THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Exciting Memoirs in 'Decade of Destiny'
By ALLEN A. WARSEN
"Decade of Destiny" (Con-
temporary Books) by Judah
L. Graubart and Alice V.
Graubart is a collection of
memoirs reflecting the era
of the Great Depression of
the 1930s.
The memorialists include
Emanuel Celler, Wilbur
Cohen, Hannah Haskell
Kreindler, Simon Weber
and others.
Emanuel Celler, Con-
gressman from New York
(1922-1972) and chairman
the House Judiciary
ommittee, relates his en-
counters with the late Pres-
ident Franklin Delano
Roosevelt. He describes his
opposition to FDR's court-
packing bill, fearing its
enactment would jeopardize
the Supreme Court's inde-
pendence.
In retaliation, Celler
notes, Roosevelt "did every-
thing to hurt me."
He, , moreover, "quar-
reled' with the ident
Pres
over his refusal to help
German Jewish refugees
to immigrate to Palestine.
Once the President told
Celler, .`Stop making
waves. I have an agreement
with Churchill that we will
surreptitiously allow Jews
to enter Palestine un-
limitedly. So forget about
Orthodox Group
Hits Berkowitz
NEW YORK — The use of
the name of the late Or-
thodox Jewish scholar,
Rabbi Aharon Kotler, by a
prominent Conservative
rabbi in raising funds for his
institutions was denounced
by Agudath - Israel of
America as "an unconscion-
able act of naked exploita-
tion of a Torah giant who
devoted his life to promot-
ing authentic Judaism and
combating the spurious
teachings of the Conserva-
tive movement." The Or-
thodox Jewish organization
demanded that the fun-
draising letter be im-
mediately retracted.
The controversy erupted
over a letter recently circu-
lated by the well-known
Conservative rabbi, Dr.
William Berkowitz, appeal-
ing for funds for the Insti-
tute of Adult Jewish Studies
sponsored by Cong. Bnai
Jeshurun, a Conservative .
synagogue he heads in
Manhattan.
The solicitation opens
with a paragraph referring
to "The late and unforgetta-
e Rabbi Aharon Kotler .. .
marked that Jewish his-
tory conclusively showed
that those Jewish areas
which were centers of Torah
— survived, and those
which were not — ended up
as footnotes in the history
books . . . . For Rabbi Kotler
foresaw on the horizon the
challenge that would soon
knock at American Jewry's
door . . . what worried Rabbi
Kotler, worries me as well,"
and the letter concludes
"Your act of support will
show that Torah learning
can flourish and that
through the programs' like
our Institute, American
Jewry will endure .
,
stirring up trouble. This
will be taken care of."
The above statement
turned out to be untrue.
Similarly, Celler "quar-
reled" with Cordell Hull,
then secretary of state, who
rejected his request that
more refugees than the
quota prescribed be admit-
ted to the U.S. He argued
that the immigration law
did not apply to displaced
persons.
. Wilbur Cohen, secret-
ary of health, education
and welfare under Presi-
dent Kennedy and at pre-
sent dean of the School of
Education of the Univer-
sity of Michigan, traces
the evolution of the So-
cial Security system from
its inception to its present
form. He' asserts that it
came about as a result of
the economic conditions
that then prevailed, and
as a means of reducing
poverty in the U.S.
The memorialist recalls
that his first job in
Washington in 1934, as a
research assistant, was
with the Cabinet committee
on economic security. His
yearly Salary, was less than
$1,500. A year later, he be-
came assistant to the head
of the Social Security Board.
He then describes the
Townsend plan. It advo-
cated that people aged 60
and older be given a pension
of $200 a month on condi-
tion that they spend it in 30
days. He also recounts Sen.
Huey Long's filibuster in
the Senate in 1935 that kil-
led the first appropriation
bill for Social Security.
Long demanded that Con-
gress pass his "Every Man a
King" program.
Wilbur Coheh records
some of the forces chat, by
their attacks on Social
Security, inadverte ntly
helped elect FDR to a second
term in -1936. They inc lud-
ed the automobile manufac-
turers who placed "stuffers
into their workers' checks,
saying their wages were
going to be cut one percent
by Social Security"; the fake
photo in the Hearst n ews-
papers "showing a chain
around a man's neck with
his Social Security number;
and Republican presi den-
tial nominee Alfred Land-
son's reference to Social Sec-
urity as a "cruel hoax."
Wilbur Cohen natur ally
is proud of his contribution
to Social Security w hich
from embryonic beginni ngs
became "the single biggest
governmental program."
Mrs. Hannah Haskell
Kreindler, secretary for
15 years to David
Dubinsky, president of
the ILGWU (Interna-
tional Ladies Garment
Workers' Union), recalls
the economic condition
of the working people in
1929; the union's strug-
gles with the employers
and its unionizing efforts.
She relates that during
Dubinsky's presidency the
union membership had
grown from 29,000 to
500,000.
Herbert, Lehman, then
lieutenant governor of New
York State and Fiorello
LaGuardia, mayor of New
York City, assisted the
ILGWU in its struggles. In
return, the union supported
them throughout their
terms of office.
Mrs. Kreindler writes
that the ILGWU helped
found the American Labor
Party, but left it when the
Communists took it over.
The union then was instru-
mental in organizing the
Liberal Party of New York
State "which is still operat-
ing and is still a good influ=
ence in state politics."
Simon Weber, editoI of
the Jewish Daily For-
ward, remembers Ab-
raham Cahan, the news-
paper's first and long-
time editor, as an able
And strong-willed
— "some called
him tyranical."
For -a long time, writes
Weber, the Forward staff
consisted of 70 local people
and 60 correspondents scat-
tered throughout the world.
In addition, the foremost
Yiddish writers worked for
the paper, including I.L.
Peretz, Sholom Asch, Ab-
raham Reisen and I.J.
Singer, the late brother of
Isaac Bashevis Singer.
Sholom Asch, Weber ob-
serves, though he was a
great writer, was ignorant
of Yiddish grammar and
syntax. When he started
writing his christological
novels, Cahan refused to ac-
cept them stating that the
Forward would never pub-
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lish "missionary works."
Weber recalls that in the
not too distant past there
were three great Yiddish
newspapers in New York:
the Forward, the Morning
Journal and the Tog, plus
the Freiheit.
Those were good days for
Yiddish lovers.
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