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The Southern Israelite
Published weekly by Southern Newspaper Enterprizes, Inc., Palmer
Building, Suite 217-218, Atlanta, Georgia. WAlnut 0791-0792. M. Stephen
SehUTer, Publisher: Nathan Lipton, Business Manager.
Entered as second class matter at the Post Office at Atlanta, Georgia,
under the Act of March 3. 1879. Yearly subscription, one dollar and fifty
cents. Canadian and foreign subscription*, one dollar and fifty cents per
year. The Southern Israelite invites literary contribution* and correspond
ence on subjects of interest to Jewish people, but the editor is not to be
considered as sharing the views expressed by the writer*.
ADDRESS ALL COMMUNICATIONS TO THE MAIN OFFICE IN ATLANTA
Father Coughlin’s Cudgels
The Reverend Father Coughlin has made the national
headlines again—once more Detroits’s “fighting radio-priest”
has been banned by three major radio stations.
This time Father Coughlin was deprived of the privilege
of free speech, because he allegedly broadcast statements
“apt to incite racial strife in the United States.’* Although
we are agreed that persons, who haven’t tact enough to
leave certain things unsaid, fully deserve a lesson, we find
it very regrettable that people like Father Coughlin from
time to time incur public displeasure.
It has always been interesting to listen to the various
opinions—even to wrong ones—because only in open dis
cussion can such opinions be rectified and remedies for mis
understandings be found. But when obvious rabble-rousers
repeat their offense against good taste and the principles
upon which this nation is founded, it becomes time to call
a halt. The privilege of free speech should be used—and
not abused.
Maybe it was Father Coughlin’s intention to point to
what he thought a maladjustment: Then he should have used
better judgement and better wordage. Maybe he was try
ing to open the door to frank discussions: Then he should
have left the door open—and not slammed it shut with a
resounding crash in the face of those he wanted to listen td
him. At any rate he had his say—and then the audience
spoke. There can be no misunderstanding about that.
It has become a very unfortunate phenomenon of late,
that persons, whose life is avowedly dedicated to the care
for the spiritual welfare of a certain group of people, take
it upon themselves to step out of that realm and enter upon
the battlefield of political controversy.
The service of the Lord—regardless of its denomination
— requires religious fervor, devout ardor, enthusiasm and
unchangeable faith. Politics are quite different. Diplomacy
and everchanging shrewdness are much needed requisites
there. No one can blame the servant of the Good Lord who
lacks the knowledge of the books of Macchiavelli, provided
he knows his Good Book. Just as no one cares whether a
politician knows the Good Book, as long as he knows his
Macchiavelli.
That’s why politicions make poor priests—and that’s
why priests make even poorer politicians. In any denomi
nation.
National Religious Unity Day
It is said: “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for
brethren to dwell together in unity.”
It is proposed that Sunday, the fourth day of December,
be consecrated and solemnized throughout these glorious
United States as Religious Unity Day.
And so fifty million Americans, members of the vari
ously denominated congregations, will gather in their church
es, temples and synagogues to pray to God—all children of
the same Father regardless by which name they address Him.
America was founded by men who fled from persecib-
tion. Men who wanted freedom for their beliefs, who fought
to preserve that precious liberty for their sons and their
children after them. Men who died happy in the thought
that they had established a country where hate and perse
cution had no place in the hearts or minds of its sons.
All credal differences are forgotten now. Jews and
Gentiles alike are victims of bloody persecution and oppres
sion in other lands and so all sects and churches in America
stand united in prayer for their unfortunate brethren.
The world will watch this imposing spectacle offered
by countless millions of God-fearing men, united in prayer
and sympathy for their brethren in all the world.
And it would be a good thing for all of us, the sons of
Israel, to watch it, too, with more than just superficial in
terest. We can learn, we must learn, that unity among our
selves is the one “conditio sine qua non”—that we cannot
expect others to stand with us, if we, ourselves, do not stand
united. Let us forget, for that one day at least, that we are
divided into Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Jews and
be just Israelites: The sons of Israel, whose brethren are
being killed, just as our forefathers were in the days of Egypt.
If the Day of Religious Unity accomplishes only that—
and nothing more—it will be a great day. As a matter of
fact, the greatest day in modern history. And we will all
be a happier people.
For it was David, our own forefather, who wrote these
words:
“Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to
dwell together in unity.”
FOOTNOTES
Four shall not enter Paradise, the Talmud tells us, the
scoffer, the liar, the hypocrite, and the slanderer.
The Southern Israelite
The Lid’s Off
By Phineas Biron ^ r,
nutzi stuff
American aviation circles claim
that the reason Nutzi Germany is
making such a big play to win
Lindberg’s friendship is that tne
Nazis feel they may be able to use
him to get the helium they want
from Uncle Sam. Which reminds
us that Lindberg's home in Berlin
will be the swanky apartment
formerly occupied by Samuel
Einzfeld, a wealthy Jewish rug
manufacturer who is now lang
uishing in a concentration camp.
Rugs from Einzfeld’s factory cov
er the floors in the Nazi Brown
House in Munich. If you like to
draw conclusions from coincidenc
es ponder the fact that March 18th
is the birthday of Prime Ministe:
Neville Chamberlain and also o
Herschel Grynzspan, the young
Polish Jew who assasinated Ernst
com Rath, third secretary of the
German embassy in Paris. Rath,
incidentally, v/as on the point of
resigning when he was shot. He
was all fed up with Nazism. All
of which leads us to remind you of
our hint here last week—namely,
that the Rath shooting was just
another Reichstag Fire incident.
WHATE PRICE A REFUGEE?
Those in the know are far from
optimistic about the various colo
nization schemes and territories
being oifered to German Jewry by
the British government. The low-
down is that Downing Street con
siders this a good opportunity to
relieve Jewish pressure on Pales
tine. The refugee question will
loom large on the agenda of the
Pan-American Conference open
ing next month at Lima Peru.
There’s a good chance, too, that
the Red Cross will shortly take
a hand in the refugee situation
caused by the Gory Swastika. All
shipping companies plying between
Germany and the United States
have taken special precautions to
halt the wave of stowaways grow
ing out of Natzi oppression. Stow
aways now number about 60 a
month. This brings us to the
wisecrack that has become current
in refugee circles hereabouts, but
which you will have to read out
loud with genuine German accent
if you want to appreciate it really:
“the course of recent Jewish his
tory, it states, has progressed
from Magen David to Affidavit.”
YOU SHOULD KNOW
None of the lengthy obituaries
on Kemal Ataturk, Turkish dic
tator, mentioned the report, widely
current in the Balkans, that he
was the son of a pious Saloniki
Jewess in whose veins ran the
blood of Spanish Jews who found
a haven from the Spanish Inqui
sition in the land of the Turks.
—Prof. Hans F. K. Guenther, one
of Naziland’s leading race experts,
has authorized a treatise in which
he seeks to prove that freckles and
red beards are Nordic—The name
of Freud, world-famous in psy
chology, now adorns a dress shop
in London’s swanky West End. The
owner is Matilde Freud, oldest
daughter of the daddy of psycho
analysis.
WHISPERINGS
Wonder who’s back of that self-
styled secret organization calling
itself “The 4,000” which is spon
soring a movement to confiscate
property in America owned by
foreign propagandists, the closing
of the consulates of totalitarian
States and the deportation of non-
citizen propagandists?—The rumor
is out that Governor Frank Mur
phy of Michigan may succeed
Hugh Wilson as U. S. ambassador
to Germany. In any event, you
can bet that Wilson isn't going
back to Berlin. William Dudley
Pelley, Silver Shirt Generalissimo,
turned anti-Semitic because Holly
wood producers rejected his
scripts Goebbels became a fiery
Jew-gobbler for a similar reason.
Don’t be surprised if the conven
tion of the Amateur Athletic Union
this coming weekend in Washing
ton adopts a hot anti-Nazi resolu
tion. And some of the same gen
tlemen who insisted on America’s
sending a team to the Berlin
Olympic Games will be among its
principal backers. Hollywood is
putting up a stiff battle to resist
pressure from Wall Street, which
opposes filmland’s intention to pull
out of the German and Italian
markets because of the many lu
dicrous restrictions imposed by
film censors in the dictator lands.
December 2,
Nazi Press Is Made “Enthusiastic”
Propaganda Minister (Dwarf) Goebbls issues instructions
to Reich’s newspapers to support his latest “enlightenment cam
paign” with fervor and conviction.
Hershel Grynszpan
Non-Jewish friends of mine are
disappointed in Herschell Grynz
span. (He is the Polish-Jewish
boy who shot the German Am
bassador’s secretary in Paris.)
They say it was foolish of him
to waste a bullet on a German
ambassador’s secretary or even on
the ambassador himself. They
mean that bullets could serve bet
ter to rid the world of the ruling
brutes in Berlin. Any discussiqn
of this matter with non-Jewish
friends always leads to the ques
tion: Why don’t the Jews fight?
My friend, Mr. Dolan, asked me
this. Mr. Dolan is mindful of the
valor of his ancestors in Ireland
under England. He has the proud
memory of his great-great grand
father, who perished in Ireland
fighting for his human rights.
“They hanged my great-great
grandfather,” says Mr. Dolan with
the pride of a Daughter of the
American Revolution telling about
a forebear at Valley Forge.
Mr. Dolan says, the lot of the
Irish in Ireland some 100 years
ago was just about as unhappy as
that of the Jews in Germany today.
They suffered degradation and
i m p o*v e r i s h m e n t. “But they
fought,” exclaims Mr. Dolan.
“They fought 100 years and many
died in guerilla warfare and
many swung on the gallows. Why
don’t the Jews fight?”
He is quite disgusted with the
pacifism of Jews. He says that
if he were a Jew in Germany he
would fight. “I most probably
would be torn to pieces. . . but to
die that way is better than to live
this way. To die fighting for your
rights is better than to live with
out any rights at all. To die that
way is to win the admiration of
the world. That is better than
having merely the world’s pity.”
I scarcely know what to answer
him. I could tell him of the amaz
ing victories of pacifism in 2000
years. That the pacifists are still
living and effective people, while
the power of all their persecutors
is in the dust. That these
pacifists are on the front pages of
all the newspapers, addressing the
consciences of men. The might of
their persecutors is only a story in
the yellowed pages of history.
“Yes,” Mr. Dolan probably
would answer, “the pacifists are
back on the front pages with their
everlasting pain.”
Cruel laws die of their own
venom. The moral law of the per
secuted pacifists remains bright
in the world: The Ten Command
ments. Mr. Dolan. ‘Thou shalt not
kill'—‘Thou shalt not steal. ”
“Yes, indeed, Mr. Segal. Your
noble laws stand honored only
in the breach. You’ve got to fight
for them.” i
By A1 Seg*l
“Consider, Mr. Dolan, what
majesty of character is in our
pacifism. In all the years of Nazi
murder and rapine only two Nazis
have been killed by Jews.” (There
was another case in which a Jew
named Frankfurter shot a Nazi
in Switzerland.)
“What does that get you?" Mr.
Dolan might ask. “Does it lessen
your pain? Does it soften the
barbarians?”
“Yes, it does lessen our pain to
stand with dignity amid the blows,
to be faithful to our ideals even
in the shambles, to keep clean
hands among murderers. It doesn't
soften the murders but we may
hope that in a thousand years
(you see, Mr. Dolan, Jews fiave
learned to count time by ages)
people will find something lovely
for their hearts in us. They may
say, ‘The Jews remained civilized
in a world that was descending to
barbarism.’ ”
Mr. Dolan would snort at th&
He would tell me that the little
boy Grynzspan is the most digni-
fied Jew. He made only a futile
gesture of resistance but (Mr.
Dolan would say) he belongs to
the saintly company of free spirits
who have set their liberty and
their lives on the altar as symbols
of their protest.
“Do you repudiate this boy
Mr. Dolan would ask me.
I should feel embarrassed by
this question. What should 1 w
of Herschell Grynzspan? Ooug •
say, He must not be counted one
of us? He has been faithless to
the dignity that is required <»
Jews? True, he is an irrespons
ible child, but we may ackno*
ledge no part of him. ,
Should I say this to Mr. Dolan.
No!
I would answer him: “W^
Dolan, Herschell Grynzsp
the symbol of our despair. * ■ t
boy raising his hand vainly- an d
ruthless force.. Betweeni yo>
me, sometimes even , 1 ,, t ! n run-
visions: I invent a bullet £? dding
ning that merely at m> inS
it goes. . . it goes over mouMsg
and oceans. . . goes direct■
name and address I hav
on it. Do you know where R goes a
“I guess, Mr. Segal, it g hear t
certain big house, to a ce.
In Germany.” „ . n0 t
“Yes, Mr. Dolan, but I m ^
speak of that. I, th ® -J, and
stand in the high d - wh0
valor of the civilized justice
knows from history . de
marches to strike down
stroyer in good tune- Mr
“But what of this little
Segal?” v heart
“My mind abjures him.
embraces him.