2 Friday, January 6, 1978
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Purely Commentary
A Period of Economic Crisis in Israel
Israel's Underprivileged Remain American Jewry's Major
Obligation
How the Allied Jewish Campaign Through
UJA Holds the Key to the Solution of a Serious Problem
By Philip
Slomovitz
How Detroiters Can Help Solve a Serious Problem
Peace with her neighbors can be an accomplishment of realism only
when the Israelis themselves are without want and social indignities.
Israel has many serious economic problems. One of them Is the low
standard - of. housing for many among Sephardim who comprise a
majority of the population.
At a meeting of world leaders of the Keren Hayesod, the major
beneficiary of the United Jewish Appeal and the United Israel Appeal,
held in Paris, a plea for the less fortunate was sounded in a message
from Prime Minister Menahem Begin. The gathered, recognizing the
urgency of conditions that demand action; adopted a set of resolutions
in which they resolved:
• "To wholeheartedly endorse the call of Prime Minister Begin for
massive support of Diaspora Jewry in the realization of the goal set by
the government of Israel, i.e. to launch during Israel's 30th anniversary
year major activities for the elimination of sub-standard housing and
slum dwellings undermining the structure and endangering the proper
functioning of Israel's society and to engage in the rehabilitation of
neighborhoods in Israel;
• "To appeal, in this spirit, to each and every leader and contributor
to manifest, in the 30th anniversary of the state, the understanding and
solidarity he manifested in the Yom Kippur War, and to contribute to
the 1978 Campaign in a way commensurate with the call of the Prime
Minister, that its total income be doubled in comparison with last
year's..."
-
The accompanying photo provides a glimpse at the want that exists
among Israelis. The claim to a desire to assure social' equalities with
the aid that comes from the United Jewish Appeal and its Detroit pro-
vider, the Allied Jewish Campaign, can prove honorable only with a
, serious effort to eliminate the want thus portrayed.
The Allied Jewish Campaign now in progress is the medium for
solving this problem for a people struggling not only for securityyn the
borders and for amity with neighbors but also to eliminate want. It is
not enough to shout "hurrah" when diplomats meet to solve the issues
involved in the obstacles for peace. There must also be an internal
security, a sense of social equality within the land. This can be provided
by generosity from those with a dedicated kinship to Israelis.
George F. Pierrot: World
Traveler, Raconteur, Pioneer
in Christian Zionist Ranks
An appreciative community will join in fun with George
F. Pierrot, at the recognition to be accorded him at the
Institute of Arts Wednesday, on the occasion of his 80th
birthday. It'll be more, much morse, than a birthday party.
For his friends and associates it will be a time to reminisce
about the many cultural gifts he has made to the two
generations who benefited from his labors since his arrival
here more than half a century ago.
His contemporaries will bless him for his earliest labors,.
when he edited The American Boy—Youth's Companion
Magazine that served the youth and helped to educate them
as Americans with pride in their heritage.
- -
Then came the generation that
4 gained so much from his World Adven-
ture Series which educated attendees
about the world at large.
It was as part- of these series that
men like the late Julien Bryan exposed
the horrors that emanated from Rus-
sian oppressions and tragedies in Po-
land; and brought the message of what
was then Palestine as an emerging
Jewish National Home.
In later years it was the Israel of
modernity his guests featured in the
travelogues at the Art Institute. It is
because he was himself a world trav-
Pierrot as a 21- eler with a keen ability to retain what
he had witnessed and studied that his
year-old Navy
deckhand in 1919. audiences were able to acquire a
knowledge of events and accom-
plishments in the state of Israel.
It was as a traveler that George was motivated to meet
the high-ranking personalities who figured prominently in
the historic events. In his travels he had met with Gamal
Abdel Nasser and there was a time when he believed
Nasser would be the first to make peace with Israel. The
subsequent events inspired the sponsorship of notable
lectures with informative messages from the Holy Land
emerging into the redeemed"Land of Israel.
George was among the leaders in the early activities of
the American Christian Palestine Movement for the re-
demption of Israel.
At the party on Wednesday his skill as a raconteur, as a
master of wit, will be given emphasis. He must not be
forgotten as one who recognized the merits of cosmolitan-
ism when he labored with many of us in the joint efforts
conducted by Sigma Delta Chi with the Society of the
Occident and the Orient, the former - a major fraternal
order of American journalists and the latter an association
that included newsmen representing some 33 countries
throughout. the world. He should be remembered as a
pioneer in the American Christian Palestine Movement.
The combined roles give him added glory as he receives
commendations on his 80th birthday.
During the years of. Pierrot's sponsorship of the World
Adventure series., his name became closely linked to the
Art Institute, and it is appropriate that the 80th birthday
party in his honor should be under the direction of the
Founders Society of the Art Institute. Whatever the pro-
ceeds from the party towards the Institute will be an added
mark of tribute to George.
Duty Never to End Exposing
Nazi Crime...Teaching the Holocaust
Because Nazistri has really been completely extirpated,
the duty to keep exposing its dangers remains an obligation
for humang everywhere. Whether in Skokie or in Detroit,
the emergence of even a single symptom of the crime must
be treated with horror.
The sick mind is in evidence here and the condemnation
of the re-emergence of the evidence of the past transported
to Detroit broughVforth the proper condemnation from the
responsible elements among the socially-minded of this
community. Especially Valuable in the impressive state-
ment issued by Jews and non-Jews is the appeal it
contained for the introduction of proper Holocaust studies
in the Detroit-area schools. -
If the memories of what h transpired could only be
kept alive! Yet, when Holocaust studies were introduced in
Philadelphia and New York there were the Nazi-minded
who protested!
But a retired American army officer, recalling the
agonies he underwent during the liberation of the inmates
of concentration camps after World War II, made one of the
strongest appeals for programs dealing with the Holocaust.'
U.S. Army Col. Walter J. Fellenz (Ret.) of San Antonio,
Tex., in a stirring statement published in the New York
Times, recalled his experiences at the conclusion of the last
war and expressed his views, supperting Holocaust Studies:
I am pleased to read in recent issues of the New
York Times that the Board of Education of New York
City is planning to introduce a mandatory course of
study in all city high schools of the Holocaust—the
slaughter of six million Jews and 7'/2 million gentiles
by Nazi Germany during the period 1933 to 1945. I
understand that Philadelphia is planning the same
action in its schools. Good for them!
I had the experience of leading the combat infantry
troops that overran the infamous Dachau concentration
camp, jug west of Munich on tbe 0 slay otAPril,
1945. I was the first American camp commander of this
death mill. My troops found 32,000 live bodies and
30,00t dead bodies there.
Now, 32 1/2 years later, I am still shocked by what I
saw during my 16 hours at the liberation of this
shameful place. To me, the Holocaust was one of the
most shameful crimes since man walked this earth.
More shameful, however, is the fact that the forces of
evil are trying to deny that this HolOcaust ever took
place.
History is the truthful recording of the facts as they
are. Mankind must learn from the tragedies of the
past; otherwise it is doomed to repeat them.
Our children are the adult America of tomorrow.
They must be factually informed of the Holocaust so
they can prevent a recurrence.
In San Antonio, six lines are devoted to the Holocaust
in our high-school textbooks. I- hope Texas will follow
the leads presented by New York City and Phila-
delphia.
In September of 1977 I made a tour of Europe to see
again my battle areas. I spent half a day touring
Dachau concentration camp. It is a well-preserved
historical site/museum. This memorial is supported by
the Bavarian government. Thousands of tourists and
school children tour this site weekly. They are seeing
the truth as it was.
The German people could bulldoze this place out of
existence in three days and-then deny that the site ever
existed and the atrocities were ever performed. The
Germans have preserved it. They have a healthy
motive: The Holocaust did happen. Here it is! Let us
see that it does not happen again. This is Dachau's
message to mankind.
I have noticed, this last year, that many so-called
Nazi groups are being organized in our larger cities;
Chicago, Houston, San Francisco and Los Angeles have
been prominent in the news. In addition; numerous
hate booklets smearing Jews are on the streets. Many
say the Holocaust is a Jewish lie.
What are thereal motives of these people ? Are they .
possessed by evil? Sadly, I truly think so.
No, I am not a Jew; I am but an old soldier. And I
congratulate the authorities in New York City and
Philadelphia for plans to teach the Holocaust in their
public high school programs. I also take off my hat in
respect to the current generation of German and
Austrian people who have the moral guts to tell it as it
was.
This is an admonition and a plea addressed not to Amer-
ica alone but to all the nations and to mankind at
large. It spells the call of not forgetting, so that never again
-should the- ors of the 1930s- and 4940§. be. Teneate