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The Southern Israelite
A Weekly Newspa per for Southern Jewry — Establish'’
VOL. XXXI
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1956
J.D.C. Provided Assistance
To 166,900 Overseas Last Year
NEW YORK, Sept. 16 (JTA)—
The Joint Distribution Committee
has provided assistance to 166,900
needy Jews in Israel, Europe and
the Moslem countries dufing 1955,
it was reported today by the JDC
headquarters.
The largest group aided—99,-
135—were Jews in the Moslem
world, including Algeria, Iran,
Morocco. Tangier, Tunisia and
others. In these countries nearly
one of every five Jewish men,
and women and children received
JDC’s help, the report says Major
JDC programs in the Moslem
world included cultural and re
ligious assistance to more than
71,000, feeding for 37,395; medi
cal aid, 24,760; child care, 8,890;
vocational training, through the
ORT, 5,550; and other aid.
The reports also indicates the
continued assistance provided by
Malben, JDC’s welfare program
on behalf of aged, ill and handi
capped newcomers to Israel. In
1955 the program aided 20,105
men, women and children in a
network of old age homes, hos
pitals, sanitaria, sheltered work
shops and other institutions
throughout the Jewish State.
Among those aided were 2,543
in homes for the aged and 1,293
in TB institutions. In addition,
nearly 5,000 individuals benefited
through Malben reconstruction
loans.
The report also shows that 2,-
222,000 pounds of surplus food
stuffs donated by the U. S. De
partment of Agriculture were dis
tributed to needy individuals in
seven countries during the year.
The food distribution by JDC was
carried on in France, Germany,
Italy, Morocco, Tunisia and Yugo
slavia. Principal items in the dis
tribution included butter, cheese,
powdered milk and cottonseed oil,
the latter item being distributed
for the first time. A. monthly av
erage of nearly 70,000 people ben
efited from the U.S.D.A. surplus.
These figures include institution
al feeding and direct donations,
but do not include summer camp
S.C. B’nai B’rith to Sponsor
Institute of Judaism Sept. 30
CHARLESTON — The S. C.
State Association of B’nai B’rith
Lodges announces tthat the B’nai
B’rith Institute for Judaism will
be held Sunday, Sept. 30 at the
home of Henry Yaschik in
Charleston, S. C. First B’nai
B’rith event of its kind to be
sponsored in the state, the one
day seminar will be devoted to
Jewish cultural and educational
ideals. Jules Bank, prominent
member of B’nai B’rith and a
member of its International Ex
ecutive Committee, will moderate
the panel of three Charlestonian
rabbis. Dr. Allan Tarshish, rabbi
of Temple KK Beth-Elohim and
formerly of the Tree of Life
Temple in Columbia, will lead
off the discussion. He will be
followed by Rabbi Nahum Rab-
inovitch of B’rith Sholom Beth
Israel Synagogue. The third mem
ber of the panel is Rabbi Gerald
Wolpe of Synagogue Emanuel, a
recent Navy chaplain.
All members of B’nai B’rith in
the state are invited to attend the
sessions beginning at noon on
Sunday. The cost of the lunch
which is to be served at two dol
lars is the only charge for the
seminar. Opportunity to ask
questions will follow each pre
sentation. Reservations may be
made by notifying Mr. Yaschik,
Chairman of the Institutes and
Seminar Committee at his home,
27 Devereaux St. in Charleston.
The study of Judaism is that
of a constantly changing and
involving religion and the Insti
tute is another medium of service
made available by B’nai B’rith,
the largest and oldest Jewish ser
vice organization in the world.
or emergency distributions.
In a foreword to the report,
Moses A. Leavitt, JDC executive
vice-chairman, notes that in North
Africa, while emigration has al
ready resulted in a decrease of
the Jewish population, it has not,
however, affected the number of
those still requiring JDC assist
ance. The reason for this, he de
clares, is that “the economic cri
sis and political unrest have ap
parently displaced more groups
from normal lives than emigra
tion could absorb.”
ISRAEL’S
New Crisis
UNITED NATIONS—The U.N.
Security Council has been alerted
by Secretary General Dag Ham-
marskjold over the new fighting
along the Israel-Jordanian fight
ing.
Continuous raids by the Jor
danians had brought a reprisal
staged by Israel which had set
off a seven-hour overnight bat
tle.
Both sides had obeyed a U.N.
truce observers’ order to cease
fire in the Jerusalem clash. Jor
dan claimed the slaying of 50
to 100 Israelis and said 31 of her
own forces were killed. Israel
said her losses were five killed,
nine wounded with 50 Hirdabuabs
jukked.
Israel’s foreign minister Golda
Meir earlier this week had re-
Myerson earlier this week had re
jected Jordan’s explanation that
the slaying of two archaeologists
was the result of an Arab soldier
going beserk, seizing a Bren gun
and directed it at a crowd.
The Mixed Armistice Commis
sion Monday condemned Jordan
for an attack on an Israeli oil
camp in the Negev Sept. 12. Three
Druze guards were murdered and
their weapons stolen by the in
filtrators.
A French Catholic monk, one
of four in Ramath Rachel when
the firing broke out gave an eye
witness account of the attack over
Kol Israel. He said between 600
and 700 people were listening to
an explanation of ruins unearth
ed near the Israeli settlement
when the hail of machine-gun
bullets began.
The monk, Father Jean Roger,
reported the crowd threw itself
(Continued on page 4)
0*»0
Pr
NO. 38
Atlantc^lwilier Starts
Activities Sun., Sept. 30
“After eleven years of hoping,
planning, and hard work, the new
Atlanta Jewish Community Cen
ter will open its doors Sunday,
Sept. 30,” it was announced this
week by Meyer Balser, president,
following the first board of di
rectors’ meeting in the new
Center building
Beginning on that day, rooms
will be available for organization
and club meetings. Reservations
for these meeting rooms may be
made by phoning TR. 5-7881.
Registration for new Center ac
tivities will start October 7. Re
enrolled Center members will re
ceive first preference in all ac
tivity registrations.
All re-enrolled families and in
dividuals will soon be receiving
their membership cards. In the
case of family memberships, each
member of the family six years
of age or more will receive a
separate membership card.
In order to clear up a certain
amount of misunderstanding that
has occured, the Center’s Execu
tive Director, Jack Chilnick, an
nounces that all members are en
titled to use the swimming pool,
for classes and recreational swims
as scheduled, at no additional
cost.
Formal dedication of the new
Center has been scheduled for
November 28, the week of Han-
nukah. A. L. Feldman is chairman
of the dedication committee.
New Orleans Citizens Council's
Attack on ADL Backfires
An attack by the New Orleans
Citizens Council on the Anti-De
famation League of B’nai B’rith
brought about a unique turn of
events last week, ADL officials
reported from New York.
The White Citizens Council
charges were instantly countered
by League officials in New Or
leans with these results:
For the first time, New Orleans
newspapers afforded spece to
comment critical of the Citizens
Council.
The League’s action served as
a rallying point for citizens of all
faiths opposed to the activities
and allegations of the Council.
By repudiating the statements
of Citizens Council officials, the
League made the path of racial
and religious harmony easier in
New Orleans.
“The turn of events is fully
gratifying,” Label Katz, ADL
chairman in New Orleans, said
this week. “Most heartening is
the fact that leaders of the com
munity Christian and Jewish, are
now commending us for. our for
thright denunciation of the Citi-
Former Atlantan Alex Miller Warns Integration
Battle Intensifies Pressure on Southern Jewry
(Copyright, 1956, By The Jewish
Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)
by EDWIN A. BELLER
NEW YORK, (JTA,—A warn
ing that increased tension in the
bitter battle over school desegrea-
tion in the Southern states will
step up pressure on Southern
Jews was made to the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency here by a na
tionally known authority on ra
cial and minority problems.
The nature of the two-fold di
lemma—the increasing use of an
ti-Semitic hatemongering by well-
known bigots involved in the
fight for white supremacy and
the increasing insecurity of
Southern Jews caught between lo
cal pressures and their tradition
and affiliations with national
Jewish organizations — was de
scribed by Alexander F. Miller,
national community services di
rector of the B’nai B’rith Anti-
Defamation League.
Tracing the background of the
use of anti-Semitism in the cur
rent struggle, he noted that a
number of Southerners had be
gun to make use of the bigot’s
equation of Judaism, Zionism and
Communism almost immediately
after the rebirth of tension which
followed the Supreme Court de
cision on segregation in the
schools. Then, too, the ADL of
ficial pointed out, White Citizens
Councils, in their early stages,
often made use of anti-Semitic
material in publications which
they were distributing because
they also contained anti-Negro
material.
Mr. Miller also noted another
development along the same lines
in cases where the Councils
sometimes were fragmented. In
such cases, the formation of
fringe groups and new Councils
was often carried out by persons
with long records of anti-Semi
tism. Examples he cited included
John Kasper, Rev. A. L. Shuler
and Ace Carter.
Against this background, how
ever, the ADL spokesman de
scribed what he termed a jump
in the evidences of anti-Semitism
within the past three to four
months. Some of these were:
A considerable revival of the
Ku Klux Klan, under its new
Grand Wizer, Eldon Edwards, has
been noted. At least 75 Klan
meetings have been held through
out the South within the past 90
days, and evidence of anti-Semi
tic overtones at these meetings
has been abundant particularly
at meetings held in Florida,
Georgia, South Carolina and 1’ex-
as.
At Clinton, Tennessee, where
violence raged over the admission
of Negroes to local schools, two
outside agitators present were
Kasper and Carter. Evidence of
the anti-Semitic nature of their
activities was noted in the fact
that local community leaders in
the town received phone calls in
which they were denounced as
“Jews and Communists:”
In Kentucky, Millard Grubbs,
well-known as an anti-Semite
has been active in the fight
against school integration in
Sturgis and Clay, where violence
occured. An example of Grubb’s
linking of these issues was con
tained in a resolution, certified by
Grubb as chairman of the Citi
zen’s Councils of Kentucky, Inc.,
which declared that the “record
of the last three Administrations
of the National Government of
the United States shows clearly
and without doubt that the Zion
ist Atlantic money mob has con-
rol of both the Democratic party
and the Republican party.” The
resolution urged delegates to the
Democratic convention to walk out
if the Democrats nominated a
“Zionist stooge.”
Mr. Miller pointed out that
such persons, while they might
not be of any considerable im
portance in their own right, are
in a position to do incalculable
damage by inflaming a mob in a
situation fraught with tension.
The ADL official also noted
that the fights thus far had large
ly been confined to border states.
Such struggles are bound to grow
sharper as they move further in
to the deep South, he added, and
the subsidiary tensions - such as
anti-Semitism - are likely to
grow more intense as they do so.
Turning to the problems of
Southern Jewry, Mr. Miller point
ed out the possibility of growing
insecurity of the group as a whole.
He stressed that Southern Jews
represent less,than one-half of one
per cent of the population of the
Southern States. While their ec
onomic adjustment has been suc
cessful, they carry little power
on the local or state level.
Southern Jews are caught in a
vise made up of local pressures,
on the one hand, and the force
of their tradition and teaching
and the positions adopted by the
national organizations to which
they are affiliated, on the other
he added.
zens Council statements.”
Dr. Emmett I. Irwin, chairman
of the Council, had charged that
the League was a “possible Com
munist front organization” and
that it was guilty of circulating
material in New Orleans schools
favoring integration. “The ma
terial is very obviously intended
for the purpose of brainwashing
the children along the lines of
racial integration,” Dr. Irwin
said in a letter to the Orleans
parish school board. As one con
sequence of his charges, an ADL-
published pamphlet, “The Rabbit
Brothers,” was ordered removed
from the schools by Superintend
ent James F. Redmond.
The Communist charge was
categorically denied by Mr. Katz
who went on to expose facts about
the source of the Council’s state
ment — the publication, “The
Coming Red Dictatorship,” print
ed by Conde McGinley. Bath the
publication and its author, Mr.
Katz, revealed, are listed in the
House Un-American Activities
Committee’s “Report on Neo-Fa
scist and Hate Organizations in
the United States.” Mr. Katz’ dis
closure of the source of the
^charge, together with a full ac
count of ADL and B’nai B’rith’s
long and publicly acclaimed ac
tivities in fighting communism,
were printed in all New Orleans
papers.
“ ‘The Rabbit Brothers’ may
have been yanked from the New
Orleans schools,” Mr. Katz said,
“but we have gained much more
than we have lost in the reaction
of the people of New Orleans
who are daily visiting us, writing
us, offering to work with us.”
“The Rabbit Brothers” is a com
ic booklet by New Yorker car
toonist Robert Krause. The mes
sage of the booklet - designed
primarily for elementary schools
- supports principles of equal op
portunity stemming from the Bill
of Rights.
Dr. Wilinsky Gets
1956 Hospital Award
CHICAGO, (JTA) — Dr.
Charles F. Wilinsky, of Brook
line, Mass., has been named the
recipient of the 1956 Distinguish
ed Service Award of the Ameri
can Hospital Association.
Born in Warsaw, Poland, 74
years ago, Dr. Wilinsky retired
as executive director of Boston’s
Beth Israel Hospital in 1953.
He had served as deputy com
missioner of the Boston Health
Department for 30 years, and is
the only person ever to have held
the presidencies of both the
American Hospital Association and
the American Public Health As
sociation.