Profile of Legal Genius
BY MILTON FREEDMAN
JTA-Jewish News Washington
Correspondent
(Direct JTA Teletype Wire to
The Jewish News)
WASHINGTON — The entire
nation, headed by President John-
son and the Supreme Court,
mourned the death of Felix Frank-
furter, the immigrant Jewish boy
who peddled newspapers and ran
errands for a drug store on New
York's East Side and rose to be an
Associate Justice of the United
States Supreme Court, earning a
place in American history as one
of the greatest exponents of con-
stitutional law this country has
ever produced. Retiring from the
Supreme Court in August of 1962,
he died here Monday of heart di-
sease, the illness that brought
about his retirement.
A great teacher, recognized for
his legal genius by Presidents Theo-
dore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson,
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry
S. Truman, ardent Zionist, a Jew
in deed and spirit, an educator
who combined politics and states-
manship with his career in juris-
prudence, one of the recognized
leaders of the liberal tradition of
enlightened American democracy,
his contributions were summarized
Tuesday in the following state-
ment by President Johnson:
am grieved to learn of the
passing of my friend Justice
Frankfurter, who did so much to
preserve freedom through wise
interpretation of the law. He was
one of the great figures of legal
history, a man who made many
contributions to good govern-
ment and who will be sorely
missed."
Tribute s were voiced by
Chief Justice Earl Warren, other
members of the Supreme Court,
leaders of both Houses of Congress
and Zionist and other Jewish lead-
ers in this country and abroad.
Frankfurter was born in Vienna
in 1882, the son of Leopold Frank-
furter, a poor merchant descended
from six generations of Rabbis and
scholars. His father came to New
York when Felix was 12. The lat-
ter joined his parents there with
his five brothers and sisters.
Attending the New York public
schools, Felix helped the family
by selling newspapers and doing
odd jobs. He went on to City Col-
lege of New York, where he gradu-
ated with honors at the age of 19
and worked a year as a clerk at the
New York Tenement House Com-
mission, saving $1,200, which he
used toward enrollment in the
Harvard Law School.
He was graduated from that law
school in 1906 as an honor student
and editor of the Law Review. A
few months later he became an as-
sistant to the U.S. Attorney in New
York.
During his Harvard days he had
become known to such outstanding
figures as Henry L. Stimson, Jus-
tice Oliver Wendell Holmes and
Louis D. Brandeis. It was the latter
who recommended Frankfurter's
appointment to the Harvard Law
School faculty in 1914.
Meanwhile he had served in im-
portant posts in Washington under
President Taft. When Wilson be-
came President, Frankfurter was
close to the Democratic war-time
leader. He was sent on important
missions abroad by Wilson's Sec-
retary of State Robert Lansing.
When the Versailles Peace
Conference was held, Frankfur-
ter was the legal adviser to the
Zionist Delegation there. Like
his friend Justice Brandeis, he
had become active in Zionism.
In 1919 he engaged in corres-
pondence with one of the out-
standing leaders, Emil Feisal,
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, February 26, 1965-7
King of Hedjaz. The latter wrote
to Frankfurter: "We Arabs look
with deepest sympathy on the
Zionist movement."
For nearly 45 years the authen-
ticity of that statement by Emir
Feisal was disputed by Arab lead-
ers throughout the Middle East.
Only two months ago the original
of that Feisal letter to Frankfurter
was discovered in the files of the
Jewish Agency offices in London.
The letter had been written in Eng-
lish by the famous "Lawrence of
Arabia." Feisal's interpreter and
adviser declared that he regarded
the Zionist aims at the Versailles
Peace Conference as "moderate and
proper" and pledged "We will do
our best to help them through. We
will wish the Jews a most hearty
welcome here." It was signed in
Arabic by Feisal. The truth of
Frankfurter's report about that let-
ter had been vindicated.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
appointed Frankfurter to a seat on
the Supreme Court as successor to
another • great Jewish American
jurist, Benjamin N. Cardozo. That
was in 1938. There was still oppo-
sition to that nomination. Frank-
furter was regarded by that time
as a controversial element in
American law. In his work at Har-
vard he had by that time educated
an entire generation of great legal
scholars, applying tenets of liberal-
ism to the development of new mod-
ern American social and economic
principles. He had been outspoken
not only on "strictly Jewish issues"
like Zionism, but also on his re-
jection of rising fascism and com-
munism. Boston never forgave him
for having been the principal de-
CJFWF Officials Urge Govt.
to Strengthen Welfare Aid
The Council of Jewish Federa-
tions and Welfare Funds today
urged the Federal Government to
take a major step in the war on
poverty by strengthening the na-
tion's public welfare program.
Louis Stern and Philip Bern-
stein, CJFWF president and ex-
ecutive director respectively, re-
ported to a governmental advisory
group their deep concern "with the
broad and basic needs which are
beyond the capacity of voluntary
agencies to meet, and which re-
quire the resources of the entire
nation, through government."
Paraphrasing Sholem Aleichem
fender of Sacco and Vanzetti, two
Italian immigrants executed for
what many people felt was their
foreign origin and espousal of an-
archism. And he was a Jew.
During Senate hearings on his
confirmation, Frankfurter's Jewish-
ness was brought out openly by
some anti-Semitic elements, partic-
ularly by followers of Father
Charles Coughlin. His Zionism was
not overlooked. He had been as-
sociated with the Brandeis-Mack
leadership inside the Zionist Or-
ganization of America, although he
resigned from that group later
when he disagreed with some of the
Brandeis-Mack policies. He had
visited Palestine often, wrote num-
erous articles about conditions, in
that country, was a member of the
Boston Friends of the Hebrew Uni-
versity, had been an alternate mem-
ber of the Consultative Political
Council of the Zionist Executive. A
Jewish Fraternity, Phi Epsilon Pi,
had given him the national service
award for outstanding contributions
to Jewish life. Frankfurter had
never forgotten his immigrant
Jewish background, and anti-Sem-
ites never forgave him for that at-
titude.
Confirmed by the Senate and en-
tering the Supreme Court, Frank-
furter became one of that high
tribunal's outstanding jurists, fol-
lowing in the traditicin of his great
heroes — Holmes, Brandeis and
Cardozo. Tuesday, Chief Jusitce
Warren said of him:
"A great man of the law has
passed on, but he has left the prod-
uct of his remarkable mind with
us. As a scholar, teacher, man of
letters, confidant of Presidents and
as a Justice of the Supreme Court,
Mr. Justice Frankfurter made un-
forgettable contributions to the
progress of our nation through
every one of his manifold activities.
His devotion to the Constitution of
the United States and to the Su-
preme Court was a lifetime preoc-
cupation with him. He has left an
indelible stamp of his radiant per-
sonality on both."
YOUNG ISRAEL NORTHWEST
About Atheists
By NATHAN ZIPRIN
Editor, Seven Arts Feature Syndicate
Can a man be a rabbi of a congregation while simultaneously
professing atheism?
In a world of sanity there would be no need for asking such a
question, since it is obvious that atheism and religion, the synagogue's
true function, are mutually exclusive concepts, divided by a chasm that
no amount of semantics can bridge.
Yet there are evidently elements in our midst who would rational-
ize the development not as a sign of decay but as evidence of quest
rather than departure.
No one these days is naive enough to believe that there are no
doubters among rabbis, and I include even the Orthodox in this
category. No honest man is ever so sure of his path that he is blinded
to seeking, to probing, to questioning or, even, to doubting.
Searching for truth is within the very province of the rabbinate,
but when a rabbi's truth is atheism, he has no right to proclaim it from
a religious pulpit while holding on to the rabbinic rod. When a man
lends his rabbinic title to an atheistic testament he is being less than
honest with himself and his congregants.
If a rabbi wants to be an atheist, let him, but not as a rabbi, nor
certainly as one with a pulpit. The right to be a rabbi, unlike the
right to be an atheist, is not a natural one — it derives from a certain
authority and envisions definite religious obligations and commitments.
When a man ceases to believe in the tenets that earned him the title
rabbi, he must tear up his rabbinic credentials or else expose himself
to the charge of posing under a false name. To hold on to the creden-
tials under those circumstances is clearly in bad taste if not immoral.
I am reminded in this connection of an observation by the incom-
parable Sholem Aleichem that when a Jew has a dog it is one of two
things — either the dog is no dog or the Jew is no Jew. Equally, it
would seem that when a congregation has a rabbi who is an atheist
it is also one of two things — either the rabbi is no rabbi or the
congregation is no congregation unless of course it has changed its
name to Chevra Ahavath Atheism.
WOOL PLUSH
ONLY
$995
Luxurious Hi-Pile Woven with the Finest Wool Yarn. A
Fine Selection of Newest Decorator Shades Available.
BAZAAR
ALL DAY SUNDAY, MARCH 14
17376 WYOMING
Jewelry • Watches • Toys
Novelties • Food Items • Linens
Clothing • Bake Sale
Snack Bar
7324 W. 7 Mile Rd. nr. Livernois
UN 1-7980
Open 'til 9 Mon., Thurs., Fri.
ANNOUNCEMENT! /
Franklin Mortgage Corporation
NOW SERVICING $125 MILLION IN GOVERNMENT INSURED,
GUARANTEED AND CONVENTIONAL TYPE MORTGAGES
The Fastest Growing Mortgage Company
in Our Community
HAVE RECENTLY ENLARGED OUR OFFICE SPACE
TOP TRAINED TECHNICIANS TO HANDLE ALL MORTGAGES
GUARANTEES FAST, EFFICIENT SERVICE
SPECIAL SALES REPRESENTATIVES IN WAYNE, MACOMB AND OAKLAND COUNTIES
Franklin Mortgage Corporation
Ben Levinson, President
GRATEFULLY . ACKNOWLEDGES THE COOPERATION AND CONFIDENCE OF THEIR MANY
ESTEEMED CLIENTS FOR MAKING POSSIBLE THIS MAJOR MILESTONE.
OUR
915 First National Building
MOST SINCERE THANKS.
Detroit, Michigan 48226
963-4890
"JNF offers The Unbreak-
able Link with The Land Of
Our Ancestors". Say it with
TREES . For All Occasions.
UN 4-2767
OFFICE HOURS: MON. THRU THURS., 9 to 5; FRIDAY, 9-4; SUNDAYS, 10 A.M. to 1 P.M.