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Page Four
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Friday, March 21, 1952
The Southern Israelite
PANAROMA by David Schwartz
5 pa per Enterprises, Inc., 312 Ivy Street
91-0792 “ ' ^—
Published Weekly by Southern Newsc
N.E., Atlanta 3, Georgia. WAlnut 0791-0792. Entered as second class matter
at the post office, Atlanta, Georgia, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Yearly
subscription, four dollars. The Southern Israelite Invites literary contribu
tions and correspondence but is not to be considered as sharing the views
expressed by writers. DEADLINE is 12:30 P. M., TUESDAY but material
received earlier will have a much better chance of publication.
Member, American Association of English-Jewlsh Newspapers
Adolph Rosenberg, Editor and Publisher
ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT
Gustav Oppenhelmer Margaret Merryman Mildred Hershberg
MEMBERS OF ADVISORY BOARD
Mr. Richards Has a Birthday Party
Meyer Balser
Sol Benamy
Dr. Nathan Blass
Dr. Jack Blelch
Joe Cohen
Reuben Cohen
Frank Carson
Abe Goldberg
Dr. Irving Goldstein
Harry Harrison
Hyman Jacobs
Edward Krlck
Sam Levy
Irving Libowsky
Thomas Mokover
Ben Masseli
Barney Medintz
Hyman Morris
Eugene Oberdorfer
Gustav Oppenheimer
Berry Rittenbaum
Meyer Rosenberg
Phil Schwartz
Dave Slann
Harry Spitzer
A. D. Srochi
Kalman Sunshine
Sam Weinberg
Arthur Weiss
Paul Wolkin
Who Has a Sparc Sefer Torah!
The idea of a “Sefer Torah” pool to aid new congre
gations appeals to us and the Union of Orthodox Jewish
Congregations deserves commendation for advancing this
plan.
National President Max E. Etra explains that Torahs
in the pool will be loaned out to new congregations which
need a Scroll of the Law as spiritual aid until such time
as the members can afford to buy their own. When that
moment arrives, Mr. Etra says, the borrower will be ex
pected to return the Torah to the pool.
In many a Synagogue, undoubtedly, there is an ex
tra Torah which could easily be turned into the pool for
use and relayed to some group forming their own congre
gation which will find this a handy means of aid until the
organization is on its feet. Possession of a Torah—even a
borrowed one—could well inspire and sustain an isolated
or struggling group of Jews through formative times into
fuller possibilities of their religion. Many of these Torahs
too will have special sentimental value because of the cur
rent history of the owners.
Jewry has flourished best when men could freely form
new congregations if necessary and we trust the time will
never come in America when stagnation sets in and there
are none who want to set forth on their own—whether as
offshoots of lumbering congregations or in areas which
lack any congregation at all. Availability of Sefri Torahs may
well be that special boost which will spur a particular group
on to promising religious formation and expression.
Established congregations in the South—Reform as well
as Orthodox—will surely come forward speedily with spare
Sefri Torahs.
The Z. O. A. Projects Fund
(Guest Editorial)
In the course of the past few weeks a very limited
number of Z.O.A. members were invited to contribute to the
Projects Fund of the organization which this year has a
quota of $18,000.
Two questions have been raised, namely: What is the
purpose of this campaign? What will the money be used
for?
The answer to the first question is that the Z.O.A. is
conducting no campaign at all. It is not approaching the
Jewish or general community. The funds needed will be
provided by no more than 180 members of the Atlanta Dis
trict, each of whom will purchase a $100 ticket entitling
him to enter his name in a presentation for a Cadillac Se
dan and other donated gifts. It is purely an intra-organiza-
tional affair.
As to the second question, the monies raised will go
towards the establishment of ten industrial trade schools
in Israel and many other worthwhile projects of land ac
quisition, building, technical and scientific services. Here in
Atlanta, the local district, in conjunction with the Rotary
Club, is providing scholarships, for qualified Israelis at
Georgia Tech. But over and above all—and this is really
the fundamental purpose underlying all Zionist endeavor—
is the creation of a climate, by positive indoctrination and
education, in which Jewish life can flourish and realize its
greatest potential.
A goodly portion of the proceeds of the Fund will be
dedicated to this latter objective. The Z.O.A. never was in
terested in the political phenomenon of a Jewish state per
se. The crux of its philosophy is Jewish group survival—
through a state, through Jewish education, through the de
velopment of traditional values and the cultivation of He
brew. It holds that the time has come for us to live on our
assets, not our liabilities; that only on such a foundation
can a virile and proud American Jewish community arise.
This, then, is the keynote of Z.O.A. fund raising. The
organization is not in competition with communal philan-
throphic campaigns, but works through and with them. Its
own funds are used for creative Jewish living—in Israel and
in America.
—ADALBERT FREEDMAN
If you ever get to be seventy-
five, said Bernard G. Richards to
me, “don’t tell ayone.”
They are giving Mr. Richards
a birthday party on the occasion
of having reached three score
and fifteen and he doesn’t like
the turmoil.
After all, what’s seventy-five?
When the late Rabbi Cohen of
Montreal was in his eighties and
was asked how he felt, he would
reply, “I should feel no worse
when I get old.”
B.G.R. doesn’t conform to the
stereotype of a seventy-five
year-old. His hair is black—not
gray. He has a school girl’s com
plexion and he is as frisky as
the proverbial two-year-old ba
by on a frosty morning.
Sometimes I think the reason
he looks so young is because he
is not really one person. He is
two people. Most people don’t
know this, but it is time to re
veal the truth.
It was back in 1903 when Ted
dy Roosevelt was President that
Richards wrote a book—which
was a sensation in its day—call
ed “The Discourses of Keidan-
sky.” I have reason to believe
that Keidansky was really Rich
ards himself or his alter ego.
This theory explains a great deal
about Bernard G. Richards.
Bernard G. Richards has been
a leader in Jewish organizations.
He was one of the founders of
the old New York “Kehillah”
under Judah Magnes. He was
also one of the founders of the
American Jewish Congress, and
one of the pioneer builders of the
Zionist Organization and the sec
retary of the Jewish Delegation
to the Peace Conference at the
end of World War I. He sticks
to organizations like a fly to fly
paper.
But Mir. Keidansky has quite
another point of view about or
ganizations. Here is what Mr.
Keidansky said about organiza
tions in the aforementioned book:
“In joining any organization,
ROSH 1IODESK NISAN
Thursday, Mar. 27
•PESACH
Thursday, April 10
ROSH IIODESH IYAR
Saturday, Apr. 26
LAG R OMER
Tuesday, May 13
ROSH IIODESH SIVAN
Sunday, May 25
•SHAVUOT
(First Day)
Friday, May 30
ROSH IIODESH TAMMl'Z
Tuesday, June 24
ROSH IIODESH AV
Wednesday, July 23
TISHA B AY
Thursday, July 31
ROSH IIODESH ELCL
Friday, August 22
•ROSH 1IASHONA
(First Day)
Saturday. September 20
♦HOLIDAYS BEGIN
Previous Evening
Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor:
The news item published re
cently in The Israelite, headlined
—“Boston Orthodox Rabbis Nix
Officiating at ‘Traif Weddings.”
Our forebears certainly were
alert to the vital needs of our
group for when these promul
gations of kosher were made it
was at a time when the sani
tary conditions were unbearable
and the kosher development was
a great achievement. But since
this time, we have thrown around
our food, etc., laws equal to the
old kosher regime. Since we
were up to date when kosher
was a necessity, is there any rea
son for us to take such a stand
on “Traif Weddings," today?
I like to think of our rabbis
as teachers, leading their flocks
rather than making edicts such
as this and refusing to perform
services that would tend to dis
courage rather than to encour
age.
Is there anything more dis-
you surrender part of your soul.”
And again, says Mr. Keidansky:
“United action is not good ac
tion.”
You see how suspicious and
antagonistic to organizations Mr.
Keidansky is. I ask you, can one
man hold such diametrically op
posite views. Mr. Richards must
be two people.
Mr. Richards is a friendly man
—a polite man. If he sees some
thing in the newspapers of South
Africa, of Tahiti, or even of Jer
sey City that he thinks you will
be interested in, he is sure to
send you a clipping. But how
about Mr. Keidansky in this re
spect? Listen to the way Mr.
Keidansky frowns at polite peo
ple.
“Polite people have no opin
ions that differ from those of
others. I doubt whether it is po
lite to have any opinions at all.”
Again, Mr. Richards has al
ways waged war against ignor
ance. So assiduous is he in seek
ing to dispel ignorance that he
organized the Jewish Informa
tion Bureau, which makes it a
point to answer questions put by
any inquirer. He is simply thirsty
for questions. But what does Mr.
Keidansky say about ignorance?
I quote:
“Were it not for ignorance, we
would not have all the wealth of
legends and fables and fairy
tales and sagas and marchen,
strange, weird and wonderful to
intoxicate the imagination of the
world.”
You’d think from that, Rich
ards would like to endow a foun
dation to spread ignorance, in
stead of seeking to abolish it.
And speaking about abolishing
things, Mr. Keidansky was de
voutly interested in abolishing
reformers. They give him a bel-
(Continued on page 5)
BETWEEN US by Boris Smolar
Washington Echoes
For the first time in many
years American Zionist leaders
now have complete confidence in
the White House and in the
State Department. The official
Zionist leadership in this coun
try is convinced that President
Truman and the State Depart
ment will sincerely support max
imum United States financial aid
for Israel this year.
Also, that Congress, while re
ducing American aid for other
countries, will not request any
reduction in the appropriations
to Israel and the Arab countries
proposed by Truman for 1952.
Washington does not seem to
be much impressed with the
“peace (feelers” coming out of
Cairo which try to create the
impression that Egypt is consid
ering negotiating peace with Is
rael. These feelers are taken with
a grain of salt. They come at a
time when Egypt seems to be
eager to play a dominant role in
the projected Middle East Com
mand which she rejected last Oc
tober.
Egypt’s idea now is that the
Arab states should join the Mid
dle East Command not individ
ually but as a bloc on a regional
heartening than to find at a time
such as a wedding or a death that
our rabbis would refuse to ren
der service?
Jewry will continue to go for
ward and no doubt for some
we will have Orthodox, Conser
vative and Reformed Jewry, but
is there any reason for such
statements and I am hopeful that
the day will came when such
promulgations will be a thing of
the past and that we as individ
uals will have the right to make
our own decisions and find the
door open in a civilization that
believes in tolerance, charity and
understanding.
ARMAND MAY
Dear Editor:
I have just read of a tempest
in a teapot! I refer to the so-
called “simmering” of several
people in Yiddish circles in New
York over the humorous way in
which Danny Thomas explained
several Yiddish words including
“fahrblungin." I am amazed at
these circles!
Is everything connected with
Jewish life heart-rending and
accompanied by wailing and
weeping? I prefer laughter to
tears, and in this case, I’m sure
Mr. Thomas meant only good-
natured kidding.
Can’t these “circles” find any
thing better to do with their
time and put it to work combat
ting the vicious anti-Semitism
which is rampant in this country
and elsewhere?
I have heard Litvaks sneer at
the ways, speech and manners
of Galitzianners (and vice-ver
sa); the North pokes fun at the
South (and vice-versa), the
speech of the Brooklynite and
the Bostonian are thought
strange (and vice-versa), so why
blow your top at anything so
innocent as Mr. Thomas and his
interpretation of some of our
funniest words?
MRS. M. WENGROW,
Columbia, S. C.
arrangement based on the re
cently concluded Arab Collec
tive Security Pact. But this pact
contains a clause definitely di
rected against Israel. And it is
obvious that the Western Powers
could not entrust military equip
ment for the defense of the Mid
dle East to a regional unit built
on a security pact conceived as
an anti-Israel instrument.
Hence, the Egyptian “peace
feelers” to conceal the real dan
ger for Israel in the formation
of a strong Arab military bloc
free to make its own regional
strategic decisions as partners in
a Middle East Command. Need
less to say that Israel itself is
definitely not anxious to see
more arms pumped into the Arab
states under the pretext of a
Western defense alliance.
On the Record
I have just finished reading
the 143-page Schmorak Report
on the Jewish Agency which cre
ated such a stir in Israel. Amer
ican Jews will be pleased to learn
that this report, which criticizes
many aspects of the work of the
Jewish Agency, has nothing but
praise for the Agency’s office in
New York.
It says that “the planning and
organization of the work were
excellent” and that the exami
nation of the accounts of the
Jewish Agency’s treasury office
in New York “proved that the
books are kept in good order”.
No faults whatsoever were found
by Dr. Schmorak, director of the
Comptroller’s Office of the Jew
ish Agency, with any of the
Agency’s departments in New
York.
Incidentally, a lot of the faults
found by Dr. Schmorak with the
departments of the Jewish Agen
cy in Israel, France and Switz
erland pale in significance after
reading the 87-page reply of the
Jewish Agency executive to Dr.
Schmorak’s charges.
If you wish to have an idea
how United Palestine Appeal
funds—raised through the Unit
ed Jewish Appeal—are being
spent, here are the figures. Of
every U.P.A. dollar raised in
1951, 54 cents was spent on ag
ricultural settlement and land
development in Israel. Twenty-
three cents was spent on initial
absorption of immigrants, eight
cents on transportation of immi
grants to Israel, eight cents on
youth immigration, four cents on
education, culture and other ac-
ivities. Only three cents was
spent on administration. These
figures come directly from the
United Palestine Appeal head
quarters in New York.