Page Two
Purely
Commentary
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
THE COMPLETE CONTRADICTION
Why has the world reverted to a spirit
of reaction and bigotry in dealing with
Jews?
Why does a man like Ernest Bevin
inject doubts in the hearts of men?
Is it possible that thinking men and
women continue to harbor enmity for
our people—for the reason only that.
Jews are persecuted?
In 1892, the great philosopher, Ahad
Ha-Am, wrote an essay in which he de-
plored that "in all this fresh outbreak of
calamities that has come upon us of late,
there is nothing so distressing to every
Jew as the recrudescence of the 'blood-
accusation'." In this essay, the great
writer and thinker stated:
It was recently asked by a Russian
writer, in all simplicity: Since every-
body hates the Jews, can we think that
everybody is wrong, and the Jews are
right? There are many among us Jews
on whom a similar question half-un-
consciously forces itself. Can we think,
they ask, that all the vicious charac-
teristics and evil practices which the
whole world ascribes to the Jews are
sheer imagination?
After a brilliant discussion of the
"blood-accusation"—the stupid lie which
was again revived in two European coun-
tries during the past few weeks, Ahad
Ha-Am made this important observa-
tion:
"But"—you ask—"is it possible that
everybody can be wrong, and the Jews
right?"
Yes, it is possible: the blood-accusa-
tion proves it possible. Here, you see,
the Jews are right and perfectly inno-
cent. A Jew and blood—could there
be a more complete contradiction? And
yet . „
In the world of Ernest Bevin there IS
a complete contradiction in human re-
lations. Men, women and children, the
group of survivors of the most tragic at-
tempt to exterminate an entire people,
are dying. But "statesmen" choose to use
weasel-words and to confuse the minds
of peoples in matters that should be
basic as obligations to rescue human be-
ings from despair and degradation.
Is it possible that betrayals are to
continue without end, and that indecency
replaces humaneness in world politics?
Can it be that politicians will remain
conscienceless and will continue to en-
courage a policy of wholesale murder
against an entire people? Surely, Mr.
Bevin must have studied world history
and knows that Israel, once reduced to a
mere two million souls or less in the
entire world, emerged again as a thriv-
ing world factor. Surely,. he knows that
a people does not abandon the battle for
justice. If there is despair, it is tem-
porary. Israel will gain strength from
disillusionment. Perhaps even Ernest
Bevin will learn it anew in his own day.
* *. '*
"REVOLT AGAINST THE EXILE"
Mr. Bevin should be sent a copy of the
address which Dr. Judah L. Magnes, pres-
ident of the Hebrew University of Jeru-
salem, delivered to his student body on
Dec. 6, 1945. The current issue of Men-
orah Journal carries the text of this
address, in an official English transla-
tion from the Hebrew, under the title
"Rebellion." We commend one para-
graph of it to our readers. We hope it will
be read especially by those who encour-
age despair in Jewish ranks with their at-
tempts to prolong Jewish homelessness
and to prevent the emancipation of the
dispossessed and disinherited among our
people. Dr. Magnes, who is now visiting
in this country, said in his address to the
Hebrew University students:
The establishment of the National
Home in Palestine—that is the most
thoroughgoing revolution in the his-
tory of Israel for generations. That is
the revolt against the Exile, against the
lack of a mother-land, against the lack
of a center for the People. This rebel-
lion succeeded from the very first. How
was this rebellion achieved? Solely and
alone through sacred work upon the
sacred soil, by plain men who be-
lieved in the mighty ideals of Israel,
and who were ready to lay down their
lives in order to build, and not de-
stroy, in order to erect the national
home, stone upon stone, course upon
course, through creative, constructive
labor, work, work every day and every
hour, and in every field and under all
conditions.
These are the words of a man who is
not an "extremist," with whose too-mod-
erate views we have often disagreed. But
they ARE the sentiments of a-man :who.
consistently advocates for peace and
THE JEWISH NEWS
For the Cause of Freedom
By PROF. HAROLD LASKI
Excerpt From An Address at the Meeting of the British Labor Party
- in Bournemouth, England
I am not asking for a Jewish State in Palestine but I do ask that both swiftly
and straightforwardly the government make it possible for the tragic remnant
of 100,000 European Jews to be given access to Palestine.
I ask that neither .Arab blackmail nor the strategy on which our policy in
the Middle East is based make the homeless - wanderer the victim of hesitation
and timidity in Downing Street.
I' am bound by hundreds of threads of invisible tradition to plead strongly=
for justice and magnanimity. The world knows that no nation suffered in this
war as the Jews have suffered. Over- a year has passed since the defeat of the
enemy. Our victory gave them something to hope for, for the first time since 1933.
Is their renewed chance for creative living, so strongly supported by the recom-
mendation of the Anglo-American Inquiry Committee, to be evaded and in. the
end bargained about, as if it were a commodity in an Oriental bazaar?
I admit at once that the situation there (in Palestine) is too complex for any
simple formula . . . It is only right for me to say quite frankly that the admission
of Jewish immigrants to the h6me . their fellow settlers there made ready for
them is not an economic nor military problem, except to those statesmen or
administrators who have neither the heart to be generous nor the mind to see
things in their true perspective. -A British statesman who sacrifices to Arab
leaders the Jews who escaped the tortures of Hitler does not understand the
elementary principles of socialism. It is not socialism to leave a tormented people
with no future, save that of additional agony which comes to those who see hopes
of freedom broken in pieces by a government seeking to strive for the cause of
freedom.
Heard in
The Lobbies
By ARNOLD LEVIN
(Copyright. 1946. Independent Jewish
Press Service. Inc.)
THE PUREST OF MOTIVES
The Labor• party's rotund dancing boy,
in a speech horribly reminiscent of a
sawed-off black mustache, said last week:
"Regarding the agitation in the United
States, and particularly in New York, for
100,000 Jews to be put into Palestine, I
hope it will not be misunderstood in
America if I say, with the purest of mo-
tives, that was because they do not want
too many of them in New York." God
help England if she has fallen so low
that these represent her purest . motives
. . . What would you think of a man who
stuck a knife in the back of a friend who
had helped save him from a murderer,
and then smiled coyly- at the murderer's
fingerman?
*
* • *
THE COHENS AND THE KELLYS
Bernie Postal, Jewish Welfare Board
Public Information Director, calls atten-
tion to General Omar Bradley's remark
that the veterans are truly representative
Americans. He found that the Veterans
Administration records list 28,000 Kellys
and 17,500 Cohens.
*
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A YOUNG MAN OF SIXTY
A galaxy of stars shone in New York
last week to pay tribute to philanthropist
Edmund I. Kaufmann, former ZOA pres-
ident and current UJA chairman for ini-
tial gifts, on the occasion of his sixtieth
birthday. Among the praise-singers were
Herbert Bayard Swope, Judge Simon Rif-
kind, Samuel Rosenman, Clarence Pick-
ett. In his tribute, Judge Morris Rosen-
berg told of a man who was about to be
sentenced. The judge gave him 60 years.
"But your Honor," the prisoner protested,
"how can you give me such a long
term? I am 60 years old already." The
judge nodded kindly. "That's all right,"
he said. "Just do the best you can."
*
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THE PUBLICITY WORLD
Charlie Plotkin, demon publicity man
recently out of the Army, and even more
recently associated with Food For Free-
dom, is typing the manuscript of his
tome on food and the world scene . . .
Noel Meadow, who generally handles
publicity for Night of Stars and who re-
cently did the same for the Cancer Drive
in New York, is one of the editors of the
most breezy trade paper for Writers, The
Writer's Journal . . Harold Steinberg
took over as publicity director of the
United Palestine Appeal last week.
amity among all people, among Jews and
Arabs.
They are prophetic words. They are a
challenge to Jews to carry on with their
labors. And they are a warning to our
antagonists that a just rebellion can not
be suppressed with Bevin-made weasel-
words.
•
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AN INSULT TO ENTIRE . U. S. "- .
One thing is certain: Mr. Bevin's "cheap
slur" was an insult not only to the Jews
of New York, and therefore also to the
Jews of the world; it was an insult to
the United States of America an im-
portant portion of whose population he
had seen fit to humiliate.
Bartley C. Crum was justified in de-
manding That the mandate for Palestine
be taken from Great Britain and turned
over to the United Nations. It was very
thoughtful of him to suggest. the United
States as the mandatory power. Any
change would be a good one, .judging on
tfii? basis of7131-litairir exceptionally= bad ,:
record in Palestir*
Frklay, June 21, 1946
Strictly
Confidential
By PHINEAS J. BIRON
Copyright, 1946. Seven Arts
Feature Syndicate. Inc.
Guest Co/umnist:
Pierre Van. Paassen
An excerpt of "Earth Could Be Fair."
Pierre van Paassen's new best-seller . . In
this beautifully written piece van Paassen
tells of the tribulations of the Jewish com-
munity in his home town during the \Var.
THE END OF THE ROAD
Rich and poor, old and young, sick and
well, the Jews and half-Jews and quarter-
Jews were thrown together in a stifling
promiscuity in the syfitagogue. At nine
o'clock in the evening the doors were
locked and 'the windows closed, and a
German sentry was placed at the grill.
Lights were not permitted, and since the
only -water closet was in the back of the
yard, pails had to be used during the
night, causing an insufferable stench. In
a short time the • prisoners were ill and
the interior of the synagogue, where straw
was used for bedding but seldom re-
freshed,. resembled one of those medieval
lazarettos Or pesthouses of which Saint
Vincent de Paul has left us a description
and where death came as a welcoine re-
By BORIS SMOLAR
lease.
(Copyright, 1946, Jewish Telegraphic
Nineteen persons out of the 130 died
Agency. Inc.)
during the first 16 months of hunger and
WASHINGTON NOTES
destitution. Most of these were old folk
There was a good deal of behind-the-
and very young children. Only when the
scenes bickering in Washington prior to
16 months were over, and the misery and
President Truman's creation of his Cab-
human degradation in the synagogue
inet Committee on Palestine ... The con-
seemed to have reached its lowest depth,
troversy was between the State Depart-
did a change come. But it was not a
ment and White House circles . . . Some
change for the better. Then only began
of the President's advisors urged him to
the real road of sorrows. What followed
name a personal representative with the
must have made the survivors often think
rank of ambassador to follow through im-
back to their incarceration at the syna-
plementation of the Anglo-Ameriean in- gogue as a relatively pleasant holiday.
quiry committee's report . . . And the
*
*
•
name most often mentioned for this post
In the late summer of 1941 the Nazis
was that of Bartley -C. Crum, one of the
weeded out all the young men and women
U. S. members of the inquiry committee from the Jewish -compounds they had es-
. . . The State Department objected to
tablished all over Holland. They sent the
Crum, holding that no member of the boys to the sulphur mines of Germany .
Anglo-American inquiry committee
and Hungary and the girls to the mili-
should be named a negotiator . . . An-
tary brothels that were set up all over
other argument advanced was that Crum Eastern Europe in anticipation of the
has become persona non-grata in London Fuehrer's forthcoming Russian campaign.
because of his criticism of the British . .
Seventeen thousand Dutch Jewish youth
Those advocating the appointment of
were deported in that way in the month
Crum said that it is only logical for a
of June. In December of the same year
Presidential appointee to be some one only 9,000, of • these were alive. The rest
who is thoroughly acquainted with the
had perished, as a cynical note in the
Palestine problem and the position of the
German Gazette for the Netherlands an-
displaced Jews in Europe . . . The idea
nounced on Dec. 15, 1941, "as a result of
of establishing a Cabinet committee—
their 'inability to get accustomed to the
modeled after President Roosevelt's com-
change of climate." The sinister truth is
mittee on refugees—was decided upon
that most of the 8,000 died of the effects
. . . Henry Morgenthau, Jr., in a broad-
of brutal and purposely careless opera-
cast several weeks ago, was the first to tion for sexual sterilization to which
suggest that President Truman establish
they were subjected. Of the thou-
a Cabinet Committee to deal with im- sands of girls and young women who were
plementation of the recommendation to
deported simultaneously with the boys
admit 100,000 Jews to Palestine. The soul no one was ever heard of again.
of the committee will now be Henry
Insofar as the Jewish community of
Grady, former Assistant Secretary of Gorcum was concerned, this weeding out
State . . . He will play the same role as process of the youth meant a reduction of
John Pehle did in Roosevelt's Cabinet *their number to 72 souls. This remnant
committee on refugees . . . Senator Elbert was transferred to the local penitentiary
Thomas of Utah and Senator James Mur- for women, from which the former pris-
ray of Montana were originally proposed
oners had been removed to Dordt. The
for Grady's post, but apparently were not
Jews were lodged in the upper stories,
acceptable to the State Department. _
the ground floor being occupied by a de-
*
*
tail of the infamous - Schutz-Staffeln or
BEHIND THE SCENE
Elite Guards assigned to the liquidation
American military authorities have of the JeWishproblem in our community.
completed their study of the British re-
*
*
*
quest that U. S. troops be stationed in
The SS Standart Gruppe stationed at
Palestine as one of the conditions for the
the prison was in charge of a certain Au-
admission of" 100,000 Jews there . . . The
gust Definer, a thing anaemic, long-
conclusion to which they came is that
nosed • fellow, who was like Horst Wessel
Britain maintains a sufficiently large
the son of an evangelical pastor from
military force in Palestine to deal with
any possible Arab outbreaks . . . This is Elberfeld-Barmen and like that proto-
a rebuke to British Foreign Secretary type of- Nazi satyriasis a frustrated intel-
lectual who had become a follower of Hit-
Bevin who told the Labor Party conven-
ler in the days when the movement's
tion that he would have to send a division
leadership swarmed with homosexuals
of troops to Palestine to keep order if the
and white slaves. I knew the Nazi leaders,
100,000 Jews are admitted.
as well as Horst Wessel, in the days of the
If you wish to know who is respon-
party's rise to power. I know whereof I
sible for uniting the American Jewish
speak. I can well believe the accounts of
Conference, the American Jewish Com-
the -few survivors of that episode in the
mittee and the American Zionist Emer-
Gorcum prison when they declare it to
gency Committee for sending simul-
have been an unadulterated, unimagin-
taneous messages to Truman urging the
able hell.
admission of the 100,000 Jews to Pales-
Not every man will take his life
tine, we . can name the person • . He
in his hands and brave a power that has
is none other than Isadore Lubin, noted
made a specialty of ruthlessness and
economist and former Presidential ad-
Screcklichkeit. The repressional appara-
visor . . Lubin was the mediator
tus of the Germans in Holland, as every-
among the three groups on wider co-
where else, was a machine of formid-
ordination on the Palestine issue . . .
able might and relentless vindictiveness.
The Zionists have great confidence in
It had teeth. It brooked no interference,
him and so have the non-Zionists.
allowed no criticism or admonition to
A non-Zionist member of the executive
of the Jewish Agency who is now on a compassion, no whisper of dissent or ap-
peal to reason. It struck, crushed, man-
visit in this country predicts civil war in
gled, annihilated anyone daring to raise
Palestine . . . No publicity whatsoever
himself' in its path. The least overt act
has been given to his arrival and activi-
or word of opposition of the New Order
ties in this country, although he has ad-
was answered with totalitarian Nazi
dressed important private meetings on
thoroughness and dispatch. The people
the Palestine situation.
were overawed by the might of the sys-
The Veterans' Administration records
list no less than 17,500 Cohens, according tem, by its cruelty and by its machine-
to Gen. Oniar N. Bradley, head of the like heartlessness. They were themselvesi
bureau,.
• in a fog of terror.
Between
You and Me