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THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Friday, September 11, 1942
The Southern Israelite
Publish**! weekly by Southern Newspaper Enterprises, Inc., Suite 217-218
Palmer Bulletins, Atlanta, Georgia. Walnut 0781-0792 M_ Stephen Schlffer,
publisher; Willy Pels, business manager; Entered as second class matter at
the post office at Atlanta, Georgia, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Yearly
subscription, Three Dollars. The Southern Israelite Invites literary contri
butions and correspondence, but Is not to be considered as sharing the
views expressed by writers. All material should be received by Wednes
day noon to Insure publication In Issue of that week.
BETWEEN YOU AND ME
By BEN LEWIS
Rosh Hashonoh—5703
By Joseph Fox, Principal United Hebrew School
The month of Elul ushers in the awe-inspiring days, which
prepare all the members of Israel for meditation and repent
ance. %
We all get ready spiritually and physically for the inhala
tion of the great moral uplift which our High Holiday evoke
traditionally in every Jewish heart- This is first brought to
expression on Rosh-Hashonoh—our New Year—; and it culmi
nates on our holiest day—on Yom Kippur- What is the sig
nificance of these days? What is the essence and scope of
Rosh-Hashonoh?
There may exist a variety of religious approaches to our
tradition, customs, and holidays. The nature of our observance
may vary in its strictness and ritual form. But there is abso
lute unity as to the uniqueness and sublimity of Rosh-Hash
onoh. These are days when we gather in our synagogues to
contemplate and to weigh the values of life, to examine the^
vitality of our national spirit, and to pledge anew our devo
tion and sacrifice to its advancement and growth.
' With humility and submission we come to the Divine Crea
tor to repent und confess. After a year has elapsed, another
mark in the short journey of life begins and we wish to take
stock of ourselves- We feel an urge to review inwardly all our
thoughts, feelings and deeds. Have we been true to our relig
ion? Have we lived up to the high ideals and convictions of
Israel? Have we followed the teachings and guidance of our
divine sages and prophets? These and many other questions
will be wandering in our minds and awaiting satisfactory and
accountable replies. And from the individual we shall then
gaze upon the fate and fortune of our scattered and wretched
people. We shall review all the trials and tribulations, all the
misery and misfortune to which our people have been sub
jected at this stage of civilization’s progress.
We shall penetrate into our unfathomable well of hope and
strength to reinforce our souls, to reaffirm our belief in the
inevitable brighter future. However, we shall not dwell for
long on our national wounds. With unparalleled gravity, with
utmost sincerity, we shall devote all our thoughts and prayers
to humanity; the preservation of which is under the fiercest
and bloodiest test.
This great tragedy will occupy our whole being. Why is
humanity inflicted with all that cruelty, malice and destruc
tion? When will the curse be removed from our unhappy uni
verse? Those questions will lead us anew to the consideration
of the universal problems of life, its purpose, and its conquest.
“Inscribe us in the book of life—we shall solemnly whisper
in our synagogues.” And to this will be added our deepest sup
plication that the new year may bring justice and peace to all
the nations of this earth.
With sacred devotion we shall ask our Divine Father to
purify the conscience and heart of mankind, to invigorate and
uplift their talents and creativeness for the promotion of real
brotherhood of man. We shall convey these wishes through
our lofty and magnificent prayers and piyutim (religious
poems) which will sway every Jewish heart, impart to it
grief and sorrow, hope and jubilation. Our “machzor”—the
collective works of our great sages and poets, is a boundless
wealth of feeling and beauty which unfolds itself yearly with
a refreshed and a revitalized meaning.
In it we shall find a true picture of humanity. At times—a
crown of thorns of a thousand woes, at times a dazzling crown
of a glorious future. To this future we tenaciously long and
pray; and it is this vision that will strengthen our faith in hu
manity. Great indeed are the latter’s blows, and equally great
and comprehensive will be its salvation.
From our renewed faith in humanity we shall then find
now courage for the Jewish people as a whole. The supreme
justice of the world will not be complete if the injustice
directed at our people would be extended. This great princi
ple is daily being proven by the present gigantic struggle be
tween the forces of evil and darkness and the champions of
brotherhood and decency.
The family of mankind would not be fully happy and con
tent unless all its members equally enjoy the blessings of this
earth and the love of its people. This in fact, is the underlying
aim of this revoluntionary war. This aim must be reached or
all our sacrifices and pains would be wasted. This conviction
will be embraced by every individual of Israel on the coming
Day of Judgment For this has long been a fundamental pillar
of our spirit And it has long been our great wish that it may
become the universal belief of all human beings
The melodious sounds of the “Shofar” that will be blown
this year on Rosh-Hashonoh, will implant in every Jewish
heart a reanimated belief in our approaching resurrection,
and will likewise reveal to bleeding humanity that the hour
of rescue is near.
With these hopes in our heart—our lips will repeatedly
whisper: “Inscribe us—inscribe all mankind—in the book of
life.” we can stand no more.
L’SHANAH TOVAII:
Happy New Year to all Jews
throughout the world . . . Let the
new year bring speedy victory to
the United Nations and the des
truction of Nazism . . . Our wishes
for the New Year are that—
The American Jewish Commit
tee successfully concludes its ne
gotiations with the Zionist leader
ship for a united post-war Jewish
front . . .
France, has decided to grant sev
eral hundred “political visas’’ to
people in unoccupied France ... A
Jewish delegation left for Mexico
to prepare a list of persons to
whom the visas should be issued
by the Mexican consul in mar-
seilles-
* * e
FACTS AND FICTION;
The book “Isle of Escape’’ by
Ishbel Ross, just published by
Harper & Bros., pretends to be an
The American Jewish Congress attempt to put the refugee prob-
re-join the General Jewish Coun
cil, thus re-establishing units in
the ranks of American Jews ... I
The Jewish Labor Committee
succeeds in bringing the Zionist
labor groups into its ranks . . .
The Joint Distribution Commit
tee, the United Palestine Appeal
und the National Refugee Service
continue their drives jointly thru
the United Jewish Appeal . . .
The Zionist Organization of
lem into fiction . . . Actually it is
nothing but a compilation of facts
long reported in the press and
loosely knitted into a novel by
centering these facts around a fic
titious reporter of an American
newspaper who returned from Eu
rope on a ship carrying refugees
. . . Miss Ross does no justice to
the refugees by talking about
them and about Nazi spies in the
same breath . . . The Franz Raus-
America grows to -a membership chs, Carl Bohems and the West-
of 50,000 and realizes its ambition ricks are not refugees by any
to consolidate with the Hadassah.
The important negotiations
which Zionist leaders are now
conducting in Washington bring
the desired results, and that Dr.
Weizmann’s health is fully re
stored.
And that petty jealousies within
organized Jewish life in America
and anti-Semitic efforts outside it,
disappear for good and forever.
• * •
STARTING THE YEAR RIGHT:
The U- S. Government, we hear,
is sturting the Jewdsh New Year
by intervening with the Vichy gov
ernment to secure the emigration
from unoccupied France of some
1,000 alien Jews who are holders
of American visas . . . These Jews
are in danger of being deported
from unoccupied France to Nazi-
held Poland at the request of the
Nazi authorities ... So far, the
Vichy government has refused
them exit permits despite the fact
that they have received regular
American immigration visas from
the U. S. Consulate at Marseilles
. . - The man-hunt on Jews in un
occupied France, which has no
precedent in French history, has
prompted the State Department in
Washington to instruct its bureau
dealing with the issuance of visas
means . . . Nor are the Maria
Deckers and the Lydia Rhodes . •
None of them even pretended to
have come to the United States as
refugees ... To make their Nazi
espionage work a part of a book
which claims to be “an investiga
tion of the problem of refugees in
the United States" is to create con
fusion in the mind of the less-in
formed reader as to the real refu
gees . . . Also superficial is the
part of Miss Ross’ book dealing
with the well-to-do refugees who
patronize night clubs . . . The em
phasis which the author places on
this class of refugees is exagger
ated . . . On the other hand, Miss
Ross, though quoting data on the
adjustment of refugees apparently
obtained from the National Refu
gee Service, does not make full
use of it . . . She does not attempt
to describe even one case of the
average refugee who usefully ad
justed himself to life in America
. . . The only sympathy she dis
plays is for refugee doctors of the
type of Dr. Ludwig Rendenheim-
er, a prominent Viennese psychia
trist, w’ho finds all doors closed to
him in the medical profession,
chiefly because American doctors
do not want competition . . . The
best part of the book is the patrio
tic and anti-Nazi sentiments so
strongly expressed by her central
hero, Bill Deering, the American
reporter . . . But to express this,
no concoction about “good" refu
gees. “bad” refugees and Nazi
spies w'ho may be mistaken by the
readers for refugees was neces
sary.
• * *
MAKING GOOD:
Speaking about refugees . . .
Isaac Naiditch. well-known Zion
ist leader, is the example of what
a Jewish refugee can contribute to
the country w'hich adopts him . . .
A wealthy man in Czarist Russia,
(Continued on page seven)
cants in unoccupied France ... At
the same time we hear that the
Mexican Government, appalled by
the ruthless raids on Jews in
A Christian s New Year Message
BY EVERETT R. CLINCHY
Fresident, The National Conference of Christians & Jews
What message has the Christian world for the people of Israel as
they usher in their New Year of 5703 under the heaviest burden of
suffering in their history?
For one thing, it must 6urely be a message of deepest compassion
for what has befallen Jews under widespread and deadly persecution.
It can also be one of intimate understanding, for the same barbarous
weapons turned against the Jews have also enslaved, imprisoned or
killed those of the Christian faith who have dared in the name of our
common God to expose and condemn the persecutors of all religions.
It gives no solace save the sense of comradeship in suffering, to
remind ourselves that gentiles in Russia and Poland, Christians in
Czechoslovakia and Norway, France and England, and Chinese in the
Orient, have caried the burdens, with Jews.
The tragedy we have seen unfold in Germany and throughout the
Nazi-dominated countries of Europe appals us by its magnitude. We
have no words adequately to describe the ferocity that has brought
starvation and death to millions of innocent victims for no other rea
son than that they bore the name of Jew- Human imagination falters
before the torment of young and old snatched from their families and
handed over to the living death of concentration camps and prisons
to give priority to Jewish appli- | or the anguish of those left behind, powerless except to hope and pray
for the survival of their loved ones. There is nothing in human history
comparable to the 20th century horror and destruction that have
sprung in the short space of years from the seeds of hate and racial
bigotry.
We in America, though far removed from the sights of torture and
bloodshed, are quickened to moral indignation by the knowledge that
the very fundamentals of human order and decency have been so
ruthlessly violated, that the simple, ordinary rights we hold to be
inherent in every human being have been callously overthrown. The
avowed aim of our common enemy is not only to enslave the peoples
j of Europe but to tear down, if possible, the whole structure of our
civilization. To all who belong to the Christian Churches, whether
j Catholic or Protestant, the fate of our Jewish fellow-men is a chal-
| lenge that stirs us to espouse more zealously than ever the cause of
; liberation and justice and to renew our determination that in the world
we are seeking to build, it will be possible for men and women of
whatever faiths or race to walk in peace and security once again
To our Jewish brethren in American and to those of their faith who
I have suffered in the Nazi onslaught, we pledge in the name of our
common humanity and our common brotherhood in God our utmost
effort in defense and support of those ethical teachings and principles
which are part and parcel of the Judaea-Christian heritage, and upon
whose preservation depends the ultimate triumph of compassion and
, religion over the forces of pagan brutality. To our prayers for peace
is linked a prayer that the people of Israel, out of their travail and
suffering, may emerge side by side with us into a world of better
understanding and nobler aspiration.
And while we cherish in our hearts the hope of an early and lasting
peace throughout the world, we are not unmindful of our more imme
diate and intimate problems at home. We look forward, in cooperation
with our Jewish fellow-Americans, to the cleansing from our com
munities of the poisons of hatred and distrust that have at times dis
rupted the harmony of our lives; and to the building of a stronger and
more enduring democracy upon renewed foundations of freedom,
■ equality and opportunity. To this task the National Conference of
Christians and Jews dedicates itself anew.
JEWISH CALENDAR
All Holidays and Fast Days
begin at sunset of the day pro
ceeding the dates given below.
ROSH HASHONAH.
Sat. and Sun.. Sept. 12-13.
YOM KirPUR.
Monday, September 21.
SUCCOTH (Tabernacles),
Sat. and Sun., Sept. 26-27.
HOSHANAH RABAH,
Friday, October 2.
SHIMINT AZERETH.
Saturday, October S.
SIMCHATH TORAH (Feast of
Law), Sunday, October 4.
CHANUKAH,
Fri., Dec. 4, to Fri., Dec. 11.
PURIM.
Sunday. March 21.
PASSOVER (First 2 Days).
Tues.. Wed., Apr. 26, 21.
PASSOVER (Last 2 Days).
Mon.. Tues., Apr. 26, 27.
LAG B’OMER,
Sunday. May 2S.
SHFVCOTH (Feast of Weeks).
Wed-, Thurs.. June 9, 16.
TISHA B’AB (6th of Ab),
Tuesday. August It.