Page Two
THE JEWISH NEWS
Purely
Commentary
Quotation of the Week
"At this grave moment in the history of mankind, an urgent plea comes
to the world statesmen at San Francisco—a plea on behalf of the Jewish
survivors of Nazi bestiality. •
"The American public knows that the condition of the vast majority is
appalling. The United Nations stand on the threshold of victory. They dare
not ignore the plea of these victims of one of the most heinous crimes in
history. The gates of Palestine must be opened—and opened now—not to-
morrow when it may be too late.
"The Jewish community in Palestine waits to welcome them. It is
ready to absorb them in farms and industry. It is ready to give them
work for their hands and sustenance for their spirit.
"But—and this is a situation so intolerable that it cries out to the heart
of humanity—they cannot enter. There is a ban, apart from an insignificant
number still to enter, on all further Jewish immigration into Palestine. The
- question of Palestine has been 'put off.'
"I call upon all citizens—Jews and non-Jews alike—to join their voices
with ours in demanding human rights and human dignity for these bitterly
persecuted people.
"The undertakings of the nations of the world at the end of the last war
that Palestine shall be reestablished as the Jewish National Home and that,
in the words of President Wilson, 'There shall be laid there the foundations
of a Jewish Commonwealth' must be fulfilled in letter and in spirit. •
"Peace is the sum of all its parts and the restoration of the Jews to a
place of dignity among the nations is integral to that just and enduring world
order which we all profoundly hope will be inaugurated at San Francisco."
—DR. STEPHEN S. WISE, Chairman.,
American Zionist Emergency Council.
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
SAN FRANCISCO.—The confusion that
reigns here is quite disturbing. It seems
as if a fraction of Jewish leadership had
moved over from New York to the
Pacific Coast—and if they had only
pooled their forces, there at least would
have been the consolation of knowing
that we tried to succeed together; if we
fail.
There is hardly an element in Jewish
life without a representative here. Even
Peter Bergson of the Hebrew Liberation
Committee is heard from.
In reality, there are • not too many
Jewish spokesmen here. The division is
mainly visible in the numerous groups
that are represented here by "observ-
ers."
*
* *
GETTING A GOOD PRESS
Part of the "game" of getting a good
hearing is to get a good press. Much
hope is being placed here in the arrival
from Palestine of Gershon Agronsky,
editor of the Palestine Post. Agronsky
has been host to nearly every American
newspaperman who has ever visited
Palestine.' He is loved by newsmen and
it is possible that he may get a better
hearing than any one else.
I. L. Kennen, public relations man of
the Amer i can Jewish Conference, is
among the best brains of the. Jewish
delegations. Together with Arthur Lourie,
director of the American Zionist Emer-
gency Committee, Zaslansky of Palestine
and a few others, he is guiding the activi-
ties of the delegations that are pledged
to the Palestine Jewish Commonwealths
ideal.
Heard in
The Lobbies
By ARNOLD LEVIN
(Copyright, 1945, Independent Jewish
Press Service, inc.)
TEMPTATIONS
At San Francisco, one of our collea-
gues withstood the two greatest tempta-
tions of a lifetime the other day. He
knocked at the door of the Iraqian dele-
gation and there was no answer. He look-
ed down at his feet and there, outside
the door, was a high pile of letters, tele-
* * *
grams and cables. Perhaps they contain-
PROSKAUER'S POSITION
_„ ed what would have made the greatest
The position of the American Jewish newspaper scoop in many years. He with-
Committee, whose delegates work inde- stood the temptation. Later that morn-
pendently of the American Jewish Con- ing, he returned to his beat, knocked at
ference, the World Jewish Congress, the the Iraqian door and was greeted with
Board of Deputies of British Jews, the the words: "Come in, please, come in.
Jewish Agency and their affiliated groups, The letters for you are piling up. Do you
want to take them?" Did he? And hoW!
must not be minimized.
Judge Joseph Proskauer, president of But he didn't, being Thurber's most timid
the committee and an official consultant, little man.
* *
gets a ready ear from important figures,
especially Assistant Secretary of State MORE ON ARABS
Archibald MacLeish, Dean Virginia C.
Cute thing—the case of the owner of the
Gildersleeve, one of the U. S, delegates, St. Francis Hotel here who was displac-
and others.
ed by the State Department from his
It is definite that there is no receding own apartment to make room for the
from any of the established Jewish posi- Iraq delegation . . . He sought a room
tions. But even the most uncompromis- at the Fairmount, also one of his hotels,
ing will admit that a semblance of unity but found that the Saudi Arabians dis-
would have been healthier for us.
placed him there . . ..A member of the
* * *
Independent Jewish Press Service staff
IT MAY NOT MATTER
hung so long around the Lebanese-
This, however, is to be said: even with Syrian headquarters here for the purpose
the most strongly-cemented unity, it may of obtaining information, that they began
not matter. If we are not to be listened thinking of him as part of the furniture
to—and we most probably will not— and even offered him a job as public rela-
then nothing matters.
tions man. He offered them voluntary
But—try we must.
advice—to stop their anti-Zionism.
* * *
* * *
INTERESTING PERSONALITIES
COLLEAGUES
There are many interesting personali-
A representative of the Palcor News
ties here. Gen. Moishe Cohen, defender Agency, "reporting news from the Near
of Chinese rights and battler for Chinese East," turned around while waiting in
independence, is among them. There are
line for credentials at the Veterans
many representatives of Latin American
Building here and picked up a conversa-
countries who have enlisted in various tion with a fellow reporter. They ex-
pro-Palestine movements. Among the
changed cards. The other one represented
many delegations there are undoubtedly
the Middle East Press Agency; which is
many Jews who do not reveal themselves an Egyptian outfit, headed by a former
.
as such.
Arab Cairo Senator. Just a coincidence.
A great drama is being enacted in
* * *
setting up the machinery for a new
AUTHOR! AUTHOR!
world order. Perhaps we are too jittery
and therefore interpret the present
Leonard Lyons, the columnist, tells
events as not being too favorable to us.
this one:
Admittedly the worst aspect of the
"Sholem Asch, the author, was at a
entire situation is that so few Jews re-
Palm Beach hotel where he asked the
main in Europe to be rescued. But even
proprietor: 'How's business?' . . 'All
the 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 survivors must
right,' said the proprietor, 'but every
be rescued—and the jitters are well moti- year the clientele gets worse and worse'
vated.
. . . 'You seem to be doing well,' said
* * *
Asch . . . 'Yes,' said the proprietor, 'but
THE GREAT OVERLAND ROUTE
this year I have next year's clientele."
Students of history, sociology and
• * *
geology can learn a great deal by being
observant when taking the Overland HATS OFF
Route to the Coast.
Hats off to I. L. Kenen, American Jewish
Take, as an example, the city of Ogden,
Conference executiye director, veteran
Utah. On the day we stopped there, on
newspaperman and public relations ace.
the way to the coast, Leo Lania was Understaffed, and doing both writing,
addressing a JDC meeting. We spoke to conferring and such technical work as
a Jewish merchant who gave a typical stuffing envelopes, running the mimeo-
explanation of his community's status: graph machine and carrying his bundles
The Jews there are divided; the com- to the post office, he did a bang-up job
munity had 120 families 25 years ago, a
here which evokes this veteran's admira-
synagogue was built at a cost of $14,000; tion.
only 50' families remain today; of these,
only 10 are affiliated with the orthodox
synagogue; and most of the residents Lake itself is somewhat like the Pales-
are ready to move elsewhere—to prevent tine Dead Sea. We are told that small
intermarriage between their children shrimp, about three-quarters of an inch
and the Mormons. It is an old story of in size, survive in the Salt Lake. Recent-
the evolution of small town Jewish com- ly it was reported that microscopic living
munities which deteriorate fast—whether objects were discovered in the Dead Sea
in Palestine where it was first believed
in Michigan or in Utah.
Geologically—there is another interest- that no living objects can survive.
ing subject for study in the Great Salt
What does the Talmud say? SADNO
Lake area. Vast stretches of Utah land D'AROH CHAD HU. The ways of the
are covered with salt. The Great Salt world are alike.
■
Between
You and Me
By BORIS SMOLAR
(Copyright, 1945, Jewish Telegraphic
Agency, Inc.)
Friday, May 11, 1 .945
Strictly
Confidential
By PHINEAS J. BIRON
Copyright, 1945, Seven Arts
Features Syndicate, Inc.
INTERNATIONAL
While many important correspondents
were still cooling their heels, Gershon
Agronsky, publisher of the Palestine Post,
now in this country, received a priority
for his plane trip to San Francisco, where
he is covering the conference . . . Why
bandmaster Artie Shaw felt impelled to
compose a national antherri for Saudi
Arabia remains a mystery to us ... The
little republic of Honduras has just
passed a law which disqualifies all for-
eign-born persons who have lived in the
country leSs than 40 years from doing
business there . . . Winchell confides that
he has heard that German civilians now
try to convince their Allied captors that
they are really anti-Nazi by claiming to
have Jewish relatives.
*
*
*
YOU SHOULD KNOW
Dr. Edward C. Lindeman, professor of
Social. Philosophy at the New York
School of Social Work, recently made a
study of the Jewish problem . . . He esti-
mates that there are from 12 to 15 mil-
lion Americans who could easily be
swayed to participate in a program of
violent anti-Semitism . . . The trial of
the case of the young Jew Anmuth, who
was beaten up by Philadelphia policemen.
last year, has been postponed again, be-
cause Judge Bluett disqualified himself
on a technicality.
SAN FRANCISCO ATMOSPHERE
As the United Nations Conference de-
velops it becomes more and more ob-
vious that no attempt to bring about
*
*
*
unity between the two groups of Jew-
NEWS BITS
ish consultants here—no matter by
The 15th anniversary celebration of the
whom such an attempt is made—will be Jewish People's Fraternal Order of the
successful . . . There are now as many International Workers' Order will take
as four Jewish fronts here, each acting place at Madison Square Garden on May
26 . . The order will present to Mrs.
separately . . . They are the American Judith Epstein, president of Hadassah,
a
Jewish Conference, the American Jewish check for $50,000 for the Hadassah hos-
Committee, the Jewish Agency for Pales- pital in Jerusalem . . . Congratulations to
tine and the Hebrew Committee for Na- Ykuf, the Jewish culture organization, for
tional Liberation . . . The Jewish Labor its memorial publication on' the occasion
Committee is another front, but it is of the 30th anniversary of the death of
working in the direction of seeking unity J. L. Peretz . . . Bernard G. Richards
among all Jewish representatives here scores a scoop in. the April 27 issue of the
. . . The only group maintaining contact Congress Weekly, where he reveals the
with each other are the American Jewish atrocity record of the Palestine-born Ger-
man Karl Eichman . . . Eichman acted
Conference and the Jewish Agency.
as executive agent of the grand mufti
* * *
in Germany.
SAN FRANCISCO SIDELIGHTS
•
* _*
Leo Pasvolsky, one of the advisers to READER'S GUIDE
the American delegation to the United
Shalom Asch has just completed a
Nations Conference, is not keen on. being booklet entitled "Epistle to Christians"
known as a Jew . . . But Congressman ... It's a J'Accuse directed against those
Sol Bloom, another member of the same who poison Christians against Jews by
delegation, circulates around among the branding us as "Christ-killers" . .
delegates boasting how his mother "Great Negro Americans" by Ben Rich-
brought him up in a Jewish religious ardson, coming out this month, should
tradition . . . He speaks with pride, also, be read by all who are concerned, about
of the fact that he considered himself interracial good will in this country . . .
a Zionist long before there was an or- The radio script "The Battle of the War-
ganized Zionist movement in America ... saw Ghetto," to which the Writers' War
He also tells proudly of how as a boy he Board awarded a special citation, may
peddled matches in this city.
be made into a movie.
*
*
*
A friend of mine was very much start-
led when Sylvia Sidney, the film actress, ABOUT PEOPLE
Dr. Stephen S. Wise, just recovered
made a remark in good Yiddish in the
lobby of the Opera House, but he was from a bad cold, was the most surround-
even more startled when one of the girls ed personality at the recent reception
of the State Department started to talk given by the acting Consul General of
to me in Yiddish in the conference build- the USSR in New York . . . The next
day, against his physician's orders, he
ing.
left for' San Francisco . • . One of the
His amazement grew when a Western Soviet officials said, when he was intro-
Union supervisor in the press room of duced to Dr. Wise: "I've heard of you ..
the conference, where several hundred You are the Jewish Roosevelt, Churchill
journalists pound out hundreds of thous- and Stalin all in one"
ands of words daily, suddenly revealed
his "pintele Yid" after he took a glance
at one of my dispatches . . . "Do you
think this conference will achieve some-
thing good for us too?" this non-Jewish
appearing Western Union man asked me
in good Yiddish . . . A quick look at the
According to figures published at the
list of officials of the secretariate of the
conference will reveal names like Samuel end of 1944, the Histadrut, General Fed-
Boykin, David Zabludolisky, Harry Ger- eration of JewiSh Workers in Palestine,
son, Julian Friedman, Bernard Meltzer now has a total membership of 141,500.
This represents an increase of 11,500 over
and other similar sounding ones.
the previous year.
* * *
Through its steadily expanding pro-
SAN FRANCISCO PRESSMEN
gram of social- and economic and cul-
My friend, I. F. Stone, Washington cor- ttiral benefits and services the Histadrut
respondent of PM and of the "Nation," is reaches out far beyond these 141,500 and
peristently spreading a rumor, among the their families to the general Jewish
more than a thousand journalists and population and to growing numbers of
radio commentators at the conference Arab workers.
that I am "the best informed man on
Most of the new members are recent
East European problems" . . . That is all immigrants. The number of older settlers
that is necessary in a place like this and of the native born who are joining
where newspapermen are hungry for the Histadrut is also growing steadily.
comment and interpretations . . . Im-
Membership of Hanoar Haoved, the
mediately you become- an expert on Rus- Working Youth Organization of the
sia, on Poland, on the Balkan countries Histadrut, has passed the 10,000 mark.
in the eyes of many correspondents here The young people within Hanoar Haoved
even though you disclaim special know- constitute an important reservoir of man-
ledge . . . And when another friend, like power for the establishment' of new
James Abbey, who broadcasts here every Settlements at the outermost boundaries
morning for. NBC, quotes you in his of the land, for the establishMent of new
broadcast on a prediction which came branches of agriculture and industry—
true at the conference the next day, all of which require strong well-trained
then there is no use in your stating that young people deeply imbued with the
you don't know anything more than the cooperative ideals and goals of their
others.
elders„
Histadrut Has
141,500 Members