The Sinister Shadow

.
As die Editor
Views the News

By DAVID SCHWARTZ

The $4,000,000 Mark

(Copyright. 1952. Jewish Telegraphic Agency,

every morning a variety of weather. We gather
from Mr. Krown that Israel has more weather

than most countries and you can take your
choice.
The Israeli weather forecaster is an Ameri-
can native. Born in Brooklyn and a graduate of
Brooklyn College, he was for a time instructor
in meteorology at the University of Chicago.

After the second World War, in which he helped
to provide the weather for American aviators,
he moved to Israel. became a member of the
Weather Bureau of Palestine under the Manda-
tory government, later joined the Jewish liber-
ation forces and became the head of the Israel

School Mergers

Weather Bureau.
The reason Israel has such a variety of
weather, the Israeli forecaster says, is because
of the land's peculiar geography, embracing in
a comparatively small compass, ocean, moun-
tains and a desert, each of which has a very
decisive elfect on the temperature.

Under a Manchester, England, dateline
the London Jewish Chronicle carries a re-
port that has important bearing on the De-
troit situation. According to the Manchester
story:

Synagogue.

With this merger, said the speaker, the Di-
rector would be able to reorganize the Bent
Street school- in a manner which would in-
crease its efficiency and at the same time
cffect a financial saving. Mr. Raffles explained
that the children would not be left to go to

Bent Street by themselves. but would be taken
there and back by bus. They would also re-
ceive refreshments. many mothers, he went on,
said that they would not send the children to
the new school, and we re sending a deputation.
lb aid not think that this would make the
Board alter its decision. because it believed
that ir-trmd be to the children's advantage to
have their lessons in ap'roper school.

We quote this report in full because of

the corresponding situation in Detroit. Here,
too, these congregational schools—Alas Sha-
Bnai 1\loshe's and Beth Aaron's—have
merged their Sunday school classes with the

yv(-sek-day Hebrew classes conducted by the
United Hebrew Schools. We have commend-
ed such action and we urge again that other
schools should follow a similar procedure.
It is especially encouraging at this

time to report the agreement that was
reached between the United Hebrew
Schools and Congregation Beth Aaron. The
movement for mergers is spreading in the
best interests of community cooperation.
Unfortunately, a merger of Yiddish

schools effected here two years ago now is
in danger. There should be increased effort
in the direction of fusing activities that are
of like programming—for the sake of secur-
ing greater results and of effecting econo-
mies. Our schools find it increasingly diffi-
cult to secure good teachers. This problem,
too, can be solved by combining schools
which would otherwise be compelled to com-
pete for personnel.
The analogy between our own and the
British-Jewish conditions is interesting. It
proves that our English-speaking Jewish
communities are alike in their problems and
needs and that we can . learn from each other.

The annual meeting of the United He-
brew Schools next Tuesday, at which highly
deserved honors will be accorded Mr. Harry
Cohen for his valuable communal services,
will serve as an ideal occasion at which to
applaud the efforts of all who have made
the school mergers possible.

THE JEWISH NEWS

Incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle
commencing with issue of July 20, 1951

Member: American Association of English-Jewish News-
papers. Michigan Press Association_
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing
CO. 708-10 David Stott Bldg., Detroit 26. Mich., WO. 5-1155.
Subscription S4 a year: foreign 65.
Entered as second class matter Aug. 6, 1942 at Post Office.
Detroit. Mich., under Act of March 3, 1879.

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ, Editor
SIDNEY SHMARAK, Advertising Manager
FRANK SIMONS, City Editor

Vol. XXI—No. 13

Page 4

June 6, 1952

Sabbath Scriptural Selections

This Sabbath, the fourteenth day of Sivan,
5712, the following Scriptural selections will be
read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion—Num. 4:21-7:89.
Prophetical portion—Judges 13:2-25.

Licht Benshen, Friday, June 6, 7:45 p.111.

Inc.)

Israel's Haza'i is here. That's Hebrew for
weather forecaster. The man everyone wants to
throw something at when there's too much rain.
Leo Krown, head of the weather forecasting
bureau of Israel, has an advantage in this re-
spect. He is always prepared to offer the people

The Allied Jewish Campaign is nearing
the $4,000,000 mark in its current drive.
This is an encouraging report.
It is a tribute to the serious efforts of the
leaders and workers in the campaign and
speaks well for the thousands of contributors
who are supporting this important effort
in behalf of Israel and 50 other local, na-
tional and oversease causes.
There still is more than a million dollars
to he raised. Let us pool our efforts and re-
sources to attain the complete goal in the
current important drive.

Mr. E. Raffles, J.P., presiding at the month-
ly meeting of the Central Board for Hebrew
Education recently, said that during the past
month they had given consideration to a
recommendation from the Director, Rabbi B.
M. Casper, on the merging of the Talmud
Torah branches at the Central Synagogue and
Bent Street. It had been decided that the
classes now meeting at the Central Synagogue
branch would be transferred to the Bent
Street premises for their mid-week lessons,
but the Sunday lesson would continue at the

Israel Weather Man,
Brooklyn Native, in U.S.

If you are freezing in Jerusalem in winter—

`Even Keel in Decene —

For the Sake of All America'
a population of

Honeoye Falls, N. Y., is a village with
only 1,500. But it has a newspaper—Honeoye Falls Times—
whose editor's courage makes him stand out among the
country's fighters for justice. Recently, under the heading
"The Smear Boys Are at It Again," he struck hard at the
cancerous spread of racial and religious bigotry, exposed the
anti-Semites and made the following appeal for the retention
of "an even keel in decency for the sake of all America":

National politics, or any politics for that matter, are not our
forte from an editorial standpoint. but an attempt at character
assassination in America is our business, and the business of
every newspaperman in the country, big or small. We refer to
the present campaign underway to smear Gen. Dwight IL - Eisen-
hower.
This week's mail brought to OUT desk a circular advertising
a special edition of Headlines. with offices at 343 Madison Ave-
nue, New York. N. Y., offering us the opportunity (free to editors
on request) to read "all the facts that should be printed" in a
pamphlet entitled "Who's Promoting and What's Behind 'We
Like Ike'." This single-page brochure is covered with headlines
detrimental to Eisenhower (quote) "Reds, New Dealers use Ike
in plot to hold power"; "Ike coddled Communists while Presi-
dent of Coluinbia University"; "Accused Red agent Joe Barnes
helped General Ike write his book"; "Europeans say elect Ike
or else, states Red school prexy," and many more. There is no

way for the recipient of this circular to know whether Headlines
is for or against Eisenhower until he sends 20 cents to get on the
sucker list (free to editors on request).
We credit Time Magazine, May 5, 1952, with the following:
"Another kind of smear comes in a 16-page pamphlet. Headlines
and What's Behind Them ("for students, writers and speakers").
A streamer on the front page blares the message: Reds, New
Dealers use Ike in plot to hold power. Behind Headlines is
pince-nezed Joseph P. Kamp, who edited the Awakener—well-
loved by the Nazis—from 1932 until its death in 1936. In 1934 he
was cited for contempt of Congress and sentenced (in 1949) to
four months in prison. Kamp's touch is far from subtle: he
fans anti-Semitic feelings by picturing prominent Jews who are
sponsoring Ike."
We have seen further evidence of attempted smears on
Eisenhower. Another quote from Time (May 5, 1952) is as fol-
lows * * * their common purpose (of poison pen articles) * * *
is the big smear. With a calculated appeal to the varying prej-
udices of their intended leaders, they portray Ike in bewildering
succession as a Roman Catholic, a sick man, a Jew, a warmonger,
a white supremacist, a coddler of Negro troops, a tool of Russia,
a lackey of Wall Street, a front for New Dealers, and a pal of
Joe Stalin's."
With no further quotes we now ask every reader who might
possibly see this editorial to fight such contemptuous propaganda
against Eisenhower, or any other figure in public life in America.
The smears against Alfred E. Smith during the year he was
a presidential candidate were a disgrace to the Nation. Started
by subversive groups whose sole purpose was to turn one Ameri-
can against another; sect against sect; creed against creed, they
succeeded in bringing out a foul train of thought in the minds
of every bigot that ever read, or heard them.
This undercurrent of character filth against Eisenhower
can, and must be stopped by • every intelligent American in the
land, be be Catholic, Jew, Protestant, Negro, or plain, ordinary
John Doe. It is the work of crackpots with but one desire—to
turn humans into dirty, slithing amoeba intent on destroying
what God intended to be mankind. They seek no political vic-
tory; they represent no part of Democratic or Republican phil-
osophy; they have no thoughts toward "peace and good will for
all men," they hope only for utter destruction of the dignity of
man.
Americans can bring a halt to this vileness.
Demand proof of each statement. Don't let them back down.
If it is printed matter they show, ask where they got it. Force
in no few words an admission of where such materials came
from. If the imprecation is presented in the form of a joke,
force an explanation of its humor. Should the teller be brash
enough to hint at religious, racial or fraternal derogation, de-
mand to know if what they are telling is an example of their
thinking at church, or among their countrymen, or at their so-
cial gatherings.
You kill rats by routing them out, or filling their hideouts
with a prepared toxin. That is the only way to rid this Nation
of character-killing fanatics. Make them show proof of their
statements, and, better still, kill them off with their own poisOn.
We may be at loggerheads politically, but let's keep on an
even keel in decency for the sake of all America.

This is too valuable a contribution to true Americanism
to be hidden from view or to be lithited to the splendid com-
munity of Honeoye Falls, N. Y., which should give unstinted
support to its fine paper and its courageous editor. There-
fore we share this powerful statement with our readers.

and this is possible—take a ride down to Tel

Aviv, an hour away. and you can throw off your
overcoat, strip to shorts and play a game of
tennis or go swimming.
In the summer you will probably want to
return to Jerusalem. Its high altitude-2,500 feet
above sea and low humidity make it the ideal
city for Mr. Krown.
Another cool spot in summer is Safed, an-

cient center of the Jewish mystics. The cool

breezes there, we gather, are conducive to med-
itation on the higher things. It's a good place to
have in mind if you wish to write another
Zohar. although of late, it seems the mystics
have been replaced by artists. Safed is the place
where the Israeli Greenwich Village is located.
The Negeb has another type of weather.
There the sun bakes you like pudding during
the day but at night it's good to hare the lire

Weather forecasting. according to Mr. Krown,
Is
has become especially important of late in Israel
ccount of aviation. The Lydda airport near
on
9c) account
Tel Aviv has become one of the world's great
airports. serving 17 foreign air lines besides
Israel's El Al.
But Mr. Krown is not in America about the
weather. He has accepted a special assignment
for a brief time to organize the office of the
Jewish Agency of the PATWA ■ Profe:_-:sional
and Technical Workers' Aliyah.) There is a great
shortage of trained technicians and professional
workers in Israel. Not so many years ago. there
was a complaint that there were too many doc-
tors in Israel. It was feared that there might
not be enough diseases to go around. But the
situation has greatly changed. The great immi-
gration of Oriental Jews. few of whom have any

technical backgrounds, and the general speed-
ed up development which is taking place, has
brought about a great shortage of doctors, en-
gineers, mechanics and nurses.

"As a weather forecaster," we said to Mr.

Krown, "do you think there are great oppor-

tunities for American technicians?"
"As a weather forecaster," he replied with
a smile, "I would say the prospects are: Bright

and sunny today and tomorrow."

Facts You Should Know:

According to Jewish tradition, where is the
proper place for a wedding; the synagogue, the
home, etc.?'
Originally weddings didn't take place in the

synagogue at all. The Biblical weddings seem to
have taken place in the home. The Talmudic
sources indicate that in the time of the Talmud
Marriages took place in the home. There was a

connection between the idea of marriage and
the temple in the sense that in the Temple
of Solomon there was a special gate where the
bridegroom entered some time before his con-
templated marriage. 'It seems that it was not

until about the 15th century that marriages

began to be performed in synagogues. This prac-
tice may bave been related historically to the
appearance of the bridegroom in the temple

before his,marriage. It seems that this transition-

followed another transition. Originally

no rabbi

was necessary at a wedding ceremony as such.
The matter was duly executed by the families in-
volved. Even today the rabbi does not execute
the marriage. He merely supervises it and insures
the proper procedure. Furthermore, the syna-
gogue came to be the social and cultural center
of Jewish life and thus set the scene for mar-

riages. Yet, marriages were performed in the
courtyards of the synagogues and not in the
synagogue proper until later on. Even today

there are Jewish sects who absolutely prohibit
marriages from taking place in the synagogue

proper. Some writers claim that the custom of
having marriages in synagogues may have stem-
med from the Christian practice of performing;
marriages in the church. One must realize that
our mode of living has changed and the home

space has become smaller from that which used
to be, and at the same time that the attendance
at weddings mushroomed into large affairs. Be 1t
as it may, one could .technically have a choice of
place as far as the location of the marriage
ceremony is concerned. Yet, for those who seek
a spiritual background and a religious tone theta

seems to be no place like the synagogue.

