THE JEWISH NEWS
A Few Borrowed Pages
incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20. 7951
Member: American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 708-10 David Stott Bldg., Detroit 26, Mich.,
Subscription S4 a year, foreign $5.
Entered as second class matter Aug. 6, 1942, at Post Office, Detroit, Mich., under Act of March 3, 1879.
FRANK SIMONS
City Editor
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager
Page 4
Vol. XXII—No. 23
WO. 5-1155.
February 13, 1953
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the twenty-ninth day of Shvat, 5713, the following Scriptural selections win be
read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Ex. 21:1-24:18; Prophetical portion, I Sam. 20:18-42.
On Saturday and Sunday, Rosh Hodes* Adar, Nunn. 28:1-15 will be read.
Licht Benshen, Friday, Feb. 13, 5:07 p.m.
The Message of National Brotherhood Week
Twenty-five years ago, under the leader-
ship• of Charles Evans Hughes, Newton D.
Baker, the Rev. Dr. S. Parkes Cadman,
Roger W. Straus and Prof. Carlton J. H.
Hayes, the National Conference of Christ-
ians and. Jews was formed . . .
". . . to promote justice, aniity, under-
standing and cooperation among Protestants,
Catholics and Jews, and to.. analyze, moderate
a n d finally eliminate intergroup prejudices
which disfigure and distort religious, business,
social and political relations, with a view to
establishment of a social order in which the
religious ideals of brotherhood an d justice
shall become standards of human relation-
ships."
This basic idea has developed into a three-
fold objective—
Rededication to the ideals of respect for
people and human rights.
Demonstration of practical ways in which
Americans can promote these ideals.
Enlistment of more people in year-round
activities to promote brotherhood.
This program is the foundation for
Brotherhood Week, which was introduced
as a major part of the activities of the Na-
tional Conference of Christians and Jews in
1934, at the suggestion of Monsignor Hugh
McMenamin of Denver. Now, Brotherhood
Week, which has become an established in-
stitution in American life, observed uninter-
ruptedly since its first introduction, is cele-
brated in more than 7,000 communities
throughout the land.
The 1953 Catholic, Protestant and Jew-
ish co-chairmen of the National Conference
of Christians and Jews — Thomas Benson
Ford, Thomas Braniff and Roger W. Straus—
have summarized the basic beliefs in the val-
idity of Brotherhood Week in the following:
"NCCJ believes that brotherhood can be
achieved without seeking a union of religious
bodies and without weakening the loyalties or
modifying the distinctive beliefs of any creed;
"NCCJ believes in stressing the positive;
"NCCJ believes that brotherhood can be
'Made a normal and natural part of everyday
living;
"NCCJ believes that brotherhood is giving
to others the same dignity and rights one
claims for himself."
Here are views of the spokesmen for all
faiths gathered to indicate the importance
of Brotherhood:
"Has not God borne with you these many
years? Be ye tolerant to others."—Hosea Ballou.
"The great secret is not having bad man-
ners or good manners or any other particular
sort of manners, but having the same manners
for all human souls." —George Bernard Shaw.
. "We have committed the golden rule to
memory; let us now commit it to life."
—Edwin Markham.
"Intolerance, and racial and religious dis-
crimination, are not the by-products of any
particular kind of working condition, wage-
classification, or economic group. They are
germs which do their damage in every type
of human being, and they are just as con-
tagious and indiscriminate as chicken-pox,
while having a mortality factor more closely
resembling that of cancer and tuberculosis."
—Charles E. Wilson.
American Justice
President Eisenhower's State of the
Union Message gave new courage to Ameri-
cans of all shades of opinion that whatever
errors were committed in the past years by
ultra-conservative elements in Congress will
be corrected.
The President was firm in his assurance
that he will strive for the expansion of civil
and social rights of Americans of all creeds
and races. His pledge to eliminate segrega-
tion in the nation's capital was a courageous
statement that should give • new hope to
liberals who envision the day when preju-
dice will disappear from our midst.
President Eisenhower's request that the
existing immigration law be amended was
another splendid step in the direction of as-
suring the perpetuation of the highest Ameri-
can ideals.
We pray that the hands of our President
be strengthened in the attempts to make jus-
tice and fair play the dominant notes. in
American living and acting.
. "From where I'm sitting, tolerance is just
a big word for peace. War can't get going
where there's a synipathetic understanding of
nation for nation, man for man, and creed for
creed." —Bing Crosby
"All your strength is in your union
All your danger in discord;
Therefore be at peace henceforward
And as Ili-others live together."
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
"Mail was created alone, for the sake of
peace tinzong men, that one might not say to
his fellow: 'My father was greater than thine'."
—Mishnah, Sanhedrin iv. 37.
"Common to all Christians and Jews and
any creature created by God is the great Com-
mandment of Love . . . True charity admits of
no substitute. If we prostitute our love by ad-
mitting some and excluding others from our
affections because they differ from us in race,
religion, color, political beliefs, then we are
counterfeit religionists and traitorous Ameri-
cans." —Bishop Mark K. Carroll.
"To exert every possible effort to eliminate
un-democratic practices and undemocratic at-
titudes, to do all that we can do to close the
gap between our professions of democracy and
our practice of it . . . is the only way that we
can achieve our maximum national strength
and unity and fully discharge our international
responsibilities. in these critical times, this we
,must do. We cannot afford to do less."
—Ralph J. Bunche.
The idea is self-evident. The questiOn-
and the problem—is how to apply it to life;
how to make it real and observable.
The fact that Brotherhood Week is cele-
brated in schools and colleges, in churthes
and synagogues, in the press and on the
radio and television, points to the progress
that has been made organizationally. The
National Conference of Christians and Jews
has made significant progress in spreading
its objectives, in seeking to invade the hearts
of men of all faiths and racial origins.
But the work of making the Brotherhood
Week objective a reality goes on. During
this year's observance—Feb.. 15-22—it will
be necessary for all Americans to join forces
in eradicating prejudices, in creating under-
standing, in adhering to the common denom-
inator—the American Idea of Fair Play. If
we can learn to practice this principle of
fairness and good will, we shall make the
American democratic policy secure. This is
the spirit we must introduce into the Ob-
servance of Brotherhood Week of 1953.
H I STOR I ETTE
Civil War and the Heart's Struggle
tfr,
Though • he opposed slavery, Gen. Robert E. Lee faced
the problem during the Civil War of allegiance to the Union and
kinship with his fellow citizens of Virginia and his love for his
family. That same problem vexed many a man in those shaky
days.
The problem of loyalty affected Jews as it did any other group
of people, and there is an interesting story of how a Jewish man
and his son each went his own way during the conflict, though
their attachment was never lost.
Alfred Mordechai was a major in the Army Ordnance Depart-
ment when the war broke out. Born in North Carolina he felt his
allegiance to his state and family more pressing than to the North.
At this time, too, his son, Alfred Mordechai, Jr., was graduating
from West Point.
The younger Mordechai Served as a lieutenant at the start of
the war, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel by war's end,
and served brilliantly with the Union Army during the campaigns
of Manassas and Bull Run.1
His father sent this note a day before the boy's birthday on
June 29, 1865: "Friday, June 30, Our son Alfred's birthday . .
I trust he is well, & that God has softened his heart towards his
fellow countrymen & relatives of the South ... Mine bleeds daily
to think of them . . . let me try not . ." •
The younger Mordechai eventually became a brigadier general
and finally retired from the Army in 1904. '
Status of Chalutziut in America
What is Chalutziut? How is the movement for the training of
pioneers for Israel progressing in this country, and what is its back- .
ground?
A firm collective statement, answering the questions that may
arise on the subject and providing data regarding it, is incorpor-
ated in "the year-book devoted to the cause of Chalutziut in Ameri-
ca," published by the Chalutziut and Youth Commission of the
Labor Zionist movement, (33 E. 67th St., N. Y. 21), under the title
"Chalutz and Youth."
The 5713 (1952-53) yearbook deals frankly with the subject
Mrs. Israel Goldstein, chairman of the CHAY (Chalutziut) Com-
mission, approaches the issues—touching even upon failures—with
real earnestness. The numerous articles by authorities in the move-
ment are replete with facts and figures that will prove valuable to
The hands of Allied Jewish Campaign all interested in the subject, regardless of their party affiliations.
Dr. James G. Heller, David Ben-Gurion, Hayim Greenberg,
leaders were strengthened by the hearten-
Maurice
Eliahu Dobkin, are among the noted leaders par-
ing, experience provided by the recent bud- ticipating Samuel,
in discussing theories of Chalutziut. The realities are
geting conference, at which a formula was outlined by active participants in pioneering efforts.
agreed upon for division of the income ex-
The yearbook is illustrated. The statistical data will enlighten
pected from the 1953 campaign.
the student of Zionist affairs and of projects in behalf of Israel.
Campaign Amity
Every effort was made by the steering
committee to avoid conflicts and to assure
the cementing of unity, in order that the
•urgent needs overseas should be fully pro-
vided for, at the same time guaranteeing
funds for local agencies.
For the sake of amity, those who propa-
gate larger capital funds conceded to making
reductions and to the inclusion in the drive of
items that call for the irreducible minimum
for the - financing of community structures.
This concession will make it possible for the
United Jewish Appeal to receive the maxi-
mum support, and there is strong hope that
Israel and the other overseas needs will be
better cared for than last year.
The Communist anti-Semitic wave has
created another area into which relief funds
will have to be poured in the coming months.
The influx of refugees from East into West
Germany will tax the Joint Distribution
Committee, and UJA will be called upon to
provide means to help these escapees.
It is good to know that the budgeting
plans have materialized in an atmosphere
of amity and that the campaign leaders ex-
pect considerable increases in income in the
coming months. Their hands should be
strengthened by the combined efforts of the
entire community.
Dr. Silver's. Birthday
Editorial in New York Herald Tribune
The testimonial dinner to Dr. Abba Hillel Silver at the Wal-
dorf-Astoria climaxes many separate observances by Jewish coin,.
munities all over the country in honor of his sixtieth birthday on
Jan. 28. Ordinarily, the sixtieth birthday of a man still in the
fullest vigor of life might not occasion such widespread celebra-
tion of the anniversary. Rut Dr. Silver, though in his prime and
as ready as ever to take on new tasks of leadership, has become a
legendary figure in his own time. He is honored for achievements
which are now history—for his contributions to the formation of
the Jewish state of Israel, for qualities of intellect and statesman-
ship which make him not only one of the great Jewish 'figures
of the time but a great American. This newspaper joins with his
friends and admirers all over- the world in paying him tribute and
wishing him many more years of fruitful service in causes to
which he has dedicated his life.
`Tall Tales': A Children's Classic
"The Three Tall-Tale Tellers" by David Rodin, a children's
classic, written in Yiddish, now is available in a charming English
translation by Rabbi Abraham Burstein, The appropriate illus
trations are by I. Lichenstein. Vantage Press (120 W. 31st, NYI)
is the publisher of the English translation.
In their adventures, the principals defy all obstacles—height,
distance, credibility, time. Wherever they go, they find food for
their tale-spinning and their imagination grows and grows.
Thus, strange uncles and cousins, the objects of the zoo, farm-
ers and others are victims of their bragging. Mr. Rodin has spun
interesting tales and has delineated likeable characters. Young
and old will enjoy reading this charming children's book.