THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Member American Association of English—Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National
Editorial Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co. 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit 35,
Mich., VE 8-9364. Subscription $5 a year. Foreign $6.
Entered as second class matter Aug. 6, 1942 at Post Office, Detroit, Mich. under act of Congress of March
3, 1879.
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
SIDNEY SHMARAK CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Advertising Manager
Circulation Manager
FRANK SIMONS
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the twenty-third day of Siv an 5720, the folowing Scriptural selections will
be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Shelah Lekha. Num. 13:1-15:41. Prophetical portion, Josh. 2:1-24.
Licht Benshen, Friday, June 17, 7:51 p.m.
VOL. XXXVII. No. 16
Page Four
June 17, 1960
War Veterans Force Show-Down on Nazism
For a number of weeks, the shock-
ingly un-American activities of a so-called
"American Nazi Party" in Washington
were not only ignored by p o l i c e and
government, but were often tolerated.
Loud-speakers were used by the
American Nazis to advocate the use of
Nazi gas chamber methods for the exter-
mination of American Jewry, and tourists
who protested against these outrages
were molested by police.
Tragically, reminiscent of the attitude
of a myopic group of German Jews, most
of whom no longer are here to tell the
tale and to express regret for their blind-
ness and their failure to recognize the
menace to their very lives under the
shadow of the Hitlerite swastika, two
Washington Jewish groups—one a branch
of one of the leading national Jewish
organizations — urged a policy of silence.
"Ignore Rockwell," they said, and they
bitterly attacked those who condemned
the injection of Nazism in our nation's
capital.
But the Nazis were not silent. They
screamed "death to the Jews," and they
laughed at anyone who objected to the
insane scenes in Washington.
It is to the credit of the Jewish War
Veterans that they refuse to stand by
and to permit the demented American
Nazis to pursue their propaganda of
terrorism. They went to President Eisen-
hower, brought the shocking situation to
his attention, and our Department of
Justice has been ordered to investigate
the outrages and to take action to pre-
vent the transfer of German criminal
tactics to our shores.
It is to the credit of our able Wash-
ington correspondent, Milton Friedman,
that he diligently pursued the investiga-
tion of the Rockwell-Nazi case and that
he kept it open for public view. He has
done more than any Other single person
to help expose the Rockwell-Nazi danger.
Now it is urgent that all who are con-
cerned that Nazism is not to find a foot-
ing in this country should join forces to
fight the menace. Fortunately, Jews are
not alone in jealously guarding against
intrusions of Hitlerism on the American
scene, and many Christians have joined
the battle against the "American storm-
troopers." The time has come to demand
that President Eisenhower's request for
action by the Department of Justice
should not remain a mere gesture. It must
be viewed as a serious obligation upon
one of the major departments in our
Government to put an end to advocacy
to murder and to restore order and de-
cency in our nation's capital.
Cha yefsky's 'The Tenth Man '
"The Tenth. Man," by Paddy Chayefsky, a Broadway success,
has just been published as a Random House Play by Random
House. The controversial play now can be read and studied for
an evaluation of its merits and traditional values.
It is an American play, the setting being in an Orthodox
synagogue in New York. The theme, however, is based on an
old superstition, and deals with the
exorcizing of an evil spirit from the
body of a young girl.
The role of the girl in the play,
who keeps shouting that she is the
girl whom her grandfather had defiled
in. Europe, is played by Risa Schwartz,
adopted daughter of the famous Yid-
dish actor, Maurice Schwartz, whose
death occurred May 10 while he was
on a visit in Israel. Together with the
rest of the cast, she is 'credited with
excellent portrayal of an old theme
that was seen years ago during the
i appearances of the Hebrew Habimah
players in "The Dybbuk."
In "The Tenth Man," we see the
struggle of a declining congregation to
secure a minyan. It is the difficulty
entire Jewish people. The chief source of
of gathering in the ten men that is
regret in the entire incident, however, is
part of the problem. But the major
Risa Schwartz •
that the free world should have failed to issue is that of the Dybbuk. What is a dybbuk? Alper, one of
take proper steps to punish the Nazi the men making up the minyan, explains:
"A dybbuk is a migratory soul that possesses the body of
criminals. It still is to be hoped that the
capture of Eichmann will bring about a another human being in order to return to heaven. It is a
back to the Essenes, I sup-
complete revision in the international Lurian doctrine," actually tracing
but popularized during - the 13th century by the Spanish
policy of leniency and that the guilty will pose,
Cabalists. I wrote several articles on the matter for Yiddish
be brought to justice as a warning to the periodicals
..." -
insane that Nazism will never be per-
It is a rather lame excuse for a dybbuk. In the old and
mitted to raise its ugly head anywhere original play, "The Dybbuk," no such attempt is made to ration-
on earth.
alize, and there was no need in the Habimah production to go
in search for a tenth man. Perhaps that's the major weakness
in the play, which is being hailed so widely and which is attract-
ing so much attention: the dubiousness of the transferral of an
In his statement to Label Katz, presi- old superstition, now practically non-existent, to an American
dent of Bnai Brith, Vice President Rich- setting.
Perhaps the criticism comes only from those who are so
ard M. Nixon wrote that "with regard to
fully informed about the dybbuk that they need not be confused
the matter of the Suez Canal, the United also with the decline of minyanim and the difficulty of the
States Government has unequivocably minyan-seekers.
affirmed its support of the principle that
There is another point at issue: in our day the dybbuk can
there should be freedom of transit only be portrayed as a relic from the past, not as something
through the canal for all nations, includ- possibly to be found in Williamsburg in our own time.
It is Alper again who says: "God manifests Himself in our
ing Israel."
But when a seafarers strike was pro- little synagogue, and we can't even find ten Jews to say hello." on
That's how the minyan and the synagogue are treated
claimed in New York in protest against Broadway.
Divorced from tradition and from interpretation of
the injury to American shipping and to fanaticism
of old, the comedy turns into a farce.
American seamen by the boycott that is
There is an issue over exorcism, which was practiced by
being carried on by the Arab states in an cabalists. Arthur, who falls in love with the girl in the play,
effort to destroy Israel, the State De- who knows little about synagogue or minyan but is dragged in
partment intervened and the false charge to make up a minyan and who thereupon meets the girl, says
was broadcast that the Zionists—not the to her: "This exorcism might be a good form of shock treatment
unionized American seamen, as was the that will make you more responsive to psychiatric therapy and
open the door to an eventual cure."
case—were responsible for the action.
Here you have it: it is a psychiatric approach. Arthur was
There was an assurance from the himself
on his way to his psychiatrist when he was diverted
State Department that efforts would be to the minyan.
That's how the dybbuk suddenly came to
made to end the boycott against Israel. Broadway.
Now the American seamen have made it
At any rate, the synagogue doesn't come off well in the play.
known that unless firm steps will be taken The sexton refers to the rabbi as "something of a press agent."
to prevent further harm to American
Before the curtain falls, as Arthur leaves, Alper says to
merchantmen, they may be compelled to him: "Come back and make a tenth for us sometime." There-
renew their picketing of Egyptian ships. upon, another member of the minyan, Schlissel, says: "An hour
The Vice President's declaration ago, he didn't believe in God; now he's exorcising dybbuks."
comes as an added assurance that our That prompts Alper to make the concluding speech:
still doesn't believe in God. He simply wants to love.
Government is opposed to the Arab boy- And "He
when you stop and think about it, gentlemen, is there any
cott and that "we must continue to press difference?"
for the effective implementation of the
All of this develops out of exorcising a dybbuk. In "The
principle of the freedom of the seas." It Tenth Man" it is a thoroughly modern farce. It is a diversion
is to be hoped that he will strive for the from "The Dybbuk" of Habimah's interpretation.
adherence to this principle long before
The Random House Play is worth reading, and the play
the November election. It will be the best worth seeing, in order to judge the difference between the ac-
way of proving that it is a sacred obliga- cepted minyan and the dybbuk of the ghetto that has disappeared
and the farce as portrayed in the Chayefsky comedy.
tion rather than a political weapon.
Nazi Criminals Strut Everywhere Defiantly
Except for the first few months that
followed World War II, during the
Nuremberg trials, Nazi criminals have
been treated with silk gloves. Many of
them have escaped punishment for their
crimes against humanity, and instead of
repudiating the fiends of the Hitler era
a premium seems to have been placed on
bestiality. Some of the former Nazi lead-
ers are strutting freely with arrogance
and are defying those who seek to remind
the world of the horrors that were per-
petrated only 15 years ago.
How else is the world to be kept aware
of the Nazi holocaust, other than by
means of punishing the criminals and
the perverts, other than by keeping alive
the memory of the German bestialities
—in order to prevent the recurrence of
the Hitler crimes?
Yet, the beasts of the Nazi era con-
tinue to strut defiantly. Some of them
found refuge in foreign countries, and
some governments provided protection
for escapees from justice.
Let us hope that this is not case with
Argentina. It has been charged that the
Argentinans had provided refuge for a
number of Nazi criminals. Adolf Eich-
maim was there, and he apparently was
provided security, after 15 years of im-
munity from punishment for his bestial-
ities. He escaped twice after arrests by
the American forces. Is he destined to
escape again, now that Argentina has
asked for his extradition?
There would have been some justifi-
cation for protests against "kidnappings"
on an international scale, had there been
the minutest indication of the determined
will of the democratic nations to punish
the Nazi criminals. But no one seemed to
care, for 15 years, whether or not the
arch-criminal Eichmann was at large.
An unfortunate and a very tense sit-
uation has been created by the failure
of Argentina to cooperate in the punish-
ment of the fiend who was harbored by
the Latin American nation. It seems cer-
tain that Israel will not give up the right
to be judge over the German who mas-
ter-minded the murder of a third of the
Exorcising the Dybbuk
Nixon and Israel
•