The Southern Jewish weekly. [volume], July 24, 1953, Image 1

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

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THE OLDEST AND MOST WIDELY CIRCULATED JEWISH PUBLICATION IN THIS TERRITORY
VOL. 30 NO. 27
PLAIN TALK
BY ALFRED SEGAL
SCARED CHICAGOAN
A gentleman in Chicago writes
to me: "Here are our rabbis again
butting in where they don't be
long and where even angels
would fear to tread. They are
getting us all in bad."
He means the several rabbinical
organizations that in strong lan
guage have reaffirmed the rights
of Americans to liberty of thought
and speech and to read whatever
they please.
"They are on dangerous ground,
considering the climate of these
times," he goes on to say. "What
right have they to speak publicly
for me and you as they do when
as an organization they pass reso
lutions. The Chicago Tribune has
said that they did a disservice to
the Jewish people in coming out
on this public matter as they did.
Thai's the way I feel. The rabbis
are embarrassing us as Jews. I am
not saying that they are not right
but are they expedient, since pre
judice always is seeking out Jews
to put them on the spot. Are they
serving us well in their true rab
binical function?
“Come on along, Segal, and
stand up for us all against this
disservice of the rabbis.”
But Segal can't go along with
the Chicagoan either as American
or Jew. This Chicagoan will have
to depend on the Tribune for
comfort. For Segal himself is most
thankful to these rabbis who, in
an hour when many men are
- afraid of their own voices, speak
up courageously as Jews and
Americans. As Americans they
know that the Declaration of In
dependence and its principles are
not just topics for speeches on the
Fourth of July. As Jews they have
Biblical and historic cause for
emulation: The children of Israel
setting themselves free from the
Pharaohs; the Macabbees fight
ing unto victory for the freedom
to worship their own God.
The Chicagoan says further:
“Why should we Jews voluntarily
take on more troubles when we
already have to carry so many
that are forced on us: Can’t we
learn our lesson never to stick
our necks out unless we just have
to. Let others who can afford it
better stick their necks out. Our
place is in the shadowed area
where no enemies can discover
us. We’ll just mind our own busi
ness and they won’t see us. These
rabbis didn’t mind our own busi
ness and what happens? The Chi
cago Tribune gets after us and in
this press I ge't pointed out as a
Jew in my own native town, be
cause of these rabbis.”
I answer him: Let's say thanks
to the rabbis for sticking our
necks out for us. Sluck-out necks
belong wherever there is need for
decent men to cry out against
political and social wrongs re
gardless of what that may cost us
in the opinion of individuals who
don't like us anyway. That's our
function as Jews who profess the
(Continued on Page 8)
Effect of Transfer on
Holy Places
The presence oh the Foreign
Ministry in Jerusalem will streng
then Israel’s capacity to discharge
its special responsibility in re
spect to the Holy Places. The
Israel Government has always
made it clear that it is agreeable
to international supervision of the
Holy Places of Jerusalem. This
readiness was reaffirmed by the
Israel Foreign Minister, Mr.
Moshe Sharett, in his major for
eign policy statement to the Knes
set on June 17, 1953. Mr. Sharett
stated that “should the United
Nations at any stage in the future
find it necessary to institute in
ternational supervision of the
Holy Places in Jerusalem, it can
rest assured in advance of the ac
ceptance of- that supervision by
Israel and the readiness of its
Government to cooperate with
whomever is charged with the
execution of this function. This
attitude of the Government of Is
rael has been repeatedly stressed
in official pronouncements of its
authorized representatives. It re
mains unchanged.
The Foreign Minister empha
sized that there is “no contradic
tion whatsoever between Israel’s
sovereignty in new Jerusalem and
the satisfaction of international
requirements concerning such
Holy Places as are located within
it.”
Os the thirty Holy Places in
Jerusalem referred to in the Uni
ted Nations documents, only two,
the Tomb of David and the Cen
acle, both on Mount Zion, are in
Israel territory. The others are
located in the Old City of Jeru
salem, under the control of Jor
dan.
HILLEL HOUSE FOR MIAMI
UNIVERSITY
MIAMI, (JTA) Plans were
completed this week for construc
tion of a new Hillel House on the
main campus of the University of
Miami. Actual ground-breaking
will take place this summer.
The building plot was present
ed to the Hillel Foundation as an
outright gift by the University.
Nearly 2,000 Jewish students at
tend the university.
WILL MR. EX BE ADMITTED?
Alfred Thedore Ex, according to a Department
of Justice report, admitted in Berlin in 1946 that
he had been- a member of the Germ an-American
Bund from 1929 to 1937, that he had held office in
that organization in 1937 and in 1941 had received
a certificate of German citizenship. A summary
military government court in Berlin, also convicted
him of knowingly making false statements to the
Allied forces.
Nevertheless the United States Senate has just
passed a special bill permitting Mr. Ex, who gave
up his American citizenship to serve Hitler, to
return to the United States. This despite the fact
that the Department of Justice has recommended
that he be excluded because of his Nazi activities.
If the House, too, should pass this bill we shall
have the spectacle of an avowed Nazi, of ohe who
turned traitor to America during the last war,
being re-admitted to the land he had spurned and
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA, JULY 24, 1953
Arrives in U.S. With
last Hope To Walk !
■. • : ' V
Benzion Kuncman, two-year-old
Israeli polio victim, whose last
hope to be able to walk lies in the
unique treatment he can obtain
at the Bellevue Medical Center in
New York, as he arrived in the
U. S. along with his parents, Mr.
and Mrs. David. Kuncman, with
the aid of HIAS, the Hebrew Im
migrant Aid Society. The child,
son of World War II refugees,
was stricken with polio last year,
which claimed the life of his sis
ter. After ten weeks treatment in
Paris, physicians declared that
the boy could be made to walk if
he was brought to the U. S. for
the unique muscle re-education
treatment offered here.
HONORS
MIAMI, Fla. (JTA) The
Chamber of Commerce has
awarded a citation to Dr. Nathan
iel Levin, Miami laryngologist,
for his work in rehabilitating the
handicapped. The citation noted
his work in teaching persons
whose larynxes have been re
moved to speak by the use of
abdominal muscles.
HONORS
ATLANTA,* Ga. (JTA) Sol P.
Benamy, local Zionist leader, has
been elected to the Atlanta City
Executive Council.
Western Powers Oppose Foreign
Ministry Move to Jerusalem
NEW YORK. (JTA) Transfer of the Israel Foreign Ministry
from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem brought criticism this week from Wash
ington, London and Paris and sharp protests to the United Nations
from the Arab States.
State Department sources in
Washington said the United
States had no intention of moving
its embassy from Tel Aviv to
Jerusalem because the question of
the internationalization of Jeru
salem is still pending before the
United Nations.
At Tel Aviv, a representative of
the embassy informed the For
eign Ministry's liaison office there
that all communications from the
embassy would be through the
liaison office.
The British Ambassador 'in Tel
Aviv previously had notified the
Foreign Ministry of a similar
stand by the British and Foreign
Office source in London were
critical of the Israeli move.
Eisenhower's Appeal
Fails fro Secure Action
on Bill for DP Entry
WASHINGTON, (JTA) Two
separate appeals from President
Eisenhower failed this week to
budge the Administration’s spe
cial quota immigration bill out of
the House and Senate Judiciary
Committee.
Mr. Eisenhower had requested
that 240,000 Iron Curtain refugees
and other Europeans be admitted
to the United States in the next
two years but Congressional com
mittees have shown a reluctance
to act on his proposals. The Presi
dent repeated his request this
week to his regular weekly con
ference of legislative leaders and
to two key members of the stale
mated Senate Judiciary Commit
tee, Senators Arthur V. Watkins
and Pat McCarran.
Congressional leaders predicted
the legislation would be approved
during this session, however, and
efforts were being made to work
out a compromise. Sen. McCarran
and other Senators have main
tained that admission of addition
al immigrants would open the na
tion’s doors to “subversives.”
fought while thousands of victims of German
Nazism whose sympathies during the war were
with America in vain seek admission to this coun
try. America will thus have rewarded an enemy
while spurning its friends.
This shameful bill was introduced by Senate
Judiciary Committee chairman William Langer, to
whom German racial ties would appear to mean
more than the principles of Americanism, and
passed the Senate without any opposition from
Sen. Pat McCarran, who claims to be the principal
opponent of the admission of totalitarians but who
when it comes to a showdown acts otherwise.
The House of Representatives can still refuse
to pass this bill. We hope that the principles of
justice and true Americanism will prevail in this
matter and that Alfred Theodor Ex will be kept
in the country he had chosen to serve during the
last war, in Germany.
In Paris, the Quai d'Orsay re
ported that France would not
recognize the move and pointed
out that as long as three months
ago, the French Government had
indicated that it would not recog
nize such a decision, which it con
siders contrary to the United Na
tions proclamation of Jerusalem's
international character. France's
role in the Near East and its de
sire to maintain good relations
with Syria and Lebanon are con
sidered a reason for its stand.
On the other hand, several for
eign missions acknowledged re
ceipt of the ministry’s notifica
tion. The Greek envoy was the
first foreign envoy to visit the
new headquarters of the ministry
in Jerusalem, and the Netherlands
envoy was expected to pay a for
mal visit. It was also indicated
that Yugoslavia would move her
legation from Tel Aviv to Jeru
salem on the minister’s return
from Belgrade.
Arab States Protest in U. N.
Meanwhile, the six Arab states
made their anticipated protest to
the United Nations against the
Israel move. In “the strongest
protest” against the Israel action,
lodged with U. N. Secretary Gen
eral Dag Hammarskjold, they de
nounced the move as a violation
of U. N. resolutions on interna
tionalization of Jerusalem, as an
“irresponsible and unjustified”
move and as a “fresh blow” to
peace in the Middle East “already
tottering under the impact of Is
rael aggression.”
They asked thal their protest be
circulated to all member nations
of the U. N. and to the Palestine
Conciliation Commission.
The influential London Eco
nomist, in an editorial this week
on the Israeli move, commented
that “by tacit consent of the
Powers, the idea of an interna
tional Jerusalem is therefore a
dead letter.” It suggested that
“more third parties start bridging
the gap” between the two sets of
Jerusalemites separated by the
barbed wire between Israeli and
Jordanian Jerusalem.
WORLD REFORM MOVEMENT
HONORS RABBI BAECK AT
LONDON DINNER
LONDON, (JTA) Rabbi Leo
Baeck, retiring president of the
World Union for Progressive Ju
daism, was honored here on the
occasion of his 80th birthday and
his retirement, at a dinner spon
sored by the Union. Reform lead
ers from South Africa, France,
the United States and a Liberal
Rabbi from Jerusalem presented
him with gifts expressing the ap
preciation of Reform Jewry for
Dr. Baeck, Chief Rabbi of Berlin
before and during the Nazi re
gime.
$3.00 A YEAR