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 48235 Mich.,
VE 8-9364. Subscription $6 a year. Foreign $7.
Second Class Postage Paid at Detroit, Michigan
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager
CHARLOTTE RYAMS
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the second day of Av, the following scriptural selections will be read
in our synagogues:
Pentateuclzal portion: Num. 30:2-36:13. Prophetical portion: Jeremiah 2:4-28, 3:4.
Licht benshen, Friday, July 10, 7:50 p.m.
VOL. XLV. No. 20
Page Four
July 10, 1964
Resurrecting Armor Against Intolerance
It isn't often now that the cry "Kill the
Jews" is heard, as it was in Czarist Russia,
under Moslem rule, in the periods of the
Crusades and the Inquisition. An utterance
like that by a Negro on a New York subway
is hardly representative of our time.
Yet, serious consideration must be given
to the revelations about "Hucksters of Hate
—Nazi Style," by Joseph Wilson and Edward
Harris, which were published in the Pro-
gressive Magazine.
The two authors of this article, having
made a deep study of the activities of the
National States Rights Party, expose it as
anti-Semitic as well as anti-Negro and anti-
foreign. The activities of the Birch Society
and the latter's charge that Chief Justice Earl
Warren of the United States Supreme Court
is a Communist and should be impeached are
considered moderate compared with the rec-
ord of the NSRP whose official organ had
gone so far as to advocate that Warren and
his eight associate justices should be put to
death.
It is no wonder that we should be wit-
nesses to such a display of irrationality when
the NSRP went to far as to reprint articles
from Julius Streicher's Stuermer, the con-
tents of which bordered on insanity.
No rational person would resort to a re-
vival of the stupidest of all libels, that of
ritual murder, but NSRP did not hesitate to
stoop even to that in its official organ,
Thunderbolt.
In their Progressive Magazine article, Wil-
son and Harris state that "the reprint, in Ger-
man except for a few explanatory captions
and an advertisement, shows drawings of Jew-
ish elders sucking blood through straws from
the body of a dead gentile child; and rabbis
catching blood flowing from wounds inflicted
upon gentile women. Most of this material
comes from medieval writings reflecting the
insane superstition of the Dark Ages, and was
widely circulated by Streicher."
The reprint of Der Stuermer was a bonus
accompanying Thunderbolt and was offered
"in memory of Julius Streicher who was
murdered to appease the Jews." Under a pic-
ture of Streicher in Nazi uniform, the re-
print's English caption said: "Let this new
edition of his most famous issue be a living
monument to his courage and fortitude in
exposing the Jew Menace even though it cost
him his life." Such is the extent of the newly-
revived bigotry!
For its symbol the NSRP adopted the
jagged lightning bolt insignia of the Hitler
Jugend, the Nazi youth movement. The Pro-
gressive article says that the NSRP "repre-
sents a home-grown version of Nazi racism,"
and the party literature has called Streicher
"the patron saint of world anti-Jewism."
While there is not too much cause for
alarm over the NSRP activities and the at-
tempt of its official organ to revive the
ghastliest of anti-Semitic ghosts, the fact that
such reversions to bigotry are linked with
the campaign against civil rights re-estab-
lishes the inevitable truth that hatred has a
common enemy: mankind. While we must be
on guard against the re-emergence of the vile
symptoms of anti-Semitism, the Southern
brand is most definitely one that lumps to-
gether Catholics with Jews and Negroes.
The impending adoption of the civil rights
bill should go a long way in easing tensions,
in putting an end to many of the appeals to
hatred that have been inspired by the race
issue. But it is not to be overlooked, as the
Progressive writers warn us, that "in spite
of the Party's (NSRP's) exploitation of the
Civil rights problem, the Jews rank first in
its priority of hatreds; then the Negroes, sec-
ond; other minorities, third . . . Crackpots,
maybe, but not harmless crackpots as long
as they can help escalate hate into violence."
It is against this that the law must be
invoked. It is as a protection against violence
that there must be vigilance. Because we are
the first to be hated, even in an era of race
bigotry that has involved others in a battle
for civil rights, we must be the first to re-
appraise the situation and always be ready
with the traditional armor that assures us
with the protections we have acquired against
bigotry and intolerance.
Civil Rights Law Must Be Enforced Speedily
The civil rights law is now engraved on
our statute books, and the responsibility of
all law-abiding citizens is to help enforce
every aspect of that law, aimed at removing
a blot on America's record, which has been
marred by inhuman practices that have been
condoned during the century since the Civil
War.
While an overwhelming vote has been cast
in support of the human ideas in American
policies, the road towards the implementation
of the new civil rights legislation is certain
to be blocked by many obstacles. The occur-
rences in Philadelphia, Miss., and St. Augus-
tine, Fla., the previous developments in
Maryland, the numerous incidents in Illinois
—all point to situations resulting from des-
pair that had invaded the ranks of the Ne-
groes and the bitterness that still exists
among the segregationists.
The problem is not limited to the South.
We are being warned that the most serious
issues will be those that will face the large
northern communities, and while the debates
in Congress have come to an end anticipated
tensions in the country at large must lead
all of us in the direction of actions that will
avert rather than condone inter - racial
struggles.
In our own community, we will soon be
faced with the issue that is emerging over
the homeowners' ordinance to be voted upon
on Sept. 1. While its sponsors contend that
it is intended to guarantee the rights of in-
dividuals to choose their neighbors and to
retain their Constitutionally-assured property
rights, it carries with it elements that must
lead in the direction of negating every prin-
ciple that has been approved by Congress
with the endorsement of the President.
For an assurance of the speediest fulfill-
ment of all the humane objectives in civil
rights activities, in order to avert an increase
in tensions, we must act promptly to provide
all the basic rights to all of our citizens. Any-
thing bordering on suspicion or on hesita-
tion in making ours a unified community not
only will postpone atonement for injustice,
not only will prolong the period of hate and
suspicion, but will contribute more than any-
thing else to an increase in tensions and the
possible prolongation of hoodlumism which
has been deplored by Negroes, when their
own youngsters resorted to violence, as well
as by whites.
A homeowners' bill like the one that will
confront us on • our ballots on Sept. 1, at-
tempting to retain the old vile policies of seg-
regation and perpetuation of prejudice, can
undermine the foundations of our American
institutions more readily than any threat
from abroad. Let us avert such dangers by
speedily enacting and adhering to all the
policies set forth in the civil rights bill which
now is our basic law on the racial issue.
Dr. J udah Pi lch's 'Fate and Faith'
Studies Jews' Worldwide Status
In the special roles he has played in behalf of the American
Association for Jewish Education, Dr. Judah Pilch has collected vital
data relating to Jewish experiences. He has specialized in Jewish
educational efforts, but has not limited himself to cultural aspects.
His studies include religious and civil rights
and other subjects that are of importance in
seeking and imparting an understanding of
Jewry's status in this country and in the
world.
His "Fate and Faith: The Contemporary
Jewish Scene," published for the American
Association for Jewish Education by Bloch
Publishing Co. of New York, contains this
compilation which is in essence his life's
work — the series of revised lectures and
essays on major Jewish issues.
Designed for teen-agers and young
adults, aimed at helping them "orient
themselves to the problems of the larger
Jewish group of which they are an integral
part," "Fate and Faith" has so many basic
facts about Jews everywhere that it may
well be viewed as a work for all elements
and all ages in Jewry.
Demographic, political and economic facts,
Dr. Pilch
as well as details about the religious and cultural activities of Jewish
communities, are in this compilation.
The decline of the world Jewish population after the end of
Jewish political statehood in the year 70 and the rapid increases from
1840 to 1940 are indicated in the population figures. The holocaust re-
sulted in drastic decline of world Jewry from 17,000,000 in 1940 to
10,500,000 in 1945, and the population figure for 1963 is given as
12,915,000.
This opening section of Dr. Pilch's book also deals with modern
Jewish migrations, with the worldwide Jewish population distribution,
with the numerical strength of American Jewry. Dr. Pilch shows
that Israel, where the birth rate exceeds the death rate by 41 per
cent per 1,000, is the only country where the natural increase does not
lag behind the non-Jewish population.
He also shows that intermarriage percentages were smaller in
the 1950s than in the '20s and '30s. He adds that intermarriage, no
matter how small, "and the low birth rate in the Diaspora do not
augur well for the continuous growth of the Jewish population."
Considerable space is devoted to discussions of "the rights of
the Jews." Dr. Pilch reviews the offers of emancipation, the break-
down of the ghetto, the pogrom periods, the ritual murder charges
and the more recent savageries of the Nazis. He discusses the status
of Jews in Soviet Russia and in Moslem countries, and in the course
of his analyses he describes the Mortara Case — the abduction of a
Jewish child by papal guards; the Dreyfus and Damascus affairs,
the Tisha Eszlar ritual murder incident in Hungary and numerous
other developments during the eras of persecutions.
Conditions throughout the world are reviewed, and a series of
inferences to show the changing situations are presented in a summary
that involves all continents.
Describing the newly developing economic conditions, in his
explanations of "how Jews earn a livelihood," Dr. Pilch tells about
the peculiarities of trading and other activities in past ages, as con-
trasted with the economic life in Jewish communities everywhere today.
Tabulated descriptions of the distribution of Jews in various
occupations are helpful in sharing with Dr. Pilch an understanding of
Jewry's economic status.
Dr. Pilch is the specialist who describes Jewry's cultural status.
The various types of schools are analyzed and interesting figures are
offered an school enrollments. -
He views the problem of Jewish education in the Diaspora as
"a question of Jewish survival," and he admonishes that highest
priority must be given to the advancement of education in Jewish
ranks.
His chapter on Jewish religious groupings, on varying religious
principles, the codes of Maimonides, the Chosen People idea and other
religious factors in Jewish life, is most informative.
There also is an illuminating chapter on the languages in Jewish
experiences, the various dialects that have been and are used by Jews.
"Fate and Faith" is, in its totality, an illuminating and informative
work. It highlights the career of Judah Pilch as a public srvant.
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