The Southern Jewish weekly. [volume], January 07, 1955, 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. 51
PLAIN TALK
BY ALFRED SEGAL
INVITATION TO A
WEDDING
My friend. Father Victor Dono
van of St. Joseph's Passionist
Monastery at 3800 Frederick Ave
nue. Maryland, sends me a pam
phlet he wrote on his hope of the
ultimate conversion of Jews to
Christianity, by grace of Mary,
Jfae mother of Jesus. His pam
phlet's title: "Our Lady and Is
rael."
It contains all the kindness of a
friendly invitation—indeed, to a
wedding; since Father likens the
hoped-for conversion of the Jews
to a marriage with “the Royal
Bridegroom” Jesus.
He counsels Catholics to be
kindly hosts to the Jews toward
the wedding hour; 'Till up the six
days of our earthly life with our
affections for the Jewish people.
Let us look upon every act of
kindness parformed in His Name
as so much wine of Divine Love.
Every time we check the tongues
of bigots who speak evil against
the Jew we are showing forth
God's power of charity. Every
prayer we say, every rosary we
hold up to Mary, every Mass we
offer to God, will be the precious
wine that will gladden the hearts
of those Jews whom the Heavenly
Father has invited to the wedding
feast of His Son."
Well, an invitation requires po
lite answer; in accordance with
RSVP, and so, I address Father
Donovan: My dear Father Dono
van: You and I have understood
each other so well enough that I
am sure you will take no offense
at my reluctance to come to the
wedding.
You see, sir, I feel quite happy
in my present religious association
—a spiritual marriage, you might
say, that has lasted thousands of
years. As I remember it, the wed
ding occurred at the foot of Sinai
where I, as Jew. was consecrated
to the marriage contract that is of
tiie Ten Commandments.
It was a gorgeous wedding, as I
have read, illuminated by divine
lighting and sacred with the voice
of God in the thunder. •
We Jews have been obligated
under the contract of the Ten
Commandments during four or
five millenia, and there's hope
that some day all of us will gel
around to living up to it. A lot of
us do fry hard to live by it and
we've had our sages, prophets and
mints as well as many lesser peo
ple, who have made sacred duty of
It «nd have been faithful to the
Sinai contract.
Why, my dear Father Donovan,
should a happy marriage be
broken up, after all the years, to
contract another?
True enough, in all the times
there have been Jews who have
f»n«n short of their obligations
under the contract. But that may
be said also of other people in re
lation to their own religions. It
would, indeed, be a much better
world than this is if all Christians
were faithful to their marriage to
the Royal Bridegroom. The hearts
of Jesus must be broken to behold
(Continued on Page ,10)
Zionist Head Named
Rabbi Philip S. Bernstein, of
Rochester, N. Y., former president
of the Central Conference of
American Rabbis, was elected
chairman of the American Zionist
Committee for Public Affairs. He
succeeds Louis Lipsky veteran
leader of the American Zionist
movement.
The American Zionist Commit
tee for Public Affairs was estab
lished early this year by all the
American Zionist organizations to
“conduct and direct public action,
on behalf of the American Zionist
movement, bearing upon relations
with governmental authorities,
with a view to maintaining and
improving friendship and good
will between the United States
and Israel.”
Held under the auspices of the
American Zionist Council a four
day convention of about 300 Zion
ist students from 60 colleges and
universities concluded in New
York last week with resolutions
calling for the promotion of He
brew language, the establishment
of projects to benefit Israel cul
turally and economically and the
creation of an educational pro
gram to combat Arab propaganda
in AmeAcan schools of higher
learning.
The convention also decided to
establish a new and permanent
FLORIDA JEWISH YOUTH HEADS
"BOOKS FOB DEMOCRACY" DRIVE
HHi
fl|
CHUCK ASHMANN
BY JEROME WEINER
Southern Jewish Weekly Staff Writer
The national “Books for Democracy” drive —a
coast-to-coast college campaign designed to send
American books to students in other nations, in
cluding Israel, to stem the tide of Communist prop
aganda—began yesterday. National Co-ordinator of
the drive is Chuck Ashmann, University of Florida
junior from Miami.
Ashmann was appointed by the U. S. Informa
tion Agency of the Department of State —national
campaign sponsoring group—and the agency said
the University of Florida will act as national head
quarters for the drive.
The project—initiated in Gainesville last year
by Ashmann —is dedicated to the collection of
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA, FRIDAY, JANUARY 7, 1955
1 I
S' ' s
Rabbi Philip S. Bernstein
Zionist student organization in
this country and to develop a
Zionist education program among
Jewish students on college cam
puses. Another resolution adopted
by the delegates urged the en
couragement of migration to Is
rael.
A two-day Southern Regional
Conference of the American Zion
ist Council will be held at the
Biltmore Hotel in Atlanta begin
ning Saturday evening, February
5, 1955, at 8:00 P. M. and con
tinuing through Sunday, February
6, from 9:00 A. M. to 4:30 P. M.
books telling the story of democracy for shipment
to students all over the world.
It is designed to combat the use of Russian
made books and materials in the allied nations of
the world.
The drive has been recognized by the U. S.
Department of State, the Smithsonian Institute,
and the National Association of Manufacturers.
The 1955 national campaign began yesterday—
college students in virtually every state in the
union began collecting books for shipment. The
six-months drive will end June 6.
“Books for Democracy” sprang into existence
last year when Ashmann and a group of University
of Florida students collected 1,500 books and had
them shipped to University of Tokyo students in
Japan.
The texts were collected last spring in a city
wide Gainesville “Books for Democracy” drive that
started when an exchange professor, Dr. Shannon
McCune, now in Tokyo, wrote the University of
Florida asking for American books to replace So
viet Russia’s Communist-filled propaganda books
then in use.
The Inter-Fraternity Council took up the spon
sorship of the University of Florida drive and
rounded up nearly 1,500 books from students, the
U-F libraries, and citizens of Gainesville. Each
book was sent to Tokyo, Japan in the name of the
IFC and the U. of F.
U. S. Senator George Smathers (D-Fla.), an
alumnus of the University of Florida, took the
drive to the State Department, and largely through
his efforts the Exchange Service of the department
agreed to ship and distribute the books in Japan.
Following the successful University of Florida
campaign—first of its kind in the nation —Ash-
mann carried out plans to enlarge the project and
(Continued on Page 14)
Bermuda Hotels Use
Code fur Bias
The word "hibiscus" means a beautiful tropical flower to the
average American but for many Bermuda hotels it is a code word
with which thousands of tourists are "branded" with the stamp of
bigotry before they reach the island.
In its latest issue on sale Janu
ary 4th, Confidential magazine
proves with documentation that
“hibiscus” in Bermuda language
means “Jewish” and “not wel
come” in many hotels in the so
called vacation paradise.
Confidential reproduces a letter
sent to American travel agents by
the Bermuda Tourist Bureau to
support the magazine's charge of
anti-Semitism.
The letter, sent secretly to these
travel agencies reads “Some
hotels are restricted. We suggest
therefore the use of the following
code words, particularly in cables,
to devote racial origin:
"Gentile—Oleander"
"Jewish—Hibiscus"
"Negro—Geranium"
"Asiatic—Poinciana"
Staff writer, Bruce Cory, spent
weeks in Bermuda and around
American travel agencies to ob
tain the first-hand account of
bigotry.
The writer discloses that the
travel agencies- "classify" the
prospective vacationist as to race
and religion and cable the code
word in the request for a reserva
tion.
But the tourist is never aware
of this. He has been branded—
and sometimes incorrectly—with- .
out his knowledge.
The magazine also states that
press censorship has been exer
cised by Bermuda officials to keep
the news of anti-Semitic actions
out of the newspapers.
The article is the first exposure
of this vicious bigotry in the
“vacation paradise” ever carried
in an American magazine. And, as
Confidential points out, Ameri
cans spend more than $20,000,000
annually in Bermuda.
Cornell Study Reveols
Ploce of Jews In
Americon Scene
BY BORIS SMOLAR)
THE AMERICAN SCENE: How
do Jews feel among non-Jewish
neighbors in the middle-sized
Ameridan towns? . . A very inter
esting study, based on information
gathered'in a sample of 248 com
munities, has been conducted by
Cornell University . . The results
of this study, which deals with
cities having populations between
25,000 and 150,000, have now been
made public . . . And they throw
much light on the participation of
Jews in local economic life, on
their participation in community
services, and on the lack of social
mixing between Jews and non-
Jews . . Prof. John P. Dean, who
supervised the study, attributes
the virtual non-existence of social
mixing between Jews and Gen
tiles to social anti-Semitism on the
part of the Gentiles and to opposi
tion to intermarriage on the part
of the Jews . . He points out that,
friendship among Jews and non-
Jews is strong among school chil
dren and teen-agers ... But he es
tablishes that childhood and teen
age relationships seldom weather
the disruptive influences that
sever them in the years following
high school . . . After marriage,
high school Jewish-Gentile rela
tionships seldom are the basis for
continued intimate friendship . . .
The joint social life of a married
couple depends on who each of
the spouses object to and who,
each feels most “at home” with ..
If, at the time of marriage, each
spouse has an independent circle
of friends, the couple will tend to
become socially integrated into
the circle least different in ethnic
and prestige attributes from
themselves . . Thus Jews in the
middle-sized towns —where they
constitute a very small percentage
of the population—may have
friends and close contacts among
the Gentiles, but there is very
little invitation to each other’s
homes . . .
(Continued on Page 14)
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