Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Israelite
WEEKLY NEWSPAPER
VOL. XII—NO. 50
ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1937
PRICE FIVE CENTS
NATIONAL GUARD ORDERED
TO AVOID FOREIGN GROUPS
Gennett Met
Bv Atlantan On
Return To N.Y.
New York (WNS)-r-A color
guard of uniformed German sold
iers replied with the Nazi salute
and shouts of “Heil Hitler” as an
American Jewish war veteran re
nted the Hebrew prayer for the
dead at the monument of Ger
many’s World War dead in Berlin,
it was revealed by Isador Gennett,
46-year-old newsdealer and war
veteran, on his return from a Eu-
ropean jaunt during which he
tunned and embarrased Nazi offi
cialdom by depositing a wreath at
the war memorial in the name of
the Jewish War Veterans, the
American Legion and the Disabled
.American Veterans. Filling in the
details of his amazing exploit,
Gennett told how the military offi
cials of Berlin provided him with
a guard of honor despite the fact
that he had identified himself as
a Jew, how he marched down
Unter den Linden to the accom
paniment of admiring crowds
shouting "Heil Hitler,” and how
he laid his wreath. Only when it
was learned that the wreath bore
the inscription of the Jewish War
Veterans did he get into difficul
ties. Gennett said.
Tired and worn from the excite
ment of his trip, Gennett at first
declined to say much for publi
cation. indicating he had a 69-page
manuscript which would be made
public later. But after he had
been welcomed by Harry H.
Schaffer, commander-in-chief of
the Jewish War Veterans, who
presented him with a special
medal, Harry Wengrow of Atlanta,
vice-commander; and Isaac Sobel
of Mount Vernon, national com
mitteemen, he spoke more freely.
On the dock he was greeted by a
cheering delgation comprised of
mmbers of the New York posts of
the J. W. V.
He declared he was questioned
by the police for three hours and
(Continued on Page 2)
Bias Charge hi
St. Louis Suit
ST LOUIS (WNS)—The Jewish-
t'vned Wolff Pipe and Iron Com
ply has filed suit here against
*be Southwestern Bell Telephone
Company to force it to discontinue
he telephone service of the Sec
tary Raw Material Company
'*hich advertised in the December
^b’ion of the classified telephone
Rectory in language regarded as
e &air on Jewish junkdealers. The
ontnsive ad reads: "Secondary
“ s y Material Company—Gentile
i^utll Us—There’s A Difference.”
•• e telephone company agreed to
•-minate the ad from future edi-
of the directory. The plain-
•/i ar e also suing the Sec-
yaary R aw Material Company,
"Lend that the ad is un-Ameri-
j likely to create prejudice.
; n a similar case in Baltimore
October Judge J. Abner Say-
upheld the Maryland Bell
Company which had re-
accept for publication in
^ Classified directory an adver-
Lent for second hand fumi-
Cf e ‘owned by a gentile.” The
•'threw the proposed adver
ts ease out of court, holding
ijA the ad tended to arouse re-
Prejudice.
lk*a<l of Liberal llnion Honored
DISTINGUISHED FOURSOME—American Jewish leaders who
paid tribute to Robert P. Goldman, new president of the Union of
American Hebrew Congregations, at a recent testimonial dinner
given in New York. All members of the Union's Executive Hoard,
the four are, left to right, Roger W. Straus, well-known philanthro
pist and good-will leader: Judge Irving I^ehman, Associate Justice
of the N. Y. State Court of Appeals and brother of New York's chief
executive; Mr. Goldman; and Arthur Hays Sulzberger, publisher of
the New York Times.
Heroism of Palestine Told
Here By Noted Journalist
A people who live without fear even in the face of Arab
terrorism, whose courage and faith are heroic beyond imagi
nation, whose love of the land endures through fire and de
struction—that is the word pic-*
ture of Palestine Jewry painted by
Dr. Bernard Berger, distinguished
author and journalist, who is visit
ing in Atlanta this week.
"Palestine Jewry knows no fear,”
Dr. Berger declared on his arrival
here. “We are not a war-faring
people, but when we need to de
fend ourselves we do. We are no
more ghetto Jews, but a people of
indescribable heroism.”
When Dr. Berger talked of Pal
estine Jewry it was always the
“first person plural” which he used.
His “we Palestinians” is uttered
lovingly and with pride, for Dr.
Berger was bom in Palestine and
has centuries of tradition behind
him. His family settled in Pales
tine in the 15th century—around
the year 1491, Dr. Berger thinks.
Here in the interest of Nach-
shon, Ltd., the Palestine Labor
Maritime Company, Dr. Berger
was almost lyrical in his enthusi
asm over the progress made in
the maritime industry. From the
inception of the movement, which
is not yet two years old, it has
been tuoched with that heroic and
miraculous quality which is the
stamp of all Palestine Jewish en
deavor, he pointed out.
With mounting fervor—for it
was of valor he spoke—Dr. Berger
related the unfinished saga of the
maritime industry. During the
longshoremen’s strike in Jaffa, the
(Continued on Page 5)
Lehman Rule Rebuke
To Military Scandal
ALBANY, N. Y. (WNS)—Use of the facilities of National
Guard regiments by Nazi, Fascist and other un-American
groups was permanently outlawed by Governor Lehman in
a series of drastic instructions to the National Guard order
ing members of the New York State National Guard immedi-
ately to disj^oclnte themselves
Murphy Tells
Of Terrorist
Plot In West
NEW YORK (WNS)—Warning
that the “fulfillment of the ideal of
democracy in its every phase—po
litical, social and economic,” can
not become a reality in every phuse
of life “while movements are being
planned to drive Jewry from the
land or to persecute the Catholic
or the Mennonite,” Governor
Frank Murphy of Mhichigan,
startled the 1,000 delegates attend
ing the two-day national confer
ence celebrating the 50th anniver
sary of Yoshiva College by dis
closing that just a week ago a mid-
Westcrn newspaper headlined the
news that a new organization was
proceeding with plans to “drive
Jewry out of the nution.” With
out naming the paper, Governor
Murphy, who is a Catholic, said
that the organization planned to
“subjugate the entire race,” elimi
nate Jews from schools und public
office und segregate them in 48
specially created ghetto areas, one
for each city. After 17 years, he
said, the organization proposed u
referendum to determine whether
the inhabitants of these ghettoes
should be allowed to travel freely
throughout the country.
Speaking before leaders from
all parts of the country gathered
to plan the raising of a $1,000,000
fund to free the Yeshiva of Its
mortgage indebtedness, Governor
Murphy devoted most of his speech
to a review at the history of the
democratic ideal and its relation
to religious freedom. He conceded
that “we are still troubled by
many diferences, by forms of dis
crimination, by frequent denial
of liberties and by insecurity.” Of
(Continued on Page 3)
Roosevelt Laughs At Charge That
He Is Jewish, Says Emil Ludwig
BY BERNARD POSTAL
NEY YORK (WNS)—Burdened by the Herculean duties of presiding over the destinies
of 130 000 000 people in an epoch beset with economic uncertainty and political and social
flux President Roosevelt still finds time to think about the problem of anti-Semitism. It is
not only on his mind but he dis-*' - ■ ” * * ” ” ” * *
cusses it too, and has definite ideas
on the subject. We learned this
in the course of a half hour inter-
view with Emil Ludwig, the dis
tinguished German-Jewish biogra
pher, as we sat in his comfortable
P the Hotel St. Moritz ir
,rk. Ludwig has just fin
ished a biography of Roosevelt
and spent considerable time m the
White House talking with the New
Deal chieftain, so that the
mation imparted to us was straigh
from the record.
“Roosevelt,” Ludwig said,
“chares heartily the sentiments of Fascist and uncompromisingly op-
, , , r> r Thomas Masaryk, posed to any and all theories of
the late f rL : Rermblic of Czecho- racial superiority. As a matter of
founder of Repub that fact he g ets a great deal of fun
oneSJ. be riS^acSistian or an out ol knowing that hu. enem.es
anti-Semite but not both. And
Roosevelt feels exactly the same
way.”
His corpulence revealed by the
dark brocaded dressing gown, the
light from the window at his side
— ■ \ c . in casting accentuated shadows across : the dictator charges flung at him.
room at the Hotel bt. ivioru*. ^ strong, broad features of his Likewise he jokes about the mythi-
New York. Ludwig h , a3 J_ Lls A..»i» face, Ludwig was an impressive ; cal story so assiduously spread by
call him a dictator or see in him a
potential fuehrer. He told me he
would hate to be a dictator because
he would be bored without oppo
sition. Roosevelt has too much of
a sense of humor to take seriously
figure as he leaned forward and
continued in his thick German
accent: “Roosevelt is much too
cultured to have anything but
loathing for discrimination against
Jews or any other minority,” said
Dr. Ludwig. “He is utterly anti-
anti-Semites that his name was
once Rosenfeld.”
Sensing once more that a change
of topic was in order at this point
we turned to the subject of Pales
tine. And Dr. Ludwig, since he
had not been there within the last
eight years was not eager to ex
press his ideas in that regard. He
did, however, disclose the fact
that he is furiously against par-
(Continued on Page 2)
from “any so-called nationalistic
group or non-American political
or racial cause.” Acting on the
disclosure of the New York Post
that members of the 244 Coast Ar
tillery had attended in uniform a
Fascist ball sponsored by White
Russian Fascists in cooperation
with Nazis uboard the naval train
ing ship S. S. Illinois, Governor
Lehman issued his orders in a
letter to Adjutant General Walter
G. Robinson of the National Guard,
after Major-General William N.
Haskell, commanding-general of
the New York National Guard had
investigated the situation and
drawn up a series of recommenda
tions adopted by the Governor.
Governor Lehman’s letter con
tained the following orders which
were the recommendations pro
posed by General Haskell:
“(1) No meetings of this charac
ter should be permitted in an
armory under the control or su
pervision of the division of mili
tary and naval affairs, thus giving
to such meetings or functions offi
cial sanction.
“(2) No officer or enlisted man
of the National Guard should ap
pear in uniform at a gathering of
this character, either in an armory
or elsewhere, and orders to that
effect should be Issued.
“(3) In the future all leases of
armories should be carefully scru
tinized by officer in charge, so that,
if necessary, protective clauses
will be inserted in leases to pre
vent any demonstrations or dis
plays of uniforms, flags, emblems,
or posters of a controversial cha
racter, or the sale or distribution
of controversial literature.
“(4) It is recommended that or
ders be issued by the Adjutant
General of the State, and distri
buted to every commanding officer,
requiring them to Inform all per
sonnel of their commands that they
must, under no circumstances, em
ploy their status as National
Guardsmen to further or promote
any so-called nationalistic group
or non-Ameriean political or ra
cial cause, and that they must at
all times maintain a clear distinc
tion between their private civilian
status and their official status as
Natonal Guardsmen.
“(5) Notwithstanding the fact
that members of this so-called
‘Russian battery’ are native bom
or naturalized American citizens,
and that in this particular inci
dent they had the permission of
their commanding officer to at
tend the ball aboard the U. S. S.
Illinois, and further, that the bat
tery is rated as a very efficient and
soldierly organization. I recom
mend that the so-called 'Russian
Battery” (the Second Battalian
Headquarters Battery and Combat
Train, 244th Coast Artillery) be
reorganized. The personnel should
bedistributed proportionately
among all the batteries of the regi
ment by transfer.
“(6) I further recommend that
the continued use of such desig
nations as ‘Russian battery' or the
prefixing of any similar non-
American or foreign designation
to the name of any unit within a
regiment of the National Guard or
the Naval Militia be eliminated.
Such designations are most cer
tainly undesirable in the military
forces of the State of New York
and the United States.”