Recollections About Pope:
Tributes by World Jewry

By SHIN FEY SAMAKH
Special to
The Detroit Jewish News
NEW YORK—It is recalled,
as all faiths are joining in
mourning the passing of Pope
Pius XII, that—as Cardinal Pa-
celli—he had taken a strong
stand against the anti-Jewish
utterances of Father Coughlin,
of Royal Oak, Mich., and that
he was responsible for the in-
terruption in the Radio Priest's
attacks on Jewry in the midst
of the worst catastrophe that
had befallen the Jewish people
—during the Hitler regime.
The Rev. Charles Coughlin,
who began as a supporter of
President Roosevelt but who
turned against him later, en-
tered into a controversy with
Jewish leaders, including the
editor of The Detroit Jewish
News, over the authenticity of
the fictitious "Protocols of the
Elders of Zion"—the most out-
rageous f or g ery, emanating
from the Black Hundreds of
Russia, that was ever used as
a weapon by anti-Semites. Fath-
er Coughlin persisted in utiliz-
ing the forgeries in his Social
Justice Magazine and in re-
sorting to anti-Jewish references
in his widely-publicized radio
addresses.
Cardinal Pacelli was in this
country at the time. He had
visited President Roosevelt and
befriended him. Coughlin was
then at the height of his career
as a radio and pulpit preacher.
Cardinal Pacelli heard the sen-
timents of all Americans against
the Royal Oak preacher's parti-
san addresses. He was asked
about them. He did not commit
himself. He evaded the issue.
But it was not long before
Father Coughlin was silenced.
There is reason to believe that
Cardinal Pacelli had advised
his predecssor that the Cough-
lin speeches were unwise, and
then came their sudden cessa-
tion.
* * *
Another interesting incident
is recalled regarding the late
Pope Pius. In its criticism of
the present attitude of Robert
Murphy, who was President
Eisenhower's personal represen-
tative in the Middle East in the
most recent crisis generated by
the political ambitions of UAR

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President Nasser, the Tel Aviv
daily newspaper Mariv recalled
an early incident in Murphy's
life and it related the follow-
ing story:
"In 1921, Murphy was vice-
consul at Munich, Germany.
The State Department asked
him to report on a certain
Adolph Hitler and give an
evaluation of the man. After
hearing a few of Hitler's
speeches, Murphy came to the
conclusion that the man was
`too crazy to be dangerous.'
"Nevertheless, before sub-
mitting his report, Murphy ex-
changed views with the Papal
nuncio in Munich, a man
called Pacelli. The nuncio,
who is now known as Pope
Pius XII, agreed with Mur-
phy and both men submitted
a substantially identical re-
port—one to the State De-
partment and the other to the
Vatican, that Hitler was not
dangerous because he was
mentally unbalanced.
"When Murphy reached
Rome with the Allied armies
after World War II," so the
story is told, "he went to visit
the Pope. During the meeting,
Murphy mentioned the old
reports on Hitler both of
them had submitted. The Holy
Father replied with a smile,
`Don't bring up the sins of
youth. That happened a long
time before I became Pope."
Many Jewish organizations
and Jewish leaders joined in
paying tribute to the memory
of Pope Pius XII, who opposed
anti-Semitism both as Pope and
when he was Cardinal Pacelli
and who admonished all Chris-
tians to fight anti-Semitism be-
cause "spiritually we are all
Semites."
The Italian Jewish commu-
nity sent a message of condo-
lence to the Vatican.
The Israeli flag over the
Israel Embassy in Rome was
lowered to half mast.
Rome's Chief Rabbi Elio Toaff
issued a statement recalling the
Pope's activities against racism,
his staunch opposition to anti-
Semitsm, his contribution to a
Nazi ransom for the Rome Jew-
ish community, his call to Ro-
man Catholics to open their
doors to Jews to provide sanc-
tuary for them from their per-
secutors, and added: "More than
anyone else, the Jews have ex-
perienced great piety and im-
mense generosity from Pius XII
during the infamous years of
persecution and terror."
Chief Rabbi Israel Brodie of
Great Britain, Chief Rabbi Ja-
cob Kaplan of France and Grand
Rabbi Guillermo Schlesinger of
Argentina added their voices to
messages of condolences from
the Synagogue Council of Amer-
ica, DAIA of Argentina, Union
of American Hebrew Congrega-
tions and other national Ameri-
can and other Jewish organiza-
tions all over the world.
Several New York rabbis de-
voted their sermons last Sun-
day in tribute to Pius XII.

Italian Schools Guarantee
Jews Religious Rights

ROME, (JTA) — Aldo Moro,
Italy's Minister for Education,
underlined that the govern-
ment's ten-year school expan-
sion program guaranteed. Jews
their full religious rights.
Stressing that the religious be-
liefs of all students would be
respected in the public schools
and that non-Catholics would be
able to obtain exemption from
Catholic doctrinal courses, he
pointed to the fact that though
the Jews were a relatively small
minority in Italy, public school
examinations were postponed to
prevent clashes with Jewish re-
ligious holidays.

Neumann to Drop
ZOA Presidency

Dr. Emanuel Neumann,
president of the Zionist Or-
ganization of America, who
has just returned from a tour
of South American commu-
nities, has announced that he
will not be a candidate for
re-election at the ZOA's con-
vention, to be held in Miami
Beach at the end of the
month.
His decision was made
known in a letter to Abraham
Goodman, chairman of the
ZOA executive council. Dr.
Neumann stated that his re-
sponsibilities as chairman of
the World Conference of
General Zionists, J e wish
Agency Executive and head
of the Herzl Institute make
it impossible for him to con-
tinue to hold the reins of the
ZOA.

U.S. Could Halt
Israel-Arab War,
Admiral Claims

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WASHINGTON (JTA)—Vice-
Admiral Charles R. Brown,
Commander of the U.S. Medi-
terranean Fleet, told the Na-
tional Press Club that his force
could, in event of Arab-Israel
hostilities, either enter Israel
to protect her or enter Arab
states to protect them from
Israel.
The Admiral pointed out
that the fleet could take either
punitive or police action
against the aggressing side in
an Arab-Israel outbreak. He
spoke in response to a ques-
tion which sought to elicit the
lines of effective action the
Sixth Fleet could take to im-
plement the American commit-
ment to aid the victim of ag-
gression in event of Arab-
Israel hostilities.
Admiral Brown replied that
this was a difficult question to
answer in that he did not
know what Arab countries
might be involved. But if the
Arabs were attacking Israel,
and the Arabs were in the
wrong, Admiral Brown envi-
saged a situation in which U.S.
forces could enter Israel to
protect her. He added, how-
ever, that if Israel attacked
the Arabs, the United States
could similarly enter Arab ter-
ritory to repel Israeli aggres-
sion.
The Admiral indicated that
the whole question was so
broadly hypothetical and spec-
ulative that he has no concep-
tion of exactly how American
military force might be ap-
plied if an Arab-Israel war de-
veloped.
He minimized the impor-
tance of Russian submarines
provided the United Arab Re-
public, stating that he thought
these submarines were actually
operated by Egyptian crews
because they now "have
bumps in them and are get-
ting awful rusty."

Montreal Votes Aid
for Jewish Library

MONTREAL, (JTA) — The
executive committee of the City
of Montreal voted $3,000 for the
support of the Jewish Public
Library here, thus becoming the
first municipal government out-
side of Israel to extend fi-
nancial support for a Jewish
cultural institution.
The Jewish Public Library,
which was established more
than 50 years ago, has a total
annual circulation of 50,000 vol-
umes. M. Laufer is president
and David Rome director. It
was founded by Dr. Yehudah
Kaufman Ibn Shmuel, and the
late Reuben Brainin, noted Heb-
rew writer.

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5—THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS — Friday, October 17, 1958

Did Pius XII Stop Coughlin?

