Trends in
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Foolishness
Aggravates
Refugee
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Editorials
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A

JEWISH NEWS

Weekly Review

Israel's
'Integration'
Difficulty

of Jewish Events

Michigan's Only English-Jewish Newspaper—Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle

VOLUME XXXIV—No. 20 10Point?rdlio

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17100 W. 7 Mile Rd.—VE 8-9364—Detroit 35, January 16, 1959

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Chancellor Adenauer, Hamburg
Mayor Take Action To Halt
Rising German Anti-Semitism

Cuban Jewry Feels Secure
Under New Regime of Castro

By MILTON FRIEDMAN

(Copyright, 1959, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)

HAVANA—No anxiety is evident among Cuba's violent revo-
lutionaries. Thanks to the excellent organization and community
relations of the Havana Jewish "Patronato," anti-Semitism is not a
factor locally for the Jewish community of 12,000.
In the first few bloody days while the 26th of July Movement
consolidated its hold in Havana, shops owned by Jews were dam-
aged or looted. But so were many non-Jewish businesses.
Police and organized authority were absent from the streets
for several days. The mob wrecked gambling casinos and otherwise
vented its wrath against the Batista regime and the foreign, osten-
tatious influences it imported. But Havana Jewry is so totally
accepted there is no record of any rabble rouser injecting anti-
Semitism.
Many of Castro's army were bearded like Biblical prophets.
Indeed, a feW were Sephardic Jews from Santiago who proudly
wore the Mezzuzah.
The student body of the University of Havana includes several
hundred Jewish youths who share the 26th of July philosophy.
.Max Lesnick, whose father is Jewish, is a Castro youth leader.
The main institution which has built Judaism and brother-
hood in Cuba is the "Patronato"—the House of Jewish Community
of Cuba." Located in a beautiful building, it houses Jewish cultural,
social, and religious acti , ities including an Orthodox synagogue.
As many as 400 or 500 persons attend oneg shabbat services
on Friday evenings. Jewish tourists are welcomed in what general
Secretary Isaac Gurwitz describes as a sort of "missionary" activity
to provide Judaism to Jewish visitors to Havana.

Gurwitz has pointed - out that the Jews of Cuba know less
than non-Jewish Cuban intellectuals about the important role of
Jews in Cuban history. Jews arrived in Cuba with Columbus,
promoted sugar, the island's most important export, and were
among close friends and lieutenants of Cuban patriot Jose Marti.

The Jewish community in Cuba is such that the Cuban Senate
was among the first officially to rec -as,nize the Balfour Declaration
on Jewish rights in Palestine. Cuba has friendly commercial and
political relations with Israel and their continuation is anticipated
under the new government.

Official action was taken this week by Bonn officials to review recent events
in Germany in an effort to stem a rising tide of anti-Semitism.
West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer ordered examination of the pos-
sibility of bringing to the German Supreme Court a Hamburg Court's refusal to
take action in the distribution of anti-Semitic literature.
Hamburg's Lord Mayor Max Brauer called on Adenauer for aid in halting
the publication and distribution of a viciously anti-Jewish pamphlet written by
Friedrich Nieland, which blames "International Jewry" for the murder of 6,000-
000 Jews during World War II. The pamphlet denies that Hitler, the Nazis or
Germany had anything to do with the mass extermination.
The Hamburg Supreme Court refused action on the case, claiming that the
publication attacked only "International Jewry," and not the Jewish people as a
whole. The pamphlet also called for the removal of all Jews from government,
banking or any other position of responsibility. The author of the brochure is a
62-year-old lumber merchant and a newcomer to the political hate scene. Ger-
man newspapers have joined in the growing protests against the court's action.

Other anti-Semitic actions have broken out recently in West Germany. The
Education Ministry of Schleswig - Holstein has suspended a Dr. Stielau, a Lue-
beck schoolmaster who has been teaching that "The Diary of Anne Frank is a
forgery being perpetrated by the Jews.

In Frankfurt, state attorney Dr. Otto Schweinsberger has been committed
for trial for making repeated anti-Semitic remarks and for acting in his official
capacity to aid a man accused of the murder of 75 Jews during the war. Also,
the Frankfort World Jewish Congress Office has received abusive letters.
The London Times looked alarmedly at the situation. It expressed amaze-
ment that a mere 30,000 Jews, in a West German population of 53,000,000
should engender such an abundance of hate mongers.

"Apparently the mere memory of the Jewish race seems sufficient to goad
a number of Germans into making anti-Semitic statements," the Times said. The
daily listed a number of recent acts involving anti-Semitism, including the inci-
dent involving Ludwig Zind, the Offenburg High School teacher convicted of
shouting publicly that "not enough Jews were gassed," and the suspension Wed-
nesday of two restitution officials of Hesse.
The Times suggested that the renewal of German anti-Semitism might be
explained by the survival in public office of so many ex-Nazis. It pointed out that
while the West German Federal Government has made financial restitution to
Jewish victims of Nazism, the continuance of former Nazis in office "could keep
the poison flowing and suggest to others that anti-Semitism will be condoned.'

(Continued on Page 5)

Sholem Aleichent's Activities for Zionist Cause Recalled on
100th Anniversary of the Birth of the Famous Humorist

The 100th anniversary of the birth
of Sholem Aleichem, the greatest Yid-
dish writer of Jewish folk-literature,
will be celebrated this year in Moscow
and in New York, in Israel and in the
Diaspora.
The Jewish people acclaimed him
as their king of humor and laughter
and he has been recognized in world
literature and accepted as the Jewish
Mark Twain.
Sholem Aleichem was a Zionist, a
member of the Zionist Organization
and a Shekel-holder in Kiev where he
earned well-deserved recognition for
his valuable work for political Zion-
ism, the aim of which was the creation
of a Jewish State.
After the First Zionist Congress in
Basle (1897), Sholem Aleichem trans-
lated Max Nordau's historical speech
on "The General Situation of the Jews
Throughout the World" into Yiddish
and his pamphlet became one of the
first introductions to modern Zionism
to appear in Russia. Nordau's speech
in Basle was a passionate indictment
of the oppression to which Jews were
subjected by most of the nations of
the world. About Russia, he said:
"Whoever possibly can, emigrates, to
find in a foreign land the light and
air denied him in his own country.
One not young or courageous enough

An Exclusive Feature
By JOSEF FRAENKEL

London Correspondent of The Detroit Jewish News

Editor's Note: Soviet Russia continues
to give the impression that it dis-
approves of anti-Semitism and that it
encourages the works of Jewish writ-
ers. USSR officials have made much
of the fact that the. works of Sholem
Aleichem are accepted reputably in
Russia and that Sholem Aleichem
plays are .staged on occasions. But it
was revealed recently that the Sholem
Aleichem works are published only in
Russian and that the Yiddish originals
are banned together with other Yid-
dish and Hebrew works. RusSia re-
mains anti-Zionist. But as our London
correspondent, Josef Fraenkel, shows
in the accompanying article, Sholem
Aleichem was an affiliated Zionist and
an advocate of the movement for a
Jewish State.

Kiev, where ha
Aleichem lived
d
at that time, had
only one delegate
at Basle — Prof. Max Mandelstamm.

* s a

to do so, remains in his misery and
there degenerates spiritually, morally,
physically".

Russia is the same Russia today.
But now, emigration — even for the
"young and courageous" — is prohib-
ited.

SHOLEM ALEICHEM

He was an old Hovevei Zionist, now a
political Zionist and a true friend of
Theodor Herzl who immortalized him
in his novel. "Old-New Land". A few
weeks after the Congress, Prof. Man-
delstamm spoke at a Kiev meeting for
two hours on the impressions he had
carried away with him and called upon
the Jewish intelligentsia to join the
ranks of the new movement. The mis-
sion of Herzl's Zionism, he declared,
was to "relieve the distress of the
Jews and to restore Jewry to its for-
mer glory". The words of the veteran
fighter moved his audience, among
them Sholem Aleichem, deeply. Even
delegations from neighboring towns
arrived in Kiev, to hear, personally,
about the outcome at Basle, from
Prof. Mandelstamm. While Ahad Ha-
Am remained pessimistic and wanted
to know nothing of Herzl and his
Zionism, it was mainly Mandelstamm
who inspired the Russian Jews to
work for a Jewish State.
Sholem Aleichem, who belonged to
Mandelstamm's close circle of friends,
edited and translated the Russian
speech of the Professor into Yiddish
and the booklet of some 30 pages was
printed by the publishers "Achiasaf"
(Warsaw) and sold at 15 kopeks. They
were circulated with the aid of the
(Continued on Page 2.)