Tabashnik Elected United Jewish Charities' President ;
Emphasize Need of Endowment for Community Security
Purely Commentary
By Philip Slomovitz
"How Can People Be Encouraged to Read?"
During the recent assembly sessions of the Council of Jewish
Federations and Welfare Funds, in Los Angeles, a representative of
one of our western communities expresSed serious concern over the
dull routine in fund-raising. His feeling was that community workers
are not properly trained and are not fully informed. He pleaded
with community leaders that they should make it an obligation to be
fully informed on what is happening in Jewish life, that they should
study our history, that they should acquaint themselves with all that
is transpiring in Jewry.
He was challenged by a query: can you get people to read? If
they don't read, how will they know?
It was only a week or two prior to the assembly that the Satur-
day Review, in its issue of Nov. 12, carried this item by Herbert R.
Mayes in the Trade Winds column:
H. Jackier, Harold S. Norman,
Louis Tabashnik has been elected fund of approximately $5,000,
Herbert P. Sillman, Morris W.
president of United Jewish Chari- was needed to assure the economic
Stein, Julian S. Tobias and David
security of agencies.
ties. He succeeds Erwin S. Simon.
He called on every member of P. Zack who serve as professional
Paul Zuckerman, who formerly the
Jewish community to consider sub-committee chairmen; and Hy-
held the post of treasurer, was his place in the endowment pro- --man M. Beale, James I. Ellman,
elected vice president and Irwin gram, and pointed out that the en- Herman Fishman, Morris Garvett,
Green was named treasurer. Wil- dowment committee was made up Donald Gordon, Samuel J Green-
liam Avrunin is secretary.
of attorneys, accountants, insurance berg, Earl Hordes, Bernard R. Isen-
Newly-elected to the board of di- men and trust officers who were berg, Seymour Israel, Miles Jaffe,
rectors were Sol Eisenberg, Mrs. I. giving of their time to talk about Austin A. Kanter, Morris I. Silver-
Jerome Hauser, Irving Rose and trusts and estate planning with man, Lester S. Smith, A. Richard
Dr. Peter G. Shifrin.
their clients and prospective donors. Tischler, Louis Zuckerman. Milton
Founded in 1899, United Jewish
The committee consists of Robert Goldiner is secretary of the corn-
Charities is one of the earliest as- Alpern, Louis C. Blumberg, Joseph mittee.
sociations in the U.S. to coordinate
fund-raising and budgeting for Jew-
ish philanthrophies. It is the prede-
Boris Smolar's
cessor and one of the founders of
the Jewish Community Foundation
"When Alfred E. Smith was Governor of New York, I wrote
to ask if he ever had read the Horatio Alger books. A single
sentence reply came from his secretary: 'Governor Smith asks and remains its senior member.
me to tell you that he never read any books, and Alger's was
Simon- paid tribute to the leader-
among them.' "
ship which was providing a sound
investment
portfolio, and to the
There are humorous instances galore to supplement this bit of
ironic pragmatism. There was, for instance, the experience, in the newly-created land acquisition com-
raid-1930s in our own community, when the late Rabbi M. Hass mittee under the leadership of
came here to solicit memberships for the Jewish Publication Society. Zuckerman, which is investing in
He boosted Detroit's enrollment to 700. They didn't all stick, in spite land to provide for the needs of the
of the bargain in JPS enrollment! He had secured a life membership agencies and the Jewish community
which then was priced at $100 and is now $1,000 from a very promi- for 10 to 20 years in the future.
nent Detroiter who, after issuing the check, told him: "But don't
Particularly noteworthy is the
send me the books. I don't read them anyway. Send them to Nora ... !" growth of UJC's endowment funds,
In an era like the present, when we place most emphasis on Simon said.
education, on the spread of knowledge, we are puzzled as to how to
Under the leadership of Milton
get around this dilemma. There are numerous instances of families
J. Miller, the Fund has grown
who have shown off books they have purchased but haven't read.
this year to a net of $1,611,310, a
One man, displaying his literary treasures, told a guest: "And I
gain of more than $350,000 over
haven't read a single one of these books!"
the previous year.
Does this mean that we must, always, depend upon the shearit
Simon pointed out that the en-
Israel, upon the remnant of a cultured group, that upholds the tra- dowment fund made it possible to
dition of learning in our ranks? True as this may be, we still have
the obligation to spread the printed word, to urge largest enroll-
ments in JPS, to encourage people to read. We had a Book Fair
recently. It was a successful event. But there were few of the men
and women who hold positions of leadership in the major movements
in the various audiences during the two-week period. It was a "let
the masses do it" attitude in an area in which the Book Fair is
communally sponsored but is not visibly, marked by participation of
those who direct the affairs of major' movements. The sponsors of
the Book Fair try hard to get a response. If we are to have the well-
informed community we crave for, leadership must prove that it
practices what it supports.
establish the Jewish Community
Foundation in 1964. The foundation
makes money available to encour-
age new and different projects
which would be outside of the
Delayed Hatred . . .
Arabs continue to drink Coca-Cola, they are not turning down
rides in Ford cars, they'll buy equipment from Radio Corporation
of America! All's well in the capitals of 12 Arab nations. The planned ,
boycotts will not be implemented for nine months.
Since boycott decisions thus are delayed by the 12 of the 13 1
Aral) states who had planned the boycott (Tunisia, it will be recalled,
did not participate in the hate campaign), officials of the U. S.
Department of Commerce. which has been charged with the respon-
sibility of preventing prejudicial boycott action against American
firms, now undoubtedly breathes easier.
There is more talk than bite in the Arab threats. It is only
when diplomats who share equal roles in the United Nations
are expected to be courteous one to another that an Arab will
ask for a partition between Jews and Arabs. It is when a friendly
hand is offered by Israel that Arab potentates produce a dagger
instead.
That is why the term good will fails to apply — at present
— to the Middle East. Yet, the mere hesitancy in enforcing a
boycott. the realization that such tactics will not produce the
Arabs' desired destruction of Israel, convincingly indicates that
the launched hate campaign is failing. But peace nevertheless is
distant: it is so much easier to hate than to love!
*
*
*
The Role of a German-Jewish Editor
Karl Marx, the editor of the Allgemeine Wochenzeitung
der
Judea, published in Dusseldorf, represented the unique era of
transition from war to peace and from Hitlerism to the effort to
re-establish a Jewish community in Germany.
This interesting person, who died in a hospital near Baden-Baden
on Dec. 15, had left Germany in 1933 and returned in 1945, after
the defeat of the German armies, to help rebuild a life that was
all but destroyed, to assist in elevating the status of Jews who
returned to their former German homes in small numbers. His
newspaper became the organ of German Jewry and it was recognized
and supported as such by the Bonn government. .
In fact, Karl Marx boasted of a circulation of close to 50,000
for his newspaper in a Germany of less than 30,000 Jews. This
means that he had a circulation more than five times the number
of Jewish families in Germany. The reason for the validity of this
circulation is that his paper was subsidized by the government
which assisted in spreading it among various agencies and prominent
non-Jewish individuals throughout the land. It was one of the
means of spreading whatever good will could be obtained between
Jews and non-Jews.
He was an interesting person who adhered to the Zionist idea,
who supported Israel through his newspaper, who took a deep
interest in the World Confederation of Jewish journalists.
While he sought good will with Germans and believed the
Jewish community could be re-established in Germany, he was not
silent. He criticized where necessary.
On one occasion, in his beautiful home on a hill near Baden-
13aden, when he was our host, he spoke with bitterness about
some German acts. But recently, just before his passing, he
spoke in defense of Kurt Georg Kiesinger who has since then
been elevated to the chancellorship.
He produced a good newspaper, and it will be interesting to
watch developments—whether his Allgemeine Wochenzeitung can
survive. whether it will retain the high standards that were enforced
under his editorship and whether the paper will continue to receive
Bonn government support.
2—Friday, December 23, 1966
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
'Between You
.. and Me'
By BORIS SMOLAR
(Copyright, 1966, JTA, Inc.)
INSIDE GERMANY: Is the present government in West Germany
doing enough to eradicate anti-Semitism implanted in the German
population during the years of the Nazi regime? . . . This question had
been asked before the neo-Nazis had shown increased strength in the
recent elections in Hesse and Bavaria, and is being asked now even
more pointedly ... A visit to Germany — and talks there with German
statesmen, educators and Jewish leaders — leaves no doubt that the
is constituted are
two parties of which the present Bonn government
deeply interested in eradication of any anti-Jewish feelings in the
country . . . Such feelings obviously still exist but are not noticed
after the war or were
among the younger people who were either born
the Nazi regime fell . . . These younger
of a very young age when
people constitute today a majority of the German nation . . . In the
Ministry of Education I was shown textbooks for German schools
testifying to the fact that the German school children are now being
taught about the Nazi atrocities against Jews and about the harm of
anti-Semitism . . . In at least three of the history textbooks I found
full chapters relating — in words and in photos — the Nazi bestialities
against Jews and!: condemning them strongly . . . The children are
frankly told in these books that the Nazis annihilated 6,000,000 Jews
of the textbooks which
— this figure lis specifically mentioned in two
I have seen and the mass-killing of Jews in Nazi camps is depicted
. . . One chapter on what the Nazis have done to the Jews ends with
treat-
instructions for the pupils to write compositions on the inhuman
ment of Jews under the Nazi regime ... It stands to reason that not all
teachers may follow the aim of the government to present to the
younger generation the truth about the Nazi brutalities against Jews,
since some of the teachers hold now the same teaching positions which
they held under the Nazis . . . But I was told of cases where children
come from school after the lessons about the Nazi brutalities against
Jews and ask their parents: "How did you behave towards Jews in the
Nazi years?" . . . And I was told of cases where German parents come
to school teachers and ask them: "What are you doing with my children;
LOUIS TABASHNIK
agency's usual operating budget.
The foundation is the 1966 win-
ner of the national Schroder Award
given by Council of Jewish Federa-
tions and Welfare Funds for "supe-
rior initiative and achievement in
the advancement of social welfare
by voluntary health and welfare
agencies under Jewish auspices in
the U.S. and Canada."
The assurance that growing sup-
port of the endowment fund would
provide a continuing and increasing
income led to formation of the
foundation.
Miller reported that 11 new en-
dowment funds were established
during the year with an initial
value of $76,000. There are now
69 endowment and trust funds
which are administered by
United Jewish Charities. The
funds are established by indi-
viduals through living trusts
which operate like a personal
foundation and through legacies,
bequests and insurance policies.
Distributions were $54,390 from
the living trusts during the year
and the monies went to 30 philan-
thropic programs.
The earliest recorded gift to
United Jew i s h Charities was in
1901. Three years ago the endow-
ment committee expanded its ef-
forts with the stated purposes to
protect agency operating standards
in the event of severe economic
change which might affect the an-
nual Allied Jewish Campaign, meet
emergencies in the Jewish com-
munity, and provide f u n d s for
extra-budgetary programs related
to the objectives of the Jewish Wel-
fare Federation and its agencies.
Miller said that an endowment
do you want to set them against me?" .. . Most of the teachers of the
Nazi years are elderly people, close to the retirement age, and their
number is becoming smaller with every year . . . In addition, all school
teachers—even those who hardly remember the Nazi regime—undergo
special courses in which the Nazi treatment of the Jews is a' part of the
indoctrination they receive . .. There is, of course, still a hard core
of ex-Nazis in the country who make up the readership of the Deutsche
National-und-Soldaten Zeitung, the rabid anti-Semitic weekly news-
paper in Germany . . . One wonders why this paper is permitted to
exist, since the law in West Germany provides for the suppression of
anti-Semitic propaganda.
•
•
•
ANTI-SEMITISM IN GERMANY: Jews in Germany, when one
speaks with them, claim that they do not feel any anti-Semitism in
their daily life and in contact with Germans . . . A Jewish business-
man in Cologne, owner of a large clothing store, assured me, that his
clients are practically all Germans who know that he is Jewish .. -
A Jewish woman dentist in Hannover, who was liberated from the
Bergen-Belsen camp and remained in Germany, asserted that she
handles at least 25 clients a day, most of them Germans who know that
she is Jewish and show no anti-Jewish feelings . . . Similar statements
I heard from Jewish physicians, big businessmen and Jews who hold
ordinary jobs in German establishments .. . The number of the Jews
in Germany today is too small to make anti-Semitism an issue . . .
In 'addition, even among hard-core Nazis—who admit that they still
have a weak spot for Hitler—one finds that they now disapprove of
Hitler's anti-Semitism . . . They now believe that Hitler could have
conquered the entire world if he were not foolish enough to persecute
the Jews ... Their way of thinking goes something hie this: "We were
the only nation in the world that knew the secret of the atom bomb and
were practically about to complete the manufacturing of this bomb
. . . If Hitler would not have driven out Einstein and other Jewish
scientists who began work in the United States on the atom bomb,
we would have been the only country possessing this bomb and would
have been in a position to threaten the world with it ... Not only would
we have then conquered countries like England and the Soviet Union,
but we would have even dominated the United States which did not
suspect that we were on the verge of completing the atom bomb, until.
Einstein drew President Roosevelt's attention to it . . Thus, by
persecuting the Jews and by forcing people like Einstein into exile,
Hitler made the biggest mistake which led to his losing the war instead
of winning it." . . . This type of thinking is noted among Germans of
extreme nationalistic feelings who still cannot get used to the idea
that Germany was defeated in the last war . . . Basically they are
now interested in getting back lost German territories and in reestab-
lishing Germany as a military power . . . They are no friends of the
J ews and some of them are strongly opposed to the payment of com-
pensation to Nazi victims . . . But their anti-Jewish feelings are not
of the Hitler type . . . Whether propaganda for a Hitler-type anti-
Semitism will be resurrected in Germany in case of an economic depres-
sion depends to a very great extent on how the present Bonn Govern-
ment will deal with the neo-Nazi movement.