Friday, November 15, 1957—THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS-2

38 —

Purely Commentary•

By Philip Slomovitz

"ghetto" has been turned into a Rest Home
for Aged and a Children's Nursery.
Dr. A. Esquinazi, of the Gino Cenedese
glass blowing firm, in Venice boasted that
there was no anti-Semitism in Italy. He, him-
self, knew only one Hebrew word: Shalom.
But he is interested in Israel and hopes to
go there some day, when his brother manages
to get out of Egypt and settle in the Jewish
State.
Dr. Esquinazi believes that the two best
Jewish communities in Italy today are in
Leghorn (Livorno) and Florence (Firenze).
There are synagogues also in Milan and
Naples. But there are no signs of Jewish life
in the Southern portions of Italy, including
Sicily.,

Proof of the Power of Survival

NICE, France -- A brief stay in France
also is marked by unusual developments. Two
of our guides turned out to be Jews. One is
from Israel: he is studying here and earning
some extra money by aiding tourists. An-
other, a product of intermarriage relates how
she and her family escaped death at the
hands of the Nazis. Her Jewish father has
since become very religious.
There is a synagogue in Nice, a kosher-
"l'mehadrin min ha-mehadrin" — restaurant.
There are 5,000 Jews here, another proof of
the power of survival, in spite of the Nazi
holocaust.
Thus, Jewish life goes on. There is ground
for skepticism over the future, but as long as
there is the synagogue, so long as Israel pro-
vides pride for Jews everywhere, the inde-
structibility of Israel remains the most mirac-
ulous fact in all history.

London Jewry: Personalities and Causes

LONDON—"The .Mother of Parliaments"
becomes vastly more understandable when
you are guided through the House of Lords
and the House of Commons by so distin-
guished a personality and so well-informed a
Jewish leader as the very able president of
the Board of Deputies of British Jewry and
the Labor Member of Parliament, Barnett
Janner.
What a remarkable introduction to the
great parliamentary setting to be taken first
to the "Moses Room" — the committee room
of the House of Lords — where the magnifi-
cent Old Testament paintings adorn an im-
portant conference setting! There are scores
of impressive Biblical portraits and paintings
in the Parliament building, attesting to the
influence of the Old Testament upon Great
Britain.
It was the day on which "Her Majesty's
Most Gracious Speech to Both Houses of Par-

The Jewries of Italy and Great Brit-
• ain . . .Israel's indestructibility in
Evidence Everywhere . .. Addenda
to Reports on Israel

liament" was being discussed in the Lords
and the Commons. We had seen the Queen,
together with 100 other Detroiters who had
come here as part of the Sealy Mattress Co.
European tour, as she traveled from Bucking-
ham Palace to the House of Commons.
In the course of the Debate on the Ad-
dress, on that afternoon (Nov. 5), Sir Leslie
Plummer, a Labor MP, touched upon the
Israel issue. At one point, another MP,
Cyril Osborne, commented that Sir Leslie
was uttering "propaganda," and the friend
of Israel replied: "Of course I am a propa-
gandist. After all, what has , happened since
1933 to the Jews of this world, I would be
in contempt of myself if I were not a
propagandist of any movement which tries
to resuscitate and revive the traditional
role, the decencies, which Jews once en-
joyed and which were taken away from
them."
Sir Leslie continued: "We must guarantee
the integrity of every country in the Middle
East, and we must guarantee the sovereignty
and frontiers of Israel. The' task calls for
statesmanship and leadership."
The punch-line in Sir Leslie Plummer's
speech came towards the end when he de-
clared: "The United States is now insane
about supplying weapons to anybody who
pleases Mr. Dulles."
Mr. Janner was so pleased with the
Plummer speech that he made a special point
to acknowledge him as one of Israel's best
friends in Commons.
Thanks to Barnett Janner, we met and
had a brief chat with Lord Henderson — one
of the eminent Henderson family that was
deeply involved in Palestinian affairs through
their official associations in various British
government administrations. Lord Henderson
commented to us, in a spirit of regret and
astonishment over what is happening in the
world: "I am going to India, and I must get
a new passport because my old one has a
record of a visit I had made to Israel."
It was tea time—and the House of Com-
mons was a delightful setting for it, with Mr.
Janner as the wonderful host! He has well
earned the Key to the City of Detroit that was
presented to him, only last August, in our
Mayor's office, by Mayor Louis Miriani.
This was only part of the privileges we
enjoyed while in London. We had such a
wonderful companion on our visits to the
Jewish official places, in the person of our
very able literary contributor, Josef Fraen-
kel. We visited the Zionist headquarters,
the famous Conference Room with the por-
traits of a score of Zionist leaders (includ-
ing many Americans — Brandeis, Wise,

