Soviet Jews in Israel Meet UJA Head

Ban on Religious
Symbols Asked for
Hanukah, Christmas

NEW YORK, (JTA) — A ban
on the use of religious symbols
for either Hanukah or Christ-
mas celebrations in the public
schools of New York has arous-
ed controversy here. The ban
was part of a memorandum,
which also barred combined
Hanukah-Christmas celebrations,
sent out by Florene S. Beumont,
associate superintendent of ele-
mentary education- -here. Charles
S. Silver, president of the Board
of Education, has asked Super-
intendent of Schools William
Jansen for a full report on the
memorandum.
Miss Beaumont said she was
surprised by the controversy and
added that it was not her per-
sonal order but had been adopt-
ed by a vote of the eight mem-
ber Board of Superintendents
last year. Mr. Jansen appeared
to be unfamiliar with this vote,
and declared that New York was
too big for any one order to
cover all conceivable . situations.
"People should look at this with
Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union and leaders of the recent
faith in their own religion and
United Jewish Appeal Study Mission to Israel met aboard an El Al respect for others," Mr. Jansen
Israel Airlines plane flaying from Vienna to Israel. Pictured above
added.
(left to right) are Mrs. Fania Perlmutter from Moscow, Miriam
Miss Beaumont denied that
Jacques, El Al_hostess, Mrs. Pessia Sniburski from Kishinev, and
her memorandum had any con-
Edward M. M. Warburg, President of the UJA. Mrs. Perlmutter
nection with a recent controver-
and Mrs. Sniburski are among the small number of Soviet Jews
sial report adopted unanimously
who have received exit permits in recent months. The UJA Mis-
by the Board of, Superintend-
sion to Israel met with top government officials to discuss emer- ents calling for a new emphasis
gency steps by the UJA to strengthen Israel's eeonomy and to
on moral and spiritual values in
finance the immigration to Israel of 45,000 Jews from North Africa.
the schools., without specific re-
ligious instruction. That report
been attacked by a number
Action Taken Against
'By the Rivers of Babylon' had
of
Jewish
groups. Miss Beau-
The Psalms
Anti-Jewish Promoter
mont said, in referring to her
By
N.
E.
ARONSTAM
Of 'Christian' TV Plan
I woke in the night, I woke in memorandum, "We're trying to
• NEW YORK (JTA)—A tempo-
keep religion out of the schools,
the night
rary injunction stopping stock
not
put it in."
To rouse my muse's slumb'ring
sales by West Hooker, self-de-
graces;
scribed "anti-Jewish" promoter
My lute brought forth a most _ I hope I shall always possess
of a "Christian television net-
firmness and virtue enough to
dolorous chord,
work," on the grounds that he
Deeply it sighed and ceased in its maintain, what I consider the
had attempted to raise millions
most enviable of all titles, the
traces.
of dollars by "fraudulent prac-
"How can I sing the Lay of the character of an s "honest man."—
tices" was obtained here by At-
Washington.
Lord,
torney General Jacob K. Javits.
While the foe is upon me with
Hooker, who is president of
dagger and sword?"
Film Network, Inc.,, and Master
- _ —
-
-
Television Corps, is also editor of I woke from my sleep, I woket
the "Nationalist Party - Bulletin."
from my sleep,
He told newsmen, after he was Beholding confusion about me;
served with the court papers, Convulsed by hatred's most-ful-
that "I am not anti-Semitic, a
minant deep,
racial term, but I am anti-Jewish, And serpentlike hisses to rout
a creed term, to the extent that
me.
Judaism is anti-Christian." Con- Again I invoked the Lay of the
tinuing tot protest that he had
Lord,
never done anything wrong that As the foe was upon me with
he •knew of, Hooker, explained,
dagger and sword.
"I'm a Christian. and I want to
get a little Christian influence Then courage assailed' me, then
into television."
courage availed me:
Hooker used many persons as "Down with the mask of servile
"salesmen" for his stock, includ-
persistence!"
ing Bryant - W. Bowles, head of My lute then intoned a pean of
the National Association for the
hope,
Advancement of •White People, A note both of valor and stoic
and Merwin K. Hart, head of the
resistance.
National Economic Council, Inc. And now I shall sing a new Lay
Hart was a "secret shareholder
of the Lord:
by his own request, Hooker said, "Oh teach Thou my fingers to
because Hart felt "he would hold
shatter the sword."
us back because , he was known
supposedly as an anti-Semitic."

—

Council for Judaism
Announces 5 Grants

PHILADELPHIA (JTA)—JeWs
who have left Israel as well as
Jews and Arabs in Israel will
benefit from the first grants to
be made by the American Coun-
cil for Judaism - Philanthropic
Fund, a total of $47750 awarded
to four institutions; it was an-
nounced by Harry Snellenburg,
Jr., Fund chairman.
A grant of $2,250 was given to
the International Rescue Commit-
tee to be earmarked to assist a
group of returnees from Israel
who are living in France. A grant
of $1,000 went to the American
Friends Service Committee to be
used for a project in Israel sug-
gested to the Fund by the AFSC.
This is a community center in
Acre where Moslems and Jews
are brought together in an inte-
grated program which includes
a nursery . school for 90. children.
The sum of $500 was given to the
Red Mogen David to_ be ear-
marked for the blood processing
center in Israel. The Shaare-
Zedek Hospital, of Jerusalem,
was granted $1,000.

`Dark Picture' in USSR

Expert Reports Fear Among Jews

NEW YORK, (JTA)—A- "dark
picture" of Jewish. life in the
Soviet Union is presented in the
New York 'Times by Ha r r y
Schwartz, the newspaper's expert
on Soviet affairs, who has just
returned from• an extensive -tour
of the USSR. Mr. Schwartz- re-
ports: - - -
"Jews interviewed in the Sov-
iet Union - said that the younger
generation knew virtually noth-
ing about Judaism. One exception
was in Tiflis, where the rabbi of
a Georgian synagogue asserted
that children were learning about
Judaism and he_ had no fears for
the future.
"Moscow has three synagogues,
Tiflis has two, and Kiev, Odessa,
Leningrad, Baku, Rostov and
Minsk . have one each. Kharkov,
a cify with about 100,000 Jews,
has no synagogue. The Kharkov
synagogue- was closed when the
rabbi was imprisoned for alleged
subversion several years ago.
"In the ten cities this corres;-
pondent visited, local estimates
added to a total of more than
1,000,000 Jewish inhabitants. Of
these, even allowing for the
many congregations that meet in
private homes, it is dubious if
even as many as 10 percent at-
tended Yom Kippur services this
year, though this is the most sol-
emn holiday in the Jewish re-
ligious calendar.
"Rabbis and lay heads of con-
gregations painted a picture of
Jewish life as completely free
for all who wished to worship.
There seemed to be an element
of fear lest they drew a- dark
picture. But many Jews who
cling to the Yiddish language and
tradition give a far darker pic-
ture. They complained bitterly
about anti-Semitism, and many
expressed a desire to emigrate.
" We are not wanted here' and
`we feel as though we live with
a rope around our necks' were
typical comments. Even some

Decrease in Racial
U.S. Bias Predicted
At Parley of NCCJ

NEW YORK (JTA)—Diminish-
ing racial prejudice in the United
States was predicted here by
Morris Ernst, addressing a syni-
posium at the 27th annual meet-
ing of the National Conference
of Christians and Jews. Mr. Ernst
said that with the growth of lei-
sure time, Americans were be-
coming less orthodox, less rigid
and more amenable to change.
The annual meeting concluded
with the dedication of a new
Building for Brotherhood, the
NCCJ new headquarters, a $1
million building contributed by
the Ford Motor Company.
At a symposium held at New
York University a working paper
by Dr. Francis J. Brown of the
American Council on Education,
noted that despite great progress
in the past, "strong anti-Catho-
lic, anti-Jewish and anti-Protes-
tant feelings still persist." The
report added: "There is still dis-
crimination against minority
whether of race or ethnic origin."

CCNY Library Honors Cohen

NEW YORK (JTA) — A new
$3,500,000 library with a book
A straight line is the shortest capacity of 6,000,040 volumes
in morals as well as in geometry. and a seating capacity of 1,500
readers will be built by the City
—I. Rahel,
College of New York in memory
26—DETROIT JEWISH NEWS of the late- Prof. Morris Raphael
Friday, November 25, 1955
Cohen, American philosopher,

Sh -Rah AA/ ELECTRIC etatita-Diviv

You'll love the wonderful things an electric
clothes dryer does for your laundry—and your
disposition. The day can be dark and gloomy,
but your clothes safely dry brighter than sunshine
in an electric dryer.

If you want to whisk through washday with a
smile on your face and extra time on your hands,
dry clothes the modern way—electrically!

see YOUR DEALER or Detroit Edison

Jews who had been 'assimilated'
knew little Yiddish, and _had rel-
ativei.y good jobs Complained of
discrimination and anth-Semitism.
Many Jews commented on the
harrowing period from January
to April, 1953, when 'a group of
doctors, mainly Jews, was falsely
accused of having tried to mur-
der Soviet leaders,
"Unhappiness and _fear persist
among Soviet Jews despite the
considerable easing of Soviet pol-
icy toward Yiddish culture. There
is now talk among Soviet Jews
that a -- Yiddish newspaper will
soon be published again. Some
Yiddish writers imprisoned in
late 1948, and early 1949 have ap-
parently been released.
"A few Soviet Jews inquired
about the situation in Israel, al-
ways in whisper s. Zionism,
though prohibited in the Soviet
Union, has apparently not en-
tirely died _out. BLit those Jews
who said they wished to emigrate
usually indicated they would like
to go anywhere in the free
world," Mr. Schwartz concludes.

Tunis Moslems Protest

Inclusion of Jew in Cabinet

•

TUNIS (JTA) — The Moslem
religious tribunal of Tunis has
sent a resolution to the Bey of
Tunis protesting, in strong terms,
against the inclusion of Albert
Bessis, Jewish communal leader,
in the new Tunisian Cabinet
Bessis is the only Jew repre-
sented in the new all-Tunisian
Government.

ZIM ISRAEL NAVIGATION CO'S
SteantsIthIs S/S ISRAEL, 'S/S ZION

./711

Sailing for Haifa Dec..

16, Jan. 27, Feb. 17,
Mar. 9. Other depart-
ures by different lines.
Tickets issued f o r
— Winter a n d Spring
Pleasure Travel to West Indies,
South America, Around the World,
to Jamaica, Nassau, Panama.
ADVANCE RESERVATIONS MADE
FOR 1956 TRAVEL TO EUROPE

HIRSCHFELD CO. AGENCY

600 Woodward Ave., Room 709

