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Page Four
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Friday, June 24, 1949
Thft Southern Israelite
Published weekly by Southern Newspaper Enterprises, Inc., 312
Ivy Street, N, E., Atlanta 3, Georgia. WAlnut 0791-0792. M.
Stephen Schiffer, publisher; Adolph Rosenberg, editor; Willy Pels,
business manager. Entered as second class matter at the post of-
fice.Atlanta, Georgia, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Yearly
subscription, three dollars. The Southern Israelite invites literary
contributions and correspondence but is not to be considered as
sharing the views expressed by writers. Deadline is 9:00 a m
Wednesday but material received earlier will have a much better
chance of publication.
Shape of Persecution to Come
T rial of Jewish leaders in Hungary and their conviction
or promoting illegal emigration of Israel-bound refugees
is a nauseous outrage such as only the Soviet philosophy
is able to conjure up in its affinity for perverting justice.
Closely resembling the court-room farce which resulted
m the imprisonment of Cardinal Mindszenty, the trial
even had the same defense counsel, assigned to the defen
dants over their objection. Though a basic report of the
' trial was permitted to pass through the Jewish Tele
graphic Agenpy S correspondent, we dare say this is not
^ the complete story and the nuances and real implications
could not be written directly for fear of the iron-curtain
censorship.
Both the Hungarian trials of Mindszenty and of the
Zionist leaders smack of the warped persecutions of the
Nazi regime which preceded the current. Soviet-dominat-
, cd administration.
The unfortunate defendants are accused of organizing
and promoting the illegal mass emigration of Israel-bound
Hungarian Jews. That they did have a part in the emigra
tion, they apparently do not deny but to blame them for
the movement itself is to tie them ludicrously with the
German torture chambers and Hitlerian horrors which
once and for al ltimes destroy any confidence Jewish peo
ple of Hungary or any land can have in their neighbors
who carried out those persecutions. And the departure
•of the groups themselves was countenanced by the very
Hungarian authorities who now have turned tail and seek
to establish a scapegoat to clear their own selves of the
burden of deep-seated dissatisfaction which can make a
citizenry so insecure, so discontent that it must leave en
masse.
Trial of the Zionist leaders follows the intellectual rea
soning of the Nazis so identically that it is shocking. Not
permitted to produce witnesses, the accused were con
victed long before they were brought into the court-room
for this full-dress propaganda rehearsal.
A Great Mission
Guest Editorial
It’s not likely many of us will remember where we
were on June 26, back in 1945. But it’s safe to assume that
our hearts and our hopes were with a certain group of
gentlemen in San Francisco. For it was on this day that
delegates from fifty nations signed the United Nations
Charter, holding forth the promise of freedom, of security,
of life itself to millions of people throughout the world.
Four years have passed since that fateful day—not
much time to make headway in so vast an undertaking.
And yet, on this anniversary, the record bears inspection.
According to the UN Charter, the nations of the world
resolved to save mankind ‘from the scourge of war.”
Without the restraining hand of the UN Russian troops
might still be threatening the peace in Iran; brother might
still be slaughtering brother in India and Pakistan;
Greece might be overrun by Communist guerrillas; the
fierce fighting between Arabs and Jews would most cer
tainly still be ranging in Palestine and there would be
no new democratic State of Israel.
The Charter pledged the UN “to promote social pro
gress and better standards of life ...” Here again, the
picture might be grim indeed today, were it not for
the health and welfare services furnished by the UN dur
ing the past four years. Dread diseases like smallpox and
tuberculosis would be on the rise all over Europe; the
cholera epidemic in Egypt might be running wild thruout
the Middle East; hosts of expectant mothers and new
born infants would have died of malnutrition, and millions
of disheartened people might never have been restored to
social usefulness.
Finally, the Charter committed the UN to “reaffirm
faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and
worth of the human person ...” The first step'toward
that goal has already been taken in the Universal Decla
ration of Human Rights, recently adopted by the UN
General Assembly. To set forth the obligations of member
nations in protecting the basic liberties of their citizens,
two more documents are currently in preparation.
Thanks to the UN, too, international law is now reach
ing out to prevent the recurrence of atrocities that have
inflicted tragic losses on humanity through tht ages. The
Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of Geno
cide, unanimously adopted last winter, defines mass mur
der as a crime; upon ratification by 20 members, this
most horrifying of all crimes will at last be outlawed. If
this first legislative act of the UN is to be more than a
paper pledge, men and women of all nations must urge
their governments to take immediate action.
Only with the solid support of public opinion, can the
UN hope to carry out the great mission assigned to it by
the Charter four years ago and already so hopefully
advanced.
PANORAMA by David Schwartz
Israel’s Girl Shortage
There was a story in the pa
pers the other day telling of a
girl scarcity in Israel. It seems
there are many more men there
than women. This is usually
the case in new pioneer coun
tries.
In Alaska, for instance, I am
told, many of the male settlers
would gladly give away their
favorite mountain for a wife.
In early California, in the gold
rush days, historians tell us the
miners would pay “two bits”
just to shake the hands of a
man who had shaken the hands
of a woman. In early Louisiana,
the French dispatched the so-
called “casket girl”—regular
expeditions of women—to abate
the female famine. Victor Her
bert, it will be recalled, wrote
an operatta about the theme in
Naughty Marietta.
It seems to me that the
French way was right. The
government did not leave the
matter to rugged individualism.
Here is a field, it seems to me,
in which rugged individualism
has proven inadequate. The
government should get in the
matrimonial business. The log
ical agency to handle it is the
Post Office Department.
Please do not say to me:
“What do you want to do, play
post office?” Matrimony is a
very serious business. The rab
bis said that God sits all day
making matches, yet we mor
tals leave this matter to chance.
Consider how men and wo
men find their mates. A friend
of mine found his through hav
ing a girl fall on him in a sub
way rush.
“Excuse me,” she said.
“O, that’s all right,” he re
plied. “Do it again.”
That was the way it started.
It ended in marriage. But peo
ple cannot go along hoping to
have some one fall on them in
the subway.
Here is something in which
the utmost science is required,
yet the least science is em
ployed.
About thirty or forty years
ago, many of the Jewish immi
grants in America got married
BETW EK\ US, by Boris Smolar
The Domestic Scene
The recently established com
mittee to check multiple fund
raising campaigns, which is
working under the direction of
the Jewish Agency in New
York, scored another victory
this week ... It prevented the
Agudas Israel from launching
a separate $2,000,000 drive in
the U. S. to support religious
activities in Israel ... In op
posing this proposed drive, the
committee assorted that the
Jewish Agency has already
spent $1,500,000 in behalf of
Agudah groups and allocated
another $750,000 for the re
mainder of the budgetary year
for these groups . . . Since these
sums were obtained through the
United Jewish Appeal and sim
ilar organizations in other
countries, the committee con
sidered that there was no ex
cuse for the Agudah to start a
separate campaign . . . And it
was ready to come out with a
public statement to this effect.
After the leaders of the
Agudah learned of the contents
of the prepared statement, they
realized that a separate cam
paign could do their work more
harm than good . . . And they
quietly withdrew their decis
ion to launch a separate fund
raising drive . . .
The Council of Jewish Fed
erations and Welfare Funds is
now determined to be repre
sented at the annual U. J. A.
contract negotiations and to
play a role in setting U. J. A.
policies . . . Letters to this ef
fect will probably be sent soon
on behalf of the Board of the
CJFWF to the United Jewish
Appeal and to its main part
ners, the Joint Distribution
Committee and the United
Palestine Appeal . . .
An interesting analysis pre
pared by the Council of Jewish
Federations and Welfare Funds
shows that over $8,300,000 was
spent in 1948 on national fund
raising and promotion by indi
vidual national and overseas
agencies . . . That is over and
above the campaign and collec
tion cost of local welfare funds,
which actually solicit and col
lect the money . . .
Intelligence
The Bible is still the best
seller among Jews, according
to a report by the Jewish Pub
lication Society . . . Twenty
editions of the Bible published
by the Society during its 60
years of existence have all been
sold out . . .The 21st edition
will have a printing of 37,000
copies . . . The next “best sell
er” of the books published by
the Society is Prof. Graetz’s
“History of the Jews" . . . The
Jewish Publication Society has
been distributing about 150,000
copies of its books each year
during the past few years . . .
About one-third went to the
nearly 12,000 members of the
Society. . .
The American Jewish Com
mittee has now started the pub
lication of a news bulletin in
Yiddish, in order to acquaint
Yiddish-reading Jews in Latin
American countries with the
nature of its activities ... It
has also started the publication
of a digest in English of the Is
raeli press, giving summaries
of views expressed in editorials
and special articles in the He
brew newspapers . . . This is
the first time in the his* cry of
Notes
the organization that attention
is paid to Hebrew publications,
not to speak of the fact that the
Committee never before pub
lished anything in Yiddish . . .
A daily digest in English of
everything of importance that
is published in the Yiddish
press has been issued by the
American Jewish Committee
for many years ... Its distri
bution is restricted to important
members of the organization
and to the staff . . .
The Joint Distribution Com
mittee also publishes a daily
English digest of news and' ar
ticles appearing in the Yiddish
newspapers . . . The latter is
devoted primarily to summar
izing material concerning relief
and reconstruction activities.
Military Analysis
Israeli plans call for a stand
ing army of 25,000 and a large
ready reserve on the Swiss
model . . .
And Israeli military experts
are now studying in Switzer
land the military establishments
of that country.
through exchange of photo
graphs. The situation that ex
ists with respect to Israel today
applied then to America and if
you speak to any of the old-
timers in the immigrant organ
izations, they will tell you how
many of the immigrants who
had established themselves in
America would exchange pho
tographs with women abrogd.
The vogue of marriage through
photographs was common
among al lthe immigrants.
Now why couldn’t something
like that be done for Israel?
Here is a project for the new
administration of the Z. O. A.
It is looking for a project. Well,
President Frisch, here it is. Let
the Zionist Organization organ
ize a department to solve the
woman shortage in Israel.
It's a brilliant idea, really. I
don’t understand how I thought
of it.
Of course, this should not
deter those girls who want to
go to Israel and manage their
own matrimonial affairs, so to
speak.
I can promise them much in
the way of encouragement.
Consider the moon—so very
important in love. Where will
you find such a moon as the
big Mediterranean moon—a
moon so bright that you read
your daily newspaper by its
light and yet not bright enough
to interfere with the pursuit of
love.
The national dance of Israel,
the hora, it seems to me, also
has great merits for the object
I have mentioned. Our regular
ballroom dances to which
Americans are accustomed are
too selective for this purpose.
They lead to people meeting
only those within their limited
group. In the dancing of the
hora, in which all join, you
meet everybody, you have to
come to grips with all.
I rest my case.
Beth Jacob Group
Sets June 26
For Sium Program
The Chevra Mislajes of
Beth Jacob Congregation in
vites the public to its Sium at
9 a. m. Sunday, June 26, at
the Synagogue on Boulevard.
The group is a Talmudic
Circle which has studied the
Mishna every morning under
the scholastic direction of Rev.
J. M. Werbin. * •
Members of other congrega
tions are invited to join in
this celebration of the con
clusion of Talmudic studies.
^ewiih Cdafendar
TISHAH B AY’
Thursday, August 4
ROSH HASHONA
Saturday, Sept. 24
(First Day)
Sunday, Sept. 25
(Second Day)
YOM KIPPL'R
Monday, October 3
succos
Saturday, Oct. 8
(First Day)
Sunday, Oct. 9
(Second Day)
Saturday, Oct 14
(Eighth Day)
hamkkah
Friday, Dec. 16