Committees Named for Detroit Participation
In U.S. Jewry's Tercentennial Celebration
The first meeting of the De-
troit Branch of the American
Jewish Tercentennary Commit-
tee, held on Thursday, July 9,
was attended by a large group
of the representatives of Vari-
ous elements in the Jewish com-
munity and was received most
enthusiastically by all present.
Philip Slomovitz, a member of
the National American Jewish
Tercentennary Committee of
300, who is chairman of the De-
troit committee, presided at the
meeting.
Mr. Slomovitz stated that the
purpose of the meeting was to
plan the participation of the
Detroit Jewish community, as
• well as the other Jewish com-
munities in Michigan, in the na-
tional celebration of the 300th
anniversary of the settlement
of the Jews in the United
States, which will be held dur-
ing 1954 and 1955. He outlined
the plans of the national com-
mittee which met in New York
recently. , •
Irving I. Katz, executive sec-
retary of Temple Beth El and
historiographer of the Jews of
Michigan, was appointed secre-
tary of the committee.
The following committees
were appointed: Synagogue par-
ticipation, Rabbi Morris Adler,
chairman, Dr. Richard C. Hertz
and Rabbi Max J. Wohlgelern-
ter, co-chairmen; school parti-
cipation, Bernard Isaacs, Dr.
Norman Drachler and Samuel
Siegel, co-chairmen; exhibits
and publications, Charles Fein-
berg and Irving I. Katz, co-
chairmen; music, Morris Schav-
er, chftirman, Dan Frohman, co-
chairman; membership, Samuel
German Socialists Are Praised for
Helping Secure Reparations for Jews
STOCKHOLM, (JTA) — The
German Social Democrats were
singled out for praise for the
part they played in helping
achieve the German reparations
agreement with Israel and the
world Jewish organizations, by
Adolph Held, chairman of the
American Jewish Labor Com-
mittee, addressing a luncheon
here for delegates to the Inter-
national Confederation of Free
Trade Unions. Mr.. Held also
praised the assistance of the
American, British and French
trade unions.
In reply, H. Freitag, head of
the West German trade union
movement, • declared that "we
shared the Jewish fate and mis-
ery" in the concentration camps,
and therefore it is a "natural
part of our duty to demonstrate
that there are Germans who re-
member what we owe the Jews "
German Court Drops Charges
Against Leaders of Pogrom
NUREMBERG, (JTA) — After
intermittent proceedings that
dragged on for two years, the
Wuerzburg Criminal Court has
dropped all charges against
three local Nazi leaders who had
been instrumental in organizing
and carrying out the pogrdms
of November 1938.
Although many Wuerzburg
Jews who now live in the United
States had sent depositions
about the guilt of the defend-
ants, including former Wuer,.:-
burg Nazi, chieftain Georg
Huempfner and former Nazi
party business manager, Leonard
Vollmuth, the court found that
their "active participation" had
not been proven and that their
"good behavior" after the war
warranted judicial forgiveness.
The prosecution had called for
jail sentences ranging up to two
years.
Ludwig Mueller, a laborer of
Grosskrotzenburg near Hanau,
has been sentenced in Frankfurt
to nine months' imprisonment
for wantonly wrecking Jewish
homes during the November
pogroms of 1938.
DeNazification Ends in Parts of
Germany; Fines to be Remitted
STUTTGART, (JTA) — The
Constituent Assembly of Baden-
Wuerttemberg has almost un-
animously adopted a law which
closes all remaining denazifica-
tion courts as of Oct. 31, and
bars all new denazification pro-
ceedings after the current
month.
Most of those convicted by de-
nazification courts will have
their penalties remitted, either
automatically or through .a
special "pardon board." Almost
all the professional restrictions
imposed upon top Nazis—includ-
ing the prohibition against work-
ing as an editor—will be res-
cinded.
The Hamburg legislature has
also adopted a law which bans
further denazification trials and
remits all fines not yet paid. If
other penalties or professional re-
strictions were imposed in the
20
—
DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, July 17, 1953
past, they can be quashed upon
application, the law provides.
Jews Irked Over Erection
Of Memorial for Ex-Nazis
STUTTGART, (JTA) — The
Associated Jewish Congregation
of Wuerttemberg has protested
to the Baden - Wuerttemberg
Minister of the Interior against
the recent dedication at Castle
Staufeneck of a memorial stone
for the dead of the Military SS.
It pointed out that this mem-
orial constitutes "a provocation
for democratic-minded Germans,
for the victims of Nazism and
for everyone abroad."
A Social Democratic meeting
in Stuttgart adopted a resolu-
tion voicing indignation at the
"provocatory attitude" at Castle
Staufeneck of former SS officers,
"these unregenerate grave-dig-
gers of Germany."
Soleful Existence of Jewish Artisan
To Be Bettered with JDC-JCA Loan
German Radio Station
To Carry Jewish Opera
Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish News
HAMBURG — "Moses and
Aaron," an opera with a Jewish
theme on which the great Aus-
trian-born Jewish composer and
pioneer in the field of atonal
music, Arnold Schonberg,
worked from 1930 to his death
in California last year, will have
its world premiere on the North-
west German Radio Network in
the near future. The musical
direction is in the hands of the
well known German conductor,
Hans Schmidt-Isserstadt.
Egypt Drops German
Boycott Threat Over
Israel Reparations
BONN, (JTA) — Egypt has
abondoned the pretense that she
is still contemplating an econ-
omic boycott against West Ger-
many because Bonn approved
the reparations agreement with
Israel.
Egypt's recognition that the
Israel agreement will not be al-
lowed to interfere with her re-
lations with Germany is seen in
the appointment, after a long
delay of an Egyptian Amba,ssa-
dor to Bonn and in the exten-
sion of a/German-Egyptian trade
pact to 1954. Germany recently
displaced Britain as the country
ranking first in Egyptian im-
ports and exports.
On the Record
By NATHAN ZIPRIN
(Copyright, 1953, Seven Arts Feature Syndicate)
Running Comment
Walter Winchell's most recent path is a distasteful one. For
once, however, we must credit him for a fine accomplishment. A
Christian lady had Written him a letter asking him to explain why
there were so many communists among Jews. To prove her point
she listed a number of Jewish names. Walter replied by giving a
long list- of non-Jewish communists and, in addition, reminded
the lady that Jewish leadership stood at the helm of the anti-
communist movement in America long before most Americans
understood the real meaning of communism.
Notorious Gerald L. K. Smith suffered one of his greatest
defeats as a result of the flop of the Washington meeting of his
Christian National Crusade. There were exactly nine 'crackpots.
The rest of the 25 present were paid workers.
The anti-Semites of the country are reported making increased
use of the Walter-McCarran Immigration Act as a springboard for
- s. Seeking "new issues," the anti-Semites through-
attacks on Jew
out the country are shouting that opposition to the immigration
is a Jewish plot to infiltrate communists to the country . . . At
this writing there is no way of predicting whether Ike's refugee
bill will be passed by Congress. In truth, however, it makes no
difference from a Jewish point of view whether it does or net.
The only noticeable enthusiasm for the bill is to be noticed in
Catholic circles. The only ones who stand to gain from the mea-
sure are Germans.
In My Opinion
CASABLANCA,
French Morocco —
This Jewish shoe-
maker is one of many
artisans, now eking
out a tenuous liveli-
hood in the ghetto
streets of North Afri-
ca, who will be aided
by the loan funds re-
cently -established by
the Joint Distribution
Committee and the
Jewish Colonization
H. Rubiner and Sidney Shevitz,
co-chairmen; radio, TV and
press, Leonard N. Simons and a
committee to be announced lat-
er; women's participation, Mrs.
William B. Isenberg.
The next meeting of the com-
mittee will be held in October.
Premier David Ben-Gurion recently touched off a hornet's
nest in Israel when he declared that the Jewish people made no
contribution to the world since the Bible, with possible exception
of producing a Spinoza or Einstein. The Premier called on Jew-
ish artists and writers to revitalize the Bible and to disregard the
intellectual creations of the Diaspora.
Since not even so great a figure as Ben-Gurion can lay claim
to infallibility, we are moved to remark that the Premier was off
the path when he minimized the literary and creative contribu-
tions of the galuth and their effect not only on contemporary
Jewish history but on Israel itself. In fact if it were not for the
moral, literary, artistic and scholarly creations of the galuth there
might not have been the wherewithal for the historic ingathering.
In the first place there was the post Biblical wealth, the Mishnah
and the Talmud and the host of ecclesiastical works that influ-
enced Jewish thinking and Jewish life. There was the great Jew-
ish renaissance in Spain. There was the great period of Jewish
scholarship in Germany. And there was the weaving of a great
literature and folklore and other art mediums by the six million
who perished. There was Mendele and Sholem Aleichem and
Bialik. There was. chassidism and the enlightenment movement.
Over the centuries since the Bible there were Jewish scholars who
enriched our spiritual wealth with book and voice and lesson.
There was Rashi and Rambam without whose commentaries the
Bible might have been lost to us.
There is no gainsaying that the Bible has been the source
and well of our Jewish life. As much as we love and admire the
Bible, both for its ethical, moral and religious value, we cannot
concede that it has been the only great Jewish contribution, to
the world. Our Jewish values since the Giving of the Law are
an enduring monument to our Jewish civilization. When those
values are forgotten it will be a sad day in Jewish history.
Association.
Falk Foundation Grants $430,000
For Economic Research in Israel
PITTSBURGH, (JTA)—A five-
year grant, totalling $430,000 for
the dual purpose of initiating a
basic economic research program
in Istael and, at the same time,
fostering an intensive in-service
training program to develop
competent economists for re-
search and careers in govern-
ment, teaching, and industry ?
was announced here by the
Maurice and Laura Falk Foun-
dation of Pittsburgh.
Israel Ambassador Abba Eban,
in a statement lauding the Falk
Foundation grant, said that "the
need for trained economic-ana-
lysts in Israel is as urgent as
the need for immediate scien-
tific findings on the economics
of the state." He pointed out
that the "continuity of the eco-
nomic research program en-
visioned and planned for by the
Falk grant will be of inestimable
value to Israel in the develop-
ment of its long term economic
progress."
The research phase of the
program made possible by the
Falk grant will study and issue
reports dealing with the absorp-
tion of mass immigration; capi-
tal formation and use 'of sav-
ings; the effects of government
wage policy on prices, productiv-
ity and employment; and labor
productivity in agriculture and
manufacturing industries.
The training phase of the
program will be developed
around a corps of selected grad-
uate students from Israeli insti-
tutions of higher education who
will be given in-service training
in the Falk Foundation spon-
sored economic research' pro-
gram. TraVel fellowships for
study of methods of economic
research and its administration
in leading institutions abroad
will be allotted to a number of
graduate students who complete
the intensive in-service training.
The object will be to prepare a
skilled group of trained econo-
mists who can take over similar
research responsibilities in Israel
in the future.
Deny Reports Moscow Will Let
2,000,000 Jews Migrate to Israel
NEW YORK, (JTA)—The New
York Times, in a dispatch from
C. L. Sulzberger, its chief Euro-
pean correspondent, from Paris,
denies reports that Moscow is
preparing to offer free emigra-
tion to Israel for 2,000,000 Jews
from the Communist satellite
states or that secret talks have
taken place in Switzerland be-
tween a Soviet "personage" and
Dr. Walter Eytan, director of the
Israeli Foreign Ministry.
"Yet," says the Times dis-
patch, "and on this point there
is positive evidence that gath-
ering ugliness of the anti-Se-
mitic storm that lasted from the
spring of last year to the spring
of this year and that seemed to
wane with the famous vindica-
tion of the Russian doctors ac-
cused of a plot to murder Soviet
officials, has now ceased. For
about six weeks relatives ofJews
within the Soviet bloc have been
receiving cautiously worded let-
ters. For the first time in al-
most a year unsolicited messages
have arrived in Israel from Ro-
Mania and Poland saying that
Zionist families were preparing
to emigrate — although no of-
ficial advice has yet arrived in
Tel Aviv through diplomatic
channels."
The, Times report adds: "The
change in policy on the Jews is
a logical and expected facet of
the laborious process, now en-
couraged by Moscow, of seeking
to prove to the West that the
change in Soviet policy as a
whole is 'real' and aimed at a
Germans' Broadcast Life
Story of Golda Myerson
true relaxation of tension; So
far, the only available trends
that can be confirmed may be
regarded as straws in the politi-
cal wind. They are worth re-
garding—but not yet worth be-
lieving implicitly."
Society Reports
Aid to, Progress of
Jewish Farmers
NEW YORK—The 1952 annual
report of the Jewish -Agricultur-
al' Society dealing with the work
done to encourage and advance
farming among the Jews in the
United States has been released
by Dr. Theodore Norman, the
Society's executive head.
The report discloses that
$12,500,000 in loans has been
granted to Jewish farmers in 41
states since its founding in 1900, ,
that 32,251 persons came to the
Society for advice about settling
themselves on farms since the
reorganization of its farm settle-
ment department in 1919, and
that the Society was directly in-
strumental in settling 3,529.
Since the Society's farm em-
ployment department began
functioning in 1908, it effected
20,726 placements in 32 states.
Of the 560 who sought settle-
ment advice during the past
year, 143 families were settled
on poultry, fruit or dairy farms
in California, Connecticut, Illi-
nois, Maryland, Michigan, New
Jersey and New York.
A study of 100 recently arrived
families settled by the Society
during the past four years in
Connecticut and Massachusetts,
reveals that they increased their
equities by an average of 110,000
per farm since settlement. The
average yearly gross income per
STUTTGART, (JTA)—The life
story of Mrs. Golda Myerson, Is-
rael Minister of Labor, was nar-
rated on the women's hour of
the Southwest German radio
farm amounted to about $25,000.
network.