The Southern Jewish weekly. [volume], September 17, 1943, Page Page Two, Image 2

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

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Page Two
The Yard Stick Is Wrong
Some Observations on Anti-Semitic Variations
BY RAPHAEL MARKS
The political leadership of the Jewish Agency for Pal
estine has dealt, and will have to deal, with the attack on
the Jewish people by Major R. B. Verdin before a military
tribunal in Jerusalem. It was an attack to which the New
York Times generously devoted so much space and gave
such wide publicity. I only want to deal here with one
aspect of the affair as reflected in a critical remark Jby the
Times’ reporter, Mr. A. C. Sedgwick, in commenting on the
statement made by Mr. David Ben Gurion, Chairman of the
Executive of the Jewish Agency. Mr. Ben Gurion had de
scribed Major Verdin’s address to the court as “character
istic of the lowest type of anti-Semitism.” Says Mr. Sedg
wick: “Many find it hard not to consider such description
exaggerated, especially when the Nazi excesses in Berlin
and Warsaw are borne in mind.”
I submit that taking the yard
stick from the Nazis is not only
wrong but also an insult to the
United Nations. Yet, ever since
1933, and more particularly since
the outbreak of the war, we en
counter similar remarks both here
and in England whenever some
body tries to excuse a wrong af
flicted on Jews. These people ap- j
parently do not realize how insult
ing their remarks are, in the last
analysis, to the honor of those
whom they want to defend.
In June, 1940, after the down- j
fall of France, a somewnat pan- j
icky British Government decided
to intern indiscriminately all
“enemy aliens” including refugees
from Nazi oppression who, after j
investigation of every individual
case, had been freed by British
Tribunals from all restrictions. I
After a week or so all liberal
forces in Great Britain protested
against the injustice and the un- ;
fairness of that measure. But
there were many Jews and Gen
tiles in England whose only com
ment was: “After all, you will !
have to admit that life in a Brit-
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ish internment camp is still better
than in a concentration camp in
Germany.” Thousands of the in
terned refugees, especially the
younger ones, were deported to
Canada and Australia against
their will and without being per
mitted to send a farewell word to
i their parents or wives. Public
protests by fair-minded people in
creased. But, again, there were
some who said: “But after all, you
cannot deny that the treatment of
' the internees in a camp in Aus
tralia, however harmful the cli
mate may be to their health, is
a thousand times, better than in
Dachau or Buchenwald.”
j
! When the late Lord Wedgwood
—at that time not yet raised to
, the peerage—revealed in the House
of Commons the story of how
their voyage to Australia on the
!SS Dunera the interned internees
had been maltreated and robbed
of their possessions, public opin
: ion in England was indignant.
There was a court martial that
punished those responsible and
the Government indemnified the
internees for the material damage
they had suffered. But even with
reference to the Dunera scandal
there were voices to say that
“After all nobody was really tor
tured on that boat as was the rule
in Nazi cellars and prisons.”
Refugees who came to this
country with the naive belief that
there existed no anti-Semitism in
America, and who gradually be- ,
came acquainted with the exist
ence of “restrictions” in many
fields of life, can often hear:
“But after all, this is nothing to
speak of—compared with the
things you have experienced in
Germany.” And when the same
refugees, to their utter astonish-
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THE SOUTHERN JEWISH WEEKLY
INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE
U 1 IGHTEEN young refugees who
*—* arrived here In June on the
Serpa Pinto are learning about
America under the care of the
European-Jewish Children’s Aid, an
affiliate of the National Refugee
Service —and they like it. Since
they first set foot on American soil,
life has been a strange and won
derful adventure to them. Clean,
comfortable beds, baths with hot
water and soap, and new clothes
are only part of life’s wonders. Ice
cream sodas, chewing gum, and the
view of the New York skyline from
a Staten Island ferry boat are also
things worth cheering about!
These children are among ap
proximately 100 who have come
ment, discovered the existence in
this country of one or more vici
ous anti-Semitic movements equip
ped with newspapers of their own,
a full-fledged vitrolic and even
blood-thirsty propaganda litera
ture, there were good friends—
Jews and Gentiles alike —who
told them: “But, after all, com
pared with Europe America sure- j
ly is a paradise for Jews.”
What Mr. Sedgwick says, or im
plies, is in the same line. He has
not the courage to admit that Ma
jor Verdin’s address to the court
was a first class anti-Semitic at
tack and that Ben Gurion’s de
scription in its essence is right.
He takes the yardstick from the
Nazis and tells the readers of the
Times that if there was an anti-
Semitic attack it certainly was j
not characteristic of the lowest |
type of anti-Semitism since that
type was the prerogative of the
Nazis in their pogroms in Berlin
j and Warsaw. As if the issue at
; stake was defining the exact de
gree of that British Major’s hos
jtility to Jews!
i Diverting the attention from
| the real issue and side-tracking
the discussion is an old political
trick. But trying to achieve this
aim by giving the reader instead
of an intelligent and objective re
view of the facts a demagogically
distorted picture is not only an in
sult to the reader’s intelligence
but—in the specific case we are
speaking about—also to the honor
of the United Nations. For all
i these statements of our Sedg
wicks in the last analysis boil
down to the rather offensive
“truth” that America and Eng
land are civilized countries—
compared with Germany—and the
members of their governments
gentlemen—compared with the
Nazi leaders.
But while taking the yardstick
from Hitler is an insult to the
free countries, to us Jews it
means an ominous threat to the
realization of our hopes. There is
the grave danger that by applying
this method to our claims at
tempts will be made to kill our
to this country since the first of
the year on affidavits of the U. S.
Committee for the Care of Euro
pean Children and the Joint Dis
tribution Committee, and have been
taken under the wings of the NRS.
Like the other Jewish children
brought here, they will be placed
temporarily in approved foster
homes, until It may be possible so
reunite them with their families.
The care of refugee children ar
riving in this country is a major
project of the National Refugee
Service, which receives its support,
together with the Joint Distribu
tion Committee and the United
Palestine Appeal, from the UniteJ
Jewish Appeal.
hopes for a Jewish land and a
free Jewish life and to deny our
people the full extent of justice
the world owes us. There are al
ready people who tell us: “What
ever you will get you should be
content with, for in any case your
future will be better than your
recent past.”
To overcome this danger it will
be necessary to enlist for the Jew
ish cause the active sympathy
and support of the real patriots in
the democratic countries, of the
courageous men who do not ad
minister to whatever happens the
lowest yardstick possible, but who
freely admit that a lot has still to
be done at home for the full reali
zation of democratic ideals. They
are those who know that charity
begins at home, that justice is in
divisable and should not be de
nied anybody, and that you can
not establish the four freedoms in
the rest of the world unless they
are practiced in the countries
where they are proclaimed.
There are many who are always
prepared to quote Admiral Deca
tur’s: “Our country—right or
wrong,” but it was a President of
the United States, John Quincy
Adams, who, referring to that
famous toast declared: “I dis
claim all patriotism incompatible
with the principles of eternal jus
tice.”
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Friday, September 17,19^
MORGENTHAU SEEKS —
END TO JEWISH
HOMELESSNESS
Columbus (JPS)-In a mess
addressed to the forty-sixth an
nual convention of the Zionist
Organization of America, Secre
tary of the Treasury Henry Mor
genthau declared that the solu
tion of the problem of j ewiM
homelessness jn Europe is »a
task which must engage the at
tention and the efforts of all men
of good will, citizens and states
men alike, until it is well accom
plished.”
He expressed his “sympathetic
interest and admiration” whicli
had been aroused by “the fine
work of reconstruction and rehab
ilitation that has been accomplish
ed by the Jews of Palestine.” He
remarked that he had been “par.
ticularly struck by reports of the
contribution Palestine has been
able to make to the war, to strike
down the oppressors.
The establishment of a Jewish
Commonwealth in Palestine wa»
endorsed by Senator Robert F.
Wagner, in a message to the con
vention. The New York Senator
declared that thousands of Jews
could migrate to the Jewish Nat
ional Homeland now and millions
more could go there after the war
“with the sympathetic help of the
United Nations.
“This help,” h e continued,
“should be forthcoming more
swiftly now that the Mediter
ranean is a United Nations
lake ....
“I am confident that the brave
pioneers who have transformed
Palestine’s wastelands into fruit
ful soil, and built its cities on
desert sands, will continue and
even expand their splendid con
tribution to our common war ef
fort and their long-range building
of a Jewish Commonwealth in
Palestine.”
JOSIAH M. JORDAN
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(Florida)
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