Newspaper Page Text
The
A Weekly
Southern Israelite
Newspaper for Southern Jewry — Esfabl ,vt 0 ^o
y* u°^Va^
Vol. XL
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1965
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NO. 52
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Dozen Lives Lost in Yonkers
Fire al (denier 11 ami kali Rarty
YONKERS, N. Y.—A Hanukah
party ended in tragedy at the
Jewish Community Center here
when fire swept the recently $1,-
000,000 renovated structure, kill
ing nine children and three adults,
trapped in an upstairs music
room.
At least nine others, the United
Press International reported, were
injured, four of whom were ad
mitted to St. Joseph’s Hospital
across the street.
Fire Chief Gabriel Budisky said
the fire broke out around 5 p. m.
and the victims were overcome by
heavy smoke billowing up
through the building. Firemen
fought for an hour and a half in
subfreezing temperatures to con
trol the flames.
* » * *
Frank Fierman, director of the
Atlanta Jewish Community Cen
ter, expressed great sorrow at the
news of the Yonkers tragedy.
Asked about the danger of fire
in the Atlanta Center, Mr. Fier
man spoke of the many safe
guards built into the structure of
the community center here. “First
of all,” he stated, “ours is an
all-masonry building constructed
entirely of fire-proof materials.
It has built into it the most mod
ern fire alarm apparatus avail
able to buildings of this kind.”
Mr. Fierman cited the design
of the building itself as a safety
factor. “Anyone, anywhere in the
building, is within a few steps of
an exit. No area has only one
exit. Center personnel are drill
ed each year in emergency pro
cedures and assigned roles in case
emergency action should be nec
essary.”
Included in the Center’s equip
ment is a completely stocked fall
out shelter under the aegis of the
Civil Defense program, he added.
In conclusion, Mr. Fierman
said, “We should all be thank
ful to the designers of our build
ing and the building committee
because we do have a building
that has built into it every pos
sible safeguard.”
Supreme Court L .^jvS Ban On
Voluntary Prayer In Schools
NEW YORK, (JTA) — A Su
preme Court decision upholding
a New York ban on voluntary
recitation of a religious nursery
prayer in public schools was
lauded this week by the head of
a federation representing 440
Parent-and-Teacher Associations
in New York City.
Directors of the Public Educa
tion Association and the New
York Civil Liberties Union also
hailed the decision, which stem
med from a suit by parents
against a public school principal
in Whitestone, Queens. He stop
ped kindergarten pupils from re
citing “God is great, God is good,
and we thank Him for our food”
before eating milk and cookies
each morning.
Mrs. Florence Flast, president
of the United Parents Association,
in praising the Supreme Court
stand, said: “We have always op
posed prayers in the schools, in
cluding the ‘voluntary’ prayer
because it cannot really be volun-
German Chancellor Assures Jewish
Leaders On Compensation & Israel
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Ger
man Chancellor Ludwig Erhard
assured a B’nai B’rith delegation
that, as long as he remained
Chancellor, a “special” German
position toward Jews and Israel
would continue.” He said also he
would reveal his response to
points raised by the delegation in
a public statement at a subsequ
ent date. However, the delegation
members termed his comments
to them privately as “revealing
Paraguayan Jewish Tombs Vandalized
Paraguayan authorities are searching, so far unsuccessfully, for
vandals who recently smeared swastikas on a monument to the
6,000,000 Nazi victims in the Jewish cemetery of Asuncion, ac
cording to information received by the World Jewish Congress in
New York. A number of Jewish tombstone* were also smeared,
as shown in the above picture.
and reassuring.”
Members of the delegation,
which called on the Chancellor at
Blair House, where White House
guests are lodged, included Dr.
William Wexler, B’nai B’rith
president; Rabbi Jay Kaufman,
executive vice-president; and
Maurice Weinstein, chairman of
the B’nai B’rith International
Council. The group spent more
than one hour with Mr. Erhard.
Dr. Wexler reminded Mr. Er
hard that, on May 12, 1965, he
wrote to Prime Minister Levi
Eshkol of Israel that “the attitude
of the German Government in
the past has proved that we are
aware of the special German pos
ition towards the Jewish people
all over the world, including Is
rael.” He then said: “We would
like to express to you our sense
of dismay and grave concern over
what seems to be happening in
Germany today in its relations
with the Jewish people through
out the world and in Israel.”
The B’nai B’rith president said
also: “Your Final Indemnification
Law promised immediate pay
ment to many claimants who had
been waiting for over 20 years.
Yet, only 10 days ago, the enact
ment of your budgetary law im
posed restrictions on those pay
ments. Your Government’s failure
to recognize the compelling na
ture of indemnification payments
has rocked the confidence of the
entire Jewish world. It has cre
ated new uncertainty about Ger
man intentions.”
Dr. Wexler said Nazi victims
had conveyed their “real fear that
the recent action by your Govern
ment will set a pattern and pos
sible precedent to divest them of
rights to which they are entitled
and for which they have waited
so long.” The German Chancellor
was told that he had created “the
foundations for normality of the
position between the German peo
ple and the Jewish people. It was
pointed out to them that the Jew
ish people were led to hope that,
on these foundations, a solid
structure would now be erected.”
Dr. Wexler indicated to Chanc
ellor Erhard that he is not only
the president of B’nai B’rith but
also vice-president of the Confer
ence of Jewish Material Claims
Against Germany, of which Dr.
Nahum Goldmnnn is president.
He also identified himself as the
co-chairman, with Dr. Goldman,
of the World Conference of Jew
ish Organizations.
Rabbi Kaufman told reporters
following the meeting that the
delegation voiced “keen disap
pointment at the failure of Ger
many to conclude economic agree
ments promised at the time West
Germany and Israel established
diplomatic relations.” Another
tary. The child feels under pres
sure by the teacher.”
Experts called the Supreme
Court ruling the furthest exten
sion to date of the school prayer
prohibition since the Court ruled
in 1962 that state-composed
prayers were unconstitutional. In
1963, it barred state rules requir
ing classroom recitation of the
Lord’s Prayer and devotional
Bible reading. Francis Buono,
chairman of the Queens parents
group which was formed to fight
the New York state law against
school prayers, called the High
Court stand “a terrible ruling.”
He declared that “now, for the
first time, it is clearly established
that no prayer—voluntary or in
voluntary—may be heard in the
public schools of the land.”
He expressed the belief that
the High Court ruling would spur
advocates of a Constitutional
amendment to permit school
prayer. The Queens group, known
as PRAY—for Prayer Rights for
American Youth—was set up in
1962 and more than 1,000 families
in the Queens community contri
buted funds to carry on the court
fight. Mr. Buono said the legal
battle had cost nearly $10,000.
The suit was brought by
parents of 21 pupils in P. S. 184
after Principal Elihu Oshinsky
ordered recitation of the nursery
prayer stopped in Septemeber,
1962. He said he was acting in
accordance with a New York
City Board of Education decision.
Federal District Judge Walter
Bruchhausen ruled in favor of
the parents, who included Pro
testants, Catholics, Jews, Greek
Orthodox and Armenian Apost-
olics. That ruling was reversed by
the Court of Appeals of the Sec
ond Federal Circuit. The Su
preme Court by unanimous
decision, left standing the Appeals
Court ruling.
vital point discussed pertained to
the recent German decision to
defer compensation to certain
victims of the Nazis in 1966. Mr.
Erhard told the delegation that
hardship cases, including elderly
persons, would receive appropri
ate treatment.
H. Golden Reveals Background to His "A Little Girl Is Dead”
This is the talk delivered last week during a luncheon program at
the Atlanta Press Club. He was introduced by TSI Editor & Publisher
Adolph Rosenberg. A review of Mr. Golden’s book appears on page
4 of this issue.
by HARRY GOLDEN
Speech—Harry Golden
Atlanta Press Club, Atlanta, Ga.
December 15, 1965—Noon
There is a puzzling gap be
tween Li/e Magazine which call
ed it a remarkable book and Mr.
Kirsch of the Los Angeles Times
who said, “Golden's new book is
as significant in non-fiction as
Dreiser’s ‘An American Tragedy'
was in fiction," and the Raleigh
News and Observer, and News
week which expressed similar sen
timents, and reviewers in Atlan
ta, Charleston, and Knoxville,
who say the book is dull and
stupid, and “He shouldn't have
written it.” And this brings us to
an important truth concerning
the uninterrupted dialogue.
Those who pride themselves on
being the most American would
be shocked to know how close
they are to the Communists
Book reviews in the Soviet Union
for the last 40 years have had
one criteria: Does he say anything
bad or unpleasant about the
State? If so, “he shouldn’t have
written it.” “He shouldn’t have
written it” is the most outrageous
attitude in a free society.
Here I would like to digress
for a moment and tell you what
makes me wondrously proud of
the Jewish race. Up in the New
York Public Library and in the
American Jewish Archives at
Cincinnati, the Jews have accum
ulated and maintain the greatest
anti-Semitic collections in the
world—open to the public. Jew
ish scholars have roamed the
earth to acquire, buy and pres
erve this material.
Here is a secret of the survival
and the strength Do you think
our society is so shallow, that its
survival and well-being depend
upon a book, or a pamphlet? Non
sense. As a matter of fact we’ll
help you preserve your work,
send it to us—we'll put it under
glass—forever—make you immor
tal
The question to be discussed
here is whether the Leo Frank
case is a fit subject for American
literature. Let me put it this way:
It is 51 years since Leo Frank
was lynched in Marietta and based
on my research, which I assure
you was thorough, there hasn’t
been a single year in which there
hasn't been something on the
Leo Frank case; a movie, a bio
graphy of Toni Watson, a history
of the United States Supreme
Court; a history of the New South;
an anthology of great newspaper
stories, a textbook on law; and
six universities (there may be
more) use the I,eo Frank case as
the mock trial for instruction of
law students. Based on number
of words in print and in the law
schools the Leo Frank case in the
American consciousness is far
ahead of. say, the Roston Tea
Party.
The points I tried to make in
clude, First, the South has many
men and women like John M
Slaton and Judge Morris who
rescued Leo Frank's body at
great risk. As a matter of fact,
some of the Jewish intellectuals
have blasted me as a phony lib
eral for that very reason. In Jer
usalem at a seminar of Jewish
writers discussing the American
Jewish community, Norman Mail
er made the flat statement that I
was a phony liberal and he proved
it. He quoted how often I say,
“I love the South.” Theodore Sol-
ataroff of Commentary which did
a hatchet job en me, and Philip
Roth, the novelist who did anoth
er hatchet job on me, in the mag
azine, American Judaism, both
charged that 1 am a phony liberal
because they said I keep repeat
ing that I met some of the kind
est people in the world in the
South.
Essentially this was the subject
of a debate I had with Jim Bald
win who also thinks I’m a phony
liberal. I’m not sure how liberal
I am but I do know one thing—
I’m a propagandist. I’m a prop
agandist against anti-Semitism
and I have been active in the
Negro civil rights movement and
in the Catholic Interracial Coun
cil because I believe it is part of
the same fight against anti-Sem
itism.
I told Jim Baldwin a story
about Captain Dreyfus, the Jew
ish captain who was framed by
the monarchist at the turn of the
century which divided France
into Dreyfusards and anti-Drey-
fusards tore the country apart
politically, and threatened the
existence of the Republic.
This Dreyfus was a rather un
pleasant fellow. A nouveau riche,
a reactionary, and a rather stupid
man. Emil Zola, one of his cham
pions once said, "Of all of us
fighting for Dreyfus the captain
is not a Dreyfussard.” Clemen-
ceau, his most ardent champion
visited the captain three or four
times while the captain was
awaiting his new trial at Rennes.
After two or three such visits
Clemenceau could take it no
longer, shouting, “Captain, you do
for France. France has porpetrat-
this is all about, do you? You
think we’re doing this for you?
Nonsense! We’re not doing this
for you at all! We’re doing this
for France. France had perpetrat
ed an evil and we love France
too much to let an evil stand.”
As a propagandist against anti-
Semitism I wanted to instruct my
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