Purely Commentary
Toronto Anti-Nazi Demonstrations and Their Equivalents
A small group of Nazis planned a demonstration in Toronto's Allan
Gardens. Anti-Nazis would not tolerate it, and there was a riot. A
number of people were hurt. There were some arrests. The Toronto
Daily Star, whose news columns reported the event at great length,
in stories - and pictures, also carried this editorial warning under the
heading "Mob Violence Plays Into Nazi Hands":
It is difficult and embarrassing for people who have never
been in a concentration camp, or who have never had relatives
murdered in Auschwitz or Belsen, to lecture those who have.
It must be said, nevertheless, that the people who staged yester-
day's riot at Allan Gardens in an attempt to break up a supposed
meeting of Canadian Nazis have done their cause, and the city,
no service.
If the ghost of Adolf Hitler had been around Allan Gardens'.
yesterday he would probably have rubbed his hands in glee. In
their early days in Germany, the Nazis were adept at taking
advantage of outbreaks like this. Whenever a storm trooper was
clouted by political opponents, their propaganda machine made a
martyr out of him and got valuable publicity from his broken head.
By their lack of control and their lack of selectivity (they
apparently beat up several innocent bystanders who had no con-
nection with the Nazis) yesterday's rioters have, in like manner,
given Hitler's Canadian imitators more publicity than they could
have contrived by their own efforts.
Canada is not pre-war Germany. We have a tradition of
letthig groups and individuals express their opinions, however
outrageous or unpopular they may be. We do not move to sup-
press them until a law has been broken; and then we leave the
suppression to the law and the courts, but not to angry vigilantes
with clubs. It is a tradition which, on the whole, has worked;
it kept Canada free from totalitarian_ tyranny. This is no time to
abandon it in favor of rioting and mob violence—even against
Nazis.
There may perhaps be one fortunate aspect to this unhappy
affair. It could have an educational effect on some of the young-
sters who have joined the Nazi movement attracted by its trap-
pings and the secret society atmosphere, but with no real under-
standing of its purpose. We hope the riot in Allan Gardens has
shown them the realities behind the sleazy pageantry, the terrible
passions which the swastika still has power to arouse. This isn't
Fraternity Night, boys; it's time to go home.
There is much to be said in support of this editorial—providing
the law is invoked to prevent Nazi atrocities and "kill the Jews"
propaganda. If Canadian laws will- assure prevention of spread of
Nazi propaganda, it will be all to the good. Then the Toronto Daily
Star's advice will be most relevant—especially its call to the young
not to participate in sleazy pageantry. But what about Washington,
'D.C., where a . Rockwell can propagate "kill the Jews" slogans over
'loud speakers, in sacredly. historical American areas, without any
action whatever by the police? Are those who came from Ausch-
witz and Bergen Belsen and Dachau with engarved numerals on their
.arms - to condone the aping of Hitler without action when the police is
inactive?
This question has not been answered in this country. Perhaps
'Canada is on the verge of providing the answer. Perhaps we will then
learn a lesson from our neighbors without violating the civil liberties
principle of. granting the right to free expression by all, even those,
as the Civil Liberties Union states, who advocate our destruction.
,
*
*
The Arab Boycott of Israel
We are shooting it out on more than one front, yet we are
ignoring the home area. American firms are being molested by an
Arab boycott committee which, acting from Damascus, is interfering
with our free trade. Yet the State Department tells Congress it dis-
approves of a bill that would put an end to such interference in our
internal affairs.
Indeed, moral action is needed, and Senator Javits offered good
advice when 'he said: "This measure (the Williams-Javits amendment
to the currency act) would stiffen the back of the State Department
in a situation where it demonstrably needs stiffening."
FOrtunately, there are some. members of Congress who are
realistic, who have less fears than some State Department officials.
They know that when the Hilton Hotels refused to yield to the Arab
boycott the threats ended and the threateners vanished. This also was
the case with a number of other large American firms—General Tire,
the Helena Rubinstein industry, most of the airlines, Kaiser, Jantzen,
Michigan's Tecumseh Products and many others. Why does the State
Department retain and thereby generate fear? It is a situation hard
to understand—but so also are many other Washington actions.
*
The Russian Jews' Protest—and.the Facts
Two Russian Jews (Nobel Prize winner Dr. Lev Landau and Prof.
Yevsei Liberman) wrote to the New York Times, on the eve of the
protest rally against Soviet persecutions of the Jews held in Madison
Square Garden in New York, to condemn the plans for the meeting
-and to assert that the Jews in the USSR are indignant over the spread
of "all kinds of fabrications on the position of the Jews in the USSR."
Their letter is interesting from many points of view. It comes long
after the proof of Russian bias has been broadcast. For several years
now evidence has accumulated to prove that the position of the Jews
in Russia is &alight with many dangers, that there is an inherited
anti-Semitism that had been admitted by Nikita Khrushchev himself,
that there are proscriptions on Jewish literature, on the Hebrew
language, certainly on Israel and on Zionism.
The problem could have been solved gracefully, speedily, by
eliminating the restrictions, by removing the causes of fear in Russian
Jewish ranks. Instead, they are being further aggravated by apologetics
like those that appeared in the letter published in the New York
times on June 2.
An intriguing paragraph in the Landau-Liberman letter is the
appeal: "We call upon Americans not to participate in the provocative
meeting which will do nothing but harm mutual understanding between
our countries. Instead, we express sympathy with those American
men and women who are fighting against the real danger of neo-
Nazism and Birchism; against those who again want to use gas cham-
bers for Jews; who spread racism and anti-Semitism."
This is typical: it is a passing the buck method. To divert attention
from the totalitarian and autocratic communist system, Russian propa-
gandists have been taunting us about the Negroes and civil rights, in
earlier years about lynchings, and now about neo-Nazisin and racism.
But in our midst one can speak up, he can criticize, he can call
his President to task. We now often hear President Johnson in a mood
of resentment over criticisms leveled at him. He does it because we
are free to criticize him. Just let Landau and Liberman try it in
USSR Apologetics...Middle
East Contrasts . .. . Israel's
Defenses . . Toronto Nazis
By Philip $400,000 Found
ammovitz
,,
in Cellar Believed.
War Aid to Jews
Russia ! That is why they are so bitter in their letter as front-men
for communism.
LONDON (JTA)—A survivor of
Michigan men who have returned from visits in RuSsia have
reported to us that they had difficulty contacting their relatives, that the Warsaw Ghetto expressed the
belief that a cache of $400,000,
they found them in utter fear lest they be accused of fraternizing with
plus
a large sum in American gold
Americans who are, in the communist interpretation, fascists. The
returnees left Russia with the impression that fear is the great deterrent coins, found in a Warsaw ghetto
to security for Russian Jews. They expressed the hope that the Jews cellar by a Pole, may have been
would speak up. They found that circumcision is practiced commonly part of the funds sent by overseas
as a health measure by non-Jews but is feared by Jews, and the only Jews to help save Polish Jewry
time Jews practice the basic and sacred right in inducting their under the Nazi occupation.
Michael Zylberberg, now repre-
children into the Jewish fold is in secrecy.
These are first hand reports from people we can not quote—again sentative in Britain for YIVO and
due to the fear injected in the hearts of men by the Russian system. the Yad Vashem, the Memorial
And the evidence of oppression and of prejudice against Jewish Center in . Israel for the Nazi
dis-
practices and customs in Russia is so overwhelming that every protest holocaust victims, cited the
against the USSR, including the one held in• New York on June 3, are closure of the cache in a book by
Leon Chain, a member of the first
fully justified.
Polish government in Lublin after
the war, who is of Jewish descent.
Israel's Right to Defensive Repercussions
The disclosure concerned the
There is no end to crises in the Middle East, and the newest—
finding by the Pole in 1944 of
that involving Jordanian raids into Israel and Israel's repercussions—
a ghetto cellar full of Ameri-
is more enlightening than it is serious.
can dollars. The Pole hid F.
It is serious in the sense that Israel is being invaded and its
find in the hope. of returnini,
settlements and settlers harmed. But it also carries with it a lesson:
Warsaw after the war and re
that a people that is on the defensive has a right to defend itself
trieving the money. He did re-
and the time comes, as it did now, for Israel to concede that her
turn, took the money and buried
troops invaded enemy territory in order to wipe out gangs of threaten-
it in his garden.
ing infiltrators who are bent upon creating trouble, of destroying
When police learned • the Pole
property; of stealing and if necessary killing.
was using doll a r bills, they
It has been established that just as Fedayeen were trained to searched his house and found
invade Israel prior to the Sinai Campaign — Israel's Sinai invasion $300,000. - in bank notes. Another
ended that chapter speedily—so, too, now, the El Fatah, a so-called $100,000 was found in the cellar.
Palestine liberation force, is doing the invading from the Jordanian In addition, a large sum in gold
side. It is yet to be established that Lebanon also is involved, as dollars was found.
Israel charges and as Lebanon denies.
There are several theories as to
It is so obvious that the Fatah move is intended to harm Israel how the huge sum was hidden in
and to assist in the destruction of the Jewish State ! Therefore Israel a Warsaw cellar apparently during
is justified in its latest actions. If there are nests of enemies on the war. Zylberberg told the Jew-
Israel's borders, organized to destroy Israel, the Israelis have a perfect ish Telegraphic Agency that he be-
right to put an end to them.
lieved it was part of the money
If there is to be peace—and there won't be peace if Fedayeen Jewish organizations abroad sent
and Fatahists are permitted to function—there must be an honorable to Poland by various means to
approach to it. There must be mutual action. There must be discussion help the trapped Polish Jews.
by both sides. Israel will end Fatah as it ended Fedayeen. Then,
The -Polish Government in Exile
perhaps, talks will begin.
helped to remit these funds
We are not so confident that peace will come so soon. Nasser through their own underground
backtracks and Syria challenges him on that score with a demand channels but in any case, Zylber-
for action against Israel. Both always resort to bravado talk for home berg contended, it was Jewish
consumption. But it must be conceded that Israel's Prime Minister
Levi Eshkol and his associates are right when they say that "pointless money.
moral advice" does not help re-establish amity.
While the Israelis did not say it, it is our contention that State
Department talk is exactly that: pointless morality. If bandits are bent
upon invading a peaceful land, it is they who should be condemned,
instead of the moralists offering advice to those who do the resisting.
As in the instance of the Sinai Campaign, all liberty-loving people
must concur with Israel's repercussive action.
*
'Lehavdil'
—
*
Sacrilegious Middle East Contrasts
A single Hebrew word—"Lehavdil"—expresses contempt for un-
reasonable, sacrilegious or uncalled-for comparisons between issues
or the making of contrasts that are repelling.
One would have to say "Lehavdil" when contrasting the occur-
rence involving the death penalties in Syria and in Israel. For many
weeks prior to the trial and subsequent execution of. Elie Cohen on
the charge of being a spy for Israel, appeals poured in asking clemency.
Many Christians and some Mohammedans appealed in Cohen's defense.
There were appeals from Detroit Christians. But Cohen wasn't even
given the benefit of an attorney for self-defense.
In Tel Aviv last week, a Jordanian El Fatah member, Ma.hmoud
Bahar Muhammed Hedjazi was sentenced to death for terrorism, for
acts of sabotage and for throwing hand grenades at Israeli soldiers.
There is already talk about a campaign to save his life, and it is doubt-
ful whether the execution will be carried out. Israeli law demands
also that, without appeal, such a case must be reviewed by the
Military Court of Appeals, and then automatically the sentence must
be confirmed by the chief of staff.
What a difference ! But how can one compare two civilizations
when in one, purportedly civilized, there is no recourse to law and
the government exacts vengeance, totally defying world public opinion.
Indeed, LEHAVDIL !
*
*
Saboteurs Will Be Reckoned With
Israel has notified the United Nations that saboteurs will be
reckoned with. This means that from now on, as in the period of the
Sinai Campaign, an El Fatah, like a Fedayeen in 1956, will be
reckoned with, and villages whence El Fatah terrorists stem will be
destroyed.
It means, simply, that saboteurs will be treated like saboteurs,
and there will be an end to apologies for such actions.
The pity is that neither the UN nor the United States took into
consideration the inevitability of such -action. The election year in
Israel has nothing to do with it. El Fatah proved it.
But it is foolish to say, as one newspaper did, that the Mapai
struggle and the conflict between Eshkol and Ben-Gurion "Forestalls
War in Mideast." This is utterly ridiculous. Crises always unify people,
and the Israelis can never be visualized in disunity while El Fatah
groups act against her. Let there be a bit of realism among columnists
and political analysts. Israel is no longer a child. The state has
reached maturity. Let it be treated as a mature entity. And as a
mature state it should be reckoned with at a peace table, by direct
talks, not by means of sabotage and terrorism.
Buildings Added to Home
for Children in France
PARIS (JTA)—A $500,000 pro-
gram of modernization of Jewish
children's homes in France neared
completion with the dedication
Tuesday of three new buildings at
the home of the OSE, the Jewish
childrens' health agency, at Ta-
verney, near Paris.
The modernization p r o gram
covers 10 homes in France hous-
ing a total of nearly 700 children.
It was implemented by the Fonds
Sociale Juif Unifie, the central
Jewish fund-raising agency in
France, jointly with the Joint Dis-
tribution Committee and the 0.SE.
A pioneer venture which intro-
duced child care concepts still
new in France, the Taverney pro-
ject has received substantial aid
from the French government and
a grant from the Swiss Aid for
Europe, as well egs, from the Con-
ference on Jewish Material
Claims Against Germany.
More than 90 per cent of the
children in the Jewish homes
in France are from North Africa.
Their situation reflects the dif-
ficulties which many North
African Jewish families settling
in France are facing.
Only a minority of the Jewish
children now are orphans, in con-
trast to the immediate postwar j—
situation when many thousp,--1--
of Jewish orphans were care4 ,
cs._\‘
in more than 100 homes.
The majority of the children in
Ci
Jewish homes now come from fa-
milies who, struggling with over-
crowding, inadequate housing and
bad economic conditions, simply
could not cope with the care of
the children. Hence they have
been sent to the homes.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
2—Friday, June 11, 1965
Bill Relieves Employes With Religious Obligations
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Senator
Jacob Javits, Republican of New
York; introduced a bill "to provide
time-off duty for government em-
ployes to comply with religious
obligations prescribed by religious
denominations of which such em-
ployes are bonafide members." A
companion bill to the same effect
was introduced in the House of
Representatives by Representa-
tive John Lindsay, Republican,
and Jonathan Bingham, Democrat
of New York.
The bill would provide federal
employes with time off for re-
ligious observances on days not
recognized as universal religious
-holidays. Instead of taking time
off without pay as is now the ease,
the employes concerned would be
allowed to make up such time by
arrangement with the department
or agency concerned.
For example, a Jewish employe
could exchange work on Christmas
Day for time off on Yom Kippur.