0.1
711 111og
a Great Woman
.r
Jessie Sampter s L if e Story
Father . of Genocide Pact, Dr. Raphael Lemkin,
Devotes Life to Law Against Mass Extermination
(Editor's Note: Dr. Raphael
Jessie Sampter was one of the most interesting American
Lemkin, father of the Geno-
Jewish women, and she may well be rated in a class with Henri-
etta Szold and Rebekkah Kohut as a leader, writer and inspirer
cide Convention, - has urged
of her people.
readers of The Jewish News
D r. RAPHAEL
for a personal gift to him.
Those who have been to Israel and have visited the kvutzah
LEMKIN (left)
Givat Brenner, not far from Rehovoth, undoubtedly have been
He writes, "I ask readers to stands outside the
write letters to the State De- United Nations Se-
to the rest. home Beth Yesha in that settlement and heard the
partment and to other -For , gr
story of Miss Sampter's gift of it to the settlers. Jessie had a home
curity Council dis-
in Rehovcith, but after the 1929 riots instigated by the Mufti she offices asking for action .op-
cussing "The -Crime
posing "The Draft Code of
sought a more permanent link with the land and donated her
of
Genocide," offi-
Offenses." Thi's is a watered-
Rehovoth residence, proceeds to be used for a vegetarian rest
cial UN booklet
home at Givat Brenner, on the condition that she have a home down, substitute measure for which he is hold-
in it for the rest of her life.
the Genocide Convention,
which is expected to beintro- ing, with. AJP cor-
The story of the life of this great woman is told in "White
duced at the current General respondent at the
Fire," a biographical analysis and an evaluation of her life
Assembly session. It would United Nations,
and works by Bertha Badt-Strauss, published by Reconstruc-
kill the Genocide Convention, DAVID HORWITZ.
I, tionist Press (15 W. 86th, NY 24).
Born in New York, March 22, 1883-she died in Israel Nov. ‘. replacing it with a mere dec-
laration that is not enforc-
11, 1938—Jessie Sampter had a colorful career. Raised in a well,
to-do home on Fifth Avenue in Harlem, she showed signs of able.)
* *, *
literary skills early in life. She was a good story-teller, a brilliant
ficers down to sit in on his lec- of adjournment, Lemkin ar-
By
FRANCES
HARVEY
poet and was devoted all her life to the Zionist ideal, befriending
tures.. Later, the War Depart- rived -by plane. In the Delegates
Special AJP Feature Writer
the greatest figure's in the movement, including Henrietta Szold,
at the United Nations
ment appointed him advisor on Lounge he buttonholed, repre-
who encouraged her in her work.
•Dr. Raphael L e m k i n, the Foreign affairs.
sentatives of Cuba, Panama and
Jessie's father Rudolph, who emigrated from Germany, had tired-shouldered, square-j awed
As the Nuremberg trials end- India. He asked them to sponsor
discarded adherence to the Jewish faith and became an ardent man who coined the word gen- ed, the first UN General As-
follower of Felix Adler in the 'Ethical . Culture Society. At, one ocide, is a familiar figure here sembly opened in, Flushing a UN resolution 'against gen-
ocide. Lemkin recalls writing
point the future advocate of Jewish rights believed she was not at the UN all year-round. Out- Meadows, New York. Three
out the resolution which was
Jewish, and when she learned that she was, hurried to reassure side the UN, however, even days before the Assembly's date
next day unanimously endorsed
her friends of her background.
people who have heard of gen-
in the General Assembly.
She met Mary Antin at a reception for Israel - Zangwill in ocide know very little about the
Today, • the ConventiOn has
New York and soon became Mary's defender when the author I 1 ong, tragic success story of Zim to Initiate . New
been ratified by 54 countries.
of "The Promised Land" was assailed for her alleged unfriendly Dr. Lemkin's life.
Some countries which signed,
Boat Train in Israel
attitude to Judaism.. Both girls, in the course of time, became
Today, an International Con-
like the United states, have not
staunch Jewish adherents and supporters of Zionism. According vention, or legal treaty, has - An innovation to smooth the ratified it.
to J. Sampter's. biographer, "Mary had progressed to a higher b een written to prevent gen- way for tourists in Israel was
unity between Americanism and Judaism and had become 'a ocide—the mass destruction of - announced this week by ' the
better American by becoming a better Jew' to use• the words of n ational, ethnical, racial or. re- Zim Israel Navigation Com-
Com- 1 st to Settle in Israel
Justice Brandeis." 1
•
igious groups. But only half pany.
Since Lifting of Ban
Jessie Sampter met Dr. Mordecai M. Kaplan and fell under a century ago when Raphael The Zim Lines, in coopera-
his spell. She became a member of the Seekers Club—all of L emkin was growing up on a tion with the Israel National
whose members were Jews, "young idealists of the Victorian p olish farm near Warsaw, a Railroa,ds and local Customs
era," and out of her seeking for historical facts came her g overnment's. destruction of cer- authorities, will inaugurate a
eventual approach to ZioniSm. But before that there was a
t sin groups of persons was not special boat-train service from
temporary "escape," attendance at Unitarian services and finally r ecognized as a criminal act.
Tel-Aviv direct to ship's side
the "return," thanks to the influence of two masters, Henrietta
Although of Jewish ancestry, in Haifa, commencing with the
Szold and Dr. Kaplan.
r. Lemkin did not suffer in May 10 sailing of the SS Zion
DNap
i les and New York.
"The great discovery of her lonely life" began at the Jewish t
Settlement House in New York, her greatest teacher, as she he Polish pogroms, since he to ur ng the 90-minute rail
ved in the countryside out-
wrote, being "the Jewish People itself." At first she objected
side the big cities where they trip which passes through IS-
to the mere idea o f Zionisth; but-
were carried out. However, raePs citrus belt, customs and
"soori she understood that her own and Miss Szold's Zionism
those waves of post World War passport control authorities will
meant much more than mere nationalism. It meant salvation
I
excesses made a profound im- make their inspection of pas-
for the sick soul of the modern Jew. She understood that
pression
on Raphael Lemkin sengers' baggage and travel
through the suffering and the, - resurrection of the Jewish People
who
decided
that, in s h o r t, documents. When the train ar-
in their own land a new life and a new salvation (geulah)
there
should
be
"a law against rives alongside the -ship at
might dawn for all mankind. Her dream of Zionism was the
Haifa port, passengers will em-
it."
dream of a regenerate humanity."
bark immediately. Baggage will
As
a
law
student
at
Lwow be transferred. directly to state-,
Jessie Sampter "had met Josephine Lazarus who first moved
her interest in her Jewish faith" and then "she encountered University,, Lemkin mentioned rooms.
Henrietta Szold, the unique woman who was able to show the the idea to his professors who
said that such a. law would be
way to a searching soul like hers." Thus, taught by Dr. Kgplan In
Lawyers Thank JWV
and Miss Szold, she became first a student and then a teacher ei fringing on a nation's sover-
gnty to do as it pleased.
of Zionism.
for Aid in Security Cases
A f t e i' graduation, Lemkin
She had already written a number of important books and
Two lawyers who have con-
many outstanding poems, before she went to Palestine where w ent into government service sistently handled the cases of
she began to link her life, in 1919, with the pioneers of the in nd became public prosecutor the majority of those dismissed
future State of • Israel.
Warsaw. It was not until as alleged security risks in the
- Jessie labored among the Yemenites and was available to all 19 33 that his dedicated career
Irving Fisher, 25 (left), and
Fort Monmouth cases, ex-
who needed her help and encouragement in the Jewish Nation-al began to take shape against a , ressed
their own "heartfelt
Home. She established classes for Yemenite working girls, worked bleak background of develop-•pratitude" as well as that of Edmund Blatt, 26, both of
in educational endeavors in Jerusalem with Dr. Alexander. Dush- ing world events. In that. year g the men and women involved Brooklyn; are the first tt-vvo
Hitler and
. rose
to power
in Ger- to the Jewish -War Veterans of . American Jews who left for
kin, helped organize the Hebrew Scouts in Palestine—the Tzofei many
began
his persecu-
Israel to settle there perma-
Zion—and she held on ,to the conviction that "Zionism can not
the United States of America nently since the lifting of the
be a failure."
tion of. German Jews. The gas
ch a mb ers o f Dauchau and for their "effective and untir-
ban on travel to that country
She adopted a Palestinian Jewish girl, brought her to Amer-
by the United States Govern-
Auswitz
had not yet been built ing action" to bring about the
lea for brief studies, then went back for permanent settlement in
, reinstatement of those "unjust- ment. The immigration de-
concentration
were
the Holy Land. Her activities in Palestine, her devotions to her but
being
organized camps
and Jews
ly accused of disloyalty in the
people, forth one of the most fascinating chapters in modern throughout Europe, who had days of high hysteria of 1952 partment of the Jewish Agency
for Palestine announced that
Jewish history. Jessie Sampter was without doubt one of Jewry's
and 1953."
the two are part of a group
outstanding women, and the Badt-Strauss biography "White suffered in previous- persecu-
The lawyers, Ira A. Katchen
Fire (the title is taken from one of her poems) is a deserving do n, feared the handwriting and Harry Green of Lang of 225 American. Jews regis-
tered• for settlement in Israel.
on the wall.
tribute to a great woman.
Branch and Newark, N. J., re- The majority plan to estab-
In that 'same year, the gov- spectively, synchronized their
ernment of Poland sent Lemkin statement with the announce- lish themselves permanently.
as its representative to an in- ment that one of the remaining The remainder intend to live
ternational conventio: of law- cases, that of Edwin A. Brody, and work in Israel for a pe-
riod of one or two years and
yers meeting in Madrid.
had been cleared after 'four then decide their future
"In Madrid, when I gave my years of fruStration.
course.
speech against genocide, every
one disagred with me. Very vio-
lently," h'e recalls. "They said
- no international law could be
written against such acts. But
I was given so much attention
that I finally knew my ideas
must amount to something."
As Hitler's outrages mounted
in intensity, Lemkin was invited
to speak before societies all over
Europe. On one trip to London
he met Ghandi. On September
1, 1939, however, he lost his
personal "campaign" headquar-
tershis home and his library
—when the Nazis bombed War-
saw. For eight months he hid
BRIG. GEN. Chaim Laskov (right), who led Israel's tank
in the forests and fin ally
forces in the Sinai campaign, has just arrivec1 in this country to
escaped to -the Baltic States
tour key cities until the end of May on behalf of the United with a bullet in his leg, from
Jewish Appeal's current effort to raise a $100:000,000 Emergency
which he still limps slightly.
Rescue Fund to save and resettle at least 100,000 refugees this
Lemkin went to Stockholm
year. He is shown on his departure from Israel receiving a mes-
and then New York. Recognized
sage to American Jewry from Prime Minister David Ben- in legal circles, he became a
Shown above is a picture of a model of the $12,500,000
Gurion. As commander of Israel's southern sector which in- lecturer at D u k e University.
Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, now being built
cludes the Negev — where most of the new immigrants are There he told his students that
at Ein Harem, five miles west of Jerusalem. Among the modern
finding haven — Gen. Laskov has developed a deep concern what Hitler was engaged in was
facilities of the center, to be completed in 1959, will be two
over immigrant needs and an authoritative knowledge of the not war but genocide. The U.S.
closed circuit color television units where students will be able
critical problems involved in absorbing the newcomers.
War Department sent some of-
to observe brain, heart and chest surgery,
•
Sinai Hero Brings Message from B-G
$12,500,000. Hadassah Medical Center
to. Include Closed Circuit Television
a