The Southern Jewish weekly. [volume], December 14, 1951, 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. 28 NO. 47
PLAIN TALK
BY ALFRED SEGAL
ABOUT SOME SINNERS
Our Mr. Hillel (Hillel Widget
Corp.) called on me in excited
distress. He, as you may already
know, is the collossal widget
manufacturer who to relieve
himself of the strain of too many
widgets occasionally asks me for
the privilege of writing this col
umn. for me.
This time Mr. Hillel had no
column to offer me. It was evi
dent that he had something on
his mind which he was desper
ately eager to get off, and had no
patience to sit down and write it.
"Is something the matter with
the widget business?" I asked
him.
He gave out a loud, impatient
snort. Widgets, he said were go
ing better than ever. His factory
was working 24 hours a day on a
widget that would be one of
those fantastic weapons they tell
about. There was no end of
orders.”
"What's bothering you then,
Mr. Hillel?" .
He replied that his worry had
to do with some four items he
had read in the morning paper.
They were about people with
Jewish names. Not Jewish nleans
connected with the many philan
thropies of Jews, no Jewish
names from among the great and
good Jews who from time to time
are heard speaking up like pro
phets. No!
What bothered Mr. Hillel whs
the fact that the Jewish names
that had been published that
morning were connected with
matters on the other side of the
laws. There was the name of a
Levy dragged into the basketball
scandal. Jewish names had been
mentioned in the matter of a
black market for the sale of
babies born to unmarried wo
men. A couple of other cases in
which Jewish names were in
volved—Four in one dayl
“So, what, Mr. Hillel?” I ex
claimed. This was not to suggest
that I am one who lightly brush
es off a publication that mentions
Jews as violators of the laws. I
wince, in fact. I don’t like it at
all.
I manage, though, to rational
ise, as I did in this hour when
Mr. Hillel was at my desk . . .
"Mr. Hillel, are Jews the only
ones caught athwart the laws?
The total U. S. prison population
in the year 1948—I've just looked
up the figures in World Almanac
—was 157.470, the immense ma
jority of whom weren't Jews. I
guess you can find some Jews in
a lot of penitentiaries; their
handful is in proportion to the
number of Jews in the human
race. Every group has its sinners
and aren't we entitled to our pro
portion?"
Mr. Hillel replied there was a
difference, though. When a Jew’s
name is printed in the paper and
he’s on the wrong side of the law,
the name stands out to hit the
(Continued on Page 8)
CHANUKAH IN OUR TIME
*
ANCIENT MIRACLE OP CHANUKAH HAS MODERN PARALLEL—
It is a dramatlo parallel that these eandlee illuminate. These little DP
children, saved from a devastated and blood-aoaksd Old World by a
modern miracle, gaze upon the candles on the Menorah lighted at the
shelter of HIAB. the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, to demonstrate to
them the significance of Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, commemorat
ing the ancient miracle that occurred when the Maccabees defeated
* and dispersed the enemies es Israel. Traditional Chanukah services
were to be held at the HIAS Shelter in New York for.several hundred
recently-arrived Immigrants who were assisted in their Immigratien
to the U. S. by HIAS.
Prof. Naclver Finds Israel Helping
Community Relations in U. S.
CHICAGO, (JTA) Establishment of the State of Israel "is
an important factor in improving Jewish community relations in
the United States," is the belief of Prof. Robert M. Mclver, author
of the report and recommendations on Jewish community relations
work which have stirred up a major controversy.
Prof. Maclver, who took part
last week-end in a panel discus
sion of his proposals at the 20th
General Assembly of the Council
of Jewish Federations and Wel
fare Funds, first publicly expres
sed his view on this question in
reply to questions. He told the
delegates that Israel was impor
tant in the community relations i
SCIENCE and STUPIDITY
BY NATHAN ZIPRIN
The disclosure that Dr. Ernst B. Chain, co-dis
coverer of penicillin and 1945 Nobel Prize winner,
had been denied a visa to the United States is
another shocking confirmation of the wave of
hysteria in our land and of the stupidity of the
so-called McCarran Act.
Here is an outstanding world scientist whose
efforts and genius have saved millions of Ameri
cans both at home and the battle, yet his gratitude
is denial of a privilege that has been extended to
thousands who have waged war against us and
inflicted pain and death upon our boys. It is both
ludicrous and incredible that a man who has been
responsible for the creation and development of
one of the most prosperous branches of the phar
macuetical industry of the . United States should
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1951
picture because it served “to re
move the feeling that Jews were
a people without a particular
point of land to call their own.”
Subsequently, in a statement
to J.T.A., Prof. Maclver express
ed his belief that “the existence
of Israel is a point of support and
focus of interest for all the Jew-
SODTHEBN LEADERS PLAN
GOALS ADD HEEDS FOR 1052
NASHVILLE, Tenn. A warning not to forget the men and
women who wear the uniform of the United States armed forces
was sounded here by Chaplain Garson Goodman, just returned from
the Korean battlefront, at a recent regional conference sponsored by
the Southern Section of the National Jewish Welfare Board (JWB).
A major concern of the dele
gates—members of board of di
rectors and professional staffs of
nine Jewish Community Centers
in Southeastern U. S.—was the
preservation in community life of
the moral values which this
country seeks to protect through
its military preparedness pro
gram.
Delivering the keynote ad
dresses on "Setting the Pace for
'52." Chaplain Goodman and
Herbert Millman, director o f
JWB's field services, highlighted
the challenges ahead for the Cen
ters in helping people of all ages,
in uniform end out of uniform, to
face present-day realities. The
JWB is both the national associa
tion of Jewish Community Cen
ters and YM-YWHAs and the U.
S. government-accredited agency
for serving the religious, welfare I
and morale needs of Jewish per
sonnel in the armed forces.
Chaplain Goodman presented
a grim, first-hand account of the
conditions under which the Ko
rean battle was being waged, and
pleaded with the audience not to
forget that portion of the com
munity who are now, and who
will be for some years in the
future, in the uniform of the
military services. He said that
ish people that will gradually
permeate into the consciousness
of other peoples.” “The State of
Israel,” he added, “has a role to
play and will have an increasing
role in asserting the integrity of
Jewish people everywhere.”
The noted sociologist declared
that “homelessness” was one of
the factors that created prejudice
against the Jews. The existence
of the State of Israel, he said,
would gradually serve to weaken
this prejudice and to create in
the minds of those who held this
prejudice, the status of equality
of the Jews.
be excluded on the basis of a vicious law that was
said to have been aimed against our enemies but
is applied to our friends.
Dr. Chain’s major crime seems to be that he
was born in Russia and that he participated in
scientific conferences in countries within the Iron
Curtain orbit. If being bom in pre-Soviet Russia
and participating in scientific parleys in other
than friendly countries is a crime warranting ex
clusion from our shores, we have indeed sunk to
a low level of morality even in so a moral a world
as ours.
Dr. Chain, who denies being or ever having bee*
a Communist, charitably contributes his exclusion
to a possible “slanderous statement to the F. B. I.”
If that is so the FBI and the State Department
ought to get busy, not so much to clear Chain’s
name as their own.
the services provided by JWB to
the armed forces not only pro
vide physical comfort but, even
more importantly, acts as a tie
between men stationed in far-off
places and the communities
which they left behind.
In his address. Mr. Millman
referred the audience to current
newspaper headlines as indica
tions of tension areas in the
moral fabric of community life.
“Institutions such as the Jew
ish Community Center must pon
der the effect on the country’s
commitment to a large standing
army and must base their pro
grams and activities on the prem
ise that the struggle for a demo
cratic world will be a long one,”
Mr. Millman said. He added that
Centers have now reached the
| peak of their strength and are
well prepared to deal with prob
lems arising from the current
situation.
Using the keynote addresses as
background, the delegates, in
round-table discussions, con
sidered "The Basic Values in
Center Programming" and
"Means of Financing the Center
Today." Communities represent
ed at the parley were Augusta.
Ga., Asheville, N. C.. Atlanta.
Ga.. Savannah, Ga., Birmingham.
A1 a., Chattanooga, KnoxviUe.
Memphis and Nashville, Tenn.*>
The community representa
tives heard Dr. William A. Wex
ler, Southern Section president,
extend greetings. Guided by Jul
ian Zander, president of the
Nashville Jewish Community
Center, and Leon Spector, direc
tor of the JWB Building Bureau,
which developed the original
plans for the new Nashville Cen
ter building, the delegates were
taken on a tour of the Center’s
new quarters.
Chairman of the local confer
ence committee was Dr. Samuel
S. Riven. Other key participants
in the program were Manuel Es
kind, president, Nashville Jewish
Community Council; Paul Sch
wartz, executive director, Mem
phis Jewish Community Center';
Edward M. Kahn, executive di
rector, Atlanta Jewish Federa
tion; Morris Davis and Dan May.
past presidents, Nashville Jewish
Community Center; Miss Jean
Cleveland, professor of group
work. University of Tennessee
School of Social Work; Bernard
Werthan, co-chairman, Nashville
Building Committee, and Harold
E. Katz, executive director.
Nashville Jewish Community
Center. Manuel G. Batshaw, JWB
field secretary for the Southern
Section, summarized the confer
e
$3.00 A YE AT