker is misinformed.
The ex-Mufti of Jerusalem, who col-
laborated so closely with Hitler, is said.
to have leached Mecca; and reportedly
will be given an important post by King
Ibn. Saud of Saudi Arabia. •
- Maurice Schwartz has leased the- Pub-
lic. Theater in New York's Second Ave.
for five years . . . His first Yiddish pro-
duction for the coming season
be
Shakespeare's "King Lear".
SAN FRANCISCO SIDELIGHTS
Although the State Department in-
vited only the American Jewish Confer- .
ence and the American Jewish Commit-
tee to send consultants to the San Fran-
cisco Conference, other. Jewish groups
have decided to have observers in San .
Francisco during the Conference . . .Brit-
ish, Canadian, Belgian and other Jews
will try to secure, through the delega-
tions of their respective governments, a •
status similar to that given by the U. S.-. ""-
delegation to- the consultants of the .
American Jewish Committee- and the
American Jewish Conference . . The
Jewish. Agency will send Elihu, .Ep-
stein, one of its brain-trusters, 'from' Jer-
'usalem to San Francisco to prepare : the
ground for a possible appearance of •Dr. •
Weizmann and David Ben-Gurion before
the commission, of the San FratiOsco
Conference which will deal with* the
question . of . mandated territories . . •
Dr. Weizmann is now recuperating*
London from an- eye- operation, afrdgen-
Gurion is , recuperating from slight in •
juries received. in an automobile accident....
in London . . . They are both expected
in*this country •oon. Whether Dr. Weiz-
mane will be able to come is still ques- ,
tionable, becauSe of his health.
Arab propagandists in the United
States, as:Well as ,interested prO4rab
American -groups, are utilizing the ar-
rival of five sons of King Ibn. Saud as
delegates to, the San •Francisco Confer-,
.ence for . the .purpose of strengthening
anti-Zionist propaganda in influential .
American circles .. . And it can be ex-;...
pected that during the San Francisco
Conference, American newspapers will
carry more pro-Arab propaganda" than
ever before, through interviews with
the delegations of the Arab countries
who will be flooding the Press' with
statements . • . A pro-Arab and anti-
Zionist book is now in preparation by
a prominent New York publishing house
and is scheduled to appear during the
Conference.
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INSIDE EUROPE
Reliable repOrts reaching central Jevt ,
ish groups in this country reveal that
fierce anti-Semitism is raging in liber-
ated Poland and Hungary . . The situa-
tion has reached a point where the few
Gentiles in Poland who, - under the Nazis,
were instrumental, in saving Jews, are
now begging their proteges to keep this
a secret lest they be exposed to: public
wrath . . Murders of surviving Jewg
by Nazified Poles are occurring frequent-
ly . • . A Similar situation exists in Hun-
gary, where stray Jewish survivors em-
erging from their hideouts in provinces
are being killed by anti-Semitic elements
in broad daylight.
International Red Cross workers who
volunteered to deliver foodstuff sent by
the J. D. 'C: to Jews hi German concen-
tration . camps will have to remain in the
Reich until the end of the war ... This
was stipu.7 4** -2c1" by the Na _ zi - 'Government
as a major condition for allowing them
to bring 'food to the JewiSh internees
. . . The Nazis based this demand on'
the argument that it would " be detri-
mental to German military interests to
permit relief workers who are citizens of
neutral countries to leave Germany aft-
•er they have • seen what is going on
'there . . . Although it is a great personal -
sacrifide to remain in a Germany _which
is being constantly bombed' from _the
air, many. Red . Cross workers in Switzer- .
land decided to make, this sacrifice in
order to bring aid to the emaciated
Jews in slave labor camps. •
More than 1,200 letters have . reached
Palestine . in the . last few weeks froth.'
111 liberated towns in Lithuania, Galicia,
Ukraine and White. Russia . . . The small
groupS of Jews who survived in these
towns have formed Jewish community-,
councils with which the Joint Distribiki
tion Committee is now establishing con-
tact and sending - relief.
THE ZIONIST SCENE
The pro-Silver group in the - ZOA is
now on the alert to see what kind of
offer will be- made to Dr. Abba Hillel
Silver: looking toward his resuming lead-
ership. in the, Zionist. Emergency Coun-
cil . . . The pro-Silverites feel that not
only should Dr. Silver be _given back \ the
co-chairmanship .. o f t h e Emergency
Council, but that the coMposition . of , the
Council should be changed to include a
number of his active supporters . . , Dr.
Silver himself ,Still - asserts that if the
matter were left to him and Dr. Stephen.
S. Wise, they could settle it between
themSelves within ten minutes . . . The
Possibility exists that the pro-Silver
group may also appoint a "committee
of five" with a suggestion" that this com-
mittee meet With' the five named by the
"ZOA executive and together explore the
Chances for a Silver-Wise peace.