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XXXIII
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA j
OCT 7 '58
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The Southern Isrr
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry — Esta*
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ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1958
NO. 40
Mass. Atty. Gen. Fingold Dies
"‘Tide of Anti-Semitism”
Campaigning for Governorship
Unwarranted in South
By ARTHUR LEVIN
BROOKLINE, Mass.—Attorney
General George Fingold of Mas
sachusetts died recently at 49.
Mr. Fingold was Republican can
didate for governor of Massa
chusetts.
Had he been elected in No
vember he would have become
the first Jewish governor of
Massachusetts.
He was vice president of the
National Association of Attor
neys General of the United
States.
“The dignity of man was a
venerated ideal in George Fin-
gold’s heart,” said Rabbi Charles
Weinberg.
“He held sacred the rights of
every human being, regardless
of their station in life, race,
color or creed,” he continued,
adding, “George Fingold met the
challenges of life and achieved
greatness because he had con
fidence in the validity of his
dreams and projects. He had
courage and initiative. He knew
clearly what he wanted to do
and went right to it. And above
all, he felt the hand of God
guiding him and so he had
faith.”
President Eisenhower voiced
regret over Mr. Fingold’s death.
President and Mrs. Eisenhower
extended ,their sympathy to the
Fingold family.
The Boston Jewish Advocate
editorialized: Attorney General
George Fingold was in the prime
of life and on the eve of possibly
realizing his great ambition to
become the Governor of the
Commonwealth.
He retained the extraordinary
hold upon the affections and
trust of his fellow-citizens, who
elected him three times as the
top law officer of Massachusetts.
One of New England’s rising
political leaders, he was accord
ed the Republican nomination
for Governor, the first time in
the State’s history that a person
of the Jewish faith was granted
such an extraordinary distinc
tion.
Massachusetts and the nation
lost a creative leader in the per
son of George Fingold. His life
was a tribute to Judaism and a
credit to Americanism. He per
sonified the old American tradi
tion that the highest political
offices in the country are open
to men of energy, ability and
leadership, without regard to
race, creed or inherited wealth.
That loyalty to a minority re
ligion is no detriment to carry
ing on a life of elective public
UNITED NATIONS, (AJP) —
Dr. Max Beer, representing a
leading Swiss paper here and a
veteran UN correspondent, aged
72, has returned a West German
decoration received on UN day
last year because of an incident
in which a German Consular
official stationed in New York
had reportedly called him “a
dirty Jew.” According to a reli
able source, Dr. Beer had been
informed that the German Con
sul, Dr. Hans von Saucken, had
employed the slanderous term in
conversation with other people.
Enraged and receiving no sat
isfaction from other Bonn offi
cials here in New York, Dr. Beer
service is convincingly illustrat
ed in the career of Mr. Fingold.
His religion was the essence of
his personality. At no time dur
ing the rough and tumble of po
litical campaigning did he cast
aside his faith in order to gain
even a momentary advantage.
The abounding respect and
affection that the people of this
State had for Mr. Fingold were
revealed in the gloom and sad
ness that seemed to overspread
the Commonweath. The thou
sands who came to view his re
mains and attend the funeral,
which attracted all elements of
our citizenship, had a profound
appreciation for the man.
Rabbi Charles Weinberg, in his
moving eulogy, pointed out that
Mr. Fingold was “reared in a
traditional Jewish home and
learned early the great attri
butes of humility and trust.
“He held sacred the rights of
every human being regardless
of their station in life, race, color
or creed.
“He long ago recognized that
the state was a vehicle through
which the Godly attributes of
justice and mercy, righteousness
and truth must be served . . .
His humanity, morality and
WASHINGTON (WNS) —
America’s leading racist and
anti-Semite, Gerald L. K. Smith,
is utilizing an advertisement by
the so-called National Committee
for Religious Freedom in Israel as
a means of disseminating anti-
Jewish and anti-Israel propa
ganda throughout the country.
This became known when it
was discovered that Smith’s
anti-Semitic front, The Christian
Nationalist Crusade, was distri
buting a verbatim copy of the
paid advertisement recently in
serted in the New York Times by
the Orthodox extremists, includ
ing Neturei Karta elements, op
erating under the “religious free
dom” wing. The advertisement
contained a vile denunciation of
the Government of Israel for
permitting a mixed swimming
pool in Jerusalem, charged that
holy graves and sepulchres were
being desecrated, accused the
police of brutality and false ar
rests of rabbis and claimed that
religious freedom was being de
nied to Orthodox Jews in Israel.
In a foreword to the reprinted
cabled President Heuss and in
formed him of the incident. This
week an envoy of Pres. Heuss,
Prof Meyer Linderberg, arrived
in New York and immediately
contacted Dr. Beer, promising
that he will conduct a full in
quiry.
Dr. Beer, a former Correspond
ents Association President and
the only one in the UN press
corps who had covered the
League of Nations all through its
existence, is looked upon by his
colleagues here as an excellent
newspaperman who has not miss
ed a single session of the United
Nations since 1945.
Recent articles indicate a good
deal of concern over an alleged
tide of anti-semitism being en
gendered in the South by the
school desegregation issue. In ex
treme form, this concern has led
to charges against the Anti-Defa
mation League of B’nai B’rith
that its support of civil rights is
“stirring up hostility to the
Jews.”
My own experience over a
period of ten years as Southeast
ern Director of the AD Lcompels
me to disagree strongly with
these alarums which are causing
needless and unwarranted fears
among Southern Jewry.
I seriously question the mo
tives of those elements who sin-
ethics were based upon the pro
found teachings of Judaism.
“T h e Fifth Commandment,
‘Honor thy father and thy moth
er’ took precedence over all. In
the busiest of days, he took
time out to visit with his father,
and these were frequent visits.
“Above all he felt the hand of
God guiding him and so he had
faith.”
advertisement Smith, who was
charged with pro-Nazi sedition
during the second world war,
observes that his propaganda
package will prove “quite re
vealing” to non-Jew. He glee
fully noted that the attack on
Israel by Jews themselves only
confirmed the saying that “oc
casionally the cat jumps out of
the bag.”
Copies of the advertisement
were forwarded to members of
both houses of Congress, clergy
men, editors and others in posi
tion of influence.
Yom Kippur Marked
In Iron Curtain;
Moscow Blasts Jews
LONDON, (JTA) — Jews in
countries behind the Iron Cur
tain observed Yom Kippur at
synagogue sevices, according to
reports reaching here from Mos
cow, Warsaw, Bucharest and
Budapest.
The Great Synagogue in Mos
cow was crowded on Yom Kip
pur eve with worshippers, in
cluding many young people.
Jewish members of a number of
foreign embassies, as well as the
staff of the Israel embassy at
tended the services. A number
of Jewish tourists from the
United States and Britain were
also seen during the Kol Nidri
prayer in the Moscow synagogue.
The Moscow radio, on the
other hand, chose Yom Kippur
eve to broadcast a bitter attack
on world Jewry by the Grand
Mufti of the Syrian region of
the United Arab Republic. The
broadcast, transmitted in Arabic
to Arab nations, said that “the
Jews are kindling evil among
nations.” It claimed that “the
Jews are pushing the followers
of Jesus into a terrible war”
and accused Israel of “stealing
the country from other people
whom she has turned into refu
gees."
gle out the ADL from among
every other national Jewish or
ganization which has taken ex
actly the same principled stand.
Nor do I understand the motiva
tion of the so-called “experts”
who do not similarly ascribe
“hostility to Protestants and
Catholics” as being stirred up by
the application of Christian pre
cepts to this important social
issue of our day. The fact is that
many studies indicate that the
causes of bigotry are unrelated
to what any individual or organ
ization may do or not do, but
rather stem from the psychologi
cal inadequacy of the bigot him
self.
S u p e r f i cial observation by
these “experts” leads them to in
terpret the great amount of
anti-semitic, pro-segregation lit
erature currently inundating the
South as being “proof” of the
so-called raising tide of anti
semitism. Closer study reveals,
however, that the vast majority
of this hate propaganda eman
ates from sources outside the
South—from New Jersey, Cali
fornia, Ohio, Missouri, Chicago,
New York, etc. Furthermore,
anyone familiar with the au
thors of these vicious pieces
would recognize at once that
they were in the business of
anti-semitic bigotry long before
the Supreme Court school deci
sion of 1954. Tension situations
are a natural breeding ground
for these vermin, so it is no sur
prise that they have seized upon
the school desegregation issue as
a new opportunity for the old
technique of heaping blame upon
the Jews for all the real and
fancied ills of the world.
No observer of the Southern
scene would discount the very
real threat to the Jewish com
munity of the South posed by the
comparatively few indigenous
bigots of the Kasper-Klan ilk,
through whom this anti-semitic
propaganda is being widely dis
tributed in this region. Bombed
Centers and Synagogues are
stark testiony to the effective
ness on warped minds of these
appeals to hatred and violence.
But the universal Southern re
vulsion to these acts, as express
ed in editorials, public state
ments, rewards, jail sentences
meted out by Southern juries, and
Dayan Leaves
Israeli Army
TEL AVIV, (WNS(—The an
nouncement that Maj. General
Moshe Dayan, former Chief of
Staff of the Israel Army of De
fense, will go into retirement on
November 1 at his own request
has set off a wave of speculation
whether Israel’s war hero in
tends to project himself into the
political scene as the political
parties are girding themselves
for the parliamentary elections
that are to take place next year.
The former Chief of Staff had
made political appearances which
came under factional criticism.
Recently Premier David Ben
Gurion was reported to have di
rected him to desist from such
appearances. Since relinquishing
command of the Army in Janu
ary, General Dayan has been a
student of humanities at the
Hebrew University.
the concerted action by police
departments to halt these de
pravations, bespeak eloquently
the true sentiments of the South.
Despite the efforts of these ex
tremist bigots to implant in the
minds of Southerners hatred of
the Negro and the Jew as an
inseparable entity, recent studies
show that the “take” among the
great majority of Southerners
has been practically nil. Accord
ing to a very recent study by
the American Psychological As
sociation, individuals who are
shown to be prejudiced against
Negroes are not coincidently
prejudiced against Jews. An an
alysis of the study does not sup
port the usually held notion of
a generalized factor of prejud
ice, but rather strongly suggests
the idea that prejudice against
Negroes derives from a different
set of attitudes than prejudice
against Jews, and these attitudes
are quite distinct and separate
in the minds of the tested in
dividuals.
In specific relation to the de
segregation issue, an independ
ent Chicago research firm con
ducted a poll among whites and
Negroes in both the North and
South to arrive at an accurate
view of the sectarian identifica
tion with desegregation. Uni
formly, both whites and Negroes,
North and South, considered
Jews as “least” involved in re
solving the desegregation prob
lem, as compared to Catholics
and Protestants. No matter what
Jews may think of their own
involvement, most white and
Negro Protestants and Catholics
apparently do not think of Jews
as being in the forefront of the
desegregation issue.
Perhaps the most revealing set
of recent statistics on the anti-
semitic “take” among Southern
ers was the results of the May
1958 Democratic Primary elec
tion in Alabama, in which John
Crommelin was a candidate for
Governor. Crommelin used radio,
television, and counties personal
speeches to convince the people
of Alabama that a “satanic plot
to mix the blood of White Chris
tian People of the South with
Negroes is directed and financed
by the Communist-Jewish con
spiracy.” Final election returns
left Crommelin a poor last in a
field of 14 candidates, with a
total vote of 2,245 out of 618,462
votes cast (about 0.3 of one per
cent). This devastating repudia
tion is its own obituary!
One of the best answers to the
efforts by extremists to tie anti
semitism to the desegregation
issue was given by a Southern
daily newspaper totally com
mitted to segregation, “The
Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser.”
In an editorial entitled “The
Haters Among Us” on April 9,
1958, there were included some
very pertinent quotes from the
“States Rights Advocate,” the
official organ of the Montgomery
County Citizens Council:
“The chief danger comes from
zealots who happen to be op
posed to integration, hence their
affinity for the Councils, but
who also are consumed with as
sorted hatreds, bitterness, and
warped ideas on patriotism,
economics, or whatever has hap
pened to stick foremost in their
twisted minds . . .
“Reference is made specifically
to anti-Jewish agitators. There
always have been in America a
(Continued on Page 5)
UN Correspondent Returns German
Decoration; Charges Insult by Official
Anti-Semite Cites Neturei
Karta Line Against Israel