UJA As s Detroit to Raise $6,000,000 in 1951
Local Budgeting Needs
To be Evaluated Sunday
T HE JEWISH NEWS
Reminding top community leaders, at a meeting called
to discuss the United Jewish Appeal's place in the 1951 Allied
Jewish Campaign, that Detroit's "high water mark was
reached in 1948," when nearly $6,000,000 was raised for over-
seas, national and local causes, Dr. Joseph T. Schwartz, UJA
executive vice-chairman, urged that "Detroit gear itself to
that level."
VOL, 18—No. 20
A Weekly Review
of Jewish Events
708 David Stott Bldg., Detroit
7
January 26, 1951
Eisenhower's 'Forgiveness'
Policy to Germans Condemned
The Jewish Welfare Federation and Allied Jewish Campaign
leaders who heard Dr. Schwartz's plea, at the meeting on Jan. 18,
at. Hotel Tuller, interpreted it as national UJA's hope that this
community's drive this year will reach the $6,000,000 mark, there-
by providing Israel with the sorely-needed funds for the continued
LONDON, (JTA)—The Board of Deputies of British Jews decided to send
rescue of Jews from East European and Moslem lands.
a
deputation
to the British government to protest against statements by General
Recommendation of a formula for 1951 fund allocations
of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower and Sir -Ivone Kirkpatrick, British High
through the Allied Jewish Campaign will be made at the pre-
Commissioner for Germany, offering Germans forgiveness in return for support
campaign budgeting conference to be held all day Sunday, start,
in the Western European alliance.
'Mg at 10:30 a.m., at the Davison Jewish Center. A statement on
Commenting on Gen. Eisenhower's statement that as far as he is concerned
procedure till be made by Samuel H. Rubiner, Federation presi-
"bygones are bygones;" speakers at the Board's meeting called it a "betrayal
dent, who will preside. The status of Israel and other overseas
of those who fought and died for the Allied cause." Col. Bean, leader of Jew-
needs will be outlined by Julian H. Krolik, chairman of the Fed-
- ish veterans, stressed that British Jewish veterans are deeply concerned by the
eration executive committee.
prospect of being "allies in arms with the Germans in any future conflict."
At the Jan. 18 discussion of UJA needs, Dr. Schwartz gave -
Representations to the four Allied Powers were made by the World Jewish
an important analysis of existing conditions in Israel. He called
Congress in protest against suggestions
attention to the arrival in this country of Pinhas Lubianiker,
member of the Israel Cabinet, whose mission is to secure a supply
to release Nazi war criminals. The
of wheat for the Jewish state. He reported that the sum of $25,-
strongest exception in particular was
000,000 must be made available at-once for this purpose in order
taken by the WJC to the declaration
made last week in Berlin by the British
to prevent starvation in case of emergency.
(Announcement was made this week that Mr. Lubianiker, Israel
High Commissioner in Germany, Sir
Minister of Agriculture, who has changed his name to Pinhas Lavon,
Ivone Kirkpatrick, who said that "there
will be guest speaker at the midwest leadership conference of UJA in
is no man in prison in Germany for war
Chicago, Feb. 4. A Michigan delegation will participate in this confer-
crimes whose sentence I shall not be
ence.)
willing to consider in view of the
United States Senator Owen Brew-
Dr. Schwartz said that in planning to welcome 175,000 more
changed circumstances."
of Maine will be the principal speaker
Jews who must find a haven in Israel in 1951 the Jewish state is
Sunday, at the 20th annual donor
The Central Committee of Liberated
not pulling figures out of a hat; that it is possible to bring Jews
rally of the Ladies' Auxiliary of the
Jews in the French zone of Germany,
from Romania, Hungary, Poland and Moslem lands and that later
Jewish National Fund, in the Main
will cease functioning at the end of next
that may become impossible.
Auditorium of the Masonic Temple.
month, JTA reports from I!rankfurt.
Presenting figures on actual needs for solving "the staggering
Only 50 Jews remain in that zone of the
problem of establishing the newcomers in Israel," Dr. Schwartz
Featuring the musical program
2,500 Jewish displaced persons who
said that by raising a minimum of $100,000,000 in 1951 the UJA
Sunday will be Arthur Benavie, able
lived there during the post-war period.
will be able to allocate $68,000,000 to the United Palestine Appeal
young Detroit violinist, and Cantor
At present Constance is the only Jewish
(Keren Hayesod and Keren Kayemeth), with an additional $8,000,-
Moses' J. Silverman of Chicago, ac-
community existing in the zone. It
000 to be spent in Israel from the balance by the Joint Distribution
companied by Rebecca Frohman.
counts a membership of only 40. During
Mrs. Albert Prag is president of
Committee.
the last year, the work of the com-
"But we must not think in terms of $100,000,000, but of much
the JNF Auxiliary. Mrs. Irving Arlin
munities in the French zone was con-
more," he pleaded. "There is a climate this year for better giving.
heads the program. Mrs. William
cerned mainly with obtaining compen-
When you weigh dollars against lives, the balance is in favor of
Klafer is fund-raising Chairman.
lives. All emphasis must be placed on the goal, on raising a total
sation payments for Jewish victims of
Story, Page 2; Editorial, Page 4
to cover the most urgent needs of the UJA and of local agencies."
Nazi persecution.
Special JNF Supplement, Pages 11-14
(Continued on Page 24)
Senator Brewster
Speaks Sunday at
Women's !INF Event
`Underground to Freedom'
By JOE HARRISON FRIED
First Article in a Series of Three
(Copyright, 1951, American Jewish Press. All rights reserved)
Behind a formidable Iron Curtain of armed
sentries and secrecy barring the last routes of
escape for tens of thousands of Polish and Ro-
manian "active" Jews, an alert well-disciplined
corps of veteran Jewish underground operators
at this very moment dodge the Polish U.B. secret
police to facilitate the "illegal" escape and rescue
of scores of men and women whose names may
appear on tomorrow's liquidation lists.
November, 1950, had turned to extensive use of mis-
leading identification papers. Tightened lines and So-
viet-commanded re-inforced border patrols make it
virtually impossible to successfully find a rear exit
to the dungeonlike bleakness of Sovietland.
market and elsewhere. The price is approximately
the same in Romania.
But as the agents work inward toward the Soviet
itself, the price becomes more costly; the existence
of such escape-papers being more scarce. -
Illegal credentials—and they must of necessity be
good if they are to pass the eye of alert Polish pa-
trols—sell for approximately $100 apiece on the black
Here is a typical method used by the Jewish un-
derground to obtain sorely-needed dollars to purchase
papers:
A Jewish agent, after checking the prospective
unwitting helper, approaches the financier for what
would appear to be a personal loan. Once the Polish
dollars are in the agent's hands, he, in turn, contacts
the headquarters of the Jewish Labor Committee and
"Mr. Aleph" in New York. This is done by a cleverly
arranged "drop" network which will be outlined as we
progress.
Once deciphered by "Mr. Aleph", the words take
on new meanings. Through a special code the Polish
agent informs his chief of the amount of the "loan"
obtained from the particular Polish financier. "Mr.
Aleph" promptly deposits the exact amount in a safe
American bank under the "lender's" name.
The Pole is happy because he has a nest-egg free
from the grasp of the Polish Commissars. But his per-
sonal happiness falls far short of the joy in the hearts
of the Jewish agents who purchase "credentials" in a
slave nation where dollar bills alone determine
whether an individual will suddenly "disappear",
never again to be heard from or whether the same
individual reaches the borders of a friendly nation,
then sails to a free life in Israel.
One such Jew smuggled out of Poland wrote this
letter—once he had eluded the Polish patrols and was
safe in Israel:
"At long last," the little Jewish tailor wrote, "I am
out of Stalin's `gehenina' (hell). Now I am no longer
in jail. Conditions in Israel are severe; but I shall
find work. Nothing matters, however, because I am a
free man again!"
But there are others who are caught at the border.
The Polish and Romanian operators—these are
the two Soviet satellite states where the Jewish under-
ground is most active—are part of a well-planned
world-wide network dedicated to the sole purpose of
rescuing those Jews who by ordinary means would
find escape totally impossible. Its task is to smuggle
these Jews to a friendly neighboring European coun-
try, then to Israel and permanent freedom.
At the head of the Jewish underground stands
an energetic balding man in his late 50s. We shall
call him simply "Mr. Aleph," for to be more specific
might threaten thousands who still await liberation
at the hands of the close-knit network he com-
mands. "Mr. Aleph" is an old-timer at this sort of
thing. He came to the United States, a pivot point
of the rescue operations, late in 1938 to map out a
similar underground rescue to save thousands of
Jews trapped by Hitler. When the war was over, he
suspended the escape network and turned to ways
of rehabilitation and peace. But as the octopus-like
arms of Soviet agression tightened their hold
on Europe and anti-Jewish edicts increased, "Mr.
Aleph" was called to form his network of agents.
Working out of the Jewish Labor Committee head-
quarters in New York City, "Mr. Aleph," organizer
of the ever-increasing project, is charged with its
maintenance and operation:
Within a framework of almost absolute secrecy,
European agents of the Jewish underground use mul-
tiple means of obtaining illegal passports to speed
the Jewish escapees to friendly and safe asylum.
Where once the Jewish underground utilized ex-
perienced agents as guides to lead Jews on foot and
in small vehicles across loosely guarded exits to free-
dom, the emphasis in escaping Stalin's inferno as Of
Jewish Agents Risk Lives to Snap
Victims From Polish Secret Police
—American Jewish Press Photo
Jewry Behind the 'Curtain':
Symbolic of the
depression and despair of Jews caught behind the
Iron Curtain is this young Jewish Hungarian boy
awaiting rescue. But though the Soviet-dominated
states are allowing some Jews to migrate to Israel,
thousands of Jews active in civic and social welfare
life are being barred exit. The Jewish Underground
helps these escape to freedom.
(Next Week: Mrs. B. is an ordinary-appearing
woman, the mother of three grown children. Mr. Z.
is an elderly man with a flowing white beard. He is
in his late 80's, a constant shule-goer and a grand-
father. They both live quiet lives in a big American
city. But without Mrs. B., Mr. Z., and others like
them, the Jewish underground's rescue operations
behind the Iron Curtain could never function. Read
the second in this series of three articles by the
American Jewish Press in next week's Jewish News.)