Friday, January 13, 1950
The Southern Jewish Weekly
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W/jZ VI CWPOj NT
ISRAEL'S POLICE FORCE
Recently we had the pleasure of
hearing Judge Edwin Jones of the
local criminal court speak before
the Jewish Center Men's Club about
crime. We were pleased to hear
him say that never in all the years
he served on the bench did he have
a single Jewish culprit come before
him. Considerable interest was
evinced by his talk and a number of
gentlemen in the audience asked me
to write something about crime in
Israel.
In this week’s mail we received an excellent newsletter
from our J. T. A. correspondent in Israel, Ada Oren, who has
the following authentic information to offer:
Israel's police force was constituted as a separate ministry
when the Minister of Interior in the provisional government
refused to incorporate this department into his portfolio, and
it still holds the independent position in spite of its secondary
importance. There was some talk of reversing this abnormal
situation when Mr. Gruenbaum failed to be reelected to the
Knesset and also of turning the police department of criminal
investigation over to the Ministry of Justice's district attor
neys on the American model, but nothing has come of both
projects so far.
Nevertheless the Israel police is in no way an instrument
. of public regimentation, as its personnel is insufficient and
most secret political work, including such censorship as still
„ exists, is the responsibility of army intelligence.
The responsible minister belongs to a splinter party and
is himself a veteran policeman. The Inspector General is a
former Jewish Brigade and Haganah officer. Each of course
prefers the methods and executives he brought with him from
his former fields of activity, but the Inspector often has the
upper hand because he was picked by the Prime Minister to
reorganize the whole system.
Although one of his former trump cards, the purge of old
officers and men on charges of corruption, disloyalty or in
efficiency, lost much of its value when many such decisions
were quashed on appeal as unfounded, these inherited old
timers are losing importance constantly through new recruit
ing, and now constitute only 25 percent or less of the force.
The attitude of the Israel public toward its police force
is in general appreciative, but it takes time to eradicate the
age-old notion that cooperation with police on the part of
Jews against other Jews is at the very least unseemly. To
accelerate the already apparent change in attitude and estab
lish itself at last as a body of citizens whose task is the protec
tion of the public, the police force has been conducting a veri
table campaign for creating goodwill ioward itself.
(Continued on Page Six)
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« '4
THE SOUTHERN JEWISH WEEKLY
Political Timidity
BY DAVID SCHWARTZ
i Copyright, 1950, Jewish Telegraphic
Agency, Inc.)
I see where at a meeting of the
American Jewish Historical So
ciety there seemed to be a general
concensus of opinion that we are
in need of a good American Jew
ish history. Such histories as we
have, it was said, are amateurish.
The problem of writing a good
American Jewish history, it was
pointed out, is difficult. The task
of writing any good history, in
iact, is difficult. The evidence of
this is to be found in the almost
dense ignorance pervading Amer
ican history generally. But in the
case of the Jews of America, the
task is more difficult. For even
in America, we are a dispersed
people, very often the Jewish
contribution is anonymous and
not easily identified.
Besides, there is a fundamental
zigzagness about American Jew
ish history. It is only in the re
cent period of American history
that we can speak of the contrib
ution of the Jews as a group. In
the earlier days, we can only
speak of notable individual Jews
—Hyman Levy, pioneer in the
trading with the northwest Indi
ans who taught John Jacob Astor
his business. Haym Solomon and
Mordecai Manuel Noah. But in
the earlier days Jews as a group
were too small to have left any
group significance. To be sure,
this does not apply to the period
of the discovery of America for
in that event in the planning,
projection and carrying out of the
expedition of Columbus, we may
say that there was Jewish group
participation, so numerous were
the Jewish angles.
One thing, it seems to me, which
would impress a historian is the
weakness of the Jews in the pol
itical functioning of American
history. To be sure, we have had
such men as Judah P. Benjamin,
Louis D. Brandeis, etc. Yet it is
a fact that the direct Jewish rep
resentation in the political scene
is small and seems to have de
creased with the increase in the
number of the Jews.
We Jews constitute about four
percent of the population of Am
erica. We should have at least
four members of the United
States Senate, judging by our
numbers, but we have just man
aged to elect one. Senator Her
bert Lehman, of New York.
As I have said, in earlier days,
we did better in that respect.
There was only a small Jewish
population in Louisiana, yet Ben
jamin was elected to the Senate
from that state, and Yulee was
sent from Florida, and Simon
from Oregon. New York City,
although the Jewish population is
the largest single element, has
never yet elected a Jew as mayor.
To be sure, LaGuardia’s mother
was Jewish but LaGuardia did
not consider himself a Jew. He
was a member of the Episcopal
ian church.
If you want another gauge of
the matter, compare the Jewish
representation in politics with
that of the Irish and we immedi
ately see how ineffectual we
have been in politics.
To be sure, we can point to a
Brandeis, to a Baruch and so on,
but even the careers of these men
tell the same story of our weak
ness. Neither Brandeis nor Ba
ruch was ever elected to office.
Why was Brandeis never Gover
nor' of Massachusetts, why was
Baruch never elected a Senator
from South Carolina.
Perhaps I will be told that they
would never have been elected,
that in the main Jews can reach
high office only through the ave
nue of appointment.
! Now, I doubt this. I think if
(Continued on Page Six)
BUSY-
_ggjjb don't disturb
A BlGr JOB BEGUN -
Between You and Me . . .
BY BORIS SMOLAR (Copyright, 1950, Jewish Telegraphic
Agency, Inc.)
K^;t : WMiMMrS
Wg&\
under the supervision of the Agency executive . . . And a plan
to this effect is now being prepared by the American section
of the executive, under the guidance of Dr. Israel Goldstein ...
The attitude of the Israel Government toward the projected
merger is so far not known . . . The Israel Cabinet prefers for
the time being, not to inject itself into this issue . . . However,
there is no doubt that the opinion of Premier David Ben
Gurion will play the decisive role in the issue . . . The Jewish
National Fund, in opposing the merger, advances a number of
solid arguments . . . The Keren Hayesod, in favoring the
merger, argues that the unification of both Funds would
eliminate a “divided command” in the work of absorbing im
migrants in Israel . . . The Jewish Agency executive is, natur
ally, in favor of the merger since the merged Fund would
become a department of the Jewish Agency and thus increase
the Agency’s activities . . . Emissaries from Jerusalem of the
Jewish National Fund and of the Keren Hayesod are now in
New York, each trying to impress American Zionist leaders
with the viewpoint of his organization . . .
in Value...
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FLOMB.4 POWEjpLiGHT COM
** Dili ' N
* ZIONIST ISSUES
The fight over whether the Jewish Na
tional Fund and the Keren Hayesod should
be merged is now finally coming into the
open . . . The Jewish National Fund is
against such a merger and the Keren
Hayesod is for it . . . The idea to institute
such a merger was born in Jewish Agency
executive circles . . . Some members of the
Jewish Agency insist that the two Zionist
Funds, when merged, should be placed
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