Purely Commentary
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
A Yevsektzia Offspring in America
There are prospects for peace with Russia and for the restora-
tion of sanity in satellite countries. The end of the anti-Jewish
attacks and the toning down of anti-Semitic views in the Com-
munist press are heartening signals of a possible restoration of
friendly relations between Russia and Israel. Amity will be good
for the Middle East and for the world at large.
Unfortunately, we are compelled to look upon all moves from
the Kremlin with suspicion. There have been too many changes
of heart. First the USSR had an alliance with the Nazis, then the
Russians entered -the war against them; first Russia was un-
friendly, then friendly, then unfriendly again to the United States.
The same cycle was in evidence in relation to Jewry: first the
Russians favored the partition of Israel, then they played an
unsavory role in an alliance with the Vatican on the question of
Jerusalem's internationalization, and as the issue developed the
USSR began to play a pro-Arab role.
Perhaps the Russian position on Israel is more easily under-
standable than any other game she has played. She favored par-
tition as a weapon against England in the Middle East, hoping
for a Jewish alliance against the West. The Israelis refused to
be -pawns in a game of international politics, and the Russians
began to show their anti-Israel (they call it anti-Zionist) colors
by their attempts to humiliate Golda Myerson when she was
Israel's envoy in Moscow.
Now, in spite of the frightful anti-Jewish drive that was
launched against Jews in all Communist and Communist-con-
trolled countries, a few—a very few—Jews have emerged as de-
fenders of the Kremlin. The spokesmen for this group who ad-
dressed us were represented by a single letter and a single tele-
phone call, both identical in tone, like this: why do Jews attack
the Soviet? didn't Russia save 2,000,000 Jews? didn't Russia sup-
port partition? hasn't Russia outlawed anti-Semitism?
We thought all of these things already had been explained.
Russia saved some Jews during the war: these Jews had fled from
the Nazi terror which Russia was fighting and most of those who
escaped enlisted in the Russian army. But we have no record of
the number of Jews who perished in Russia. Thisf. however, is not
the point. The fact to be remembered is that while Russia was
supporting Palestine's partition she was persecuting Zionists and
_. True, on her statutes is a law against
was outlawing Hebrew
anti-Semitism. In the meantime, however, as responsible authori-
ties have proven, Jews were kept in the background in all fields
of endeavor in Russia. Jews were kept out of army leadership.
Jewish leaders in the Communist party—with two exceptions
(Kaganovich and Ehrenburg)—were purged.
It all began with the Yevsektzia (Yevreyskaya Seketzia-
Jewish Section—of the Communist Party) during the early days
of Bolshevik rule of Russia. Everything that was devoutly Jewish
was persecuted and purged in Russia on orders of the Yevsektzia.
This group outlawed Zionism and the Hebrew language, it hounded
religious Jews, it made it a crime for a Jew to assist helpless Jews
in or out of Russia who sought haven in Palestine — or even
dreamed of a Jewish Palestine. And now we have a replica of
the Yevsektzia, an offshoot of this unholy element in this coun-
try. There is no other way of explaining the defense of Russia's
anti-Semitism by Jews.
Cooperative Merger Marks Unity of Halevy
And Workmen's Circle Choirs ; Concert May 3
Dan Frohman, director of the partner as a branch of Work-
Halevy Singing Society and I men's Circle — both choirs will
Workmen's Circle choirs, this operate as one unit.
The new combined choir will
have 130 voices and will be the
largest Jewish choir in the
United States. Its first combined
concert has been scheduled for
May 3, at the Detroit Art In-
stitute.
This enlarged choir also has
been invited to present the same
concert to be -given here May 3
at Carnegie Hall, New York,
next season. The invitation to
sing in New York came from a
leading Jewish musical organi-
zation.
DAN FROHMAN
week made the important an-
nouncement of the merger of
the two groups into a single
working unit.
Mr. Frohman explained that
while the two groups will re-
main independent organization-
ally — the Halevy as a branch
of Farband, the Jewish Nation-
al Workers' Alliance, and its new
Congress Women Plan
Study Group Panels
On SA Communities
Mrs. Arthur L. Robins, chair-
man of world Jewish affairs for
the Detroit Women's Division,
American Jewish Congress, an-
nounces a program of study
groups will be held at 12:30 p.m.,
Monday.
The afternoon's theme, "The
Jews of South America," will be
developed by a vocal tour of
that continent revealing little-
known facts on the background
of Jewish settlers.
South and Northwest Chapters
will meet jointly at the home of
Mrs. Harry Bookstein, 3356 W.
Outer Dr. Mrs. Harry Feulner,
chairman, announces that Mrs.
Jack Udow will moderate a pan-
el composed of Mesdames Jack
Brickner, Wallace Nathan and
The Wary Russian Doctors
David Vogel.
The USSR has called off its haunt of the doctors, who were
Central and Northeast Chap-
accused of having organized to poison and destroy the Com- ters will also combine meetings
munist leadership. In February, shortly after the launching of at the home of Mrs. Arthur L,
the Russian anti-physicians campaign, the North American News- Robbins, 19325 Warrington. Mrs.
paper Alliance syndicated this brief article:
Samuel Katzer and Mrs. Leslie
There should be many openings soon for young doctors in Ruby are chairman and mod-
Russia, especially in Moscow. Here is a scene that is possible erator, respectively. Mesdames
in any physician's office. A nurse stands in the doorway.
Leon Herman, Sol Herman and
"Comrade So-and-So is sick, and they want you to go over Al Padover are panel members.
right away."
Both study groups will be
"Did you say I was in?" asks the doctor.
hosts to members of the new
"No."
Schaefer-Seven Chapter. Friends
"Well, tell him I left town last night for a long stay."
After the recent news accusing nine doctors of complicity of members are invited to des-
in the deaths of high Soviet officials, the practice of medicine sert luncheons which will pre-
in Moscow must be extremely hazardous. If a member of the cede the meetings.
Politburo is taken sick, and he does not get well, the chances
are the attending physician will be shot. This system should in-
sure the best treatment for the patient.
Will the doctors in Russia feel more at ease under the new
Malenkov regime? That, of course, is entirely up to the Soviet
rulers. Perhaps we shall soon see a new era of freedom in that
land of darkness. We shall recognize the rays when the Iron
Curtain is raised, when its citizens are permitted to travel free-
ly and outsiders are given the right to enter the land freely; and
when the Russians are granted the right to speak their minds,
to read what they please, whether it is printed in or outside Rus-
sia, and to listen to whatever voices may come over the airways.
We pray for that day.
*
*
*
Jesse! As an Authority: Limited to Entertainment Field
George Jessel is a good entertainer. Recently he has become
a good campaigner for Israel. His visit in the Jewish state in-
spired him to devote his activities to UJA and in behalf of the
Israel bond drive. He and his daughter have made a good UJA
film. For all these acts of kindness we are grateful. These, how-
ever, do not make an authority on moral codes out of the man
whom we acknowledge as a good entertainer. There was cause for
annoyance in the following "Travel Note" in a recent Leonard
Lyons column in the New York Post:
When George Jessel returned from Israel, he met a pro-
ducer who is accustomed to spending vacations in Palm Beach,
Antibes or Monte Carlo. "Should I take it in Israel this year?"
he asked . . . Jessel, who felt that a pioneer land would not be
a substitute for the Riviera, to a man like this, replied: "You
should look upon Israel as you would upon your favorite aunt.
When she's sick, you don't visit her—but send money."
What happens, Georgie, when you are told your own immedi-
ate favorite aunt is sick? Don't you visit her? Do you think she
feels better when you send her a check? Israelis, if they ever
read your comment, will feel pretty sad. They want their kins-
men to visit them and, having shown them their struggle, they
hope for cooperation in making their state habitable for others
to be rescued. You've sold bonds, Georgie. Did you tell the in-
vestors not to visit their favorite aunt, or did you advise them to
join in a great enterprise and then go to the scene of the opera-
tion to see the aunt in industrial action?
Guard your words, Georgie!
2
—
DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, April 24, 1953
Ferguson Acclaims
Israel Anniversary
U. S. Senator Homer Ferguson
this week acclaimed Israel's fifth
anniversary in the following
statement issued on the anni-
versary day, Monday, in Wash-
ington:
"In celebrating the fifth an-
niversary of their nation on
April 20, citizens of Israel can
look back on truly remarkable
developments which have
brought a new neighbor into
the family of nations.
"The State of Israel has put
its faith in liberty and justice
into actual practice and has
given ample evidence of its de-
termination to live in liberty
and resist both its internal and
its external enemies.
"Like other countries on the
frontier of the Iron Curtain, Is-
rael has come to know the com-
plete immorality of the Soviet
Union and has been a special
target for Communist penetra-
tion. But the Russians have
found Israel to be one of the
strongest blocks to Communist
gains in the crucial Middle East.
Israel has become one of the
bastions of freedom in that area
and one of our most important
allies.
"I join millions of my fellow
Americans in saluting the State
of Israel on its fifth birthday
and wishing it ever increasing
success."
At the Art Institute concert
on May 3, the combined choir's
first united event will be feat-
ured by the participation of 30
members of the Detroit Sym-
phony Orchestra.
This concert also will be re-
peated in Severance Hall; Cleve-
land, on May 17, when the .com-
bined Detroit musical organiza-
tion will join the Workmen's
Circle of Cleveland in its musi-
cal concert.
Halevy Singing Society is 28
years old, and the Workmen's
choir was organized 20 years
ago.
On the Record
By NATHAN ZIPRIN
(Copyright 1952, Seven Arts Feature Syndicate)
In My Opinion
Jascha Heifetz may haVe been guilty of extremely bad taste,
impudence and unforgivable judgment for insisting on playing in
Israel compositions by German authors, particularly of Richard
Strauss who was president from 1933 to 1935 of the Nazi music
chamber which was under the aegis of the notorious Josef Goeb-
bels, but the irresponsible creature who could find no outlet for
his resentment other than by assaulting the violin virtuoso was
guilty of an unforgivable crime not only against his victim but
the state and people of Israel as well. Music by German compbsers
has been banned in Israel since the advent of Hitler and Heifetz
was fully warned in advance against violating this sentiment. His
insistence on playing German music in defiance of public senti-
ment was an affront to the sensibilities of an entire people and as
baffling as it was unforgivable. A sensitive artist like Heifetz
should have known better.
The ruling on the admissibility of Walter Gieseking to this
country focuses attention again both on the iniquity of the Mc-
Carran-Walter Act and the tendency to "forget" when it comes
to Nazis and Hitlerites. Gieseking may be a fine pianist, but it is
an unadulterated fact that he not only collaborated with the
Nazis but that he has not to this very day repudiated his past ac-
tivities or indicated recantation of his political views. It is a trav-
esty on American decency when an avowed Nazi is permitted en-
try to the country under a law of the land. I have no intention
of commenting on Gieseking's musicianship, but it seems to me
no great Nazi can enhance our musical wealth. Music enriches the
soul. Music by a Nazi can only degrade it.
My early annoyance over the Charlie Chaplain incident has
given way to contempt for the great comedian. It is true the
witchhunters in Washington sought to convict Charlie before the
evidence was in, but Charlie's failure to meet the issue like a man
hasn't added to his stature either as an artist or as a socially
conscious figure. By avoiding battle over the issue, Charlie has
delivered a potent weapon to the mudslingers and character as-
sassins. His decision to give up American residence without A
fight bears the earmark of a retreat. Frankly speaking no one
will shed tears over his departure to other pastures. I personally
have no sympathy for a man who gained fame and wealth in the
United States yet never deemed it proper to officially become a
member of the community through citizenship.
.
Lost Jewish Children
How many survivors, physical as well as spiritual, are there
of the Jewish children who were entrusted to Christian shelter
during the Hitler holocaust? Statistically there is no answer to
this query, though it is common knowledge that tens of thousands
of Jewish children were placed in Christian homes and institu-
tions by parents whose paramount concern was to save them
regardless of other consequences. The most conservative estimate
is that we lost about 1,500,000 children up to the age of fourteen.
According to the well-informed Yiddish journalist Jacob Lest-
schinsky, there were in Poland alone some 900,000 Jewish children.
There are no figures available on the number of children
that were placed in Christian shelter and there is no way of
determining how many of the sheltered escaped the Nazi hand
of death. If it were assumed that as little as five percent of the
estimated 1,500,000 Jewish child population was placed in Chris-
tian custody for shelter, there should be somewhere in Europe
at least 75,000 Jewish children that have not been accounted for.
If it is estimated that fifty percent of them perished one way
or another, there are still 35,000. What happened to them? How
many of them have been returned to their parents, if alive, or to
Jewish custody. Here again we encounter a blank wall. A key
to the problem may have been suggested at a recent meeting in
London of a committee dedicated to saving Jewish war orphans
when it was disclosed that of the 1,750 Jewish children that were
placed in Christian hands in Holland, about 800 have already
reached the age of 21 and made the voluntary choice of Christian
association. About 500 were placed in Jewish custody. The rest
are with Christian families and it can be assumed they will be
lost to the Jewish fold. If this ratio is true of the rest of the
children in question, it means that three-fourths of the children
placed in Christian hands have been severed from the Jewish
thread.
But the situation in Holland is no criterion for other coun-
tries. In Italy, for instance, there was virtually no organized
movement to garner Jewish children from Christian homes. In
Poland there was some effort in that direction but it was foiled
by the government under the alleged guise of preventing the
spread of anti-Semitism. Some children were saved in France.
Almost none in Romania.
The current scandal in France with the two Finaly children
has again focused attention on this painful problem. Its lesson
however will be lost if we center attention on the kidnapping a
the two children while forgetting the larger problem of saving
if it is still possible, those that can be rescued. It seems to me'
this was one rescue effort that was overlooked by our Jewish
organizations not so much because of lack of understanding but
possibly out of fear of the social and religious repercussions of
such a rescue movement. There are probably thousands of Jewish
children that can still be returned to the fold of their fathered?
A people that has lost six million in the span of several years,
cannot and must not overlook those remnants.
.