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UN General Assembly Agenda to Include
Arab-Israel Problems, issues on Rights I
tion, another proposes elimina-

United Nations Relief and
Works Agency for Palestine tion of all religious discrimina-
tion.
Refugees.
In addition, there are several
A third ECOSOC report,
items on the agenda of general
dealing with the right of
interest to Jews the world over.
every person to leave his own
Most of these are in the field
country and return thereto,
of human rights. They include
is also among the documents
resolutions forwarded to the
to be placed before the As-
Assembly by the recent session
sembly. The latter report
of the Economic and Social
touches upon the situation of
Council, held at Geneva. One the Jews in the Soviet Union,
of the drafts calls for the elimi-
who are forbidden to emi-
nation of all racial discrimina- grate. However, the report
does not mention the USSR
specifically.
* * *
UNITED NATIONS, N.Y.
(JTA)—The World Jewish Con-
gress submitted a memorandum
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
to UN Secretary General U
Thant
outlining its actions in
The Range of Personal Liberty
seeking to secure legislation in
Writing in the Reporter, on the topic "The Curbing of the various countries that would
Militant Majority—A dissent from the classic liberal interpretation ban racial incitement.
of civil liberties in America," John P. Roche, who is the Morris
The document covered activi-
Hillquir Professor of Labor and Social Thought and chairman of
ties by WJC affiliates, including
the Department of Politics at Brandeis University, asserts that—
the American Jewish Congress,
Anyone who cherishes the ideals of individual freedom and the Canadian Jewish Congress,
justice can never relax his efforts to push forward the frontiers
the DAIA—central body of Ar-
of liberty. But the historian of civil liberty in the United gentine Jewry—as well as by
States (though himself a civil libertarian who realizes that the organization's New York
history can grant no absolution) has the obligation to assert the
headquarters and offices in
relative proposition that the contemporary American, despite other parts of the world.
the existence of a huge centralized state, is today free to enjoy
Among the actions outlined
a range of personal liberty unknown to his ancestors.
by the WJC submission were
He supports his contentions with many examples to prove
efforts by the American Jew-
that we have made progress.
ish Congress in the struggle
In the course of his analysis his recollections lead him to the
against prejudice and dis-
tragic Leo Frank case (even so liberal a Southerner as Ralph
crimination. The memoran-
McGill believed Frank to have been guilty), and he writes:
dum gave details of specific
One final example may illuminate the shadowy place in my
activities in this connection,
argument. On April 26, 1913, a tragic sequence of events began
including preparation of a
in Atlanta, Georgia, when Mary Phagan was found raped and
model bill to prohibit dis-
murdered in the basement of Moses Frank's pencil factory,
crimination in housing and
managed by his nephew Leo. Leo Frank was accused of the
public accommodation, sup-
crime, indicted, tried, and convicted of murder. The evidence
port of fair employment
was flimsy and wholly circumstantial; the prosecution's key
legislation, and action in con-
witness, Jim Conley, was certainly himself the murderer. But
nection with Sunday closing
in no real sense was Frank on trial: the Jews were in the cage.
laws.
"Our little girl—ours by the eternal God!," bellowed Tom Wat-
The WJC concern for fur-
son, the agrarian demagogue who was to be elected to the thering human rights was em-
Senate in 1920 on a program that mixed equal parts of anti-war phasized in a letter to the
Populism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Catholicism, "has been pur-
Secretary-General, accompany-
sued to a hideous death and bloody grave by this filthy perverted ing the detailed statement. "The
Jew of New York." Frank's lawyer was told bluntly, "If they
World Jewish Congress believes
don't hang that Jew, we'll hang you." In this atmosphere that Jewish ethical teachings as
Frank was sentenced to hang (Watson editorially licked his
well as the long history of their
chops at the prospect of vengeance on this "lascivious Jew"); persecution, place upon Jews a
eventually after successive appeals the United States Supreme
special responsibility to work
Court rejected Frank's contention that the state of Georgia
for the recognition of the dig-
had denied him due process of law. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., nity and equal rights of all
joined by Charles Evans Hughes, dissented brutally from the human beings," the letter said.
seven-justice majority which implicitly ruled (technically they
It sees racial prejudice and
declined jurisdiction) that Frank had been granted his full national and religious intoler-
legal remedies under the Constitution. "Mob rule," said Holmes,
ance as "one of the greatest ob-
expounding a position taken for granted by today's court, "does
stacles to a satisfactory settle-
not become due process of law by securing the assent of a
ment of basic international con-
terrorized jury. . . . it is our duty (to declare) lynch law as
flicts and peaceful cooperation
little valid when practiced by a regularly drawn jury as when
among peoples."
administered . . . . by a mob intent on death."
The world Jewish body, which
It appears that by this time the Georgia judges were well has consultative status at the
aware of Frank's innocence. Conley had confessed to his lawyer, United Nations, submitted its
who, bound by the lawyer-client relationship, could not reveal report in line with a resolution
the information. Finally, incapable of standing silent while adopted by the last General
Frank was railroaded to the gallows, the counsel confided the
Assembly on "manifestations of
matter to Judge Arthur Powell, who was his intimate friend. racial prejudice and national
The latter apparently passed the information on to Governor and religious intolerance."
John Slaton, though still under the seal of secrecy. But with
Watson on the war path, no one wished to assume responsibility
Swiss Arrest 2
for letting "the Jew" go free, or even for ordering a new trial.
Finally with Frank about to hang, Governor Slaton risked his
own neck and commuted the sentence to life imprisonment. on Charges They
Frank, secretly removed from Atlanta to Milledgeville Prison
Spied for Israel
Farm, was immediately knifed by a fellow convict and was soon
GENEVA (JTA)—Two Swiss
seized by a mob and lynched. "We regard the hanging of Leo
citizens have been arrested here
Frank as an act of law-abiding citizens," observed the Marietta on charges of illegally supply-
Journal, and Tom Watson chortled, "Jew libertines take notice" ing information to Israeli in-
Back at the statehouse in Atlanta, only the intervention of telligence officers about a Swiss
armed troops prevented a frenzied mob from hanging Governor company that has been alleged-
Slaton and dynamiting his home. When Slaton left office, and ly aiding Egypt's jet engine
Georgia, three days after commuting Frank's sentence, his once projects, according to an an-
promising political career was over. And when Tom Watson nouncement by Swiss authori-
died in 1922, Eugene V. Debs sent his widow a letter praising ties. The men were named as
this "heroic soul who fought the power of evil his whole life
Johann Neeser, 37, and Eilli
long." More appropriately, the Ku Klux Klan sent a huge floral Naeff, 32.
cross.
The Federal prosecutor's of-
The experiences of those who have been engaged in the fice said the men had been em-
battle for justice and for social equalities have, indeed, been ployed by the Swiss firm of
varied. Imagine even a Eugene V. Debs speaking commendably Motoren, Turbinen and Pum-
about a vile bigot! Winston Churchill, who has been called "a pen, which is headed by an
Zionist" by Chaim Weizmann and other noted leaders, lost his Egyptian, Karnil Hassan Sayed.
temper and modified his friendship when he was angered by the The firm had been reported
Moyne assassination. There were Presidents of our country who building jet engines for the
spoke of the "damned Jews" who irritated them when they were Egyptian air force. According to
pressured in behalf of Nazi victims and in support of the Jewish the charge, the men had volun-
National Home in Palestine, and later rendered assistance to tarily contacted Israeli intelli-
gence officers in Paris, and had
the Zionist cause.
The instances of intolerance, mingled with passing fits of provided the latter with re-
anger; of occasions when the most liberal of men failed to act ports, documents and photo-
in behalf of the oppressed, can be multiplied numerous times—as graphs about the company's de-
Roche indicated and to which many of us can attest. We are liveries to Egypt and about the
inclined to agree with him: we have made considerable progress. progress of jet engine work be-
The present race issue proves it. People are a bit better today. ing carried on in Egypt.

UNITED NATIONS, N.Y.,
(JTA) — Two items affecting
Israel-Arab relations are on the
provisional agenda of the next
session of the General Assem-
bly, scheduled to open Sept. 17.
One of the items concerns
the maintenance of the United
Nations Emergency Force,
which guards the Gaza Strip
border and the freedom of Is-
raeli shipping on the Gulf of
Akaba. The other concerns a
review of the activities of the

Purely Commentary

I

.•••

Boris Smolar's

■

Between You
... and Me

I

(Copyright, 1963,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)

Black Muslimism:
Increasing demonstrations for Negro equality have projected
into the limelight the fanatical anti-Semitic black-supremacy
group known as the Black Muslims . . . This pseudo-religious
cult has been in existence for more than 30 years . . . However,
it was scarcely known to the general public until a TV expose
four years ago .. . Although roundly condemned by most Negro
leaders, the Black Muslims have since then been given an in-
ordinate amount of publicity . . . The mass media by virtually
giving "equal time" to Black Muslimism, have tended to equate
it with reputable Negro movements . . . Thus, they encouraged
the Black Muslim leader, Malcolm X, to air the most extreme
racist views against whites in general, and Jews in particular . .
As a result, the Muslims have gained disproportionate status in
the public eye . . . Heads of other responsible Negro organiza-
tions had refused to appear on public programs with Malcolm X
. . . In fact, they deplore the inflation of black nationalists by
the "white" mass media . • . They estimate that the Black Muslim
movement has today about 100,000 members among the 22 mil-
lion Negroes in the country . . . Although the Black Muslims
claim to be an Islamic sect, they are not recognized by official
Islamic bodies . . . The World Muslim Congress denounced them
as recently as April 15, 1963 . . . Their ultimate aim is the
establishment of an independent Black Nation, made up of sev-
eral states to be ceded to them by the United States . . . In the
meantime, their adherents are tithed and enjoined to set up
their own schools, shops and other enterprises . . . Interesting
is the fact that Malcolm X is the son of a Baptist preacher . . .
At the age of 19, he was convicted of grand larceny in Massa-
chusetts, and served seven years in prison .. . It was there that
he got the "message" of Elijah Muhammad, the "prophet" of
the Black Muslim movement, who was born Elijah Poole, in
1897, in Sandersville, Ga. . . . He was then converted and became
the "prophet's" most devoted apostle . . . The "prophet" himself
is now ailing, and spends most of his time in Phoenix, Ariz.

*

*

Serious Charges:
The American Council for Judaism's record of disregard
for the plight of Soviet Jewry, is now brought to the attention
of numerous American Jewish leaders throughout the country by
the American Jewish Committee, which charges the Council for
Judaism with whitewashing the policy of the Soviet government
discrimination against Jews . . . It takes the Council to task for
distorting the characterization of the concern of other Jewish
organizations in this country as mere Zionist propaganda .. . It
contrasts the Council's position towards the anti-Jewish dis-
criminations in the Soviet Union with its own forthright stand
taken on this question . . It emphasizes that State Depart-
ment's view of the importance of arousing world opinion to
Soviet suppression of religion, and points out that the Council
for Judaism disregards this view .. . It cites the fact that only
several weeks ago, the executive vice-president of the Council
for Judaism declared that "the Council has never taken a posi-
tion on the status of Soviet Jews" . . . The Council's executive
director followed up this declaration by stating that American
Jewish organization who publicly condemned Soviet policy towards
its Jews, were "guilty of exploiting the tenuos status of Soviet
Jews for the primary goal of the Zionist movement to bring
more Jews to Israel" . . . The Council for Judaism, while claim-
ing to base its position on "material supplied by the Department
of State," chooses to disregard the public declarations of the
State Department condemning continued Soviet restrictions on
religious freedom . . It entirely ignores a statement by the
State Department, of March 15, 1963, stressing that "in the case
of Jews, these pressures are such as to prevent the normal
maintenance and development of Jewish religious and cultural
life" . . . It also ignores the fact that outstanding Christians,
like Lord Bertrand Russell and numerous prominent Americans,
have publicly expressed their concern about the anti-Jewish dis-
criminations in the Soviet Union . . . The Council for Judaism
is the only Jewish organization in the United States that stands
aside from taking an interest in what is happening to Jewish
cultural and religious institutions in the Soviet Union.

*

*

*

American Influence:
American Jewish influence on Jewish communal life in
Latin American countries has been felt since President Roosevelt
had started to develop his "good neighbor" policy with Latin
American countries during World War II . . More and more
Jewish leaders from the United States have since then been
visiting Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile and other Latin Ameri-
can lands, and more and more Jewish leaders from these coun-
tries have been visiting the United States .. . The Jewish corn-
munity in the United States has become a kind of an "older
brother" from whom the communities in Latin America had a
lot to learn, as far as Jewish communal interests go . . . Inspired
by Jewish communal activities in New York, communities in
Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeira and other cities in South America
have built magnificent Jewish Centers, as well as other Jewish
institutions . . In Argentina, one can see today a magazine
in the Spanish language, resembling Commentary, published in
New York by the American Jewish Committee, and in fact con-
taining much of its material . . . Other Jewish cultural activities
in the United States are also being emulated in the communities
in South America ... Now the Jewish Community in Sao Paulo
has undertaken to emulate American Jewry in the field of health
service ... It is building the Albert Einstein Hospital, the largest
in the city, which will have 14 floors and will also serve as a
medical research center . . . Its ophthalmology department has
been donated by Baron Edmond de Rothschild, of Paris, and will
be opened at the end of this year . . . Its auditorium, an archi-
tectural creation of great beauty, was opened this month with
the fixing of a Mezuza at its entrance in ceremonies which at-
tracted nationwide attention . . . The American Nobel Prize win-
ner, Dr. Arthur Kornberg, was the guest of honor at the dedica-
tion; he came at the invitation of the Sociedade Brasileira
Israelita Hospital Albert Einstein . . . He was also the first to
deliver a lecture in the new auditorium.