Newspaper Page Text
The .Southern Israelite
Vol. XXXVIII
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry — Established
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, AUGUST 10, 1903
33
Youth Parky Appeals to Thant,
Khrushchev on Soviet Jews
JERUSALEM (JTA)— Urgent
appeals to Soviet authorities to
grant Russian Jews spiritual and
cultural freedoms marked the
closing session today of the week-
long Second Conference of World
Jewish Youth. The 400 delegates
from 39 countries decided to sub
mit a request to United Nations
Secretary General U Thant and
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrush
chev to exercise their good of
fices on behalf of Soviet Jews.
A related resolution Included a
message of fraternity and en
couragement to Jewish youth In
the Soviet Union and an expres
sion of a conviction that the day
was not distant when Jewish
youth In all countries would be
permitted to Join the ranks of
organized Jewish youth.
The resolution expressed con
cern over the recrudescence of
“rabid anti-Semitism and neo-
Nazism” and called on Jewish
youth to react resolutely in de
fense of the Jewish people’s hon-
Urge Members
To Take Part in
Rights' March
WASHINGTON, D. C. (JTA)—
With the active support of Jew
ish organizations, Jews are ex
pected to swell the ranks of par
ticipants in the March on Wash
ington on August 28 in support
of civil rights legislation, it was
disclosed here.
Spokesmen for several nation
al Jewish organizations said that
they had issued appeals to mem
bers to join in the march, but
only one had a specific figure. A
spokesman for the American
Jewish Congress said that about
1,000 members were expected to
march as a unit in the August 28
action.
Dr. Joachim Prim, president of
the American Congress, is a
member of the general coordinat
ing committee for the march. The
New England region of the Con
gress announced it was raising
funds to sponsor a 40-passenger
bus from Boston to Washington
for the AJC march participants.
Other organizations known to
have arranged or encouraged
members to converge on the na
tion’s capital are the Union of
American Hebrew Congregations,
the Union of Orthodox Jewish
Congregations, the United Syna
gogue of America, the Synagogue
Council of America, the Jewish
War Veterans of America, and
local Jewish Community Coun
cils of many cities.
Steps were being taken in
Washington to muster facilties of
synagogues and Jewish centers as
assembly and meeting points, and
for lodging and feeding of march
ers.
The Interreligious Committee on
Race Relations of Washington, a
tri-faith group, urged all citizens
in the capital to “consider prayer
fully” the purpose of the march
as “a legitimate expression” of
support for the right of Negroes
to equal opportunity. The com
mittee urged churches and syna
gogues in the area to offer their
facilities as assembly and assis
tance centers for marchers. Rab
bi Lewis Weintraub, a co-chair
man of the committee, and Isaac
Franck, executive director of the
Jewish Community Council here,
and secretary of the committee,
| were among those signing the ap-
al
or. The delegates expressed pride
over the "courageous stand”
taken by Jewish youth against
physical attacks by anti-Semitic
organizations in “certain coun
tries.”
The delegates also urged Is
raeli students abroad to acquaint
themselves with local Jewish
communities and to participate in
their activities. The resolution
noted that the interest “currently
shown by Israel youth” in the
activities of Jewries of other
countries was “inadequate.” The
delegates said that it was of the
“utmost importance that every
effort be made to stimulate such
interest and give it more active
and tangible form.”
The only other resolution
—turn to page 5
llarriman Sees Te
On Egypt, Helpful
v 50 u °, A olicy
to Israel
WASHINGTON (JTA) — W.
Averell Harriman, Undersecre
tary of State, who negotiated the
tripower nuclear test ban agree
ment, told the 68th annual na
tional convention of the Jewish
War Veterans this week that he
saw hope that elimination of
sophisticated weapons in the
Middle East might ensue from
the test ban pact now pending
before Congress.
Mr. Harriman said, however,
that it would be against Israel’s
interests for the United States
to diminish its support of the
United Arab Republic, because
such support gave America “in
fluence” with President Nasser’s
regime. He declared that he
thought “one of the things that
would come out of the general
disarmament discussions would
be the elimination of sophisticated
weapons in the Middle East. That
would be a very, very important
step.” He said that, "as far as
I am concerned, the army that
I respect is the Israeli Army. I
think they can take care of them
selves.” He told the veterans:
“If the Egyptians are going to
get whatever weapons they are
after, if we help them or not, it
is perfectly possible for Israel to
match them if there is an arms
race, and I hope they would do it.
But I don’t believe that it is in
No Place to Hide
by Rabbi Jacob M. Rothschild, D.D.
This strident article by the forthright spiritual leader of the Temple in At
lanta is in effect an answer to any Jew who timorously may wonder why de
segregation is a problem for Jews, who unwittingly may push himself In the
direction of second class citizenship by feeling there is a cleavage between Ameri
canism and Judaism when the great moral issues of this nation are involved.
—THE EDITOR
RABBI
JACOB
ROTHSCHILD
Since 1954, the tempo of the Negro’s march
toward equality has quickened, his demands have
become more insistent and his patience less ma
jestic. The foot-dragging reluctance of the white
majority to pay more than lip service to the clear
ly stated principles of ‘‘one nation, under God,
with liberty and justice for all” has forced him
constantly to dramatize himself
as the object of injustice—lest
otherwise his very real second
class status lie buried and con
veniently forgotten.
No white American can
evade any longer his personal
involvement in the Negro’s
struggle for full citizenship.
Indeed, he has already been
involved by no act of his own:
The law guarantees equality—
so he is involved as an Ameri
can citizen. Every major religious organization
has clearly stated its moral commitment to equali
ty—so he is involved as Christian or Jew. It is
in this latter area that the Southern Jew finds
himself most discomfitted. How he wishes that
Judaism didn’t really say that. Or, since it does,
that his national body or his own rabbi would
stop reminding non-Jews of the fact. To para
phrase an old joke—doesn’t he have enough tzores
just being a Jew! Yet deep down inside himself,
he knows what is right and what isn’t. As a mem
ber of a minority group who has long struggled
for equality for himself, he can sympathize with
the members of another minority group. But still,
he is white, and he lives among a white majority
and, after all, there are local customs and he
can’t stick his neck out—and, and, and . . .
So the Southern Jew—not only he, to be sure,
but still he more than all the other decent, God
fearing “moderates”—squirms and rationalizes.
Above all, he joins with his Christian friends
(whose religion has also compromised them with
uncompromising statements on the subject) in
seeking to separate religion from life itself. To do
so, he has maintained that the Negro drive for
equal rights falls into the area of politics—and the
synagogue ought to keep out of politics. Or, he
says that religion must eschew controversial issues
altogether. In recent days, however, he himself
seems to have become less enamored of arguments
such as these. They no longer sound quite so con
vincing even to him. Perhaps the stubborn im-
portunings of his religious leaders have begun
to convince him that religion—specifically Juda
ism is involved. Perhaps the recent National
Conference on Religion and Race helped him see
the light. Perhaps even the open acknowledge
ment on the part of some political figures that
we are indeed faced with a moral crisis has helped
him to change his mind.
Whatever the reasons, the Southern Jew seems
ready to admit that this is an area in which re
ligion cannot keep silent. Admittedly, he is a Jew
Now, Judaism is involved. How, then, can he
escape that feeling of Southern exposure that
he wants so desperately to avoid? Well, he is
nothing if not “ingenious and ingenuous.” He has
devised a new philosophy which he hopes will
provide him with the protective coloration he so
desperately seeks. He now takes the stand that
the struggle to achieve a desegregated soceity in
America doesn’t really involve him as a Jew at
all—it involves him only as an American! This
position must be reckoned as one of the most
startling pieces of evasion—and the most poten
tially dangerous escape hatch he has yet conjured
up.
Does the Southern Jew really want to estab
lish a dichotomy between his patriotism and his
religion? Is that what he really wants to say—
the Jew who has bitterly fought anyone who
dares accuse him of dual loyalty? Who has pro
claims himself an “American of the Jewish
faith”? Who maintains—and rightly—that because
he is a good Jew he can become a better Ameri
can? Who with pride has asserted that the great
ness of American democracy rests upon the Judeo-
Christian tradition, part of which he shares? And
now in order to avoid embarassment and dis
comfiture does he seriously intend to present this
new and damaging self image?
For what is he saying? That there are two
separate compartments of his life—one Jewish and
the other American. That what concerns him in
one area need not concern him in the other. That
when his fellow-citizens look at him, they must
distinguish between him as a Jew and him as an
American. He would have them blame his Ameri
canism if he does anything they don’t like—and
credit his Judaism when they are pleased. But
what if they come to the opposite conclusion—as
well they may?
No, my fellow Southern Jews—this way lies.
We cannot—we dare not—make second class citi
zens out of ourselves just to ease the pain and
anguish of a given moment in time. We can never
separate our spiritual heritage from our place in
the society which we have helped to create. What
ever involves us involves us as Americans who are
Jews. We are involved because our religous herit
age has led us to a concept of morality which
democracy has taken as its own. That heritage had
something to say—and we have always prided
ourselves on that indisputable fact—in setting the
standards of our republic. How then can we deny
its involvement—and ours—when the tarnished
ideals of that republic need repair and burnish
ing 7
In this—as in every struggle which challenges
the fulfillment of our American democracy—we
are involved because we are citizens of a poten
tially noble land. And we are involved all the
more because we are of that ancient people who
first taught the world the concept of the father
hood of God and the brotherhood of man. We
cannot escape our heritage as American Jews
the interests of Israel for the
United States to stop having any
influence in the Middle East. I
think our influence is the greatest
for peace. And if we refuse to
have anything to do with any of
the Arab countries until they do
what we want them to do about
Israel, it will be against the in
terests of Israel.
"I think the position that we
are now in, is one where we have
a certain influence, not as much
as we would like, and the direc
tion we would like, but which is
the way to eventually make the
possibility for Israel to live in
peace. If we should drop our
contacts and economic relations
and general interest in the de
velopment of the Arab countries,
I think it would add to the
danger of Israel, rather than con
tribute to its security.”
Mr. Harriman also touched on
the situation of the Jews in Rus
sia. He told the Jewish War Vet
erans that America was trying to
get the Soviet authorities to per
mit Jews to leave Russia but, he
said, he did not know whether
America could accomplish any
thing in that regard, declaring:
“I don’t know that we can do
anything about it except that we
have been constantly trying to
get them to let the Jews leave
the country.”
“There are all sorts of abuses
within the Soviet Union which
we abhor,” he stated, “and it is
a tragic thing that anti-Semitism
still exists in the Soviet Union in
spite of the claims that they have
no racial or religious discrimina
tion, I think it is very, very im
portant for all of us to constant
ly hold out the real facts that
exist about anti-Semitism in the
Soviet Union.”
JWV executive director Jos
eph F. Barr stated that, while
District of Columbia police acted
wisely in denying the American
Nazi Party the “right” to stage
a mass counter-demonstration
against the scheduled August 28
Negro rally here, special vigil
ance is needed to prevent the
Nazis from fomenting and pro
voking violence.
Mr. Barr said that the Nazis
were trying to “entice psycho
pathic personalities and violence
prone hotheads to come to Wash
ington on August 28 to stir up
an outbreak calculated to dis
credit the non-violent character
sought by the Negro groups.”
The investigation of pro-Israel
organizations by Chairman J. W.
Fulbright, of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, was con
demned by Abraham Kraditor,
chairman of the Foreign Affairs
Committee of the Jewish War
Veterans of the US.A., at the
convention.
Mr. Kraditor asked if Sen. Ful-
bright’s probe of Zionist organ
izations was actually designed to
obtain data to improve the for
eign agents registration laws,
“why doesn’t the Senator sub
poena the foreign agents of the
Arabs in this country?”
He also suggested that Sen.
Fulbright “consider the opera
tions of the Arab Information Of
fice, major oil companies with
interests In the Near East, and
such pressure groups as the so-
called American Friends of the
Middle East.” The Senator was
also urged to “probe the attempts
of the Arab Embassies to import
religious prejudice into America
by insisting on blacklists and
boycotts against American citi
zens of Jewish faith.”