Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Isr**
A Weekly Newspa per for Southern Jewry — Ei
090
*%o
XXXII
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1957
NO. 51
18 American Organizations
Arrange Israel Pilgrimages
UJA Votes $102,031,000 Regular
Drive, $100 Million Rescue Appeal
NEW YORK, (JTA —Eighteen
national Jewish organizations
have taken the leadership in ar
ranging the first of what is ex
pected to be a series of nation
wide pilgrimages to Israel during
th festival year 1958-1959, it was
made known today by the Ameri
can Committee for Israel’s Tenth
Anniversary Celebration.
These include: The American
Association for Jewish Education;
the American Jewish Congress;
B’nai B’rith; National Council of
Jewish Women; Hadassah; Hista-
drut; Mizrachi Hapoel Hamizra-
chi; Mizrachi Women’s Organiza
tion; Women’s American ORT;
National Federation of Hebrew
Teachers and Principals; Pioneer
Women; State of Israel Bonds;
Union of American Hebrew Con
gregations; United Jewish Appeal;
United Synagogue of America;
Women’s League for Israel; Young
Israel; Zionist Organization of
America.
Tucson Hadassah Drops
Plans for Weekly Bingo
TUCSON, (JTA) — The
Tucson chapter of Hadassah has
withdrawn a request to the Tuc
son Jewish Community Council
for clearance of weekly dates for
bingo game nights
Acting to withdraw the request
before it could come up for dis
cussion before the Jewish Com
munity Council’s regular assemb
ly, the local chapter took the ac
tion on advice from the national
headquarters of Hadassah.
The formation of a committee
on community organization, and
a committee on tourism and pil
grimages to Israel, to advance pro
grams for the qelebration of the
10th anniversary of Israel by
Americans, was announced today
by Senator Herbert H. Lehman
and Dr, Israel Goldstein, general
chairman of the American Com
mittee for Israel’s 10th Anniver
sary Celebration. Rabbi Irving
Miller of New York has accepted
the chairmanship of the commit
tee on community organization,
and Lawrence G. Laskey of Bos
ton, the chairmanship of the com
mittee of tourism and pilgrimages.
The celebration will help to
guide local communities in the
establishment of representative
groups, under whose auspices ap
propriate observances of the 10th
anniversary will take place in
1958 in the period of April to
December.
The Winter term curriculum in
cludes ten new courses offering
a variety of subjects in the fields
of Bible, history, literature, mu
sic, philosophy and religion. Spec
ial two-hour courses are given in
Hebrew. The Hebrew instructors
are Rabbi Joseph Cohen, Irving
Fried and Joseph Margolis.
In the first hour, which is from
NEW YORK, (JTA) — The
United Jewish Appeal on Decemb
er 15 concluded its two-day
twentieth annual national confer
ence here with a call to American
Jewry to raise a special $100,000,
000 Rescue Fund over and above
the regular UJA campaign for
1958, which requires $102,031,000,
Morris W Bernstein of Syracuse,
N. Y., well-known philanthropist
and business leader, was elected
general chairman succeeding Wil
liam Rosenwald who served in
this position during the last three
years.
The decision to conduct a res
cue fund campaign in addition to
the regular drive was adopted by
more than 1,300 delegates from
all parts of the country who at
tended the conference. Some of the
delegates brought forward checks
from their communities totalling
several million dollars. Thirty-
8:10 to 9 p.m., the following
courses are offered: “Adjustments
in Family Life” taught by Stan
ley Bass, will be a discussion of
the challenges that are a part of
married life and family relations.
Rabbi Harry H. Epstein will
teach the course “In Time and
Eternity” — A Jewish Reader,”
which will deal with selected
three communities whose 1957
campaigns topped all previous re
cords were presented with special
awards. Mr. Rosenwald was pre
sented with a silver antique men-
orah for his outstanding leader
ship of the UJA since its found
ing and his major role as general
chairman for the last three years.
The vote for a 1958 rescue fund
came after the delegates heard
Moshe Sharett, former Prime Min
ister of Israel, sum up Israel’s ac
complishments and problems on
the eve of it’s 10th anniversary,
and heard Edward M. M. Warburg,
UJA honorary chairman, outline
the humanitarian tasks which the
member agencies of the UJA are
facing for the coming year.
Mr. Rosenwald reported to the
conference that the UJA raised
$85,000,000 during 1957, of which
$55,000,000 represents proceeds
readings in post-biblical sources
revealing the Jewish religious
quest for the meaning of life,
“Psychiatry and Religion” by
Rabbi Sydney K. Mossman is an
interpretation of the inter-rela
tions between psychiatry and re
ligion and the values each has for
the other. “The Wisdom Books of
The Bible” will be handled by
Continued on Page 8
from the regular campaign con
ducted in communities through
out the country, and $30,000,000
came from the emergency rescue
drive He emphasized that more
than 570,000 men, women and
children in Israel and in a score
of other countries benefited from
the UJA funds.
Mr. Sharett, introduced in a
stirring speech by Israel Ambas
sador Abba Eban, received a
warm ovation from the delegates.
He warned that the sharpness of
the East-West conflict throughout
the world had increased in re
cent months and served to compli
cate the Middle East issues still
further. The former Israeli Pre
mier denounced the Soviet Gov
ernment for its Middle East pol
icy declaring: “The Soviet Gov
ernment by adopting a policy of
implacable hostility to Israel has
assumed a very grave responsi
bility for retarding peace in the
Middle East.”
That the capital of a great na
tion should become a constant
source of the “most systematic
and blatant mendacity,” he added,
“is a most depressing and deeply
disturbing phenomenon. It is a
revolting degradation of interna
tional relations.” Mr. Sharett was
also critical of the West, asac/i-
ing that its groping “toward dead
ghosts of appeasement” could be
sensed. In an apparent reference
to Britain, he added that “some
governments are unable to learh
a lesson from their own past ex
periences.”
He warned the West against
Continued on Page 8
Atlanta Institute of Jewish Studies
Lists New Courses for Winter Term
Harry Golden Reveals Secret of His Carolina Israelite
Golden as Historian
by BERNARD G. RICHARDS
(From Ft. Worth Texas Jewish Post)
Here is Golden as Historian —
On Sept. 29 the Sunday Review
of the Day-Morning Journal car
ried a piece by Harry L. Golden
which allegedly told the “story
Behind the Brandeis Appoint
ment” but which actually was an
astonishing effusion and made a
painful impression on many dis
cerning readers. I was out of town
when this article appeared. When
I returned it seemed too late to
catch up with this grotesque yarn,
but I received several inquiries
from persons who were still dis
turbed by the matter and who re
membered my knowledge of at
least some parts of this history.
I was then urged to comment on
Golden’s bald assertions.
So even at the risk of marring
Mr. Golden’s studied attempts to
become widely known as a unique
and eccentric character, I must
point out that his inside informa
tion is quite outside of the realm
of truth.
What actually seemed to have
happened is that Mr. Golden car
ried his humorous observations,
whimsicalities and fantasies
which fill his nondescript paper,
The Carolina Israelite, into the
realm of history. Here his liter
ary excursions are quite out of
place. Mr. Golden sets out to give
his account of the appointment
of Mr. Louis D. Brandeis to the
Supreme Court of the United
States by first telling how Jose
phus Daniels, Secretary of the
Navy, and close friend of the
great attorney and Zionist lead
er, helped the Jews at the out
break of World War I. Mr, Gold
en says:
“A few thousand Jews had
escaped with their lives to Alex
andria and they needed food and
medicine desperately. The war
was on—we had the supplies, but
where was the ship that would
carry them across the Atlantic and
deep into the Mediterranean? Mr.
Daniels went up to the Brooklyn
Navy Yard and put a single bag of
coal on each of two American
ships to keep their official status
as ‘colliers’ and sent them off to
Alexandria with food, medical
supplies and matzos for Passover.
Mr. Daniels told me that Rabbi
Stephen S. Wise was the one who
handled the entire project with
him from beginning to end; and
with a twinkle in his eye he also
told me that several leading Jews
in the Government had advised
him against it.”
The facts are that in March
1915 the American collier Vulcan
left Philadelphia for Jaffa with
900 tons of food and medicines
for distribution to the famished
people of Palestine. Of course
Secretary Daniels was instrument
al in executing the project, but
he did not have to go to Brook
lyn to carry coal. In fact, all the
details were worked out by an
Assistant Secretary of the Navy
who was later to become better
known as Franklin Delano Roose
velt. The undertaking was spon
sored and financed by the Pro
visional Executive Committee for
General Zionist Affairs, then
headed by Mr. Brandeis and the
American Jewish Relief Commit
tee. The group of workers took in
not only Dr. Wise, but a whole
Continued on Page 6
Harry Golden’s Reply to
Bernard C. Richards
The accompanying criticism of
Mr. Golden has appeared in sev
eral of the English-Jewish news
papers throughout the nation —
though not in The Southern Is
raelite before now. It is approp
riate then that Mr. Golden’s re
ply should also appear in an
EnglLsh-Jewish newspaper and
we are pleased he choose our
columns for this purpose.
It is interesting at long last to
have H.G.’s explanation of his in
imitable publication, a revelation
of greater importance than the
substance of his reply to Rich
ards. He terms his publication a
“Yiddish press, translated Into
English.” Certainly the Carolina
Israelite (no relation to The
Southern Israelite) is not a news
paper, though printed on news
print and tabloid in size. It is
primarily a journal of opinion—
Harry Golden’s opinions — and
is quite unique, reminiscent of
the old days of personal journal
ism when an editor for lack of
wire service, syndicates, had to
write his entire publication, in
cluding the news.
H.G. however does not yield
space to any news whatsover
and the Carolina communities
where he circulates mostly and
the other readers throughout the
country must look to other sourc
es for word of what is happening
of interest to the Jewish scene.
Not having to be concerned either
with the assembly of such local
or regonal events as bar mitzvahs,
conventions, conferences, wed
dings, obits, he also has more
Continued on Page 6
The venerable Bernard G. Rich
ards is one of our most gifted
journalists with a long and hon
orable life of service to American
Jewry, and Yiddishkeit, and it is
precisely because of these virtues
that I feel at ease when I take
issue with him on his “reply” to
one of my recent articles.
First Mr. Richards disputes the
sequence of events I outlined with
respect to the voyage of the col
lier “Vulcan” with food, medicine
and other supplies to the famish
ed Jews of Palestine. He says that
“ ... Mr. Daniels (Secretary of
Navy Josephus Daniels) was in
strumental in executing the pro
ject but he did not have to go
to Brooklyn to carry coal. In fact
all the details were worked out
by an assistant Secretary of the
Navy who was later to become
known as Franklin Delano Roose
velt.” Very dramatic, but the at
tempt to “water down” Mr. Dan
iel’s role in this act of humani-
tarianism, is not only contrary to
the facts but (it) does a gross in
justice to one of the most noble
Christian Zionists and philo-Se-
mites this country has ever pro
duced.
I may say that the “history” I
discussed in the article Mr .Rich
ards disputes was based on a very
rare privilege that has been ac
corded to me — a perusal of the
private and personal papers of the
late Secretary of the Navy. But
first it should be clearly under
stood that Mr. Daniels loved
Franklin D. Roosevelt like a fa-
their loves a son. So much so
that on the five, six, or ten oc
casions when Mr. Roosevelt un
dercut his superior and when he
agreed with some of the criticism
leveled against Mr. Daniels, the
old Methodist Sunday School
teacher waited for his Assistant
to come on back home so he
could take him in his arms in
fond embrace. Mr. Daniels went
so far out of his way to heap
praise and honor upon Mr. Roose
velt that he would have been ov
erjoyed to have mentioned the
name of Roosevelt in connection
with the “Vulcan” project if in
deed there had been any basis for
such connection. Mr. Daniels re
corded that he had received a
call from the editor, Mr. Herman
Bernstein asking for aid in get
ting food for the starving men and
women in the Near East. The en
tire project — the preliminaries
that is, was initiated by a corres
pondence between Mr. Daniels and
Mr. Bernstein. I do not question
of course that part played in the
matter by the other Zionists men
tioned by Mr. Richards, but after
the first letter from Mr. Bernstein,
Mr. Daniels invited an expression
from Rabbi Stephen S. Wise. Mr.
Daniels “did indeed” put a bag
of coal on the “Vulcan” to main
tain its official status of “collier”
Continued on Page 6