THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS — Friday, June 12, 1959—S
Anti-Semitic Canard Is Demolished in Debate Over
Strauss' Appointment as Secretary of Commerce
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
WASHINGTON—If anti-Sem-
itism were not such a tragic
phenomenon, the mere sugges-
tion that it played a role in
Admiral Lewis L. Strauss' nomi-
nation by President Eisenhower
as his Secretary of Commerce
would have been viewed as the
hugest jest ever uttered in the
nation's capi-
tal.
But anti-
Semitism, once
the weapon of
all bigots,
now _is a
badge o f'
shame, a n d
any one tinged
with it cringes.
There is the
belief h e r e,
therefore, that the over-zealous,
who are so anxious for a speedy
confirmation of the Strauss
nomination, uttered the cry of
"anti-Semitism" in the hope of
getting prompt action, and of
warding off a certain amount
of opposition.
How did it all begin? It
started with a statement by
Rep. Steven B. Derounian (R.,
N. Y.) that:
"It is being impressed upon
me constantly that opposition
to the confirmation of Lewis L.
Strauss, as Secretary of Com-
merce, is based on religious
prejudice. If this is true, it
revolts me as an American citi-
zen."
gest that it has been my ob-
servation there is a tendency
among too many Jews to
make a false assumption that,
if anyone opposes a Jew who
is a candidate for public of-
fice, it must be because of
some prejudice against Jews.
The point I want to stress is
that the individual candidate,
as far as I am concerned,
must be judged on the posi-
tion he takes on legislative
and governmental issues. I
don't care a hoot about his
religion or his race, but, if
he takes a stand on issues
that, in - my judgment, is not
in the public interest, I shall
oppose him, and my opposi-
tion will have nothing what-
soever to do with the matter
of his religion or his national
• origin."
-
Senator Morse was replying
to an inquiry by a Jewish editor,
and he might therefore be ex-
cused for working on the as-
sumption that there is a tend-
ency among "many Jews" to
imply the existence of anti-
Jewish prejudice when a Jewish
candidate is opposed. That, it
is pointed out in many quarters,
is walking off on a tangent. In
that case, Senator Morse might
be suspected of .prejudice in his
opposition to the re-election of
his colleague, Senator Richard
L. Neuberger, in his own state
of Oregon. But it is doubtful
whether such a charge will be
made by anyOne, not even Sen-
ator Neuberger.
If this were true, it would
revolt all Americans. Presi-
dent Eisenhower said at his
press conference that it would
be "tragic" if the anti-Semitic
issue were injected in the
discussion of Strauss' quali-
fications. Senators Jacob K.
Javits and Kenneth B. Keat-
ing, of New York, - both Re-
publicans, denounced the is-
sue, and Javits said he hoped
"no Senator will let this in-
trude into the debate."
But Senator Hugh Scott (R.,
Pa.) suggested that it paralleled
the Dreyfus Case of 1894 and
said the American people would
react "as solidly in criticism of
the attempt to deny the con-
firmation o f
t h e nomina-
tion of Mr.
Strauss as the
general pub-
lic reacted to
t h e Dreyfus
Case when
Emile Zola
wrote his
"J'Accuse'."
This, in turn,
brought forth Strauss
another protest that the sug-
gestion of such a parallelism
was uncalled for.
Adding to the ridiculousness
of the injection of the anti-
Semitic angle in the debate is
the fact that one of Jewry's
most distinguished friends, Sen-
ator Wayne Morse (D., Ore.) is
leading the fight against Strauss.
- There is unanimity in the
effort to denounce the injection
of such an issue, since at no
time was the religion of the
nominee ever mentioned. But
in the effort to demolish the
canard, even so staunch a lib-
eral as Senator Morse seems
to have gone off on a tangent.
In his personal statement in
the Senate, when the issue first
became a subject of public and
Senatorial discussion, Senator
Morse told of an exchange of
correspondence he had with
Bernard Postal, director of in-
formation of the Jewish Wel-
fare Board and editor of the
Jewish Digest. He quoted the
following from a letter he
wrote to Postal on May 19, 1959
—two weeks prior to the emerg-
ence of the anti-Semitic hoax:
"I want to respectfully sug-
Strauss for having been "largely fore the Senate has absolute-
responsible in raising the warn- ly no basis in fact, to my
knowledge, and does an ex-
ing flag against Physicist Rob-
ert Oppenheimer as a question- treme disservice to all con-
cerned. A man's religion is
able security risk."
In the Strauss debate, on' the his own business. The only
anti-Semitic issue, it was indi- true issue here is whether
cated that Jews are to be found Strauss is qualified to be Sec-
both among the defenders and retary of Commerce, and the
antagonists of Admiral Strauss. Senate, acting under its Con-
On the Oppenheimer question, stitutional mandate, must
there has been a lot of bitter- make this decision. It is very
ness. The able rabbi of Temple doubtful that, until this .mat-
Emanuel of Grand Rapids, ter was raised, many in the
Mich., saw fit to reprint in the Senate knew or cared what
issue of May 20 of his syna- his religion was."
gogue bulletin the following
Michigan's Junior U.S Sena-
statement - written- -by Rabbi tor, Philip A. Hart, told us that
Jacob J. Weinstein, of Chicago, he believes "the President has
several years ago:
an almost unlimited right to
select his cabinet," and that his
STRAUSS AND OPPENHEIMER-
A CONTRAST
appointments should not be op-
Two Jews faced each other across
the table at the hearings before the posed for political reasons. But
Atomic Energy Commission. They he added that in the case of
were Lewis Strauss, Chairman of
the Commission, and Robert J. Op- I Admiral Strauss "the issue
penheimer. Strauss is a self-identi- raised is a moral one. What is
fying Jew. He served for a time
as president of Congregation Eman- questioned is the man's reli-
uel Of New York and was active ability, his honesty in present-
in other organized Jewish activities.
Oppenheimer never joined a syna- ing facts, his ability to com-
gogue or in any other way identi- municate."
fied himself with the Jewish com-
Senator Hart questioned
munity. Still, I believe that in the
perspective of another hundred whether in Strauss the country
years, Oppenheimer will be seen as
much closer to the ethical core of will have a proper source of
the Jewish tradition than Strauss.
information. He said the issue -
Oppenheimer believeS that human-
ity is above the nation-state. Strauss calls for examination and that
believes that the nations must be he will study all the facts and
The basic truth was uttered
by Senator Morse when he
stated that he never ques-
tioned Strauss' patriotism,
but objects to him only on a
question of "competence."
It is doubtful whether the
question of Strauss' Jewishness
ever would have been injected
in the debate over his confir-
mation, and the issue certainly
is at an end now, after several
of the Senators had spoken in
condemnation of the very men-
tion of anti-Semitism in rela-
tion to the debate.
Yet, the Jewishness of Ad-
miral Strauss was mentioned
seven months before the anti-
Semitic angle was injected in
the discussions. On Oct. 27, 1958,
David Lawrence, in his syndi-
cated column, - referring to
Strauss' career and to his hav-
ing held the presidency of
Temple Emanu-El of New York
for 12 years, wrote that "Mr.
Strauss is the first member of
his religious faith who has been
chosen in more than a decade
to the cabinet of a President
of the United States." He con-
tinued:
"Though little is ever said about
it in public, the politicians usually
advise a President to try to have
the Catholic, Protestant and Jewish
faiths continually represented in
the cabinet and on the Supreme
Court. With the selection of Mr.
Strauss, all faiths now are to be
found in the cabinet as well as on
the Supreme Court.
"Coming as the incident does at
a time when the 'hate' organiza-
tions are trying to create antagon-
isms between different religious
groups in America, this appoint-
ment is evidence to the rest of the
world, especially the Soviet Union—
where the Communist government
encourages anti-Semitism — that
prejudices of a religious nature are
of no concern to either political
party in the United States today in
the selection of persons to high
office.
"The recent attempt to fasten
anti-Semitic or anti-Catholic labels
on Southern Democrats is d u e
largely to mistaken beliefs on the
part of those people in the North
who are ignorant of the true feel-
ings of the southern people. . . ."
sovereign in the loyalty of the
individual.
Oppenheimer believes that the
mind of man must be left com-
pletely to pursue the truth and to
follow wherever that truth leads.
Strauss believes that there must be
restraints, if not on the search for
truth, then on its accessibility.
Oppenheimer believes that atomic
energy should be publicly (that is
governmentally) developed and free-
ly applied to create energy for con-
structive peaceful purposes. Strauss
believes that private industry should
be given the initiative to develop
atomic energy and make it avail-
able only as private enterprise
thinks best. Consider his part in
the Dixon-Yates affair.
Oppenheimer believes that scien-
tific research is international, that
the basic findings of nuclear re-
search are universal, that the spe-
cific adaptations of fissionable
energy to military or civilian in-
struments are secondary,. and that
superiority in the details of adap-
tion is not a very crucial superior-
ity. Therefore he is firmly convinced
that any world war will be a
suicidal war and that it will take
colossal faith to believe that the
surviving remnant of such a war
can sustain a civilized existence.
Admiral Strauss seems inclined
to believe that American know-how
in mechanical adaptation is a cru-
cial superiority and should be an
important factor in the logistics
of the Cold War.
Strauss will undoubtedly be more
avidly claimed by the compilers of
the lists of prominent Jews and
will be grandly exhibited with all
his gold braid in the show cases of
Jewish Who's Who. But the spirit
of Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah and
Hosea will recognize Oppenheimer
as their true brother.
Here is proof of the existence
of a difference of opinion among
Jews on a specific issue involv-
ing Admiral Strauss—the Op-
penheimer incident.
On the question of the injec-
tion of the "Dreyfus Case" par-
allelism, the New York Times
stated editorially:
"Neither Mr. Strauss nor
our country has been served
by the suggestion two of his
Congressional supporters
made Tuesday that anti-Semit-
ism has played a role in Sen-
ate opposition to his appoint-
ment. It is incomprehensible
that Senator Scott should
have thought it either wise
or accurate to try to draw a
comparison between Mr.
Strauss' present difficulties
and those of Alfred Dreyfus
in France more than half a
century ago. There simply is
no comparison."
There is unanimity of opin-
Another question, however, ion that the issue over the re-
has entered into the debate ligious background of Admiral
over the Strauss appointment. Strauss does not exist, and that
The fact that he pressed the if it does, it hasn't a ghost of
case against Dr. Robert Oppen- a chance of exerting influence
heimer, the eminent physicist, upon the actions of the United
became part of the issue. In States Senate.
Thus, Michigan's Senator Pat
defense of Strauss, Senator
Scott inserted in the Congres- McNamara had this to say to
sional Record a number of edi- The Jewish News:
"The injection of the re-
torials in Strauss' report, and
one of them, from the Pitts- ligious issue into the Strauss
burgh Sun-Telegraph, acclaimed . nomination proceedings be-
will be guided by them in cast-
ing his ballot.
It is clear that the Michigan
Senators are not influenced by
religious issues.
Thus, a silly canard has been
completely destroyed in our na-
tion's capital. Many here believe
that we have entered a new era
—of making it very difficult for
bigotry to flourish too long on
American soil.
New Jewish Braille Bldg.
NEW YORK (JTA) — The
Jewish Braille Institute of
America dedicated its new
building here. Mrs. Caroline
K. Simon, Secretary of State
of New York, and Miss Re-
becca Randall, representing the
Jewish blind of England, were
the principal speakers.
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