Friday, Sept. 27, 1963 — THE DETRO IT JEWISH NE WS — 10
Brill's Reportorial Skill Recalled in 50th Year of Leo Frank Case
Play Critical
Fifty years ago the Leo M.
series of murders for which
cause he was a Northerner and
of Pope Pius
Frank case in Georgia stirred not one of the perpetrators a Jew. Many unbiased observ-
the United States and caused had been apprehended and ers, as well as the enlightened
Opens in London reverberations
in many other
brought to justice. Georgia
press of the country, believed
(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish News)
LONDON.—The Lord Cham-
berlain's office announced Tues-
day that "no one under 16 would
be permitted to attend perform-
ances of the controversial West
German play "The Deputy,"
which opened here Wednesday
night.
The play, written by Rolf
Hochhut, charges that the late
Pope Pius XII failed to protest
adequately the Nazi wartime
slaughter of European Jewry.
The ban was imposed largely
because of film sequences to be
shown between acts of the play.
At the Lord Chamberlain's re-
quest, the Royal Shakespeare
Company also will print on all
programs for the performance
"an authoritative Catholic opin-
ion" on the issues involved in
the play.
Each program will include a
lengthy letter written by Pope
Paul VI to a Catholic publica-
tion on June 21. The letter ends
with the words: "Let some men
say what they will. The reputa-
tion of Pius XII as far as a true
Vicar of Christ, as one who tried
to carry out as far as he could
the mission entrusted to him,
will not be affected. But what is
the gain to art and culture when
the theatre lends itself to injus-
tice of this sort?"
An indication of the strong
feelings the play has aroused
emerged from an incident in-
volving a visit by a member of
the theatre management to a
Catholic bookseller to buy rosa-
ries for the play. When the
bookseller learned that the rosa-
ries were to be used in the play,
he refused the purchaser service
and asked him to leave his shop.
Catholic Archbishop - Elect
John Heenan was asked Monday
at a press conference what he
thought of the play. He replied:
"My Jewish friends know the
record of Pius XII. I am happy
to let them say whether or not
he was their friend."
International Body
Protests Perpetuating
Memory of Anti-Semite
PARIS (JTA) — The Interna-
tional League Against Anti-
Semitism issued a public protest
against plans for creation of a
club dedicated to perpetuation
of the memory of a major
French anti-Semite of the Drey-
fus Affair period.
The sponsoring organization
is made up mainly of extreme
rightwing elements openly pro-
fessing a virulent anti-Semitism
and venerating Rene Drum-
mont, whom it considers "the
father of French anti-Semitism."
Drummont published a news-
paper which advocated violent
anti-Semitism. He also wrote,
"Jewish France," which is con-
sidered the "Frenchman's anti-
Semitic Bible." The League pro-
test contained an appeal to
French public opinion and • to
"all true Democrats" to oppose
the newly created body which
it called "an insult to France
and democracy."
lands. It brought forth a num-
ber of noble personalities, ac-
tuated by the highest motives
and ready for the greatest sac-
rifices in behalf of truth and
justice. It was the contention of
Frank and many fair-minded
people that he was innocent of
the heinous murder of which
he was accused: that there was
not evidence of his guilt. Racial
prejudice and passion domin-
ated the court that condemned
him.
Fifty years have passed since
Alexander Brin, then a reporter
on the staff of the Boston Trav-
eler (of which the present
United States Senator Ernest
H. Gruening from Alaska was
ALEXANDER BRIN
managing editor) first took up
the fight on behalf of the young
man. Reporter Brin spent sev-
eral months in Atlanta investi-
gating the case, assessing
whether the trial measured up
to the American standards of
fair play. He paid no heed to
gossip or rumor and reported
his findings in a series of arti-
cles which were reprinted in
many parts of the United
States.
Dr. Brin, who is now the pub-
lisher of the Jewish Advocate
and former chairman of the
Massachusetts State Board of
Education, revaled in his arti-
cles that the Frank case was
complicated by racial and reli-
gious prejudices, politics, per-
sonal ambitions, state pride,
labor troubles, hatred of work-
ing people for employers and
the determination of the Ku
Klux Klan to do a man to
death.
Leo M. Frank, a young man
of nearly 31, up to the hour of
his trial for murder by the
State of Georgia, in 1913, had a
spotless reputation. He was at
the time of the incident that
led to his tragic death a capa-
ble and industrious superin-
tendent of a pencil factory in
Atlanta, the son of a good fam-
ily, himself head of a much-
loved home and a graduate of
Cornell. Frank was tried for
the alleged murder of Mary
Phagan, aged 14, not a regular
employee, whose body was
found on April 27, 1913. There
was evidence of a wretched and
There is a tradition that Wash- brutal assault preceding the
ington attended a Jewish wed- killing. Frank was convicted al-
ding—that of the parents of most solely on the evidence of
Major Mordecai Noah. Col. Newt Lee, the factory's night
Isaac Franks was an aide on the watchman, who found the body
staff of Washington during the of the murdered girl and who
revolution, and when Washing- notified the police.
ton was President, he lived for a
The murder created great
time in the house owned by Col. excitement in Atlanta, as this
Franks.
was the culmination of a long
newspapers, especially the
Jeffersonian, edited by Tom
Watson, fanned the flame of
prejudice, so that the case
assumed a race issue. In an
atmosphere of violent pre-
judice, Frank was tried by a
judge and jury in a purport-
ed court of justice and found
guilty. He was doomed to the
gallows for a crime which he
did not commit. as later
events indicated. Governor
Slaton of Georgia commuted
the sentence.
The trial was a travesty on
justice. A motion for a new
trial was denied and the case
was taken to the Supreme
Court of the United States. The
court denied a writ of habeas
corpus on technical grounds,
Frank innocent of killing Mary
Phagan and a victim of unrea-
soning public clamor for blood.
A few days before Frank was
lynched by a band of cold-
blooded Georgia murderers, he
wrote a letter to Brin in which
he told of his hopes for vindi-
cation. His description of his
Day of Atonement in jail, indi-
cates the character of his make-
up:
"What a paradox is this! On a
day consecrated to the contempla-
tion of things spiritual, when the
Jew escapes, for the span of a day,
his earthly surroundings. and is in
communion with the ideal, I was
restrained by the limitations placed
upon me by erring man. And yet
the dynamic influence and spirit of
the Yom Kippur, even in jail, was
with me.
"Though from sundown I ab-
stain from food and drink, I fasted
as never before—and I have always
since, when 13 years of age,
Justices Holmes and Hughes I fasted
pronounced the blessing over the
dissenting. In 1923, ten years Torah. Incarcerated unjustly,
accuse d, my spirit
later, under similar circum- wrongfully
leaped from its gloomy and sordid
stances, the United States Su- surroundings and found peace. My
supplication found hearing at the
preme Court adopted the legal Tribunal
on High, which condones
principle set forth in dissenting neither false witnesses, lying, ma-
licious
tongues,
or vaulting ambi-
opinion in the case of Moore vs. tion. at the expense
of human
Dempsey (261 U. S. 86).
honor and human life.
"As the day drew to a close
While awaiting his fate, there was not the invigorating
Frank was lynched on Aug. 17, sound of the Shofar for me. In-
through the gloomy corri-
1915, "the victim of insane pre- stead,
dors of the jail rang the screech of
judice and of the virulent ani- the steel on steel, of steel on stone,
the jailors locked the cells for
mosity of Tom Watson and the as
the night. And yet, with a clean
shameless articles published conscience, I have been in commu-
from day to day in the Jeffer- nion with the Most High. And
plainly came the message, Wait
sonian, with the avowed pur- patiently and courageously!' For
pose of arousing antipathy." the day I had spiritually escaped
the bars and looked into the fu-
Eight years later, Freeman, a ture. The day over, and darkness
federal convict on the verge of at hand, with the strength born of
innocence and a clean conscience,
death in an Atlanta prison, I looked confidently toward the
claimed to have witnessed Jim East of promise and awaited free-
and vindication.
Conley, who testified against dom
"Another Yom Kippur is with us.
Frank, commit the crime. Since I am still waiting, equally as strong,
as confident—for truth, de-
then, it has widely been as- equally
cency and justice cannot be anni-
sumed that Frank was the vic- hilated.
M. FRANK
tim of merciless prejudice be- Atlanta, Ga., Sept. LEO
24, 1914.
Court Upholds
Nativity Display
On School Lawn
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (JTA)
—Display of the Nativity scene
on a lawn in front of a public
school does not violate the First
Amendment of the U. S. Con-
stitution, which . guarantees the
separation of church and state,
State Supreme Court Justice
Hugh S. Coyle ruled here.
The ruling upheld the pre-
vious decision of the board of
education at Hartsdale, a suburb,
to build a creche and display the
Nativity scene in front of one
of the town's public schools.
The board's 3-2 decision had
been appealed to the court by
16 residents of Hartsdale, who
sought to ban not only the Na-
tivity scene, displayed every
Christmas season in front of the
school, but also other religious
symbols, Jewish, Mohammedan
or Buddhist.
Declaring that the "ultimate
objective" of the appellants
could result in the "entire eli-
mination from schools of reli-
gious symbols," Judge Coyle
held that the Hartsdale display
does "not constitute active in
volvement by the Government
in religious exercises," and is
not comparable to the banned
recitation of the Lord's Prayer
or the Bible in classrooms. He
stated that the creche on the
school lawn is "a passive ac-
commodation of religion" and
no one is forced to look. To
outlaw the display, he held,
would be tantamount to sanc-
tioning judicially a policy of
nonrecognition of God in. public
schools."
Subsequent events have borne
out what Frank said: Whatever
happens to me, some day the
world will know that I am inno-
cent. That's my faith."
Leo Frank's hopes for vindi-
cation is told in his following
lefter:
"Dear Mn. Brin: I read, with
deep interest and pleasure, the let-
ter you adressed to my dear wife,
as well as the clipping you en-
closed. In both letter and article I
think you have hit the nail square-
ly on the head. To forge ahead to
that vindication and consequent
liberation, which even now is my
just due, with any degree of celer-
ity, it seems indispensible to sil-
ence Watson. It would be an act of
decency and righteousness to elim-
inate his antics, which are so vile,
a help to humanity in general, not
alone to further our cause. Watson
is vain and selfish enough, has so
much of the exaggerated ego, is so
much of a paranoiac as to believe
and express the view that an at-
tack on him is a defaming blow
aimed at the State of Georgia. His
following. I believe. is not so very
large: but it is articulate and as
vicious as he is.
I am well and am gaining in
health and strength daily. Will be
glad to hear from you on topics of
interest at any time. Send clipping
of articles on the case if any ap-
pear.
With every good wish to you and
Dr. Gruening. I am
Cordially yours,
(Signed) LEO M. FRANK
P.S.—Give my greetings to Ex-Gov.
E. N. Foss and Dr. Coughlin.
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LOUIS I. ZUCKERMAN,
Field Underwriter of the
New York Life Insurance
Company was awarded the
coveted Chartered Life Un-
derwriter designation at the
National Conferment Exer-
cises of the American Col-
lege of Life Underwriters
in Miami Beach, Florida on
September 11.
The American College of
Life Underwriters grants
the C.L.U. or C.L.U. Asso-
ciate designation to persons
in life and health insurance
who pass a series of profes-
sional examinations and
Mr. Zuckerman
meet the stringent experi-
ence and ethical require-
ments of the College. This year 1033 men and wo-
men will be awarded the designation, bringing to
11,632 the number of people who have received it
since the College was founded in 1927.
Mr. Zuckerman is a member of the 1963
N.A.L.U. Million Dollar Round Table. He is also a
member of the Top Club Council of the New York
Life. This distinction is only attained by the top
200 representatives of the more than 6,000 New
York Life agents in the United States and Canada.
He was born in Chicago, Illinois and has lived for
the past 10 years in Detroit with his wife, Rochelle,
his daughter, Ellen and son, Edward.
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