Purely Commentary
Few American presidents will have been quoted as
often and at as much length as Harry S. Truman.
We keep reminiscing, and there is another impor-
tant incident in Truman's record vis-a-vis Jewry, Zion-
ism and the state of Israel that needs to he recorded
anew.
While the Palestine Partition resolution had already
been adopted by the United Nations on Nov. 29, 1947,
there were efforts in the subsequent months to reduce
the decision to a minimum. Some even sought to nullify
it. There were American representatives at the UN who
pursued an anti-Zionist position.
It became necessary to resume the Jewish pressures
for justice.
As president at that time of the American Associa-
tion of English-Jewish Newspapers, I was responsible
for a nationwide campaign to direct appeals to Presi-
dent Truman not to abandon the established American
policy in support of Jewish statehood.
My appeal to all newspapers was to devote the
front pages of their newspapers to the appeal to Presi-
dent Truman.
Our own plea, in our Issue of March 5, 1948, is
Oar Now
T•I•phoso
Homier:
WCkeieen1
54
reproduced here. It was exactly two months before
Israel's Declaration of Independence.
The newspapers responded, almost unanimously.
Not only the English-Jewish press whose spokesman I
was at the time, but the Yiddish and Hebrew newspa-
pers also published similar appeals.
This leads us to the question involved in pressures.
The anti-Zionist line has been followed even into
the second decade of Israel's existence. Life Magazine
was among the outspoken critics of Israel. Its editorial
on "The Crisis in Zionism" was especially shocking.
There were protests from many Jews, and Life's edi-
tors responded, in defense of their position, with a
stock letter in which they quoted from President
Truman's Memoirs in which he wrote:
"The persistence of a few of the extreme Zionist
leaders—actuated by political motives and engaging
in political threats—disturbed and annoyed me. In-
dividuals and groups asked me, usually in rather
quarrelsome and emotional ways, to stop the Arabs,
to keep the British from supporting the Arabs, to
furnish American soldiers, to do this, that and the
other . . . The simple fact is that our policy was
THE JEWISH NEWS
A Weekly Review 14 of Jewish Events'
Maw Lame
laeHer amorv••
VOLUME 0-440, IS
A Journalistic Experience During the Truman Regime
in the Final Struggle for Israel's Statehood .
Issue
Affecting Pressures and Obligation to Seek Justice
2114 homes.* 114dg.,
12.4,•a 24, Mid:9o, Mord 1, 1944
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Re: The Honor of the United States
On the Palestine Question
Dear Mr. President:
for Jewish nationhood. Only 6,000 square miles of the original
40,000-square-mile territory of Palestine has been allocated for
the Jewish State. We accepted the decision in the interest of
peace. But even this mite is begrudged the Jewish survivors
from Nazism. And now the Mufti-inspired Nazi-dominated ele-
ments are declaring war on the Jewish community of Palestine
to prevent the enactment of this minimum of justice.
We ask you, Mr. President, to study the fear that is
In the name of the traditional American policy of defending
the politically persecuted and of protecting the right of homeless
people to homes and security, we make this urgent appeal to you
to act promptly in accordance with the established policy of the
United, States to assure speedy implementation of the United
Nations decision on Palestine'and to instruct our representatives
to the UN to insist upon the immediate reconstitution of the Jew,
ish State-
There are grave dangers for the 700,000 Jews in Palestine.
They are like the early American Frontiersmen. They already
have created the foundation for the Jewish state. But unlike the
early American pioneers they are without guns, without means
of defense, their meager weapons constantly being threatened
w ith
confiscation by an unfriendly mandatory power whose offi-
cial- are giving encouragement to invading mercenary armies
which are becoming a serious menace to life and property in the
Land of Israel.
The issue is one of morality. While enemies within the con-
fines of Palestine are openly trading in war materials, Jews in
Palestine are at the mercy of the invading hordes from neighbor-
ing countries whose attacks are in defiance of decisions of the
United Nations. They also are pawns in the hands
of the mandatory's police and military who refuse
to defend them while taking their last weapons
panying picture, (below), carrying small children out
of the
Jerusalem shopping district where 54 people were killed and
300 wounded as a result of • bombing for which we bold
responsible not only the Arab aggressors, but also the British
authorities.
We ask you in the name of justice and decency to exert
your -inflonsse so that there should be an end to aggression
which must lead to even more severe outrages and to help restore
peace by demanding the immediate recognition of the right to
statehood of the 700,000 Jews in Palestine and The 1,000,000
survivors from Nazism in Europe.
The fate of these people, Mr. President, is in YOUR hands!
The security of another 800,000 Jews in Arabic countries also is
in YOUR hands. By acting firmly you can assure the end of
tyranny and aggression. Delay will lead to destruction. Firm-
ness and insistence on justice will help restore peace.
In the name of humanity and justice, Mr. President, we ask
you to act—to insist upon the immediate implementation of the
UN decison, to lift the embargo so that the Jewish defenders may
have weapons for self-protection, to repudiate
aggression and
tyranny.
21.1„,ii
from them.
We appeal to you, Mr. President, and through
you to the responsible officials in our State De-
partment, to stand firm for • policy of fair play and
justice and to reject the pressure that cornea from
elements which are guided principally by profits
from oil. The oil which stands in the path of justice
for the
Jewish people already is mixed with Jewish
blood, and we plead with you to return to your
humanitarian policy of supporting the decision of
the United Nations and to help enforce peace. Any
other stand can only mean • victory for the fascist
klealogy of force and brutality, the destruction of
the United Nations and another world war.
The UN decision of Nov. 29, 1947, means a
PallIsnantle Angles. Only a fraction of the original
oisseasumal Me.
This posed the question of the right of citizens to
resort to pressures upon government officials.
It has always been our view that PRESSURES are
not only necessary and just but are obligatory,
President Truman, in every instance, came through
with the proper and right decisions. He rejected the
actions of his representatives at the UN. He obviated
their appeals for federalism, trusteeship and every
other effort to destroy the original American position
and eventually of statehood. The President was an-
noyed by pressures: that was a natural reaction. But
he actend wisely and, when occasion called, promptly.
Didn't the ultimate prove that appeals to justice, pro-
tests against indignities, pressures for action in times
as trying as the post-World War II era and the Holo-
caust justified the actions taken?
President Truman was pressured, and he came
through in every instance. There were moments of
hesitation, and some pressures were resented. But he
was a man of honor and his name will be recorded in
our history honorably and with gratitude.
•
•
•
Parade, the Sunday newspaper magazine, made very
interesting choices in its list, in its last edition of "Six
of America's Top Women." It is interesting to note that
the able congresswoman, Martha W. Griffiths, tops the
list which includes Rep. Shirley Chisholm, Marina von
Neumann Whitman, Elizabeth F. Neufeld and Dixy Lee
Ray.
territory which was to form the Jewish state has been allocated
written in the eyes of the Jews, who are shown in the accom-
an American policy rather than an Arab or Jewish
policy. It was American because it aimed at the
peaceful solution of a world trouble spot. It was
American because it was based on the desire to
see promises kept and human misery relieved. As
the pressure mounted, I found it necessary to give
instructions that I did not want to be approached
by any more spokesmen for the extreme Zionist
cause."
Barbara Wertheim Tuchman as Selectee
Among 'Six of America's Top Women
An Appectl for Justice to
President Harry S. Truman
To the President of
The United States
By Philip
Slomovitz
The sixth in the list con-
cerns us especially. Barbara
Tuchman, in our view, is
one of America's most bril-
liant personalities, men and
women included. She is an
authority on China. For
"The Guns of August" she
won the Pulitzer Prize in
1963. She was worthy of a
similar prize for her "Bible
and Sword."
It was in this latter study,
Barbara W. Tuchman
which merited two editions in a period of a single decade,
that she emerged as much an authority on the Middle East
as she is on China and the Far East.
When Israel was in difficulty several years ago, Mrs.
Tuchrnan's evaluative statements, her famous letter to
the New York Times defining the issues, were among
the most helpful in clarifying the problems that created
serious differences of opinion.
She had done much research, and she had served on
the editorial staff of the Nation. She was a Morgenthau-
her mother was the former Alma Morgenthau; and her
father, the late Maurice Wertheim, who was a noted art
collector, had served as president of the American Jewish
Committee.
It is good to know that Mrs. Tuchman is on optimist,
that she believed that "American society has enough
vitality and strength to find its way again_ toward the
road its origins set it on."
Barbara W. Tuchman, in our view, is one of the
great women of our time. We have reason to be proud
that she is a fellow American and a Jewess with a heritage
for justice.
•
•
•
Lester Pearson's Role in the UN
For his role of having advocated the establishment
of the United Nations Expeditionary Force which, until
1967, supervised whatever peace could possibly be as-
sured on the Israel-Egyptian border, Lester B. Pearson
of Canada was awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize for 1957.
He earned it as well as the
late Ralph Bunche merited
the similar coveted prize
when an armistice was
signed on the Island of
Rhodes in 1949.
The late Mr. Pearson was
among the just at the UN.
He was not venomous. He
played a fair role in sup-
port of partition in 1947,
when the road first was
paved for the rebirth of the
state of Israel, and he ear-
nestly sought amity.
Lester B.-Pearson
In the story of the UN, as in his activities as Canada's
prime minister, and in numerous other roles, he was a
man of honor, and as such his memory will be respected
in Jewish annals.
2—Friday, Jan. 5, 1973
THE DETROIT JEWISH HEWS