As the Editor
'iews the News ...
Sword of Damocles
True Humanitarianism
AS A MIGHTY STREAM." By Dr. Julian Morgenstern.,.
Philadelphia, Pa. The Jewish Publication Society of America.
A poll taken by the Israel Institute of
Applied Social Research, a member of In-
ternational Public Opinion Research, Inc.,
recently showed that 75 per cent of the
people of Israel oppose placing any restric-
tions on the number of immigrants coming
into the country. Even if the suggested re-
strictions were to assure an end to the exist-
ing economic crisis, 79 per cent of the men
and 71 per cent of the women of Israel refuse
to countenance a closed door policy in the
Jewish state.
A Review By Dr. Abraham J. Feldman
It is interesting to note that Jews of
Russian origin voted 80 per cent against
restrictions; those of Polish origin and the
native Israelis, 77 per cent; and those of
German origin, 55 per cent.
Another significant poll showed that 92
per cent of the people of Israel favored equal
rights for women—collective settlements and
civil servants voting 100 per cent for equal
rights while rabbis and religious workers
voted 100 per cent against it.
Most encouraging is the fact that al-
though the number of immigrants who came
to Israel in 1949 was the equivalent of the
influx of 60,000,000 people into the United
States, on a population percentage basis,
free immigration has become a basic prin-
ciple in Israel's reconstruction plans.
What an impressive lesson this is for
the American Jews who have been spared
the trouble of caring for the hundreds of
thousands now being welcomed by Israel;
who are asked only for financial help rather
than for the agonies that go with building
a state, creating homes for the homeless,
making the desert blossom as the rose and
giving stability to people who have been
shaken by the horrors of a world that was
driven to madness by dictators.
1-laym Salomon Day
For several decades, efforts have been
made by Christians and Jews to secure ade-
quate recognition by the United States of
the services that were rendered during the
American Revolution by Haym Salomon.
Born in Poland in 1740 and brought to
this country at the age of 2, Salomon played
a leading role in personally financing Wash-
ington's campaigns and in securing aid from
others to help finance the American strug-
gle for liberty. He is now being referred to
as "the financier of the American Revolu-
tion."
In a recent syndicated article in the
Hearst press, Harry H. Schlacht, writing
about "Haym Salomon: The Forgotten Man
of History," stated:
"Haym Salomon belongs to America. He is
part of the very heart of our Nation. He is
ours by the unshakable gratitude for his
services in the crisis of our fate. He belongs
to America by that tie of love which is stronger
than death, which links his name for the
endless ages with the names of Washington
and Jefferson, Morris and Madison, and the
other great immortals of our glorious history.
"Let America remember Haym Salomon.
Let Congress set aside a Haym Salomon Day."
A joint resolution has been introduced in
the U. S. House of Representatives. by Con-
gressman Abraham J. Multer of New York
to make Jan. 6 of each year Haym Salomon
Day. Congress would, by adopting this reso-
lution, make a strong gesture in the direc-
tion of official recognition of Salomon's
deeds in behalf of American • liberty during
this country's severest revolutionary strug-
gles. It is sincerely to be hoped that the
Multer Salomon Resolution will be acted
upon favorably, and very soon.
THE JEWISH NEWS
Member: American Association of English-Jewish News-
ImPers, Michigan Press Association.
Services: Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Seven Arts Feature
Syndicate, King feature, Central Press Association.
Published every Friday by the Jewish News Publishing
Co. 708-10 David Stott Bldg., Detroit 2-6, Mich., WO. 5-1155.
Subscription $3 a year; foreign $4.
Entered as second class matter Aug. 6, 1942 at Post Office,
Detroit. Mich., under Act of March 3. 1879.
sLomov az.
PHILIP
Editor
SIDNEY SHMARAK Advertising Manager
RUTH L. CASSEL, City Editor
Vol. XVI—No. 22
Page 4
February 10, 1950
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the twenty-fourth day of
Shevat, 5710, the following Scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues .
Pentateuchal portion—Es. 18:1-20:21.
Prophetical portion—Is. 6:1-7:6; 9:5,6.
On Rosh Hodesh Adar, Friday, Nunn. 28:1-15
will be read during morning services.
Dr. Julian Morgenstern's
Views on Jewish History
DP Bill Subverts Its Purpose
All the national Jewish organizationk—including the
American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress,
Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Labor Committee, Jewish
War Veterans, Union of American Hebrew Congregations
and National Council of Jewish Women— acting through the
National Community Relations Advisory Council, went on
record in opposition of the so-called "liberalized" displaced
persons bill which was released for action by the United
States Senate by Senator Pat McCarran's Judiciary Com-
mittee.
NCRAC's statement points out that the amended DP
bill "would defeat and subvert the very purpose of displaced
persons legislation." It calls upon members Of the U. S.
Senate to take the following actions in order to meet the
major objections to the McCarran measure:
1. Retain the definition of displaced persons contained in
the existing Act; 2. Eliminate all provisions for mortgaging of
future quotas; 3. Join the House of Representatives in elimin-
ating the 40 percent priority to displaced. persons from areas
which have been de facto annexed by a foreign power; 4. Elim-
inate all provisions for special benefits to particular groups of
displaced persons, which are not extended to the entire body of
displaced persons; 5. Eliminate the inferential endorsement of
racism implicit in the so-called "volksdeutche" provision; 6.
Join the House of Representatives in eliminating from the
existing Act the 30 percent preference for agriculturists; '7. Re-
tain in the Displaced Persons Commission the responsibility for
selection and authority for determination of eligibility; 8. Retain
the language of the existing Act with regard to exclusion of
undemocratic elements.
As reported out of the committee, the proposed bill re-
defines displaced persons in such a way as to make "perhaps
as many as 10,000,000 persons of German origin" who are
dislocated "because of their identification with the nation
which brought the war upon the world" eligible for admis-
sioh under the law, the Jewish organizations' joint . statement
declares.
Senator Homer Ferguson of Michigan recognized this
serious deviation the moment the bill was reported out of
committee and declared - his opposition to any pro-German
move of this sort.
As NCRAC pointed out in its appeal to the U. S. Sena-
tors, the practical effect of the redefinition of the status of
the . DP's would be to virtually deny the benefits of the DP
act to those displaced persons under IRO care who were its
intended beneficiaries: NCRAC also points out that the DPs
would have to compete for benefits under the act -"with a
vast multitude of millions arbitrarily classified as displaced
persons who would have equal rights with them."
If the McCarran bill is adopted, it will serve to destroy
the basic aspirations of those who have been fighting for
havens of refuge for the sufferers from Nazism and instead
would open the doors of this country to Germans, thus pro-
vidinc, an avenue for the infiltration of former Nazis into
the United States.
The best interests of this country demand that the
proposed bill should be defeated. The NCRAC's analysis of
the measure clearly indicates the flaws in the bill and should
serve as a guide for the. U. S. Senate either to destroy its
negative aspects or to defeat it in its present form.
Merger of Famous Institutions
The merger of the Hebrew University and the Weizmann
Scientific Institute into a single organization, for fund-
• raising purposes, udder the presidency of Dr. Albert Ein-
stein, should be welcomed by Jewry as an encouraging factor
in the unification of related causes.
This fusion will result in a single campaign for funds
for the two institutions. More than that, however, it should
improve the standards of both causes in their research and
educational activities.
A proper step now would be to merge the Haifa. Tech-
nion—which this week celebrated its 25th anniversary—
with the Hebrew University. Although the three institutions
are located in Jerusalem, Rehovoth and Haifa, all should be
able to function more efficiently under a single directorate.
One of the most responsible and awe-inspiring
positions in American Jewish life is the presi-
dency of one of the major rabbinical seminaries
in America. This is so by reason of the fact. that
the head of any one of these institutions is a
teacher of teachers who, in the course of • his
lifetime, reaches and influences countless thou-
sands. It becomes, therefore, a matter of supreme
importance what such a teacher of teachers be-
lieves, what his philosophy of Judaism is, what
his interpretations of life and history and ideals
are, what direction he gives to the thinkirlig and
what content he imparts to the learning of his
students.
Dr. Julian Morgenstern was president of
Hebrew Union College,
oldest rabbinical seminary
in the western hemisphere,
for 26 years before his re-
cent retirement. During his
presidency, this 75-year-
ord institution was greatly
blessed.
Now that he was per-
mitted to rest from his ad-
ministrative tasks, he, at
the invitation of the board
of governors of the Hebrew
Union College, prepared a
collection of his papers
and addresses, just pub-
lished by the Jewish Publi-
cation Society, under the
title of "As A Mighty
Stream." •
Dr. Morgenstern
This volume of 14 essays and addresses has
a remarkable unity which derives primarily
from the author's understanding of the goal and
purpose of Jewish history. For Dr. Morgenstern
is not just a Bible critic. He is not merely a dig-
ger in words, clauses and vowels. He uses and has
used these merely as the tools of an historian
of the Bible period of Jewish being.
It is this reviewer's sincere judgment that
Dr. Morgenstern may well feel compensated for
his labors, and it. is this writer's hope that many,
many will read and be blessed by the doctrine
of this great scholar and kindly gentleman.
`The Embarkation'
Excellent First Novel
About 'Illegal' Zionists
It is evident that Murray Gitlin, whose first
novel, "The Embarkation," has just been pub-
lished by Crown Publishers,' (419 Fourth Ave.,
New York 16) knows Italy. His story's setting
is in Italy. Much of the dialogue is in Italian.
The publishers inform. this reviewer that Mr.
Gitlin still is in Italy, awaiting the American
public's—and especially the critics'—verdict
the merits of his story.
"The Embarkation" is a good novel, as evi-
denced by its power to hold the reader's atten-
tion. It has a good. love plot, an element of in-
trigue and suspense, and a moral lesson.
Martin Tester, chief character of this story,
is a GI deserter who had fled to Italy. What
at first appeared as a chance meeting with
stranger caused him to make a bargain: that
he would stop a truckload of Jewish refugees
who were preparing to break through the Brit-
ish blockade on their way to Palestine, on a
boat that was to leave an Italian shore. It
turned out, however, that the man he met was
a former American, employed by Britain, who
had the complete Tester record and was ready
to expose him.
Why did this Jewish boy turn deserter?
Tester explained to 'Warner, .the British agent
who tried to draw him into a bad bargain:
"What do you do with anti-Semitism when • you
have it thrown at you by your superior officer?
Can you follow him into the front lines? . . .
When he tells you that we are fighting so that
each man can come out of it alive, but that
certain aspects of the program initiated by the
enemy will have done the world a lot of good;
that one can't believe all this about Jews being
put into furnaces, that after all the world can't
be wrong; it's been going on for 2,000 years;
there must be a reason." And he added that he
held his superior officer "responsible for his
act., just as I was responsible for mine."
This explanation could be given as a power-
ful rebuke to present-day American officials- who
recently have begun to condone acts of the
Nazis.
Martin's reason for his desertion does •nOt
expose him as a coward. In Gitlin's novel he is
more the hero. He snaps out of his demoral ,-
ized state, sets out to help his fellow-Jews get
to Palestine instead of standing in their way as
a price for his being absolved for his sins as a
deserter, and he emerges self-cleansed.
The love story with Claudia adds poN've• to
the novel. Claudia. encourages Martin, even
promises to go to Palestine with him. The Pal-
estinian angle shows that Gitlin apparently
watched the movement of so-called "illegal"
Jewish immigrants to Palestine from the source
—at Bari, Italy. Be has written an especially
good novel for a beginner. "The Embarkation"
augurs well for his future works.
•