When an Archbishop
Mixes Religion
• With Politics
HE JEWISH NEWS
Genocide and the
Blunders of U. S.
Delegation at UN
Commentary, Page 2
VOLUME 24—No. 10
A •
Weekly Review
of Jewish Events
Michigan's Only English-Jewish Newspaper—Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle
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Detroit 35, Mich., November 13, 1953
Tears Instead of
Water: Middle
East's Great Need
New Offensive for
Revision of
Immigration Act
Editorials, Page 4
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Big Three to Tackle Israel-Arab
Issue at Bermuda Meeting Dec.4
Direct JTA Teletype Wire to The Jewish News
LONDON—The Middle East situation, with special reference to Israel-Arab
relations and British plans for evacuation of the Suez Canal area, will be discussed at
the Big Three meeting in Bermuda, Dec. 4, it was learned here Tuesday from reliable
sources.
These sources pictured the British government as determined .to achieve a -joint
approach among the western powers on Middle East problems—an approach which it
had believed near three weeks ago but which now seems as distant as ever to the
Foreign Office. The latest British view is due to what the Foreign Office considers
America "wavering" on Israel.
When Secretary of State John Foster Dulles cut Israel aid and condemned Israel
for various actions, British officials thought it possible to establish with the United
States a policy toward the Arab states which would draw them closer to the West
while not completely alienating Israel. Now the British are not so sure, particularly in
view of the failure of the American delegation at the Security Council Monday to back
up British condemnatoin of Israel over the Kibya incident.
There is some fear in British quarters that possible American and French demands
that the forthcoming Anglo-Egyptian agreement should include safeguards of Israel's
position will sabotage the changes for a successful conclusion to the Anglo-Egyptian
negotiations. Withdrawal of the British from Suez would put Egypt in a position to do
what it pleases, while at the same time removing a force which has been separating
a major part of the Egyptian army from the Israel border. These points are receiving
serious consideration from both Conservatives and Laborites in Parliament.
Syria Laune 4 es New Charges Against Israel
A Citys Survivors: ABRAHAM SHAPIRA,
92, (left), and MOSHE SAMUEL RAAB, 93, the only two
living members of the original group of Israeli settlers who
founded Petah Tikvah, are shown toasting the municipality,
which is celebrating its 75th anniversary. In 1878, when the
two men and their fellow-settlers struggled for survival
against—a -swampland which bred disease and hunger, they
received help from abroad and, with the use of funds from
Baron Edmond de Rothschild, conquered the wilderness.
Today, with the assistance of investment capital derived in
America from the sale of Israel bonds, Petah Tikvah has be-
come a leading center for industry and agriculture. The
new Hadera-Tel Aviv Railway, completed recently with Israel
bond dollars, gives the city direct rail contact with Haifa
and Tel Aviv. In addition, Petah Tikvah's proximity to Lydda
'Airport—it is the nearest city to the airfield—has become
a vital part of Israel's participation in the age of air travel
and air freight. Agriculturally, the city's citrus groves have
gained for it a prominent place in the over-all scheme of
Israel's economy. Thus, as Petah Tikvah marks its 75th
anniversary, the entire nation pays homage to the two men
who founded the city which, as in 1878, is a pioneer in
striving for a new, progressive way of life.
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UNITED NATIONS, N. Y.—The UN Security Council Tuesday began the discussion
of the Israel-Syrian dispute over Israel's erection of a hydroelectric station in Northern
Israel, using water from the Jordan River The only speaker Tuesday was Dr. Farid
Zeineddine, Syrian delegate, after which the Council adjourned until next Monday.
Dr. Zeineddine charged that Israel had not stopped work on the canal as it had
promised to do. He said: "Up to the eighth of November, according to our information,
work continued in the demilitarized zone."
The Syrian delegate claimed that Israeli armed forces had entered the demilitar-
ized zone in contravention of the armistice agreement. He declared that the diversion
of the Jordan—River and the "drying up of its water would mean a military advan-
tage to Israel and would permit tanks to cross this natural obstacle."
Finally, the Syrian delegate said that the hydroelectric scheme was: I. An unwar-
anted, unilateral action and a breach of the armistice; 2. Not a unique constructive
effort but a project which would render other projects for the river impracticable.
He appealed to the council to stop what he described as this "expansionist
unilaterial action on the part of Israel." •
Gen Vagn Bennike, United Nations truce chief in Palestine, told the Security
Council Monday that the Israeli border villages were armed but not with the. offen-
sive weapons which were used in the Kibya raid. Ile was answering a question by
Abba Eban, whether UN observers had examined the defense system of the villages.
Gen. Bennike said that his observers had visited many border villages and had
never reported seeing weapons other than machine guns, grenades, rifles, submachine
guns and side arms. The records of complaints and investigations of the Mixed Armis-
tice Commission from 1949 contained no evidence that border villages were ever fur-
nished with bangalore torpedoes, mortar bombs and demolition charges, he added.
Continued on Page 3
Christians, Jews View Progress in Civil Rights Efforts
Reports by Special Jewish News Correspondents in New York and Washington
Advances in Race Relations
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Dr. Herman H. Long, director of the race relations
department at Fisk University, addressing the annual meeting of the National
Conference of Christians and Jews., declared that the South has made greater
progress than any other section in the country in its race relations problems.
He stated: "It has been made by the leadership in the South and has been
accepted by the masses in the South."
Dr. W. Angie Smith, Bishop of Oklahoma and New Mexico, attacked those
who condemn the principles for which the founders of this Republic "fought
&lad died to produce." -
"The ignorance of history is one of the most comfortable atmospheres
in• which some of our political patriotcers live," he stated. "If 'they really •
•knew what our forefathers said and• did, it would frighten them to death."
Dr. Arthur H. Compton, Nobel Prize winner in Physics in 1927, stated that
in a world dominated by science persons concerned with the welfare of others
are best adapted to life. Dr. Compton, now chancellor at Washington Univer-'
,city, St. Louis, pointed out that the task of the National Conference of Chris-
tians and Jews is to help understand that the welfare of our fellows "is as
vital to us as our own."
Dr. Everett R. Clinchy, NCCJ president, reviewing the work of the move-
ment since its founding 25 years ago, declared that tne Conference of Chris-
tians and Jews had succeeded in making bigotry unpopular and has "changed
the pattern of isolationism among rejig Lot's groups." bigotry, he said, is now
recognized as "the hallmark of the ignorant."
Dean Sidney E. Sweet of St. Louis, speaking on the importance of mak-
ing America safe for differences, sada:
"To make the United States safe for differences is one of the goals for
Which sincere lovers of our country need to be concerned. Our land nas been
a refugee from tyranny and dictatorship in the past; it has in its borders citi-
zens of different races, national backgrounds, ini,erests, 'we better make
it . safe for differences or it will not be safe for any of us."
Roger W. Straus, national NCCJ Jewish co-chairman for the last 25 years,
was honored at the Armistice Day luncheon for his efforts in behalf of tne
movement.
Robert Frehse, director of the Detroit Round Table, headed the Detroit
deXegation to the NCCJ sessions.
Anti-Semitism at Lowest Ebb
NEW YORK — Addressing the biennial convention of the American
Jewish Congress, Dr. David Petegorsky, executive director, reviewed trends on
the American scene in the field of civil rights and declared:
"There have been disturbing retreats on the maintenance of the separa-
tion of Church and State both as a fundamental principle of -American democ-
racy and as an indispensable safeguard of the freedom and vitality of religion
in this country."
He cited as evidence the intensification of efforts to invade the public
school system through such practices as the use of its facilities or time for re-
ligious instruction, the introduction of prayer or other forms of religious exer-
cise into the classroom and the distribution of sectarian literature in the schools.
Reporting on various aspects of . group relations in this country for the
past two years, Dr. Petegorsky asserted that organized defamation of various
racial and religious groups is at its lowest ebb in many years. "For some months
in 1952, during the election campaign," he said, "the hate groups swung into
more vigorous action, and anti-Semitic literature was widely distributed in many
parts of the country. But, by vid large the anti-Semitic agitators have been
unable to attract any substantial following and, for the moment, the threat
presented by their propaganda remains a minor one."
While organized defamation, Dr. Petegorsky declared, has become in this
country "a less troublesome problem," the use of violence against members of
various racial and religious groups, has assumed serious proportions. "During
the past few years," he asserted, "lynching has virtually disappeared front the
American scene, but bombings and other forms of violence have been employed
both to vent racial and religious hatreds and to intimidate groups that have
been most vigorous in demanding equality of rights for all Americans."
Methodist Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam of Washington condemned "racket-
eering. " propaganda organizations and some members of Congressional commit-
tees who abuse the investigative process of the Congress as "saboteurs under-
mining the free way of life."
"Attempts to coerce the conscience of the individual are to destroy freedom
itself," he stated. "The free mind in a free society is a prerequisite to free enter-
prise as well as to political freedom. Political leaders who capitalize upon hys-
teria for political advantage are in fact saboteurs undermining the free way of
life."
Additional AJC Convention Reports on Page 2