,.
14—Friday, September 7, 1973 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
'Not to Die': Profile of Enzo Sereni
Author of WSU Volume Accuses
U.S. Jews of 'Servility' to FDR,
Thus Harming Aid to Refugees
The present volume tells
about S'ereni's life, from his
Another book on Enzo birth in Rome in 1905 to his
Sereni, "Per non Morire" tragic death in the Dachau
("Not to Die"), was publish- concentration camp in 1944.
ed on the initiative of the
Dr. Nahon has chosen the
Italian Zionist Federation.
testimonial method. Those
The book of some 300 who speak of Sereni are his
pages, conceived and edited friends, his schoolmates and
by Dr. U. S. Nahon, who had his close friends during his
also edited a previous vol- thoughtful and troubled ado-
ume on Sereni, published by lescence, the members of
the Mayer Foundation of Kibutz Givat Brenner, of
Milan, also contains a series which he was one of the
of studies on Jewry in Rome founders.
and in Italy generally.
Sereni himself speaks, as
does his wife and help-mate
Ada, who shared with him so
many of his daring enter-
prises and who came to Pal-
estine soon after her mar-
riage, leaving behind the
JERUSALEM—The former comforts and intellectual
ambassador to Denmark, pleasures of Rome for the
Esther Herlitz, is running for hard life of the work in the
a seat in the Knesset — and fields of Rehovot.
The selection of Enzo's
writings must certainly have
been a difficult and delicate
task undertaken by Nahon
and his collaborators. From
h i s unpublished writings,
they had to select letters and
diaries of Enzo's youth, and
articles appearing in various
magazines.
Sereni was not only the
first Italian halutz who made
his aliya in 1927, spurred
by , his sense of coherence
with his ideals, when nobody
in Italy thought of putting
ESTHER HERLITZ
them into practice. He was
she hopes she won't be an among the first to denounce
exception among women, who the dangers of Fascism to
now have 25 per cent repre- the Jews at a time when the
Italian dictatorship was not
sentation in Histadrut.
overtly anti-Semitic.
Mrs. Herlitz resigned from
Not satisfied with having
her present government job
become
a tiller of the soil, he
to run for the Knesset on the
Labor list. She has served as left the need to build trade-
acting head of the U.S. di- unions to protect the work-
vision of the ministry for ers. In the kibutz he saw one
of the loftiest forms of col-
foreign affairs, delegate to
lective life. He was also a
the UN, first secretary of the
pacifist and preached peace
Israel Embassy in Washing-
and understanding with the
ton and Israel consul in New Arabs. Enzo felt that Eretz
York.
Israel could not remain iso-
At age 50, she said, she lated and that it was the job
figures she's about ready to of those hailing from differ-
enter politics — after 25 ent countries - to maintain
years in government service contacts with their friends
on the executive side.
from their countries of or-
Mrs. Herlitz is a strong ad- igin, and to explain the scope
vocate of education and po- and the realizations of the
litical involvement for wom- Zionist work, both by ex-
en in Israel, particularly ample and by the written
those in the oriental com- and oral word.
munity.
The book follows Sereni's
Prof. Saul S. 'Friedman of the Nazi genocide "in be-
Youngstown (0.) State Uni- littling the efforts of the
versity delved into the rec- Emergency Conference to ex-
ords that reveal the tragedies pedite the rescue of the
of the refugees and American Trans-Dnistrian Jews." The
policy in dealing with the inner struggle in Zionist
problem during the 1938-1945 ranks over the Ben Hecht res-
period. His "No Haven for cue movement in line with
the Oppressed," his doctoral the Revisionists, the Bergson
thesis, published by Wayne and other groups May ac-
State University Press, re- count for the charges made in
views the struggles that en- this book. The proposals to
sued to secure American co- "purchase" Jewish lives with
operation in efforts to rescue tanks and other materials to
be given the Nazis may also
the victims of Nazism.
In essence, this work is an have much to do with these
indictment of American lead- accusations.
Is the author justified in his
ership. It charges that Presi-
dent Franklin D. Roosevelt generalizations? Both Wise
"could have pressed Congress and Silver are known to have
for some practical relief to raised their voices, to have
the Jews before the war, in- made demands for action.
cluding a lowering of immi- Yet, even Nahum G-oldmann
gration barriers, but he did had, at one time, admitted
not. He could have given that Jewish leadership was
more consistent support to lax in rescue tasks. Which
the Intergovernmental Com- accounts for the charges in
mittee on Refugees, but by this new volume in which
1939 it was difficult to assess Prof. Friedman also states:
where FDR stood from month
"Roosevelt may have been
to month on the continued an idol with clay feet, but he
existence of this hapless was no hyprocrite. Rather,
body. He could have spoken he was an astute politician
up on behalf of the Wagner with an ability to mesmerize
Bill or the measures favoring personal acquaintances. Re-
the admission of Polish, Jew- peatedly through this period,
ish or British children in he reacted to crises rather
1940, but did not. During the than acted. The measures of
war he could have pressed refugee relief which were en-
the British on Palestine. In- dorsed were generally hastily
stead he equivocated. He drawn and soon rejected.
could have opened North Often they represented the
Africa to Jewish refugees, thinking of Jewish advisers
but he balked . . . "
such as (Judge Samuel) Ro-
There is the charge that senman, (David) Niles, (Jus-
"some time during this seven tice Felix) Frankfurter,
year period, this man, so (Bernard) Baruch, (Eman-
idolized by the Jewish people, uel) Bloom and (Adolph)
might have issued a state- Berle, who felt a need to pro-
ment which said to them, 'We vide their 100 per cent Amer-
know and we will avenge icanism. Even if such meas-
you!' But he failed to do so." ures did not win the universal
But FDR is, in a sense, consent of the American Jew-
exonerated, because the au- ish community, FDR had the
thor of this study continues ability to manipulate t h e
to state that "FDR's failure Jewish factions against one
to live up to the Jews' ex- another."
The ransom question na-
pectations lies not so much
with the man but with the turally occupies Prof. Fried-
man's attention, and since
people who deified him."
Pr of. Friedman accuses that issue is yet to be re-
American Jews, against solved, in relation to the Joel
whom he levels the charge Brand and Rerso Kastner
that they committed errors cases (as negotiators with
in their efforts to save their Adolf Eichmann), the true
brethren, of "servility" to the guilt is yet to be resolved.
Prof. Friedman does cover
President.
Both Stephen S. Wise and a lot of ground in his re-
Abba Hillel Silver are de- search. An error such as
scribed as having fancied referring to David Niles, who
themselves as "influential was IFDR's and Harry Tru-
confidants of the man in the man's Jewish adviser, as
White House." This is a point C o m m e r c e Secretary is
that needs both clarification hardly excusable.
The facts presented in "No
a n d confirmation because
Wise was close to FDR and Haven for the Oppressed" by
Silver was unwelcome in the Prof. Friendman inspire
further study of the most
White House.
Furthermore, Prof. Fried- serious tragedy with which
man accuses Stephen Wise our people has been afflicted
of having suppressed news of in many centuries.
By GEORGIO ROMANO
Jerusalem Correspondent
Esther Herlitz
Eyes Knesset
flow of goods from Israel to
the administered territories
amounted to IL 570,000,000
($142,500,000) last year and
to IL 157,000,000 in the op-
posite direction.
The Arab zone exported
IL 57,000,000 worth of goods
through Israeli ports and IL
121,000,000 worth to the neigh-
boring Arab states via the
Jordan River bridges.
There are articles in the
new book by Moshe Sharett,
Shimon Kanowitz, Baruch
Azania, Haim Ben Asher,
Saadia Gelb, Shlomo Gro-
densky, Shlomo Hillel, Mar-
cello Savaldi, Yoel Palgi,
Dorothy and Pesach Bar
Adon, and by several Jewish
and non-Jewish Italians who
had met Enzo during various
periods of his life.
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Barleya said wages between
territories should be equal-
ized.
•• •
ill
rv
al ifeSE
Barley Sees Israel, Territories
as Free Market Area in Future
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Is-
rael's minister of commerce
and industry, Haim Barley,
said that he envisioned a free
market area between Israel
and the 'administered Arab
territories where goods will
flow without customs bar-
riers, even if, after peace is
achieved, they are on oppos-
ite sides of an international
frontier.
Addressing a press confer-
ence here, Barley stressed
that Israel and the territories
are by n o w economically
linked together. He said the
The moral sense enables
one to perceive morality—and
avoid it; the immoral sense
activities, step by step: the enables one to perceive im-
foundation of Kibutz Givat morality — and enjoy it. —
Brenner and the different Mark Twain.
missions which were later
assigned to him: in Germany
in 1931 and 1934, in the Unit-
For Custom Drapery
ed States in 1937, in Egypt
Cleaning, Call
in 1941, in Iraq in 1942-43
and finally in Italy in 1944.
There he contributed to the
formation of the parachuters'
corps which was to bring aid
to the Jewish people beyond
DRAPERY CLEANERS
the enemy lines, cut off from
other Jews, and to transmit
news to the Allies: a mission
"All That The Ramie Impli
in which Sereni took part,
and from which he never re-
turned.
We Also
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