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THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Friday, November 4, 1966
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Published weekly by Southern Newspaper Enterprises, S90 Court-
land St, N. E., Atlanta, Georgia 30303, TR. 6-8249, TR. 6-8240. Sec
ond class postage paid at Atlanta, Georgia. Yearly subscription five
dollars. The Southern Israelite Invites literary contributions and
correspondence but is not to be considered as sharing the views
expressed by writers. DEADLINE is 5 P.M. FRIDAY, but material
received earlier will have a much better chance of publication.
Adolph Rosenberg, Editor and Publisher
Kathleen Nease, Joseph Redlich
Vida Goldgar, Harry Rose, Betty Meyer, Kathy Wood
Georgia Press Assn. ,
7 Arts Features
East Side on Exhibit
NATIONAL NEWSPAPJR
Jewish
Telegraphic
Agency
World Press
Hobson’s Choice in Georgia
The inviolability and integrity of the polls is one of the
most cherished privileges in a democracy. It is geared towards
the selection of the best man for the office. Sometimes the
twist of circumstances, the warped whim of the populace con
spire to provide a “Hobson’s Choice,” which is no choice at
all, in the selection of the lesser of two evils.
This appears the way the wheels of fortune have spun in
the State of Georgia where anomalously for conscientious
Americans the party machines have set before the voters two
men of the extreme right.
Both naively appear to us to yearn for the obscurantism
of frontier days when scattered populace left an option of
whether there should be a federal government or not. Their
hold-back-the-clock philosophy apparently would ignore the
progression of this section into a complex, multi-million-peo
pled area. They might be capable of governing a backwoods
rural county but not an intricate, multi-million-dollar institu-
tution such as a state. One appears to possess the irresponsibil
ity of Klan-type methodology and the other a Birch-like ap
proach to problems. We are not suggesting that either holds
membership in the designated groups, but this technicality is
slight merit. There are imbued and suffused with the philoso
phies of both of those untenable groups.
It seems inconsequential at this moment to dwell on
whether these results came from a backlash on the one hand,
or a Republican conspiracy to select through crossing of party
lines in the run-off the candidate easier to defeat in the gen
eral election. It seems as futile to dwell on whether or not the
man we consider the best qualified of all the possibilities ran
aa. vigorously a race as he might have done.
What is of the utmost importance is which course of action
conscientious voters should take when they go to the polls in
November.
Some politicos suggest that it is better to compromise and
vote for the lesser of two evils. To us this is as palatable as
choosing death by hanging or murder by poison. We want
neither. Some observers would choose Maddox because his
tactics are already out in the open and there may be hope if
an opponent is outspokenly committed and fights that way.
Among his many discrediting characteristics, we consider Mad
dox a religious fanatic, dangerous under any circumstance.
Callaway does not have this defect. Other observers adamant
ly claim that Callaway through his polished cultural back
ground, certainly not his demonstrated anti-social, anti-hu-
manistic record in the U.S. Congress, will handle his victims
with kid gloves. Swallow either venom if you can.
With either man the State of Georgia will take giant steps
backwards and the path of social progress so painstakingly
hewn out during the last decade or so will be blocked until
four years hence the winds of politics may change direction
and remove the racists from the scene. Georgia though
intrinsically maimed has survived such obscurantists before.
This is scant consolation.
We feel after deep and deliberate soul-searching that
there remains then one course of integrity which Georgians
of good intent and goodwill can take and this is the write-in
ballot.
Despite the odds, this possibility offers integrity to a
group who cannot in good conscience cast a ballot for either
Maddox or his opponent. This way demands perseverance and
personal initiative and effort that are certainly worth while
regardless of outcome.
We would this November break a life-time of party loyalty
if the Republican candidate were not in the Golawater tradi
tion, whose virulent and vitriolic virus has infected the Mad
dox camp as well without distinction.
As it is, we shall again cast a ballot for Ellis Amall, a
representative of the best traditions of American democracy
and not its foe in demagoguery.
—ADOLPH ROSENBERG
JEWISH
CALENDAR
•HANUKA
LAG B’OMER
December 8-15
May 28, Sunday
Thursday - Thursday
•8HAVUOT
•PURIM
June 14, Wednesday
March 26, Sunday
•ROSH HASHANA
•PASSOVER
Oct. 6-6, Thurs.-Fn.
April 25, Tuesday
(First Day)
•TOM KIPPUR
October 14, Sat.
M«y 2, Tuesday
•HOLIDAY BEGINS
•r (Eighth Day)
SUNDOWN PREVIOUS DAY
By BEN G. FRANK
(A Seven Arts Feature)
“Why, that ship in that pic
ture looks like the Exodus.”
That was the remark of a
young wroman as she gazed at the
first picture one sees when en
tering The Jewish Museum’s cur
rent exhibit: “The Lower East
Side: Portal to American Jewish
Life (1870-1924).’’
The picture was not the his
toric “Exodus,” of course. Rather,
it was entitled “Immigrants On
An Atlantic Liner, 1906.” But it
could have been titled “Exodus”
for between 1899 and 1914 just
over a million and a half Jews
poured into New York Harbor
aboard packed liners such as the
one that introduces the Jewish
Museum’s exhibit of photos.
And most of that million and
a half settled or passed through
the East Side. They were ref
ugees from Czarist Russia, from
the shtetl, from the European city
and they had one purpose in
common: To begin a new life in
America.
And to most of them, again,
New York’s Lower East Side was
their first America. It was their
first experience with the great
land they often called the “gol-
dene medina.”
Jewish life on the Lower East
Side is the main concern of the
exhibition. It examines, inter
prets and evaluates Lower East
Side life and its climate with
paintings, drawings, photographs,
films, literature, sounds and doc
uments. There are even scissors
and sewing machines and irons
used in the sweat shops.
For the immigrant Jew, life on
the East Side was to provide
con tradictions, dilemmas and
above all a battleground, a battle
ground that was bounded by 14th
Street, the East River, Brooklyn
Bridge and Broadway.
The numerous wall-size pic
tures are blown-up to a scale that
itself adds immensely to their
impressiveness.
Take, for example, the photos
of women and children in the
kitohen around 1915: The shabby
clothes, the old utensils, the lack
of any furniture.
Take, for instance, the picture
of the old man preparing for the
Sabbath eve in a coal cellar on
Ludlow St., again the stark pov
erty, but still the “chaleh” on the
table.
Take the photos of the crowd
ed street scenes with their push
carts, the Yiddish signs as big
as the many neon ones that spar
kle along Broadway today.
Take the pictures of the street
peddlers, the organ grinder, the
scissors grinder, Hester St., Es
sex St., the crowded Talmud
Torah and the lines of laundry
strung from tenement to tene
ment.
All this is shown in the muse
um’s portrayal which runs
through November 6th.
One of the highlights of the
Jewish Museum’s Exhibit of
course are the photos of Jacob
Riis who created a profound
awareness and understanding of
Lower East Side living and work
ing conditions with his documen
tary photographic reports.
Today’s Jew of course may
wonder how did they do it? How
did they live in such poverty?
The truth is that they did, but
not for long. For Allan Schoener
writes “getting out (of the Lower
East Side) was the hallmark
of success. Everyone who came
to the Lower East Side had to
become an American.” In the
melting pot of America, you
could move out. But while
they were climbing out of
the Ghetto, so to speak, they cre
ated a new life and it wasn’t all
poverty. For a rich cultural and
intellectual life existed among the
Jews of the East Side and it was
alive even among the poor Jew
ish workers, no less.
The Jewish Museum captures
that new life. Its sound record
ings and pictures tell of the edu
cation the children received; of
the libraries and cultural events;
of the weddings and funerals; of
the joy and happiness despite the
hardship of the area; of the flour
ishing Yiddish theater; of the
Yiddish and Hebrew newspapers;
of the lectures and settlement
houses; of the shows and enter
tainment centers.
To get out of the Lower East
Side may have been the motto,
but while there, Jews provided
themselves with a certain human
element and drive that made
many East Siders great men.
Who can see an exhibit like this
and not think of famous artists,
entertainers, politicians and busi
nessmen such as the following
who came from the East Side:
Irving Berlin, Eddie Cantor, Jim
my Durante, Jacob Epstein, Ja
cob Javits and David Sarnoff.
There were other results of
Jewish life on the East Side and
the Museum shows this: “Great
ideas including some of the basic
guidelines of present-day labor
arbitration and new principles of
social work developed in settle
ment houses on the Lower East
S de. Animated expression, talk,
love of food and the ability to
laugh in the midst of hardship
associated with American Jews
was embodied in the East Side
of yesterday.”
The Lower East Side as a Jew
ish Community is gone forever,
True, there are perhaps less than
50,000 Jews living there. But
what Jews there are crowd into
the middle-class co-operatives of
Grand Street. The synagogues
by and large are deserted. For the
(Continued on page 5)
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