Human Rights Above National Self-Determination
Another Chapter from the Book `Nor by Power '
tin 12,41,
By MORRIS D. WALDMAN she signed the treaty, Polonia pert, who were at the time much
After two and one-half years Restituta began to restrict the occupied in preparing the Dum-
barton Oaks program. I believe
of diligent work on the part of various minorities.
that our attention to peace
o the Committee on Human Rights The major burdens of intoler- studies reenforced the favorable
ably heavy taxes and other re- standing the A. J. Committee
ef the United Nations, headed strictions
and discriminations had enjoyed for years in those .
up by Eleanor Roosevelt, on
on them.. Poland's quarters and prompted the Ad-
Dec. 10, 1948, an Inter national were imposed
repudiation of the ministration to select the Com-
Declaration
Declaration of Human Rights Minorities Treaty
at the League mittee as one of the consulting
was unanimously adopted by the
f
Nations
in
Gen
eva and her advisory organizations at the
Assembly with virtually only the oations n
policy of mass evacu- charter conference of the United
Soviet group abstaining from announced
citizens cli- Nations at San Francisco in 1945.
voting. I am sure that many ation of her Jewish record
of un-
When a few months follow-
millions of people throughout maxed her p postwar
conduct , exposinging, Secretary of State E. R.
the world were as thrilled as I
rence
retense
of
her
adhe
Stettinius Jr. was appointed
over the successful achievement. to
the the
pretense
htened ideals pro- chief delegate of the U. S. to
enlightened
In my case,
M:::,
nounced in Paris and embodied the United Nations I was
there is a par-
I in solemn official documents. prompted to write him a short
titular reason
i The behavior of Romania was note of felicitation. His reply
for gratification.
even more brazen and brutal. stated:
My frequent vis-
Several of her rapidly changing
As you suggest, one of the
its to central
governments actually instigated first items of business of the
and eastern
pogroms against the minorities, U n i t e d Nations Organization
Europe from
chiefly the Jews, just as the after it comes into operation
1921 to the out-
Czarist government had done in will be to implement the pur-
break of the
the benighted country of Russia pose of achieving international
second world
before the Revolution. Nation- cooperation in promoting and
war with the
ality conflicts prevailed in most encouraging respect for human
purpose of help-
of the Succession states: Czech- rights. The first step in such
ing to protect
Slovak - Hungarian conflict in implementation is of course, al-
the Jewish pop- :„:
Czechoslovakia, Croat-Serb con- ready specified in Article 68,
Waldman
ulations against
infractions of their civil and re- filet in Yugoslavia, Romanian- which provides for a commission
ligious rights as embodied in Hungarian conflict in Romania. for the promotion of human
the Minorities Treaties, the Irredentism seethed continu- rights, to be set up by the Eco-
Constitutions of the States in ously. Ethnic segments in cer- nomic and Social Council. More-
which they lived and the guar- taro countries clamored for an- over at San Francisco, the
antee of the League of Nations, nexation of the territory they Technical Committee on Pre-
gave me an opportunity to ob- inhabited to the neighboring amble, Purposes and Principles
serve closely the failure of these country governed by their kin wrote into its report to the First
__. Minorities Treaties. I came to (e.g., the Germans in Sudeten, Commission a recommendation
the conclusion long before the the Hungarians in Transylvania that the General Assembly con-
outbreak of the war that the and Slovakia, the Ukrainians in sider the adoption of a 'bill of
theory of national self-determi_ Poland, etc.) and were encour- rights of nationals and of iodi-
nation which was the product aged in this activity by the viduals.'
of the first World War, though neighboring countries. This led "The scope and functions of
noble in its motivation, was un- to serious tensions and contrib- the projected commission on
realistic and unworkable. In- uted measurably to the out- human rights will undoubtedly
deed, it helped to aggravate the break of the first World War. be discussed by the Preparatory
Very evils which were intended Every ethnic group in Europe Commission. In the meantime,
to be destroyed. It augmented had been awakened to national the Department of State is giv-
and intensified racial and reli- consciousness; and some which ing special attention to the mat-
gious tensions and furnished the had never enjoyed territorial in- ter with a view to formulating
. philosophical basis for hyper- dependence began to.press for a specific proposals.
nationalism whose most odious nationality-state of their own•.
"That it will be a long and
form was reflected in Nazism. The treaties, the state constitu- arduous task to find agreed defi-
The doctrine of "national self- tions and the guarantees of the nitions of the specific rights and
determination" was used by League of 4..ations did not solve freedoms which should be uni-
chauvinists everywhere as justi- these probl6ms; on the contrary, versally guaranteed is under-
'
stood in advance.
fication for* their brutal "blood they aggravated them.
"However, in their unanimous
The doctrine of "national self-
and soil" absurdities.
The experience of Europe fol- determination" must be inter- concern for the restoration and
lowing the First World War preted anew. The territorial re- extension of human and spirit-
proved the minorities treaties to sults of historic evolution, crazy- ual values, the delegates at San
be impracticable. The newly es- quilted though they be, must be Francisco gave a voice to a con-
tablished states, based on racial faced as realities. Nationalities viction born of the profound
homogeneity, regarded t h e i r will have to remain scattered in suffering caused by brutal at-
ethnic minorities as obstacles to different countries. Their cul- tempts to destroy those valu-es.
their development into full- ture and religion will have to be "As we face the future we can
fledged nationality-states. The ungrudgingly tolerated. But if surely be encouraged by the fact
' governments of these states felt they continue to possess the that the members of the Con-
responsible primarily, if not form and character of political ference, representing nations
solely, to the majority-people of blocs, the vexatious problem of both small and large, attached
their countries and regarded the the rights of those differing from the greatest importance to the
minorities as quasi-alien and the majority in race, language human rights provisions of the
subordinate elements to be assi- or religion cannot be solved. Charter of the United Nations."
milated or liquidated or evacu- We kept the State Department The "long and arduous" task
ated—the treaties notwithstand- informed of our studies holding predicted by Stettinius, that has
ing. The safeguards established some meetings with the then occupied the United Nations in
in the form of League of Na- Assistant Secretary, Dean Ache- efforts to secure implementation
matter
tions guarantees proved quite son and Dr. Leo,Pasvolsky, Sec- of the Declaration, is
ineffective. Hardly a day after retary Hull's chief economic ex- of current unfinished history.
5
He Can 'Daven' as Well as Referee
MADE EASY
Hebrew As It Is Spoken in Israel Today
By SHUSHANNAH SPECTOR and Rabbi JOSEPH ZEITLIN
Editor's Note : This special American Jewish Press feature is
another in the series of easy lessons for self -study of Hebrew.
The complete book, "Hebrew Made Easy," is available from Miss
Shushannah Spector, 904 S. Miami Ave., Miami, Fla.; $1.50 a copy.
AT THE BANK
BA-BANK
Please, where is the bank?
On Herzl Street
Be-vak-ka-shah, 'ei-foh
ha-bank?
Bi-re-hov Her-?el
Where is the cash window?
Ei-foh 'esh-nav ha-kup-pah?
I want to cash some checks
What kind of checks?
'A-ni roleh le-ha-ha-lif
ham-ha-'ot
Yesh Ii 'ash-ra-'i ba-bank
14--zeh
'Ei-zeh min ham-ha-'ot?
I want to cash some trav-
elers' checks
'A-ni ro-zeh le-ha-ha-lif
ham-ha'-ot no-se'-im
Sir, what do you want —
Medinat Israel money or
foreign money?
Mah ro-zeh 'ado-ni, ke-sef
Me-di-nat Yis-ra-'el 'o
ke-sef huz?
I have credit in this bank
I want Medinat Israel
money
What is the rate of
exchange?
Here is the currency
'A-ni ro-zeh ke-sef Me-di-nat
Yis-ra-'el
Mah hu sha-'ar ha-ha-li-fin?
Hin-neh ke-sef ha-me-di-nah
And here is the rate of
exchange:
Ve-hin-neh sha'-ar ha-ha-li.
fin:
,Palestinian lira abbreviated Li-rah Yis-ra-'elit be-ro'-She
"lai"
te-vot lai"
Shilling
Shi-ling
Piaster
Ge-r ush
Mil (1000 mils make a lira)
Mil
Please change this pound
(i) for me
Here is the change
Be-vak-ka-shah lif-rot li 'et
ha-li-rah
Hin-neh halie-ret
I want small change
'A-ni ro-zeh ke-sef
me-zu-man
Zett ha-kol?
That is all?
Yes. Thanks very much.
-Ken, to-dah rab-bah, 'ado-ni,
Good-bye, Sirl
. sha-loin!
As you know, as it is writ- Ha-lo' yo-de-'a 'a-tah ke-mo
ten—"If there is no bread
she-ka-tuv: '"Im 'en
there is no Torah."
i.ze-mah 'en To-rah."
•.
When Harvard -plays Yale at
this big football classic in the
Yale Bowl on Nov. 21, it will be
David Kaufman, who once was
preparing for the rabbinate who,
will be the referee.
Dave Kaufman, one of the
leading officials in American
football, is able not only to
referee on the gridiron, but is
equally able to stand before
the "Omed" in his synagogue
in the Chizuk Amuno Congre-
gation in Baltimore and
"Daven" in a beautiful bari-
tone voice with all the chants
of the traditional Jewish serv-
ice.
Kaufman started out with as-
pirations of going into the Rab-
binate. He left his home in Bal-
timore, •where he was born, and
went to New York at an early
age to study at the Rabbi Isaac
Elchanan Yeshiva. He changed
his mind after a while and re-
turned to Baltimore where he
entered the Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity as a pre-med student.
At college he was on the Var-
sity Lacrosse, Football and Bas-
ketball teams. In 1928 he was
captain of the basketball team
and was chosen for the all-state
football team.
When asked how is it that
the "plum" of refereeing the
Harvard-Yale game, which is
the blue ribbon game of the
season, fell into his lap, he re-
plied that it all started way
back in his college days when
he played Lacrosse for HOp-
kins. He was to have gone
with his team to Amsterdam
in Holland for the Olympics.
He had to withdraw, however,
since he was to get married at
that time. The next best thing
Dave could do was to become
the "Sportscaster" for the se-
ries of playoff games to choose
the American Lacrosse team
for the Olympics. That was the
beginning, because it led Dave
into officiating at athletic
events beginning with La-
crbsse and then continuing
with basketball and football.
in. American football and he
recalls with what trepidation
he took the exam for member-
ship in the association of
which he is now president. It
was in 1931, when he wanted
to take this exam and "was ad-
vised by a prominent Balti-
more sports editor: "Dave, you
better get in there and knock
out at least 100 on the exam!
You know that because you
are a Jew you will have to get
a perfect rating to stand any
That was 25 years ago and
today David Kaufman stands at
the head of his profession and
is currently president of the
Eastern Inter-Collegiate College
Football Of icials Association
which is one of seven such re-
gional associations in American
football.
Mr, Kaufman smiles when
he recalls that 25 years ago
there were no Jewish officials
DAVID KAUFMAN
• PYP 195 ; 14i•1
1 .1n*V
Triin
,nr;)t.t v7.i' to
".rrlin
nw?, r nkt„
Circle Slates Second Program in Series
The second in the Workmen's the Child's Religious Questions."
a b b i
Circle series "Marriage and I Participating will be
Family Problems" will be held Hillel
Max Kapustin,
advisor
Foundation
at W a of
y the
n e
at its Center, 11529 Linwood, at University, Joseph Edelman, di-
9 p.m., Friday. The subject of 1 rector of internal relations of
the evening will be "Answering the Jewish Community Council;
and Solomon Schkloven, local
attorney and long-time mem-
ber of the Circle.
Monroe Title, chairman of the
Circle youth group, will be mod-
erator. The public is invited.
•
The home of Dr. and Mrs. S.
chance of being elected to
membership." Dave did go into Kleinman, 284 Boston, will be
that 10 hour written exam and the scene of the annual games
knocked out a 98, which is the party sponsored by the Junior
highest mark ever obtained by Women's Division of the Jewish
Labor Committee as a part of
anyone before or since.
its program to raise funds to
When asked about anti- support overseas orphan's homes
Semitism in American football, of the JLC.
Dave replied that he never ran
The event . is scheduled for 9
into it himsel f. He tells the p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21.
amusing story of how one day,
Mrs. Sara Caplan, chairman
while getting ready to referee a
game, a football official said to of the E-S Council, announces
him one Sunday morning: "Mr. the selection of William Lipson, .
Kaufman, don't you think we a member of Branch 463, as
Ought to go - to Mass?" "No," re- chairman of the local group's
plied Mr. Kaufman, "I am Jew- Clothes for Korea drive, part of
ish." The other man was sur- a national campaign being con-
prised and said he never realized ducted by this organization.
For information on pickups,
that he was.
call TO. 9-2014.
Kaufman further likes to talk
about Jews in American foot-
ball. He recalls that 25 years "Irish" colleges.
Kaufman is actively interested
ago, when the Baltimore Jewish
Times tiled to pick a Jewish All- in the affairs of his synagogue.
American Football Team, they His son, Burton, who just was
couldn't do it. In order to get a graduated from college, is now,
full team of 11 players that had teaching in the Chizuk Amuno
to use as a "ringer" a boy named Congregational School on Sun- .
Kaplan from Western Maryland day mornings. Kaufman is vo-
College who actually was not cational counsellor for .City Col-
Jewish. But today, Kaufman lege in Baltimore and is a most
continues, nobody would have likable man.
any difficulty making up such
a team, using Jewish players 21—DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, November 13, 1953
from Notre Dame and other
David Kaufman to Be the Official at Harvard-Yale Classic on Nov.23
An American Jewish Press Feature
r") 441