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THE CHALLENGE OF TODAY
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By Fanny Brin
F ort women today the great
issues are poverty and war.
For Jewish women there is
another equally important issue and
that is the adjustment of the Jew
to a changing and not always
friendly world.
As to the first of these problems,
the fight for social betterment,
women are particularly concerned
with the clearance of slums, the
scourge of unemployment, child
labor, the sufferings of millions of
people, not only among the adults
but among the youth who lack
occupation and face endless empty
hours. The problems arising out
of these conditions are near to
women. It is easier for them than
for men to realize that in an age
so absorbed in spectacular technical
and mechanical inventions and
scientific discoveries, they must
come closer to the needs of people.
A recent study of women’s or
ganizations shows the progress they
ure making in the use of legislative
and political technique. This is the
great need in the work of women for
social betterment.
This same realistic approach is
important in another field of work
in which women’s organizations are
showing an almost unanimous in
terest—the peace movement. As
long as women’s organizations sup
ported vague peace programs with a
general emotional appeal against
the cruelty and costliness of war,
there could be no progress. The
peace movement is not advanced
much by the people who hate war
and stop at that. It requires more
than a realization that war is de
structive, sickeningly costly, futile,
and barbarous, and that war-mong
ers profiteer from it. It is neces
sary to understand the substitute
for war. it is not so much war
hatred that counts, as a clear under
standing of what we can rely on
in place of war as a means of ob
taining security and justice between
nations. War is a deeply entrenched
institution. Billions are spent on
maintaining its agencies. To mil
lions of people this seems the only
way of obtaining security. Costly
and deadly as war is, they see no
way but to pay the price. Unless
they can be convinced that the
Collective System which centers
around Geneva and the League of
Nations, is a better way to insure
security and justice between na
tions, they will not give up their
reliance on war. In a world where
armaments are increasing daily even
among peaceful nations, and in
which treaty agreements are not
always respected, this is no easy
task.
In the event that we accept the
philosophy that each nation must
rely upon itself then we must resign
ourselves to even more frantic
preparations for war; to vast air
fleets, surprise attacks with disease
germs and poison gas, and other
dreaded instruments by which the
nations will destroy each other.
The alternative to that is the Col
lective System which rests on three
main props—consultation when
there is a threat to the peace of the
world; agreement as to the ag
gressor, and agreement as to the
type of joint action the nations will
take against such an aggressor.
Only through the progressive de
velopment of this technique will
nations learn to use peace-ways in
stead of war-ways in dealing with
their problems.
Our country must make im
portant decisions—important not
only directly to ourselves but to the
very existence of this Collective
System. At present, we have not
yet agreed even to the first step,
that of consulting in case of a threat
of war. We have not yet indicated
whether we would insist on our
rights for normal trade with a
belligerent nation even if that
nation has been jointly declared an
aggressor by some fifty nations of
the world. Insistence on the right
to trade with the nation adjudged
the aggressor, makes impossible the
functioning of the Collective
System. I nless we do agree to such
a consultative pact and to a change
in the conception of our rights as
neutrals, the machinery for col
lective security must break down.
IIow shall a Jew live who sees the
rights of Jews as human beings ; n .
vaded—it matters not where? How
shall a Jew’ live who sees values
traditional to his people challeng 1
w’ho sees the fantastic charges of
medieval ages revived; who sees
himself constantly pictured as the
“villain of the piece”? Certai: h
there is no easy formula, but just
as certainly those who meet t he
crisis best are those for whom the
history of the Jews is not a closed
book; who can understand, for
instance, the problems of the
Polish-Jew’ish masses that led them
toward Chassidism; whose imagina
tion is stirred by a news item wliiHi
reports that today money is bong
spent on the building of a Syna
gogue for Alaranos who arc re
turning to Judaism; who dwell
with sympathy on Menasseh lh-n
Israel’s patient, courageous nego
tiations for 1lie readmission of Jews
into Cromwell’s Kngland; who are
moved by the Caddish which the
Amsterdam communities repeated
for the victims of the Auto-daT’e;
to whom, above all, the Bible seems
worth understanding as a mam
festal ion of the; deep religion* and
ethical life of Israel. To be at
tuned to Israel’s long history is to
have a perspective on what is hap
pening todav; to understand our
traditions and their social implica
tions is to live* more wisely and
abundantly todav. So roote*d and
so attuned, it is possible; to enjoy
being a Jew in spite of the e*ruel
re*alit ies of our t ime*.
’ll /'!/ A (/,
-II
Jewish History in the Making
l on/i miea horn /»./,/,• 4’>
sr.ii.v .i.vn roirn i;.il
1 lie Jews of modern Spain seem-
ed destined to a year ot construc
tive* growth and rediabilitation un
til the Fascist rebellion set in. The*
Spanish civil war transformed the*
whole* of Spain into a battlefield in
which the' Jewish position became
as uncertain, if not more* so, than
that ot (he rest ot the* population,
lhere can be* no que*stion that the*
Popular Freer it government exhibit-
eel not only a fricnelly attitude
toward the* Jewish community but
made a special effort to atom* for
the e*rime* ot 1 4JF2. I he German
Jewish refugee* colony in Barcelona
grew very rapidly. Zionist organi
zations sprang up. Additional syn
agogue's were opened not only in
Barcelona but in Madrid and Se-
villo. German Jewish professors
were* give*n petitions at the Uni
versity ot Barce'lema. Emigre Jew
ish artists ele*ve*h){H*el a Spanish
Hollywood m Barevloua. l lie* new
comers as well as the old eommunity
of Marrano Jews led an existence
free and unhampered, under the
benevolent eyes of a friendly regime.
That a victory for the Fascist
forces in Spain would portend new
onslaughts against the Jews was
evidenced by isolated but signifi
cant incidents in villages where
Fascists burned Jews in effigy.
Nazi propagandists failed to make
any headway in strongly radical
Barcelona, but they found a sym
pathetic audience in Madrid, where
the right wing press frequently at
tacked the
Nazi region
cial Fascist
I lie schcdl
in Barct 1
because* at
circulated t
sidized the
I he purpose
ing of this
lews and praised the
Ncvert hclcss t he olli-
party was suppressed,
dulcd anti-Nazi Olympics
ona find to be abandoned
11<* rebellion. Rumors
fiat Nazi funds sub-
revolution partly for
of preventing t fie hold-
internat ional demon
stration against the Berlin Olym-
I In* Jew ish scene in Portugal did
not differ much from that of Spain
bet ore the Fascist revolt. The old
Marrano Jews joined the newer
Jewish community in its com
munal and religious activities.
The Dawn of Promise
[Continued from page 5)
mentation, and that where intoler
ance is allowed to fester, greater
crime against civilization will follow
Therein lies the answer to Jewry '
questions. W e are a farseeing people,
who have been forced through the
ages to seek refuge in the past and
promise in the future. And upon
the dawning of the year 5697, we
must summon new courage and look
beyond the clouds of despair.
For the day will come when the
New Year will dawn in bright
splendor for Jewry, when over the
face of the earth men will live in
peace with each other, and the
spirit of goodwill and tolerance
will banish persecution forever.
* THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE