The Southern Jewish weekly. [volume], December 19, 1947, 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. 23 NO. 47
Capital Spotlight
by BEATRICE HEIMAN
(Copyright, 1947, JTA, Inc.)
WASHINGTON —
The youngest of the ten de
partments of the United States
Government has the youngest
Under Secretary in this, or almost
any other administration. Labor
is the department, and David A.
Morse is the forty-year-old rank
ing aide of Secretary David
Schwellenbach.
Morse rose through the govern
ment ranks to his present top po
sition. In the latest stage, pro
motion from Assistant to Under
Secretary of Labor, he had to be
pushed, practically across the At
lantic Ocean. He was in Geneva
attending the International Labor
Organization Conference, as the
American member of the ILO di
recting body. Word came from
Washington for him to return. He
had plans to go to Rome and
Berlin for . consultations with
American officials, and therefore
cabled that he was not yet ready
to return. Washington insisted.
He resisted. It took ten days to
convince him he was really wanted
at home. When he arrived in
Washington, his associates gibed:
“You’re the first guy who had to
be pulled In for Under Secretary.”
In the previous years of his ca
reer Morse pulled hard and in a
variety of directions. His family
background, indirectly, helped in
culcate a necessary quality for a
labor policy maker, namely, the
ability to fit parts into a harmon
ious whole. Morse’s father was a
cabinet maker who became a nat
ionally known expert on early
American antiques. Young David,
early showing his future adminis
trative prowess, was elected presi
dent of his elementary school’s
YMCA. His extra-curricular ac
tivities included private instruc
tion in Hebrew from the local
Rabbi in the small New Jersey
rocal community of Somerville.
After graduation from Harvard
Law School, Morse briefly served
as clerk in a Newark law firm,
then went to Washington where
be became a member of the So
liicitor’s staff of the Interior De
partment, in 1933. Secretary Har
°ld Ickes soon appointed him
General Counsel of the newly
created Petroleum Labor Policy
Board. He had no sooner moved
bito that office before he was
transferred to the Justice Depart
ment as a special assistant to the
Attorney General, to try oil cases.
Morse’s first real labor experi
ence came with the formation of
the National Labor Relations
Board in 1985. His former dean
at Harvard, Calvert Magruder,
now judge of the first Circuit
Court of Appeals in Boston, and |
associated with the NRLB,
•abed Morse to go to New York
18 the first regional NRLB coun
sel I
Southeast ADL
Receives Grant
• In recognition of the import
ant role played by the South
eastern Regional Office of the
Anti-Defamation League of
B'nai B’rith in promoting good
human relations in the South,
the office has received a grant
from the Ashby Jones Memorial
Fund, it was announced by
Kendall Weisiger, founder and
administrator of the Fund.
The fund was created by
friends and admirers of the
late Ashby Jones, Atlanta min
ister, who devoted his life to
the promotion of mutual re
spect and understanding among
men of various faiths, races and
nations.
This grant, according to
Alexander F. Miller, director of
the Regional office, will enable
it to add to its library of “films
for democracy.” The film ser
vice was recently Aeated in
order to meet the many de
mands made upon ADL for
audio-visual educational mater
ial by schools, church groups,
civic groups, and forums, which
were eager for films that ex
pose the evils of prejudice, hat
red and bigotry. So heavy is
this demand upon the South
eastern office that bookings for
films are now being made well
into next spring.
The library also includes
prints of “One People,” “The
House I Live In” (starring
Frank Sinatra), and “Ameri-
Thousands of Palestine Jews
Register For Mobilization
BY BERL CORALNIK
(Jewish Telegraphic Agency Correspondent)
JERUSALEM (JTA) —Thousands of young Jews between the
ages of 17 and 25 jammed Jewish Agency registration offices this
week as the official mobilization of Jewish manpower began. Only
a small portion of the 70,000 to 80,000 expected to register will be
taken into the Jewish militia. The others will remain on call for
service on railroads, customs posts, harbors, telegraph and other
state bureaus.
Efforts to bring about a truce
between Arabs and Jews in the
troubled boundary area between
Jaffa and Tel Aviv were upset by
the Palestine Arab Higher Execu
tive, which insisted that the Arabs
not begin negotiations for an ar
mistice until they received the
approval of the ex-Mufti of Jeru
salem, who is now in Cairo attend
ing a meeting of the Arab League
Council.
High Commissioner Sir Alan G.
Cunningham issued a stern warn
ing to Jews and Arabs remind
ing them that the British are still
responsible for the maintenance of
peace and order in Palestine. The
warning said that the government
will take severe measures if the
disturbances continue.
A Jewish Agency spokesman,
commenting o n Cunningham’s
warning, charged that Cunning
ham had misrepresented the situ
ation in Palestine when he held
both the Jews and Arabs equally
| responsible for violence. He also
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1947
MASSEY TO BE HONORED
AT AJC ANNUAL MEETING
Raymond Massey, star of stage,
screen and radio, will be presented
with an award for his contribution to
intergroup understanding at the
opening session of the 41st annual
meeting of the American Jewi-h
Committee to be held in New York at
the Hotel Commodore on Saturdav
evening, January 17th. Mr. Massey
has given liberally of his time and
talent for radio programs and other
events aimed at improving group re
lations. He will read a dramatic
poem entitled “The Forty-Eighlers”
at the AJC meeting, in commemora
tion of the hundredth anniversary of
the 1848 migration from Europe of
religious and political persecutees.
who contributed greatly to the
building-up of the United States.
The poem was written by Morton
Wishengrad.
cans All” (March of Time re
lease). _ _
warned that any official moves
against the Jewish defense move
ment would only worsen the situ
ation.
Lead Jewish Education Conference
I?:':-:':-: * * * • - ''
js . ■ ■ Jh. jw iir Hi
“The Structure of Jewish Education in Conservative Judaism,"
will be the theme of the second annual conference of the Rabbin
ical Assembly of America which will be held on Monday and Tues
day. December 22 and 23, at the Jewish Theological Seminary of
America, 3080 Broadway, New York City. Leaders of the con
ference shown above are, left to right, Doctor Abraham E. Mill
eram, director of the United Synagogue Commission on Jewish
Education, who is conference secretary; Doctor Israel M. Goldman,
nresident of the Assembly; and Doctor Moshe Davis, dean of the
Seminary's Teachers Institute, who will preside at the conference.
FLORIDA RABBI EXPLAINS Bill
BRUITS WEAKEST LIVK TODAY
BY RABBI MORRIS A. SHOP
Chairman, Florida State Federation
Jewish Education Committee
I have been a member of B’nai B’rith for over twenty years. I
shall never forget the deep impression the Initiation Ceremony made
upon my mind and heart when I was elected to membership In
Columbus, Ohio while a student at Ohio State University in 1926.
Every Ben Brith is proud of the record of B’nai B’rith. Who has
not been thrilled by the splendid progress made by the Hiliel Found
ations? Wonderful programs; splendid rabbinical leaders; fine
Hiliel Homes being established on University Campii throughout
the country.
Every Ben Brith is proud of the
growing and expanding youth pro
gram of Aleph Zadik Aleph and
B’nai B’rith Girls now merged into
a B. B. Youth Organization.
Every Ben Brith is proud of the
developing lodges of B’nai B’rith
women which are also doing splen
did civic and philanthropic work.
Members of B’nai B’rith are also
very proud of its war record, its
Americanism work and its Pal
estine programs. But there is a
serious weak link in the B’nai
B’rith chain of service. This weak
link is responsible for poor at
tendance; for paid-up members
who never come to the meetings
and for a constant round of get
togethers in many communities
where B’nai B’rith meetings are
brief introductions to an evening
of social activities dealing with
the philosophy of Kings, Queens
and Jacks.
This almost tragic neglect of
Lodge Programming is keeping
some of our finest Ben Briths
away from meetings. Our intel
ligent and more cultured busy men
. . . our doctors, lawyers, profes
sional men do not care for the
type of programs offered at Lodge
meetings. It is often pitiful to see
the efforts made by a few loyal
and devoted men of B’nai B’rith
striving to arrange for interesting
meetings with the limited material
available in the local communities.
It is time that the National and
Regional B’nai B’rith offices, and
especially State Federation of
Florida, do something about this
weakest link of B’nai B’rith work.
There must come a tie-up with
some of our National organiza
tions who have program material
available.
For example: Why not arrange
with the National Jewish Welfare
Board Lecture Service to schedule
some of the outstanding - artists,
musicians, scholars to tour the
Florida Lodges during the winter
months. Some of these artists
would welcome a chance to get to
Florida during the cold months
of the year. They could enjoy a
personal vacation while giving a
service to Jewish communities
having B’nai B’rith Lodges. An
other tie-up with lodges ought to
come from the Jewish Book of the
Month Club or Jewish Publication
Society of America whereby the
latest and finest and best of Jew- <
ish books be made available to
°ach lodge regularly and a person
be designated to review these
books at meetings. Another tie
ud ought to come with B’nai B’rith
offering the finest films now be
ing made available. There are
films about Palestine, musicales,
Jewish King Leah, films about
Shalom Aleichem’s stories, good
Jewish melodrama, etc., which
ought to be scheduled by the Re
gional offices and make the rounds
of Florida lodges on a regular
basis. There ought to be someone
able and prepared to take the time
to arrange definite monthly pro
grams for lodges on a regional
basis and supply either the speak
er, the film, the book, the music
or the artist.
Finances ought to be raised on
a pro-rata basis with each lodge
budgeting a definite amount of
money for this programming. It
is high time that National, Re
gional and State B’nai B’rith take
a page from the splendid work
being done by National Hadassah
or AZA in providing material for
programs.
Where are all of the one-act
plays written and produced by
Hillel Foundations throughout tne
country ? These plays ought to be
made available to lodges for dra
matic nights. Why are not the
latest and finest of Jewish records
made available to lodges to spon
sor Jewish Music nights which can
prove most educational and Jew
ishly inspiring? There are many
such suggestions which can and
should be implemented as soon as
possible. With such constructive
and organized programming there
will still be time enough for Ben
Briths to engage in their epidemic
of indoor sports and games. I
understand that National B’nai
B’rith is considering hiring a
trained person to handle program
ming. If this rumor is true then
there is a good indication that
B’nai Brith’s weakest link may
soon be strengthened.
$3.00 A YEAR