Page Twenty One THE JEWISH NEWS Friday, May 25, 1945 The 'Fat' of the Land crowded streets* and are enjoying the fruits of Mother Earth. * * * Jewry's Trek to West Coast Sized Up by the Editor Los Angeles, Once Boasting a Jewish Population of 10,000, Now Has 140,000 Taking in the California Air; Venice Beach An Overcrowded Ghetto; Other Observations By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ (Editor, The Jewish News) Leaders in community affairs should be required to other cities to become acquainted with the thinking of and women elsewhere. It will do them. and their munities much good. They will come back with new experiences, and in the main they will learn that their own city is not so bad, that their own institutions are doing fair- ly well. In fact, they may re- turn with greater respect for themselves and the causes they champion. They especially will learn that human _nature is alike every- where and that there is no com- plaining about quest for glory and competitive labors for com- munity good. Most Difficnit Task The most difficult task every- where is to interest people in causes, to induce them to cease being indifferent, to inspire them to labor for the advancement of their fellow men. * * * OUR PEOPLE, like their neighbors, are drunk with the vigorous air of the state of Cal- ifornia and many Jews are flocking westward. Los Angeles has grown from less than 10,000 Jews 40 years ago to its present size of 140,000. Dr. Israel Shapiro, retired chief of the Jewish division of the Library of Congress, now making his home in Los Angeles, predicts that Los Angeles soon will outstrip all American Jew- ish communities in population and will be second to New York. He gives as the reason the fact that the. Pacific is now assum- ing a position of major economic importance in the world. visit men COM- Haym Salomon Day is observed and the celebration is utilized for. the sale of war bonds. Beautiful Decorations The new Temples throughout the land are replete with works of art, with beautiful mural decorations. Our trouble is our universal illness: that we keep on moving, that we do not stay put. Venice, on the beach near Los Angeles, is an overcrowded ghetto. The East side of L. A. and the Hollenbeck Park district are less crowded and have an attraction. But Jews do move. They strive for the hills of Hollywood and they reach the heights, nearly touching the clouds. Will they topple_ down when there is no higher altitude to ascend to? . * * * WHAT IS CIVILIZATION? DR. HENRY - ATKINSON, one of the national leaders of the American Palestine Committee and the Christian Council on Palestine, an official consultant at UNCIO, speaks with pride of San Francisco and calls it the only really great civilized 'city because it is a blending of so many nationality and racial groups. How about New York? No, New York does not have a Chi- nese telephone exchange. The San Francisco telephone direct- , ory even has a Chinese section. We challenged his statement and Dr. Atkinson asked for a telephone directory only to dis- cover that the Chinese portion had been removed 40 years ago. * * * THE PLANTING season is on, CARRY ON, ISRAEL! Buy War Bonds! 'Rusalka', A Stirring Love Tale, At Masonic Temple This Sunday Anton Dvorak's opera, based on an old Czech folk tale, will be given in English for the first time Sunday evening at 8:30 p. m. in Scottish Rite Cathedral. Only recently has it been trans- Ideal Civilization But Dr. Atkinson, the former San Franciscan, the very splen- did gentleman, the loyal suport- er of the Zionist cause, insists that the city of the Golden Gate represents the true blending of elements that make for an ideal civilization. We suggest as a substitute: Home. Give us Home, in peace and in security, amidst friendly neighbors, and we have the formula for civilizatiOn. There is no' place like Home. Therein lies the pressing need of making Zionism a reality. JEWS AS FARMERS and it is good to the. ear to hear Jews speak of their Victory Gar- dens, of their beautiful lawns, of the trees they had planted that are now bearing fruit. When it is a labor of love, it is a healthy sign. We have less than 100,000 Jew- ish farmers in America. But we have many "small scale farm- ers" who, rooted in American living and thinking, henceforth may refuse to tolerate little ghettos where a blade of grass is at a premium. Heretofore . the Jewish farm- ing communities were mainly to be found in Connecticut and in That California Air Dr. Shapiro may or may not New Jersey. The early Michigan be right in his augury. It is Jewish farming communities true that people are clamoring have. declined. New Trek Westward for California air, but it is doubt- Today - there is a new trek ful whether hundreds of thou- sands of -people will sacrifice di- westward. Jews on the Pacific versity of opportunity in vast Coast take pride in their orange stretches of our great land to put groves, and among the newcom- ers in that area are several who all our dreams in one area. There is one major trouble have established small chicken about the lure of the Golden farms. Individual homes boast about Gate: .the gold that so often leads to destruction. It is a matter of their fruit trees. It was thrilling historic experience that the to find that the very small yard sweat of pioneers, when trans- of the former Detroiter, Sam formed . into excessive prosperity, Gach, publisher of the California leads to human stagnation and to Jewish Voice, has orange, tan- gerine, avocado, lemon and fig rapid demoralization. The prosperity of some of our trees. The lemon and fig we took communities is frightening. It is doubtful whether the sons and along as souvenirs gave joy daughters of the newly-rich will to a hurried but pleasant visit have the stamina of those whose in a community where people fathers sweated in tailor shops are shaking off the dust of over- and in mines and in factories; whether those whose education is acquired. in rich dormitories will be able to command the same respect as those who se- cured their knowledge in night schools out of sheer love for learning, the inspiration having come, indeed, from the parental training grounds—the Talmud Torah and the .Yeshivah. In other words, are we creat- ing snobs who, lacking vision, must perish, Or are we secure even in the intoxicating mist of great prosperity? The next generation will have an interesting answer to these and many more questions raised by the evolution of American - UTAH, NEVADA, Arizona, New Mexico and other territor- ies with desert lands may well be compared with the Negev— the southern portion of Pales- tine. People might laugh if they were to be offered homelands in the desert. Yet, in Palestine, even the Negev is forbidden ter- ritory in what was promised to. become the Jewish National Home. And -insofar as the Jews, are concerned, even the Negev . would be welcomed, just so Icing , as we would be given a chance'to make dead ground become fertile again. The Negev is not all or the best we want. But our pioneers have wrought miracles in the Emek which the Arabs shunned as poisoned ground, and we have faith that we can make other areas live again. Wrought Miracles. What we ask for is the chance to build and to create. What we resent is the denial of that chance. Within our own ranks, we ask Jews should retain faith and should be confident that even the impossible is possible, that even an era of OIL can be trans- formed into an era of justice, that just as we have created miracles through land transfor- mation in Palestine we may be responsible for another miracle by giving the world a substitute for oil. To achieve the best that is within us, we need the strength that comes from deep-rooted but warns her that "AlI human beings are sinful" and points to the happiness of her sisters, the dancing and singing water and forest nymphs. Disregarding the warning, Rusalka consults the witch, who agrees to give her a human soul, explaining to her that she will have to remain mute. The Prince appears, falls in love with Rusal- ka and takes her to his castle. In the second act, preparations for the wedding are under way. A • foreign princess, played by Harriett Toomey, appears among the guests. She has but one de- sire: to interfere in the happiness of the Prince and Rusalka. Using all her feminine charm she achieves her goal. Rushlka soon afterward witnesses a love scene between them. She flees, heart- broken and disappointed and dis- illusioned, and seeks help from the Waterman. He advises her to consult the Witch. In the third act the Witch tells Rusalka that the only way to be restored to her mortal form is to kill the Prince but as Rusalka still loves him she refuses. The Prince, deserted by the Princess, his mind distraught, finds Rusal- ka. She appears and while she embraces him he sinks lifeless in her arms. -Rusalka then re- turns to her water realm. Tickets for Rusalka are on sale at Grinnell's, 1515 Woodward avenue. . HARRIETT TOOMEY lated—by Ruth and Thomas Martin—from the Czech original into English. As the opera may not be familiar to many, a brief explanation is given by Julius Chajes, artistic director of the show for Detroit Friends of Opera, Inc. Rusalka, a water nymph, is longing to become a human be- ing, to have a soul and be able "to love as all Mortals .do." The Waterman tells her that Jezi- baba the powerful Wood-witch, could change her into a mortal, faith in ourselves and in our cause. A Baptist minister recently made an interesting comment. He s said that he always had been given the impression that Jews are arrogant, but he had learned that Jewish possession of arro- gance is limited to cloaks and suits. It is an awful impression! But we can easily correct it. What we need to do is to revive our courage, to fight on to the end that justice is done our cause, to carry on a battle for the rejuvenation of the Jewish spirit so that we should cease be- ing a people that is denied a place where we can create new values for the world. Carry on, Israel! Buy War Bonds! 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