Page Two

Purely
Commentary

f

By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

THE STAKE IN THE SUKKAH
Traditionally, the first stake in the
Sukkah was driven into back yards of
observant Jews on Monday night, after
Yom Kippur services. It is an interesting
custom, and in many respects it fascinates
the observant Jew. It gives him added
strength to carry on his battle for exist-
ence as a Jew and it makes him see the
tragic picture of Jewish sufferings every-
where with a feeling of greater confi-
dence in the ultimate survival of every-
thing that is Jewish.
But there are so few Sukkahs—and the
number of men. even among the very
Orthodox, who head for their back yards
to drive the first stake for the Sukkah
after a day's fasting, is limited to an in-
significant fraction.
These are changing times, and it be-
comes necessary to find new means of
keeping our people on the alert, of re-
taining them wholeheartedly in the fold,
of raising their spirits to great heights, of
making them strong and determined in
dealing with the problems of their people,
A well-informed Jewry can be strong.
A people that knows its own needs can
not be licked. Knowledge is not a
substitute for the abandonment of tradi-
tion—and it is our deep conviction that
we are gradually reaffirming belief in
traditional observance. leading eventually
to its reconstruction. But it helps in
the return to perfect allegiance.
A single Sukkah that serves the needs
of an entire Reform or Conservative con-
gregation would have been considered
inadequate in years past. But young peo-
ple today DO derive strength, courage
and satisfaction from the knowledge
garnered in the Jewish school and in the
synagogue. Strengthened by the influence
of an encouraging home, these young
people can become the pride of our
generation.
Knowledge being strength, we owe our
young people more knowledge and in-
creased fascination in the traditions of
their people.
*
*
*
KNOWLEDGE VERSUS FRIGHT
An informed person is less apt to be-
come frightened. If it were not serious—
because panic is so terrifying an experi-
ence—recent occurrences among Jews in
Michigan communities would be amusing.
Imagine youngsters gathered on several
corners giving vent to the feeling that
"the cops are against us!"
Surely, this is not what they were
taught in the public schools, where the
policeman is painted as a good friend be-
ginning with the days of kindergarten.
Rumors and gossip are clearly respon-
sible.
True, some "cops" are not friendly. But
these very "cops" may be unfriendly to
Poles in a Polish neighborhood, to Italians
in an Italian section and certainly to
Negroes in Paradise Valley.
But we also have good staffs at the
bead of police departments who will not
"tolerate intolerance. Therefore, a little
: bit of faith and some good common sense
can go a long way towards solving the
problem.
When you come across gossip—and
runor-mongers, • strike their poisonous
talk at the roots.
Because the situation can be serious
enough without being aggravated by
rumors.
Let us all work with conviction on the
theory that fright is undesirable and that
knowledge is stronger than panic. -
*
*
*
STRUNSKY'S "TOPICS OF THE TIMES"
Simeon Strunsky, Vitebsk-born, able
columnist and editorial writer, author of
the column "Topics of the Times" in the
New York Times. is without doubt one
of the most brilliant American news-
papermen. His column is a gem, and his
wit and wisdom are steeped in knowledge
of the classics, the Bible and world af-
fairs.
One of his most recent columns dealt
with "Names in the News," and was il-
lustrated by two quotations from Num-
bers, chapters 2 and 13. Strange names
are mentioned, as in the sentence "Nah-
shon the son of Amminadab shall be cap-
taro of the children of Judah . . ."
These quotations give credence to Mr.
Strunsky's opening remark: "At one
point in William L. Laurence's eyewitness
account of the atomic bomb over Naga-
saki, in last Sunday's Times, the reader
is reminded of two earlier examples of
impressive military reporting." Then
come the quotations from the Bible, and
from Homer.
For students of literature and history,
this return to the classics works like a
soothing balm. It is good to be able to
read history in retrospect—and the ob-
jective reader is thus able to become
tolerant of many situations, and even of
the reading of strange names.

:

THE JEWISH NEWS

Friday, September 2 I , 1945

Written on the Occasion of the. Planning of Jewish Book Month to
Be Observed During November

Heard in
The Lobbies

By DR. BERNARD HELLER

By ARNOLD .LEVIN

The Book-God's Blueprint

The hopes of the originators and sponsors of the Jewish Book
Month are to impress upon the children of these people the beauty
and blessedness of preserving and continuing the noble tradition of
their fathers. Theirs is not an easy job, free of difficulties. They must
sail against the current and buck the wind. But I am convinced that
their efforts will not be in vain.
The initiation of an intensive program by the Jewish Book Coun-
cil at this time is a token of future achievements. For here was a
titanic struggle the like of which the world has never seen, a struggle
that has enveloped continents. The Jewish people found themselves
in the very center of this hellish vortex. Upon the outcome of the
Armageddon depended their continued life and existence. In the midst
of such a scene, bruised and battered Jewry paused to pay horna.ge
to Books.
Does not this augur well for a revival of the spirit and a renais-
sance of loyalty to traditional visions and values? This is, to me, a
sign that Jews will continue to be true to the Book.

Strictly
Confidential

By PHINEAS J. BIRON

Copyright, 1945, Seven Arts
Features Syndicate, Inc.

ANTI-SEMITISM A LA NEWBURGH
We're still reporting on the anti-Semitic
front . . So excuse us if we can't be
cheerful ... Maybe next week we'll re-
sume our regular gossip . . . Newburgh
did not have a quiet Rosh Hashanah this
year .. The Talmud Torah was van-
dalized . . The damage amounts to
several thousand dollars . . . The police
and the local press did not start moving
until Rabbi Morris Bloom took matters
in his energetic hands . . . Great credit is
due to him ... He alerted the mayor and
the Christian ministers of the town . • .
He succeeded in arousing public opinion
. .. Rabbi Bloom believes that only the
full glare of publicity will stop the in-
cipient Streichers of America . . . But
the big press of New York state kept
mum about the Newburgh incident . . .
There are still some Jewish leaders who
believe that silence is the best remedy
against anti-Semitism.

*

*

*

TRUE STORY
Two Jewish young melt were taking
an evening stroll . . . One, H. a medical
student the other S., active in his father's
business . . . A gang of a dozen or more
Gentile youths stopped them ... . The
gang leader cornered H. and asked him
sneeringly "What nationality are you?"
. . . H. answered, "American of course"
. . . the gang let out a howl of derision
. . . "Wrong, you God d— Jew . . .
You're a Jew b . . . Without further
notice H. was subjected to a brutal
beating knocking out his teeth and in-
juring his head .. . He managed some-
how to escape .. . For weeks he had to
undergo medical treatment . . . His friend
S. got off easier . . . just a few blows .. .
The incident was reported to the police
but no action was taken by the protectors
of the law . No this did not happen in
Hitler's Germany . . . It happened in. New
York a few weeks ago . . . But there are
Jewish organizations who still call that
kind of thing "delinquency".
*
*
*
"NO EVIDENCE"
The District Attorney's office of Brook-
lyn held a hearing on the Brighton Beach
anti-Semitic riot . • . For days it ques-
tioned witnesses, Jewish and non-Jewish
. . . The assistant District Attorney in
charge of the examination was M. Rosen-
berg, son of an orthodox rabbi . . . When
the hearing was all over, Rosenberg
solemnly announced (not publicly as yet)
that the examination did not uncover
any evidence of anti-Semitism or any
organized direction. • . So what hap-
pened . . At almost the very same
minute that Rosenberg made his amaz-
ing statement, fOur Gentile youngsters
broke into the Brighton Beach synagogue,
carried out a handful of prayerbooks and
burned them in approved Nazi style on
a nearby field . . . But still some Jewish
leaders are terribly busy keeping the in-
cident from public print.
*
*
* .
FROM ABROAD
From England this rather paradoxical
item . • ,. Victor Gollanez, Harold Laski
and Norman Bentwich, three very dis-
tinguished Jewish leaders, are sponsoring
propaganda literature pleading for
leniency in dealing with the German
people . . In other words, advocating
a soft peace with Naziland.
The test as to whether German war
criminals will be dealt with justly and
not in accordance with Big Cartel dic-
tates will be the case of Hjalmar Schacht
. . . Schacht, as you know, was the fi-
nancial genius who made Hitler's; war

Between
You and Me

By BORIS SMOLAR

(Copyright, 1945, Jewish Telegraphic
Agency, Inc.)

ZIONIST SIDELIGHTS
It would be well for Zionist leaders in
the United States to watch the German-
language press in this country . . . Some
of these newspapers, particularly the
Chicago Abendpost, are busy champion-
ing the cause of the Palestine Arabs .. .
They carry anti-Zionist articles and try
to keep alive the tale that the late Presi-
dent Roosevelt promised King Ibn Saud
not to support Zionist claims on Palestine
. . . They go even further than the Arab
propagandists, and assert that this
"promise" was allegedly made in the
presence of high American officers . . .
They declare that President Truman
should not have stated that he favors the
immigration of as many Jews to Pales-
tine as possible . . . The American people's
sentiments, they claim, are just the op-
posite . Contrary to the German-lan-
guage newspapers, the Arab-language
press in this country seems to be satisfied
with Truman's statement on Palestine ..
Especially with the fact that he empha-
sized that the United States government
has no intention of sending 500,000 sol-
diers to Palestine to keep peace there . .
As to the Jewish reaction to President
Truman's statement, we advise you to
read the forthcoming issue of the Jewish
Frontier • . . In that magazine, Hayim
Greenberg, one of the leaders of the
American Zionist Emergency Council,
says that the time has come when Amer-
ican Zionists must address themselves to
our government with this one demand:
"Stop tampering with our hopes . . ."
*
*
*
HERE AND THERE
The Allied War Crimes Commission has
indicated that two Jewish leaders will be
invited to testify in behalf of the Jews at
the Nuremberg trial of the Nazi = war
criminals ... The first will be Dr. Chaim
Weizmann . . . The second will probably
be an American Jewish leader ... It can
be revealed that a big fight went on be-
hind the scenes between Jewish organ-
izations in America before Major Judah
Naidich was appointed adviser to Gen.
Eisenhower on the affairs of displaced
Jews. The support of the JDC tipped the
scales in favor of Maj. Naidich
President Truman; we learn, was very
much moved by a report on the situation
of the 100,000 displaced Jews who are still
in camps in Germany and Austria . .
It was submitted by Earl G. Harrison,
American member of the Intergovern-
mental Committee on Refugees . . . I
understand that one of the conclusions in
Harrison's report is that Palestine's doors
should be opened to displaced Jews.
*
*
*
STAGE AND SCREEN
The Jewish theater season is opening
in New. York with nine Yiddish theaters.
. . Two of them expect to have an in-
come of about $50,000 a week . . . The
man who keeps the Yiddish theater go-
ing in America is none other than the
professorial-looking Reuben Guskin . . •
A mild, but very energetic person, Guskin
has been the "strong man" of the Yiddish
theatrical profession in America for more
than a quarter of a century . . . He is
also the president of the Workmen's Cir-
cle, a Jewish fraternal organization with
90,000 members and with a network of
schools and educational institutions
throughout the country.

program possible . . . He has powerful
American and British friends who are
preparing a sad story about Schacht "the
liberal" who was "compelled" to help

Hitler, .

•

(Copyright, 1945, Independent Jewish
Press Service, Inc.)

COUNTER ESPIONAGE
This, from Leonard Lyons, is an idea
Hitchcock plot:
"Ernest Grabner, the Nazi S. S. butcher
of Auschwitz, admits to killing 800,000
prisoners, mostly Jews. For almost three
years during which time Grabner eagerly
supervised the mass killings he was ac-
companied by an Austrian clerk named
Ernst Durmayer, who was hired because
he was an expert typists and knew a
dozen languages .. . Grabner, disguised
as a peasant, was arrested a few days ago.
His jailer, now chief of secret police, is
his former clerk, Ernst Durmayer, who
has a detailed record of Grabner's crimes.
Durmayer also organized the resistance
group within the .Mauthausen camp so
that when the Americans arrived, five
prisoners jumped every German in the
place, spoiling the plot to machine-gun
all prisoners."
*
*
KING FAROUK'S MOVE
If the Palestine question is not decided
before that, it will definitely be on the
agenda of discussions between Farouk,
President Truman and Secretary of State
Byrnes when the Egyptian monarch
comes here for Middle East discussions.
*
*
*
GLAMOROUS GUINEA PIG
Screen. actress Luise Rainer was one of ,
the volunteer "guinea pigs" used by
Rockefeller Foundation mediCS in experi- 1
ments with cure for serious liver ailments
soon to make the newspapers and medical
history.
*
*
*
NOTE TO BARNEY POSTAL
Philip Klutznik, of Bnai Brith, whom
you wrote up for the Independent Jewish
Press Service some months ago when he
was appointed Public Housing Commis-
sioner, will be named chief of the Nation-
al Housing Administration to replace
John B. Blanford when the latter sends
in his resignation any day now.
*
*
*
BABEL
There was a babel of tongues at the
camp in which the Nazis kept, Mrs, Emma
LaGuardia .Gluck, Mayor LaGuardia's
sister. The 32 nationalities represented
had no common language. Upped Mrs.
Gluck and taught them conversational
English in a series of grammar • lessons,
clandestinely writing them in longhand
32 times.
*
*
*

POLITICS

His wife is top political adviser to
Judge Jonah J. •Goldstein, one of New
York City's mayoralty candidates.
▪
*
*
NAZI
Ha-Ha . Here is One of the tales
Naziphile composer Richard Straus is
spreading to build tip an anti.4q.azi repu-
tation for himself. The :reason for his
finally falling out with the Fuehrer was
that Mr. Straus, according to\ Mr. Straus,
refused to permit SS men to be billeted in
his house. So what? Der Composer just
wouldn't think of parting with his com-
forts.: Is that anti-Nazism?
*
*
*
COMPOSERS
Leonard Bernstein is writing a con-
certo; Aaron Copland is writing a musical.
*
*
*
CURIAE
Julia Kleiman, daughter of a Hollywood
biggie, who lived in Japan, reveals that
Hirohito's signature is being reproduced
upside down by American newspapers.

Reading the Bible

By ALTER ABELSON

As when a lover rapt, whose bride's away
Recalls in mind or dream her beautiful
face,
Her tender 'words of love, their glow
and .grace,
Her modeSt mien, her heart as sweet as
May,

So when I read the Bible, Heaven'S"ray,
•Glass of the hurnan soul and ISrael's
race,
-
Civilization's Bill of Rights and honor's.
mace,
The song of love for what will not deCay,

•

I see in dream mankind and Holyland;
I see the human knights of freedom,
Israel,
When angels met them by a tree or
well
And prophets walked with God, in visions
grand:
I see the Temple and hear the psalmist-
band;
hear Heaven's voice from wings

where mercies dwell.

.

