The Southern Jewish weekly. [volume], November 26, 1954, 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. 31 NO. 45
Musings...
By Ethel "Teddy" Moscovilz
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II has been brought to my at
tention that everyone is writing
about the Wolfsons. except me ...
Now, that is not fair . . . When
ever the Wolfsons have fit into
the community picture we have
mentioned them . . . Mine is not a
column on economics; hence, I
shy from printing the annual in
comes of our subscribers, nor do
I analyze the “how” and “whys”
of their incomes . . . Besides—we
would be murdered in our beds if
we just try . . . But the whole
truth of the matter is that the
Wolfsons’ rise to fortune has not
inflated the Wolfson family so
high above the horizon of the
community that it is conscious of
the fact that it has contributed a
“sun” to the financial heavens . .
To people in Jacksonville the
Wolfsons are “Sam and Betty,”
“Florence and Lou,” and “Hazel
and Saul” . . . When Lou and
Florence come up for a visit from
Miami Beach their old friends are
glad to see them, and they seem
happy to be with former asso
ciates . . .
People here gel quite excited
over the articles in the "Post" and
in "Life" covering Lou Wolfson
. . . I have never heard envy or
bias enter into a discussion of
these stories . . . Everyone seems
to be happy that it has happened
... In a democracy it can happen
to you, too, and besides, you, can
always play along with the Wolf
sons on the stock market—so no
body is mad ...
But the Wolfson story has had
an effect on the community . . .
I don’t believe there is another
place in the country where thir
teen and fourtesn-year-old boys
are so well acquainted with the
stock market . . . Here, kids aren’t
thinking of their future profes
sions, but which stocks they will
buy with their Bar-Mitzvah
money . . . Was my family in New
York bowled over when they tried
to turn the conversation in the
direction of baseball, and found
that instead, my fourteen-year-old
son was in the “know” about
Montgomery Ward and its Mr.
Avery . . .
It is quite true that the Wolf
sons have had their effect on the
community! ... Take last Hallo
ween, for instance .. . The theme
of a certain cocktail party was to
come as a song title .. Sam Siegel
walked in dressed as a hobo with
a sign: "I want to make a buck—"
. . . Now. you would ordinarily
think he was coming as "Brother,
ran you spare a dime?" ... or
"Little Buckaroo," or something
(Continued on Page 4)
and Saul”
Map Plans for River Garden Addition
To House Aged and Infirm
if
Standing, left to right: Ralph Mizrahi, Vice-president of River
Garden and Chairman of Architect's Committee; Sidney Entman,
Executive Director of River Garden; Ben Yoffe, Appeals Chairman.
Seated: Harry Gendziar, President of River Garden.
Leaders of the River Garden
Home for the Hebrew Aged are
shown studying plans for the pro
posed new addition to the present
building which now commands
the corner of Riverside Avenue
and Stockton Street in the River
side section of Jacksonville.
A drive to raise $300,000.00 for
the proposed wing will be begun
Thursday evening, December 2,
at the Beauclerc Country Club.
Thanksgiving Day - Reasons
BY DAVID SCHWARZ
(Copyright, 1954, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)
There is a legend about the origin of Thanks
giving Day which has it that originally the Pil
grims proposed a day of prayer to mourn over
their sins and someone suggested instead that it
be devoted to giving thanks to God for their many
blessings. What set out to be a bellyache was
turned into a joyful event.
The legend at least reflects life. There is the
Hasidic story of the Jew who came to the rebbe
complaining of his own plight and wanting to
know how it was possible to praise God for all—
for the evil as well as the good.
, The rebbe scratched his chin. “I’ll tell you
what,” he said, “you go and see Zosu. He has had
so many troubles, you can’t count them. He will
tell you how.”
So the Jew goes to Zosu’s house. He finds him
sitting on a rocking chair. “I’ll tell you why I have
come,” said the troubled Jew. “The rebbe told me
that you have had troubles galore and so you
would be able to tell me how it is possible to
praise the Lord for the evil as well as the good.”
Zosu didn’t even know about his troubles. It’s
all in the view point.
People may be thankful for strange reasons.
They tell a story about the Yiddish newspaperman,
Israel J. Zeven, a hunchback, who worked on the
old Tageblatt. One morning he came into the office
beaming, “I had such a nice time this morning,”
he said, “I saw a man with a bigger hump than
mine.”
This is a rather morbid kind of thanksgiving.
Zeven was being humorous, though I suppose
misery does love company and gets some con
solation from it.
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1954
Harry Gendzier, president of Gar
den Home, will preside. A pre
view of the film “Bless This
House,” the story of River Garden
in picture, narrated by Eddie
Cantor, will be shown.
It is expected that with the ad
ditional room which the new wing
will provide the capacity of the
institution will be doubled. A
modern infirmary, improved
(Continued on Page 4)
Chicago Rabbi Asks Mayor
To Halt Anti-Semitism
An article in the Sentinel, Chicago Anglo-Jewish Week
ly, reveals a situation so shocking in its portent that it is
hereby reprinted in the Southern Jewish Weekly.
The Chicago metropolitan press was aroused this week, as a
result of a letter by Rabbi Leonard C. Mishkin, educational director
of the Associated Talmud Torahs and Chairman of the Administra
tive Committee of the Chicago Rabbinical Council to Mayor Martin
H. Kennelly, pleading for adequate police protection in the face of
increased gang activity on Chicago’s West Side.
(The Southern Jewish Weekly herewith prints the text of the
letter to the Mayor.)
Mayor Martin H. Kennelly
City of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois
Honorable Mr. Kennelly:
The undersigned is taking the
only course open to him to ex
press his disappointment and em
bitterment concerning a public
matter which is of the utmost im
portance to every Chicagoan, and
especially to our City Fathers
headed by you as our distinguish
ed Mayor. I am also utilizing the
only public forum which is at the
disposal of the citizens of this city
—the metropolitan newspapers.
Recalls Meeting
During the early part of this
summer, a Citizens Committee
consisting of the most prominent
lay and religious leaders of the
Chicago West Side, representing
a cross section of the different
races, nationalities and religions
of the area headed by the Aider
man of the 24th Ward, called upon
you at your office to ask for bet
ter policing and protection of the
entire area known as the Greater
Lawndale District.
For those who would wish to adduce reasons
for thanksgiving, the case of Zeven offers, how
ever, more substantial pabulum.
He wrote under the pen name of Tashrack —a
pen name known to Jews all over America 30
years ago. Deformed as he was, he might easily
have yielded to despair. To reach the desk to write
his daily stint, he used to sit on one of those big
unabridged Webster dictionaries.
Every day for many years he wrote a little
piece about “The Customer Peddler.” Tens of
thousands of Jews daily read him and were
cheered up. A man with a hump on his back took
a lump off the hearts of thousands daily.
Thanksgiving day is a holiday which the old
Hasidim would have made their own. To the Hasid,
in fact, every day is Thanksgiving Day. The essen
tial goodness of life was not only the primary but
almost the entirety of teaching. The chief sin ac
cording to the Hasid, to be melancholy.
The sad person, they said, was the selfish one.
He was always griping that something was with
held from him. The Holy Presence, they said,
would not consort with the dreary minded. God
like the man he has created, likes the company of
the cheerful. To be pious, eat a little pie and thank
God. Pie is good, whiskey is good—everything is
good—save melancholy. This, in a rather crude
way, is their doctrine.
It did a lot for the Jews or it could not have
spread so. Perhaps such doctrine might do much
for the world of today—a world which is increas
ingly ruled by fear and suspicion. Suspicion tends
to breed the very dangers of which it is unafraid,
and it is very costly. Think how much the nations
of the world are spending for armaments because
they are suspicious of each other.
Instead of improvement, the
situation has “worsened” since.
Your proffered aid and expressed
pious intentions never material
ized.
In Trumbull Park, for the pro
tection of one family you have
immobilized 300 policemen. For
the safety, protection and well
being of 20,000 citizens of the
Jewish faith, we are unable to
procure from your police depart
ment, even a modicum, a min
imum of protection to which
every resident of this city is en
titled.
The area to which I am refer
ring ... is rapidly deteriorating
into a slum, a veritable social
jungle, a den of robbers and
thieves. The community is terror
stricken. Decent people fear to
walk in the street even in the
early hours of the evening, and
when one is compelled to be on
the street during the evening it
is with trepidation, consternation,
with a heart throbbing with fear
that he rushes through the street.
Grave concern and bitterness fills
the hearts of all the peace loving
and law abiding citizens of the
area.
The Record
It will not be necessary for the
undersigned to bring to your at
tention, the dockets of the police
station on Fillmore and Pulaski in
order to substantiate my state
ment. It will suffice if I record
before you a chronicle of events
that transpired within my pur
view, which are enough to shock
everyone.
In mid-July a Mrs. Shapiro, re
siding on Douglas Boulevard and
Millard Avenue was felled by
such a (bicycle) rider, who inten
tionally threatened her. She never
returned from the hospital.
Rabbi Shapiro, who resided at
1217 South Independence Boule
vard, vbas robbed in his own home
three consecutive times by the
same hoodlum, who gained ad
mission to his home and was lurk
ing for him. The Rabbi was so
fear stricken that he hurriedly
moved from the neighborhood.
Rabbi Goldstein and his wife
were attacked on the boulevard,
by a group of hoodlums while
they were walking toward their
synagogue, which was on Douglas
Boulevard and Millard Avenue.
On the evening of October 14,
Rabbi Ephraim Epstein was held
up by two teen-age bandits right
in the vestibule of the Hebrew
Theological College on Douglas
Boulevard and St. Louis Avenue.
On October 15, the attorney,
(Continued on Page 8)
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