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42
FRIDAY, MAY 29, 1992
(h) 313-661-4236
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How Nice Must Jews
Remember To Be?
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor Emeritus
p
erhaps as long as half
a century ago one of
our distinguished au-
thors, Maurice Samuel,
wrote a book under the title
Jews Be Nice. Even now it
suggests that there are re-
peated occasions when our
people are advised to forget
indignities, to kowtow to
flattery, to forget in the pro-
cess that anything resembl-
ing prejudice can ever be
compensated with forget-
fulness.
Ecumenism, which I
always treat with a capital
E, strives for the noblest.
Nevertheless, we must not
forget the lessons in Mr.
Samuel's book. It need not
become debatable in relation
to the event on May 11,
which was headlined in The
Jewish News as "Father
Coughlin's Church Will
Host Interfaith event." A
recollection of an occurrence
some 30 years ago should
prove explanatory.
This is about Father
Charles E. Coughlin, who
regularly did his grocery
shopping in the Gelfand
Super Market, which was
then located in Royal Oak
near the Shrine of the Little
Flower. On one of his shopp-
ing visits, Father Coughlin
was informed that Mr. Gel-
fand was soliciting in-
vestments in State of Israel
Bonds and asked if the priest
would be interested.
"Certainly," the priest
replied and sat down and
wrote a $500 check to the
State of Israel. There was a
photograph. I wrote to
Father Coughlin and ad-
vised him that I was inter-
ested in publishing it and
would like it to be accom-
panied by an alteration in
his anti-Semitic advocacies.
He never replied. The photo
of the priest purchasing the
bonds did appear with
publication of his obituary.
Now on the occasion of the
Ecumenical dinner at the
Shrine of the Little Flower,
we were treated in The Jew-
ish News story to an under-
standable recollection of the
Coughlin prejudices which
became guidelines for hatred
of Jews. Much has been
published on the subject and
the shocks that were incor-
porated in the radio priest's
public addresses soon arous-
ed the disgust and outrage of
Catholics as well as Jews.
On May 11 we were
treated to exonerations that
renew contempt for
anything that might lead to
the encouragement of
bigotries, hatreds, anti-
Semitism.
Among the an-
nouncements about the
event was:
The event will feature a
tour of the Shrine and the
.
Shocks that were
incorporated with
the priest's
addresses soon
aroused disgust.
private quarters of the
church's present pastor
• •
The Reverend Brunett
will speak about the
church's history and the
Catholic church's efforts
to better understand the
Jews.
ii•■•■•■■ ••01
Part of the idea is to
demystify a building that
symbolizes anti-Semitism
to many local Jews.
Perhaps it is proving
humiliating for Catholics as
well that the great events
leading to the new Catholic-
Jewish cooperation should in
any way be spoken of with
the mentioning of Coughlin-
sim.
The hate that was caused
by the radio priest was un-
American and anti-
American and, therefore, as
much anti-Catholic as anti-
Jewish. Anything like vin-
dication of the hatreds with
flattery for this anti-Semite
and even a partial foprget-
fulness of him and his deeds
must never be tolerated.
Perhaps, it is always time-
ly to repeat Maurice
Samuel's challenging title
and attach punctuation so
that it reads Jews Be
Nice? ❑
NEWS I
Japan Proposes
Wave!, Peace Plan
Brussels (JTA) — Japan is
reported to have made a con-
crete proposal that might
improve the economies of
Middle Eastern countries
and advance peace in the re-
gion.
It was offered during a
closed-door session of the
multilateral conference on
regional economic problems,
held here last week under
the European Community's
chairmanship.
The Japanese idea is to
ease travel between Israel
and the Arab countries for
people from outside the re-
gion. That would encourage
tourism, which in turn
would stimulate investment
in tourist infrastructure
such as hotels, transporta-
tion and communications
networks.
Moreover, the Japanese
said, it would help protect
the environment at
historical sites.
Japan was represented at
the conference by senior offi-
cials of its mission to the
E.C. and representatives
from the Foreign Ministry in
Tokyo.
"Japan considers that it's
important to start with
something which creates the
least problems," said Tomio
Uchida, head of the
Japanese delegation.
"As tourism is said to be a
passport for peace, we pro-
pose that liberalization mea-
sures for the movement of
foreign tourists in the region
become a high priority in
this working group," he
said.
At present, tourists can
travel freely between Israel
and Egypt, which have a
peace treaty, but not bet-
ween Israel and any other
Arab country. The Japanese
plan apparently would
remedy that before Israel
concludes peace treaties
with its other neighbors.
Israel, Syria and Lebanon
were absent from the
Brussels meeting. The
Israelis stayed away because
Palestinians from outside
the West Bank and Gaza
Strip attended.
Syria and Lebanon are
boycotting all of the
multilateral talks.
Japan was one of the 35
nations attending the
meeting, one of five on re-
gional issues convening in
various capitals. A working
group on environmental
problems opened a two-day
meeting in Tokyo.
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