THE JEWISH NEWS
LISPS 275-5201
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of July 20. 1951
Copyright „g
"- The Jewish News Publishing Co.
Member of American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, National Editorial Association and
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Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865. Southfield, Mich. 48075
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PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
HEIDI PRESS
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Associate News Editor
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the seventh day of Krisan. 5741, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Leviticus 14:1-15:33. Prophetical portion -, II Kings 7:3-20.
Candle lighting, Friday, April 10, 6:49 p.m.
VOL. LXXIX, No. 6
Page Four
Friday, April 10, 1981
BIGOTRY WITHOUT LIMITS
Bigotry has no limitations. It often appears to
be growing, even within the spheres of civilized
society. It is on the rampage. The evidence is in
what appears to be the expanding campaign to
deny that there was a Holocaust.
Dramatization of the heroic account of the
role that was played by Raoul Wallenberg in-the
rescuing of tens of thousands of Jews reveals
one of the most moving accounts of anti-Semitic
terrorism on the part of both the Nazi barbar-
ians in Hungary and their Hungarian cohorts.
Yet there were the sick minds who utilized the
occasion to repeat anew the hate-inspired de-
nials that Jews were ever molested. The venom
keeps spreading in some ranks, and is given
credence in what may well be an effort at reviv-
ing the Nazi ideology, that what is charged
against Hitlerism is a Jewish invention.
This is happening in spite of the official Ger-
man record. It is the German source that pleads
guilty to the mass murder of Eleven Million, the
Six Million 'Jews among them. This is inerasa-
ble. The tragedy is that it is heard and therefore
must be listened to, compelling repudiation.
A most responsible West German periodical,
the German Tribune published in Hamburg, in
its March 1 issue, carried an account of the
trials of Majdanek criminals:
"Majdanek concentration camp, the venue of
war crimes that have been the subject of pro-
ceedings at a Dusseldorf court for more than five
years, was many things to many men.
It was, for instance, a row of stables where
thousands of Jewish prisoners slept on straw in
summer and vegetated under paper bags in
winter if they were lucky.
It was also a courtyard where SS men had
labor gangs assemble, number off and be de-
tailed for duties every morning and evening
beneath the gallows.
It was a spot known as the rose garden where
prisoners were selected and detailed for life or
death. And crematoriums and gas chambers
and barbed wire and high-voltage lines and
death blocks and invalid blocks.
"It was a special model hospital laid on for
inspection by the International Red Cross and
any number of mass graves hidden away in the
forests a few miles distant.
"Majdanek concentration camp was on the
northern outskirts of Lublin, Poland, and-be-
tween December 1941 and spring 1944 it cost
more than 250,000 people their lives.
"Most were victims of organized mas murder,
being killed by carbon monoxide poisoning or
Zykon B, a mixture of cyanide and hydrogen, in
what were said to be baths.
"Epidemics, hunger and thirst were the death
of many more, but a substantial number were
beaten to death, hanged, drowned and shot in
frightful episodes of inhuman excess by SS
guards.
"After Dusseldorf court proceedings lasting
five years and two months public prosecutors
Weber and Amberg have begun to summarize
the evidence heard more than 35 years after the
event."
It is one of the immense tragedies of this gen-
eration that this had to be recorded. It is re-
printed from a German source. It is an official
record. Yet there are the sick-minded who
would deny it with the intention of reviving the
barbarism of an era that is chronicled in human
records among the beastly occurrences of all
times.
Multiplying the recollections of the tragedies
is the necessity to keep reminding the genera-
tions following the Nazi terror, lest it be forgot-
ten.
As long as the bigoted are on the rampage,
these facts must not be forgotten. Lest even a
fraction of the world population should forget
them, let it be repeated. The sick minds who
would deny them may overlook the record. The
civilized world must not, will not!
UNESCO CENSORSHIP
Addressing the mid-year meeting of the
Inter-American Press Association, in St. Philip,
Barbados, Miami Herald Editor George Beebe
charged that UNESCO was trying to exclude
the West from its decision-making process in
achieving what has been termed as the New
World Information Order. The accusation is
that a protection proposal made by UNESCO
contrary to its earlier rejection resulting from
protests by Western editors, including the
United States, against the Soviet-Third World
attempt to impose censorship on news, was in
Beebe's words "a deluxe booby trap" and would
allow governments to control the press.
This expose of UNESCO corresponds with the
anti-Israel discriminations that were practiced
by that United Nations agency. It was in re-
pudiation of the earlier actions that the U.S.
Senate voted to withdraw financial support
from UNESCO. While such support has since
been restored, the renewed attempts by the UN
agency to impose a censorship on the free press
could well be a signal to American legislators to
give credence to undemocratic aims which
threaten freedom of the press. The U.S. Senate
is duty-bound to review the problem and if the
suppression of freedoms is the aim of the major-
ity dominating the UNESCO, American dollars
should be withdrawn. This country must not be
a party to medievalism and suppression of the
free flow of news throughout the world.
GUN CONTROL
In the ABC-TV interview from Israel, Sun-
day, Moshe Dayan made a strong appeal for gun
control.
American Jewish organizations overwhelm-
ingly share that view.
If an Israeli general can advocate gun control,
considering that in his country self-defense is
much more compelling than anywhere else,
than the lesson should be properly learned also
in this country.
Even if the President is reluctant to support
the movement, there should be pressure for gun
control.
`Our City' Makes Jews
of San Francisco Proud
"Our City" expresses pride. It is the history of a community that
began with a pioneering spirit and now thrives on memories.
This is the story of the Jews of San Francisco elaborately detailed
as a venture that grew out of the era of pioneers whO invaded and
literally captured the frontiers.
Irena Narell, the author of "Our City," published in San Fran-
cisco by Howell-North Books, is prominent in her home town as a
television and radio broadcaster. Her compilation chronicled the
pioneering families, and their descendants retain importance-in the
history of San Francisco and the records of the Jewish community.
While the chief characters in the book are the Gerstalls and the
Slosses, the events that marked their activities create a history of
interest to American Jewry:
The pioneering families came to San Francisco during the Gold
Rush era. They were involved in the growth of the community and are
deservedly rated as the creative forces of "Our City."
There are numerous legacies perpetuated in the stories of these
families and the numerous others who were the creative forces of a
great city.
Personalities like the Zellerbachs, the records of some of them
figuring prominently in California history, Adolph Sutro, Levi
Strauss and a score of others, keep recurring in the development of the
city and the state.
An interesting chapter in "Our City" not to be ignored deals with
the achievements of Strauss. He was 24 when he came to San Fran-
cisco. He brought merchandise from New York, sold it for gold dust,
then turned to making canvas. But the need was for pants and that's
how he became the manufacturer of Levis, the pants which retain his
name to this day. How he enrolled tailors, established a manufactur-
ing dynasty and created a name for himself and his family is recorded
fascinatingly in this volume.
The founding of synagogues, the philanthropic activities, the
relationships between the original settlers, the German Jews, and the
subsequent arrivals from Eastern Europe, add to the American scene
the Jewish participation in creative efforts.
While the economic growth is linked with the Jewish seal(
and the closeness of their allied activities with the non-Jews, many
the resultants also leading to mixed marriages, the over-all
effectS echo the experience of Jews on a larger scale, in some respects
continuity of Jewish interests, in others the eventual threat of disap-
pearance from the Jewish scene of pioneers who have built cities and
industries.
Family charts, unusual portraits in dress of the early era, a
bibliography which denotes the extensive research done in the ac-
cumulation of material for this volume, all emphasize the vastness of
the subject and the dedication of the author in making her . subject a
labor of love.
Many manuscripts provide the informative backgrounds for this
story, in addition to oral statements with reminiscences by legators,
descendants of the pioneers, historians.
The indexed personalities and events add factual data about a
great city and its Jewish community and its noteworthy personalities.
The author should be credited with not pulling punches when
recording the generosities of the immensely wealthy. The philan-
thropic are credited, the niggardly exposed.
These facts attest to a great story entitled "Our City."