THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS — Friday, October 12, 19 62
Purely Commentary
Our Press
—
Overwhelmingly Free and Unbiased
Newspaper Week, now being observed nationally, has an
interesting lesson for all Americans.
It is the free press of our land that has made this land so
secure democratically.
Generalizations are often misleading, and it may be too
optimistic to say that all our newspapers are devoid of bias.
For instance, in the matter involving segregation there still
are a few diehards in the South who refuse to see the handwriting
on the wall and who cling to an old prejudice against Negroes.
But even in the South the old sentiments either are dead
or are dying.
Or take the problem of anti-Semitism: our press is surely
free from that virus which has infected so many European and
-Near Eastern countries.
The Jew's chief security in this country lies in the fact that
-the government is not prejudiced and that there is no anti-
Semitism in the press. Editors often err, as many of them did
in the recent Soblen case, as some blundered during the Sinai
Campaign. But in such instances they are mostly misled and were
motivated in their negative approaches to the issues by lack of
proper information. But except for some biased religious magazines
they did not malign Israel out of hatred.
Newspaper Week emphasizes the great benefits that accrue
to all Americans from the newspapers which are such vital
instruments in making men free through freedom of expression
and assembly that are so strongly defended by our press. As
long as these determined principles continue to dominate the
press of this country, our liberties are secure.
*
The Hutzpah of Unaffiliated
*
Press Week . . . Oasis
for Hebrew . . . Hutzpah
of 'Renegade' Group
siomovitz
By Philip
Hed Ha-Kvutzah that has just come off the press, Persky pointed
out that this periodical is the only one in Hebrew appearing in
this country outside of New York.
This is a great tribute to our community, and especially to
the former superintendent of the United Hebrew Schools, Ber-
nard Isaacs. With a tenacity that matches the zeal of Persky
himself, Mr. Isaacs and his associates have devoted themselves
to the cause of advancing Hebrew as a living language. Long
before the rebirth of Israel, Kvutzah Ivrith met regularly for
weekly discussions conducted... in the Hebrew language. The
group continues to function.
At one time, Kvutzah Ivrith had youth groups that met
under its auspices, also using Hebrew as the medium of expres-
sion. If the enrollment of youth in such groups were to continue,
Kvutzah Ivrith's role would be greatly enhanced. There are
many young people who are being graduated from the United
Hebrew Schools, the schools' high school and Midrasha, from whose
ranks Hebraists could be drawn.
Because Detroit, thanks to the efforts of a few zealots, could
become the oasis in the Hebrew-speaking world, the participa-
tion of youth in the Hebrew movement is not outside the realm
of possibility. Meanwhile we can take pride that we are the
Hebrew oasis in this country.
N.Y. Synagogue
Suffers $80,000
Fire Damages
(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish News) •
111.0•111 ■ 1.11111.1. ■•■ 1411•• ■
Jewish Leaders
in Ukraine City
Are Arrested
LONDON, (JTA) — A num-
ber of Jewish community lead-
ers in the city of Lvov, in the
Ukraine, were arrested and the
city's synagogue council was dis-
solved, according to a reliable
report reaching here from the
Soviet Union.
The measures were taken by
the local Soviet authorities on
the claim that the arrested
Jews were involved in illegal
currency dealings.
No details of the fate of the
arrested were received. In ear-
lier cases, some of the arrested
were put on trial and given
various sentences, including the
death penalty.
411•16•14•1•111.1 ■ 14.1111. 0.1.0 •MMIKIAM1141 ∎11•.∎ 41•11•11.••.14111111.3. ■ (141•11111, 01111M
Boris Smolar's
`Between You
and Me'
NEW YORK — Brooklyn po-
lice officials insisted Wednes-
(Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.
Copyright, 1962)
day that "all reasonable atten-
tion" had been given to the Question Mark
Is Jewish education progressing in the United States? . . .
Yeshiva Machzikel of Beletz,
The new Jewish school year has started with about 600,000 chil-
the target of repeated vandal- dren enrolled in some 3 ; 500 Jewish schools of all types . . . This
isms which culminated in a fire is 260,000 pupils more than ten years ago and is being looked upon
Monday night causing destruc- as substantial progress . . . However, this progress loses a good
deal of its importance when the fact is considered that there are
tion estimated at $80,000.
today about 300,000 more Jewish children of school age than 10
Rabbi Maximilian Gruenberg, years ago . . . Ten years ago there were 746,000 Jewish children
dean of the Orthodox Jewish in the 5 to 14 age group, while today their number reaches
school for boys, anticipating a 1,040,000 . . . With 600,000 of them enrolled in Jewish schools,
Yom Kippur attack, wrote to there still remain 440,000 who receive no Jewish education . . . This
New York City Police Commis- is an impressive number . . . Ten years ago about 400,000 Jewish
sioner Michael Murphy and
attended no Jewish school; today there are 440,000 Jewish
1 Mayor Robert F. Wagner on children
children in the same position . . . Deplorable also is the fact that
Sept. 25. The Rabbi asked for the New York area, which has about 40 percent of the entire
special police watch on the Jewish population in the United States, has only 154,000 children
building which had been re- enrolled in Jewish schools—only 25 percent of the total pupils
peatedly damaged since July.
enrolled in the Jewish schools throughout the country . . . One
Commissioner M u r ph y re- cannot ignore also the fact that of an estimated 300,000 Jewish
plied that the matter had been children of high school age, only 40,000 receive any form of
referred for "appropriate atten- secondary Jewish education—most of them in the Orthodox all-day
tion" and Mayor Wagner per- schools . . . It is true that in quality Jewish education has •gone
' sonally signed a reply assuring a long way during the last ten years, with methods of teaching
greatly improved, but I wonder whether those who talk about
the rabbi "of my interest." .
Police insisted the building the progress being made in the field of Jewish education have
did get special protection on taken into consideration the fact that the actual number of Jewish
Monday night when the fire, children of school age who are still outside of any Jewish school
described as of suspicious ori- is no smaller now than it was ten years ago.
gin, broke out on the second Lifting The Curtain
The Yiddish theater in this country has gone a long way since
floor. Extensive damage oc-
the
early
1900s when it started its existence . . . It is no longer
curred in the dean's office, two
classrooms and to educational what it used to be in those years, but its tradition still exists and
paraphernalia. The building is has been; in fact, transplanted to Broadway . . . You see today
a three-story former public plays on Jewish themes performed on Broadway in English which
school purchased from the city resemble very strongly the plays performed a generation or so
for $29,000 and extensively ago on Second Avenue in Yiddish . . . Moreover, some of the actors
of the Yiddish stage—like Molly Picon, Menashe Skulnik and others
renovated.
—are today starring in these Broadway performances . . . The
nostalgic sentiment and the atmosphere of the Yiddish theater is
4 Honorary Degrees all there in these plays . . . And the American-born Jewish audi-
ences are enjoying them in English no less than their immigrant
Given by HUC-JIR parents enjoyed similar performances in Yiddish . . The link
At exercises held Oct. 10, exists, however, not the background . . . Few of the patrons of the
The accompanying photo—showing Mrs. Helen Sobell, the
English-Jewish stage on Broadway know today of the Yiddish
convicted spy's wife, his son, Mart, his mother. Mrs. Rose Sobell, marking the opening of the 41st antecedents
of "Milk and Honey" and other similar Broadway
and his daughter, Sydney—should be seen as Exhibit Number academic year of the New York plays . . . Louis
Lipsky, the veteran Zionist leader who is known
One of hutzpah—of sheer arrogance on the part of a group of School of Hebrew Union College- also for his great love for the theater, has provided this background
people who were born Jews, who dare use their Jewish name
in a book, "Tales of the Yiddish Rialto" published by Thomas
in an appeal for a convict. The case itself loses its significance. Jewish Institute of Religion, 40 Yosseloff
. . Lipsky, who for 10 years was the drama critic of
Sobell's family may be justified in asking either for his release W. 68th St., New York, Dr. Nel- the New York
Telegraph before he devoted himself to the Zionist
or for a new trial. But here is a group that has no Jewish affilia- son Glue c k, College-Institute movement, knows
theater of 60 years ago—both the English
tions, that has defiled every semblance of Jewishness by flaunting president, conferred honorary and the Yiddish . . the
.
He
acquaints the patron of Jewish plays of
our traditions and by having lent themselves to charges of asso- degrees on Heinrich Grueber, today with the personalities
of the Yiddish stage. He presents the
ciating with treasonable elements. To top it off, in their claim
that the head of this family was serving in prison on the 13th Dean of the Evangelical Church human side of the lives of the great stars of the Yiddish stage in
consecutive Yom Kippur, they did just what an honorable and of West Berlin; Hans Jonas, pro-. the early period of the Jewish theater . . . Emerging are the
figures of such pillars of the Yiddish theater as David Kessler,
devout Jew would not do: resort to picketing on the holiest day lessor of philosophy of the Grad
- Boris
Thomasheffsky, Jacob Adler, Jacob Gordin, Bertha Kalich,
on the Jewish calendar.
What is most repelling is that they should again resort to uate Faculty of the New School Sigmund Magulesco "and others who had been admired by huge
their Jewishness in an appeal for justice. If Sobell is entitled for Social Res e a r c h; Aaron audiences . . . Lipsky's book paves the way for another volume
to justice, it can only be on his record and on the truth of his Rabinowitz, philanthropist and of this kind, built around the later years of the development of
claims that he was not directly involved in the spy plot. A person pioneer in public housing; and the Yiddish theater in which such personalities of the stage as
could only resort to an appeal in defense of his Jewishness only Samuel H. Gordon, religious Maurice Schwartz, Jacob Ben Ami, Muni Weisenfreind (Paul
Muni), Joseph Scholdkraut, Josef Buloff and others known to
if he was under arrest anti-Semitically, for being _a Jew. But leader of Rye, N. Y.
Sobell ,who is not one of our affiliates, was arrested on a treason
Dr. Grueber, anti-Nazi Ger- Broadway theater-goers played such an important role.
charge. He has no relationship to us—only by birth. Since then man Christian leader, who aided Art Notes
Reuven Rubin, the dean of Israeli painters who is so well
he has disgraced us. Now we are doubly humiliated by signs thousands of Jews to escape
invoking Yom Kippur. There is no end to the self-degradation of Hitler's Germany, was himself known in the United States, is now enjoying tremendous success
those who degrade us.
imprisoned in the infamous in his first American exhibition in nine years which is being held
Dachau camp for three years be- at the Wildenstein Gallery in New York . . . Open till Oct. 20, the
cause of his assistance to the exhibition is being visited daily literally by hundreds of art lovers
An Oasis for Hebraists
Detroit
Shortly before his death on• March 15, Daniel Persky, who Jews. He was former plenipo- interested in the 60 paintings on display . . The pantings shown
became world famous as one of the chief advocates of the use teniary of the Lutheran Church include landscapes, still-lifes and character studies exemplifying
of Hebrew by Jews as one of their spoken languages—on whose Council in the Soviet Sector, the many phases of Rubin's work . . . Permanently settled in Tel
calling cards and letterheads he always used the legend "Eyed but has been forbidden by the Aviv for many years, his paintings represent the deep love which
L'Ivrith Anokhi," "A Slave Unto Hebrew Am 1"—wrote and sent Communists to enter East Berlin. he feels for Israel and they imbue the viewer with the same spirit
one-man show
to the Kvutzah Ivrith of Detroit for use in its 20th anniversary Last year Dr. Grueber was a . . . To Americans, Rubin is known from the first
witness during the Eichmann lie held in New York in 1920 sponsored by the famed Alfred
issue of Hed Ha-Kvutzah, an annual Hebrew publication.
Stieglitz ... He later held several exhibitions in the United States.
In this article, which appears in the anniversary issue of trial in Israel.
Convicted spy Robert A. Soblen caused embarrassment and
humiliation to the Jewish people and to Israel before he com-
mitted suicide just as he was about to be taken back to jail in
this country. This escapee, who hailed from an honorable Jewish
family but who defiled his heritage, found it necessary to seek
haven in Israel, in spite of • his having abandoned all interest
in the Jewish people. While the press of the United States
during that episode displayed tactlessness in a shower of un-
justified abuse upon Israel—some newspapers also insulted the
Jewish people in the course of their coarse and uninformed
evaluations of the case—a man who could well have been called
"a renegade Jew" was responsible for the shower of invectives
upon the people he had abandoned and whom he tried to use as
his tools of escape.
Now the family of another convicted man is resorting to
similar disgraceful tactics. Morton Sobell's relatives had the
audacity, on Yom Kippur, to picket the White House with signs
reading that "this is the 13th Yom Kippur" on which the con-
victed atomic spy spent in prison.
—
...