Trends in Adult Education Foolishness Aggravates Refugee Problem Editorials Page 4 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 gitor, 17100 W. 7 Mile Rd.—VE 8-9364—Detroit 35, January 16, 1959 Tribute to a Great Paper and Its Staff Commentary Page 2 $5 Per Year; Single Copy 15c 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.)