JEWISH NEWS

Page Two

Purely
Commentary

Russia and Zionism

Weiziiann Reveals a Tragic Quirk

By BARTLEY CRUM

By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

An Excerpt from His Book, "Behind the Silken Curtains," Published by Simon & Schuster

LIBERTARIANS AND ILLUSIONISTS
Passover is an idea' time for discussion
of conflicting attitudes in the battle for
liberty and justice.
Palestine unquestionably is one of the
most important battlefronts in the world
today in the fight for freedom. But even
among the chief actors in this great
drama, there are opposing views as to
methods of continuing the struggle. There
is an element that holds to the view that
only force ("learn from the Irish," they
tell us) against the British will accomp-
lish the desired end.
When he was in Detroit a few days ago,
Edgar Ansell Mowrer, the very eminent
Christian Zionist, told an Irgunist parti-
san that to him the extremist Zionist
policy was comparable to that of the fol-
lowers of John Brown in the days preced-
ing the American Civil War and that he
did not think John Brown's acts Were
helpful to the cause of freedom.
Let us, therefore, look at the record.
• • •
LINCOLN OPPOSED VIOLENCE
In an address in Cooper Union, New
York, Abraham Lincoln made the follow-
ing significant statement:
"John Brovi, n's effort was peculiar. It
was not slave insurrection. It was an
attempt by white men to set up a revolt
among the slaves in which the slaves
refused to participate. In fact it was so
absurd that the slaves with all their
ignorance saw plainly enough that
it
could not succeed . . . An enthusiast
rules over the oppression of a people
till he fancies himself commissioned by
heaven to liberate them. He ventures
the attempt which ends in little else
than his own execution. We cannot ob-
ject to old John Brown's execution for
treason against his state. We cannot
object even though he agreed with us
in thinking slavery wrong. That cannot
excuse violence, bloodshed and
treason."
The Irgunists' position is so identical
that further comment is unnecessary.
There are other authoritative state-
ments. Guy Lee, in "True Civil War,"
maintained that—

One evening I met Dr. Chaim Weizmann, the outstanding Jewish leader of our
tim. He was not in good health. He had just been discharged from a hospital after a
serious operation, but his handclasp -was strong. It was astonishing to see how he
resembled Lenin, a non-Jew. I was told that Lenin and he were in Switzerland at
the same time years ago and were quite frequently mistaken for each other. Tall,
broad-shouldered, with 'a black goatee, his dark eyes somber undr a high-domed
forehead, he struck me as a weary man, with an innate courtesy and an aftertouch
of bitterness in his words. Here, I felt, was a towering figure; a great man whose
premise, his faith in Britain, was being pulled from under his feet. Because he had
believed so implicitly that Britain would come through on its Palestine pledges, he
now found himself in a well-nigh intolerable position but still had faith.
He had regretfully come to the conclusion, he said, that a portion of Palestine
was the only solution. In the near future he hoped to see a democratic state
with a Jewish majority in Palestine. The only way, though, he said, was by parti-
tion plus the immediate migration of 100,000 Jews into Palestine.
"I had a promise from Mr. Churchill," he said, that if he were returned to_office
in the summer of 1945, he would immediately go forward with a generous partition
plan. But "He did not complete the sentence . . .
He told us something of the early history of Zionism. Much of the trouble in
Palestine, he felt, stemmed from the fact that the Balfour Declaration coincided
with the Bolshevist rise to power. Earlier, during Kerensky's brief regime, Rus-
sian Zionists raised 300,000,000 rubles to enable thousands of Russian Jews to
emigrate to Palestine. Had the Bolshevists not come to power, Weizmann said, by
the early 1920s there might have been a Jewish majority in Palestine. In 1917
there were only 800,000 Arabs in Palestine.
But the Communists then saw the Zionists as tools of British imperialism. The
USSR banned Zionism; the 300.000.000 rubles were confiscated; and by halting all
Russian Jewish emigration the Bolshevists cut off the principal source of Palestine's-
Jewish immigration. Despite this historical evidence to the contrary, some British
subconsciously associate the Palestine state with Communism, Weizmann believes,
and this identification has worked tragically against European Jewry.

"One result of John Brown's Raid
was, it united all the South against the
North."
A similar view is expressed in Howe's
'Political History of Secession," which
goes so far as to state:
"Brown could only be excused if he
were insane, If not insane, he was a
criminal." -
• • •
INSANITY OF SUICIDE
These opinions must not be taken
lightly. The experiences in Palestine
should teach us that it is difficult if not
impossible to attain complete freedom by
blowing up hotels or by destroying rail-
roads. Our path has been outlined very
sanely by the elements in Haganah who
insists on the right to fight for free immi-
gration and to go the limit in assisting
newcomers in setting foot on the soil of
Eretz Israel. These objectives have been
interfered with by methods which have
brought about curfews and martial law.
They are methods tantamount to suicide,
and the traditional Jewish attitude rejects
suicide as a way out of trouble.
Your Commentator goes so far as to
agree with the viewpoint of Dr. Chaim
Weizmann who. in his address to the re-
cent World Zionist Congress, declared:
"Masada, for all its heroism, was a
disaster in our history. It is not our
purpose or our right to plunge to de-
struction in order to bequeath a legend
of martyrdom to posterity. Zionism was
to mark the end of our glorious deaths
and the beginning of a new path, lead-
ing to life. Against the heroics of sui-
cidal violence, I urge the courage of
endurance, the heroism - of human re-
straint."
Recognizing that this is not the popular
view of our time. we believe nevertheless
that mass suicide, even if it is in the role
of unusual heroism is not helr, fol to our
cause—just as John Brown's Raid was
adjudged harmful to the cause of liberty
in the Civil War era.
Passover, the Festival of Freedom, is a
good occasion for re-evaluation of the
various conflicting ideologies which are
battling for supremacy in Jewish life. Ob-
jective and unbiased study will convince
us that we can support the resistance
program of Haganah without resorting to
violence: that we owe it to our children
to hand down to them a heritage of
heroism that is based not on destruction
and violence but on common sense and
a determined effort to win without either
taking lives or destroying property.

ire

Friday, April 4, 1947

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,

Heard in
The Lobbies

By ARNOLD LEVIN

MADAM SWASTIKASICAD
If Madam Swastika Flagstad plans to
"benefit" your community with her vo-
cal talents, call to the attention of your
fellow' citizens the fact that she left the
United States during the war to extend
similar benefits to the Nazi big-wigs, that
her husband was a leading Norwegian
quisling. that the Norwegian government
rejoiced at the news that Madam contem-
plated exchanging her Norwegian citizen-
ship for American naturalization and,
also call to their attention this from Ma-
rine Captain Frank Farrell's letter to Wal-
ter Winchell:
"Before the war, when I was a care-
free young man of Manhattan I had .the
doubtful pleasure of showing Flagstdd
the town . . . She spent most of her time
damning the not Barb-Aryans at the
Metropolitan. particularly a young con-
ductor, and the rest of the time extolling
the benefits an artiste accrued by escap-
ing 'from Jewish-Communist America to
the area dominated by the Third Reich
... If Flagstad attains the status of Amer-
ican citizenship . . . through the lobby-
ing of Metropolitan 'music lovers' . . . I
shall seriously consider giving up mine—
because in the next war I should hate to
contemplate 'that I was shedding blood
for Flagstad."
And from the latest issue of Good
Housekeeping we quote the following
well considered passage:
"It is our considered opinion that since
Madam Flagstad preferred a Nazi regime
to our own, she should stay in Europe
now and not be welcomed here, to take
away more of our Amgrican dollars. In
this country for some years now, many
of them still without a living, are anti-
Nazis who had courage enough, and re-
spect enough both for music and the spirit
of democracy, to quit their native lands
rather than put up with Fascist doctrines.
What a mockery to them must seem this
sudden reception of Madam Flagstad! If
Flagstad comes, then surely we may fox
ptct Mr. Furtwengler and Mr. Gigli, and
Mr. Gieseking—all of whom did their bit
for the cause of Fascism, playing safe
for themselves while we were fishing
for our lives. Of course all of them have
the identical story now—their hearts al-
ways were with us, they never really were
Nazis. they loved us all the time. The fact
that they can make a better living now
in the U. S. than in Italy and Germany
hasn't influenced them a bit. Not much,
it hasn't!"

j

Judaism for Children

By FRED A. STERN

The new illustrated children's booklet,
"Purim Parade," issued by the Union of
Hebrew Congregations, is another in the
series of attractive popular presentations_
for children on the Jewish holidays. Writ-
ten and dravrn by Jane *earman, "Purim
Parade" is the fourth in a series that in-
cludes "Fun on Sukos," "Passover Party,"
and "Happy Chanuko." An undramatic
program of the central organization of the
340 Reform Jewish congregations in the
United States, this series of children's
booklets is nevertheless important and
significant, particularly in view of the

•• ■ 400 CM* WI. 4•• ■ ••••1111/19•••••

,011•VO••••11•••• ■ ••••• ■ •••••••• •1•• ■■ 1

By BORIS SMOLAR

(Copyright, 1947, Jewish Telegraphic
Agency, Inc.)

DIPLOMATIC NOTES
•
The question of whether Britain will
accept the recommendations of the United
Nations with regard to Palestine is the
main issue now under discussion between
Washington and London . . . The U. S.
government wants clarification on this
question since under the ,provisions of
the U. N. Charter the mandatory power
must hist agree to accept the decisions
of the United Nations before surrender-
ing its mandate . . . Thus a situation
could develop where the U.N. General
Assembly might make recommendations
with regard to Palestine which would be
unacceptable to Britain.
A similar situation developed when
the Anglo-American Committee on Pales-
tine made its recommendations and
Britain refused to accept them . . . In
seeking clarification from Britain, the
State Department takes the attitude that
once the Palestine issue is brought be-
fore the United Nations, the United
States as a leading member will become
involved in it, possibly to a point which
would obligate the U. S. to assume certain
commitments . . . Hence, it is impera-
tive for it to know beforehand what is
on the mind of the British government
in presenting the issue to the U.N. and
whether Britain will consider the U.N.
recommendations binding.
Zionist leadership is now mobilizing
its forces to persuade the U. S. gov-
ernment to present the Zionist case to
By PHINEAS J. BIRON
the General Assembly since the Jews
(Copyright. 1947, Seven Arts)
themselves have no voice there .. . It is
BROADWAY GOSSIP
generally assumed, that the U. S. has
Charlie Chaplin expecting to open his opened a new chapter in its relations
new picture in New York this week.
to Palestine . . . During the past few
Laura Z. Hobson, author of the best- years public pronouncements by admin-
selling "Gentleman's Agreement," is that . istration leaders have favored the policy
rare specimen—a writer who turns down of the Jewish National Home, but dip-
al lecture dates . . . Miss Hobson says lomatic documents and attitudes have
she's put all she has • to say in her indicated indifference or opposition to
book.
that policy .
•
•
•
Eddie Cantor will bring a few laughs
to harassed Palestine if he decides to MEN AND DEEDS
make that trip.
Henry Wallace is now a frequent visitor
Mischa Ellman and Leonard Bernstein to the Cafe Royal on Second Avenue in
will participate in the 2nd Annual Inter- New York, the "seat" of Jewish writers
national Music Festival at Prague, Czech- and artists.
oslovakia, May 2-28.
Supreme Court Justice Felix Frank-
Lieutenants Pete and Dave Gimbel, furter believes that a wife should censor
sons of Bernard Gimbel and Hank Green- her husband's writings . . . At a lecture
berg's brothers-in-law, assigned to Tokyo before the Bar Association of New York
duty.
he disclosed that he has his wife "blue
Jascha Heifetz and Artur Rubinstein pencil all my non-judicial writings."
are featured in United Artists' "Carne-
Sarah B. Smith, a member of the edi-
gie Hall"—a film with something entirely torial staff of The Day, New York Yiddish
new in sound production.
daily, has sold a play, written in col-
Abe Burrows has quit the writer's job laboration with her daughter,. Lucille S.
with the Dinah Shore radio show.
Prumbs, to United States Pictures . . .
Jules Munshin, ex-GI comic sensation The mother and daughter received quite
from the "Call Me Mister" cast, will be a substantial sum from the film company
opening his own radio show this summer. which has engaged Lilli Palmer to star in
-
•
the picture which will be entitled "Ever
SPORTS NOTES
the Beginning."
W. Edward "Eddie" Robinson, probable
Marvin Lowenthal, the well-known
starting first baseman for the Cleveland writer and lecturer, who is now on a
Indians, serves as - athletic director of the visit in Palestine, sent me the following
Beth Tfiloh Community Center in Balti- "true story" from Jerusalem: . . . A mu-
more during the winter months . . . Al- sic teacher there, an English Gentile. was
though he isn't Jewish himself, Eddie has among the Englishmen who received or-
won the respect and affection of the cen- ders from the Palestine government to
ter's membership and staff.
evacuate . . . He was indignant as he
•
•
•
has lived in Jerusalem since 1920,
BIOGRAPHICAL FOOTNOTE
knows Hebrew perfectly and loves
On the first anniversary of the death of the land . . . So he sent an ultimatum
the immortal Jewish composer Bela Bar- to the High Commissioner: "Either with-
tok, Erno Balogh, noted composer and draw my evacuation order, or I'll go to
concert pianist, recalled Bartok's stirring the hospital and be circumcized" . .
fight for life . .. For two years after he It happens that Lowenthal knew the
had contracted the leukemia that claimed Englishmen 22 years ago in Jerusalem
his life, Bartok waS aided in his strug- . . . In those days he wore a big, black
gle by ASCAP . . • Although he was a beard and looked like an orthodox
non-member, ASCAP provided the com- Jew . When he rode in a carriage
poser with the foremost physicians in on Sabbath, orthodox Jews would order
their fields ... All seven of these medics him to get out and walk . . He'd
were Jews: Dr. Israel Rappaport, diagnos- answer in good Hebrew: "But I'm a Gen-
tician; Dr. Edgar Mayer, lung specialist; tile" ... However, his reply did not con-
Dr, Nathan Rosenthal, Mt. Sinai blood vince anybody .. He finally had to
specialist; Dr. Salamon Feinman, roent- choose either of two things—leave Pal-
gentologist; Professor Emanuel Fried- estine or shave off his beard, and shave
man, neurologist; Professor Herman El- he did ... Now, 22 years later, he again
coyn, eye specialist; and Dr. Frederik had to choose—either to leave Palestine
Reiss, dermatologist . . . During these or threaten the government that he
two years Bartok produced his four great- would become a Jew ... And in Pales-
tine he remained.
est compositions.

Strictly
Confidential

(Copyright. 1947. Independent Jewish
Press Service. Inc.)

■•■ •

Between
You and Me

fact that the material is of a kind that
should appeal to all children whether
brought up in reform, conservative or or-
thodox surroundings.
Much has been said and written on the
need for reawakening Judaism and Jew-
ish tradition among American Jewry. But,
unfortunately, not enough has been done
to translate those sentiments into action
on an educational level. The series of
booklets, edited by Dr. Emanuel Gam-
oran, director of the Union's Commission
on Jewish Education, is a step in the
right direction and a most effective tech-
nique with which to introduce Jewish
tradition and custom to the Jewish child.

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wammameown ■•■ •

Whip of Evolution

"The Arabs are the fish. They are
happy, they have traditions and beauty
and sell-sufficiency and lead a timeless,
carefree, lackadaisical life. Compared to
them the Jews are the graceless amphib-
ians. That's one of the reasons why the
English love them and dislike us. It is
not political. It is this nostalgia for the

lost paradise a kind of eternal week-end
—and their detestation of the 8:35 to the
City. For, behold, we are the force that
drives the fishes ashore, the nervous whip
of evolution." — Arthur _Koestler in
"Thieves in the Night."

arviaik