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The Southern Isr
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry — Established 1925
jjNIVt htSITY Of QBORGIA
SEP 2 7’58
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XXXIII
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1958
NO. 39
GRATTTUDE FOR THE BOUNTIES of nature is the theme of the Jew-
Wn i| dly ° f Su H k »°r S ’ °. r "Tabernacles, here being observed by Rabbi
Er”™" 1 «dMarcia Silver, of the staff of the Union of American
Hebrew Congregations. Ordained in Biblical days as a period of thanks-
11,6 /“H harvest ’ Sukko5 « time of rejoicing in homes and
synagogues and of constructing temporary booths like those occupied
ELu • i! tM j When th t y , wandered through the desert. Rabbi Herman
J£ hiUI f tW ° * ym ! 5<>ls of the Sukko * season: the esrog, a lemon-like
t,T| h ° Se fra fi. r * D « « compared to spiritual sweetness, and the palm-
like Iulav, sample of the beauty of nature. Sukkos, which begins at sun-
Set, Sunday, September 28, is celebrated for eight days by the Reform
Jews, and for nine by the mbre traditionalist.
Israel Govt. Defends Sale
Of Chemical Plant as Lure
Fear Tide of Anti-Semitism
Over School Issue in South
JERUSALEM, (JTA)—The Is
rael Government today defended
its decision to sell a nationalized
chemical and fertilizer producing
plant to private American inter
ests as every party in the Op
position took the floor in a spe
cial Parliamentary session to at
tack the proposal.
Called at the bidding of the
Opposition, which mustered
more than the one-fourth of the
Knesset membership behind a
petition demanding a special
session, today’s meeting was
scheduled to deal chiefly with
foreign policy—particularly the
favorable vote of the Israel dele
gation at the United Nations on
a joint Arab resolution at the
special General Assembly. Other
points on the agenda were criti
cism of the decision to sell the
plant and the report of an in
vestigating committee which
studied the recent Shattah Pri
son break.
The Mapam Party, whose Min
ister for Development, Mordecai
Bentov had first raised the hue
and cry over the plant’s sale,
was silent. Mr. Bentov, who last
week threatened disruption of the
coalition Cabinet over the issue,
had charged that the plant was
being sold against the interests
of the nation and for a price ap
proximately half its true worth.
Leading off in the attack on
the government, was Herut chief
Menahem Bcigin who insisted
that the Knesset should have
been consulted before the deci
sion was reached. It is the Par
liament’s prerogatives to decide
which nationalized enterprises
NEW YORK, (JTA)—Ameri
can Jewish organizations who
keep watch on developments in
the Soviet Union with regard to
Jews asserted this week that
there are indications that the
Moscow Government is sensitive
to exposures abroad of Soviet
anti-Semitism.
In an analysis issued here,
they expressed the hope that
“continued exposure may yet
bring amelioration” in Moscow’s
policy of suppressing Jewish
culture and communal life. The
analysis claims that there are in
dications that the Soviet Foreign
NORFOLK, Va., (WNS)—Jews
in the South as individuals are
divided over the school integra
tion issue, but as a group they
are said to be concerned over
the consequences of a commun
al stand on integration.
The general pattern of con
cern is that a Jewish group stand
during the current tension may
lead to violent hostility and re
sumption of synagogue bomb
ings. The extent of Jewish in
terest in the issue was mix*rored
in the fact that rabbis through
out the South made the segrega
tion theme the subject of their
Rosh Hashonah sermons, urging
compassion for Negroes and so
cial justice by Jews as individ
uals. Many of the rabbis brand
ed segregation as immoral.
While the South was seething
over the Supreme Court ruling,
the anti-Semites were reported
fishing in the muddied waters.
An anti-S e m i t i c chord was
struck in Arlington, Va., by Wil
liam Burdette Jr., of the Fed
eral Employees Protective Asso
ciation, when he injected the
Jewish issue into the school
crisis. In Newport News, there
emerged a racist hate sheet, call
ed “The Virginian,” reminiscent
of the sheets put out by the
notorious racist Gerald L. K.
Smith. Thousands of copies of
“The Virginian” were distributed
door-to-door in Norfolk and
throughout the state, with the
segregationist “Defenders of
State Sovereignty and Individ-
Office has established a special
“counter propaganda” bureau on
the Jewish question.
The functions of the bureau
are: 1. To persuade public opin
ion abroad that there exist Jew
ish communal and cultural ac
tivities in the USSR and 2. To
persuade Soviet Jews that their
“true motherland” is the USSR,
and that life in Israel is “a hell
on earth,” the analysis says. The
bureau is believed to be feeding
overseas Communist publications
dispatches from Moscow report
ing in detail Yiddish concerts.
It also disseminates articles and
broadcasts on Birobidjan.
ual Liberties” helping in the
distribution of anti-Semitic ma
terial.
Distribution of the anti-Semi
tic literature has alerted the
Norfolk police to maintain care
ful survelliance over the Jewish
community.
In another development, a
leading daily, the Richmond
News Leader, carried a violent
editorial attack on the Anti-
Defamation League of B’nai B’
rith, charging that the organiza
tion’s support of Negro rghts was
“stirring up hostility to Jews.”
The editorial said it was “ap
parent that something is stirring
up hostility to the Jews, and it
may be that Jews will be ask
ing themselves if that something
is not their own Anti-Defama
tion League. By deliberately in
volving itself in the controversy
over school segregation,” the
editorial contended, “this branch
of B’nai B’rith is identifying all
Jewry with the advocacy of
compulsory integration.”
Declaring that by “diving
gratuitously into these muddy
waters” B’nai B’rith “has to ex
pect to get wet,” the editorial
said “relations between Jews
and Gentiles were excellent in
the South before the ADL be
gan setting up regional offices,
as in Richmond, and stirring up
clouds of prejudice and mis
understanding.’ The newspaper
noted that the ADL provided
pro-integration 1 i t e r a t ure to
Negroes and then indulged in the
the Soviet Government decided
to adopt a new method: it sent
12 Jewish “tourists” to Israel,
chosen from among residents of
large Jewish population centers
(Moscow, Lenigrad, Kiev, Odes
sa, Minsk) whose evident assign
ment was to bear “eye witness”
testimony on the bad climate
and “repressive” government in
Israel. Articles by some of these
“tourists” have already appeared
in the Soviet press.
following syllogism: “It requires
no great stretch of the imagina
tion to hear embattled whites
asking resentfully what segraga-
asking resentfully what segrega
tion at Venabke School has to do
with defamation of the Jews.
Such inquiries, once bruited,
about, will be seized upon by the
ADL as evidence of anti-Semitic
feeling. And having thus stirred
up defamation of the Jews, ADL
can lustily combat defamation
of the Jews. But where did it
come from?”
In Britain, where the eruption
of anti-Negro riots is believed
linked to the activities of Os
wald Mosley’s Union Movement
and the League of Empire Loyal
ists, both fascist and anti-Semi
tic bodies, Jewish leadership re
acted to the development with
sharp denunciation of the racists.
In a statement expressing “ab
horrence” over the recent race
riots, the Board of Deputies of
British Jews noted that “the long
and bitter experience of racial
and religious hostility suffered
by the Jews as a minority group
is convincing proof of the truth
that no minority is safe where
the spirit of hatred prevails.”
The Board said it was “profound
ly distrubed by the excesses”
and that it shared “the feeling of
abhorrence at this manisfestation
of prejudice and intolerance
fomented only too often by the
propaganda of extremist groups
to exploit such tensions for poli
tical and ulterior ends.”
The anti-Negro riots also came
under sharp condemnation of R.
N. Carvalho, president of the
Anglo-Jewish Association. Mr.
Carvalho linked the anti-Negro
riots with anti-Jewish and anti
foreigner propaganda by the
fascist Union Movement. He said
the fascists were “campaigning
to free England from alien
groups,” lumping together Neg
roes, Cypriotes, Jews and Ameri
cans, and that “it would be the
utmost foolishness not to realize
that anti-racial feeling is invis
ible.” At the same time he
stressed that Jews were “mem
bers of a religious minority who
throughout its long history has
known what it is to be attacked
by hooligans and fanatics.”
Mrs. Marcus to Join. UJA
Women’s Overseas Mission
(Continued on Page 8)
Soviet Said Sensitive to Criticism
On It's Anti-Jewish Policy
Eban Hails Contributions of U. S.
Jewry at Touro Synagogue Rite
NEWPORT, R. I., (JTA)—Both
the United States and Israel are
pledged to help the Middle East
ern states maintain their inde
pendence, Ambassador Abba
Eban of Israel declared here
September 21 at a ceremony at
Touro Synagogue, oldest Jewish
house of worship standing in the
United States.
The ceremony was the annual
re-reading of a letter from Presi
dent George Washington to the
congregation pledging that the
United States Government “gives
to bigotry no sanction, to perscu-
tion no assistance.” At yester
day’s ceremony, Howard Pyle,
Presidential assistant brought a
message from President Eisen
hower.
In his address, Ambassador
Eban paid tribute to the contri
butions of the United States to
Israel, noting that the U.S. was
“in the forefront of the many
friendly governments which are
now reinforcing Israel in her
industry, agriculture, scientific
ann cultural progress, political
and diplomatic standing and
physical security.” He also hail
ed the contributions of Ameri
can Jewry to the development
of the United States and the re
building of Israel.
After the ceremony, it wa3 an
nounced that the Society of the
Friends of Touro Synagogue had
raised $150,000 toward the cost
of renovating the 200-year-old
synagogue.
The latter, according to the
analysis, have several purposes:
1. To justify the policy of en
forced assimilation by suggesting
that the Jews who wish to pur
sue Jewish culture have settled
in Birobidjan, and that all others
have chosen assimilation volun
tarily; and 2. Primarily to offset
the adverse effect overseas of
Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev’s
statement in Le Figaro that the
Jews failed in Birobidjan be
cause they are “an unproductive
people,” and to give substance
to Moscow Radio’s allegation
that the quotations in Le Figaro
were fabrications.”
Parallel propaganda within the
USSR—especially in the provin
cial press and in the mass cir
culation evening papers in the
central cities—seeks to discour
age pro-Israel sympathy among
Soviet Jews by impugning con
ditions of life in Israel, the an
alysis establishes. This propaga-
da apparently has failed, and
The Women’s Division of the
Atlanta Jewish Welfare Fund
this week announced that Mrs.
Harold E. Marcus, one of the
General Chairmen of the Wom
en’s Division, has been chosen
as a member of the 1958 Over
seas Survey Mission of the Na
tional Women’s Division of the
United Jewish Appeal.
Mrs. Marcus is well known in
the community for her participa
tion in many civic activities. She
will join 16 other women from
the East, middle West and the
West Coast who will undertake
a survey of the operations of the
activities of the agencies of the
United Jewish Appeal engaged
in relief and rehabilitation and
rescue work. The women will
visit a number of countries in
Europe where the United Jew
ish Appeal agencies operate pro
grams of relief. First stop of the
mission will be in Geneva, Swit
zerland, where the European
headquarters of the JDC is now
located. The women will make a
more extended visit to Israel
where they will study at first
hand the programs for resettle
ment and rehabilitation support
ed by the United Jewish Appeal,
which derives its funds from
campaigns of the Welfare Fund.
Mrs. Marcus is a member of
the board and the executive com
mittee of the National Women’s
Committee of Brandeis Univer
sity. She is a past president of
the Atlanta Section, Council of
Jewish Women. She is a mem
ber of the Board of the Atlanta
Jewish Welfare Fund. She is a
member of the Board of the Jew
ish Children’s Service, Hadassah,
the Bureau of Jewish Education,
the Jewish Family and Chil
dren’s Bureau and of the At
lanta Jewish Community Coun
cil.
This will be Mrs. Marcus’ first
visit to Israel. A bon voyage
luncheon was tendered in honor
of Mrs. Marcus on Thursday,
Sept. 25, at the Mayfair Club,