THE JEWISH NEWS

Page Two

Purely
Commentary

A Message From the Chairman of the Women's Division of the
Jewish Welfare Federation of Detroit

By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

By DORA B. EHRL[CH

ADULT EDUCATION__

Dr. Israel M. Goldman of Providence,
R. I., director of the National Academy
of Adult .Jewish Studies sponsored by the
Jewish Theological Seminary of Ameri-
ca, belieVes that "the education of the
adult is at least as important as the edu-
cation of the child and from some points
of view even more important."
Rabbi Goldman, speaking on the occa-
sion of the fifth anniversary of the Acad-
emy, quotes from a recent "Harvard Re-
port on General Education in a Free So-
ciety" that "adults, not young people, set
the tone of a community," to substantiate
his view that "adults are also the -deter-
mining power today as to what the com-
plex of life will be like tomorrow."

"THE BLANK PAGE"

Dr. Goldman's significant report con-
tains his reminiscences "of what the
never-to-be-forgotten Solomon Schechter
said nearly 50 years ago when he came to
this country to become the illustrious
president of the Seminary. In appraising
the depth of Jewish ignorance in this
land he declared that when you open a
volume of the Talmud you see reflected
there the cultural attainments of all Jew-
ish communities in Jewish history. When
you look at the Mishna, you see the cul-;
tural achievements of Palestinian Jewry;
when you look at the Gemara, you be-
contributions of Babylonian
hold the
•
Jewry; when you gaze at the Commen-
taries on the sides of the page, you can
tell the - learning of the French and Ger-
man Jewish communities; when you turn
the pages and see the super-commen-
taries, you find out about the cultural
greatness of Polish and Russian Jewries; -
and then when you come to the last page
—the fly leafyou see before -you the
cultural status of Ameican Jewry. The
page is blank."

To - the Jewish Women of Detroit

This is the first time in a long lifetime that I have asked for the
privilege of speaking through the press. But, this is the first time in
anyone's lifetime that so tragic a situation has faced the Jews. And,
on behalf of the pitiful remnants of Israel, those who somehow—God
only knows how—have survived Hitler's war on the Jews of the
world, I want to ask ourselves, the blessed, fortunate women of our
country, a few questions.
Do we know the horrible story of the Jewish women and children
who are left in the devastated countries of Europe and have we an
understanding of their bitter and broken lives, of their hunger, of
their sorrow, of their loneliness, of their despair? If not, why not?
Have we refused to torture ourselves by reading and listening to
the tales of the horrors and the agonies of the last few years, which
have been written and told and retold by those who have with their
own eyes beheld these things and who have come to us to plead
passionately for life and succor for those who still live? If so, why?
Have we been moved to the very depths of our beings and have
we been fired with a passion to share with them our every blessing,
even to the last crust of bread? If not, in God's name, why not?
Shall you and I be silent and withhold our hand, give niggardly
to the Allied Jewish Campaign for the United Jewish Appeal? Or
shall we give not at all, and perhaps be guilty of hastening the death
of even one of these precious souls, one of these little, lost, forlorn,
tortured children? Or shall we speak in accents loud, with generosity
and with womanly pride that it was vouchsafed to us to give life and
hope and joy to one of our own flesh and blood?
I have faith in the innate goodness of Jewish women and so I
anticipate your answers—"We shall harken and we shall do. We shall
give and they shall live."

Strictly
Confidential

By PHINEAS J. BIRON

Copyright, 1946, Seven Arts
Feature Syndicate, Inc.

How Odd of God

By ADA in Zionist Review
of London, England

I was impressed by an article on anti-
Semitism which was published in the
"Perthshire Advertiser". The following
lines are worth quoting:
"I have never, to tell the precise truth,
heard the case against the Jews argued
out with nothing but cool and lucid
reason: the progress of the argument gets
all bogged up in• the steamy marshes of
emotional prejudice,_ and fogged with ill-
substantiated stories about international
conspiracies, and anecdotes deriving from
`the brother of a friend of mine who
knows a man who once met a Jew who
was a pretty noxious type.'
"Of course there are bad Jews. And
there are also, I find, bad Gentiles."
The writer quotes the lines:
How odd
Of God
To choose
The Jews
and goes on: The Jew, you may be sure,
has his retort:
But not so odd,
As those who choose
A Jewish God,
Yet spurn the Jews.

Friday, April 19, 1946

Heard in
The Lobbies

By ARNOLD LEVIN

(Copyright, .1946, Independent Jewish.
Press Service. Inc.)

SIGNATURE OF THE WEEK

We don't go in for collecting auto-
graphs, but we'd give a buck for the one
Gerald L. K. Smith signed to a bail bond
last week, after .being sentenced in.,Chi-
cago to sixty days in jail, for contempt
of court. At that, sending Smith to jail
for contempt of court is like whipping
your child . for drinking his milk too
slowly, after he has broken his little - .
brother's arm. •
• • * .*
*

.

THE PRINCIPAL OF THE THING

What Brooklyn public school principal
was surprised to learn that the JewS don't
own all the: banks? How long will intelli-
gent public • school principals tolerate
idiots in their ranks who make the public
wonder whether you have to have a low
I.Q. to become a principal?

•
*
HONOR RATIONING

*

In a most humane editorial, the Chris-
tian Science Monitor says, "We believe
the people • are . generous enough and un-
selfish - enough to welcome an all-out ef-
fort to win the famine battle." If ration-
ing is not to be instituted to help save
famine-stricken pedples, the Monitor sug-
gests honor rationing. Does our memory
play us false or is it true that the people
could not be depended upon to share the
food through honor rationing when our
country's very life was at take in the war
against the Axis? Will the plight of for
eigners, thousands of miles away, sud- -
denly make us More considerate?

*

*

*

EXCLUSIVE

You have to be "native born, white,
Protestant" and an American citizen to
We have the text of a pronouncement
join the newly-formed American Fellow-
by the Spanish-Government in Exile .. .
ship Club. Alexander Hamilton, of course, .
It
has
not
been
published
anywhere
as
A SERIOUS CHALLENGE
would have: been ineligible.
yet . . . It reads in part: "The Jewish
This is .a serious challenge.
*
*
Rabbi Goldman asserts that "experi- people, persecuted atrociously by cer-
DOFF
TOPPERS
tain
totalitarian
nations,
in
insuperable
ence has shown that the_ blank page is
measure and with a hatred and rage
Hats off to Chief United States Prose
the first fatal step toward assimilation."
which history never knew, aspires legit-
cutor Jackson, 'who slapped dOwn another
Is the condition he describes a new one
effort at the International War Crimes
in Jewish life, - or is it an outgrowth of imately to have a fatherland specifically
its own . . . They desire that this be Pal-
Tribunal last week, to use the trial for
the indifference of the past generation?
estine and we consider their desire highly
the disseniination of anti-Semitic litera-
Rabbi Goldthan admonishes us that
ture. Add this to Judge Rifkind's recent
"Jewish ignorance is inevitably the pre- • just • . . We add ourselves, therefore, to
praise of the Ainerican Army in the res-
lude to the discarding of the Jewish way the current along which at present, move
all the world demodraCies in favor of
cue of JeWs in Europe, and you will see
of life and to the laws of Jewish iden-
these longings . . • When the Republic is
why Old Glory is so popular wherever
tity."
she flies.
Agreeing with him in the main, we be- restored in Spain this will be a problem
*
*
*
which we shall have to solve, fulfilling
lieve that the time has come for an en-
the imperative command of our duty; to
SMACK' ➢OWN
larged program of Jewish education
do justice to the Jewish people and to
among adults and for an expanded com-
Keep your weather eye on State At-
munity program for the dissemination of draw even tighter the bonds of friend-
torney General Kenny of California, who
ship that unite us with the Separditas .. .
learning.
is out to squelch the Ku Klux Klan in
We disagree on only one point in the The government over which I have the
that state, before it -crawls out of hiding
honor of presiding so does promise and
gloomy picture he and others—Dr. Louis
in the mountains near San Bernardino.
Finkelstein, among them—are painting. so shall fulfill" . . . The statement is
In _fact, keep both eyes on him. He moves
signed by Dr. Jose Giral, Prime Minister
'e disagree that we are facing disaster
fast and furiously.
and that our entire structure is collaps7 of the Spanish Republic (In Exile) . . .
*
*
Dr. Giral in the same statement stresses
ing. We believe that the devotion that is
LITERARY NOTE
inherent in Jewish ranks is sufficiently the fundamental kinship between the
Rabbi Joshua Loth Liebman's new
Jewish people and Spanish people . . .
powerful to .overcome basic ignorance.
evangelists inflammatory magazine, "Wes- book, ''Peace of Mind," is running a close
He
made
this
pronouncement
after
read-
We believe sincerely that many of our
tern Voice."
second to-nylons.
young people, resenting injustice, wheth- ing Abraham Friedman's book "Towards
* *
Springer, long a thorn in the side of
a Rapproachment Between the Hebraic
er it is patterned after British pledge-
TRAVEL
'NOTE
progressive civic and religious leaders . of
and Hispanic Worlds." •
breaking in Palestine or American army
* * *
Denver, features articles by Gerald L. K.
Captain Robert Gamzon and Dr. Renzo
practices in DP camps in Europe, will be-
Smith, Gerald Winrod, Mrs. Elizabeth Levi, who came to United States to help
PERSONALITIES
come sufficiently aroused to - emerge as
Congratulations to Dr. I. M. Rabirio- Dillirig and other admirers of Hitler's the UJA campaign, after rescuing Jews
strong Jews for whom an effective pro-
gram of adult education would prove witch, associate professor of medicine at racial program. Typical of the sensation- throughout the war, have returned to
McGill University, Montreal, Canada . . . alism purveyed by Springer are two of France and Italy, respectively. Watch for
thoroughly workable at this time.
His research work of 15 years on the use his latest front page stories — "Holly- other distinguished visitors who will join
MUST START FROM SCRATCH
of a special diet. for diabetics is being wood's Rape of America" and "The Most Imrich Rosenberg of Czechoslovakia, who
The trouble with our adult education
already has toured the country.
hailed
by the medical profession . . . Dr. Terrible War Ahead."
programs, most of which have not been
Springer himself is a vitriolic writer
workable, is that they were poorly Rabinowitch treated 5,000 persons in the
course of his research.
who contributes regularly to Winrod's QUOTE OF THE WEEK •
planned, that they were not continuous
Dr.
Adolph
M.
Koch,
founder
and
pres-
"Defender Magazine." The cowboy evan-
Gov. Martin of Pennsylvania, after an
projects intended as an uninterrupted
ident of -the Essex College of Medicine gelist has written numerous pamphlets Upton Close meeting: "We condemn those
chain of studies which should make our
and Surgery, is under heavy attack by a attacking various groups, including the who would betray America by seeking'
communities eager to learn our history,
group who would like to upset the col- Federal Council of Churches—the latter to array class against class, race against
our literature,. our language.
•
-
.
lege's policy of "no quota and no discrim- piece winning praise from Chicago's Liz race, religion against religion." Some-
It CAN be done, as. Dr. Goldnian has
ination."
Dilling as a Nvork done "with a pen times the timing of a statement carries
demonstrated in his own community, and
Max Band's famous painting, "The Last dipped in blood."
more punch than the content.
under his guidance -in other communities;
Defender of The Warsaw Ghetto," was
The Denver hatemonger is not recog
Such studies can and must be made in-
COMMENT WITHOUT COMMENT
teresting, so that JeWish adults . will purchased by Mrs. Rosenwald - Levy, nized by other Baptist churches of his
Overheard at an American Council fOr
daughter of Julius Rosenwald . . . This area, yet his tabernacle is always filled Judaism meeting: "Many of the argu-
clamor to attend an adult school. Let's
week
Band's
exhibition
opens
at
.the
Max-
and
his
collection
plates
are
seldom
emp-
try it.
ments are sound—merely sound."
well Galleries in San Francisco.
ty. Recently Springer journeyed to Puer-
Alfred- Fleishman may be a candidate to Rico with Winrod to establish a Span-
for the national command job of the ish speaking seminary which will purvey
Jewish War Veterans next February . . . their own brand of religious hatred to Moses Mendelssohn, to a Non - Jewish
The rank and. file blame national com- Puerto RiCans. •
,
Correspondent, in 1770
*
*
*
mander Maxwell Cohen for Fleisnman's
quitting the J. W. V. -
"Your question, why I do not try to
L. Segelman, 311 Ross, Pittsburgh:
By ACHAD HA'AM
*
*
*
have just finished reading your article make converts, has, I must say, some-
"Nothing is more dangerous for a WHO IS SPRINGER'.?
"Can You Stop This" in your column of what surprised me. The duty to pro-
nation or for an individual than to plead
The Anti-Defamafion League has the March 15 . . . I think you and Captain selytize 'springs clearly from the idea
guilty to imaginary sins. Where the sin
goods on the Rev. Springer . . . Here is the Saffran suffer from an inferiority com- that that outside a certain belief there
is real—by honest endeavour the sinner
report of the A. D. L. on the ► nan who plex and go around with chips on your is no salvation. I, as a Jew, am not bound
can purify himself. But when a man has
looms as the Protestant Father Coughlin: respective shoulders . . Most Jews I to accept that dogma, because according
been persuaded. to suspect himself un-
"The Rev. Harvey W. (Cowboy) Springer know get a kick out of the Jewish stor- to the teachings of the Rabbis, The
justly—what can he do? Our greatest of Englewood, Colorado, has found that ies on the program "Can You Top This" Righteous of All Nations Shall Have
need is emancipation from self-contempt,
rabble-rousing and promoting race hatred and like them _ William Gailmor, New Part in the Rewards of the Future World.
from this idea that we are really worse
pays off. This is evident in Springer's an- York: "Why don't you realize that the Your motive, therefore, is foreign -to me;
than all the world. Otherwise we may in
nouncement that he has obtained a build- screen could! be the most powerful weap- nay, as a Jew, I am not allowed publicly
course of time become in reality what
ing permit for the erection of a :$28,000 on in an international. campaign. against to attack any religion which is sound
we now imagine ourselves to be."
printing plant for the publishing of the bigotry and racial hatred.''
it its amoral teachings."

The Duty of
Self-Respect

PAGE FRANCO

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