Priority
for UJA;
Our Unity
Must Not Be
Destroyed
HE JEWISH NEWS
A Weekly Review
of Jewish Events
Story on Page 4
Editorial, Page 4
VOLUME 16—No. 11 708-10 David Stott Bldg.—Phone WO. 5-1155
Local JNF Women's Gifts Win
Recognition on Heroes' Road
See JNF Conference Story on Page 6
In recognition of their having raised $342,000 for the Jewish
National Fund for land-redemption in Israel, during the past five years,
a special Nachlah bearing the women's group's name has been estab-
lished in the Jerusalem Corridor, on the Kvish Hagevurah—the Heroes'
Road—between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. A specially-inscribed book,
with map, certifying that the Nachlath Ladies' Auxiliary of the Jewish
National Fund was established in Israel was presented Sunday afternoon
by MENDEL N. FISHER, executive director of the JNF of America,
to MRS. ALBERT PRAG, president of the JNF Auxiliary, at the annual
JNF Conference at the Fort Wayne Hotel. Left to right in the photo:
MRS. JACK ROSENTHAL. Mrs. Prag, Fisher, RABBI MAX KIRSH-
BLUM, JNF treasurer, who was one of the conference speakers; MRS,
MAURICE STEINGOLD, chairman of the Auxiliary's approaching donor
event, and MRS. WILLIAM KLAFER, co-chairman of the donor event.
U J A Leaders Survey
Responsibilities for '50
The scope of American Jewry's responsibility in 1950 for
immigration and upbuilding in Israel, for relief and reconstruc-
tion among the Jews of Europe and for continuing aid to refugees
reaching this country will be determined this week-end at the
national conference of the United Jewish Appeal, which opens
Friday morning at the Hotel Chelsea in Atlantic City.
To insure that decisions taken at Atlantic City will reflect
the sentiments of communities throughout the country which
campaign for the United Jewish Appeal, provision has been
made for a greatly enlarged resolutions committee of 214 per-
sons. Every community with a Jewish population of at least
2,000 has elected representatives to the committee.
The assembled delegates will receive a comprehensive pic-
ture of the situation in Israel, Europe and North Africa and
among refugees in the U. S. Among the principal speakers will
be Dr. Albert Einstein, who will address the conferees from his
home in Princeton, N. J., over a coast-to-coast NBC hook-up at
12:15 p.m. Sunday.
Purely
Commentary
Detroiters
In Israel:
A Record
of Great
Achievements
Detroit 26, Michigan, Nov. 25, 1949
cift3.7
$3.00 Per Year; Single Copy, 10c
Illinois Court Reverses
Sentinel Verdict, Hits
'Wild Attacks on Jews'
The Illinois Appelate Court, in an unanimous decision, reversed the ver-
dict and the courts holdings on the appeal of the Sentinel, Chicago English-
Jewish Weekly, vs. Joseph McWilliams et all.
The court, speaking through Justice Scanlan declared : " . . . In our con-
sideration of this appeal we found it difficult, at first, to believe that the
evidence and the arguments to which we have referred form a part of the
transcript of the record of a trial in an American court. The testimony of
plaintiffs McWilliams and Mrs. Dilling consists practically of wild attacks up-
on Jews, their religion, and Jewish organizations, although there is not the
slightest competent evidence to 'warrant the attacks.
"The 'arguments' in behalf of plaintiffs to which we have referred are
more vicious, rabble-rousing appeals to religious and racial passions and
prejudices, and the harm done to defendants by the appeals was greatly
aggravated by the fact that the court remained silent while they were made,
although the 'arguments' constituted a grave affront to justice."
Furtheron, ". . . it appeared from the opinion of the court that he thought
that 'a Jewish and anti-Jewish business' was legally in the case and that if he
tried the case again he did not see any different way he could conduct it. He
stated that he saw nothing wrong with the trial of the case and, therefore, it
is clear that he considered the evidence of plaintiffs McWilliams and Mrs. Dill-
ing competent and the arguments made on behalf of plaintiffs proper. Me ap-
proved the 'conscientious and legal' verdict of the jury.
"In his opinion and durino. the trial he followed the false theory ad-
vanced by plaintiffs that a fight
6 between Christianity and Jews was involved
in the case because certain evidence introduced by defendants in support of
their plea; that because of that evidence a door was opened that warranted
the admission, of the evidence of plaintiffs McWilliams and Mrs. Dining and
justified the attacks made in the arguments in behalf of plaintiffs.
"The trial court ignored or failed to note that neither in their plea nor
in their evidence did defendants make any attacks against Christians; that
that phase of the case was deliberately injected into the trial by plaintiffs
to prejudice the rights of defendants."
It was stated further "that in support of their plea defendants had a
perfect right to prove, inter alia, that the anti-Semitic technique of plain-
tiffs was a part of a seditious conspiracy to divide the people of the United
States and to break their morals. We repeat that in none of that proof were
Christianity or Christians attacked in any way. As previously stated, plain-
tiffs had a right to rebut by competent evidence the defense interposed, but
that right did not give them a license to turn a trial in an American court
into a forum where witnesses and lawyers, in the manner of rabble-rousers,
could make wild and outrageous utterances against Jews, their religion and
organizations, when there was not the slightest competent evidence in the
case to support the charges.
"In their rebuttal, plaintiffs offered not facts but merely the opinions
of rabid anti-Semites. The purpose of plaintiffs during the trial is obvious. The
real issue in the case was whether plaintiffs were pro-Nazi, and whether they
had engaged in the conspiracy charged in the indictment. Instead of meeting
that grave and embarrassing issue they sought to becloud it and to win the
case through wild statements of witnesses and lawyers that the trial in-
volved a contest between Christians and civilization on the one side and dPn-
gerous Jews on the other."
"The outrageous record presented resulted from the failulre or refusal
of the trial judge to hold plaintiffs or their counsel to an orderly trial of
- Continued on Page 20
Israel — Born of Sweat and Blood— Will
Make Good, But Our Dollars Are Imperative
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
E went to Israel to see the year-and-a-half
old baby in whose very difficult delivery
we had a small share, in the remote sphere of
action on the American scene.
We found a sabra, a tough child that re-
sembles the prickly wild-growing pear that is
seen everywhere on the roadsides of the Jew-
ish state.
The state itself is like the youth of Israel
litho proudly accept the appellation of "sabra."
We needed but a few days' stay in the in-
fant state to convince us that the sabras won't
let us down, that Israel will make good, that
it is impossible to conceive of a single weapon
that could destroy the nation that was reborn
in sweat and blood and tears and in a struggle
out of which no one expected it to come out
alive.
The grim blessing "b'damayich chayi,"—
"thou shalt live in thy blood,"—has taken
on prophetic reality.
On the run, eager to see as much as pos-
sible, to hear all we could, to speak with as
many as we were able, we did not stop to
judge. We waited for the return to the most
blessed land on earth — these great United
States — to make comparisons and to pass
judgment.
Now we know how precarious judgments
can be, that those whom we observed have as
much right to judge us as we have to be
opinioniated about them.
The trouble is that too many Americans
are trying, while on-the-run in Israel, to com-
pare the U. S. to 18-month-old Zion redeemed.
Instead of climbing the heights of Ramat Gan
or a water tower in Ein Hashophet to view the
Holy Land for a few days, then to return to
this great land to write a book about Israel,
there ought to be a more realistic approach.
A little dreaming, a bit of imagining, re-
sort to vision might help in judging Israel
fairly.
As for us,—we, too, climbed the heights
and looked to the north and to the south. We
saw the majestic views in the Galil and the
Emek, the beautiful settlements which were
made fruitful by Jewish labor, and the vast
desert of the Negev.
By comparison, we knew that a people
whose sons and daughters have been able to
transform the rocky area of the north into
garden spots will be able to bring realization
to the dream that the Negev, too. should one
day flow with milk and honey.
One thing is certain : Israel is unafraid.
Her people are concerned about the future
It is anxious about the status of the 100,000
newcomers who have not yet found a place
in the country's economy. But they won't
let these last remnants of the Galuth's most
persecuted people down.
If there is any fear at all in their hearts,
it is over the uncertain attitude of American
Jewry. And—curiously enough — they are
concerned' about the security of American
Jewry.
We were told in as many words: "We
hope that American Jewry will remain safe
and free; and we pray that our brethren in
the great U.S.A. will be in a position to
continue to help the survivors from the hells
of Europe and Africa who are as much their
responsibility as they are ours."
They heard about the Peekskill (N. Y.):
incident and they became worried. The hun-
dreds of thousands who have come into Israel
have become their burden and they want world
Jewry to carry a part of the responsibilities of
rehabilitating those who have been freed from.
degradation and are now in liberal Israel.
(Continued on Page 2).