Red Anti-Semitism Exposed at Congressional Hearing
Jewish Leaders Describe
Russian Anti-Jewish Acts
NEW YORK,' (JTA)—Congres-
sional hearings on "the persecu-
tion df the Jewish people under
Communism" were held here by
the House Committee on Com-
munist Aggression headed by
Rep. Charles J. Kersten of Wis-
consin. The hearings, at which
leaders of major Jewish organi-
zations testified, lasted two days.
Irving M. Engel, president of
the American Jewish Committee,
and Henry Edward Schultz, na-
tional chairman of the Bnai
Brith Anti-Defamation League,
charged that despite the Krem-
lin's "new look," Soviet authori-
ties continue to sentence many
inandreds of Jewish leaders to
long prison terms.
Mr. Engel accused the Com-
munist countries of reviving
anti-Semitism "as an instru-
ment of government policy":
sabotaging restitution to Jew-
ish victims of Nazism in satel-
lite countries by falsely label-
ing these survivors of concen-
tration camps as "Germans";
and destroying all Jewish
communal institutions, includ-
ing those rebuilt by the efforts
of the local Jewish population
with the help of American
welfare organizations.
The Jewish Committee presi-
dent also charged that the Com-
munist governments have des-
troyed all Jewish religious life in
Russian and the satellites, leav-
ing only isolated synagogues for
"show" purposes; expropriated
Jewish hospitals, orphan asy-
lums, dispensaries and old peo-
ple's homes, and put them to
Communist use; pr omp t e d
"bloody pogroms" in Poland,
Czecholovakia, Hungary and
Romania, resulting in the death
of hundreds of innocent Jews;
imprisoned without charge hun-
dreds of Jewish leaders, leaving
them to rot without trial for
many years in filthy Communist
jails, and pauperized the Jewish
population in Russia and the
satellites, then deported thou-
sands into unsettled areas with
no food or means of shelter.
He said that the secret purge
trials and sentencing of Jews
were continuing up to the pres-
ent time. At trials in Czechoslo-
vakia Romania and Hungary,
he added, hundreds of Zionist
and other former leaders of
Jewish communities — imprison-
ed since 1948 and 1949—have
been sentenced to life or many
years in prison "for collecting
money for Zionist causes, organ-
izing emigration to Israel, and
similar activities—all of which
were completely legal and some-
times even encouraged by the
authorities at the time they
were conducted."
Mr. Schultz described the
plight of Bnai Brith lodges
and their members behind the
Iron Curtain. He said that
"those of our people who sur-
vived the Nazis were victim-
ized by a cruel and ironic fate.
They were given much to hope
for from a war of liberation.
But they were, liberated fron
one evil only to be caught in
the noose of another."
He charged that "the Com-
munist regimes, under one
pretext or another, arrested
the Bnai Brith leadership,
confiscated the Bnai Brith
property and totally wiped out
every vistage of Bnai Brith
organizational life."
Dr. Israel Goldstein, president
of the American Jewish Con-
gress, charged that "the shadow
of doom lies over the spiritual
survival of 2,500,000 Jews in
Soviet lands." Yiddish newspap-
ers, he testified, ceased publica-
tion, Yiddish writers disappear-
,
Purely Commentary
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Jewish Traditions: Can They Survive Only in Israel?
At the conference of American Friends of the Hebrew Uni-
versity, at Princeton, N. J., Prof. Albert Einstein delivered one of
his rare and challenging addresses.
He made some interesting points when he said:
"I regret, I even feel ashamed, that the Jewry dispersed
through the countries of the earth has not yet succeeded in
placing our university on a solid material basis so that it still
has to exist precariously from hand to mouth. This would not
be the ease if our tradition of high esteem for the teacher had
not been affected by the shallow materialistic tendency of our
age. This must change.
"In our traditions it is neither the ruler nor the politician,
neither the soldier nor the merchant who represents the ideal.
The ideal is represented by the teacher, that is to say, the person
who is able through his work and his effort to enrich the intel-
lectual, moral and artistic life of his people. This implies a defi-
nite repudiation of what is commonly called materialism.
"The idea is that human beings can attain a worthy and
harmonious life only if they are able to rid themselves, within
the limits of human nature, of the striving for the wish fulfill-
ments of a material kind. The goal is to raise the spiritual level
of society. The Hebrew University, while applying a good deal
of its effort to practical goals so as not to remain a foreign body
within the nation, is doing so without losing sight of this high
goal."
But he also said that "Israel is the only place on earth where
Jews have the possibility to shape public life according to their
traditional ideals." This is a harsh prediction. It does not match
completely the experiences of the centuries. Traditionally, Jews
w. .) a creative force wherever they lived. It is true that our
traditions survived mainly under diverse conditions. Our scholars
created more profoundly as Jews in lands of oppression, and free-
doms often led to assimilation and to the disappearance.
Thus, there is a prevalent view, which seems like the one now
adopted by Dr. Einstein, 'that under freedom Jewish traditions
must perish. But there are many hopeful souls who feel other-
wise, who believe that the challenge directed at American Jewry
will, at last, be met with dignity by this generation and the gen-
erations to come.
We prefer to reject the pessimism of Prof. Einstein. On the
contrary; we believe that the time has come for us to follow the
viewpoint that American Jewry will assume the role of harbinger
of the coming of very creative years in Jewish scholarship, in
traditional Jewish living, in adherence to principles which have
left their mark upon all faiths and upon American democracy.
Israel, the Hebrew University, the great institutions of learn-
ing in and out of this country, are dependent upon the under-
standing of American Jewry whose generosity may well be called
the greatest .contribution our generation has made to American
life and to humanitarianism. Continuation of this tradition is
part of Jewish living. It is a part of our idealism. How can we
possibly assert that the traditional ideals of our people can survive
only in Israel, unless we are prepared to predict the doom of the
treat Nmericari ..le?yish community of 5,,Q00,000 souls?
ed and other Yiddish institutions
were shut down.
"Sympathy for Zionism not
only remained a crime, as it had
been for many years, but the
accusation of Zionism directed
sometimes against persons who
had been bitter opponents of it,
became an important weapon in
the armory with which the mas-
ters of the moment struck down
potention rivals."
Jewish Labor Committee vice-
chairman Jacob Zukerman told
the House Committee that "the
Kremlin, while it piously pro-
nounces peaceful co-existence
between itself and other nations,
has, in effect, declared a war of
destruction against the remain-1
ing vestiges of the Jewish com-
munities under their geographi-
cal domination." He cited several
examples of cultural genocide
against the Jews, their institu-
tions, in the Soviet Union and
satellite nations.
Mr. Zuckerman called for a
United Nations investigation of
the fate of some half million
Jewish refugees whose where-
abouts have never been account-
ed for by the Soviets.
Benjamin Kaufman, of the
Jewish War Veterans of the
United States, pointed out
that the JWV was "never fool-
ed by the Communist propa-
gandist who glibly extolled the
tolerance of Communism with
respect to races and religions."
He told the committee of some
of the positive programs un-
dertaken by the JWV to edu-
cate its members and all
Americans as to the "dangers
and pitfalls of Communism."
Herschel Weinrauch, former
Red Army officer and editor of
an official Yiddish newspaper
in Birobidjan during the 1930's,
testified that the settlement
of Birobidjan by • Jews was
used by t h e Communists to
mulct millions of dollars from
Americans in cash, equipment
and machinery meant for the
Jewish region. He also declar-
ed that of some 600;000 Jews
sent from Poland to Siberia in
1939 only 150,000 have been
accounted for and the remain-
ing 450,000 "just vanished" by
the war's end in 1945.
Dr. Frederic Gerog, leader of
the Jews in Hungary who was
the head of the Joint Distribu-
tion Committee office in Buda-
pest between 1945 and 1948, tes-
tified that after Communist
pressure on the organization,
JDC headquarters in New York
agreed to give five percent of
the total relief expenditures of
the JDC in Hungary to non-
sectarian relief. He said the or-
ganization was infiltrated by
spies for the authorities.
Isaac Glickman, now president
of the United Romanian Jews
of America, described how the
Romanian Minister of Religion,
a non-Jew, appointed the Chief
Rabbi of Romania. Mr. Glick-
man was head of the Jewish re-
lief committee in Bucharest be-
tween 1945 and 1948. Bronislaw
Teichloz, one-time chairman of
the International Committee for
Jewish Refugees in Vienna, said
that during the war the Rus-
sians sent some 50,000 Jews from
the Lwow area to Siberia.
Israel Ethrogim
Gift of Hordes'
To Local Rabbis
Mr. and Mrs. William Hordes
this week enjoyed the thrill of
receiving four ethrogim from
Israel, from their children, Mr.
and Mrs. Herbert Hordes, who
are presently making their home
in Jerusalem.
Two of the prized possessions
went to Rabbis Moses Fischer
and Jacob Chinitz. The Hordes-
es retained one of them and the
fourth went to the parents of
Mrs. Herbert Hordes, Mr. and
Mrs. Isidore Singer.
2—DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
FKiflay, .Qctober
Aft5.4...
Dream of Rabbi I. M. Wise
Is Basis for Reform Judaism
Editor's Note: This is anoth-
er in the series of Jewish News
articles on noted Jewish re-
ligious leaders.
By DR. RICHARD C. HERTZ
Senior Rabbi, Temple Beth El
One hundred years ago, on
July 6, 1854, Rabbi Isaac Mayer
Wise, that year elected as rabbi
of Cincinnati's Bnai Jeshurun
Congregation, began to publish
the weekly journal, The Israelite,
the influential Jewish publica-
tion of its day in America. In-
to this paper Dr. Wise poured
his lifelong dream of building
a united American Jewish com-
munity.
Born in Bohemia in 1819, Wise
gave up the rabinnate in the
Old World and arrived in New
York in 1846 with his wife, a
small daughter, $2.00 in his poc-
ket and a dream in his heart.
For eight years he served as
Rabbi in Al-
bany, N.Y.
where, from the
outset, he in-.
troduced re-
forms in the
o r s hip serv-
ices of the con-
gregation. Be-
Oieving in the
equality of
women, he es-
tablished a mix-
ed choir, family
pews, and abol-
ished the wom-
Dr. Wise
en's gallery. He followed the
precedent of former great rab-
bis by revising the prayerbook.
Patiently he taught the people
a fresh, modern, liberal inter-
pretation of our age-old re-
ligion. Of course, changes were
not always introduced easily.
Often he was in hot water, but
he gradually made progress.
When he was called to Cin-
cinnati in 1854 to become the
rabbi of the Queen City's con-
gregation, he stuck to his re-
forms and took steps at once
to see that his views received
an ever-widening audience.
Preacher, teacher, editor, or-
ganizer--for nearly a half a
century he championed from
Cincinnati the cause of a new,
dynamic, Reform Judaism—
one that would be truly Amer-
ican in spirit and practice, and
at the same time keep the
traditions of our people ad-
justed to the spirit of the
times.
Though a child of the Old
World, Wise felt his American-
ization was almost complete
while still in Bohemia, for his
ideas were attuned to the fron-
tier spirit of America. He had
an almost worshipful attitude
toward the Constitution and its
guarantees of civil equality and
.
religious liberty. He was a strong
believer in the separation of
Church and State. Experiences
in Austria taught him what
abuses a church-dominated gov-
ernment could and did impOse.
Dr. Wise was anxious that all
Jews become thoroughly Amer-
icanized, so that they could un-
derstand and appreciate the
principles of political liberty. In
Wise's day, over two-thirds of
the German Jewish immigrants
spoke no English. He was a lit-
tle impatient with the rabbis of
the 1860's who Germanized in-
stead of Americanized their
people. He constantly stressed
that Jews should discard their
foreign dress and strange man-
nerisms and mother tongue, and
adopt instead the customs of
this new country, for Isaac
Mayer Wise was thoroughly
Americanized—in thought, in
politics and in daily life.
Wise felt his mission was to
organize and institutionalize
Reform °Judaism. He believed
unity of action without uni-
formity of thought should be
introduced into the scattered
congregations of the land. For
nearly 30 years he campaign-
ed for a union of those con-
gregations through which har-
mony of viewpoints could be
established. In 1873 his hopes
were realized in the forming
of the Union of American He-
brew Congregations.
But congregations needed
rabbis, and rabbis needed to be
trained. In 1875, Dr. Wise open-
ed the Hebrew Union College
in Cincinnati, becoming its first
president and teacher until his
death. He did not live to see
the present beautiful campus,
but it stands today as a perpet-
ual memorial to his organizing
genius.
In 1889, the Central Confer-
ence of American Rabbis was
called into being by Dr. Wise
in Detroit. - He served as its
first and only president until
his death, and helped it be-
come the great force in the
religious life of 'organized lib-
eral Jewry.
Thus, Dr. Wise was responsi-
ble for the three major institu-
tions of American Reform Juda-
ism.—the Union of American
Hebrew Congregations, Hebrew
Union College, Central Confer-.
ence of American Rabbis. The
pattern of Reform Judaism to-
day is in large measure the out-
groWth of Dr. Wise's life work.
When he closed his eyes on
March 26, 1900, at the patri-
archal age of four score years
and one, he had seen the rise
of Reform Judaism, and had
played the leading role in its
development.
■■■■••.2.111.
Between You and Me
By BORIS SMOLAR.-
(Copyright, 1954, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)
UN Reflections
All indications are that at the current session of the United
Nations General Assembly, Israel will follow, in most cases, the
line of Britain rather than that of the United States.... This would
indicate Israel's dissatisfaction with the present pro Arab policy
in Washington and at the same time permit Israel to follow its
pro-Western policy at the United Nations It would also streng-
then Israel's ties with the British Commonwealth countries which
the Jewish State needs now more than ever ... Observers at the
United Nations will not be surprised if attempts are made q-detly
at this session to sound out the possibility of bringing Egypt and
Israel together for the informal talks ... According to official
American circles, Egypt has indicated to the United States that she
is willing to negotiate with Israel on improvement of relations be-
tween the two countries ... This would include settling the question
of navigation in the Suez Calml y the future status of the Egyptian-
held Gaza area of Palestine, and the fixing of the southern Israel-
Egyptian border ... It is understood that the United States is op-
timistic regarding future relations between Israel and Egypt .... A
feeling prevails that Egypt may be the first Arab state to come to
a settlement with Israel, just as she was the first Arab state to
sign an armistice agreement with Israel in Rhodes in 1949 .._, And
the belief in Washington is that Henry A. Byroade, newly appointed
U. S. Ambassador to Egypt, may be capable of "unraveling , the
Arab-Israel knot "• . . The other Arab countries are .aware of the
fact that the United States hopes for some kind. ( -4.:a.Tapproche-
ment between Egypt and Israel ... Their.deiegatiOn4 at:theNnited
Nations are, therefore, watching the moves
. .thEoptiail,::dele-
'i4t10/1. WW1 :gnat .alerttrlesr-
-