The Southern Jewish weekly. [volume], October 29, 1954, Image 1

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

Image provided by: University of Florida

                
AN INDEPENDENT WEEKLY SERVING AMERICAN CITIZENS OF JEWISH FAITH “j||
THE OLDEST AND MOST WIDELY CIRCULATED JEWISH PUBLICATION IN THIS TERRITORY
VOL. 31 NO. 41
PLAIN TALK
BY ALFRED SEGAL
THIS DANCER AT 80
I met my friend O on the street
and he said: "Maybe you should
congratulate me today and maybe
you shouldn't. It all depends."
(I speak of him as Mr. O because
he is round like ah O).
‘And just why” I asked him,
should you or should you not be
congratulated?"
He replied that it was his 80th
birthday, "and is that something
to be congratulated on or maybe
it isn't."
“That,” I said, “depends on
yourself and what you think
about it. Are you one of those who
are sorry to be on the earth that
long? Do you consider yourself
an old man? In that case I can’t
congratulate you at all. You’ve
become your own liability.”
"On the contrary," he inter
rupted, "I love it. I call myself
young. The other evening I
danced the Blue Danube with my
oldest granddaughter. She is 18
and I hope to live for her wed
dina. And can I dance? I was like
Arthur Murray, whirling m y
granddaughter until she was
dizzy. I just can't believe I'm 80."
“Well, then,” I observed poli
tically, “I do congratulate you,
and I shook his hand. “You seem
to have nothing to worry about.
A perfect success, from what I
know of other facts of your good
life. Let’s go in and have a drink
to your 80th.”
At the bar Mr. O insisted he
did not have one worry.. ."Where
am I going from here?" he asked
me. "You tell me. You see, at 80
one has to begin thinking of hav
ing to leave this world finally, and
where am I going from here? I
just don't like the idea of leaving
my children and grandchildren
and going to some far off place up
in the skies, however lovely that
place may be. So I've been think
ing: Will I be going to live among
the angels? Between you and me,
I'd rather stay among my own
fine kids. Os course. I'll have
nothing to say about that."
He had approached me on this
subject because he thought that
as a columnist I should know
everything about living, and dy
ing as well. He seemed to feel
deeply let down when I told him
honestly that I didn’t know much
if anything about where he was
going when he died.
"The way you write about
everything as if you knew every
thing!" he exclaimed.
I could quote him some author
ity out of Scripture, though. I
pointed out that our Bible fre
quently speaks of Biblical charac
ters being gathered to their fa
thers when they died. That sug
gests maybe they were going
somewhere —Paradise, perhaps
to live forever among their an
cestors.
That. I observed, may be all to
the good and then, on the other
hand, it may not. One can't be
too sure of his ancestors, and,
really, could a soul out of the 20th
century mix on friendliest intel
lectual terms with ancestors who
(Continued on Page 4)
Christians And Jews
Meet On Nov. 9-11
The twenty-sixth annual meet
ing of the National Conference of
Christians and Jews will be held
November 9-11, at the Hotel May
flower, Washington, D. C., it was
announced yesterday (Thursday,
October 28) by Benson Ford, vice
presicen:, Ford Motor Co.; James
F. Twohy, West Coast industrial
ist, and Roger W. Straus, board
chairman, American Smelting &
Refining Co., who are the national
co-chairmen of the organization.
More than 800 delegates and
guests from all sections of the
country will attend the three-day
meeting. In special sessions mem
bers of the national board of di
rectors will elect officers, review
program developments and con
sider the financial problems of
the organization.
Israel Defense Minister
Says Arabs Spread False
Peace Rumors
TEL AVIV, (JTA) “ln the
past few weeks our neighbors
have spread false rumors of
peace, but while their mouths
uttered peace their hands con
tinued hostile activities,” Israel’s
Defense Minister Pinchas Lavon
declared, addressing a gathering
of 7,p00 youths on the value of
their training for security and
pioneering tasks.
Addressing the annual meeting
of the Israel Journalists Associa
tion, the Defense Minister said
that Israel would like one day to
repay France for all the assistance
which Israel had received from
France in the time of Israel’s dif
ficulties. Mr. Lavon made his
20 Jewish Candidates Up for Election
BY MILTON FRIEDMAN
(Copyright, 1954, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)
*** * *
—WASHINGTON
IBj The political fate of over 20
H Jewish candidates for Congress
’•v I w m be decided on November 2
I when the nation goes to the polls.
M Election results may install a
jm| Jewish governor in Connecticut.
M| He is A. A. Ribicoff, a Democrat
I who formerly served in Congress.
sssaggi
A victory for Richard L. Neu
' H berger, Oregon Democrat who is
of Republican Sen. Guy Gdrdon,
would put two Jews in the Senate. Sen. Herbert
H. Lehman’s term runs until 1956. Only once in
American history have two Jews served at the
same time in the Senate. That happened between
1907 and 1912 when Sen. Simon Guggenheim, of
Colorado, and Sen. Isador Rayner, of Maryland,
served simultaneously.
In some districts, Jewish candidates for the
House, of Representatives are running against
other Jews. Most Jewish candidates, however, are
Democrats. Rep. Jacob K. Javits, the only Jewish
Republican now in Congress, has given up his
House seat to seek election as Attorney General of
New York State. A key member of the House
Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Javits defended
the Zionist cause and opposed administration poli
cies he felt were harmful to Israel.
Herbert Zelenko, a Jew who is contesting for
the seat vacated by Rep. Javits, is a Democrat.
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1954
To Appear At
B'nai B'rith Dinner
HERVA NELLI
Herva Nelli, auburn-haired so
prano with the Metropolitan
Opera Company, of New York,
has been added to the roster of
celebrities who will appear at the
B’nai B’rith dinner to be held at
the Mayflower Hotel in Washing
ton, D. C. on Sunday, November
7. The event marks the ground
breaking for the new B’nai B’rith
Building to be erected here.
A four-fold program at the din
ner consists of an address by Earl
Warren, Chief Justice of the Uni
ted States, the production of an
historical drama starring John
Hodiak and Constance Bennett,
songs by Herva Nelli, and the
unveiling of a model of the mil
lion-dollar, ei g h t-story B’nai
B’rith Building sponsored by the
B’nai B’rith Henry Monsky Foun
dation. The new structure will
house valuable documents, manu
scripts, paintings, sculpture, and
(Continued on Page 8)
Public school desegregation, resulting from the Supreme Court
decision last May, has become a lively topic for organizing and fund
raising by professional racists and their hate groups, the Anti-Defa
mation League of B'nai B'rith reported this week.
The League said that a survey
conducted through its 26 regional
offices showed a mushrooming of
new racist groups, particularly in
the South, all of them brandishing
white supremacy doctrines.
At the same time, they are
linking the desegregation issue
with anti-Semitic themes, blam
ing Jewish groups for having
"subverted" the Supreme Court,
the survey noted.
The findings of a nationwide
round-up by ADL of opposition
by organized bigotry to the school
integration problem were released
by Judge David A. Rose of Bos
ton, chairman of the League’s
civil rights committee, at the Lea
gue s two-day executive commit
tee meeting here.
Arnold Forster, the League's
civil rights director who organ
ized the survey,, said that many
of the newly-formed racist groups
are the creatures of former Ku
Klux Klan leaders.
“But they avoid identification
with the Klan, a movement that
has been widely discredited in the
South,” said Forster.
Instead, he said, they publicize
the fact that their pro-segregation
activities will be carried on with
out hooded robes, night riding or
violence, and will seek to circum
vent the Supremo Court's decision
through legal maneuvering,
through pupil boycotts such as
were tried in Maryland and
Zelenko has already indicated his interest in Is
rael by sending a pledge to the American Zionist
Committee for Public Affairs. He pledged that, if
elected, he would oppose the Republican policy of
shipping arms to Arab League states.
In Chicago, Rep. Sidney R. Yates, Democrat,
finds himself, a Jew, opposed by another Jew.
His Republican rival is Ralph L. Goodman. Rep.
Yates served as a U. S. Navy officer during World
War 11. As a member of Congress, Rep. Yates
gained acclaim by saving the Jewish naval officer,
Hyman Rickover, from enforced retirement. Rick
over was the inventor of the atomic submarine
but top brass passed him by when promotions were
handed out. Retirement would have been manda
tory. But Rep. Yates’ intervention brought about
the promotion of Rickover to the rank of admiral.
Rep. Yates also succeeded in restoring the job of
a young Jewish Naval veteran who was recently
fired as a “security risk” because he helped trans
port Jewish refugees to Palestine in 1947.
A Jew in Indiana is opposing Rep. Charles A.
Halleck, of Indiana, Republican Floor Leader.
James H. Berg, a Democrat, has fought an uphill
campaign against Halleck, one of the men closest
to President Eisenhower. Other races in which
Jews are running against non-Jews include the
Philadelphia battle between the incumbent Demo
crat, Earl Chudoff, and W. B. Carter, Jr. In Balti
more, Rep. Samuel N. Friedel, Democrat, is bat
tling Edward C. Dukehart, Republican. A Massa
chusetts contest finds Jackson J. Holtz, former
national commander of the Jewish War Veterans,
fighting as a Democrat for a House seat.
(Continued on Page 4)
Hate Groups Active
In Desegregation Fight
through "economic pressure."
The last form of intimidation
has already b6en organized in
Mississippi by a new group called
“Citizens’ Councils.” Its structure
comprises 82 local councils—one
for each county in the state-r
--which will defend “Southern cus
toms and traditions,” says the
group’s prospectus, by “applica
tion of economic pressure to trou
ble-makers.”
Best known among the new
crop of race agitators because of
his widely publicized activities in
Maryland and Washington, D. C_
says the ADL report, is Bryant
W. Bowles, 34-year-old former
Tampa. Fla. contractor and ex-
Marine sergeant' who organized
the National Association for the
Advancement of White People.
He claims more than 30,000 mem
bers, each of whom pays at least
five dollars annual dues. During
his stay in Tampa. Bowles was
convicted for cashing bad checks.
His organizational newsletter,
called The National Forum, dem
onstrates Bowles’ kinship with
the commercial hate movement in
this country, says ADL. It is filled
with anti-Semitic articles reprint
ed from the leaflets and publica
tions of the long established cabal
of professional Jew-haters.
Bowles is now under indictment
on two separate counts of con
spiracy to disrupt the school sys
tems in Maryland's Kent and
Sussex counties.
Other groups organized to fight
desegregation, as listed in the
ADL report, include—
White Brotherhood, organized
in Atlanta, Ga., by Bill Hendrix,
one-time leader of the Ku Klux
Klan in Florida. Another Hendrix
front is the American Confederate
Army, which greeted the Supreme
Court decision by advising "it is
now time to load your gun and
get into this mongrelization fight
as an individual." But Hendrix,
already on probation following
his conviction by a federal court
for sending defamatory material
through the mail, says ha will
operate White Brotherhood as a
"religious group" and "try to
avoid killing and violence."
National Association for the
Preservation of the White Race,
organized in Augusta, Ga., by
Jack Dempsey, a former Klan
leader in that state. (He is no re
lation to the famous heavyweight
champion.)
The National Association for the
Advancement and Protection of
the Majority of the While Peo
ple. organised in Griffin, Ga. Its
promoters are a Dr. Marvin Head
and R. L. Addleton. who is. ■
former assistant state atlorney
generaL Both were Klan organ
izers.
The Southerners, “a non-profit
(Continued on Page 8)
$3.00 A YEAR