Purely Commentary
By Philip Slomovitz
The Sickening Emblem in Our Democratic Society
charges that were leveled against the Jews and he concluded thus:
" 'But'—you ask—'is it possible that everybody can be wrong,
and the Jews right?'
"Yes, it is possible: the blood-accusation proves it possible.
Here, you see, the Jews are right and perfectly innocent. A Jew
and blood--could there be a more complete contradiction. And
yet . . ."
We must invoke this resentment in objecting to branding any
volume that condemns the blood libel as being "one-sided."
There are some among us who recall the protests that were reg-
istered throughout the world against the Russian government's role
in the Mendel Beiliss case. Judge James I. Ellmann reminisced when
the Maurice Samuel volume appeared. He had just come to Detroit,
to condemn the actions of the Russian government when it involved
Beiliss and the Jewish people in a ritual murder charge. He recalls
in 1911, when a mass meeting was convened, primarily by Christians,
that the late Judge Alfred Murphy was the principal speaker who
delivered an impassioned address against the blood accusation. Judge
Murphy, as many will remember, was one of Detroit's great jurists.
Judge Ellmann pays high tribute to him as a lawyer, judge and
humanitarian.
Israeli Nurses, Midwives
Threaten Strike Over Pay
JERUSALEM ( JTA) —The cabi-
net Sunday rejected the demands
of Israel's surgical nurses and
midwives for increased wages
despite threats of a nationwide
strike.
Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir
defended the government's action
by stating that salary increases
cannot be granted to professions
where union contracts are in effect
until 1968, as this would under-
mine Israel's entire wage struc-
ture. The cabinet also turned down
a request by the teachers' union
for higher pay, but no strike on
the part of the teachers has beer'
announced.
Babi Yar Tragedy Exposed by Russian Author
It is sickening to see the reappearance of the swastika on American
soil—or anywhere, for that matter, Germany included. And it is
distressing to be compelled to show the ugly symbol of hatred. But
especially in the instance of this photograph it is necessary to display
it in order to indicate the ties between the swastika-bearer with the
"white power" advocates and the Ku Klux Klan and the National
Knights.
From the signboard truck with the Nazi emblem, George Lincoln
Rockwell is shown appealing to hate in behalf of White Power, while
another car moved along in Chicago advertising a Ku Klux Klan rally.
That's how Chicago has been affected by power-seekers—first by
deluded blacks and now by bigoted whites.
These photographs are warnings that all extremists represent a
menace to our democratic way of life, that there is danger from the
right whether it is the extreme of one color or another.
We have warnings against extremism from many areas. Last
week an extremist group—it could not have been more than a mere
handful, shouted the Hitlerite "sieg heil" at the Michigan Republican
Convention.
- Viewed together, these symptoms are the echoes of an age we
believed to have relegated to a forgotten past but which is emerging
anew in its old garb: the Hitler spirit that is so repugnant to every
decent human being. Whether it is in Chicago or in Cobo Hell, the
duty of all liberty-loving Americans is to be on guard against the re-
emergence of the evil against which the free world was engaged in one
of the bloodiest wars in history. By uprooting every semblance of such
villainy we will prevent the recurrence of the Nazi era and the
tragedies that accompanied it.
The Remarkable Dr. Joseph Sizoo
NEW YORK (JTA) — The full
story of the Nazi massacre of Jews
in the ravine of Babi Yar, in Kiev,
in 1941, has now been revealed in
the Soviet Union for the first time
by an eyewitness writing in a
Soviet magazine, the New York
Times reported from Moscow.
A soviet writer, Anatoly Kuz-
netsov, who was living in Kiev
and was 12 years old when the
Babi Yar massacre took place, has
written the Babi Yar story in Yu-
nost, a Soviet youth magazine. Ac-
cording to the Times dispatch, this
is the story Kuznetsov told:
On Sept. 28, 1941, a week after
the 'German army occupied Kiev,
posters were put up by the Ger-
mans throughout the city ordering
"all the Jews of Kiev and sur-
roundings" to assemble at 8 a.m. ;
the following day, at Babi Yar.
The posters ordered all Jews to
bring documents, money, valuables
and warm clothing. The Germans
warned on the posters that all
Jews failing to comply with the
order would be shot. Many of the
Jews, according
to Kuznetsov,
thought they were to be evacuated
to a zone away from the war front.
Kuznetsov told how he
watched the Jews going to the
ravine at Babi Yar the following
morning. At the edge of the
ravine, he reported, German
troops checked the documents
carried by the Jews. He saw
German soldiers, helped by
Ukrainian policemen, forcing
the Jews to undress and march
into the ravine. There, the writer
reported,' machineguns mowed
the Jews down, shooting at their
backs.
The author- told of a Jewish
woman who saved herself by
crawling out of one of the graves
at night. He reported that Ger-
mans ordered the shooting of
Ukrainians who had got into the
ravine by error, for fear that the
Ukrainians would spread the word
about what had happened at Babi
Yar.
For years, the Soviet author.
ities have followed a policy of
speaking of Nazi terror against
Russians and Ukrainians, with-
out mentioning Jews. The Great
Soviet Encyclopedia mentions
only that, at Babi Yar, the Nazis
shot "195,000 peaceful citizens."
Former Prime Minister Nikita
Khrushchev, had objected strenu-
ously when the Soviet poet, Yev-
The death early this week of the Rev. Dr. Joseph Sim) arouses
recollections of an interesting role the eminent theologian played
during the Nazi era.
He was among the outraged Christians who protested against
the Hitler atrocities and in 1938 he, together with Dr. David de Sole
Pool, rabbi of the Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue of New York com-
posed a prayer "for the victims of racial and religious oppression."
That prayer was recited in thousands of houses of worship, Christian
as well as Jewish, on Nov. 19 and 20. It was among the early mani-
festations of disgust over mankind's indifference to what was occurring Plans Drawn to Expand
in Nazi Germany.
This is one of the reasons for Dr. Sizoo's rise to great heights Israel's Cultural Ties
in the American religious community. He had rendered many other
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Plans
valuable services to humanity and his memory will always be blessed aimed at expanding Israel's cul-
in American annals.
tural and scientific ties with other
countries were forwarded Mon-
day to Foreign Minister Abbe
Maurice Samuel's 'Blood Accusation': Is It 'One-Sided'?
Maurice Samuel's "Blood Accusation: The Strange History of the Eban by a special task force which
Beiliss Case", co-published by Knopf and the Jewish Publication So- he had appointed last April.
The committee's recommenda-
ciety, is receiving good reviews. Why shouldn't it? It's a great book
that analyzes excellently an historic occurrence, indicating world re- tions called for the appointment
action against the trumped-up charge in which Czar Nicholas II played of a scientific adviser to the
foreign minister, who would ad-
a devilish role.
Yet, a New York Times reviewer, concluding his commendations vise on scientific ties overseas;
of the book, stated: "His argument is passionate, understandably one- creation of an advisory public
council on cultural and scientific
sided and well made."
This is one instance in which the term "one-sided" is regrettable relations; and a gradual increase
and uncalled-for. How else is one to react to the ritual murder libel of the number of cultural and
scientific attaches at Israeli mis-
except by condemning it?
We are impelled, once again, to turn to the essay written 74 years sions abroad.
The proposals also recom-
ago by Ahad Ha'Am (Asher Ginsberg) under the-title "Some Consola-
tion." In it the eminent Jewish philosopher discussed the various mended more cultural exchanges
under Israel's agreements with
2 Friday, September 2, 1966
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS other nations.
—
geny Yevtushenko, wrote his poem,
entiled "Babi Yar," in which he
criticized the absence of a monu-
ment at the site for the killed
Jews. Subsequently Yevtushenko
had to alter part of his poem to
satisfy Khrushchev's denial that
Jews were the only victims of the
Babi Yar massacre. Kuznetsov em-
phasizes that the Germans intended
to execute only Jews. Ile adds that
a few Ukrainians and Russians
were shot as a result of confusion
or because the Germans feared
that they had seen too much to be
released.
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Boris Smolar's
'Between You
. . and Me
By BORIS SMOLAR
(Copyright, 1966, JTA, Inc.)
THE DOMESTIC FRONT: Jewish organizations engaged in the
fight against anti-Semitism are beginning to re-evaluate their attitude
toward Rockwell, leader of the American Nazi Party ... Until now they
gave him the so-called "silent treatment" by registering his anti-Jewish
abuses but completely ignoring them publicly . They watched. his
activities and considered him a mere rabble-rouser who barks but can-
not bite . . . It was known that he practically has no followers, except
the few crackpots whom he sends to public places to appear in Nazi
uinforms and to act as nuisances in order to attract publicity . . . As
time marched on, newspapers throughout the country became wise to
Rockwell's publicity tricks and realized that, the more attention they
pay to his antics, the more they are playing into his hands and are
helping him against their own will . To them Rockwell became the
embodiment of the publicity seeker who says "I don't mind your
cursing me as long as you write about me" . . . They, thus, disengaged
themselves more and more from being trapped into reporting Rock-
well's demagogic speeches and the picketing by his phony "members"
in every place where they could attract attention . . . The situation,
however, has changed now with Rockwell's efforts to inject himself
into the picture of one of the most sensitive — if not _the most sensitive
— development in American life . . . His appearance in Chicago with
Nazi banners before a crowd of more than 1,000 white people objecting
to Negroes marching in their neighborhood, and his wild incitement
against Jews in that speech, gave Jewish leaders food for new thoughts
. . . It becomes clear now that Rockwell intends to catch fish in dirty
waters by trying to cash in on anti-Negro feeling among some sections
of the white population ... His line now is that "it is the Jews who
have been financing the Negro movement for equal rights" and he thus
blasts the Negroes and the Jews in the same breath . . . Judging from
the dollar-bills that flew into the hats of Rockwell's "assistants" in Nazi
uniform, when they were making their collections in the crowd during
Rockwell's speech, the danger exists that many white Christians, al-
though they are not anti-Semie,s, may in their hatred for the Negroes
fall under Rockwells' propaganda spell which is as poisonous against
Jews as it is against Negroes . . . Instead of a nuisance, Rockwell
may thus become one of the most dangerous agitators, inciting riots
and benefitting both in cash and in strength . .. The question now
is how to check Rockwell's inflamatory public appearances and his
open incitement to riots and disturbances in an atmosphere of growing
restlessness.
ACCENT ON BIAS: New York is considered by some a "Jewish"
city because at least 25 per cent of its population are Jews . . . Quite
large percentage of depositors in New York mutual savings banks a;, ,
Jews . . . Yet a survey conducted by the American Jewish Commita,
establishes that 82 per cent of New York's mutual savings banks have
no key Jewish officers at all, and 60 per cent have no Jewish trustees
. . . Less than 2.5 per cent of the more than 400 officers, and under
3.5 per cent of the approximately 750 trusees, are Jews . . • Dis-
criminatory practice in selection of trustees is not now specifically
regulated by state banking laws which set only purely formal qualify-
ing standards of age, residence and financial responsibility . . . Yet
absence of Jews as trustees appears to violate the spirit of the state's
general policy against discrimination . .. It is also contrary to the
explicit criteria of the Savings Bank Association of New York govern-
ing selection of trustees . In the light of the quantity and quality
of Jewish participation in New York's business, professional, financial
and communal life, it is hard to explain the serious absence of Jews
from policy-making positions on savings bank boards of trustees . .
The evidence suggests that insensitivity and indifference, if not delib-
erate exclusion, have hardened over the years into de facto discriminar
tion . . . This despite the fact that the Jews constitute 25 per cent of
New York's population and 50 per cent of the city's college graduates—.
figures attesting to high qualification, as a group, for executive posi-
tions ... Today, 50 mutual savings banks have headquarters in New
York City, with a total of 215 offices and $25,000,000,000 in deposits
in 8,000,000 savings accounts . . The American Jewish Committee
feels that the absence of Jews on savings bank boards could be taken
to suggest that they are deficient in the qualifications for trusteeship
. . . The archaic attitude that excludes Jews as savings banks trustees
inevitably keeps the ratio down in top staff positions . . . The commit-
tee urges the mutual savings bank industry to institute a review of
practices that have systematically excluded Jews from important
positions.