Page Six

THE JEWISH NEWS

Friday, Augusf 3, 1945

•• •

In Pre-Liberation Days

These refugee children no longer
are playing and foraging for food

in the gutters of Europe. To the left
is scene taken in pre-liberation
days in Rome. The JDC is'speeding
relief to war victims in areis
formerly occupied by the Nazis.

The Jews of
Rome

By DONALD DOWNES

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency Correspondent)

BECAUSE ITALIANS
protected Jews against Fascist
and - Nazi persecution to an extent
unknown elsewhere in Europe,
the ancient but small Roman Jew-
ish - community has suffered far
less than most and is well on the
road to recovery.
Troubles lie ahead, as they do
behind, but they are of a lesser
nature and will easily be resolved
by the continuation of the finan-
cial support to local Jewish or- •
ganizations by the JDC. While the
high expenditures connected with
refugees and emergency relief are
largely past, another type of ex-
penditure is just commencing.
This second type of expenditure
is the reconstituting of • completely
lost institutions, like the Roman
Jewish hospital, or 'essential, but
postp:oned, capital , expenditures
like the necessity for new ceme-
tery ground in Naples.
That the community of Rome
has prospered somewhat is due in
considerable measure to the fact
that so many of its members are
small retailers in the lines pur-
chased by Allied soldiers—souve-
nirs, postcards, gifts.• They had
stored away considerable mer-
chandise bought before the infla-
tion but not sold during the Ger-
man control because of the danger
at that time of keeping their ;shops
open. They have sold this stuff
on an advancing and inflationary
market. But this -.small and false
prosperity is nearing its end. The
merchandisex irreplaceable, is run,
ning out, and the customers, G.I.s
and Tommies are departing in
droves. JDC, Rome, fears some-
what , the result of this condition.
Planning to Raise Funds
At present Vitale Milano, presi-
dent of the community, is plan- -
ning a campaign to raise "a sub-
stantial sum" within the next few
weeks in order to show those who
have so generously , helped the
Roman community that they will,
at least, try to help theinselves.
In this undertaking Milano has
the cooperation and blessings of
Guiseppi. Nathan, president of the
Union of Italian Communities.
The • relief work in Rome has
consisted entirely of the support
of local institutions. These are:
1. Delasem, the organization
giving immediate relief and con-
cerning itself with displaced Jews,
those in concentration camps, and
those hidden by friends or non-.
Jewish institutions throughout
Italy.
2. Deputation of charities, an
institution for the relief of those
in camps.
3. The Pollaco school for chil-
dren.
4. Roman Jewish Home for the
Aged.

sadly scanning - the new lists of
liberated, or known dead which
form a sort of library of sadness
and are soon worn to a state re-
sembling mediaeval document.
The local affairs of the com-
munity and its spiritual state are
less happy than the relief picture.
The ex-chief Rabbi, E. M. Zolli,
sits in the Vatican, a bitter and
confused old man. He was prob-
ably near the truth when he once
referred to his conversion to Cath-
olicism as a "conversion of spite."
The best that can be said of Zolli
appears to be that he was men- 4 1P
tally ill, and that he was both dis-
liked and distrusted by the Roman
community because of his personal
incompetence and apparent self-
ishness. For months before he re-
signed and "crossed the Tiber" he
was under fire from within, and
probably would have been asked
to resign.
Pending the arrival from Jeru-
salem of Rabbi Guiseppi Prato,
former Roman Rabbi who has ac-
cepted the call to -succeed Zolli, -
an old. and retired Rabbi named
Panzieri is carrying on the work.

Rome's Jewish community is
microscopically small compared
to the vast communities of East-
ern/ and Central Europe. Its im-
portance is historic and symbolic.
Today there are only a little over
10,000 Jews in Rome, and over
3,000 of these are refugees from
elsewhere. The normal size of the
community is not much bigger.
• But a very real debt of grati-
tude is owed by -them and by
world Jewry to the people of
Italy. They never fell for the im-
ported Nazi anti-racial laws which
Mussolini promulgated - in 1938,
and when Italy really came under
the SS and 'Gestapo heel in 1943,
not only Italian Jews were hidden
and fed and clothed by Italians,
but also many thousands of for-
eign Jews who escaped to Italy;
tucked in the Alps. above Lake.
Como is the little inn, Trattoria
Alpina.
Since early 1944, French refugee
Jews have been fed and cared for
by the peon Italian family, the
Francos,, who own the inn and
the two little Franco boys are
healthy and alive; forty of their
relatives who stayed behind in
France are reported dead in the
German horror camps. Mr. and
Mrs. Franco cannot express their
gratitude without tears.
There are thousands of such
cases.

5. Roman Jewish Orphan Asy-
lum.
6. Roman Jewish Maternity Hos-
pital.
7. Roman Jewish Hospital.
Of these, the last two have a
rather special history: The Vati-
can saved them for the Jewish
community against pillage by the
Germans by moving Catholic in-
(Copyright, 1945, Jewish Telegraphic
Agency, Inc.)
stitutions into them.
The Maternity Hos-
pital has been turned
back but the General
Hospital has • not, ap-
parently merely be-
cause the Mother Su-
perior of the Catholic
Institution which
By DAVID, SCHWARTZ
moved in has become
(Copyright, 1945,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency Inc.)
too fond of running a
city hospital as well
Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt in
Jew and substitute the term
suffers a loss. He has, so to
as her former one in
an article in Liberty Magazine
Israelite for it.
speak, disfigured himself that
the - country.
'expresses the view that for- -
History shows also that
he may be more acceptable to
eign names "often segregate
often these emotional reactions
It has been the
his -neighbors.
people
as
much
as
color
or
can be overcome and the . term
practice of the JDC
After all, how long does a
religion and keep them tied
which first evoked contempt
to compensate in
name remain foreign. I see
to' their particular back-
later
became
a
term
of
pride.
by the New York papers that
kind non-Jewish in-
grounds and the homelands
Thus, our word, "Democrat"
the Republicans of the city of
stitutions which move
from which they come."
sprang from the French Revo-
Vew York have nominated. .a
out of Jewish prop-
Mrs. Roosevelt thinks all
lution. It was first used as a
man by the , name - of Jonah
foreign cognomens should be
erty. This is an ad-
Goldstein to be mayor of New
discarded and replaced with
ditional expense
York-. Now * Jonah Goldstein
those
which
are
American.
which also lies ahead,
is the one man who could
At once, of course, the clif-
especially in the case
have changed his name . to
ficulty presents itself—what
Jones for. his first name,
of the Roman Hos-
is American. The name Roose-
'••
Jonah; is almost that as _it is.
pital. While this may
velt for example is Dutch and
but Judge Goldstein 'has got
seem extravagant, it
the Nazis we remember often
along quite well with. . the
has a great value in
diStorted it to Rosenfelt. Yet,
"stein" and perhaps it has
perhaps, this is stretching a
that it avoid s - the
even helped him - in some
point too much. Roosevelt,
problem, said to be
ways.
-
though
originally
Dutch,
has
serious in France, of
How long will it be before
been
an
American
family
non-Jews (who have
the Goldsteins,, the Wehlbergd,
name for several centuries
occupied Jewish prop-
the Levys continue to be . re-
and what Mrs. Roosevelt is
erty in good faith un-
garded as "foreign" names. I
probably referring to are those
take up the New York - papers
der the discrimina-
names whose foreighism is
and look at the casualty lists,
tory laws during the
more glaring — the names
and I see these Cohens, and •
with the "steins" and the
"New Order") being
Carusos and Czabasheks — in
"ovitches" and the "bergs"
dispossessed without,
great numbers. Can it be that
and so on.
compensation and
the people -will regard : the
Simmered
down
—
and
this creating a new
names so honored as foreign.
roughly put—we may say the
group of anti-Sem-
In Florida, a century ago,
question she presents is:
ites. .
there lived a prominent Jew
Should Goldberg change his
who was politically ambitious,
name to Jones?
The JDC has ex-
term of contempt in America,
named Levy. He changed his
-An
Unusual
Woman
pended on the Italian
to describe the followers of
name to Ulee and as Senator
Mrs. Roosevelt is ari unusual
Jewish communities
Jefferson who looked. -*sym-
Ulee served in the United
woman
—
one
of
the
extra-
pathetically
•
toward
t
h
e
and for refugees from
States Senate. At about the
ordinary women of our age.
French Revolution. -Yet the
same - tithe, there.. was a Jew
other countries in
She is a woman, character,.
Jeffersonians • finally. -took' on
serving- from Louisiana in the
Italy more than $5,-
of intellect
ll
and o great liberal
this term as -the. Proud label
Senate. And his name was
000,000. It is the im-'
sympathies and if she believes
of their party.
Judah P. Benjamin. •
pression of this writer
that some surgery performed
Similar Emotion
Then there is the case of
after talking to peo-
on our nomenclature • will
•Names. with "steins" and
Disraeli. The name not only
foster
national
harmony;
there
ple of the Roman
"o-vich's" probably 'evoke a
did not hide the Jewishness .
must be a case for it—and we
similar emotional reaction —
Jewish community
but proclairned it—and per- .
believe there is something to
and yet Einstein has -. 'done
that it has been well
haPs. there is a cue for us in
be said for it.
pretty
well
with
.
"stein"
and
this. If instead of . trying to -
expended. Certainly
Those people who philoso- • Rube Goldberg, the ,cartoonist,
hide the Jewishness, we boast
there is no apparent
phize about semantics tell us
has, • apparently, not been
of it, the whole outside re,
extravagance in the
that there are certain Words . greatly hampered by the
action
must change. You don't
institutions, and De-
whose utterance touch off an
"berg."
throw up., at a man the thing,
emotional conflagration. They
lassem, which prob-
There may be an answer
which he boasts about.- Dis-
tell us, for instance, that if
ably is the most im-
to this It may be said that a
raeli rose to the greatest place
you
mention
the
word
Com-
great physicist or a leading
portant, uses tene-
in the British . Empire because
munist or Jew to some, the
cartoonist ..can oversome the
ment-like and cramp-
he made his Jewish heritage
very words seem to throw
handicap of an . alien - name,
conspicuous, a thing of pride.
ed quarters which are
them into a kind of emotional
but yOu have no right. to
When taunted in. Parliament,
permanently o v e, r-
state. Not so long ago, a good . saddle an ordinary man with
he could rise and sing out:
Jewish gentleman in Ken-
crowded wit h refu-
so great k handicap. There is
"When your ancestors were
tucky was so obsessed with - some truth in this, -but -it 'also
gees or the relatives
savages in the wilderness,
this idea that he launched a
seems true that • the person
were priests in the
of missing persons
movement to discard the term who changes his -names also mine
temple of the Lord." •

S hould Goldberg. Change
H is Name to Jones

-

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