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THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
A Magazine Perpetuating Jewish Ideals
lume 6
MARCH 21, 1931
Number 25
B’nai B’rith Luncheon Club
The B’nai B’rith has finally come to the front to perpetuate the
necessary enthusiasm that is so vital in any successful organization
v forming a weekly luncheon club. Its purposes are outlined in a
letter sent to each member, part of which reads as follows:
To know and understand each other better.
To foster true spirit of brotherly love, benevolence, and
harmony, thus exemplifying the teachings of our order.
To develop closer and friendlier relations among our
members along lines of good-fellowship.
To be ready at all times to support every good Jewish
cause in this community.
The above outlined “purposes” are worthy ones, always to be
remembered. The success of this B’nai B’rith luncheon club depends
on each member’s sincerity, to see that all efforts are made to be
present at every luncheon. A great deal of good can come from a
luncheon club, as has been proved by others throughout the country,
why not a successful B’nai B’rith luncheon club that fosters the
finest ideals toward the betterment of ALL JEWS?
In Darkest Europe
If the classification of the various kinds of anti-Semitism in
Europe made by Dr. Joseph Tenenbaum, chairman of the Executive
Committee of the American Jewish Congress, is only one-half accu
rate—and we believe it to be more than that—then it seems that a
new era of Jewish misery is beginning. “Economic discrimination
and physical brutality in Rumania,” says Docotr Tenenbaum.
Oppressive legislation in Poland, social isolation in Germany,
intellectual anti-Semitism in Soviet Russia, and minority oppression
in Lithuania . . . .” It seems that the advance of civilization serves
only to create new varieties of anti-Semitism. Where brutality was
simple and direct in centuries gone by, and could therefore be recog
nized and fought, it has become refined into a thousand less accessi
ble forms. The social structure is now so complicated, and political
alliances so tangled, that one need not
even be anti-Semitic” in order to make
life intolerable for the Jews. One need
only pass laws which “apply to every
one — the understanding being that
these laws happen to affect Jews vitally
and others hardly at all. One can make
ducational rulings which do not men
tion the word Jew, but which are clearly
ntended to deprive Jews of their spir
al liberty. One can plead liberty of
te and help create a fashionable dis-
te for Jewish intellectuals. Seldom
s a century proved such a disappoint-
ent to a people as this one has to the
vs - Those who remember the begin-
£ the Twentieth Century, with its
iant promise of a new social order, a
interpretation of justice, will easily
•ade themselves that at the turn of
ntury the tide of time turned sud-
backward, and, leaping over the
ations, landed the Jewish people in
idst of the medieval era.
;e*
CONTENTS
Down to the Sea—And Up Again
By Meyer F. Steinglass -
Why I am a Jew
By Albert Einstein
"A Sagacious Crevice"
“A sagacious crevice” is high-brow for smart crack, and in
speaking of Alexander Wollcott we must be high-brow at all costs.
Here is what Mr. Woollcott has to say about a well-known writer’s
Jewish self-consciousness: “Today, in Paris, there lives one of the
most gifted writers in the English language. His concern over Jew
ish and Zionist problems obtrudes through all his novels. He has
been foremost in defending Jews from anti-Semitism, and has
become one of the most ardent Zionists in our time because of his
resentment of the treatment he received while he was living in the
United States and teaching at one of our colleges. But that man
mistook a natural antipathy for halitosis as a sign of anti-Semitism.”
For all its appeaarnce of psychological insight this explanation of
Mr. Woolcott’s is nothing but a wise-crack. What Mr. Woolcott
seems to imply, indirectly, is that this writer’s unpleasant person
ality was responsible for his lack of advancement; hence his recoil
to Judaism. Curiously enough, we have heard little about the
unpleasant personality of the writer in question. Is there a better-
known phenomenon than the fearful difficulty that Jews have in
getting academic recognition? And is “halitosis”—in the general
sense which Mr. Woollcott intends—to be accepted as the cause?
As a matter of fact, if we look closer into this curious explanation
of Mr. Woolcott’s we should either have to admit that he is right
or assume that, instinctively and unintentionally, he has permitted
himself a cheap anti-Semitic remark. This “one of the most gifted
writers in the English language” is only one of a type; thousands
of others more or less gifted have received the same kind of treat
ment. It is disconcerting to find that Mr. Woolcott can think of no
better reason for their fate.
Adding to the Gaiety of Life
Outside of Palestine, where they are a genuine nuisance, the
Revisionists are merely comical. On the arrival of Judah Leib
Magnes, Chancellor of the Hebrew University, in the country the
New York Revisionists staged a mock trial, convicted Doctor
Magnes of being unfaithful to his office
and requested his resignation. The comi
cality of the situation lies in the fact
that they could only “request”. What is
a Revisionist who “requests”, anyhow?
It is the right of the Jews, as of all
other peoples, to have their megaloma
niacs; but it is a right with which we
would rather dispense.
Highlights and Sidelights
By Martin Golds - - -
Cyrus Adler Welcomes Einstein
Society
National News
In the Limelight
Southern Notes
National News
10
li
12
13
15
In Bad Taste—At Least
From time to time there crop up
among the news items stories of Jews
who have permitted themselves to accept
decorations at the hands of anti-Semitic
governments—usually for having helped
“to create a better understanding”. We
have heard a good deal about Jewish
financiers whose money has been loaned
to anti-Semitic governments (though
there have been notable exceptions).
But, then, capital is supposed to be im
personal and international. Is vanity
also impersonal and international?
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