Cantor Helps Fete
Judge's 70th Year

Novel About a Great Confederate Leader

Pentagon Personnel Attend Daily Services

WASHINGTON, D. C. — If Catholics in the Pentagon, are
you are a Jewish serviceman sponsored by the Army Chief
or civilian working in the Pen- of Chaplains.
In addition to daily services
The life story of one of the most interesting personalities of
the Confederacy—Judah Philip Benjamin—is s told in fiction. tagon here, you can attend in the Pentagon, the JWB re-
Vina Delmar, an able novelist, whose chief hobby is the collection religious services daily- in a ligious committee sponSOrs 18
of Civil *War material, has made_ the one-time United States synagogue set up in the build- religious and cultural programs
ing by the National Jewish weekly at 10 military posts
Senator from. Louisiana, the
Welfare Board's (JWB). Wash- and veteran - hospitals in Wash-
man who served- as Attorney
ington religious committee.
ington.
General and Secretary of State
Services, which begin • at - Heading the committee is
of the Confederacy, the hero
noon, have been conducted" over Chaplain Morris Sandhaus, as-
of her novel, "Beloved," pub-
the past four years by Chap- sistant to the director of the
lished by Harcourt, Brace &
lain Maurice S. Kleinberg, con- Chaplaincy program of the
Co. (383 Madison, NY 17).
sultant on Jewish affairs to the Veterans Administration and
Benjamin's wife, to whom--
C h i e f of Chaplains of the representative of the JWB
he was deeply devoted but
Army. The Jewish services, like Commission on Jewish Chap-
who was not thoroughly faith-
those- -held for Protestants and laincy in the 'Washington area.
ful to him, always addressed
him as "-Beloved;" therefore,
ed.............aameaaadbassaaaaaa ■■■■•■ aaaaaambamsamiamaa.
I
the title, Natalie St. Martin,
I
Delightfully Air Cooled
his beautiful Creole wife, left
I
him to settle in Paris, returned
to be with him for a time in
Washington, when he • was
Judge Jonah J. Goldstein Senator, and' went back again.
(left) shows Eddie Cantor, a He visited her periodically, re-
fellow _alumnus from New joined her before his death
I
NOW EXCLUSIVELY FOR:
I
York's Lower East Side, a after he had built another im-
I • WEDDINGS
• SHOWERS
tapestry woven at an ORT portant career as a lawyer in
I
I
• BAR- MITZVAHS
• SOCIAL FUNCTIONS
school in Israel, and pre- London upon his escape from
sented to him on his 70th America, and his affections were always deep-rooted.
Featuring:
birthday at an ORT-UJA
Mrs. Delmar goes into detail in describing Judah's Jewish I
dinner in New York last background. His father was a devoted Jew who remained loyal I. • FINE FOOD
EXCELLENT SERVICE
week. Nearly $1„000,000 was to his faith, insisting upon keeping his fruit store closed on the I I
SILVER SERVICE
COLORED LINENS
raised. ORT is a beneficiary Sabbath. His mother rebelled against such observance. Later in I
of UJA funds, ,through an life she left Charleston, where the Benjamins first settled upon I I
FOR INFORMATION CALL MISS FAYE
agreement with the JDC.
their arrival from England, where Judah was born, and her son I
established a home for her in New Orleans. The father re- •
Altman Re-Elected
mained in his old home where he died of a broken heart. But
23051 COOLIDGE at 9 MILE RD.
Judah Benjamin's Jewishness was brought up from time to time; • I
Atlantic City Mayor
Ample FREE Parking
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (JTA) it haunted him, and even his closest associate, the President of
ISOMIPIPIPIPIPIMPIPIMInferitiroPlyrnrnMPW ■ M•r•ferlfwerer•PIPW•m•PIM •
—Mayor Joseph Altman won the Confederacy, towards the end, taunted him with it.
- This is one of the factors in "Beloved" that may be ques-
re-elction here to his sixth four-
tioned by historians. In a note 'on the flyleaf of her book, Mrs.
year term in that office, sweep-
Delmar states: "With the exception of nameless people, no
ing four incumbent commis-
fictional characters have been used here. Every one who bears
sioners with him by pluralities
of 3 to 1. All five incumbents a name bore it in actual life. However,' no claim is made -that
had the endorsement of both . this is a thoroughly factual account. Though authenticity has
been held in high esteem throughout, invention and imagina-
Democratic a n d Republican
tion, too, have played their parts in developing the life story
leaders in this community. In
Deal, N.J., Mayor Solomon Laut- of 'the fascinating Benjamin.'"
man and two commissioners
The question arises, therefore: was the insult that Jefferson
were re-elected to second terms Davis hurled at him authentic? It stemmed from the charge that
on the three-man local commis- was made against Judah that as a student at Yale he had stolen
sion.
watches and money from classmates. Judah denied it. One of the
students whom he befriended had turned against him: when our
soviets to•Allow U.S. Rabbis hero left the United States to join the Confederacy, Francis
to Study Life in Russia
Bacon wrote an article in the New York Independent under the
NEW YORK (JTA) — The title "The Early History of a Traitor," in which he presented
Rabbinical Council of America, I the charge against his former friend as a . fact. When the Con-
organilation of Orthodox rabbis, ! federacy collapsed and Judah Benjamin refused to follow Davis
announced that it has received into another calamitous campaign, Davis turned to his Secretary
word from the Soviet Embassy of. State and said (in the words used by Mrs. Delmar in
in Washington that it can send "Beloved"):
a delegation of six rabbis to
"In 1861 you deserted . the United States of America and
visit the Soviet Union to study now you desert the Confederacy. You cannot remain faithful to
Jewish religious life there.
anything can you, Mr. Benjamin? It is true what they told me.
Applications for visas_ were I was a man Without bigotry or prejudice and I rebuked those
made last -July and the visit who warned me that it was not in the nature of a Jew to know
was first projected about a year constancy or honor."
and a half ago, Rabbi David
Benjamin's reply: "It is but logical that as you stand here
Hollander, president of the reaping the harvest of stupidity and arrogance that you can
Council, revealed. _ This is die remember nothing—nothing except that I am a Jew."
first time in the history of the
Davis had raised the question of the Yale incident.- Only
soviet Union that permission Judah Benjamin was left at his side, all others in the Con-
has been granted for an official! federacy having left him. But he could not forgive the Jew who
rabbinic delegation to visit the would not abide by his last demand to make another hopeless
eountry.
stand.
The reader will be particularly interested in the references
to Benjamin's sentiments on slavery. He was not really pro-
slavery: he was just vehemently pro-South.
In more than one sense, Judah Benjamin's life was a tragedy.
He was an able politician, a great lawyer who made his mark on
two continents. But his home life was not happy. And he died
a tragic death; his wife had him buried as a Catholic. His wife
had misled the officiating priest into believing that he had
studied and embraced Catholicism. The priest asked whether he
was to call a rabbi, but Natalie said: "Yes, my husband was a
Jew, but when he married me he was not forgiven . . . He
married me knowing,.full well that he would not rest with his
people . . ." _
T, is is the'fictionalized story of a great man whose Jewish-
ness remained only in the taunts he suffered, in the name he
retained.

The Fascinating Benjamin

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Australia's Jewish population
has tripled in a little over four
decades, a new World Jewish
Congress survey has disclosed.
From a Jewish population of
17,287 in 1911, the Jewish com-
munity of the commonwealth
now numbers in exCess*of 55,000.
The recent statistics, listed in
a report by Dr. Issac Schwarz-
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children live in the two Austra-
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the northern, western and re-
maining southern areas Of the
commonwealth and in the capi-

tal territory, Canberra. Austra-
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approximately 9,000,000, two-
thirds of whom live in Victoria
and. New South Wales. At the
end of 1954, the Jewish popula-
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0.59 of one per cent of the total
population, or 59 Jews in every
10,000 of total population.
According to the WJ Congress
report, Australian Jews have
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to the industrialization of the
commonwealth and share in the
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state of New South Wales.
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