Don't Fear, I'm on Your Side

THE JEWISH NEWS

incorporatzng the Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue 01 July 20 1952

Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapn's, Michigan Press Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish Newt Publishing Co.. 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit 35, Mich., VE. 8-9364
lubscription c4. :a year foreign 55
taYitered as second class matter Aug. 6, 1942, at Post Office. Detroit, Mich. : under AM of March 3, 1879

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher

VOL. XXV, No. S

•

FRANK SIMONS
City Editor

SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager

April 30, 1954

Page 4

Sabbath Scriptural Selections

This Sabbath, the twenty-eighth day of Nisan, 5714, the following Scriptural selections will be
,read i1 7. our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Lev. 19:1-20:27. Prophetical portion, Amos 9:7-15, or Ezek, 22:1-19 for 16).
Rosh Hodesh Iyar Torah, readings. Monday and Tuesday, Num. 28:1-15.

Licht Benshen, Friday, April 30, 7:29 p.m.

Chasanow Case: Anti-Semitism in the Navy?

Yes. we are truly concerned over the hys-
•S-
There is cause for real concern over the
dismissal . of Abraham Chasanow from em- teria that has begun to dominate the minds
ployment with the U. S. • Navy Map Office of .many Americans, especially in view of the
for security reasons. . While Assistant Secre- fear injected by the junior Wisconsin Sena-
tary of the Navy J. H. Smith has announced tor over the power wielded by seven men over
180,000,000 people in Russia. By comparing
the Navy's consent to a new hearing to re-
view "reasons for reconsidering the decision" the diabolical Russian roguery with our way
to dismiss Chasanow, the discharged Jewish of life, the panic-inspiring Senator arouses
suspicions among Americans and instills a
employee, in his petition for a new hearing,
stated that "loose charges" and anti-Semitic -lack of faith in the American agencies whose
task is to ferret out the Communist-inspired.
remarks were made by "disgruntled persons"
in his home city of Greenbelt, Md. His peti- enemies in our midst. We prefer to share
the confidence of his fellow-Catholic, Bishop
tion asserts:
Bernard J. Sheil, who, in a courageous
"There are but five members of the Jewish
faith who are or were both Greenbelt resi-
address, asserted that "no Hitler has risen
4,444,0ftWit f.
dents and employes of the Hydrographic Of-
in America, and I must say that I think
fice. There are at least eight members of the
it is nonsense when foreign reporters and
Gentile faiths who are both residents of Green-
journalists describe us as living in a kind ofl
belt and employes of the Hydrographic Office.
Hitlerian reign of. terror. We are still free, —
All five of the Jews have had security difficul-
and we will remain free .. . But it seems to 'The Epic of the Warsaw Ghetto'
ties . . . all the Gentiles remain undisturbed.
me that now, while we are free, is the time
In the absence of a statement of reasons for
to cry out against the phony anti-Commis-
the adverse decision of the Assistant Secretary
(of the Navy), it may well be believed that
nism that mocks our way of life, flouts our i
the proceedings which led to that decision were
traditions and democratic procedures and s f
tainted by anti-Semitism."
our sense of fair play, feeds on- the meat of
*
*
*
suspicion and grows great on the dissention
Dr. Philip Friedman, able historian, dean of the Jewish Teach-
Dr. Max Lerner, N. Y. Post Columnist,
among Americans which it cynically creates , ers Seminary in New York and an instructor at Columbia Univer-
in an article on "The Fate of the Jew," pre- and keeps alive by a mad pursuit of head- I !say, is the editor of the compilation of experiences by actual par-
sented the facts in the Chasanow case with lines." We agree with Bishop Shell's declar- ticipants in the battle of the Warsaw Ghetto, in his book, "Mar-
logic. He has, additionally, made important
tyrs and Fighters: The Epic of the Warsaw Ghetto," published by
ation that:
"If someone were to tell me that the mas- Frederick A. Praeger (105 W. 40th, NY18), on the occasion of the
and challenging comments, which have a
ters . of the Kremlin inspired this burlesque to 11th anniversary of the great struggle in which heroic Jews re-
serious bearing on the panicky conditions
distract us from our real dangers and keep us sisted the Nazi beasts in WarsaW.
which have gripped many Americans in a
The publication of this book was made possible by the Club of
from taking effective anti-Communist meas-
state of alarm as a result of witch-hunts.
a mind to believe him. I Polish Jews in New York. Selections for this book were gathered
ures,
I'd
have
half
This is Dr. Lerner's evaluation of the case:
can't imagine what would please the Kremlin from 800 pamphlets, unpublished documents and books.
"Abraham Chasartow is the employe of the
The Anti-DefamatiOn League of Bnai Brith assisted in the
more than to turn America into a frantic,
Navy Map Office who has been fired from his
hysteria ridden place.
publication , of this book. Maximilian Frieda, a former Warsaw
job after 23 years of service. Seven months ago
"If the Kremlin masters wanted to weaken JeWish judge, is arranging for the presentaton of the book tO
he was suspended because of 'security risk'
us- -•--and they do—I suppose that they would be libraries in hundreds of American cities. •
charges. The reviewing board cleared him of
Horror upon horror perpetrated upon the Jews by the Nazis
delighted to see Americans lose - confidence in
the charges. But he has been fired anyway,
the integrity of their political leaders, lose con- is revealed in this voltime. While many Poles helped the Jewish
without explanation—presumably because the
fidence in the stability of their army, suspect fighters, .there are instances in which Poles informed on the Jews
reviewing board's decision did not convince his
clergymen and teachers.. I imagine they would and turned them over to the Nazi murderers.
Security Officer.
delight in seeing us lose -faith iri Otir CoriStitu-
• Here are some of the incidents recorded in Dr. Friedman's
"This- may . be only one statistic among the
tional privileges, in seeing us ape their court- "Martyrs and Fighters," describing the heroism of the resisting
thousands-recently purged. But unlike the rest
room procedures and hound innocent little Jews:
(Simkhah Ilalbayzer—pseudonym "Kazik"—was 18 years old at the time of
he has chosen make a public fight of it.
government clerks who are bloWn up to be
the uprising. Since 1946 he has lived in Israel. Here is :his report of Tuesday,
Almost his entire community of Greenbelt is
important spies and saboteurs as long as it is
April 20, the first day of Passover, 1943):
behind him. What is- most disquieting is—as
"At three o'clock in the afternoon I was standing on guard
good for a front-page story.
Chasanow .gives the figures—that of..12 em-
"Congressional committees have done good at the scouting post where there was a fuse to switch on the
ployes of the Navy Map Office living in Green-
work, are doing good work, and will do more. mine. Then, from the direction of Franciszkanska Street a de-
belt, the five Jews were suspended, the other
But when they are cynically used to trap head- tachment of about 300 Germans turns into Walowa Street in our
eight were not touched.
lines rather than spies, they mock themselves area. With one hand I grabbed the filse, with the other I pressed
"Obviously this - doesn't prove anything: it
—and they mock us, too." -
down the alarm clock.
:r,
only raises a question to be answered. It would
"Suddenly a terrific detonation is heard. I see bodies flying
*
100 dead can
raise the same question if only Protestants
It is because we share these views that into the air, hands and feet separately. Eighty to
or Catholics or Negroes had been suspended'.
be counted. The rest are withdrawing in great disorder.
we
are
disturbed
by
the
Chasanow
case—
"If the figures Chasanow cites were the only
meanwhile are occupying our positions and waiting. One
and we pray that this case may not be capi- hour "We
passes, then another. The Germans are assembling again;
ones, we could shrug them away as accidental.
talized into a Dreyfus Case in this country. they are deliberating. A few higher officers have arrived. All of
But unfortunately the same pattern is evident
The fact that so many of the people who a sudden we hear voices at our walls. The Germans are pouring
also in the Fort Monmonth cases, where it has
have become involved in "security" / issues into the courtyard. They are marching in goose-step. Their faces
turned out that almost all the suspended men
have been Jews. Is this, too, purely accidental?
bear Jewish names; the Oppenheimer inci- are frightened, and they clutch their rifles, ready to fire. Actually
'I have no patience for the automatic cries
dents and many similar occurrences create they don't walk, they rather run, remaining close to the walls
of 'anti-Semitism' that arise when a Jew is
suspicion that a Jewish issue may, indeed, , of the buildings all the time.
attacked or in trouble, just as I have none for
"My comrade and I let the first six pass. It is not worthwhile
be
created, unjustifiably, resulting from the
the automatic cries of 'anti-Catholicism' when
to waste a hand grenade on such a small group. Behind, them a
fanning
of
prejudices.
whole band is coniing. We have two handgrenades of our own
a Catholic is in the same position. A man
We are disturbed also byanother inci- make two incendiary bottles and small arms. `Shlamek fire!' I
cannot use his minority status as a way of
dent—the attempt to nullify the candidacy call to my comrade and hurl my handgrenade into the middle of
buying immunity from the basic ordeals of
politics or life. In the case of the Rosenbergs,
Of Mrs. Mildred Younger, in opposition to the bunch. There is an explosion .. a few dead. We toss the
the Communists shamelessly raised the fake
the candidacy of State Senator Jack B. Ten- incendiary bottles, and more Germans are caught by flames. They
issue of Jewish martyrdom. Recently in the
ney who is known for his anti-Semitic views, are sending up a hell of bullets. Since we possess only one more
Cohn-Schine case McCarthy tried the same
by the placing on the California ballot of the hand grenade, which we want, to keep for later, we withdraw. We
tactic of crying 'anti-Semitism' where there is
climb higher and take up our positions at the side of our other
name of the Unkhown Mrs. Hazel T. Younger comrades.
none. No doubt some day he will cry any at-
Suddenly all becomes quiet. The Germans hay fled.
who
was
a
patient
in
a
mental
institution;
"After half an hour they appear a.gairr, and again this time
tacks upon himself 'anti-Catholic' as well as
and by the distribution by Sen. Tenney of a we greet them with hand grenades and incendiary bottles. - They
`pro-Communist.'
circular in which he denies being anti-Semitic shoot rapidly and then they withdraw, leaving behind their dead
"But as I watch the unfolding pattern of
the 'security risk' cases, where suspensions take
but nevertheless asserts that "the Jews are and wounded. One of the Germans has caught a glimpse of a
place on the charge- of having once subscribed
an important factor in the forces at work girl op our position. 'Hans, look,' he shouts to his comrade, 'a
the girl ,does not
to a paper, or read a Soviet technical journal,.
against my re-election." Sen. Tenney will be woman!' They all start shooting at her. But deserve
. . ."
welcome
they
or listened to someone deliver a public lecture,
withdraw.
She
gives
them
the
remembered as the man who accepted the
(On May 8, the Germans discovered and raided the headquarters at Mila 15.
I cannot help asking what safeguards we have
They sent heavy reinforcements to surround the place. A fierce battle lasted
Vice-Presidential
candidacy,
in
1952,
on
Ger-
against the possible arbitrary prejudices of the
two hours. When the Germans realized that. it was impossible to take the posi-
ald L. K. Smith's Christian Nationalist Par-
tion by force, they tossed 2 smoke bomb inside the headquarters and Placed
men making the judgments."
explosives at the entrances to the bunker.)
*
*
*
ty, on the ticket that was nominally headed
"The 'toughs' and the civilians surrendered; but none of our
We. concur in the confidence expressed by Gen. Douglas MacArthur. His charge fighters. The call was repeated. The Germans announced that
against
the
Jews
as
a
factor
in
the
election
everyone who came out would be taken to work; all the others
by Dr. , Lerner "that no one in the top coun-
cils of the Administration shares any such may well he interpreted as intended to fan would be shot at once. The fighters entrenched themselves near
the entrance and waited with their weapons ready. Finally the
prejudices. But once you set the massive hatred.
With. a multiplication of instances of Germans began to send gas into the bunker. They let in a small
machinery of a government purge in motion,
quantity of gas, then stopped trying to break the defenders' spirit
with the involvement of . rumors, hearsay, prejudice, of charges of deceptions in politics, with
prolonged suffocation. A terrific death faced the 120 fighters.
gossip, charges,. evaluation Of bits of conver- new challenges are presented to the liberal
"Aryeh Wilner was the first to cry out: 'Come, let us destroy
forces
in
this
country.
They
tend
to
em-
sation, and political impressionism, you put
ourselves. Let's not fall into their hands alive.' The suicides be-
yourself at the mercy of many men who may barrass our administration. They harm the gan. Pistols jammed and the owners begged their friends to kill
best relationships among Americans. They them. But no one dared to take the life of a comrade. Lutek
be political reactionaries and religious bigots.
To such men—accusers, witnesses, Security undermine our national unity. They call for Rorblatt fired four shots at his mother but, wounded and bleeding,
Officers—some past liberal association, or strong action against anti-Semitic: manifes- she still moved. Then someone discovered a hidden exit, but only
few succeeded in getting out this way. The others slowly suf-
the wrong kind of name or east of face, may tations—such as are in evidence in some po- a focated
in the gas. Thus the best of the Jewish fighters net death,
prove decisive enough to constitute a 'securi- litical campaigns, in "security" cases and in 100 in all; among them the belOved commander."
the
unfortunate
Chasanow
incident.
•
"
ty

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'Martyrs and Aghters' Tells
ory of Resistance to Nazis

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