THE JEWISH NEWS

Page Two

Purely
Commentary

Strictly a British Monopoly

Anti-Semitism in Bermuda

By WILLIAM B. SAPHIRE

By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

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

The pin-point Atlantic islands of Bermuda, Britain's oldest self-governing
A ROOSEVELT EXPLAINS
colony, have no Jews tohate but plenty of hatred for Jews. Anti-Semitism fits
Elliott Roosevelt, in his book "As He
into
the
Bermudian patterE of life, an iron-clad' caste system which thrives on
Saw It," wrote the Aollowing regarding
social snobbery, intimidation of the Negroes who constitute two-thirds of the
FDR's famous talk with Ibn Saud:
island's population, and a phobia for foreigners.
"The King and the President. talked
There may be two or three Jewish families on the islands, but if so they
first of the Jewish question in Palestine.
live an obscure, lonely life. It is the luinerican Jewish tourist who feels the
It had been Father's hope that he would
Islands' home brewed anti-Semitism. This, despite the fact that Bermudians live
be able to convince Ibn Saud on the equi-
by and for the tourist dollar.'
ty of the settlement in. Palestine of the
There are no street corner agitators, no hate pamphleteers, no insulting
epithets scrawled on the coral pink walls. Yet the islands' Jew hatred is about
tens of thousands of Jews driven from
as subtle as the sting of the ray fish which inhabit the surrounding water. The
their European homes, persecuted, wan-
possessor of an allegedly Jewish name meets with icey stares in most hotels,
dering. Later Bernard Baruch was to tell
stores
and tea shpps.
me that Father had confessed that of all
"Off season a Jew might be admitted into one of the luxury hotels or
the men he had talked to in his life, he
guest houses which boast, on signs in their parlors, that "our clientale is care-
had got least satisfaction from this iron-
fully restricted," but after the formalities of registration are over he won't be
willed Arab monarch. Father ended bye greeted or otherwise spoken* to by the management. "On season" the Jewish
promising Ibn Saud he would sanction
tourist doesn't have a chance except in the two or three third rate hotels . near
no American move hostile to the Arab
Hamilton's waterfront.
Twice in her recent history, Bermuda has had a "Jewish problem." The first
people."
came about before the war when American steamship lines offered weekly cruises
This paragraph leaves us in a quandry.
to
Bermuda
with the ship as- hotel. "The kikes from the States swarmed all over
If FDR had "least satisfaction" from Ibn
the island," I hoard one Bermuda merchant recall in a Hamilton travel office.
Saud, why did he make him the promise
That "crisis" was• averted by a quick ordinance prohibiting the use of ships as
that proved so damaging to the Zionist
hotels in Bermuda.
cause?
The second "Jew problem" occurred during the war when a number -of
Mr. Baruch had the courage to call a
Jewish civilian engineers, draftsmen and laborers employed by the U. S. Army and
spade a spade, and we sincerely hope
Navy were sent to the islands to work on the new $50,000,000 American base.
President Truman will not be swayed by
These men, along with Jewish soldiers and sailors stationed on the island, formed
Ihn Saud's latest arrogance.
Bermuda's first Jewish congregation.
But the Roosevelt enigma, as expressed
Anglican Church in Hamilton gave them the use of one of its halls for the
in the paragraph we have quoted from
High Holy Days and for Passover, but the local population shunned them.
Palestine
and Bermuda made joint headlines when President Truman visited
us
in
a
quandry.
his son's book. leaves
the islands last summer. Bishop Arthur Hebei Brown, of Trinity Church, at a
Surely, we had expected much more as
Sunday service attended by the President, urged his congregation to pray for the
a heritage from FDR.
•
•
•
return of the Jews to Palestine. American correspondents in the President's party
interpreted this as an astutely timed reference to a delicate political problem.
WE1SGAL'S WARNINGS
Bermudians paid no attention. "They just left church with the impression • the
On the eve of his return to this coun-
Bishop is an eccentric," the editor of the Bermuda paper told me.
try, after spending five months in Pales-
Anti-Semitism in Bermuda does not affect the majority of its population, the
tine • Meyer W. Weisgal, who held the
Negroes. Emancipated from slavery in 1838 they have since been relegated to the
proxy for Dr. Chaim Weizmann at recent
lowest rung of the islands' rigid social ladder. In the islands' civil service they
Zionist meetings in Paris, warned that
are rarely promoted to posts higher than letter carriers. At present there are
about a half dozen Negroes in the Colonial Parliament. There could be many
the only s,xlution to "terrorism" in Pales-
more. but the vote is limited to persons owning property valued at at least $240.
tine is the admission of Jewish immi-
About 2.000 persons, out of the islands' 36,000, white and Negro, can vote.
grants: decried terroristic actions by de-

claring that "constructive achievement is
the greatest, cleanest and most effective
weapon we have in our hands," and de-
clared that unless the situation improves
even the World Zionist Congress is likely
to be dominated "by elements that have
lest faith in fairness, justice and the
ability of any British government to meet
Jewish needs of the hour."
These are realistic admonitions, and it

would be well for British officials and
for Jewish leaders to take them seriously.
We have contended, in a similar spirit,
that the British actions were responsible
for the acts of terrorism and the elements
of despair that have caused even conser-
vative American Jewish leaders to speak
in drastic terms of the perfidious treat-
ments accordeaThT in Palestine.
•
•
•
"A MOCKERY OF THE LAW"
It would be wrong to accuse all British

judges in Palestine of unfairness in deal-
ing with arrested Jews.
Writing in the Sunday Times of Lon-
don. J. L. Hays, that newspaper's Jerusa-
lem correspondent, stated:
Of 3,489 men and women detained
since the big search of the Jewish
Agency offices and of settlements
throughout Palestine on June 29, only
four, I understand, have been formally
charged and will be brought before
civil or military courts. This is a sit-
uation which is creating profound con-
cern among senior officials of the Pal-
estine government's advocate-general's
branch and officers of the military
courts. All but 500 of the detainees have
now been released after varying periods
in Latrun and Rafa camps in "adminis-
trative" detention, without 'being in-
formed whether or when they will be
formally charged and given an oppor-
tunity of defending themselves.
This week Judge L. A. W. Orr, after
acquitting a Jewish youth charged with
distributing terrorist leaflets, was in-
formed by a police officer in court that
the youth would be returned to the de-
tention camp as an "administrative de-
tainee." "The police must make up
their minds whether they intend to
bring these people before a proper
court of law or detain them administra-
tively," said the judge. "You are mak-
ing a mockery of the law."

As long as there is at least one jurist
who rettels against making "a mockery
of the law," we have reason to feel that
the situation is not hopeless. Others must
begin to feel his way—for the sake of re-
, storing peace between the BrItish and
the Jews and assuring amity among Jews
and Arabs. • • •

CONFLICT OF PERSONALITIES

There is less conflict over major princi-
ples than there is over personality differ-
ences in Jewish life.
The ZOA "debate" over partition
proves it.
Given a definite partition proposal, we
doubt whether a single opponent would
arise on the scene.
But there are differences among lead-
'ers—and the fight must go on. That's
where the rub comes in.

Strictly
Confidential

Heard in
The Lobbies

By PHINEAS J. BIRON

By ARNOLD LEVIN

(Copyright, 1946, Seven Arts)

(Copyright. 1946. Independent Jcv.ish
Press Service. Inc.)

WRONG PREDICTION

S. Ralph Lazrus, new president of the
Albert Einstein Foundation, Inc., which
plans to establish America's first non-
sectarian university under JeArish aus-
pices, takes vigorous issue with this
column's.prediction that the project "will
still be a project in 1947 because of lack
funds" . . Mr. Lazrus says: "On the
contrary. the overwhelming acceptance of
a Jewish sponsored, non-quota, secular
university by all groups of Americans
leads all of us to believe that our program
will be one of the Jewish community's
strongest and moist universally supported
projects in centuries. Initial backing of
the Foundation leaves no reason to be-
lieve that the University will suffer from
lack of funds" . . . This column is only
too happy to withdraw its prediction
made Oct. 4.

LONDON WARE •
Naturally skeptical because of past ex-
periences, Zionist leaders have, nonethe-
less, some confidence in Arthur Creech-
Jones, the new British Colonial Secretary.
They believe that he, for one, is not just
a fair-weather friend. He has been an
outspOken pro-Zionist even after he had
become Under Secretary for Colonies.
Promotion to full Secretary could not
have completely .altered his views, they
contend.
The man appears to be genuinely em-
barrassed by Labor Government policy
and anxious to make amendment ... Ask
Labor Zionist David Wertheim about the
sessions in Berl Locker's kitchen in war-
time London, when Ben Gurion, Shertok
• • •
and Creech-Jones thrashed out the Pal-
MISCELLANY
estine problem while helping Mrs. Locker
Sylvan Joseph, former OPA official, dry the dishes, Wertheim, incidentally, is
will be the new business manager for the one of the finest anecdotists we know
last battles in the Mead-Lehman cam- among Zionist speakers.
paign . . . Art Lovers: Don't miss "The
• •
Ten Commandments", a collection of 10
full color prints -by painter A. Raymond BOOKS
Congratulations again to the Jewish
Katz . . . L. M. Stein is the publisher .. .
Ernst Kaltenbrunner, whose Gestapo Publication Society. This time for the
murdered three million Jews, spent his History of the Jews of Italy by Cecil Roth
last hours reading "Amor Dei" . . . A (575 pages and 20 illustrations and end
book on the works of the Jewish philoso- maps, $3.00). The first book in any lan-
guage on the history of Jews in Italy, it
pher, Spinoza . . .
• • •
covers the story of Italian Jewry from the
days of the Roman•Republic, through the
PERSONALIA
When you 'hie enjoying Bing Crosby's Empire, through the Papacy, to the col-
recording of "When You. Make Love to lapse of Mussolini. Dr. Roth tells an en-
Me", the music is by Jasha Heifetz . . . grossing story seasoned with anecdotes
Recording as Hoyle . . . Mazeltov, Bess and turiae.
The Lowells and their Seven Worlds by
Myerson and Allan Wayne, honeymoon-
ing at Grossinger's ... Paul Muni is next Ferris Greenslet is one of the most solid
on the list of Hollywood stars slated for books in this season's output. It tells the
the "Red" smear . . . After Muni they'll story of the versatile, colorful Lowell
go to work on Margaret O'Brien . . . family of poets, college presidents and
Dinah Shore will brighten MGM's techni- New England aristocrats from the arrival
color screen . . . At the highest figure of the first Lowell on America's shores
to Amy Lowell, leader of the poetry re-
ever paid to a cinema chanteuse.
bellion in the second decade of this cen-
• •
tury.
SCOOPETTES
A fascinating chronicle of an important
Joe McWilliams, America's little Fuehrer,
is back in New York looking very suc- American family,-it is much more than
of the tem-
cessful . . . Those who attacked "The that, however, it is the story
talent,
Protestant" recently will be interested to perament, impulseS, instincts,
Eng-
know that the September issue of "The ethics and social manners of New
land. Van Wyck Brooks, The_ Flowering
The
Flag",
Gerald
L.
K.
and
Cross
Smith's hate sheet, is attacking "The of New England, George Willison's Saints
Protestant" in even more violent lingo and Strangers, a story of the Pilgrims,
a most com-
. . Which reminds us that Solomon A. and this volume constitute
Feinberg, former national chaplain of the prehensive history of New England.

- Friday, November 1, 1946

Between
You and Me

By BORIS SMOLAR

(Copyright. 1946, Jewish Telegraphic
Agency. Inc.)

THE UNITED NATIONS
Jewish organizations have little to do
now at the United Nations General As-
sembly . . . The question of human rights
has become an integral part of the peace
treaties agreed upon in Paris . . The
Palestine question will hardly be raised
at the present session . . . The principal
issue in which Jewish groups are inter-
ested now—and which will be a hot issue
at the General Assembly—is the refugee
problem.
Russia does not see eye to eye with
Britain and the United ,States on the
functions of the International Refugees
Organization, which the General Assem-
bly will have to define . . . This organiza-
tion may become the beneficiary of all
the property of the massacred European
Jews who left no heirs . . . This is one of
the achievements of the delegations of
American Jewish organizations who were
sent to Paris in connection with the Peace
Conference ... As a result of their activi-
ties, the U. S. delegation suggested an
amendment to the treaties with Hungary
and Romania providing that the govern-
ments of these countries transfer to the
International Refugee Organization, for
relief *and rehabilitation purposes, all
heirless or unclaimed property of persons
killed by the Nazis on racial or religious
grounds . .. This amendment was adpot-
ed by a majority vote, with the Russian
bloc voting against it . . Its final fate
will be decided at the meeting of the
Council of Foreign Ministers in New York
next month . . . If Russia does not use
its veto rights at the council, the Inter-
national Refugee Organization will take
possession not only of all heirless proper-
ty of individual Jews in Hungary and Ro-
mania, but also of property belonging fo
Jewish organizations and communities
which were wiped out.

•

•

•

ZIONIST AFFAIRS

The British government knows by now
that three of the Arab countries are def-
initely inclined to support the establish-
ment of a Jewish state in a partitioned
Palestine ... The three are Egypt, Trans-
jordan and Lebanon ... But the possibil-
ity of Britain's agreeing to partition and
to the formation of a Jewish state is now
more remote than ever before . . . This

is known to the leaders of the Jewish
Agency, who will henceforth lay more
stress on the demand for increased im-
migration to Palestine than on the estab-
lishment of a Jewish state . . • Incidental-
ly, it is also known that the Irgun and
the Stern group, who oppose partition,

would extend their terrorist activities if
partition were effected . . . On the other
hand they would cease these activities if
Palestine were opened for increased`Jew-
ish immigration . . . Partition would be
considered by them as "treason" and a
"sell out" by the Jewish Agency.
In the ranks of the American Zionist
leadership, more accent will now be laid
on increased immigration than on parti- ,
tion . . . American Zionist leaders are
readying themselves for a stronger voice
in the Jewish Agency . . . Some openly
advance the theory that since most of
the funds for the Jewish Agency come
from the U. S.:the American Zionists are
entitled to have a say as' to how these
funds should be spent . .. The possibility
that such a demand would eventually
be advanced -was foreseen sometime ago
by Eliezer Kaplaii, the able treasurer of
the Jewish Agency . . . He, therefore,
came to the U. S. with a suggestion that
the Jewish National Fund and the Keren
Hayesod be transferred from the juris-
diction of the World Zionist executive to
the Jewish National Countil of Palestine

In Retrospect

Twenty Years Ago This Week

By JOHN KAYSTON, JTA Librarian
The outstanding Jewish news develdp-
ment twenty years ago this week was the
arrival in the United States of Dr. Chaim
Weizmann; president of the World Zion-
ist Organization. He was accompanied by
the late Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff and Dr..
George Halpern, director of the Anglo-
Palestine Bank. This was his fourth visit
to the United States.
Dr. Weizmann had been long expected
in the U. S. in connection with the con-
templated forniation of the Jewish Agen-
cy to include American non-Zionists, and
the launching of the $7,500,000 United
Palestine AppeaL In an interview _with
the JTA, he expressed confidenee in
American Jewry's cooperation in the up-
building of Palestine. He was received at
Jewish War Veterans, advocates a policy
to ignore people like G. L. K. Smith in well-informed Washington sources , Bilbo the White House by President Coolidge
to whom he described the progress of the
the current issue of the Commentary .. . will "develop" a heart disease when his
Senator Bilbo may be missing from the war contract connections are investigated I upbuilding of the Jewish National Home
I in Palestine.
Senate newt session ... According to by the Kilgore Committee.

.

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