The Southern Jewish weekly. [volume], January 22, 1943, 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 PUBLIC ATION IN THIS TERRITORY
VOL. 18 NO. 11
IT HAPPENED
THIS WEEK
by MILTON BROWN, JTA
50,000 FRENCH JEWS TO
BE “DEPORTED”
The news of the week makes
clear that not only is victory of
the United Nations necessary but
speedy victory is necessary if the
Jews of Europe are to be saved.
The Anti-Semitic Commissar of
Jewish Affairs in France an
nounced this week that 50,000
Jews have been “deported”.
From Rumania came the predic
tion that all Jews may shortly be
deported.
POLAND
Something of the method with
which extermination of the Jews
is being carried on in Poland was
revealed this week, all tending to
make clear that the tempo of the
slaughter is increasing. 1
OPTIMISM?
There was a movie not so long
ago in which one of the scenes
pictures a man / who has been told
the very moment of his death and
we may imagine the mounting
anxiety as he watches the clock to
see that moment coming nearer.
The Jews in the occupied countries
are in a similar position. Jews
may be forgiven,‘therefore, if they
catch at the more hopeful crumbs
of prophecy as to a speedier end
ing of the war. Admiral Halsey
of our Pacific fleet went on record
the other day ajapredicting the
end of the war Walter
Duranty thinks Germany will be
defeated this year, but thinks it
will take more time to beat the
Japanese. Duranty, of course, is
not a military man. Litvinoff,
the Russian ambassador, has
warned against reading too op
timistically the headlines and of
ficial American government circles
also warn against too much op
timism.
Yet for the Jews, unless'he has
this optimism, he must succomb
to the blackest pessimism. Cato,
the old Roman orator, was in’the
habit of ending every one of his
speeches with “Carthage delenda
est.’’ (Carthage must be de
stroyed). But we Jews must say
‘‘Carthage delenda est now—this
year.” Jewish survival in most
of Europe depends on it. •
The Polish Government-in-Exile
this week revealed the texts of
two Nazi decrees showing how the
Germans are proceeding with the
extermination of the Jews. The
decrees show that the first step
has been to concentrate the Jews
living in the hundreds of Polish
cities into a limited number of iso
lated centers. A total of 42 small
townships, in fact, were designat
ed as “Jewish residential locali
ties.” Dire penalties are ordered
for Jews found outside these
specified centers. Polish Jewish
leaders in England believe that
this seggregationl is to prevent the
non-Jewish population witnessing
the mass murder of the Jews.
Allied government circles this
week also received reports which
indicate that thousands of Jews
ave taken to the 1 woods and are
wandering all over Western Eu
rope, finding refuge here and
ere among the local non-Jewish
Population, but 'gradually being
discovered by the Gestapo.
PESSIMISM?
There comes word from Eng
and that liberals there echo
jwomy sentiments. The London
j. y Ex Pr®s» this week reported
a in recent months it has re-
B’nai B’rith Editor
To Appear In Jax
EDWARD E. GRUSD
Edward E. Grusd, Managing
Editor of the National Jewish
Monthly, will be the guest speaker
at the regular meeting of the lo
cal B’nai B’rith Lodge and its
Auxiliary to be held Wednesday
evening at 8:15 P. M. at the Hotel
Seminole.
Prior to his appointment in 1928
to the position of managing editor
of B’nai B’rith’s official organ,
Grusd was on the staff of the
Omaha World Herald. Before this
he visited in Europe and wrote
special features for American
papers.
A Cincinnatian by birth, Grusd
graduated in 1926 from Ohio
State University College of Journ
alism, where he was active in
campus journalism.
In Cincinnati he was president
of the youth branch of the Isaac
M. Wise Temple, and attended two
summer sessions of the religious
teachers’ institute a t Hebrew
Union College. For a year he was
American correspondent of l’Uni
vers Israelite, of Paris. He is past
president of B’nai B’rith’s Cardoza
Lodge in Northern Virginia, and
has addressed groups throughout
the country.
The election of officers for the
local lodge also will take place at
this 1 meeting. Reports of the sev
eral standing committees and of
the activities for the past year
will be made.
The Ladies Auxiliary will also
meet at the same time but will
join the men’s meeting to hear
Edward Grusd. Plans for the
furnishing of the'second Company
Day Room at Camp Blanding will
also be taken up.
ZIONISTS TO MEET HERE
MONDAY NIGHT
The Jacksonville Zionist District
will hold its regular meeting Mon
day night in * the Jewish Center at
8 o’clock. Harry Katz, president,
will preside, and announce the
Bond Drive; which will be held at
the same time at the national or
ganization in February. All mem
bers are urged to attend this
meeting to participate in the plans
which will be laid for the drive.
An interesting program has
been arranged to take place at the
conclusion, of the meeting.
ceived “more fanatical, obscene,
anti-Jewish letters” than ever be
fore. It calls upon the authorities
to take stricter measures against
anti-Semitic groups, charging
them with conducting fifth-column
activities by disseminating propa
ganda against Jews which is help
ful to the enemy.
Yes, “es ist schwer to sein a
Yid.”
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA, FRIDAY. JANUARY 22, 1943
POLETTI STRESSES
GROWING IMPORTANCE |
OF JEWISH ARMY |
New York—On the eve of his
departure for Washington to as
sume an important post as Special
Assistant to Secretary of War
Stimson, ex-Lt. Governor Charles
Poletti of New York issued an im
portant statement on the Jewish
Army cause. This statement came
in the form of a letter to Mr.
Alfred A. Strelsin, Chairman of
the Executive Board of the Com
mittee For A Jewish Army, of
which Mr. Poletti is a member.
“It is the Jews of Europe,”
wrote Mr. Poletti, “who were the
first victims of Nazi and Fascist
brutality. It is they who felt the
first fury of the totalitarian as
sault. It is they who have been
singled out as the prime and
wholesale victims of the new bar
barism. The Jews now stand in
the front lines. The right of Pal
estinian and stateless Jews to en
gage in their self-defense remains
to me unimpeachable. It is as
Jews that under international
guarantees they are living in Pal
estine. They are not Palestinians
except in a geopraphic sense.
They are not Arabs; they are not
British. If every people in the
world is free to fight under its
own historic designation, the Jews
must fight as Jews.
i§r wKt
iP
CHAS. POLETTI
The son of an Italian stone
cutter, Charles Poletti was born
in Vermont. He has made fre
quent trips to Italy and the coun
tries on the Adriatic Sea. It is
believed that his extentive knowl
edge of that area will be put to
use in his new Washington role.
“I recognize that Great Britain
has its own problems of policy.
But it is part of our international
cooperation that we shall criticize
one another for policies which fail
to conform to the democratic
principles for which we stand to
gether. And America would be
derelict in its duty if it did not
make its opinion heard in British
circles on this issue.
“Great Britain is naturally re
luctant to awaken the hostilities
of the Arabs. But the answer to
that is that Arabs may volunteer
and form their own units.
“One reason for insisting upon
a Jewish Army lies in the fact
that it furnishes to the Jews a
moral case for continued system
atic and mass entrance into Pal
estine when the war is over.
This right was won for world
Jewry during the last war. It is
stated in the Balfour Declaration,
(Continued on page Four)
PepperUrgesAllieslmplement
Protest of Nazi Outrages
UNITED PALESTINE APPEAL REQUESTS UNITED
NATIONS TO ADMIT 1,000,000 IN PALESTINE
Buffalo, N. Y.—Sounding a warning that the Jews of
the United States must be prepared to meet a wave of ris
ing intolerance in this country against which all Americans
must take strong measures, U. S. Senator Claude Pepper of
Florida, addressing a statewide conference of 600 delegates
of the United Palestine Appeal at Buffalo’s Hotel Statler,
called upon the United Nations to implement their declara
tion of protest against the Nazi slaughter of 2,000,000' Jews
in Europe through guarantees that they would foster the
establishment of a free Palestinian state for the Jewish
people, “which will take its place in the framework of free
nations striving in common to protect their security and
freedom.”
The conference of the United Pal
estine Appeal, the central agency
of American Jews for the rebuild
ing and defense of the Jewish
homeland in Palestine, adopted a
resolution urging President Roose
velt to invite the United Nations
to provide for the resettlement
and emigration, of 2,000,000 Jews
from European lands as part of
the program for post-war recon
struction. The resolution urged
that the United Nations open
their doors to 1,000,000 refugees
and take joint action to facilitate
the immigration and settlement of
at least an additional 1,000,000 in
Palestine. The President was
asked to “enlarge the scope of
the program of the Office of
Foreign Relief and Rehabilitation
headed by Governor Lehman tc
provide for the emigration and re
settlement of Jews uprooted by
hatred in European lands, whe
will find little opportunity to re
establish themselves in those
European countries following the
end of the war.”
In proposing the colonization of
1,000,000 Jews in Palestine, the
resolution pointed out that this
was well within the realms of re
ality as “during the decade since
Hitler came to power, more than
300,000 Jewish refugees found a
home in Palestine without the
support of international planning
and resources.” The resolution
further emphasized that Palestine
had the capacity to absorb 100,000
immigrants a year.
Discussing the declaration which
the United States issued together
with the governments of Great
Britain, Russia, China and other
United Nations, Senator Pepper
declared that "protest and retri
bution are not enough to revive
the hope of millions of Jews whose
faith in democracy and justice we
dare not betray if we are not to
betray the hope of all men.
“The historic Declaration of the
United Nations must be imple
mented with ‘ immediate measures
of reconstruction, with definite
intergovernmental plans for the
rehabilitation of those who can be
saved from the Nazi slaughter
house,” he said.
“In Palestine, the Jews, who
were the first to feel the testing
ferocity of Hitler long before the
world realized that its turn to feel
this ferocity was merely a matter
of time—the Jews must be en
abled to build their own home, un
der their own goverance on their
ancestral soil. We must build a
world in which little nations and
all peoples can be safe in their
own national homes,” Senator
Pepper asserted.
“It has taken a long time, al- ,
most a full decade, for the civil
ized world to recognize that the
persecution of the Jewish people
is a crime against all free men ...
“The United States, Great Brit
ain, Russia, China and the others
of the United Nations have joined
in a declaration officially con
demning the Nazi outrages a
gainst the Jewish people so un
speakably cruel . . .
“Protest and retribution are not
enough to revive the hope of mil
lions of Jews whose faith in de
mocracy and justice we dare not
betray if we are not to betray the
hopes of all men. The historic
declaration of the United Nations
must be implemented with imme
diate measures of reconstruction,
with definite intergovernmental
plans for the rehabilitation of
those who can be saved from the
Nazi slaughterhouse.
“It is in the interest of the
building of a better world that we
incorporate now into any progrom
for the post-war era a declaration
of intention to assure the recon
struction of the Jewish people and
all other oppressed people . . .
"Palestine is not merely a
Jewish question any more than
anti-Semitism or any intolerance
is a Jewish question. The entire
free world must regard itself as
the trustee for the re-establish
ment of the Jewish National
Home, without which no construc
tive solution of the tragic problem
of Jewish homelessness is pos
sible . . .
“As a Christian I should like to
give American Jews this one word
of advice: Intolerance is raising
its ugly head again in our own
country. We must all fight these
forces. Now is the time for us all
to be great—do right—defend
those who have been oppressed
and together build a world worthy
of those who now die, and shall
die for humanity.”
B.- Hi
IZ1”
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