The Southern Jewish weekly. [volume], February 21, 1941, Image 1

About The Southern Jewish weekly. [volume] (Jacksonville, Fla.) 1939-1992

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AN INDEPENDENT WEEKLY SERVING AMERICAN CITIZENS OF JEWISH FAITH
THE OLDEST AND MOST WIDELY CIRCULATED JEWISH PUBLICATION IN THIS TERRITORY
Vol. 16 No. 15
Week In Review
By MILTON SHOWN. J.TA.
FIGHTING race hatred
Next week, the week of Wash
ington’s birthday, will be observed
j,y the National Conference of
Christians and Jews as Brother
hood Week, designed to promote
goodwill among the faiths. Presi
dent Roosevelt has urged Ameri
cans to dedicate this period to
purging “our hearts of all intol
erance and to bind our citizens in
a common loyalty.”
Practical steps to implement
this aim are being taken in Wash
ington, as follows:
(1) Senator Barbour of New Jer
sey reintroduced his bill which
would make it a criminal offense
to send through the mails matter
inciting racial or religious hatred,
among other things. Such propa
ganda, he told the Senate, is espe
cially serious at this time because
it attacks American national uni
ty and the basic principles of dem
ocratic government.
The measure was inspired, he
said, “by the fact that certain/
Congressmen have in the past used
their mailing and franking privi
leges to spread un-American at
tacks on certain races and reli
gions, not only through their own
constituencies but through the en
tire country.”
(2) The question of propaganda
mailed from abroad is more tick
lish, and a post office official told
the House Appropriation Commit
tee that the Government will nev
er be able to curb the flood of pro-
Nazi and un-American propaganda
through the mails unless Congress
gives the Postoffice Department
statuatory law to do so. “There is
no doubt that there is a consid
erable amount of matter going
through the mails that is propa
ganda, but there is no way in
which the post office could declare
it unmailable unless some statutes
were so provided,” said Deputy
Assistant Postmaster General Don
aldson.
(3) The House voted to continue
the Dies committee for another 15
months with a $150,000 appropria
tion. Chairman Martin Dies, re
plying to criticism on the floor
that his committee had not been
sufficiently active against Nazi-
Fascist activities told Rep. Dick
stein that “our committee has done
more to combat those who seek
to arouse prejudice against mem
bers of your race than any other
agencies, public or private.”
(4) Attorney General Jackson
set Feb. 14th as the final deadline
for registration of foreign-con
trolled organizations under the
Voorhis law. He warned: “The act
makes failure to register a crim
inal offense and the Department
of Justice will vigorously enforce
the law against organizations
which should register but which
fail to do so.”
The growing feeling in the Uni
ted States that racial agitation is
being used as a weapon of the
Axis to foster disunity was given
vigorous voice in an editorial in
the Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Jour
nal which declared that any Am
erican who repeats anti-Semitic
rumors is “making himself an
agent of Adolf Hitler” and “be
traying his country." Said the
newspaper:
“The time has come when such
rumors have got to be spiked for
til© sake of American survival.
We all should know enough about
Nazi methods by now to recognize
that the first move in the Hitler
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA, FRIDAY FEBRUARY 21, 1941
BROTHERHOOD and WASHINGTON
By BERNARD POSTAL *
It was a happy thought that prompted the National Con
ferencer of Christians and Jews to schedule the annual ob
servance of Brotherhood Week during the week of the birth
day of George Washington, for Washington was not only the
father of his country but one of the fathers of religious free
dom in America. In these times, when pernicious propagand
ists are endeavoring to break down the traditional American
hatred of religious and racial prejudice in order to achieve
their own sinister and un-American purposes, it is pertinent
to recall Washington’s services in setting the course of Amer
ica on the road toward religious equality.
Although Washington, like James Madison, Thomas Jef
ferson and George Mason, rendered signal services in the
great campaign for religious liberty, his part in incorporat
ing the guarantees of absolute religious freedom: in the Con
stitution is a phase of his life that has not been stressed suf
ficiently. President Roosevelt, in endorsing Brotherhood
Week, emphasized this when he said that “its association
with the birthday of our first President will remind our peo
ple of his broad and tolerant spirit and his consistent sup
port of the principles of religious liberty and freedom of con
science.”
At the beginning of the Revolution, America was far re
moved from recognizing absolute religious liberty, either on
its statute books or in practice. Congregationalism was the
established religion in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and
Connecticut; the Church of England was the state religion
in all the southern colonies and in parts of New York and
New Jersey. Protestantism had a similar position in Rhode
Island, Pennsylvania and Delaware. There were also large
numbers of Quakers, Huguenots and free thinkers, 18,000
Catholics and about 3,000 Jews in the various colonies. Vir
tually every colony barred Catholics, Jews and free thinkers
from holding public office, while most colonies had laws pro
hibiting Catholics from holding public religious services.
The Revolution, however, was an important factor in
bringing men of all creeds together for the first time. The
concerted action made necessary by the Revolution contribut
ed in large measure to the establishment of better relations
(Continued on Page Ten)
Spreading Anti-Jewish Rumors
Betrays U. S., Paper Warns
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (JTA) —The Louisville Courier-Jour
nal has declared in an editorial that any American who re
peats anti-Semitic rumors is “making himself an agent of
Adolf Hitler” and “betraying his country.”
The editorial quoted Daniel A.
Poling, international president of
the Christian Endeavor, as de
claring: “Civilization cannot per
secute and survive. America can
not tolerate persecution and con
tinue.” Discussing anti-Jewish ru
mors, the paper went on:
“These rumors are rife all about
us. There is a particularly fantas
tic one which has been repeated
in certain Wall Street quarters, to
the effect that all this aid-to-
England stuff has been developed
and put over by the Jews.” The ab
surdity of such a statement does
Rabbi Breslau to
Tour in South
Rabbi Isadore Breslau, execu
tive director of the Zionist Organ
ization, has left on an extended
tour through communities in the
South in furtherance of the na
tionwide effort to increase the
membership of the organization,
it was announced by the Z.O.A.
headquarters here.
The tour will take Rabbi Bres
lau to communities in half a doz
en states including Georgia, Flor
ida, North and South Carolina,
Alabama, and Tennessee.
attack is the stirring up of hatred
against the Jews. The pattern has
been followed with perfect regular
ity in each and every one of the
conquered countries.”
not prevent its repetition by peo
ple who call themselves educated
and intelligent.”
! BROTHERHOOD WEEK !
■ FEBRUARY 21-28 }
i "national unity j
1 With diversity 11 j
CLOSE COOPERATION
Senate Bill Would Bar
Race Hatred in Mails
BARBOUR CITES PERIL TO U. S.
WASHINGTON (JTA) —Senator W. Warren Barbour
(Rep., N. J.) has introduced a bill which would make it a
criminal offense to send through the mails matter inciting
racial or religious hatred, among other things. It is similar
to a measure offered by Barbour which died in the last Con
Hospital Chairman
~ ■ ■ : “ ~ rr “
H
Mrs. Abbie S. Shoen, chairman
of the National Jewish Hospital
Committee, Women’s District
Grand. Lodge No. 6, B’nai B’rith,
which this month donated $3,500
to the National Jewish Hospital at
Denver.
Rabbi P. Bernstein
on Broadcast, 22nd
The concluding Saturday night
coast to coast broadcast on the
“Message of Israel” hour for Feb
ruary will be delivered by Rabbi
Philip Bernstein, of Rochester, N.
Y., who will speak on the topic,
“Pioneers, Oh Pioneers.”
The broadcast, which will be
carried on the blue network of the
National Broadcasting Company
will be heard on Saturday evening,
Februray 22nd, at 7 P.M., eastern
standard time.
“While this measure, of course,
is designed to bar the mails to all
propaganda which would attack
basic American principles,” Sena
tor Barbour declared, “it was in
spired by the fact that certain
Congressmen have in the past used
their mailing and franking privi
leges to spread un-American at
tacks on certain races and reli
gions, not only through their own
constituencies but through the
entire country.”
Specifically, the Barbour bill
would amend the Federal Crimi
nal Code to make it a penal of
fense to send through the mails
“indecent matter, or matter incit
ing to arson, murder, riot or as
sassination, or forgeries and mat
ter of a character fraudulent, scur
rilous and tending to incite hate
against any creed or race or reli
gious sect.”
Youth Ready to
Defend Country
Says Hoover
WASHINGTON, D. C.—Ameri
ca’s youth is ready and able to
guard her “against corruption by
subversive activities,” to make “in
effective” the “subtle efforts of
the undermining propagandist”
and to “meet any threat to our
democratic institutions either
from within or without,” J. Edgar
Hoover, director of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation, declared
here in a radio message addressed
to 150,000 young people of all
races, creeds and colors who will
attend youth and democracy ral
lies in more than 200 communities
throughout the country beginning
Monday under the auspices of
Aleph Zadik Aleph, B'nai B’rith
youth organization, in cooperation
with 30 other youth-serving agen
cies having a combined member
ship in excess of 3,000,000.
Jewish Calendar
Join a Synagogue
or Temple
Attend Its Services
1940 5701 1941
Rosh Chodesh Adar. Feb. 28
Fast of Esther March 12
Purim March 13
Rosh Chodesh Nisan....Mar. 29
First Day Passover. April 12
Rosh Chodesh Iyar. .April 28
Lag B’Omer May 15
Rosh Chodesh Sivan. .May 27
First Day Shavuoth June 1
Rosh Chodesh Tammuz..June 1
Fast of Tammuz July IS
Rosh Chodesh Ab July 25
Fast of Ab Aug. 3
Rosh Chodesh Elul Aug. 24
•Observed previous day as
well. All holidays begin at sun
down of day preceding that
listed above.
$2.00 a Year