100%

Scanned image of the page. Keyboard directions: use + to zoom in, - to zoom out, arrow keys to pan inside the viewer.

Page Options

Share

Something wrong?

Something wrong with this page? Report problem.

Rights / Permissions

The University of Michigan Library provides access to these materials for educational and research purposes. These materials may be under copyright. If you decide to use any of these materials, you are responsible for making your own legal assessment and securing any necessary permission. If you have questions about the collection, please contact the Bentley Historical Library at bentley.ref@umich.edu

June 14, 1968 - Image 23

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1968-06-14

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

Author Suggests That US, Apathy. in WWII Being Repeated Against Negro

A people that knows intimately
the word genocide was warned
June 6, "If you react negatively to
a Negro moving on your block, you
have within you the same seeds
that brought on the destruction of
the Jews."
The speaker was Arthur Morse,
author of the best seller, "While
Six Million Died, a Chronicle of
American Apathy." He addressed
a public meeting of American Jew-
ish Congress at the Jewish Center
June 6.
Revelations about President
Franklin D. Roosevelt and his ad-
ministration's failure to help the
doomed Jews of E u r o p e have
made "While Six Million Died"
one of the most widely read and
reviewed books in some time. He
recounted evidence culled in three
years of research and, in explain-
ing "Why another book about the
destruction of the Jews?" said: "If
you want to prevent genocide in
the future, you must know how it
happened in the past . . . there
were others on the planet besides
Nazis and Jews.
"I do not mean to say that
six million Jews could have been
saved, but at least something
could have been done to rescue
more of them."
The State Department, in par-
ticular, was indicted by Morse,

who recounted again and again
incidents of the department's sup-
pression of evidence that Hitler's
"Final • Solution" was being put
into motion.
Serving as a reactor, Dr. Melvin
Small, professor of diplomatic his-
tory at Wayne State University,
said "We (the United States) were
not acting against our tradition,
but were in fact quite consistent.
In the 1940s, we lived with our
genocide problems, FDR couldn't
get an anti-lynch law passed in the
1940s.
"In Vietnam, millions are being
maimed, but the majority of
American people are acting toward
Vietnam's destruction like their
fellow Americans reacted toward
the Jews in the Second World War.
"What is anti-Semitism? FDR
wasn't anti-Semitic in the broad
general sense, but if L. K. Smith
was, then so was FDR.
"If the United States is like any
other power—and it is—we should
not care what happened in 1942-44.
But if our rhetoric means some-
thing, then there is reason to be
distressed."
Hubert Locke, director of re-
ligious affairs at Wayne State
University and a leader in the
Negro community, also suggested
that the same climate and apathy
of World War II prevails in
America.

LETTER BOX

I would like to express my con-
cern, dismay, and disapproval
with the decision of the Yeshiva
University and the Jewish Theo-
logical Seminary to drop their par-
ticipation in the military chaplain-
cy draft (5-24-68) I also am against
the American • Jewish Congress'
proposal "that the armed forces
replace military chaplains with
civilian religious counselors wear-
lug no uniforms and not subject to
military discipline."
The rabbinic students seem to
have a choice of whether or not to
serve in the armed forces and have
decided against serving in protest
to the Vietnamese war. They seem
to neglect the fact that the draftee
and college student (in most
eases) doesn't have this choice and
consequently serves his country.
Being that times are most difficult
both as a civilian and soldier, it is
the private who needs the inspira-
tion and comfort that only the
Jewish chaplain can give,

IVIAZ E L TOY

Lo Mrs. Rosenthal

Rosenthal of Beaufort. B.C.
this month's Mar-Pary Seder
; kee Winner! She is the
ted Bret prize vrinnerata40-
Spode bone china servlceand
ceremonial Seder plate.

IfOU CAN WIN,TOO!
ea* Mar-Pare carton fro, entry
jabs or write to Mar-Pare Man-

mineoll?o. O. Box 1095. Clucks.
45217.

Enjoy M A
_
ir
et

R-PARV

zgarveMargarin
urall.

Most Army posts are in deso-
late areas, training is rough, and
it is in the chapel where the
private can find consolation in
being with his fellow Jews. The
Jewish chaplains are setting poor
examples for those privates who
must serve.
Editor,
The Jewish News
Suggesting replacing military
chaplains with civilian religious
counselors wearing no uniform is
in my opinion a poor way out for
the chaplain refusing to serve. The
civilian rabbi cannot empathize
with the military system and the
problems of the private. Besides,
the civilian rabbi has concerns
with his own congregation.
I served in the Army in a com-
munity of 4,000 in Virginia. One of
my greatest remembrances was
the inspiration and learning I
gained from the chaplain and from
being associated with fellow Jews
at services. Some of my fellow
servicemen were Orthodox and
occasionally had details that con-
flicted with holy days. Their indi-
vidual protests sometimes accom-
plished nothing. The chaplain used
his position to intervene on the
private's behalf. Through the Jew-
ish Welfare Board, the chaplain
secured kosher provisions for the
Orthodox privates. During Pass-
over, our chaplain conducted a
seder, and the Jewish civilian
community had nothing. Our cha-
plain conducted services during
the summer months and the local
synagogue was closed.
I would hope, therefore, that
those chaplains opposed to the
Vietnamese war remember that
they're needed to help servicemen
less fortunate than themselves
with similar convictions. The 18-
year-old private, away from home
for the first time, needs the cha-
plain.
Sincerely,
STAN HEIMOWITZ,
711 W. Alexandrine
Box 303
Detroit, Michigan 48201

Israel's Sephardic Chief rabrbi,
YITZHAK. NISSIM, will be the
first chief rabbi of the Jewish
state to visit a Communist country
when he leaves here June 26 for
a visit to Romania. He will spend
four days in Bucharest as guest of
Romanian Chief Rabbi Moses
Rosen. Israel has diplomatic and
economic ties with Romania, the
only bloc country which did not
sever relations with her during
the Six-Day War.

"Genocide," he said, "is a con-
cern of black America today—a
concern expressed by large. num-
bers of black people of many per-
suasions . . . America's apathy
to Jewish genocide was second
only to the Germans' themselves.
There is a striking similarity today.
"There is resentment among
Americans to raise . the question
of genocide. If it could arise in a
modern technological society like
Germany, could it happen here?"
As to why Jews show support
of civil rights, Locke quoted the
statement of a Jewish businessman
to the philosopher Reinhold Nie-
buhr during the New Deal era:
" 'We Jews have a healthy in-

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, June 14, 1968-23

terest in the state of our society,'
To the hungry, every bitter thing
the businessman said, .`because if
that society becomes sick, it be- tastes sweet.—Proverbs 27
comes hysterical, - and we don't
feel safe in a hysterical society.'
See Our Fine Selection
Morse commented to the react-
ors: . "I think our tradition is a
of Spring & Summer
pretty good one. There have
Clothing;
Slacks, Sport
been injustices . . . We have
Coats and Accessories,
reached a discovery of our race
problems too late. But we also
Custom Fitting
have absorbed millions of people
from abroad . . .
"The torture of the moment is
because we are in the process of
HARVARD ROW MALL
making changes. I refuse to be
11 MILE & LAHSER
plunged into an abyss of self-pity
Open: Thurs. to 9 P.M.
when this society has the power
of regeneration."

MORES HUPPERT

You can see some of Somerset from
this Apartment balcony .. .
you owe it to yourself to see
ALL of

SOMERSET

2 & 3 Bedroom Apartments and Townhouses
from $195 to $375

• Carpeting • Landscaped Park
• Clubhouses • 9-Hole Golf Course Swimming • Tennis
• Complete Shopping including Saks Fifth Avenue



t

6A4, drafted
APPLIANCES

ffutitunirtt.
by •

BLOOMFIELD!,
HILLS

0

City of

Troy

BIG BEAVER
(14 MILE)

SOMERSET

PARK

MAPLE RD
EIS Mgt.



commutet rum

STATION TO DITIOIT
II WHOM

14 MILE RD.

111111= MI IP

• 5 Minutes From Downtown
Birmingham
• 15 Minutes From Northland

OPEN DAILY & SUN.
10 A.M. TO 9 P.M.

15 MILE (MAPLE) AND COOLIDGE

(in nearby Troy)

MODEL PHONE: 644-3200

SOME "ISM' PACK

11=• A F2T'M IE 1 ■ 11 -1F

BILTMORE DEVELOPMENT COMPANY

Back to Top

© 2024 Regents of the University of Michigan