The Tragic
Last Days of
Israel's
First
President
Commentary
Page 2
Warsaw Ghetto
THE JEWISH NE
A Weekly Review
Observance
Early Passover
Planning . .
for Children's
Sake
of Jewish F
•
Michigan's Only English-Jewish Newspaper—Incorporating The Detrc,
VOLUME XXXVI I—No. 5
Printed in a
100% Union
Shop
ni
de
17100 W. 7 Mile Rd.—VE 8-9364—Detroit 35, April 1,
.-,
Editorials
Page 4
ar; Single Copy 1 5c
Eisenhower Reported
to Aid Israel 'If Attacitecir
1111k
Alabama Community Has
Normal Activities, Without
Panic, After BOMb Incident
GADSDEN, Ala., (JTA)—Temple Beth Israel here, at
which a fire bomb was :thrown last Friday night by a 16-year-
old• youth, is conducting its activities on a normal basis, with
its Sunday school enjoying full attendance. The attack was
condemned in sermons preached in a number of churches by
Christian ministers.
"There are 60 Jewish families_ in Gadsden," Rabbi Saul
Rubin, spiritual leader of the Reform Temple, told the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency. "There is absolutely no panic whatever
among our people, or,' for that matter, in the entire commun-
ity. There is only watchfulness against any possible recur-
rence of such a shameful manifestation.
• "We have had marvelous relationships with the entire
community," the rabbi declared, "and the general community,
as the Jewish community here, has been deeply shocked by this
occurrence. Public officials, press and the Christian Churches
here have assured us of their sympathy and of their determi-
nation that nothing like this shall ever happen here again."
The 16-year-old youth, who admitted throwing the fire
bomb at the synagogue and shooting at congregants, is under
arrest on two counts of assault and intent to murder. He told
the police that he "passionately hated Jews."
Two members of the congregation were injured, one crit-
ically, in the hit-and-run attack at the synagogue where 180
congregants were present. Alvin Lowi was shot in the hand,
and Alan Cohen was hit in the leg and chest. Cohen was
operated on and listed as in "fair condition." •
Police and FBI agents moved quickly after the attack, in
which it was at first reported that three youths were involved.
However, Hubert Jackson, Jr., alias Jerry Hunt, the confessed
attacker, said he had been alone.
Circuit Solicitor Charles Wright said that Jackson, - a high
school junior, would be charged with murder if Cohen died.
The youth was an immediate suspect because he had been
telling friends he planned just such an attack because Jewish
youths at the high school had been complaining about his
wearing- a Nazi armband and a red-painted Nazi helmet. •
The youth fled from the scene after he threw one of two
fire bombs at the synagogue. He told police that, when con-
gregants came running out, he started shooting in their gen-
eral direction. Walter Hunt, his step father, helped • police
and FBI agents find him. •
The youth told police he had been interested in the Nazi
movement since he was in the seventh grade. He said he had
had an argument with a Jewish boy. He also admitted painting
a swastika on a Gadsden store several months ago.
The Circuit solicitor •said that the youth told of approach-
ing the synagogue with two bombs. He lit one and threw it.
When it failed to go through the window, he dropped the
other one and started to flee to a cab he had parked nearby.
It was at this point that congregants began to pour out and
the youth kept shooting until his rifle jammed.
The cab was found abandoned later. In it were a Nazi
helmet, a semi-automatic 21-caliber rifle, a hunting knife, a can
of gasoline and a bundle of rags. The circuit solicitor said
Hunt "seems right proud of what he did." He also said there
were no immediate plans to give the youth a psychiatric ex-
amination and that he would be held in the county jail for the
time being.
Earlier, Gov. John Patterson of Alabama had issued a
statement declaring he was "shocked" by the "outrageous" act,
that he wanted it "clearly understood that this state will not
tolerate lawless acts and mob violence in any form."
The guest speaker at Temple Beth Israel here Friday
night was Rabbi Alfred Goodman, of Temple Israel, Columbus,
Ga., which was painted with swastikas last year. A teen-ager
was later found guilty of the vandalism.
Nazi's Acquittal Viewed as 'Sensation'
VIENNA. (JTA) — A Graz court acquitted the former
commander of the Volkssturm Nazi auxiliary troops in Aus-
tria, Oscar Reitter, who ordered the shooting of 11 Jewish
forced laborers in April, 1945.
Reitter claimed in his defense that he himself had been
ordered to liquidate the Jews because they had typhus. Two
former high Nazi functionaries had testified in Reitter's de-
fense. The Wiener . Zeitung, official government organ, called
the acquittal "a sensation."
• TEL AVIV, (JTA)—The left-wing labor newspaper Lamerhay said that during
the Eisenhower-Ben-Gurion meeting in Washington earlier • this month, President
Eisenhower reiterated his promise that the United States would come to the as-
sistance of Israel in the event the Jewish State was attacked.
Premier Ben-Gurion; the paper asserted; conveyed this information to the
Cabinet, The paper said the President had made American aid conditional on "no
provocation" from Israel's side.
While this promise is not new and has been given on different occasions by
the State Department in its declarations that the United States would oppose any
attempts to change the status in the Middle east by force, the paper said Ben-
Gurion seemed to have attached considerable importance to the fact that the
promise was made directly by Eisenhower personally to the Israeli Prime Minister.
(The New York Times reported from Cairo that the Soviet Union offered to
protect the United Arab Republic's borders in case of an attack, but that Presi-
dent Nasser of the UAR declined the offer on the ground that it ran contrary to
his policy of not joining alliances. "It was understood that the rejection of the
Soviet offer did not mean Nasser was unwilling to accept more arms from Mos-
cow," the Times report emphasized.)
International Tie-Ups of Nazi-Fascist
316*-events Exposed at Brussels Conclave
Direct JTA Teletype Wire to The Jewish News
BRUSSELS—Nazi-Fascist and anti-Semitic movements exist in many countries, and there
are international ties between such groups which represent "a real threat" to democratic
society, it was reported at the special European conference of representatives of Jewish
communities of 12 countries.
The conference was convened by the World Jewish Congress European Executive to
consider the January spate of anti-Semitic incidents which followed the Christmas Eve
daubing of the Cologne synagogue in West Germany.
The conference, in a review of anti-hate laws in various countries,. concluded that present
legislation is in many cases either inadequate or ineffectively implemented.. The delegates
decided to urge better legislative or administrative measures wherever necessary.
The delegates denounced all manifestations of prejudice, hatred or discrimination because
of religion, race or color, and welcomed the recent resolution of the United Nations Com-
mission on Human Rights, which condemned such manifestations as a violation of the prin-
ciples embodied in the UN Charter and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights "and in
particular of the human rights of the group against which they are directed."
The conference pledged full cooperation with the UN inquiry into the manifestations,
their causes and motives and with the UN Human Rights Commission request for suggestions
for dealing with such behavior. It called- on Jewish communities to help - the World- Jewish
Congress in a unified effort to collect information on the composition, activities and inter-rela-
tions of Nazi-Fascist and anti-Semitic groups and to study the extent of racial and religious
prejudice and discrimination.
. -The delegates stressed the role of education in combatting intolerance, called for thor-
ough. revision of education media to eliminate all _teachings which foster prejudice and urged
an "accurate, appraisal of the disastrous effects of religious intolerance throughout history.
Leaders from 30 States Ask U.S.
to Promote Arabi-Is•ael Peace
By Jewish News Special Correspondent
WASHINGTON—In a six-point statement on American policy ill the Middle East, issued
here Sunday by the American Israel Public Aff airs Committee, at the end of a two-day confer-
ence at the Willard Hotel, attended by 100 Jewish leaders from 30 states, the United States
Government was called upon to take the initiative to promote direct Arab-Israel peace nego-
tiations. The six proposals in the statement are:
1. Continued U.S. economic assistance to Israel and the Arab peoples to raise living stand-
ards.
2. Full adherance to the U.S. policy to preserve "the independence and integrity of the
nations of the Middle East."
3. Efforts to halt Soviet arias shipments to the Middle East and to prevent an arms im-
balance in that region.
4. No compromise with boycott, blockade and other warlike acts.
5. Resettlement of the Arab refugees in Arab countries, with compensation from Israel
for their abandoned property.
6. A U.S. initiative to promote direct negotiations between Israel and the Arab states.
. The committee that drafted the policy statement included Boris Joffe, one of the Detroit
participants in the conference.
Rabbis Philip S. Bernstein, of Rochester, N.Y., and Irving Miller, of Woodmere, L. I.,
presided at the sessions.
Declaring that "there is no alternative to direct face-to-face talks" between Israeli and
Arab leaders, the conference statement pointed out that a major obstacle to peace is the
continuing refusal of the Arab states "to recognize Israel and the reality of her existence,"
and listed these three factors as aggravating tensions: •
The expansionist ambitions of President Nasser, massive Soviet export to the Middle East
of "weapons of great striking power" which cannot be reconciled with "Soviet protestations
advocating disarmament," and the failure to curb Arab boycott and blockade.
The conference endorsed the Mutual Security Program, stressing economic assistance. It
called upon the U.S. and the UN to "intensify their efforts to open the Suez Canal to the
shipping of all nations without discrimination" and in this connection urged support for
an amendment to the Mutual Security Act., approved by the House Foreign Affairs Commit-
tee, which reaffirms "America's traditional support for freedom of the seas and its oppo-
sition to the extension of aid where such assistance is used by one country to boycott and
blockade another recipient of our aid."
Citing past affirmative declarations and policies of the U.S. Government, the conference
called for "vigorous implementation . . . and a positive initiative to reverse the dangerous drift
toward war" and to "secure development, political stability and peace in the Middle East."