10—Friday, August 26, 1966
• THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Egyptian-Born Jew Held
The Growing Vogue of Beards
By DAVID SCHWARTZ
(Copyright, 1966 JTA, Inc.)
The monuments in our cities are
almost all erected to military com-
manders who excelled in killing
people.
It is therefore gratifying when
we read of a monument to com-
memorate a constructive effort.
Sush a monument was dedicated
last 'Week in the great state of
Kansas to Grace Bedell Billings for
her letter to Lincoln urging him
to wear whiskers.
It was in 1860, during Lincoln's
campaign for election, that little
Grace wrote Lincoln her immortal
letter:
"I have got four brothers and
part of them will vote for you any-
way and if you will let your whisk-
ers grow I will try to get the rest
of them to vote for you. You would
look a great deal better for your
face is thin. All the ladies like
whiskers."
She added that this would help
elect Lincoln. Lincoln took the
advice and was elected; maybe
through the help of the whiskers.
During the Civil War, whiskers
enjoyed a recrudescence. The na-
tion seemed hopelessly split, north
from south, but the one vestige of
unity were the strands of whiskers
holding them together like a cord.
General Lee and President Davis
of the Confederacy and General
Grant and President Lincoln all
wore whiskers.
Whiskers continued to prevail in
the long reconstruction period.
After Grant, Presidents Hayes, Gar-
field, Harrison and Arthur all wore
whiskers. The solitary exception
was Grover Cleveland. He took off
his whiskers and we had the panic
of 1893. I am not saying that the
removal of the whiskers caused the
panic, but it's mighty strange.
After that, the shaved face be-
came the vogue. The great crop of
male whiskers which probably
equalled the - volume of alfalfa
raised in the country suddenly dis-
appeared. Nature's edict had been
that the masculine face should be
bedecked with a hirsute growth but
nature was defied.
But now whiskers are in the up-
swing again. Recently visiting the
campus of an eastern university,
we were struck by the number of
young men with beards.
Domestic life, it seems to me,
was happier when men wore
beards. The men were more con-
tented, having something to pull
on and the women had something
to look up to in her husband.
Today, the plight of the husband
has become more grave with women
adopting masculine clothes. With
the men wearing long hair and the
women wearing slacks, the beard
remains the only thing by w
_ hich
to distinguish the sexes. The
women will not be able to copy
that, although perhaps they can
resort to a kind of chin wig.
I wonder too whether the in-
crease in juvenile delinquency is
not due in some measure to the
beard's disappearance. The beard
lent respect for the father and the
elderly. In the old days, it was
common for young people to rise to
give old people seats, but today
when the youngster come in the
train the older person realizes that
the young fellow may be too tired
from playing ball to give him his
seat and instead he rises and gives
the young fellow his seat.
That age with its greater experi-
ence brings more wisdom is doubt-
ed. He is an old codger. What does
he know?,, ,says th young codgers.
Yet the 'unconscious knows bet-
ter and the young often simulate
age by growing whiskers. Take
young Allen Ginsburg. His profuse
beard almost drowns his face. The
modern poetry which he writes
may not be clear, but his whiskers
certainly are.
There is a dignity which whisk-
ers confer. To be sure, this is not
without danger. Some unscrupulous
charlatans resort to whiskers to
give themselves an unmerited pro-
fessional look. Instead of working
four years for a college degree,
they grow whiskers.
The face of Karl Marx would
scarcely look as impressive with-
out the frame of his voluminous
whiskers. And the beautiful beard
of the handsome, brilliant Theo-
dore Herzl helped give him the
similitude of a prophet of old.
In ancient Israel, the beard was
spoken of as an adornment of the
face. The Talmud said that one
might judge the character of a man
by the type of beard he cultivated.
It warned against trying to change
the convictions of a man who wore
a bifurcated beard.
There is more to the beard than
meets the chin.
LBJ to the Rescue
for Honeymooners
NEW YORK (JTA)—A Jewish
couple from Glencoe, Ill., shared
their honeymoon hotel in the
Catskills with President Johnson
and his party of 100, but they were
just about the only guests of 900
who ignored Mr. Johnson's pres-
ence.
Mr. and Mrs. Meyer L. Sugar-
man, who had anticipated a quiet
retreat, were surrounded by a
in Israel on Spying Charge
BEERSHEBA (JTA) — Moshe
Levy, 29, an Egyptian-born Israeli
Jew who was formerly a prison
guard in Haifa, was remanded to
jail by a magistrate here Aug. 18
after being arraigned on a charge
of espionage.
After his arraignment, Israeli
security officials announced that
Levy was arrested a month ago,
near the border of the Gaza Strip.
When he was apprehended, the
security officers charged, he was
carrying documents and some
books which, it was alleged, he
had planned to tern over to Egyp-
tian intelligence in Gaza.
Security officials said they be-
lieved he spent several months in
Egypt last year, studying intelli-
gence work. They said he had
gone across the Gaza Strip border
a year ago, then returned to Israel
for espionage purposes.
Philadelphia to Construct
New Rehabilitation Center
PHILADELPHIA (JTA) — Moss
Rehabilitation Hospital, a consti-
tuent of the Federation of Jewish
Agencies which is supported also
by United. Fund, has been author-
ized by federal and state agencies
to build a million-dollar Rehabili-
tation Biomedical Engineering
Center, the first of its kind in the
nation.
It will be staffed by physicians,
scientists and medical researchers
from Moss and Temple University
Health Center, working in col-
laboration with industrial engi-
neers from Philco Corp., a subsi-
diary of Ford Mator Co.
Bias on Canadian Exchange Hinted
(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish News)
TORONTO—A pending case of
alleged discrimination against a
Jewish job applicant by a Montreal
brokerage firm highlighted a dis-
cussion Tuesday , as to whether
there was anti-Jewish discrimi-
nation in the securities field in
Canada.
The Globe and Mail reported in
a feature story that its inquiries
had produced virtually unanimous
response that there was no reli-
gious discrimination in the stock
exchanges in either Toronto or
Montreal, although discrimination
on the basis of age, citizenship and
sex was admitted.
The newspaper "study showed
that the Toronto Stock Exchange
did not name a Jewish member,
T. M. Sterling, until 1962, and that
the Montreal exchange did not
name a Jewish member, Harry
Shapiro, until last March. One
Jewish senior partner in a stock
exchange member firm told the
newspaper that "Anyone who
makes charges of discrimination
against the exchange does not
know what he is talking about."
Another Jewish broker suggested,
however, that it was strange that,
in the combined 200 years of the
Toronto and Montreal exchanges,
each had only one Jewish mem-
ber.
The Montreal brokerage firm is
challenging the case, filed under
the Quebec Employment Discrimi-
nation Act, on grounds that the
province does not have the con-
stitutional right to act in this
area.
Stronger than an army is an idea
when its time has come.—Victor
Hugo (1802-1885)
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31R. , .AND- MRS. -.SUGARMAN .
score of secret service men, sec-
retaries, aides to the President and
75 newsmen at the Nevele country
club in Ellenville.
Two factors were responsible
for the Sugarmans' presence at
the hotel.i One was Sugarman's
determination not to yield his
room reservation and the other
was the President's concern for
newlyweds, his daughter Luci hav-
ing recently returned from her
honeymoon.
The 49-year-old Jewish indus-
trialist reserved his honeymoon ac-
commodations two weeks ago. Un-
known to the Sugarmans and to
the hotel managers, plans were
made in the White House for the
President to stay for one night at
the hotel, the first night of the
planned Sugarman honeymoon
stay. Johnson's visit was part of
a weekend visit to four New Eng-
land states and Canada.
Secret service men came to
the hotel and informed the man-
agers they would have to ask at
least 100 guests to move out and
to accept no more reservations
for that 24-hour period.
When Sugarman. a former Dem-
ocratic County committeeman in
Princeton, N.J., and Rochester,
N.Y., was so informed by the hotel,
he fired off a telegram to Presi-
dent Johnson declaring he was
"very disturbed" at the cancella-
tion of his reservation and asking
the President to correct the situa-
tion. Sugarman mentioned his
party service. . .
A few hours later, while he was
talking with his fiancee, Sugarman
was interrupted by the operator
with an urgent call from the
White House. A White House sec-
retary told Sugarman that "the
President wants you to have your
room. You will get a telegram con-
firming this:" He did.
The Sugarmans were married at
the home of Rabbi Alan Tarshish
in Glencoe. They flew to New
York, drove to Ellenville on sched-
ule and promptly locked them-
selves in their room to avoid news-
men.
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