Purely Commentary By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ Jan Christiaan Smuts, Israel and Great Britain 2 — THE JEWISH NEWS Friday, September 29, 1950 Israel Acclaims Award to Bunche As we indicated editorially last week, the name of General Jan Christiaan Smuts of South Africa will be blessed immemorially in Israeli statesmen and Jewish Israel through the settlement of Ramat Jochanan established in his leaders in this country this week honor. The Jewish people, grateful for his efforts in behalf of a acclaimed the choice of Dr. Jewish Palestine, paid honor to the non-Jewish friend during his \I-WM lifetime. (Ramat Jochanan was dedicated in 1935). Philo-Semite and one of the strongest Christian supporters of the Zionist cause, General Smuts found himself in a quandary on numerous occasions because of his denoted adherence to the British Empire. He was in an especially tight spot at San Francisco, where the foundation was laid for the United Nations in 1945. On the eve of his departure for San Francisco on March 30, 1945, he addressed a statement to the House and Assembly of Cape- town. He reaffirmed his faith the Zionist movement and re- iterated his belief that Palestine is a "natural solution" to the Jewish problem. But he declared that "the British government is in a very difficult position and sweating blood over this (the Pal- estine) question." This Commentator, recalling personal experiences at press con- ferences with General Smuts at San Francisco, believes that his statement to the Capetown House and Assembly, in which he touched on the problem of minorities, is worth reprinting at this time. General Smuts then stated: "I have been asked whether steps will be taken at San Francisco to prevent the minority question from assuming such dimensions as it has in our generation. I am sure there will be some sort of provision in the charter which will emerge. It DR. RALPH BUNCHE is a very difficult question, we wrestled with it at the last Peace Conference in Paris, when we found an apparent solution. It Ralph Bunche for the 1950 was no solution at all. As long as we have small minorities dif- Nobel Peace Award. fering in views, outlook and culture from the people surround- - Dr. Bunche was selected for ing them, we are bound to have these difficulties. this high honor in recognition "There is a tendency now towards another solution, name- of his work as United Nations ly—exchanging populations. Take the most striking minority Mediator in Palestine. Only a week ago, Dr. Bunche question today—the Jewish question. I look upon it as the most serious minority question, and this is one of the reasons why I had stated, with reference to am what I may call a Palestinian, all these days. I should like Jordan's charges against Israel, to see the Jewish people have their own national home to which that the question of the Ruten- those of their people who are unwelcome in other countries berg Concession six miles south may go. It seems a natural solution. Here is the old, historic of the Sea of Galilee had not home of the JeWish people. Why shouldn't they have it back been a matter of contention at the time the armistice agree- and have a country to which they should go? ment was reached. "In many parts of the world they are unwelcome. They are not unwelcome . in South Africa. They are not unwelcome with people of a large human outlook prepared to give and take. Eric Johnston Heads But with many people, perfectly intolerant and inhuman, the Jewish question has become urgent and an agony on both sides. Brotherhood Week Therefore for long years I have been a strong advocate of a "We can't afford to blind our- Jewish National Home in order that some form of solution may selves to the disturbing and un- be found for this most terrible of all minority questions. dermining racial and religious "What will become of it? Who knows? We are pledged to antagonisms in America," Eric certain things, and whether they will be carried out time alone Johnston, president of the Mo- will show. I am not speaking for the British government. The tion Picture As- British governMent is in .a very difficult position, sweating ociation of blood over this . question. I myself should • like to have a decla- kmerica, de- ration of faith, of fundamentals wherein we believe. There are clared in accept- certain things which are our ten commandments, basic to the ing the general whole western outlook. I should like to see them solemnly af- chairmanship of firmed. Even if some of these things are not carried out com- Brotherhood pletely in practice, it is right to affirm thein and to know that Week, to be na- when you fail you are falling below Our own standard." tionally observed next Feb. 18-25 A sincere approach to the issues is evident in every line of under the spon- this statement. There never was any . doubt that General Smuts Johnston sorship of the was a devoted Zionist and that he hoped for the speedy fulfill- ment of Jewish hopes. But his first love was the British Empire National Conference of Chris- against whom he fought as a Boer but to whom he became deeply tians and Jews. devoted. "We talk about building bridg- • es of brotherhood around the At one of the. press conferences at San Francisco, in May of world in answer to the commun- 1945, General Smuts, in reply to a question regarding the status ist pretensions, and that's a of Palestine, hastily replied: "This is not the time to deal with splendid vision," Mr. Johnston the question. Good day, gentlemen." He picked up his cane, continued. B u t Brotherhood donned his red general's cap and marched out of the hall. There begins on a man .. to man basis were hundreds of newspapermen from all over the world present here at home — in our states, at this session. They waited with baited breath for a statement communities and neighborhoods from the friend of Zionism about the Zionist cause. But he chose — not for a single week in any to remain siltrit in a crucial period for the movement for Jewish year but day by day and year by liberation. He followed the British line. year." There were too few who believed then that Israel ever would be the name of a new and thriving state, and the staunchest of friends of the Jewish cause, chagrined, nevertheless remained silent. No one wished to antagonize a friend who was in a quan- dary because of his loyalties to the British Commonwealth of Nations. None of us who were subjected to that painful experi- After serving the city for 21 ence desired to nurture a grudge. We had enough sorrows then to keep us hi a bad mood. We did not forget his lifelong services years, working for the DS• and to the Jewish cause. And we retain only pleasant memories of the Board of Health, Philip this great man in whose honor stands that great monument in Langwald, 16220 Greenlawn, was this week appointed secretary to Israel: Ramat Jochanan. the Board of Health. Langwald is a past director of the Z ionist Organization of America, past Master of Perfec- tion Lodge, of the Ma sonic Order and a member of North- west Hebrew Cong. Graduating Morris Nobel, principal of the Marilyn Kopel at the Federation from the College of Commerce Rose Sittig Cohen Branch of the offices, WO. 5-3939. and Finance at the University T.J nit e d Hebrew Schools, and Community-supported schools of Detroit, Langwald also Samuel Sigal, director of the worked -for the Department of Workmen's Circle Schools, gave are: United Hebrew Schools, Internal Revenue. United Jewish Folk Schools, radio addresses over Mrs. Hy- He had been with the Board man Altman's Saturday evening United Jewish H i g h School, broadcasts on Station WJLB, Workmen's Circle Schools and of Health 11 years as senior food and dairy inspector. urging parents to give their Yeshivath Beth Yehudah. children a Jewish education. Confidence in U. S. Jewry These addresses - were part of Philadelphia Synagogue's Urged by British Paper the program planned by the Torahs On Way to Israel educational and cultural divi- sion of the Jewish Welfare Fed- PHILADELPHIA, (JTA)—Four LONDON- (JTA)—Stressing Is- eration in cooperation with the Scrolls of the Law from a local rael's needs for additional sup- Yiddish and Hebrew Schools to synagogue — no longer in exist- port in the absorption of great promote enrollment in com- ence were sent to a Mizrachi numbers of immigrants, the munity-supporte4schools. colony in Israel. A "send-off" Manchester Guardian, in an Detroit Jewish organizations ceremony was held at Cong. editorial expressed confidence interested in arranging a pro- Tifereth Israel of Parkside, with that the American Jewish com- gram on Jewish education may a number of local rabbis and lay munity would support the pro- obtain speakers by calling Miss religious leaders participating. jected Israel loan drive. Philip Langwald Gets Health Post Stress Importance of Jewish Training On Mrs. Altman's Program on WJLB Israel Claims Riley's Report Undermiiiing UN Authority Continued from Page 1 He also urged enforcement of UN decisions on internation- alization of-' Jerusalem and repatriation of Palestine Arab refugees. The Iraqi spokesman also listed alleged Israel atrocities against Arab farmers, machine-gunning of a Lebanese plane carrying religious pilgrims and the expulsion in recent months of thousands of Arabs to "give their homes to new Jewish immigrants." The newly-elected President of the current Assembly session—Nasrollah Entezam of Iran—was reportedly sup- ported by Israel over the Pakistani candidate in the secret balloting for a UN Assembly President. The major issues of interest to Israel are not expected to come up for debate until fairly late in the session. The most important of these issues are three political items— reconsideration of the plan to internationalize the city of Jerusalem and its surrounding areas, an Arab sponsored item calling for the repatriation to Israel of 'Palestine Arab refugees and payment of compensation to them, and a Syrian item inviting the Arab League to attend sessions of the UN General Assembly. The latter point is a strata- gem designed to isolate the Jewish state by making the Arab League the "official" regional organ of the UN in the Middle East. Israel is sitting as a provisional member only of the current session of the UN General Assembly due to a mix- up in credentials. When the Israel delegation credentials were examined by the Credentials Committee, it was found that they did not comply with the rules in that they were in the form of a telegram from Abba Eban, permanent Israel delegate, instead of in a notification from the head of state or Foreign Minister. The committee voted to seat the delegates provisionally until this could be rectified. Israel Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett, who is heading the Israel delegation, promised to deal with the matter at once. On the Racord By NATHAN ZIPRIN (Copyright 1950, Seven Arta Feature Syndicate, Inc.) Arab Pilots If 'Dean Acheson's proposal to forin an international security patrol to maintain global peace is adopted by the General Assem- bly the Arab states will grasp the situation to demand that the UN force take over Jerusalem under the aegis of the Trusteeship Council. This was the strategy believed to have been developed at a secret Arab conference immediately after the American Sec- retary of State made his proposal. The thesis behind their man- euver is that the only reason why the Trusteeship Council was un . able to implement the Jerusalem internationalization decision was lack of enforcement means: Their intent is to raise new tensions around the issue to the point of "endangering world peace" and then demand that the UN take over Jerusalem as a step in elim- inating a danger spot. The meeting of the Arab delegates was to have been a highly secretive one. They feared if their strategy leaked . out King Abdullah of Jordan would thwart their design on Jerusalem by hastily entering into a peace treaty with Israel based on the city's territorial status quo. , * - New Converts Since the rise of Israel there has been a steady stream of Arab conversion to the Jewish faith. Two weeks ago the record was broken, when 10 such cases were reported by the rabbinate. One of the 10 had to go through the Abrahamic rite. He was a Christian. The nine Arabs entered the Jewish fold through con- viction; the Christian Arab because he sought the hand of a Jewish girl. Two of the Arabs were returned refugees who lived during the war in one of the Arab countries. One of the recent converts was a member of one of the foreign consulates. A Euro- pean, he had for many years contemplated changing faiths. Not realizing the full significance of the Abrahamic rite, the gentleman invited his male and female friends to the ceremony . Another interesting conversion case was recently reported by a Yiddish newspaper in Johannesberg. The story involves a Christian fam- ily at Capetown whose 24-year-old son espoused the Jewish faith some two years before. The young man had asked his parents to convert him to Judaism when he was 13 so he could be Bar Mitz- vah. They advised him to wait until he was 21, when he would be free to make a decision out of his own volition. And he did. The young man, Aubrey Vivier, is a talented musician whose compositions, some dedicated to Israel, had been played at Johan- • nesberg. For years Aubrey had plead with his parents to follow in his Jewish footsteps. After long searching of soul they yielded and asked the Capetown rabbinate to- bring them to the Jewish fold. The rabbinate held a number of sessions and, after due deliberation and questioning, decided that the family was sincere in its desire to become Jews. After the proper traditional cere- monies, the couple was married in a synagogue in Capetown according to the laws of Moses and Israel. The wedding ceremony was attended by many of Capetown's leading Jews and Christians. * Judge Rothenberg The last minutes of the late Judge Rothenberg will never be forgotten by those who witnessed his sudden death. He virtually died with the word "death" on his lips, as if he had a premoni- tion of the end. A few minutes before he fell dead, the Zionist • leader made a plea for reasonableness and understanding and - unity within Zionist ranks. Speaking softly, he made a virtual accounting of his activities and cited his record as proof of his sincerity. Asking the critics to lay aside grievances, real and imaginary, he told the following anecdote about the famous Jew- ish philanthropist Nathan Strauss. Strauss, he said, once told him a story about the late Dr. Judah L. Magnes. Strauss was on his death bed in Jerusalem and he summoned Magnes, telling him.. that he wanted to do a good deed before expiring. He asked Magnes: "Should I perhaps open a new kitchen in Jerusalem?" Magnes became enraged and told him he had made a mistake by opening even one kitchen. Magnes was of course opposed to the philanthropic approach of Strauss. Later, upon recovery, Strauss told Rotherberg that Magnes was a queer man: "Here I was lying on my death bed, and Magnes criticized me." And with these words Judge Rothenberg fell and closed his eyes on the Jewish scene.