Purely Commentary

Rufus Learsi—Historian, Educator, Humorist

Rufus Learsi was one of Jewry's very distinguished authors. He
began his life's work as a teacher, later became a public relations
executive—and a good one—and his career as -a writer dates back to
the time when .he-wrote some poetry as a youth, when he composed
plays for children,. began to write history and emerged as one of the
wisest observers of Jewish life.
His name indicates the wisdom that motivated many of his
activities. He was a redhead and his first name was Israel. His full
name was Israel Goldberg. Therefore he adopted the pen-name Rufus
Learsi—rufus for red and Learsi which spells Israel backwards: Israel
the Redhead.
It was as the author of two histories of the Jewish people and
of the Zionist movement, to which he was deeply devoted, that he
gained fame in this country. His outstanding achievement, however,
was the formation of a national committee to sponsor the addition
of the Ritual of Remembrance to the Seder Haggadah. This ritual is
now recited during the Passover service in many Jewish homes in
this country and in _other English-speaking communities, As author of
the Hebrew and English texts of the memorial prayers, which conclude
with the song of Ani Maamin, Israel Goldberg has earned the gratitude
of this and succeeding generations.
Blessed be the memory of this distinguished member of American
and world Jewries.
*

Suspension of Jewish Hour: End of an Era

The suspension of the Jewish Radio Hour marks the end of
an era.
There still are many in our midst who will recall the exciting
periods during which the Jewish Hour functioned here under the
management of Mr. and Mrs. Hyman Altman.
The revered couple dedicated themselves with great sincerity to
the task of providing Jewish programs and Jewish news flashes, first
on Sunday mornings and then at supplementary broadcasts on Satur-
s,:: day nights. Their medium of ex-
pression at the outset was Yiddish.
Then they introduced supplemen-
tary English portions, and their
invited guest participants could use
either language.
Their great services Were in
various fields of endeavor. They
commenced their dedicated efforts
during the Hitler era, and they
did their utmost to aid relief
causes, to expose the .crimes, to
inspire tasks among Jews and non-
Jews against Nazism.
The Altman Hours continued
under a successor during the past
few years. They must have de-
clined considerably in merit, else
it would be difficult to explain
why it was adjudged unacceptable
to our community.
There was another Jewish Radio
Late Mr. and Mrs. Hyman Altman Hour here—under the management
of Harry Weinberg—and that one, too, was abandoned several
years ago.
The collapse of such programs definitely proves the end of an
era that was distinguished by the strength that was possessed by the
Yiddish language. With the end of Yiddish and the frequent corn-
ingling of the language with English, such a radio hour lost its
influence and attraction. The loss of interest in the Jewish Radio Hours
stems from a decline of interest in Yiddish and is due to the difficulty
to provide programs that can compete with vastly richer-in-content
broadcasts.
Indeed, it is an indication of the end of an era. The Yiddish
theater has collapsed, the Yiddish newspapers are declining, Yiddish
radio hours are useless—all for lack of listeners, theater-goers and
a decline in readership. What a sad end for a tongue that possesses
such great literary treasures and which has such a notable record
to its credit !

*

*

Nasser and the Hitler Method

Gamal Abdel Nasser had given interview to the periodical of the
neo-Nazi movement in Germany, Deutscher National Zeitung and Sol-
daten Zeitung, and in it reiterated the pious claim that he was fighting
not the Jews but the Zionists.
But it is an established fact that the Arabs were pro-German in
the last war, that they had sheltered Nazis and continue to do so, that
the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, whose role during the last war was
among the most devilish, was given haven in Cairo and other Arab
capitals.
In his interview with the neo-Nazi editor, Nasser reaffirmed his
hope to crush Israel. He also went along with the Nazi claim that the
charge of six million having been murdered by the Nazis is a lie.
All records are thereby ignored, all official documents in Washington,
Berlin and elsewhere are repudiated, the Nuremberg trial revelations
are declared non-existent.
The London Jewish Observer and Middle East Review quoted from
the interview Nasser gave the neo-Nazi the following: —
Nasser now turns to discuss the German reparation payments
and calls them a "life elixir" for Israel. He could not understand why
Germans were making the payments.
The German editor replied that they were being justified by the
murder of Jews. This brought forth Nasser's most revealing answer:
"But surely no one still accepts the lie of the six million mur-
dered Jews? Not even the simplest man in the street here believes
it. How is it in your country?"
The German explained that some Jews had been killed but, of
course, the official total figure was unreal and meanwhile an attempt
was being made to brand the Germans with a large number of war
criminal trials. At this point Nasser asked him how such a thing was
possible. And the German replied: "Because we were totally defeated,
and now some thousand war-crime trials were being prepared."
This is how the old Hitler scheme works: repeat a lie until it is
believed; keep saying Jews were not murdered, and it will be the Jews,
not the Nazis, who will be guilty as warmongers; make an alliance with
the devil and glorify him: that's the Nasser policy in an alliance with
neo-Nazis!

2 Friday, August 14, 1964

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

End of an Era . . Tribute
to Eminent Historian . . .
Ussishkin's Correct Name

.

By Philip
Slomovitz

It isn't new. That's what the Arabs did in the last war. And if
those who have a desire to preserve liberty will stop being on guard,
woe to all of us!
The Civil Liberties Union bulletin a short time ago reprinted the
following confessional of Pastor Martin Niemoller:
"In Germany they first came for the Communists, and I didn't
speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for
the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade
unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up
because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me — and by that
time no one was left to speak up."
That's what happens: first the Jews then all others. That's what
could be inevitable if Nasser attacked Israel: first Israel would be
embroiled in a war, then the whole world. And if the world doesn't
watch out, another Niemoller tragedy might be enacted.
The lesson is: speak up, act against bigotry, and never be too late
with vigilance.

The Early Date for Rosh Hashanah

Those who are puzzled over the early date of Rosh Hashanah
this year—the first day of the Jewish New Year occurring on Labor
Day, Monday, Sept. 7—will be interested to know that the Holy Day
will occur even earlier in 1975—on Monday, Sept. 6.
The earliest date recorded for Rosh Hashanah was on Sept. 5, in
1842, 1861 and 1899.
The latest civic date for the first day of Rosh Hashanah is Oct.
5. That's when Rosh Hashanah will occur in 1967. Oct. 5 also was the
Rosh Hashanah date in 1929.
Ours is the lunar calendar and rotating dates account for the
irregularities in civic dates.
*
*

Ussishkin's Name—Menahem, Without an Appendix

The error is made so often that a correction is in order. Menahem
Ussishkin, the great Zionist leader who had raised the Keren Kayemeth
L'Israel (Jewish National Fund) to a very high level in Zionism,
had no middle name. Yet because there
is a Menachem Mendel in Sholem Alei-
chem's popular writings, Ussishkin has
often been erroneously given both
names.
The error is repeated in Alexandra
Lee Levin's "Vision," the biography of
Harry Friedenwald which has just been
issued by the Jewish Publication Society
of America. Even so well informed a
Zionist historian as our London cor-
respondent, Joseph Fraenkel, made that
error.
When he was our guest here in the
early 1930s in behalf of the Jewish Na-
tional Fund Council of Detroit, an in-
troducer referred to Ussishkin as "Men-
ahem Mendel," at a gathering that was
Menahem Ussishkin
given by Mayor Frank Murphy in the
Old City Hall. Ussishkin then turned to this Commentator, who was
Gov. Brucker's representative on the reception committee organized
statewide for the Zionist leader, and said: "Why do they do that?
My name is simply Menahem and I have never been Mendel,"
*
*

A City in a Vacuum
Our city has become an afflicted molecule in a vacuum.

For more than a month, we have been without the daily newspapers.
At a time when the world is in turmoil, when so many tragedies
have been visited on a number of nations that are virtually in a state
of war, when so much is happening in our own midst, the community
must depend upon radio news flashes. to bring them skeletonized
information about their neighbors, about our government, about hap-
penings in many foreign spheres.
On the eve of a crucial presidential election, the issues remain
clouded because there is a lack of press media to bring us details
about our candidates locally, statewide and nationally.
And the most serious result of the strike that has shut down both
our papers is that it provides an opportunity for people unqualified to
provide the news to circulate circulars they choose to call newspapers.
We have substitutes for news—and the genuine press media are dis-
torted. Those who are utilizing the occasion to come to the front jour-
nalistically are not always qualified to serve the community's needs,
and all suffer from the chaotic conditions we have been subjected to.
What a calamity this spells—and how urgently the public needs to
cry out for a speedy end to the strike so that there should be a return
to normalcy in the dissemination of news that is vital for our existence
as a democratic force in the world.

Rights Efforts
Must Go On, Say
Victims' Families

NEW YORK — "Our grief,
though personal, belongs to our
nation. The values our son ex-
pressed in his simple action of
going to Mississippi are still the
bonds that bind this nation to-
egether—its Constitution, its law,
its Bill of Rights."
A grieving father said this of
his son when the bodies of three
civil rights workers were found
near Philadelphia, Miss.
Robert Goodman and his wife
Carolyn are parents of the late
Andrew Goodman, 20, who was
slain while working for a voter
registration drive, in Meridian,
Miss. Mrs. Goodman urged that
the nation continue to strive for
the goal of equality.
Along with Goodman and James
E. Chaney, a Mississippi Negro,
was another young New Yorker,
Michael . H. Schwerner, 24, His
widow, Rita, who also was a civil
rights worker in Meridian, plead-
ed for the continuation and "re-
doubling" of efforts to liberate
the Negroes of the South "from
the consistent and brutal viola-
tion of their civil rights."
Schwerner had long been ac-
tive in the rights movement in
New York. Goodman, however,
surprised his friends at Queens
College when he announced his
interest. They doubted he would
ever go into the South.
But Goodman's parents said
hey had reared their son in the
atmosphere of beliving in the
Constitution and the Bill of
Rights. When he told them he
wanted to go to Mississippi in
the civil rights drive, "we under-
stood."

World Moslems Rebuild
Shrine on Mt. Moriah

JERUSALEM — Moslems the
world over have contributed $2,-
000,000 to restore the Dome of the
Rock, most sacred and most splen-
did Islamic shrine outside Mecca,
on the hill once called Mount Mo-
riah, often mentioned in the Old
Testament.
It was on Mt. Moriah that the
Hebrew patriarch Abraham sac-
rificed a ram in place of his son
Isaac. King David built an altar
there, and King Solomon a tem-
ple. A thousand years later King
Herod erected a temple nearby,
the destruction of which was
predicted by Jesus.
Jay Walz, in a special to the
New York Times, describes the
glittering-domed monument built
in 685 A.D. by the Urnmayyad ca-
liph of Damascus.
The spot's significance to Mos-
lems lies partly in the belief that
the Prophet Mohammed began his
one-night flight to heaven from
there. In the 12th century it served
as a church for Crusaders, and
when they were driven out, it was
restored for Moslem worship.
Jordan sent out the urgent plea
for funds when the shrine threated
to fall.

Canadian Jewish Congress Urges Anti-Bias Action

MONTREAL (JTA) — A series
of steps, calling for Fair Employ-
ment Practices Acts, other anti-
discrimination measures and the
adoption or tightening of human
rights codes in several of Canada's
most populous provinces has been
taken by Jewish organizations. the
Canadian Jewish Congress report-
ed. The activities, according to the
CJC, have been initiated in the
provinces of Quebec, Ontario, Brit-
ish Columbia and Manitoba by the
joint advisory committee on labor
relations of the Congress and the
Jewish Labor Committee.
In Toronto, a memorandum call-
ing for changes in the Ontario Hu-
man Rights Code was submitted to
the provincial government by the
Toronto Labor Committee for Hu-
man Rights.
In Quebec, a delegation called
on Provincial Prime Minister Jean
Lesage, requesting the adoption of
a Fair Employment Practices Act,

another measure assuring fair ac-
commodations, and a human rights
code. The FEPC act was intro-
duced in the Quebec .Legislative
Assembly today by Carrier Fortin.
Minister of Labor. The bill would
ban all employment discrimination
and grounds of race, color, sex,
religion, national extraction or
social origin.
In Montreal, the United Council
for Human Rights is preparing to
request municipal authorities to
outlaw discrimination in areas un-
der the city's jurisdiction. In Brit-
ish Columbia, a survey has been
begun to examine employment ap-
plication forms, to ascertain the
effectiveness of the FEPC legisla-
tion in the province.
* * *
HALIFAX (JTA)—A resolution
urging government action against
racial and religious incitement was
passed unanimously by the West-
ern Region of the Union of Nova

Scotia Municipalities. Drawn up
by Hubert L. Lynch, Deputy May-
or of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, it
was accepted by the three coun-
ties of Yarmouth, Digby and Shel-
burne.
The resolution asked the govern-
ment of Nova Scotia to submit a
request to the Postmaster General
suggesting that "Post Offices in
this Province carefully investigate
all third class mail coming into
the Province, and any such litera
ture which contains hate propagan-
da to be turned over to the proper
authorities."
The resolution requested the De-
partment of Justice in Ottawa "to
take immediate action to amend
the Criminal Code, so that action
can be taken against those who
spread racial hatred in our coun-
try." The resolution will be sub-
mitted to the regular meeting of
the Union to be held in Halifax
commencing August 30.

