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VOL. XXXI
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The Southern Israelite
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry — ^ ■eo 9 ®fS«v
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ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 1950
NO. 21
McLeod Urges Legislation
Oren Reports How ..os Tortured
To Admit Sick, Aged, Infirm
In Czech Jail: Kept Without Sleep
NEW YORK, May 20, (JTA)—
The passage of legislation which
would permit the admission of
“a limited number of sick, aged
and infirm” refugees to the Uni
ted States was urged today by
Scott McLeod, administrator of
the U. S. Refugee Relief Act pro
gram and head of the State De
partment’s Bureau of Security
and Consular Affairs. He spoke
before a gathering at United Hias
Service headquarters marking the
10th anniversary of the arrival
of the first DP ship in this coun
try.
Some 200 of the 800 persons
who arrived aboard the ship —
S.S. Marine Flasher — heard
Murray I. Gurfelh, president of
the United Hias Service, review
the ten-year period of post-war
immigration into the United
States. He revealed that a survey
made by United Hias on the in
tegration of 102 Jewish refugees
who came here as adults aboard
the Marine Flasher ten years ago
has established that they settled
in 19 states and that 98 of them
had become American citizens; of
the remaining four, three had
died and “one could not take his
exams because he had become
blind.”
The survey further showed
that of the 56 who had arrived
unmarried, 48 are now married,
and that a total of 88 children
had been born to the group of
102 included in the survey. As
for the integration of the first
HUC Announces
List for Nine
Honorary Degrees
Rabbi Abraham Shusterman of
Har Sinai Congregation, Balti
more, and Rabbi Frederick I.
Rypins of Temple Emanuel,
Greensboro, N. C., will be among
the nine religious and political
leaders to be awarded honorary
degrees by Hebrew Union Col
lege-Jewish Institute of Religion
at ceremonies in Cincinati on
June 2.
Rabbi Abraham Shusterman,
an alumnus of HUC, will receive
the degree of Doctor of Hebrew
Letters. He served for several
years as spiritual leader at Athens
where he spearheaded establish
ment of the Hillel Foundation to
serve University of Georgia Jew
ish students.
Now marking his twenty-fifth
year of rabbinical service, he held
pulpits in Tulsa, Okla, and serv
ed as a faculty member at the
University of Georgia before go
ing to Baltimore. A columnist for
the Baltimore American and
News-Post, Dr. Shusterman was
appointed by Governor Lane as
a member of the Maryland Dis
placed Persons Committee. He is
a contributing editor to the Uni
versal Jewish Encylclopedia and
a vice chairman of the Anti- De
famation League.
Rabbi Typins, who will receive
a Doctor of Divinity degree, was
ordained in 1921. He is known for
his spiritual leadership and com
munity service. In Greensboro,
where he has been rabbi since
1931, he is a former president of
the Ministerial Alliance, Council
of Social Agencies and Rotary
Club. He has also held pulpits in
Roanoke, Va., and Wilmington,
N. C.
Dr. Nelson Glueck, HUC presi
dent, will confer Doctor of Hu
mane Letters degree upon Gov
ernor Abraham Ribicoff of Con
necticut; Dr. Frank P. Graham,
United Nations mediator, and Dr.
Selma Stem-Taeubler, archivist
of the American Jewish archives.
Four other alumni will receive
the Doctor of Divinity degrees.
These are Rabbi Henry E. Kagan,
Temple Sinai, Mt. Vernon, N.Y.;
Rabbi Charles E. Shulman, River-
dale Temple, New York City;
Rabbi Jacob J. Weinstein, Temple
KA.M., Chicago; Rabbi Bernard
Zeiger, Temple Beth El, River-
dale, Calif.
DP’s, JVIr. Gurfein stated that the
United Hias survey revealed that
of the 99 initial DP’s still living
a total of 40 are self-employed
and the rest are either employees,
housewives or dependents. Their
group present, all of them form
er victims of Nazi persecution
who were resettled in the United
States by the predecessor agen
cies of United Hias Service, in
cluded carpenters, physicians,
dentists, teachers, salesmen, mer
chants, manufacturers, entertain
ers, musicians, managers, pur
chasing agents and the like, Mr.
Gurfein reported.
Commemoration certificates at
testing to the “fine integration
and citizenship” of the first DP’s
were presented to the celebrants
by Abner Bregman, chairman of
the United Hias executive com
mittee, who has been active on
the immigration and resettle
ment scene for 21 years. “I have
been associated with the refugee
and DP immigration programs
since their inception and I want
to say to you that never, in all
that time, have we had the
slightest reason to be sorry that
the gates of our country have
been opened to those who came
from the Old World seeking
peace and security," he told the
assemblage.
The ceremony was also attend
ed by Ugo Carusi, former U. S.
Immigration Comm’ssioner who
organized the first shipload of
DP’s under the President’s Di
rective of 1945 to give visa pre
ference to DP’s; George L. War
ren, State Department Advisor
for the Immigration Service, who
admitted the first DP’s in the
U.S., and James P. Rice, acting
executive director of United Hias.
TEL AVIV, (JTA) — Morde-
cai Oren, who came home to Is
rael last week after four-and-a-
half years in Czech prisons, to
day told a meeting of the secre
tariat of the left-wing Mapam
Party of the “Gestapo-like in
quisition” which had induced him
to confess to crimes he never
committed. The secretariat meet
ing was held in Oren’s home at
the Mizra collective settlement.
Mr. Oren began his story by
describing his last mission in
Czechoslovakia — intervention on
behalf of arrested Socialists. He
was taken into custody aboard a
train bound for Vienna, from
where he had intended to return
to Israel. The immediate pretext
for his arrest was an expired en
try visa. Later, he said, he was
questioned as to why he had in
tervened on behalf of the jailed
Socialists. Then, he felt, he was
probably chosen to become a cog
in the huge machinery construct
ed to try the late Rudolf Slansky
—Czech Communist leader who
was executed for treason — and
his associates. The Slansky trial,
in which Mr. Oren was involved,
heard Czech Government charges
that Slansky had, among other
things, been implicated in an in
ternational Zionist conspiracy to
betray the state.
Mr. Oren revealed that he had
been interrogated for days on
end — in one instance he went
without sleep for three weeks and
was given only coffee and cigar-
etts in order to keep him awake,
with fresh interrogators taking
over the questioning every few
hours. As he was nearing col
lapse, he related, he came to un-
Jewish Press Praises Israel,
Hammarskjold Efforts for Peace
NEW YORK, (JTA) — The
fourteenth annual convention of
the American Association of Eng-
lish-Jewish Newspapers con
cluded here last weekend with
the adoption of a number of im
portant resolutions and the elec
tion of Abraham Slabot, publish
er of the “Jewish Ledger” of
New Orleans, as president. Mr.
Slabot succeeds Jacques Back,
publisher of “The Observer” of
Nashville, Tenn.
In a resolution on Israel, the
convention pledged “whole-heart
ed support to the Jewish State in
this hour of her peril.” The res
olution, the convention congrat
ulated Dag Hammarskjold, sec
retary general of the United Na
tions on his success” in attain
ing cease-fire agreements” be
tween Israel and her Arab neigh
bors and urged that the United
Nations official continue his mis
sion “for the purpose of attain
ing a real peace in the Middle
East.”
The delegates adopted a reso
lution extending greetings to the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency” as
a vital and effective partner in
the task of creating a stronger
Jewish press in America.” They
condemned the activities of the
American Council for Judaism, an
anti-Zionist organization, as “de
structive” and damaging to re
lationship of American Jews to
their neighbors.
J. L. Fishbein, publisher of the
“Sentinel” of Chicago and Mor
ris Janoff, publisher of the “Jew
ish Standard” of Jersey City,
N. J., were elected vice presi
dents. Arthur Weyne, publisher
of the “Atlantic City (N.J.) Re
cord,’’ was reelected a vice pres
ident. Jimmy Wisch, publisher of
the “Texas Jewish Post,” of Fort
Worth, was elected secretary.
Adolph Rosenberg, Atlanta edi
tor and publisher of “The South
ern Israelite,” was named treas
urer.
Elected as members of the ex-
ADOLPH ROSENBERG, who
served for past two years as
secretary of the Jewish news
paper group, has been elected its
new treasurer.
ecutive committee were Meyer
Keleman, general manager of the
“B’nai B’rith Messenger” of Los
Angeles, California; Leo H.
Frisch, publisher of the “Ameri
can Jewish World” of Minneapo
lis and St. Paul, Minnesota;
Joseph Weisberg, publisher of
the “Jewish Advocate” of Boston,
Massachusetts. Albert W. Golomb,
publisher of the “American Jew
ish Outlook” of Pittsburgh, Pa.,
Jules Miller, publisher of the
“Exponent” of Philadelphia, Pa.;
Elias R. Jacobs, publisher of the
“Buffalo Jewish Review,” New
York. Philip Slomovitz, publisher
of the “Jewish News” of Detroit,
Michigan, and Fred K. Schochet,
publisher of the “Jewish Flori
dian” of Miami, Florida.
derstand that no one in Israel
would know his fate and he,
therefore, requested permission
to write. This request was not
granted, he said, until a high of
ficial told him he could write
home, but only on condition that
he say in his letter that he really
was a traitor "and asked an
apology of the Czech people for
the crimes he had committed
against them.
He wrote that letter — he add
ed — in order that those at
home would know he was still
alive and with the hope that they
would understand that his self
description as a “traitor” was
false. The Mapam leader then
went on to say that he had been
turned into an object through
which Zionism, Mapam and Jew
ry could be attacked. “Had they
really wanted the truth,” he
said, “they would have completed
my investigation in 22 minutes,
but they wanted the opposite
and that took them 22 months
until they made me confess to
everything they wanted.” They
succeeded in this aim, he charged,
through Gestapo measures —
nearly no food, no water and no
sleep.
Another episode described; by
the returned Mapam leader to
the meeting was his trial. It was
a secret military trial and he
was denied every possibility of
making an adequate defense —
no lawyers of his own, no docu
ments and no defense witnesses.
The lawyer furnished him, he
added, was only another prose
cutor, who asked the court that
Mr. Oren be meted out a just
punishment. The epilogue to this
episode, according to Mr. Oren
was even more ironic — he was
supposed to pay defense counsel
600 kronen for that defense.
The Mapam leader stressed
that he did not sign a charge
sheet in which he was to have
confessed that Mapam was not
a workers’ party and that it was
anti-Socialist. “In all the charges
and confessions I signed,” he
concluded, “there was only one
true thing, and that was my
name. All the other things were
lies, fabricated by those who de
secrate Socialist ideals and So
cialist regimes.”
Three Outside Communities
Now Jewish Home Affiliates
With the affiliation of Charles
ton, S.C., the Jewish Home now
has three communities outside of
Atlanta which are utilizing its
facilities, officials announced this
week.
The other two communities are
Augusta and Savannah.
The communities support agree
ment with Charleston was enter
ed into following discussions be
tween a representative committee
from that community and a spec
ial committee of the Home. Those
from Charleston were Edwin
Pearlstine, Hyman Rephan, Nat
Shulman, Maier Triest and Henry
Yashchik. Elliott Goldstein chair
ed the meeting.
The Charleston Jewish Social
Service agreed to pay an annual
standby charge and to contribute
to the future building fund of
the Home, officials said. Repre
sentatives from Charleston will
serve on the Central Board on
Care of Jewish Aged. Applica
tions for admission to the Home
will be processed through the
Charleston Jewish Social Service
Committee. The social study will
be made in Charleston and the
material submitted to the Admis
sions Committee of the Home.
Already three applications have
been made. One of these will be
taken up at an early meeting of
the Admissions Committee.
The Jewish Home announce
ment added:
“The affiliation of Charleston
goes back to 1948 when planning
was first done to meet the needs
of the aged in the Southeastern
region. Nat Shulman, Executive
Secretary, Charleston Jewish
Welfare Fund, made a survey at
that time of the state of South
Carolina. A result of the study
was the establishment of the
Jewish Home in Atlanta which
serves the entire state of Georgia.
Because of Charleston’s continu
ed interest in the program of the
Atlanta Home, it was natural for
that community to enter into the
agreement whereby the facilities
of the Home will be available
to residents of Charleston.”
What’s this?
Kosher Meat and
Cafes in Russia
BB Units Win
KuswormAward
WASHINGTON — Three south
ern B’nai B’rith units were among
the dozen selected to receive the
second annual Sidney G. Kus-
worm Citizenship Awards, it was
announced here.
The groups were:
District 5—
Israel Friedlander Lodge No.
877, Roanoke, Va., Dr. Eli Brewer,
president, and Arthue M. Levin
chairman.
Atlanta Chapter No. 440, Mrs.
Bernard Facher, president, and
Mrs. Dave Kaplan, chairman.
District 7—
Birmingham Chapter No. 499,
Birmingham, Mrs. Arnold Royal,
president, and Mrs. Mickey Gold
stein, chairman.
NEW YORK, (JTA) — Soviet
meat shops in Jewish neighbor
hoods will soon be selling Kosher
meat in Moscow and the govern
ment will open kosher restau
rants, Moscow’s Chief Rabbi, M.
Schliffer, announced at a Sha-
vuoth service last Thursday, ac
cording to a cable to the New
York Times.
The dispatch from Moscow said
that Rabbi Schliffer had declared
that the kosher meat shops would
sell kosher meat at regular prices
and that the Jewish community
would be required to pay the dif
ference in cost. He also said that
the government plans to permit
the opening of a new Jewish
theological seminary. There has
been talk lately of the Govern
ment’s reopening theatres for
Jewish performances and publish
ing newspapers in the Yiddish
language. These reports are un
confirmed, the Times said.
SPECIAL MAILING NOTICE
Copies of this issue are being sent to several thousand Atlantans
on a special mailing list — at no cost to the Bonds for Israel Com
mittee. Costwise it was simpler and more economical fer The
Southern Israelite to include the entire list rather than take the
time and expense to prevent duplication. Many of our readers then
will receive two copies this week.
SEE SPECIAL ABE GOLDSTEIN SECTION
PAGES 13 to 16