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Soul srn
NO ES + + +
omtinmed from page 14)
, \ \ ttkowsky, President of the Cam-
u r w Benevolent Association for
n ven years; Rabbi Samuel Shill-
n y.. I con Schlosburg, President of
('; Jen Men’s Club; Mr. W. M.
\lriai r. Adjutant of the local unit
, ,hf \rnerican Legion, at whose hall
f() , rntion meetings were held. The
K , tcr h Is expressed appreciation of a
ireP |. %ket of flowers which had been
, i, v Mayor R. M. Kennedy, who was
nablr to attend the luncheon. Miss
Wolfr il*o presented the following state
^r, Mrs. Leon Schlosburg, Camden,
President; Miss Edythe Loryea, St. Mat-
f l lcw% First Vice-President; Mrs. D. A.
t „hen. Darlington, Second Vice-Presi
dent: Miss Rosalie Block, Camden, Cor-
rr«pon<ling Secretary; Mrs. Samuel Shill-
rt „ n , Sumter, Recording Secretary; Mrs.
-]• jr Jarrott, Florence, Treasurer. Mrs.
Henr* Harnett, of Sumter, read an inter
ring paper on the place and duties of
ihr Jewish woman in her community.
Mrv Julian Hennig, of Columbia, in her
excellent address on “The Responsibility
„f the Jewish Woman in This Time of
Trial and Tribulation,” spoke inspiringly
of thr need for leadership and courage
during present times of financial up
heaval and foreign distress.
The Dora Witcover Cup, given in mem-
on of the late Mrs. Witcover, of Dar
lington, was won by the Sumter and Dar
lington organizations for perfect scoring
of honor points. Permanent possession
of the cup goes to the Sumter Sisterhood
a* winner of the coveted prize for the
third successive year. Presidents of the
Parlington and Sumter Sisterhoods are
Mrv I). A. Cohen and Mrs. George Kra-
krr, respectively.
The assembly elected the following of-
hrrrv President, Miss F.dythe I-oryea, St.
Matthews; First Vice-President, Mr*.
D. A. Cohen, Darlington; Second Vice-
President, Mrs. S. C. Brown, Charles
ton; Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. Sol
Kohn. Columbia; Recording Secretary,
Mrs. Samuel Shillman, Sumter; Treas
urer. Mrs. T. E. Jarrott, Florence.
.Ithens, Ga.
I nder the direction of Rabbi Abraham
s hu»terman an unique Mothers’ Day ser
vice was held at the synagogue in Ath
ens. This was conducted entirely by
'oung women, most of whom are students
°l the Cniversity of Georgia. The pro
gram for the occasion was as follows:
Invocation—Irene Feldman, Charleston,
^Hith Carolina.
Reading of the Ritual—Rita Slotin, Sa
vannah, Ga.; Anna Michael, Athens, Ga.
SpeciaI Selection—Charlotte Stein, At-
lanta, Ga.
\iolm Solo—Esther Haskin, Macon, Ga.
Address—Helen Geffen, Atlanta, Ga.
Floral Prayer—Mildred Wilensky, Sa-
'anmh, Ga.
•Adoration—Ida Mogul, Atlanta, Ga.
(! -mg Prayer—Dorothy Fine, Savan-
nah, ,a.
' *rs at this service were Annette
Ocilla; Lena Whiteman, Atlanta;
*•>' * Kirschman, Brooklyn, N. Y.;
-l*ie Dornblatt, Athens. Mrs. Abraham
-man sang a solo.
F ier in the season a service was con-
ur entirely by young men who took
e>r theme “What Jewish Youth
. s About Religion?” These two ser-
are the first to be conducted by
t students of the University of
ia.
Greensboro, N. C.
The Atlanta Chapter of the B’nai
B'rith was highly honored by the election
of two of its members to the executive
body of District No. 5 at the convention
recently held at Greensboro. N. C. Hy
man Jacobs, past president, was elected
Second Vice-President, and L. J. Levitas,
also a past president, was appointed a
member of the General Committee of the
State of Georgia.
Other newly elected officers were Leon
Banov, Charleston, S. C\, President; E. L.
Levy, Richmond, Va., Secretary; William
A. Good hart, Baltimore, Md., Treasurer;
Abe Shcfferman, Washington, D. C., First
Vice-President.
Official delegation from the Gate City
Lodge attending the large gathering was
A. L. Feldman, L. J. Levitas, Hyman Ja
cobs, Joe Loewus, Frank A. Constangy,
Joseph E. Brown and Harry A. Alex
ander.
Gainesville, Fla.
A religious Symposium, in which one
representative from each of the three
faiths, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish,
participated, was held on the campus of
the University of Florida on Tuesday,
May 16, under the direction of the Y. M.
C. A. of Gainesville, Florida.
Burnett Roth, of Orlando, Florida,
spoke as a representative of the Jewish
faith. Following addresses by the three
representatives, a round-table discussion
including a question and answer period
was held.
Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity, a national
Jewish social organization, competing
with twenty other social fraternities, was
recently awarded a trophy for having
the greatest percentage of its membership
present at V'. M. C. A. discussion meet
ings. The Jewish student body of the
University of Florida is approximately
two hundred out of the total enrollment
of 2,600 students.
Nashville, Tenn.
In an effort to spread good will and
to establish social connections between
young men of the various Southern cities,
the Shin Aleph Frat., of Nashville and
the Emanon Club, of Chattanooga, held
a meeting Sunday, May 14, at the
Y. M. H. A. of Nashville to elect officer*
and to draw up a constitution for the
newly organized Federation of Jewish
Men’s Social Clubs, one meeting being
previously held in Chattanooga.
At this meeting, the following officer*
were elected: Mahlon Ritt, Shin Aleph,
President; Nathan Cohen, Shin Aleph,
Vice-President; Abe Siskin, Emanon, Cor
responding Secretary; Sol Cohen, Shin
Aleph, Recording Secretary; Mose Sachs,
Emanon, Treasurer.
With a view to expanding to other
Southern cities, a special committee was
appointed to carry out this work. Only
one club will be chosen from each city.
Other standing committees were appointed
to carry on the necessary work of the
Federation.
The first annual convention of the Fed
eration will be held in Chattanooga on
September 3-4.
Obituaries
• Miss Celia Jacobs, of Augusta, Ga.,
passed away recently. Although born in
Columbia, S. C., she spent the greater
part of her life in Augusta. She was
connected with The Southern Israelite
since its organization in Augusta seven
years ago. Miss Jacobs was buried in
Augusta beside her parents.
• Solomon Boorstein, 65, widely known
Atlanta furniture dealer, died suddenly
at his home on Washington Street. He is
survived by his wife; a daughter, Mrs.
Mert Gerzog, New York; two sisters,
Mrs. B. Noon, Chicago, and Mrs. S.
Alper, of Los Angeles, and four grand
children. Rabbi Harry H. Epstein offi
ciated at the funeral service.
• Samuel J. Cohen, prominent Atlanta
business man, passed away recently. He
is survived by two daughters, Mrs. A.
B. Cheriton and Miss Gertrude Cohen;
and two sons, Messrs. Bernard and Gil
bert. Rabbi Harry H. Epstein officiated
at the funeral services and interment was
at Greenwood Cemetery.
• Mr. Ben Miller, of Atlanta, died re
cently. He was buried in Greenwood
Cemetery, with Rabbi Epstein officiating
at the services.
• Mr. Morris Socoloff, widely known
Atlantan, passed away. Rabbi Harry H.
Epstein officiated. Interment was at
Greenwood Cemetery, with Fulton Lodge
No. 216, F. St A. M., in charge of serv
ices at the grave.
Cincinnati, Ohio
I)r. Julian Morgenstern, President of
the Hebrew Union College, ordained the
following twelve young men as Rabbis
at the Commencement Exercises in the
College Chapel on Saturday, May 27:
Arverne, L. I.: David J. Seligson.
Brooklyn, N. Y.: David I. Cedarbaum,
Norman Gerstenfeld, Sidney M. I.efko-
witz.
Chicago, III.: Norhert I.. Rosenthal.
Cincinnati, Ohio: Alexander S. Kline,
Moses Cyrus Weiler.
Detroit, Mich.: I,ouis Joseph C’ashdan.
Minneapolis, Minn.: 'Theodore H. (Jor
don.
Petersburg, Va.: David H. Wice.
Pittsburgh, Pa.: Milton I.. Grafman.
Toronto, Can.: Perry E. Nuaabaum.
Rev. Dr. Harry W. Ettelson, Memphis,
Tenn., will deliver the Baccalaureate
Sermon. Dr. Ettelson is, himself, an
alumnus of the College, class of 1904.
The Invocation will be pronounced by
Rabbi Tobias Schanfarber, Chicago, of
thr class of 1886, and the Benediction by
Rev. Dr. Samuel Sale, St. I^iuis, Mo.
Dr. Morgenstern will confer honorary
degrees and distribute the annual prizes
and awards. There will be several mu
sical selections by soloists and the Hebrew
Union College Choir under the direction
of Mr*. Ruth S. Greenfield.
LOOKING AT THE PAST
(Continued from page 7)
a fault, isn’t it? Intermarriage was the
only thing Miss Penina never could for
give. Otherwise she was quick in sym
pathy. We told her all our secrets. Her
blessing was a thing we prized. I still
can feel her hand on my head.”
There were stories of many suitors,
and of one other love, her love for her
brother, so great that at his death she
had a sense of sin, which she wove into
a hymn her congregation still sings.
The genesis of my return to Charles
ton is, in itself, rather a yarn. My first
romance took place there many years ago
and it hit me hard, because my earliest
childhood, though San Franciscan, was
largely spent in listening to great legends
of the South, of my parents there, stories
so magnificent that I was bound to feel
a degenerate descendant until I encom
passed them and the only way to do that
for me was by writing.
I suppose the job scared me, so I
sneaked up on it from behind. That
might be a subconscious explanation of
why, being of Spanish-Jewish origin, my
first two books, “Bird of God; the Ro
mance of El Greco”; and “Woman Under
Glass,” deal with Inquisitorial Spain. If
so, they were not too much preparation.
’The writing of this more personal nar
rative took me at times beyond the boun
daries of exhaustion and despair.
The South has been described romantic
ally without us; and we, too, we South
ern Jews, have been romantically de
scribed. There still lives Rachel Lyons
Heustis, tui Belle Jmive of Timrod’t poem.
And there was Rebecca Gratz, of Phila
delphia. praised by Washington Irving
to Sir Walter Scott, who used her name
and character for the Rebecca in “Ivan-
hoe.” Realism does not detract from the
picture. The American Rebecca com
bines with the beautiful miniature por
trait of her, the history of how she
founded the first Jewish Sabbath Schools,
when, as there were no books, she and
her teachers patiently blocked out the
word “Saviour" from the Protestant
school texts.
'This anecdote helps toward the defini
tion of a race which millions of words
have defined inadequately. The Jewish
people have refused, and therefore are
refused, vicarious redemption, though
there is no way of avoiding vicarious
blame. “Jewish” usually brings thoughts
of Central or Eastern Europe. Yet there
it the Spanish group. “Ah, yes,” the
usual answer runs, “but they are so few
they hardly count.” And yet, we are. One
of the strangest demonstrations the repub
lic has brought about in Spain is, that
aftrr centuries of Inquisition, after Ex
pulsion and prohibition, even in Spain,
we are.
'The people “Storm Beach” portrays
were, as I am, Amertcan-Jewish. The
hyphenated word infers ghetto, or at
least recent European background, and
foreign accent. So universally is this true
that many think it snobbishness on my
part, rather than ignorance, not to speak
German. People ask me what I am.
American. “Yes, but what?”
American is all I can say unless I
go back so far it is foolish. And Jewish,
that complex word It need not involve
religion on other than historical grounds,
and there lies the great difference be
tween Moses and St. Paul. St. Paul’s
Messiah called for faith, while Moses*
(Jod defined himself by the incontrovert
ible, I AM. In that sense, at least, in his
image we are made.
So, we are. What of it? It took the
entire novel of "Storm Beach” to show
in terms of human passion just what it
means. A* Jew* we feel older than other
people. We have a longer memory of
disillusion, and the old American stock
I believe is older than other Jews. We
were freed from peddling longer ago.
We were longer ago freed from religious
fear. South Carolina in 1669 gave us
full legal toleration, and we took it, and
for centuries there we have not had for
eign accents. We have had leaders in all
profession (in my family lawyers, sol
diers, judges, artists), we have had
American culture, and we have lost much
of that sweeping energy which character
izes the typical Jew. We are older than-
he in disillusion because we have lived
longer on the wavering line that sepa
rates us from others. Let us cross it with
accomplishment, and each must cross
alone. Let us cross it with marriage,
and we disappear. What of it? Just
the fact that we have not disappeared
and such people as the heroine of “Storm
Beach” were willing to sacrifice their
lives for it.
Now if, instead of a portrait. I’ve
spoken of things that went into a book,
forgive me. The book came out of my
self, and at the moment of this writing,
when I have just finished reading proofs,
I would rather be known from its pages
than anything I can relate.
TH SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
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