JWB in the 49th State
!Rutgers U. President Succeeds Dr. Clinchy as Head of NCCJ
.
Alaska's 'Operation Judaism'
By GEORGE PERRY
Whatever Jewish life a tour-
ist to Alaska is likely to find
today—and there is still nary
a synagogue nor a civilian rabbi
—is due almost entirely to • the
efforts over nearly two decades
of the National Jewish Welfare
Board. Jewish life. has revolved
entirely about the religious pro-
grams of the Jewish chaplains
and the morale work of the
USO-JWB man. "Operation Ju-
daism," which JWB has been
fostering since 1942, began on
Rosh Hashanah in Alaska.
On Rosh Hashanah 5702, Jew-
ish servicemen assembled at the
first Jewish New Year services
held in Fairbanks at the Ma-
sonic Temple. Robert Bloom, a
local businessman and dedicated
Jew, who was to become a pillar
in JWB's morale work, led the
services. Not too long there-
after, the Jewish chaplains
moved in.
This year, G.I.s will greet the
New Year at services to be led
by Chaplain Joshua Wachtvo-
gel. He will have the aid of the
newly-arrived USO-JWB m a n,
Bob Kirsch.
"Operation Judaism" has re-
sulted in many little "islands
of Judaism" among the military
from Attu in the Aleutians to
Anchorage, at Kodiak, Port of
Whittier, Big Delta, and at the
numberless Dew Line, AAA and
radar bases that dot Alaska.
Chaplains carry supplies vast
distances, travel by plane, jeep
and even dog sled (if they can
hitch a ride). Many a bag of
JWB articles has found its way
to out-of-the-way places by para-
chute. The chaplains' efforts
come into .sharp focus at the
major Jewish holidays when
Alaska becomes a formidable
obstacle to negotiate.
High point of JWB's work at
Passover, for the men at the
hard-to-get-to places, comes with
the arrival of the "solo seder"
packages. Thousands 'of these
Passover f o o d boxes (packed
lovingly by women thousands of
miles away) are furnished by
the Women's Organizations' Di-
vision of JWB.
Chaplains have as their allies
the USO-JWB men who have
been at their side since the time
when Maurice Marshall (first
USO-JWB man in Alaska) lent
a hand at the first New Year
services conducted by Robert
Bloom. Workers sponsor Hanu-
kah parties, the Purim sings and
all the programs that mean such
a lot in desolate places where
homesickness is a stock item,
as well as seminars, films, lec-
tures and panel discussions.
Sometimes they have a few
extra-curricular chores as well,
as for instance assisting at a
briss or helping with the nup-
tials for a G.I. Jack Frankel,
who served in Alaska from 1954
to 1956, recalls that at one of
these he had to do some im-
provising when the chuppah got
lost. So he used four cue sticks
and his old talis—and the G.I.
couple got hitched, and had a
darn-good wedding meal at the
Frankels afterward. One time,
Frankel says, he was called on
to officiate at the funeral of a
Jewish sourdough. For this he
had to make a "crazy" flight to
isolated Kotzebue, 500 miles
from Fairbanks. "My yarmelke,"
he notes in a report, "contrasted
oddly with my colored muk-
luks (Eskimo boots) as I read
the services in the frozen still-
ness of an Alaskan winter."
Among the Jewish chaplains
who have served with honor in
Alaska are Harold Gordon, Ja-
cob Rudin, Zuschya Freedman,
Edwin Schoffman, Allen Rut-
chik, Jacob Rubinstein, David
Schudrich, Nathan Landman
and, currently, Joshua Wacht-
vogel. The chaplain is proud of
his Sunday school in Anchorage.
"Operation Judaism" has in-
deed spilled over into the tiny
Jewish communities of Anchor-
age, Sitka, Juneau and Fair-
banks, now very much alive and
conscious of things Jewish. The
Alaskan Jewish community
boasts of such leaders as Robert
B 1 o o rn (now in retirement),
Burt Goldberg, of Anchorage,
and Charles Goldstein, of Ju-
neau. A former mayor of An-
chorage, Zachary Loussac, was
once a dedicated JWB volunteer
leader.
Judaism in Alaska is a slen-
der but hardy reed. All signs
indicate that it will continue to
flourish. The arrival recently
of the new USO-JWB staffer in
Fairbanks is a guarantee that it
will get lots of help from JWB.
Use Tourists to Israel
for Soviet Propaganda
JERUSALEM (JTA)—A
lengthy anti-Israel article by one
of the 12 Russian Jews who
constituted the first organized
tourist group from the Soviet
Union, published in a Moscow
evening paper, led Israel news-
papers to charge that publica-
tion of such articles was the
main reason the Soviets had
permitted the g r o up to visit
Israel.
The article, reported at length
in most Israel dailies, described
the alleged suffering of new
immigrants and imaginary long
lines in front of the Soviet
Embassy of f o r m e r Russian
Jews trying to arrange for their
"return to the homeland."
The Israel dailies also assert-
litimmumgmemsomolm
1 ed that the fact that the So-
I Bring This Ad For These
viets considered it necessary to
CLEANING SPECIALS
send a group of Jews to Israel
and to publish such "reports"
I was
an indication that the de-
sire of Russian Jews to emigrate
MEN'S or LADIES'
to Israel continued undimin-
I ished.
I Previously, it was noted, So-
viet propaganda had been con-
I tent to publish and disseminate
imaginary letters from Israel
by new immigrants describing
their "desperate" situation and
claiming a desire to return to
(plain)
I
Soviet countries.
I
Beautifully Cleaned
SLACKS
2 ors. 99c
I; Men's Suits, Coats
• Ladies Dresses
and Pressed
gar. $1"
I JTA and JN Article in
Congressional Record
I WARD CLEANERS
I
11828 DEXTER
I KEEN CLEANERS
I
I
11342 DEXTER
PALM CLEANERS
12313 LINWOOD
(cor. Cortland)
as
111111 MI i
Is>
Mrs. Martha Griffiths, Mem-
ber of Congress from Detroit's
northwest area, last week in-
serted in the Congressional
Record the article on "Jews in
Alaska" by Philip Slomovitz,
from a recent issue of The
Jewish News.
The Alaska article was a
syndicated feature of the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency.
Dr. Lewis Webster Jones,
president of Rutgers University,
has been elected president of
the National Conference of
Christians and Jews, succeeding
Dr. Everett R. Clinchy who is
leaving the post he has occu-
pied since 1928. Dr. Jones sub-
mitted his resignation to the
board of governors of Rutgers
University on Aug. 15.
U. S. Steel Corp., and Lewis L.
Strauss, former chairman of
the Atomic Energy Commission;
together with Dr. Henry T.
Heald president of the Ford
Foundation, Samuel D. Leides-
dorf, board chairman, New York
University - Bellevue Medical
Center, Oren Root, New York
attorney and Oscar M. Lazarus,
president of Benrus Watch Co.
The announcement of Dr.
Jones' election was made by
West Coast industrialist, James
F. Twohy, national co-chairman
of the conference, head of a
committee set up last March to
find a successor to Dr. Clinchy
who resigned to devote full time
as administrative president of
the World Brotherhood organi-
zation.
Other members of the com-
mittee included Conference co-
chairmen Benjamin F. Fairless,
former board chairman of the
`Trucks For Jews' Nazi
Arrested for Role in
Death of 88 Children .
FRANKFORT (JTA)
A.
Wulf, Chief State Attorney of
Frankfort, announced the ar-
rest of Herman Krumey, a for-
mer high ranking leader of the
SS, on charges of complicity
in the mass slaughter of 88
Czechoslovak children.
Krumey had been arrested in
April 1957 on charges of being
involved in the 1944 murder of
450,000 Hungarian Jews, when
he was an aide to Adolph Eich-
mann, who was in charge of
Gestapo leader Heinrich Himm-
ler's extermination program.
Krumey was reported to have
been involved in negotiations
with the Jewish underground
on Eichmann's offer to deliver
one million Jews in exchange
for 10,000 trucks. A district
court ordered Krumey's re-
lease on the Hungarian charges.
The accusations which led to
the second arrest were made
by a Czech resistance group
which had learned of the initial
arrest and the charges. The
Czech group charged that Kru-
mey, as director of a resettle-
ment center in Lodz, turned
over to the SS 88 children from
Lidice after that Czech village
was destroyed by the SS in 1942
in reprisal for the assassination
of SS leader Heydrich.
Krumey, who was born in the
Sudentenland, was denazified
in 1948 and with the aid of spe-
cial refugee loans, he opened
a drugstore in Korbach. He
served for a time as deputy of
the German Bloc and Refugee
party in the district of Waldeck.
State Attorney Wulf said that
investigation of all charges.
against Krumey would be ac-
celerated.
and secretary. of the National.
Conference.
Dr. Jones will be installed in
office in early fall, according to
Twohy, when he will take up
his duties as administrative and
executive head of the NCCT
from offices in the Building for
Brotherhood, national headquar-
ters of the organization, at 43
W. 57th St., New York.
CONGREGATION ANSHE BEREZNITZ
13326 LINWOOD (cor. DAVISON)
WILL HOLD SERVICES
ON
ROSH HASHANAH and YOM KIPPUR
TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE SHULE
MON. - THURS. 6:00 P.M. - 10:00 P.M.
SAT. 8:00 P.M. - 10:00 P.M.; SUN. 11:00 A.M. - 6:00 P.M.
L
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Boruch Shehecheyonu
CONGREGATION SHOMREY EMUNAH
proudly announces
GROUND BREAKING
For The New Synagogue at
SCHAEFER at CLARITA (1 Blk. So. of 7 Mile)
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 at 2 P.M.
The Building Committee
•
HIGH HOLY DAY SERVICES at 19161 SCHAEFER,
I n the air-conditioned Schaver Audiorium
TICKETS ON SALE: All Day Sun.; Mon. - Thurs., 7 to 9 P.M.
For Information Call: DI 1-9061; UN 4-3392
In the place of heavenly music, there should
prayers be offered
Talmud
Young Israel Center of Oak-Woods
24061
Coolidge at 9 1/2 Mile Road
Oak Park's First Synagogue
Cordially invites the Community to
HIGH HOLIDAY SERVICES
Rabbi Yaakov I. Homnick Officiating
Prominent Cantors will chant the Liturgy
Reservations: Monday - Thursday 7:30-10:00 p.m.
Sunday
9:00- 1:00 p.m.
The Hebrew, Sunday and Nursery Schools
have a limited number of openings for the fall term.
UNITED HEBREW
SCHOOLS
Afternoon Hebrew School — Pre-School Nursery
Special Girls Classes
NEW TERM STARTS SEPTEMBER 3 ENROLL NOW
Location of Branches
Arias Shalom-7045 Curtis
Rose Sittig Cohen-13226 Lawton
Beth Aaron-18000 Wyoming
Esther Berman-18977 Schaefer
Beth Abraham-8110 W. '7 Mile
Oak Park-15110 W. Ten Mile
B'nai Moshe-11401 Dexter
Affiliated Schools
Sholem Aleichem-19350 Greenfield
Workmen's Circle-13226 Lawton
18225 W. 7 Mile Rd.
FACILITIES ARE LIMITED—REGISTER EARLY
Transportation Provided by UHS Fleet of 24 Bus ,-
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CALL DI. 1-3407