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The Southern Is
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry -
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
OCT 2 3 *58
LIBRARIES
XXXIII
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1958
NO. 4J
Five Indicted for Bombing, Held Without Bond
By ADOLPH ROSENBERG
An incredulous Jewish com- bombing,
munity, still reeling from the ef
fects of the bombing of the Re
form Synagogue in Atlanta, this
week took
time to reflect on
the swiftly developing reaction.
At the Temple, scene of the
estimated $200,000 damage dur
ing the early morning hours of
October 12, the debris had been
cleared away, temporary wood
en props shoring up dangerous
beams and several blasted walls
removed.
Temporarily boarding up the
damaged windows of the Sanct
uary and the blasted outer wall
in the educational part of the
facilities, the Congregation trans
ferred its administrative head
quarters to the nearby Jewish
Community Center and held its
first prayer services the evening
of Friday, Oct. 17. The Sanct
uary was packed with members,
many bringing young children to
the historic service, assembled to
reaffirm their faith and to hear
the comments of their spiritual
leader, Rabbi Jacob Rothschild.
Temple Religious School classes
were held last weekend at the
Center on Saturday and Sunday,
but officials probably will con
tinue the classes for the balance
of the year at the E. Rivers
School.
An avalanche of offers had been
made of help for the Temple in
the way of actual money gifts
and the offers of other facilities
by churches and Synagogues in
the community.
Temple officials had discour
aged gifts for the rebuilding of
the damage since the loss was
covered by insurance, but these
gifts in small and large suhis
had come forward insistently
and spontaneously.
At Emory University, students
voluntarily began a collection of
funds.
Letters to the Temple had
brought checks and cash, big
and small. One Atlantan was
stopped on the street by a
policeman who wanted to make
a gift of a few dollars as a token
of his sympathy.
A brick firm, Thrower the
Brick Man, which had furnish
ed the original Virginia red brick
when the Temple was construct
ed about thirty years ago, in
sisted on knowing how many
brick would be needed for the
restoration of the damaged part.
He declared he would order the
amount of brick needed at no
cost to the Congregation.
The Southern Israelite, which
had used a number of pictures
in its special section on the
bombing last week, contacted
the photographers about their
charges. Both Bill Young and
Dwight Ross, Jr., who had made
the photographs, v o 1 u n tarily
asked that their checks, totalling
about $35, go instead to the
Temple.
Many members of the Jewish
community, not all affiliated
with the Temple, were surprised
on October 12 and the days
which followed by impromptu
visits and phone calls from
neighbors wishing to express
shock and sympathy over the
Meanwhile Atlanta police last
week arrested five men in con
nection with the bombing. Teams
of Atlanta police and FBI agents
raided a number of homes and
seized quantities of anti-Jewish
literature, swastikas and corre
spondence. Previously two let
ters, one of them threatening At
lanta Jews with “a terrifying
experience,” were confiscated in
raids on homes of two of the
five suspects.
By week’s end the five men
had been indicted by the Fulton
Grand Jury on charges of bomb
ing the Temple.
FBI agents in Washington
questioned a wealthy Balitmore
man and an associate who is a
former Naval commander now
residing in Arlington, Va. They
were interrogated in the search
for the “fat cat,” the rich bene
factor mentioned in one of the
letters seized by Atlanta police.
The two men admitted anti-
Semitic activities, it was report
ed, but denied knowledge of the
Atlanta bombing. The two men
were not arrested.
The Atlanta newspapers were
filled with stories on the bomb
ings and the subsequent develop
ments. Editorial after editorial
column after column, condemned
the outrage, pointing out in high
light that when officials count
enance lawlessness in one direc
tion they invite disrespect for
law in other directions as well.
One reporter unearthed the
fact that in Georgia anyone can
purchase dynamite and other ex
plosives without restraint of
registration. The Georgia law re
quiring such details was repeal
ed several years ago.
The Atlanta newspapers, which
had themselves come forward
among the first with an offer of
$5,000 in reward money and
which had been threatened with
bombings, began a series of arti
cles on hate organizations. It
spelled out in detail how hate
groups capitlize on various ten
sions and capitalize on public
ignorance and gullibility. The re
ward total reached close to
$35,000.
Bodily threats were received
by at least one of the Grand
Jury members which indicted
the group, threatening “to kill
all of you—of—who indicted
these innocent men. This is the
Confederate underground.”
ADL headquarters in Atlanta
had given full cooperation with
police and newspaperman in
furnishing background to bias
groups and their modus operandi.
Art Levin, the Southeastern
ADL director, told a reporter,
“There is no tide of anti-Semi
tism engulfing the South . . .
The people doing it now were
in the business long before the
segregation issue arose. They
were peddling the same stuff
they did before the Supreme
Court decision.”
He added that despite efforts
to latch onto the segregation
movement, the number of peo
ple involved goes virtually no
further than the number of peo
ple leading the hate organiza
tions. They are not, as far as
the ADL can learn, picking up
converts.”
On Wednesday of this week,
the five indicted men at a bond
hearing were ordered held for
a speedy trial without bail.
Bombing Spurs Bias Groups
Into Widely Scattered Activities
Statement on Bombing
by ABE GOLDSTEIN
CHAIRMAN, SOUTHEASTERN REGIONAL ADL BOARD
After the initial shock and outrage over the vicious and wanton
bombing of the Temple in Atlanta, we are beginning to feel a sense
of deep gratification for the many expressions of sympathy, aid
and indignation on the part of all segments of the Atlanta and
other Southern communities.
It is again apparent that Southerners repudiate this vicious
anti semitism in the strongest possible terms. The destruction of a
House of Worship is not, and has never been, Southern tradition.
It is evident that those responsible for this crime do not reflect
the attitude of law-abiding Southerners.
In the name of the Southeastern Regional Board of the Anti-
Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, I wish to commend the President
of the United States for his immediate and forthright directive to
the Federal Bureau of Investigation to lend every assistance to the
Atlanta Police Department in apprehending the culprits. I believe
that the entry of the FBI In cases of this kind will act as a deter
rent because they have inter-state jurisdiction.
I pi«« commend Mayor Hartsfield and the Atlanta Police De
partment with the highest praise for their speed and untiring
thoroughness in the conducting of the investigation.
Rabbi Speaks on Brotherhood
At First Post - Bombing Service
By LAURA McGREGOR
Atlanta Journal Church Editor
The rabbi of a bomb-shattered
Jewish temple spoke not of vio
lence and destruction in the first
service since the blast, but rath
er of the lesson of brotherhood
learned in a community and a
nation growing out of such an
act of violence.
In his Sabbath eve sermon
October 17 in the Temple Sanc
tuary, Rabbi Jacob M. Roths
child said, “In our city and other
places in the South, we have
been shocked into the realization
that we have allowed such cir
cumstances to come about.
“And we wonder who is to
blame?”
He said that the blame must
not only be put on those who
would not comply with the law,
but also on “good, decent people
who sat idly by . . . and failed
to speak and practice the ideals
of their religious faith.
“The curtain of fear has tied
the tongues and dried up the
souls of so many citizens of the
South,” Rabbi Rothschild said.
“But the shock was so great that
suddenly we were able to say
the things we should have said
long ago/’
He warned that it has become
clear that the land must be ruled
by law and not by people who
teach and preach violence. “To
day our Temple — tomorrow a
church. No one is safe in the
jungle of lawlessness,” he said.
Speaking to an estimated 1,000
worshippers, the rabbi said, “We
are now an aroused people. Out
of that blast has come a people
dedicated to righteousness.”
He praised the Atlanta Jew
ish community for its calmness
and for its firm stand on its re
ligious beliefs. He also praised
the citizens of Atlanta for their
“magnificent response.”
“Only here (Atlanta) was there
the feeling that not only was
The Temple marred, but that the
facade of every house of worship
in the city was blackened.”
Pointing to the Eternal Light,
suspended from the gold emblem
of the United States on the ceil
ing, Rabbi Rothschild said,
“There is the eternal light. It
speaks its message of assurance
and hope ... So must our hope
be eternal . . . nor can it be put
out by these threats.”
Looking about the synagogue,
Rabbi Rothschild said, “Tonight
our shattered building stands as
mute witness. But our answer
stands stronger than that blast.
With God’s help we promise we
will create an even stronger
house.
“We promise we shall rear up
from this rubble a city and a
land of which all are brothers.
And none shall make them
afraid.”
The service Friday was the
27th anniversary since The Tem
ple was dedicated.
NEW YORK, (JTA) — The
heady stimulus of the $200,000
dynamiting of a Reform syna
gogue in Atlanta last week em
boldened anti-religious fanatics
and psychopaths to indulge them
selves in lesser but related in
cidents in many parts of the
country.
The first fanatics response to
the Atlanta blast was the explo
sion of a bomb two days later in
a stairwell at the Anshe Emet
synagogue in Peoria, Ill. The
blast caused only slight damage
in the empty synagogue. It also
caused much surprise in the
community, where relations be
tween Jews and non-Jews have
always been good. Rabbi Joseph
Ginsberg said there had been
no warning or indication of any
kind that the synagogue had
been marked as a bombing tar
get.
Later in the week, a rock was
tossed through the window of
the Ahavath Achim synagogue
in Brooklyn and a large rock was
thrown through the window of
the Sh’arit Israel synagogue in
Minneapolis. In New York, po
lice twice searched the huge St.
Patrick’s Cathedral after calls
that bombs had been planted in
the sanctuary. Nothing was
found. Police of the city were
(Continued on Page 4)
Drew Pearson, crusading col
umnist, who will speak at the
Hadassah Donor dinner at 7 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 26, and brunch at
11 a.m. Monday, Oct. 27. (Story
on page 4).
Lady Fergusson to Visit
Atlanta for Israel Bonds
Lady Fergusson of Kilkerran,
a distinguished member of many
noble families in Scotland and
England, and a noted non-Jewish
leader of Israeli causes in Great
Britain, will visit Atlanta next
month, it was announced by Mrs.
Morris M. Glazer, Chairman of
the Women’s Division of the At
lanta Israel Bond Committee.
The great-niece of the world re
nowned Lord James Arthur Bal
four will be the guest of the
Women’s Division and will meet
with members and prospective
members of the Atlanta Chapter
of the National Sponsors of the
Israel Bond Organization at a
tea at the home of Mrs. Ben J.
Massell, 238 15th Street, N.E., at
3:00 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 4,
The Sponsors, a national honor
society of the Israel Bond move
ment, is comprised of women
who have performed outstanding
activity in behalf of the Bond
drive. A prerequisite for mem
bership is the purchase of a
minimum of $1000 in Israel
Bonds in a calendar year.
A highlight of the tea at the
Massell home will be the presen
tation by Lady Fergusson to
1958 Sponsors of Silver pins de
picting David and his harp, the
official insgnia of the society.
Lady Fergusson’s interest in
Israel is in her family’s tradition.
Her great uncle, Lord Balfour,
who as Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs, was the author
of the famed Balfour Declara
tion made in 1917 which urged
“the establishment in Palestine
of a national home for the Jew
ish people.” This statement was
the basis for Great Britain’s
official policy in the Middle East
which eventually resulted in the
establishment of Israel. She made
her most recent visit to Israel
earlier this year when she un
veiled a memorial to her mother
in the Balfour Forest.
Lady Fergusson’s mother was
the famous Blanche Dugdale
who wrote the official biography
of Lord Balfour and was an in
timate associate of the late Chaim
Weizman, Israel’s first president.
Two years after Mrs. Dugdale’s
death in 1948, Lady Fergusson
made her first trip to Isael. She
has stated that her own observa
tions there caused her to become
LADY FERGUSSON
increasingly active in pro-Israel
causes out of her own deep con
victions and not only to main
tain family tradition. She has
been particularly active in the
Youth Aliyah movement in Eng
land and Scotland and is the
Honorary President of the Glas
gow Branch.
A leader in many philanthrop
ic causes, Lady Fergusson is the
national vice president of the
United Kingdom "Save-The-
Children movement and the
Ayreshire Red Cross. Her hus
band, the grandson of the Earl
of Glasgow, is the eighth baronet
of Kilkerran and the Keeper of
the Records of Scotland; her
husband’s father, General Sir
Charles Fergusson, was the Gov
ernor General of New Zealand.
Lord and Lady Fergusson live
in Kilkerran, in a castle which
has belonged to Lord Fergusson’s
family since the fourteenth cen
tury. They have four children,
two sons and two daughters, the
eldest of whom is twenty-six.
Lady Fergusson’s Israel Bond
tour is carrying her from one
end of the United States and
Canada to the other. Directly
preceding her visit to Atlanta,
she will speak at two major
meetings in Connecticut, and
will leave here to go directly to
Philadelphia.