Purely Commentary Walter E. Klein Appointed Executive Director of Jewish Community Council By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ Senate's Middle East Report: Biased or Incompetent? A "Staff Study" on the Middle East, prepared for the use of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the United States Senate, contains so many omissions, and fails so obviously to present the correct picture of Israel's position, that one is compelled to ask whether it was deliberately biased, or whether it is a result of incompetent handling of a serious aspect in the world situation today. While this study does indicate that there is a lack of unity in Arab ranks, it fails to expose the diabolical schemes of the Arab rulers in their efforts to destroy Israel. At the same time, there are distortions in the presentation of Jewish historical facts, and the handling of the refugee problem is shallow. This study's entire handling of "The Palestine Problem" leaves even the least informed person in a state of amazement. One would imagine upon reading it that the Holy Land, whose great spiritual importance and position of sanctity are due to the activities of the Jews throughout the centuries, was the geo- graphical area in which Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Crusaders, Mongols and Turks were the rulers. The impression given is that "Palestine remained within the political and cultural hegemony of succeeding Hellenistic mon- archies," followed by the. Roman and Moslem conquests and by the invasion of the Crusaders. Nothing is said to indicate that Moslem rule in the Holy Land lasted approximately 400 years and that Jews influenced the land during two thousand years of domination. The manner in which Arab-Jewish relations are treated in this study is hardly to be interpreted as contributing towards a solution to the problem. If anything, it may further inflame the existing embers of hate and may increase tensions. If it was deliberate, it was unrealistic and may prove harmful in future approaches to a solution to the Middle East problem; if it was a result of incompetence, it calls for re-evaluation of our thinking in planning our foreign policies. * In the Name of Free Speech * 'To Bigotry No Sanction' Walter E. Klein, former asso- ciate director of the Jewish Community Council of Detroit, was named executive director by the executive committee of the Council. Announcement of the appoint- ment was made by Stanley J. Winkelman, Council president. Klein succeeds the late Boris M. Joffe. A native of Cleveland, Klein versify and of Western Reserve University, where he completed graduate studies. Prior to World War II, he was a district super- visor with the Public Welfare Department in Cleveland, and was subsequently with the pro- bation department of the Juve- nile Court of Cuyahoga County. Morris Garvett Named Chairman of Jewish Center's Ninth Book Fair Morris Garvett, prominent at- torney, past president of the Jewish Center, will be chairman of the Center's ninth annual Jewish Book Fair.. Garvett was chairman of the seventh and eighth annual Book Fairs. The annual Jewish Book Fair will be held Saturday through Monday, Nov. 19, 20 and 21, fea- turing special exhibits and sale of Jewish books. It will be ad- dressed by noted authors at opening night, family day, Yid- dish-Hebrew night, ladies' day and men's night programs. In conjunction with the Book Fair, the Center will again spon- sor poster and essay contests. There will be a junior poster contest for children up to 12, and Teme Skully literary and poster contests in intermediate (ages 12-14) and advanced (15- 18) divisions. Prizes of books or money will be awarded for en- A Free Press writer, in an article on "Talk of Freedom," on Independence Day, used a quotation from a speech by Adolf Hitler, also on freedom, and his comment on it was that "Hitler twisted words to fit his own objectives." In the name of free speech, especially in a democracy like ours, bigots are able to twist as Hitler twisted, and,, additionally, they possess the good fortune of acquiring protection of the law for evil purposes. That is exactly what has been happening in our nation's capital. Under the protecting cloak of freedom of speech, a bigot had been propagating the extermination of an entire people. George Lincoln Rockwell, "fuehrer" of the American , Nazi Party, was inciting to riot. He was propagating the most inhuman ideas, singling out Jews and Negroes for his attacks_ But he had the protection of the police, and the American Civil Liberties his Nazi-patterned Union came to his rescue whenever he or Stormtroopers faced difficulties. Such have been the fortunes of a bigot who defied the basic principles of decency and who defiled a major American ideal which was defined as follows by George Washington in an address to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, R. I., 170 years ago: "It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support." The Rockwells do not "demean themselves as good citizens." They do not understand the meaning of the guiding American principle of "to bigotry no sanction." Regrettably, the inter- preters of the law lacked the vision to foresee what can happen in a free land like ours when wild and demented propagandists are permitted to run loose amidst civilized beings and to propagate the extinction of their _fellow men. The result was inevitable. The principle of free speech suffered because the interpreters of this sacred idea knew not how to make it prac- ticably workable. The result was an attempt to beat up Rock- well in a New York court building, with the result that he was denied the right to speak on Independence Day in that city; and the subsequent dissolution of his meeting last Sunday when he again attacked Jews and Negroes, when the Washington audience "refused to tolerate incitement to hatred, when the police finally arrested Americans who shamefully dressed and acted like Stormtroopers and then refused to grant the bigot the right to sanction bigotry at another rally on the Fourth of July. These developments could have been avoided without resort to abuses of the right to free speech. If a Communist agitator were to deliver a public address, anywhere, not necessarily with- in the shadows of the White House and the Capitol, he un- doubtedly would have been called to account. If any other deranged person were to propagate destruction of property or the sending of fellow citizens to gas chambers, as was the anti- Jewish pattern under Hitler, we have no doubt that he would promptly be called to task and would be given a sanity test. But Rockwell was on the loose! Rockwell propagated un- molested, while those who criticized and challenged him were under police surveillance, and under threat of arrest. Is it pos- sible that the events that led up to the restrictions upon Rockwell leave District of Columbus authorities unblushing? Last week, Washington authorities finally ruled that a 22-year-old Jew who was arrested for "loud talking" during Rockwell's fulminations had a right to heckle the bigot, that Larry Selinker, against whom charges therefore were dropped, "was just exercising his Constitutional right to free speech." But . until that ruling was issued, Rockwell and his followers alone had that "Con- stitutional right to free speech." This is the most disgraceful experience in the history of the capitol of our nation—that a man who propagated gas chambers for Jews should have had the right to advocate murder while those who disapproved of his actions should have been subjected to arrests! Yet, spokesmen for at least two Jewish groups in Washington were so blind to reality that Israeli, Jordanian Firemen Cooperate in Fighting- Blazes JERUSALEM, (JTA) — For the second time, Israeli and Jordanian firemen co- operated in extinguishing blazes in the Jerusalem no- man's land. Fire engines from both sides roared into the neutral area, and Israeli and Jor- danian fire hoses poured on water to keep the fire from spreading. In the first fire, June 23, the Jordanians first attacked the fire and kept it from spreading into Israeli terri- tory. July 3, it was the other way around. He served as an enlisted man is a graduate of Ohio State Uni-land officer in the U.S. Navy, and upon discharge, in 1945, he be- came associated with the Com- munity Council here. Among other communal activities, he has been an officer of the De- troit Chapter of the American Association for the United Na- tions, is a past president of the Jewish War Veterans Memorial Home Association and former chief of staff of the Department of Michigan of the Jewish War Veterans. He was a member of the Citizens Advisory Committee of the Board of Education and presently serves on the board's committee on equal educational opportunities. He and Mrs. Klein are the parents of five daughters. _ * * Council Committee Chairmen Appointed Stanley J. Winkelman, presi- dent of the Jewish Community Council, announces the appoint- ment of the following chairmen of the Council's standing corn- mittes for 1960 -61: Dr. Samuel Kroh.. and Max Biber, internal relations; Louis Rosenzweig, community r e 1 a- tions; I. Pokempner, and Sidney M. Shevitz, culture commission; Walter Berlow and David I. Rosin, arbitration and concilia- tion; Harold Berry and Lawr- MORRIS GARVETT ence Gubow, budget; Sol legal tries relating to Jewish Books Schwartz, constitution and Morris Lieberman committee; and Book Fair. The contest runs from Sept. 6 to Oct. 21. and Charles Goldstein, person- Information is available from nel; Dr. Samuel Krohn, evalua- the Center's Book Fair office, t i o n; Dr. Shmarya Kleinman, changing neighborhoods; S o 1 DI 1-4200. Kurtzman, mass media. The following Book Fair Winkelman a 1 s o announced chairmen have been selected: the formation of a new commit- Opening night, Garvett; family tee under the chairmanship of day, Bernard Weiss; Yiddish- Mrs. Philip Bernstein to plan Hebrew night, Bernard . Isaacs programs. and Louis LaMed; ladies' day, the delegate assembly y, composed of Mrs. Henry Onrich and Mrs. The a s s e m b l of. the 340 Jew- Samuel Aaron; volunteers corn- representatives member organizations of the ish mittee, Mrs. Arthur Rice and Council, meets four or five times Mrs. Jack Rom; publicity and during a year. It is the policy- promotional materials commit- making body in the `"Cos moil organizational structure. tee, Allen Luckoff. On the Record By NATHAN ZIPRIN Editor, Seven Arts Feature Syndicate Footnote to History Recent assertions that the late Dr. Stephen . S. Wise was the founder of the American Jewish Congress have brought a num- about they continually advocated a ber of inquiries from readers who seem concerned the facts. hush-hush policy, failing to From an examination of available records and from conversa- realize that audiences w h o were subjected to the insane tions with people who stood close to the American Jewish Con- gress from its very inception, it would appear incorrect to de- Rockwell addresses would not scribe Dr. Wise as the founder of the Congress unless we use the submit to long to abuses, term elastically instead of historically. that sooner or later there had Dr. Wise himself never claimed to be the founder of the to be a showdown, that it is this impossible to view a menace organization. A man who was close to him in those days told gave to free s p e e c h ostrich-like writer that there were many occasions when Dr. Wise credit as founders to several of the pioneers of the movement, while trying to be holier-than- divinit y in defending free which began in 1914 at the outbreak of World War I. The impetus to the formation of the Congress was given in August of 1914 by speech for those who would adoption of a resolution by the Zionist Emergency Conference. deny it to its defenders. The The resolution was presented under the joint signature of Dr. N. Jewish spokesmen who were Syrkin, Baruch Zuckerman and B. G. Richards. so unrealistic, who were more It was almost two years later that Dr. Wise endorsed the concerned with efforts to si- movement. Subsequently he was joined by Judge Brandeis and 1 e n c e our correspondent in others. At that time men like Louis Lipsky, Ber Borochov, Dr. Washington than they were Syrkin, Zuckerman and others had already been working ardently with putting an end to big- for otry in our nation's capital, to create sentiment for the idea. Helpful in creating climate have earned censure and have the movement were the two obscure young men, sojourners in the land, David Ben Gurion and Yitzhak Ben Zvi. However, when the lost much of the confidence that had previously been Preliminary Conference was held in 1916, it was Dr. Wise who delivered what was considered the finest theoretical postulation placed in them. of the movement and its objectives. At that time Congress com- Now we have reached a show- mittees had already been formed in different parts of the country down. Let the chips fall where up they may: It is not the Nazi and it was the delegates from these committees that made party and its leader, Rockwell, the Preliminary Conference. The first chairman of the Congress Organization Committee alone, who must be repudiated. was Nathan Straus, Sr., and the first president of the Congress It is necessary that the authori- itself was Judge Julian W. Mack, who headed the Committee of ties who permitted the shame- in Paris in 1919. When Congress was re- ful situation to continue in Jewish Delegations on a permanent basis, Straus became its first president. organized Washington should be rebuked. who, Federal as well as District of After a number of years he was succeeded by Dr. Wise except for a brief interlude in the troublesome '20s, when the Columbia officials should be late Bernard S. Deutch was president, held the post until the called to task for their failure - . to act against incitement to close of his distinguished career. question whether This writer refuses to get excited over the murder, and Jewish spokesmen Dr. Wise was or was not among the founders of Congress. Only who failed to judge the situa- in a technical historic sense is it inaccurate to place him in that tion realistically, who were as niche. In fact he was one of the pillars without whose support the blind as mice, should be se - fabric would not have emerged. verely reprimanded.