Nazis Would Have Killed Any Relatives of Senator
Imbalances Are Noted in Platform
Adopted by Republican Convention
BY MILTON FRIEDMAN
(Copyright, 1964, JTA, Inc.)
WASHINGTON — The Republi-
can platform brought disappoint-
ment to many Americans of Jew-
ish faith. A conservative conven-
tion in San Francisco rejected
not only an up-to-date pro-Israel
plan, but also effective civil rights,
immigration reform, Genocide pact
ratification, the church-state sep-
aration ruling, and moves to re-
pudiate such extremist groups as
the John Birch Society and the
Ku Klux Klan.
The platform committee did re-
tain an abbreviated version of a
plank denouncing Soviet anti-Sem-
itism. It said: "We condemn the
persecution of minorities, such as
the Jews, within Communist bor-
ders."
The major fight of Jewish inter-
est was on the Israel plank. Rep.
Seymour Halpern, of New York,
testified before the Platform Com-
mittee with the backing of 23
other Republican members of the
House. He urged a plank identical.
to the one advocated before the
same committee by Senators Jacob
K. Javits and Kenneth B. Keating,
of New York, and six other Repub-
lican senators.
But the platform committee was
not interested in involvement with
Israel's problems. The trend was
obvious. For the first time since
1944 the Republican Party omitted
direct reference to either Israel or
Jewish aspirations for statehood.
An excuse given by one platform
committeeman was that the plat-
form was not the appropriate in-
strument for involvement with the
Israel issue. However, the same
platform was very much concerned
about Germany's needs, and went
to some length in specific support
of German aspirations.
The 1964 "Israel" plank, as
adopted, said only that "respect-
ing the Middle East, and in ad-
dition to our reaffirmed pledges
of 1960 concerning this area, we
will so direct our economic and
military assistance as to help
maintain stability in this region
and prevent an imbalance of
arms."
State Department sources found
this so vague that it might be ap-
plied to an imbalance of arms as
between Jordan and Syria or be-
tween Greece and Turkey. The De-
partment saw it, unofficially of
course, as "meaningless rhetoric
and certainly not a clearly-defined
new Republican policy statement."
The condemnation of Soviet an-
* * *
*
Goldwater Booed
by Rockwellites
Upon his arrival in Washing-
ton Monday afternoon, Sen. Barry
Goldwater was booed by a picket-
ing group of followers of George
Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the
American Nazi Party.
In Damascus, Syria, Althawra,
the semi-official daily, branded
Goldwater a "racist adventurer."
Another Damascus paper, Albaath,
carried a cartoon of the Repub-
lican nominee for the presidency
accompanied by a curse. The right-
wing paper Alsafa predicted Amer-
ican Jews are out for Goldwater
"full force." Thus, Arab papers
are making political capital out of
the nomination.
Senators Javits and Keating,
New York Republicans, stated on
Tuesday they could not support
'their party's candidate for the
Presidency on the platform that
was adopted at last week's con-
vention.
(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish News)
LONDON—A check of available
records in Konin, the Polish an-
cestral home of Barry Goldwater's
family indicates that any relatives
of the senator's family probably
were slaughtered by the Nazis, it
was reported here Tuesday from
Warsaw.
The senator's nomination
spurred interest in those records
in the Polish river town, a hamlet
115 miles west of Warsaw. The
grandfather of the nominee was
a Jewish peddler named Michel
Goldwasser who emigrated to the
United States in 1849 when Konin
was under Russian rule.
Mayor Zdzislaw Szklarkowski of
Konin said that if any of the 3,000
Jews of the hamlet before the war
were Goidwassers they were dead.
now. He said the Nazis had or-
ganized a concentration camp in
Konin and that there were no
ti-Semitism was consistent with
other militant anti-Kremlin stands.
It was backed not only by Jewish
spokesmen but also by such per-
sonalities as national commander
Daniel Foley, of the American Le-
gion, who said that one situation
requiring American action was the
struggle against Soviet anti-Semit-
ism. He voiced concern over the
plight of Russia's 3,000,000 Jews.
The platform committee elected
to avoid detailed comment on the
Russian Jewish situation. It was
covered by one terse sentence.
Convention controversies involv-
ing civil rights and right-wing ex-
tremist groups proved to be of
broad national interest which tran-
scended the traditional Jewish con-
cern with such matters.
The only two Jewish Republi-
cans in Congress, Sen. Javitz and .
Rep. Halpern, fought vigorously
but unsuccessfully for a stronger
civil rights commitment and for
the repudiation of elements like
the John Birch Society and the
KKK.
The convention turned a deaf
ear to pleas of church groups and
liberal organizations for liberaliza-
tion of immigration laws and re-
pudiation of the racist national or-
igins quota system. The platform
agreed only to reunite some fam-
ilies and continue the so-called
"fair share" refugee program.
Instead of supporting the Su-
prime Court's historic school pray-
er decision, the platform sought to
appease those who would negate
this decision.
Requests for Republican support
of ratification by the Senate of the
United Nations Genocide and hu-
man rights pacts were ignored.
Dan Koblin, well - known
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Barry Goldwater was, photo
to the contrary, a little fashion
plate as a boy, a Detroit woman
recalls. This fetching outfit was
worn on a fishing trip.
*
*
*
Detroiter Recalls Pint-Sized Charmer
From West; Name: Barry Goldwater
BY CHARLOTTE HYAMS
Can it be Barry Goldwater was
grooming for the presidency when
he was still wearing knee pants?
Detroiter Mrs. Selma Rosen-
blatt, 11537 Hamilton, remembers
Barry as a "handsome little fash-
ion plate" when, at age 5, he was
introduced to her as a neighbor's
nephew.
She was in her early 20s at the
time ("oh, around 50 years ago"),
living at W. 141st St., New York
City. Barry's grandmother and two
aunts lived two floors above.
"Barry, I'd like you to meet my
good friend Selma," Etta Gold-
water said. "Selma, this is my
nephew Barry. He's come all the
way from Arizona to visit his
grandma."
Selma held out her hand. But
little Barry reached up and gave
Selma a resounding kiss on the
cheek.
"If you're Aunt Etta's friend,"
he declared with a big, a polit-
ical smile, "you're my friend."
It was a nice neighoorhood over
on W. 141st St. Today it's in the
heart of Harlem; "then, we were
paying $1.25 a month rent."
The tenants were mostly Jewish,
Mrs. Rosenblatt said, and Barry's
grandmother, Mrs. Michael Gold-
water, was "a fine, well-educated
Orthodox woman."
Why "Big Mike's" widow left
her home out west to live in New
York is unknown to Mrs. Rosen-
blatt. Etta had mentioned that
her brother Baron was doing very
well as a store owner in Arizona
but that his marriage to a non-
Jewish girl had hurt his mother
deeply.
Whatever Mrs. Goldwater may
have felt about her son's inter-
marriage was forgotten when her
grandson put his arms around her,
Goldwassers among the few sur-
vivors.
He said also that the Nazis had
destroyed all Jewish records and
that an examination of Konin
archives had not produced any
traces of a Goldwasser family,
which the mayor said he under-
stood had been a large one.
Mrs. Rosenblatt recalled. "Such a
nice boy."
"I don't think Baron ever really
embraced the Episcopalian reli-
gion," she added. "But he let his
wife (the former Josephine Wil-
liams) raise the boy according to
her faith."
Mrs. Mike had shown many
times she could "take it." When
her husband and his brother Jo-
seph left Poland to seek their
fortune in California, she waited
in London, finally coming to
this country by way of Nicara-
gua. From California, the roots
were transplanted and sunk,
deep, in the soil of Arizona.
Etta and her older sister did
not follow the Orthodox ways of
their mother, the former Sarah
Nathan. But they shared her good
looks, according to Mrs. Rosen-
blatt. There were eight children,
and "all the Goldwaters were very
attractive."
Mrs. Rosenblatt was a secretary
at the time she was living in New
York. Texas-born (her father,
Paul Levyson, fought for the Con-
federacy in the Civil War), she
attended school in San Antonio
and came up to Detroit to live
with a sister, the late Mrs. Jo-
seph Beisman, whose husband
was a prominent obstetrician here.
The New York stay was short.
Two years later she was back in
Detroit, where she would marry
Samuel Rosenblatt, cousin of the
world-famous cantor Yosele Rosen-
blatt.
But the brief sojourn in the
East was memorable. It was
there she was kissed by a future
candidate for president of the
United States.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, July 24, 1964
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