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Friday, August- 14, 1947

THE, JEWISH NEWS

Page Sixteen

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Heard in the Lobbies

By ARNOLD LEVIN

Strictly Confidential

Pastor Accuses
British of Murder

By PHINEAS J. BIRON

(Copyright, 1947, Seven Arts Feature Syndicate)

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

of 'Terrorists'
Meet some of the "terrorists" arrested by the Palestine Govern-
ment last week • . . Attorney Kritzman, member of the defense
staff of Dov Gruner, one-time rabbinical student at Yeshiva Col-
lege, graduate from a British law school, and a member of Hapoel
Hamirachi, a movement as anti-terror as any in the world today
. . . We spent a great deal of time together when your columnist
was in Tel Aviv last year. Kritzman is as alien to militant politics
as they come . . . His law practice consists primarily of drawing up
business-contracts . . . In the Gruner case he was only an assist-
ant. Since when does the law forbid an attorney -to go about his
business of defending the accused? Arresting Kritzman on suspic-
ion of "terrorism," sets the precedent that an attorney must shre
the guilt of his client if found guilty . . • Kritzman lives in \a neat
although tiny apartment with a balcony facing Ben Yehuda Street
where it converges on Allenby Road, one of the busiest thorough-
fares in Tel Aviv . . . Kritzman is a man of modest means and
supports a wife, child and mother-in-law . . . His case is typical
for Palestine today . . . Aryeh Altman, the interned Revisionist
leader, is a friend of Arnold Levin's from the early nineteen thirties
when both of them taught Hebrew in a Bronx Talmud Torah . . .
After nearly a decade, your columnist and Altman met again in
Jerusalem last year . . . It did not take long for Arnold Levin to
learn that Altman was among the Jewish leaders most despised by
Irgun because he resisted their attempts to raid Revisionist youth
groups for recruits ... Altman now has been interned, for "abetting"
terror . . . The most ironical case is that of Mayor Israel Rokach of
Tel Aviv . . . The British had assigned a part for him in their June
29th spectacle. They had hoped that after the Jewish Agency
leaders were seized, it might be possible to form a puppet leader-
ship, that would take orders from the British . .. Unfairly mistak-
ing Rokach's moderacy, the British are said to have approached
the Mayor of Tel Aviv with the suggestion that he head the British-
sponsored Jewish regime . . . The mayor went red in the face
with anger . . . Their entire plan misfired as all moderates took
the same course . . . The British could never forgive Rokach who,
they -felt, had "let them down" and was, therefore, as "bad" as all
other Zionists.
•
•
•

Joe Brainin to Ben Hecht

kfOih , i

-
Answer to Critic
Your columnist has great respect for the Anti-Defamation
League, but he feels that its judgments are not from Sinai, and he
cannot see eye to eye with it on Crossfire, the Hollywood picture
on anti-Semitism ... A regional Anti-Defamation League represent-
ative has explained your correspondent's dissenting opinion by
ascribing to him ulcers and other ailments which make for a mean
disposition . . . Your correspondent has no ulcers, for his critic's
information. Despite his good constitution, he still insists, how-
ever that Crossfire is a poor film, and its message shallow . . .
Arnold Levin's critic referred to audience-tests conducted by a NYU
educator . . . Your columnist saw the movie at a foreign language
press preview and can testify what the private opinion of his col-
league's has been . . . It was the same as his own . . . His critic,
A. F. Miller, Southeastern Regional Director of the ADL, may also
turn to a recent issue of Life, whose editors are fairly intelligent,
we believe. Life said that the picture is praiseworthy as a first
attempt to tackle the problem of anti-Semitism, but found it want-
ing, and for the comparison of hatred for the Jew with the hatred
for men with striped neckties—a bit ludicrous .. . Mr. Miller says
that this picture was "pre-tested in three large cities representing
different areas of the United States." "Both adults and high school
children of various faiths were tested." he said. "The results went
far beyond our expectations. It was not only an overwhelming en-
dorsement of this kind of film but also an overihelming majority
identified themselves with the heroes and against the villain."
Arnold Levin also wants films on this subject, but insists, no
orchids to Hollywood for waking up at long last, to the dangers of
anti-Semitism and for birthing, as a result of the awakening, a
picture so wanting . . . It may well be that criticism of Crossfire
will bring a crop of better pictures on the same subject

—International

Photo

THE REV. JOHN S.
GRAUEL, whose eyewitness
account of the capture of the
"Exodus 1947" was published
in The Jewish News on Aug. 1.
Rev. Grauel, a former Meth-
odist minister of Worcester,
Mass., accused the British of
"deliberate murder" of the
passengers and crew members
when they rammed the
refugee vessel 14 times.

Jewish News Ends
Yearbook Rjnor

A couple of weeks ago, following the execution of the three
Irgunists Nakar, Weiss and Habib, Ben Hecht wrote an advertise-
ment headed "Requiem and No Sale" . . . We thought the ad in
very bad taste, and were just thinking of devoting a few critical
paragraphs to it when the mail brought us a copy of an open letter
to Ben Hecht written by Joseph Brainin, our alter ego . . . We
cannot resist the temptation of quoting from it . . To Ben Hecht
Joe Brainin wrote as follows:
' "You were once a sensitive writer . . . Now and then you wrote
a page that belongs to the best of our contemporary literature
You had moments—short non-commercial interludes—during which
you rebelled against the false, sticky sentimentality of Hollywood
. . . There were even times when you refused to submit to the
desecration of human emotions to make them fit into the slot of
the box office machine . . . A few years ago you became interested
in the Jewish nation . . . Until then you had merely tried to peep
into the American Jewish playboy (as in yeur 'A Jew In Love')
• . . You attached yourself to a little band of young Palestine ex-
tremists who had come to this country to raise cain with the lethargic
respectable Jewish leadership . . . I can well understand how you
were attracted by these young rebels . . . I, too, succumbed for a
brief spell . . . The reason? . . . I was sick at heart as I watched
the official Zionist leadership fighting the Jewish battle in sumptu-
ous hotel ball rooms . . . I was fed up with Zionist leaders who
called Pierre van Passen anti-British and who refused to recognize
the real enemy of Jewish national aspirations and persisted in
placing their hopes on British Tories and American reactionaries
. . . But it became obvioup to me that one cannot defeat imperial-
ism by using the methods of Fascism. .. . and so I waved farewell
to the Bergson boys ...
"It apparently never occurred to you, the subtle psychologist,
•
that the hearts and minds of your young extremists and of their
confreres in Palestine had become twisted and distorted by the
fantastic, nightmarish scope of the Jewish tragedy in the Nazi
era . . Let us be candid . . . These boys, selfless and idealistic
thotigh they were, learned, alas, too well from the persecutors of
the Jewish people . . . Tired of being victims, they became culprits
eager to try out their new knowledge on their tormentors . • • You
did not stop to think . . . The Palestine of fire and sword intrigued
you . . . Your imagination, blase after too many years of Holly-
wood servitude, sputtered, crackled and finally caught fire .. . You
had found a new toy in the new Jew—or, as your /Slider Peter
Bergson baptized him, the Hebrew ... The limbs and torso of your
old toy, "A Jew In Love,' lay discarded in a dark corner of your
ballroom . . . You had dissected him mercilessly and brilliantly,
and taken his insides out .. Now you play frantically with your
new toy, the Hebrew Nation .. .
"But why, Ben Hecht, did you leave your playroom the other
day, dust off your crafty typewriter and bang out a smart Broad-
way column addressed to 'The Three on the Gallows?" . . Why?
. . . No Gestapo dragged you into the market place and kicked
you onto the soapbox and compelled you to sing a clever ditty
about three Jewish corpses while a group of mountebanks passed
the collection plate . . . Nobody compelled you. You voluntarily
climbed up on the barker's platform and proceeded to amuse the
idle gapers by reciting pretty phrases about 'three tall Hebrews
hanging in the Palestine sun' (advertising copy worthy of a Selz-
nick superfeature) about their hearts grinning back in vain at the

According 'to reports Teaching
the Jewish News several people
are trying to create the impres-
sion that this paper is sponsoring
a Detroit Jewish Yearbook and,
on this pretense, attempt to col-
lect funds for this purpose.
Having no connections with the
Yearbook project, the Jewish
News wishes to disavow such as-
sertions and repeats a statement
of the Jewish Community Coun-
cil printed in the Aug. 8 issue:
"The Jewish Community Chun-
cil has received notice that solici-
tation is being done by mail and
telephone for paid advertisements
and notices in the so-called De-
troit Jewish Yearbook.
"Those who are approasked
should know that the Cotmea is
not the sponsor of this publica- ,
tion and insofar as we know no
other official Jewish agency is
associated with the book. The
publication seems to be an or-
dinary, private, profit-seeking

venture."

English smirk' (something fished out of the wastebasket after a
story conference under the California sun) and about 'the 13ala-
batim refusing to buy them' (the corpses). . This last bit, about
the Jewish balabatim, you culled from the *Streicher anti-Semitic
archives—or, in any case, you could have found it there . . . Yes,
you surpassed yourself, entertaining the crowd with your ill-sasell-
ing movie hash, your viscous glycerine tears and your cheap lines
about Jewish cowardice and heroics . . How could you, Ben
Hecht? . . . The Palestine Jewish community is in grave danger
because of the irresponsibility of Fascist-infected youngsters play-
ing wild cowboy games with real guns and bombs . . . The Irgun
and. Stern gang are merely the Palestinian variation of delinquency
ne plus ultra . . . It's time for you to wake up, Ben Hecht . . If
you want to join the resistance movement in Palestine, why don't
you enlist in the Haganah? .. . I feel sorry for y our . . . Jo.

Brainin."
Thanks, Joe, for sending us a copy of your letter . . . Let as

know what Ben's reply reads like, even if he smashes you to bits.

