PURELY COMMENTARY
Molotov
Continued from Page 2
time, and there seemed to be a cooling
off about that time. I met with him in
San Francisco and had an appointment
for close to 10 p.m. on the day of the
Molotov press conference in his suite in
the Mark Hopkins Hotel. Mrs. Vanden-
berg was in an adjoining room prepar-
ing to serve a meal. He was dressed
formally. He was flushed. I learned
later he had already been ill, suffering
from a malignancy.
Contrary to previous intimacies, he
would not discuss Palestine and
Zionism with me. Who at the time
really envisioned success for the Zionist
cause and the soon-to-emerge State of
Israel? All he talked about was the
Soviets. Then he spoke out:
"I have met with Molotov several
times. I just left a conference with him.
He did not get away with a thing, and
he never will!"
That was the approach to the
USSR at the time and it has continued
since then. It was Vandenberg versus
Molotov and it really was, commencing
with President Harry Truman, the U.S.
challenging the USSR policies and tac-
tics.
In San Francisco, during the first
year of the UN, there were many Rus-
sian representatives. Some were seen
shopping in the city's department
stores, buying ladies' silk hose among
other items. Mrs. Molotov was not seen
much.
in a labor camp for a brief period. She
was freed after the death of Stalin, who
always had Molotov's loyalty.
Recalling the Molotov press confer-
ence, I can't resist the temptation of
narrating an experience at that
widely-acclaimed session. I had a front
seat, confronting the Russian leader.
Many of us came early to be assured of
entrance to a session that was viewed
among the most important of the UN
founding in San. Francisco. Robert St.
John was among the latecomers and
shouted his questions at Molotov while
standing in the rear of the hall. It was
when St. John and I began our long
friendship.
Several minutes before the press
conference began, Gershon Agron — he
was still Agronsky at the time, before
Hebraizing his name when the Pales-
tine Post he edited became the
Jerusalem Post
came over to my
front seat with Anne McCormick who
was writing a daily bylined column on
the editorial page of the New York
Times. "Meet Miss McCormick," he
said. "Will you give her your seat?"
You guessed it: I retained my seat and
like other latecomers the two distin-
guished journalists went to the rear.
—
Vyacheslav Molotov
Molotov was described as a devoted
family man with two daughters, one
adopted. He was married in the 1920s
to Paulina S. Zhemchuzhina. She was
Arthur Vandenberg
an official as head of the perfume and
cosmetic industry and at one time had
a brother in Connecticut. She was a
victim of Stalin's paranoia and was left
Louis Weil, then editor-publisher of
the Port Huron Times, was in the
Molotov press conference front row seat
next to me. He applauded my decision.
Secular Humanism
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rebuke to what could be considered an
indifference to the basic obligations to
universities and the studies they are
committed to:
George Bernard Shaw once
said of us:
"I doubt if there has been a
country in the world's history
where men were ashamed of
being decent, of •being sober, of
being well-spoken, of being edu-
cated, of being gentle, of being
conscientious, as in America." As
usual, Shaw was exaggerating.
But there is an undeniable kernel
of truth in his criticism.
Such value-agnosticism in the
academic enterprise is, first of
all, self-destructive. To be value-
neutral means to abandon the
very premise on which the search
for and transmission of knowl-
edge is pursued. If the university
does not teach the moral
superiority of education as op-
posed to ignorance, of reason
over impulse, of discipline over
slovenliness, of integrity as
against cheating — then its very
foundations begin to crumble.
There is a strong appeal for religios-
ity in the Lamm analysis of current edu-
cational needs. He calls for a spiritual
ascendancy that would in turn act as a
counterpart to "secular humanism." He
makes this appeal for "A Moral Mission
for Colleges":
From the inevitable tensions
that arise between fidelity to a
sacred tradition and the search
for universal knowledge, some
general principles emerge which,
even if disputed by some, are of
value to all: that the pursuit of
knowledge is deserving of sac-
rifice; that knowledge ought to
ripen into wisdom; that whether
or not one believes that human
beings are the purpose of crea-
tion, they are certainly the pur-
pose of education; that the effort
by man to transcend himself is
admirable, even if he often fails;
that there are verifies that are et-
ernal, though they may be ig-
nored for generations; that men
and women possess spiritual dig-
nity that makes them worthy of
our respect, our reverence and
our dedication to their welfare.
A modern university should
not be "spooked" by the specter
of sectarianism. It should
encourage a moral climate that
elicits respect for the human
spirit, for honor, or law, for the
pursuit of knowledge and love of
learning, for the human capacity
for self-transcendence.
Interesting reference to secularism
and religion is inserted in the important
study of Christian-Jewish relations in
Roy Eckardt's "Jews and Christians: The
Contemporary Meeting." Eckardt's major
theses in this, the latest in his series of
significant works on the ecumenical sub-
ject is in the main Christological. Yet it
is equally impressive in relation to the
Jewish theme and the urgency of estab-
lishing the best American relations be-
tween the two faiths.
Here is the Eckardt comment in his
newest book:
In the history of the Jewish
people Jewishness has not al-
ways or necessarily fostered
Judaism, and neither has
Judaism always or necessarily
fostered Jewishness. But in
America, where secularism is
wedded to religious values and
religion is wedded to secularism,
the ambience helps Jewishness
create means of studying the effects of
secularism.
There is much in secularist thinking
that has multiple relationships in Jewish
ranks Many, very many, of the world
Jewish leaders have been secularists.
The Eckardt approach would grant them
acceptance and much respect.
In any event, such secularists can
not be written out of Jewish life. Now
there is a more positive Jewishness in
the religious sense in such ranks and
this is where the Lamm view commences
to predominate. The studies just utilized
in the consideration of the current
trends, especially in tackling issues
created politically by an emerging strong
conservatism, must lead toward clarifica-
tion of many otherwise confusing
theories.
Roy Eckardt
and Judaism to be mutually sup-
portive. At' least, it helps more
than it hinders. Thus can emerge
the paradoxical interpenetration
of a secularized Judaism and a
religionized Jewishness.
More positively expressed,
American Jews will at once pour
laic-ethnic content into their
Judaism and find integral
spiritual meaning in their
Jewishness. However, they will
do more than find spiritual mean-
ing in Jewishness; they will also as-
sign spiritual meaning to it. This
latter gets underwritten in and
through the tradition of Judaism,
which has the power to offer mean-
ing to the lives of Jews as persons.
The Lamm and Eckardt approaches
are not necessarily analogous. Yet, even
in their differing considerations they
Eckardtian Rejections
Of Anti-Semitic Motivations
Dr. A. Roy Eckardt, in his newest
ecumenical work, does much to coun-
teract prejudice. There are many items
of great interest in his book. The anti-
Semitic factors must not be ignored. .In
the process of his ecumenism he rejects
the dual allegiance charge. Thus, he as-
serts:
Some Christian antisemites
join other antisemites in accusing
American Jews of a "dual loy-
alty" because of Israel. It is
noteworthy that this charge is
not made against other Ameri-
cans who retain loyalties to, and
lobby in behalf of, their ethnic
homelands. Furthermore, na-
tional or laic commitment need
not be blind or unthinking.
Again, Christians do not always
pay sufficient attention to the bi-
blical prophets they claim to
have inherited from Judaism. A