Newspaper Page Text
V
The Southern Isra**’!
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry
XXXIII
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 191
0^
*
NO. J
U.S. asked to ship Jewish Books
To Russia under Exchange Plan
WASHINGTON, (JTA) — The
Department of State this week
made known that it is consider
ing a Jewish Labor Committee
proposal to ship Hebrew and
Yiddish books and periodicals to
the Soviet Union under the East-
West cultural exchange program.
The Department indicated it
would consider the matter after
Frederick Merrill, chief of the
Department’s East-West cultural
exchange program, met with a
JLC delegation. The delegation
presented a view that the United
States had a “moral responsi-
biity.” to raise with the Soviet
Union the issue of liquidation of
Jewish cultural institutions, writ
er, artists, and other cultural
leaders.
It was suggested to the Depart
ment that Soviet Jewry be af
forded an opportunity to regain
contact with Jewish cultural in
stitutions outside Soviet borders.
Such contact, it was said, should
not be confined to exchange visits
but to a more broad area—the re-
introduction into the Soviet Jew
ish cultural mainstream of books
and periodicals in Yiddish and
Hebrew.
The LC delegation stressed the
importance of obtaining from
the Soviet authorities an account
ing of the fate of Jewish cul
tural personages whose disap
pearance has never been official
ly explained. A memorandum
and documentation were present
ed to Mr. Merrill demonstrating
that a vacuum exisits in Soviet
Jewish cultural areas as a result
of a ten year purge. Despite free
world protests, said the delega
tion, the “cultural genocide”
continues.
Charging that concern is not
only with past abuses, the dele
gation expressed concern with
present practices “at this mo
ment” in cultural discrimination
against Jews. “Jewish institutions,
press, publishing house, schools,
theaters are padlocked. Our gov
ernment should be cognizant of
the fact that there prevails with
in the Soviet Union today an at
mosphere of suppression and re
pression against Soviet Jewry,”
the delegation said.
The memorandum presented
asked that the Secretary of State
carry out negotiations under the
cultural exchanges with Russia
toward reviving “a culture that
has been left for dead in the
wake of purges conducted by the
Soviets against their own Jewish
cultural personalities.” Members
of the delegation included Jacob
T. Zukerman, president of the
Workmen’s Circle; Jacob Pat,
executive secretary of the Jewish
Labor Committee, Dr. Israel
Knox, American Jewish educa
tor, and Walter J. Kirschenbaum,
LC director of public relations.
Lincoln Hate Dies
During Address
At Herzl Institute
NEW YORK, (JTA) — Death
interrupted a lecture last week
on “Israel in the Concert of Na
tions” at the Theodor Herzl In
stitute by Lincoln B. Hale, former
director of the U.S. Operations
Mission to Israel.
Hale collapsed during his talk.
A police emergency squad failed
in efforts to revive him and he
was pronounced dead by an am
bulance doctor. Mrs. Hale, who
was in the audience of 400 per
sons, said her 58-year-old hus
band had suffered a heart at
tack two years ago.
House Passes Humane Slaughter
Bill; Recognizes Shechitah Methods
WASHINGTON, (JTA)—The
House of Representatives last
week passed by voice vote a hu
mane slaughter bill including an
amendment recognizing the Jew
ish method of animal slaughter
as humane. The measure will go
to the Senate soon.
But Rep. Leonard Farbstein,
New York Democrat, speaking on
behalf of the Union of Orthodox
Rabbis, opposed both the bill and
the amendment. The amendment,
introduced by Rep. Victor L.
Anfuso, New York Democrat,
was described by Rep. Anfuso as
“acceptable to the vast majority
Nazi Doctor
Who Gassed
1,000 Freed
FRANKFURT, (JTA) — Hans-
Bodo Gorgasz, a former doctor
whose death sentence for the
murder of more than 1,000 per
sons, most of the Jews, was com
muted to life imprisonment, was
released from prison this week.
Gorgasz was sentenced to die
11 years ago and the sentence
was commuted in 1940. He was
released as an act of clemency
by August Zinn, the Hesse Min
ister President. A spokesman for
Zinn said Gorgasz had demon
strated repentence.
As head of the infamous Had-
amar Sanatorium, where about
10,000 persons were put to death,
the Nazi murderer entertained
himself by watching through the
window the slow death by gas
of thousands.
Swiss Parliament In Stormy Session
Over Non-Admission of Jews
BERNE, Switzerland, (JTA)—
The “Ludwig Report,” an analy
sis of Swiss policy toward refu
gees between 1933 and 1945
which damns the Swiss Govern
ment for following a policy that
condemned thousands of Jews
fleeing from Nazism to return to
Germany and their eventual
death, was the subject this week
of a stormy session of the Swiss
Federal Council.
The report, ordered by the
Federal Council, charged that
through a complicated web of
“no entry” laws and collusion be
tween Nazi and Swiss police
officials between 10,000 and 12,
000 Jews were kept out of Swit
zerland during the Nazi regime.
Mathias Eggenberger, chairman
of the Federal Council commit
tee responsible for the report,
told his fellow deputie that while
Switzerland contributed materil-
ly to alleviating conditions of the
refugees during and after the
war, the actual refugee policy
Jewish Education Conference
Set for Atlanta Feb. 16-17
Plans have been announced for
the second annual conference on
Jewish education to be held Sun
day and Monday, Feb. 16 and 17,
under sponsorship of Jewish
schools and the Atlanta Bureau
of Jewish Education.
Because of the conference, all
Sunday Religious Schools in
Atlanta will be closed Sunday
morning so that teachers may at
tend the morning workshops.
The Conference will open on
Sunday morning February 16 at
10:00 o’clock with an assembly
of all teachers, which will be
followed by three workshop
sessions:
1. “Teaching of Prayers, Cus
toms and Ceremonies in the Pri
mary Grades,” with Rabbi Eman
uel Feldman as the discussion
leader.
2. “Teaching of History in the
Intermediate Grades” with Jos
eph Schuchatowitz as discussion
leader.
3. “An Approach to the Teach
ing of Bible in the Senior
Grades” with Rabbi Samuel
Langer as discussion leader.
All of these workshops will be
held at the Ahavath Achim Edu
cational Center, 250 Tenth St.,
N.E.
At 8 p.m. Sunday Feb. 16, there
will be two concurrent work
shops:
1. “The PTA—Its Organiza
tion and Function” with Irving
Fried as discussion leader. This
workshop is designed for PTA
officers, committees on PTA ac
tivities and PTA committee chair
men.
2. The School Committee—Its
Organization and Function, with
Mr. Samuel H. Rosenberg as the
discussion leader. This workshop
is designed for members of
school boards, rabbi, school di-
(Cont’d. on page 8)
from 1933 to 1945” casts a dismal
light on the Swiss right of asyl
um. When the refugees were run
ning for their lives we passed
them by,” he charged.
“Certainly tens of thousands of
hunted people could have been
saved without putting our coun
try into difficulty if we had con
ducted a general liberal policy,”
Eggenberger said. “If we admit
that individual refugees have
no juridical right to claim asyl
um, we must stress that the best
Swiss traditions and Christian
charity would have made a gen
erous attitude mandatory.”
He took the army high com
mand to task for its “restrictive”
refugee policy, hit the majority
of cantonal authorities because
they ‘did not play a heroic role,”
and noted that even the Swiss
population played a “safer” role.
He asserted that there was no
unequivocal answer to the ques
tion: did the Swiss authorities
concur in the creation of Ger
man “passports for Jews” as the
Ludwig Report suggested.
But Eggenberger refused to ac
cept any excuse that Switzerland
could not physically handle the
Jews she refused to admit. He
pointed out that at the end of
the war Denmark accepted 250,
000 refugees, Finland 500,000
and that by the end of the war
Switzerland had 115,000 in the
country. “It seems strange,” he
concluded, “that at a critical mo
ment Switzerland denied her
capabilities of accepting 10,000
to 12,000 racial refugees.”
of the Jewish community and its
religious leaders.”
Rep. Farbstein, on the House
floor, pointed out differing views
held by the Orthodox, Conserva
tive, and Reform factions of
Jewry. He voiced opposition to
the bill, II.R. 8308, “regardless of
any amendment.” He read a tele
gram from the Orthodox rabbini
cal body stating that “all rumors
of acquiescence in any amend
ment by any Orthodox organiza
tion are false and groundless.”
Rep. Farbstein told the House
Chicago 7o Build
Two New Centers
CHICAGO, (JTA)—The new
Jewish Community Center build
ings—one costing $1,504,500 and
the other to cost $250,000—are to
be built in Chicago from the pro
ceeds of a $7,350,000 United
Building Fund campaign launch
ed by the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Chicago.
The $1,504,500 Center will be
erected in the West Rogers Park
area. The smaller one will be
built on the far South Side. The
Federation’s $7,350,000 campaign
will proceed for additional build-
ngs, additions and remodeling of
seven of the 12 medical and
social welfare institutions affili
ated with Federation.
Ben Gurion Opposes
Transfer of Library
JERUSALEM, (JTA)—Premier
David David Ben Gurion has
raised objections to the transfer
of the Hebrew University Libra
ry from Mt. Scopus to the new
campus here.
Speaking to a Feb. 10 audi
ence of distinguished scholars
and political leaders gathered to
honor Prof. Martin Buber on the
occasion of his 80th birthday, the
Premier said that he would not
want to see more than the “most
essential, non-replaceable” of the
half-million volumes removed
from the Israeli enclave.
An agreement permitting re
moval of the books from the li
brary and equipment from Ha-
dassah Hospital on the height
was negotiated by Dr. Francisco
Urrutia, UN Secretary General
Dag Hammarskjold’s personal
representative, who recently
brought the Israelis and Jordan
ians together over Mt. Scopus.
Earlier, Speaker of the Knesset
Joseph Sprinzak hailed Prof.
Buber, world renowned teacher
and philosopher, as a spokesman
“not only of his people but of
all mankind.” After the event an
exhibition of Prof. Buber’s works
was opened at the Hebrew Uni
versity.
the Orthodox rabbis asked him
to emphasize that “from an his
torical viewpoint, the American
Jewish community has cause for
deep concern over such legisla
tion for experience demonstrates
that it leads in time to agitation
against shechitah itself. More
over, except shechitah, the meth
ods prescribed in the bill as hu
mane are highly dubious. This
demonstrates that further study
and research are necessary be
fore any legislation is proposed.”
He added that the U.S. Depart
ment of Agriculture was itself
opposed to the legislation in con
nection with an existing ques
tion about the definition of the
word “humane.”
The Anfuso amendment, in
corporated into the bill by a
voice vote before the bill was
passed by the House, referred
specifically to Jewish ritual
slaughtering. The amend menl
said that slaughtering is humane
if it is in accordance “with the
ritual requirements of the Jew
ish faith or any other religious
faith that prescribes a method
of slaughter whereby the animal
suffers loss of consciousness by
anemia of the brain caused by
the simultaneous and instantane
ous severance of the carotid
arteries with a sharp instrument.”
According to Rep. Anfuso,
major Jewish organizations and
Jewish religious leaders in this
country expressed concern that,
unless the Jewish method of re
ligious slaughtering was given
such recognition, it would inter
fere with the religious practices
of the Jewish community by
stopping the supply of Kosher;
meat. Rep. Anfuso said that 1
adoption of the bill without bis!
amendment would have opened!
the way "to an attack upon Jew
ish religious practices” and;
would have made Jewish religi-j
ous slaughtering impossible. i
The bill was introduced by*
Rep. W. R. Poage, Texas Demo-i
crat, a member of the Hoqse'
Agricuture Committee. Rep. Clare
Hoffman, Michigan Republican
who has a record of extreme ex
pressions on issues involving
Jews, spoke against the Anfuso
amendment.
SEEK EXTENSION
OF CLAIMS DEADLINE
BONN, (JTA)—The West Ger
man Social Democratic Party has
prepared a bill extending the
deadline for filing individual
claims for compensation under
the Federal Indemnification law.
The extension would move the
deadline ahead nine months from
March 31, 1958 to December 3^
1958. It is expected that all
parties in the Bundestag will
support the measure.
Weekend of Farewell Services to
Mark A. A. Synagogue Closing
Members of Ahavath Achim
Congregation and friends will
gather at their Washington Street
Synagogue at 3 p.m. Sunday,
Feb. 16, for a final service.
Marking the close of a week
end of farewell rites, members
will conduct their final service
in their old Synagogue.
At the conclusion, all ritual
objects will be removed and the
Synagogue will be closed as a
House of Worship—after 38 years
of “spiritual guidance,” accord
ing to the Congregation Bulletin.
Nine of the past presidents will
join with President Abe Goldstein
in bearing out the Ahavath
Achim Torahs.
Bearing the scrolls from the
old Synagogue for the last time
will be Hyman S. Jacobs, who
served in 1930; I. J. Paradie$,
1937-39 Thomas Makover, 1944-
45; Charles W. Bergman, 1946-41;
Simon Bressler, 1948; Max M.
Cuba, 1949-50; Dr. Nathan Blass,
1951-1952; Joe G. Zaglin, 1953-54
and Joseph Cuba, 1955-57. Mr.
Goldstein served in 1942-43 and
was drafted for a second time in
1957.
Until September, when the
new Ahavath Achim will be
completed, the Congregation has
arranged to hold adult Sabbath
and Holiday services at the Jew
ish Community Center.
All other synagogue activities
will continue at the Educational
Center on Tenth Street.