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Friday, November 15, 1985
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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
PURELY COMMENTARY
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
S enator Cranston Fights To Overcome Antagonists
A fundraising campaign launched by
U.S. Senator Jesse Helms of North
Carolina to defeat U.S. Senator Alan
Cranston in his campaign for re-election
in California in 1986 drew a reply to the
North Carolina who is extending his role
to another state. Cranston declared this
week: "I don't intend to go. I have been
in tough fights before, fights for the sur-
vival of Israel, civil rights, a clean
environment, separation of Church and
State, fights against Helms who has a
bitterly anti-Israel record — and all who
would turn their backs on our demo-
cratic ally in the Middle East."
With the approach of 1986, several
similar political campaigns will be in the
offing. Cranston's may be among the
most serious for Israel's friends.
In tracing the career of Senator
Cranston, many interesting facts will be
in the limelight.
Emma Truly
A Lady Of Valor
A woman of worth who
can find? For her price
is far above rubies.
- Proverbs 31:10
Among the most intriguing experi-
ences of Senator Cranston is one- that
could get lost in the archival shuffles.
There is one recently recovered that
creates genuine fascination. One such
"lost" memoir was recently recovered
and revealed in the nationally circulated
Parade Magazine (July 14, 1985). In its
"Personality Parade" edited by Walter
Scott, Cranston was reintroduced in his
first career, as a journalist. In answer to
a question by Arnold J. Celick, of For-
esthill, Calif., whether it is true that
Cranston "was the only American ever
sued by Hitler and that Hitler won?" ap-
peared the following reply:
Alan Cranston was a foreign
correspondent roaming Europe
for International News Service in
1937. After Cranston returned to
this country, he and a friend
Holocaust, the concentration camps'
folksongs are perpetuated in the music
recorded by Emma. It is one of the un-
forgettable contributions made by her to
the developing Jewish culture.
The musical factor will soon be re-
corded academically when Wayne State
University reportedly associates her with
its school of music. WSU already owes
her a debt for many publications, the
appearance of which were made possible
by the Schaver generosity.
It is the Zionist label that is the
chief ideal in the Schaver record. For
four decades Emma and Moshe were the
First Family in Labor Zionism. They
rose in the ranks with Presidents and
Prime Minster's of Israel. They were the
true pioneers, Halutzim in the noblest
sense of the word. Their names are inde-
lible in Zionism.
It is seldom if ever mentioned and it
is well to admire Emma as a linguist. In
her operatic career she mastered Italian
and French. In her Jewish environment
she learned to love Yiddish and simul-
taneously to master it and Hebrew on - a
par with English.
Such is an abbreviated record of a
marvelous person and she is therefore
always given the high acclaim in the
proverbial salute as one of Jewry's
Women of Valor.
Emma Schaver
The proverbial salute is often at-
tested to the valorous women who helped
glorify Jewish existence.
Emma Lazaroff Schaver has often
been saluted as an eishet chayil in the
highest sense of the glorified terms de-
scribed in Proverbs. The evidence of her
dignified role in Jewish life is especially
in evidence as she is being acknowledged
in leadership as an octogenarian.
Emma's career as a leader in Jewish
womanhood is unmatched in many
spheres. Perhaps all her gifts to her
people stem from a love for learning she
acquired in her home. It was a Chassidic
setting and the Lazaroff spirit was
demonstrated in everything she did.
It all becomes specifically evident as
her image is especially portrayed in the
honors being extended to her by the
Chabad-Lubavitch. From very childhood
she imbibed the meaning and influence
of the three words — Chachma, Bina,
Daat — wisdom, understanding, knowl-
edge: that comprise the three letters of
Chabad. And from the Chassidic mood
developed the love for music, her opera-
tic charm, her dominance as a
folksinger.
In the dramatic period in history,
with the tragic marks left by the
Park Amphitheater
Salutes The Cohns
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Senator Cranston and his 1939 version
of "Mein Kempf."
brought out and sold, in tabloid
form, an abridged translation of
Hitler's book Mein Kampf (My
Battle) for 10 cents a copy, hop-
ing to get the truth of Hitler's
plans to the American public.
Judge Avern Cohn
Establishment of the Irwin and
Sadie Cohn Outdoor Amphitheater at
Independence Oaks County Park in
Clarkston, to be marked at a formal
ceremony on Sunday at the home of
Bunny and Sid Goldman, adds anew to
the state's recognition and appreciation
for the many causes which counted the
support of the distinguished Cohn fam-
ily.
Senator Cranston has a courageous
career as a legislator. His early jour-
nalistic career lends emphasis to a back-
ground that provided him with guidance
in treating the foreign problems that
often challenge a man in public life,
especially in the high rank of sena-
torship. His antagonist, Helms of North
Carolina, will have a tough time pre-
judicing Californians' minds about an
able and highly-experienced Senator.
While the Irwin Cohns themselves
pioneered in many causes, their children,
Judge and Mrs. Avern Cohn, followed
the same paths, and their generous gift
contributed toward the establishment of
the Cohn Amphitheater.
George A. Googasian, president of
the Oakland Park Foundation, acclaim-
ing the approaching event, recalls that
Irwin Cohn did much -fishing at Crooked
Lake near the site of the proposed
amphitheater. This is of more than pass-
ing interest because Irwin Cohn was not
only a devoted supporter of numerous
religious causes and served on numerous
city and state commissions as an appoin-
tee of mayors and governors, but also
sponsored whatever would encourage
sportsmanship among youth. It was an
outgrowth of his personal interests, and
being a fisherman links him with the
area where the amphitheater will bear
his and his wife's names.
.
Establishment of the amphitheater
lends emphasis also to the realities of
the Cohn family's devotions. Avern has
always shared the family devotions, the
honors being accorded the Cohn name
having a family unity., Everything
linked with their names are measures of
the encouragement they gave to Jewish
and civic causes. The salutes to the
Cohns on Sunday will truly be echoes of
labors related to a remarkable family
during most of this century.
Albert Einstein: Sage
In Zionism, Humanism
Irwin Cohn
Cranston's version contained all
the vicious anti-Semitic portions
that Hitler's publishers in Boston
had previously and carefully de-
leted from their U.S. edition of
Mein Kampf. They thereupon sued
Cranston for copyright infringe-
ment and obtained an injunction
halting the sale of his more accu-
rate tabloid.
Albert Einstein inscribed his name
in so many human causes, his identifica-
tion with Zionism was so positive and
activist, he was so outspokenly pacifistic,
that the character of the great scientist
who remains famous for the Theory of
Relativity dominates the history of this
century. He was so fearless, he con-
fronted McCarthyism — the reactionary
hatreds of Senator Joseph McCarthy of
the dark years of the beginning of the
sixth decade of the 1900s.
So much that has seldom even been
referred to is included in the record of
his life, compiled under the title Einstein
in America (Crown Publishers) by Jamie
Sayen, that this book immediately as-
sumes great importance as an historical
document.
Even if many other Einstein activi-
ties were to be overlooked, there is one
that is of great importance. It is the re-
velation that Albert Einstein played an
Albert Einstein
important part in trying to secure the re-
lease of Raoul Wallenberg from Russian
imprisonment.
After a fairly thorough, even if brief,
explanation of Raoul Wallenberg's record
as a rescuer of Jews from Nazi bar-
barities, author Sayen reveals:
In May 1947 journalist
Dorothy Thompson wrote Eins-
tein to acquaint him with the
case and solicit his assistance in
the efforts to free Wallenberg.
Her letter documents the prevail-
ing view that Einstein was a Rus-
sian sympathizer. She wrote:
"Your long friendship and wish
for cooperation with the Soviet
Union, may now stand you in
good stead in performing an act
of signal justice." Einstein de-
clined to act at that time because
he did not know any Russian of-
ficial and he felt that any action
he might take would adversely
affect the situation.
A week later he received an-
other request for assistance from
Wallenberg's half-brother, Guy
von Dardel, who was a physics
student at Cornell University.
Einstein replied on June 6 that
until he could find a realistic way
to be of help, it was important to
avoid any action which might be
harmful to Wallenberg. Speculat-
ing that the Russians were living
in a "perpetual persecution com-
plex" which caused them to sus-
pect all foreigners of espionage,
Einstein concluded that the only
reasonable approach would be to
open personal channels in an in-
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