THE JEWISH NEWS
Comrades in Destruction
Incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20. 1951
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., WO. 5-1155
subscription $4 a year, foreign $5.
Entered as second class matter Aug. 6, 1942, at Post Office, Detroit Mich., under Act of March 3, 1879
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
SIDNEY- SHMARAK
Editor and Publisher
Advertising Manager
VOL. XXIII. No 9
Page 4
FRANK SIMONS
City Editor
May 8, 1953
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
Sabbath, the twenty-fourth day of Iyar, 5713, the following Scriptural selections will be
read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion—Lev. 25:1-27:34.
Prophetical pOrtion—Jer. 16:19-17:14.
Next Friday, Rosh Hodesh Sivan, Nurn. 28:1-15 will be read during morning_ services.
This
Licht Benshen, Friday, May 8, 6:39 p.m.
Anniversary of United Community Services
United Community Services of Metropoli-
tan Detroit have occasion this year, on the
event of their 35th anniversary, to recall
the interesting baCkground of the founding
of the centralized social service movement
into which were fused all the important
agencies of our community.
We have an opportunity, on the occasion
of this anniversary, to recall that the late
Fred M. Butzel was one of the founders of
the United Community Services. Assisting in
this effort, throughout the years, were many
other leaders, including Julian H. Krolik, the
late Dr. Leo M. Franklin, Joseph and Mel-
ville Welt, Abraham Srere, Judge William
Friedman, Rabbi A. M. Hershman and others
too numerous to mention.
The Jewish Welfare Federation of De-
troit remains to this day one of the im-
portant factors in the United Services, and
five of our important Jewish projectsFresh
Air Camp, Hebrew Free Loan Association,
Jewish Community Center, Jewish Social
Service Bureau and North End Clinic—are
vital elements in the community structure.
The Detroit Community- Union served as
the foundation for the United Services into
which are incorporated the social service,
recreational and relief. agencies of all faiths
and creeds. It was organized in 1918, and its
first fund-raising campaign was conducted
as the Detroit Patriotic Fund. The appeals
in the 1918 drive included the Jewish Wel-
fare Board and the Jewish War Relief Com-
mittee. In 1920 the name of the -fund was
changed to Detroit Community Fund. In
1932 the name of the Detroit Community
Union was changed to Council of Social
Agencies of Metropolitan Detroit. In 1942 the
War Chest—into which all the Jewish local
agencies and overseas relief drives were
merged — replaced the Community Chest,
giving- way to the Community Chest of Met-
ropolitan Detroit in 1945.
United Community Services of Metropoli-
tan Detroit was the named adopted by De-
troit's social agencies in 1951. Its functions in
behalf of the 125 Red Feather agencies
are supported by contributions to the United
Foundation ; whose appeals take the'form of
annual Torch Drives.
This, briefly, is the history of the im-
portant social service movement which in-
cludes Catholic, Jewish and Protestant.
causes. It is a great cooperative effort
and it is proper that this story should
be retold on the 35th anniversary of
the United Community Services whose inter-
faith and inter-racial activities stand out as
an encouragement to Americans of all faiths
that we can work together in harmony.
Greetings and Principles : Confusion and Reality
A more than average amount of messages
from prominent Americans greeted the con-
vention of the Council for Judaism now • in
session in San Francisco. Heading the list,
in pursuance of a tradition followed at all
national-- conventions, is the greeting from
President Eisenhower, who wrote to the
Council's leader, Lessing J. Rosenwald:
"Especially as this Conference marks the
tenth year of the Council's existence, I wel-
come the opportunity to congratulate you and
your fellow delegates on your championship of
the principle of freedom of religion and on
your demonstration of the fact that differences
of religion do not prevent Americans from
sharing equally both the benefits and the re-
sponsibilities of free citizenship."
We wholeheartedly acclaim this as a very
wise message. No one can take exception to
a salutation on the "championship of the
principle of freedom of religion," since all of
us are striving to that end and no one has a
monopoly on work for the perpetuation of
the high ideals of our land.
We find it difficult, however, to under-
stand the message signed by Eleanor Roose-
velt who wrote to Mr. Rosenwald:
"The work which the Council is doing is
most commendable and its success is due in
great part to your able guidance. My congrat-
ulations on past achievements and best wishes
for even greater accomplishments in the
future."
It is true that the work of the Council
is due "in great part" to the "able guidance"
of Mr. Rosenwald. But the past achieve-
ments to which Mrs.-Roosevelt refers happen
to be in direct opposition to the appeals the
great lady has been making for the United
Jewish Appeal, for a free Israel, for the lib-
eration of the oppressed, regardless of the
lands of their origin—the East European and
the Moslem lands. The impression is left that
Mrs. Roosevelt endorses the confused move-
ment that opposes the freeing of Jews who
are trapped among the Arabs and behind the
Iron Curtain. ' •
Public figures should recognize the reality
of existing conditions. It is not logical for
them to be preaching in behalf of the cause
of freedom the entire year and to be misled
into acclaiming the work of an organization
that opposes the efforts in support of Is-
rael on the ground that they spell "national-
ism." Mrs. Roosevelt and many like her un-
doubtedly would be firm in repudiating
charges of "double allegiance" against some
of their "best friends" who are sharing in
the pro-Israel work. Yet they speak of the
Council's chief objective — that of fighting
Zionism—as "achievements" of merit.
Some of the people who blindly endorse
the Council for Judaism are unaware of the
age-old prayer, recited three times daily by
Jews throughout the world -- including
American Jews — pleading for "v'sehezena
einenu b'shuvha le - Zion be - rahamim"—
"may our eyes behold a return unto Zion
with mercy." Those who do not know the
prayer, and Jews who have expunged it from
their liturgy, misinterpret it. They do not
.understand that for Jews in lands of oppres-
sion it has real meaning and is steeped in
.great hope—and that for Jews in free lands
like ours it is a prayer for the spirit of the
Jewish people and for the redemption of
those who must be liberated if they are to
survive with their very lives. To dub Ameri-
can Jewry's efforts—and the Judaism Coun-
cil surely will admit that at least 95 per cent
of American Jewry supports the UJA and its
allied causes which support a redeemed Is-
rael—as unpatriotic foreign nationalism is to
insult the honorable and patriotic intentions
of a great community.
We can understand the antagonism to
Zionism of a Norman Thomas who long ago
aligned himself against the pro-Israel efforts.
It is difficult to comprehend the actions of
a man. like Sir Norman Angel who for years
was among the leading propagators of the -
Zionist cause. It is eQUally as difficult to re-
alize why the "Judaism" Council should have
found it necessary to solicit messages of
greetings from avowed enemies of Israel like
the spokesthen for Lebanon and Beirut Uni-
versity. We are amazed that a man like Dr.
Leo Baeck, the former leader of German
Jewry, who knows who and what movement
saved German Jews by settling them in Is-
rael, should now be among the endorsers of
the "Judaism" Council. But we are proud of
President Eisenhower who selected one point
in the Council's program for emphasis and
as a cause for greeting: "the principle of
freedom of religion" on which all of us are
agreed. .
Insofar as the bulk of the greeters are
concerned, their attacks on. Zionism groups
them with the1USSR bloc whose "statesmen"
deny that they are anti-Semitic by using the
terms "Zionism" and "Zionists" as their
scapegoats. Americans who love the Bible,
who respect libertarianism, who uphold the
hands of free men who seek liberty for the
oppressed—because the world can not long
survive half slave and half free—know better
than to be misled by false cries against a
movement that makes Americans better
Americans because they have helped an op-
pressed and unprotected people to find haven
in Israel—under the banner of Zionism.
'Racial and Cultural Minorities'
Valuable Analysis of Prejudice and
Discrimination by Oberlin Professors
The complex social structure involving the prejudices and
discriminations affecting this country's racial and cultural minor-
ities is reviewed in a monumental work prepared by Professors
George Eaton Simpson and J. Milton Yinger of Oberlin College.
Published by Harper under the title "Racial and Cultural
Minorities: An. Analysis of Prejudice and Discrimination," this
work may well be considered the most complete and most compre-
hensive of its kind produced within the covers of a single
volume. It is, in fact, the total review of studies hitherto incor-
porated in dozens of volumes an the subject; and in its totality
this volume covers an even vaster field than its predecessors be- •
cause of its conciseness and its inclusion of every conceivable sun-
ject affecting minorities.
Jews and Negroes are particularly under consideration, al-
though the authors also have studied the problems affecting
Mexicans, Italians and others.
The authors advocate knowledge of the subject as means of
freeing people from the shackles of certain prejudices, but they
warn in advance that the application of natural laws " will not
work fast:" "Parents may know, intellectually, the best way to
deal with their children, yet be unable to apply it .. . Those who
demand the millenium day after tomorrow will be frustrated by
the slow process. But many may find in the promise of this dif-
ficult road a quiet confidence that modern man sorely needs.'
Many interesting facts are incorporated in this book about the
American Jewish community. Some of them—note especially the
quotation (from Marie Syrkin) of a reference to the English-
(she misnamed it Anglo-) Jewish press and an exaggeration about
the fast-disappearing Yiddish press—denote a lack of knowledge
and dependence upon prejudiced viewpoints. This is applicable
also to the interpretation of Zionism as "primarly a reflex of
antir Semitism." The truth is that the movement is only partially
such a reflex but not wholly.
In the main, however, the gathered facts serve to add an
understanding of the problems—of anti-Semitism and anti-
Negroism, of bias that has infiltrated into the thinking of many
Americans. Understanding them, as the author emphasizes,
will help to remove them.
Profs. Simpson and Yinger point out quite realistically that
prejudices often are products of frustrations. Also: "Prejudice
may be an attempt to enhance one's self-esteem or to remove
a threat to self-esteem."
The lengthy sociological study of anti-Semitism, the analyses
of discrimination against Jews in colleges, the very thorough
review of issues involved in inter-marriage are among the vitally
important subjects Covered in this scholarly work.
Of special interest is this conclusion:
"Anti-Semitism will be reduced when and if the causes
that we have discussed are reduced. The reduction of personal
insecurity; the growth of an integrated set of values; an in-
crease in economic security; encouragement of political pro-
cesses based on free discussion, on acceptance of majority rule,
and on conciliation of differences; education that reveals the
cultural roots of prejudice, that exposes stereotypes, that re-
duces the learned and unlearned ignorances about other groups
that most of us share—these and additional changes can attack
the fOundation of anti-Semitism and other prejudices and can
simultaneously free man's energies for the solution of other
problems."
The authors' conclusions on the question of intermarriage
emphasize that "a great increase in intermarriage rates in the
United States in the foreseeable future is highly unlikely"; and
"from a statistical standpoint, the chances for success in marri-
age seem to be considerably less for intermarriage than for ice-
marriage in the United States at mid-century."
Among the challenging conclusions is the statement by the
two authors that "in the absence of national and world catas-
trophes, it seems probable that the influence of Jewish religion,
on American Jewish life will continue to decline."
Sociologists may find much to disagree with in this book:
for instance, on the latter point of the influence of religion oa
American life. But in its totality, "Racial and Cultural Minori-
ties" by Profs. Simpson and Yinger is a most valuable addition
to the study of the problems of prejudice and discrimination. aced.
the book is certain to be accepted as such.