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Friday, September Ij/fMTr
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
aster
iuy
weekly by lubin Newspaper Enterprises, SM Court
3- , ff. K, Atlanta, Georgia SMM, TR. 6-8249, TR. 8-8240.
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9TJ|. The Southern Israelite in rites literary contributions and
•orrespendence bat Is not to be considered as sharing the views
expressed by writen. DEADLINE Is 5 FJL FRIDAY, but material
reesfoed earlier w&l hare a much better chance ot publication.
Adolph Rosenberg, Editor and Publisher
Kathleen Nease, Joseph Redlich
; ^‘Tfcld Goldgar, Harry Rose, Betty Meyer, Kathy Wood
What fc a
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^■ASSOC^
Seasonal Thoughts
GUEST EDITORIAL
Labor Day holds a unique place in our national pattern,
both as a symbol and as a way of life.
■'’"It is the story of the beginning of summer’s end and the
unfolding of a new season whose radiance is in other but
equally intriguing colors. Soon the rains will come and the
frost on the tree tops.
Summer is an open season when nature and man are in
unsilent dialogue. Not so autumn and early fall, when strange
silences set in everywhere, in trees, in orchards, in the woods
and forests, on mountain tops and along the valleys surround
ing waterways.
Autumn with its golden promise is a season when man is
most contemplative. He has gathered the harvest and now he
is making the reckoning. Soon, however, he will weary of
dreaming and winter will be upon him with its harshness and
cgjd but also with its open hearths and wive’s tales. There will
be weeks of rest and Of planning until the cycle again reaches
itii beginning—spring, when earth and man and human hopes
a($ rbborn anew.
rffifotod so it is that Labor Day is not alone a tale of joy of
labor and accomplishment, but the harbinger of a new season
afi3f%itness to the verity of eternal change. Its coming in a
way means an end to play, but above all it is a reminder that
labor holds the key to attainment.
HEBREW WATCHMAN, MEMPHIS
UN Head Challenges Johnson
On Chief War Assumptions
By David Benarone
UNITED NATIONS (WUP)—
Secretary-General U Thant, ad
amant in his consistent view that
the Vietnam war is serving
against the interests of all the
parties concerned, has once again
taken issue with almost every
major assumption and premise
advanced by the U.S. Admini
stration on the bitter and un
ending conflict.
Tiis recent address before
the Fourth International Con
ference of Friends (Quakers) at
Greensboro, North Carolina, U
Thant did not mention President
Johnson by name. Nor did he at
tribute the arguments he re
butted to the nation’s Chief
Executive. But the association of
the two was unmistakable.
For example, General West
moreland and State Secretary
Rtisk have recently insisted that
the U.S. offensive—and, indeed,
the whole war—is making pro
gress. U Thant, noting the ap
palling casualties rising on both
aidfed, declared: “According to
published reports, progress is
claimed which the facts belie.”
That’s a pretty blunt refutation,
i Ur. Rusk has repeatedly made
tgie. point that we are fighting
for the people of Vietnam, that
the Vietcong are only a small
mjpority. U Thant replies: “His-
tofy is replete with instances
where freedom fighters often
constitute a minority.” He re
called America's own colonial
war of 1776.
The Administration says that
it's a war against Communism.
tj Thant notes: “It is nationalism,
and not Communism that ani
mates the resistance movement
Ip Vietnam against all foreign
ers, and now particularly against
‘■■The Administration still insists
tfe* war is a must for our nation.
U Thant says: “I regard the cOn-
On the ABC Radio Network, Alex Preier,
popular commentator, posed a question in tune
with the times—and then provided an answer.
Here is his complete broadcast as it went over
the air:
What is a Jew? . . We think we know.
Whether he calls himself an Israelite ... a
German ... a Russian ... or an American . . .
he is a man with a special kind of backbone
that has been tempered by travail and
straightened and hardened by an unrelenting
determination to be free. And because he is
free and he is strong . . . every Jew stands
taller and prouder today than at any time in
history of recorded man.
What is a Jew?... A tired, old man
squinting his watery eyes as he bends over
needle and thread in a comer tailor shop in
an American City. A tall, sun-bronzed young
zealot working in a kibbutz in Israel .... a
gifted musician performing in a European
symphony orchestra ... an ordinary family
man. And for thousands of years that dif
ference was turned against him. Today . . .
that difference has meant the difference be
tween survival and death.
To me ... a Jew is neither a specific
ethnic or religious or cultural designation. To
me a Jew is a special kind of man whatever
his race or color or religion ... a man who has
learned the bitter art of survival . . . and the
ability to endure adversity with dignity ... a
man who has dared to be different when the
costs of differences sometimes were life itself.
But he is no member of a super-race and
for dark periods in history men who thought
they were members of a super-race believed
he could be exterminated. I sat in rooms as
a foreign correspondent in the blacked-out
hole of Berlin during World War Two talked
with members of one supposed super-race who
thought to practice genocide against a people
much older and wiser than themselves. And
as they mechanically mouthed the philoso
phical insanities that had been programmed
into them by a madman, this reporter, a
Hawaiian-born American Catholic of Ger-
man-American parentage . . mentally and
morally became a Jew. Yes, I did ... for to
me a Jew became more than just a member
of a particular minority group in a specific
place and in a specific time. He became a
cause . . . and it had a name . . . freedom!
Freedom of the individual spirit to express
itself according to the dictates of its own cons
cience. ■ *
Today ... the Wandering Jew wanders
no more. Nor does he wonder who he is or
what he is. He stands like a beacon light in a
world that has often been darkened by the
shame of racial and religious hatred. He glows
inwardly and outwardly with the knowledge
that while he is imperfect like all of his fellow
men ... he has given the world an historic les
son in survival. Survival. . . with dignity and
confidence and courage and grace.
Whether intellectual prince or peasant. , .
today’s Jew has done what millions who went
before him tried but could not do. He has
proved to the world that to be a Jew is still
something special and something different.
But the artificial inferiority complex that was
laminated on his psyche by centuries of op
pression is gone forever. It was blasted away
by the rise of Israel ... a tiny state in a vast
hostile land that seems to be all muscle but
has left room for much heart. And yet . . . this
same home that beckons the homeless from
all over the world continues to hold out to its
historic enemies friendship with one hand
while it clings to its rifle with the other. And
it is our view that it is the hand that offers
friendship . . . and not the hand that holds the
rifle . . . that eventually will end the current
troubles in the Middle East.
Today . . . strong, proud, free and deter
mined Israel is more united than ever before
and it belongs not to the Jews alone but to all
the world. In our view it is a flesh and blood
stature of liberty. And it is in this context
that we salute and honor Israel ... to say as
proud American acutely aware of his own na
tion’s bloody battles for survival ... we rec
ognize you for what you are ... a brother in
an imperfect world . . . striving for what we
strive for . . . the dignity of all men . . . and
their inherent right to be free. Israel has
caught the torch of liberty , . . and to her we
say hold it high. And let no force on earth ever
dim its light much less extinguish its flame.
Biggest Intermarriage Ratio
Found on U.S. College Campuses
tinuation of the war in Vietnam
as being wholly unnecessary.”
The gentle Buddhist diplomat
even strikes at the most sensitive
nerve in the Johnson strategy—
the credibility gap. Noting how
the press is pressured to obscure
the truth in order to justify
policy, U Thant says: “Before
long, a credibility gap develops
and all too soon it become dif
ficult to distinguish truth from
propaganda.”
Asked to comment on all this
at his recent press conference,
President Johnson, without men
tioning U Thant by name, re
plied: “I don’t agree with him.”
He didn’t care to argue with a
UN official who has a right to
express his opinion.
The big question before us all
is: Who is right? Johnson or U
Thant? Also: Why is America it
self so greatly divided on the
issue of Vietnam? Again, what is
there in Southeast Asia for
America? Whatever the outcome
in Vietnam—to what extent will
America be able to rely on a
shaky government there? The
U.S. practically rescued France
in World War II. Where does
America stand today with
Charles de Gaulle? Who is to
guarantee that Ky or any other
leader in Vietnam will not play
a “de Gaulle” at some future
date? ,
U Thant wants the 'war stop
ped. As UN chief, it is his duty
to seek a stop to the killings on
both sides. He believes that if
the U.S. ceased bombing of the
North, a road to peace would
open. The Secretary-General
seems to be certain of this.
There’s only one way of find
ing out. President Johnson
should call Hanoi's bluff and
satisfy U Thant one way or the
other. He should call a halt to
the bombing of the North, say,
for two weeks
NEW YORK (JTA)—The res
ult of a comparative study on in
termarriage released by the Cen
tral Conference of American
Rabbis reveal that 1he rate of
intermarriage and consequently
assimilation of the Jew into the
Gentile environment of American
society is lower at present than
during the earliest years of Jew-
In Re Dialogues:
*Those Who Talk
Must Also Listen’
TORONTO (JTA)—Christians
“who are interested in speaking
seriously to Jews will also have
to be prepared to listen carefully
to them,” a noted Canadian
rabbi told more than 4,000 Roman
Catholic priests, laymen and in
terested non-Catholics at a the
ological conference on the Uni
versity of Toronto campus.
Rabbi Stuart E. Rosenberg,
noted writer on theological sub
jects, speaking at the final ses
sion of the four-day gathering
sponsored by the Catholic Bis
hops Conference in honor of
Canada’s centennial, pointed out,
that Christian students of the
Bible today can no longer bypass
the Talmud or the medieval rab
binical commentaries in the ef
fort to understand contemporary
Judaism.
Christian scholars who want to
engage in useful dialogue with
their Jewish counterparts, Rabbi
Rosenberg said, “will have to
face up to the ineluctable fact
that Jews will simply not con
form to the image projected for
them in classical Christian the
ology, nor will they generally
accept a fraternal dialogue with
those who can conceive of
Christian renewal only on Chris
tian terms which overlook the
renaissance of Jewish life and
vitality in the State of Israel.”
ish settlement from 1654 to
1840.
The study was conducted by
Rabbi Malcolm Stern, of the
CCAR, who noted that only on
the college oampus does an in
termarriage ratio of 15 percent
between Jews and non-Jewish
students match the historic fig
ures. “We should not be unnec
essarily alarmed at claims of a
sharp rise in the rate of inter
marriage between Jews and non-
Jews,” Rabbi Stem said. He
claimed that records show that
by 1840 there were 15,000 Jew
ish settlers in this country located
mostly on the Eastern Seaboard.
From 1654 to 1840 there were
942 Jewish marriages, and of
these, 150 or approximately 15
percent were between Jews and
Christians.
A variety of statistics exist on
current rates of intermarriage. A
March, 1957 sample study by the
Federal Bureau of the Census
produced an intermarriage statis
tic of 7 percent, while two other
disputed studies of the Jewish
community in Washington, D. C.
and Iowa produced intermarriage
figures of 13 percent and 42 per
cent. Rabbi Stem stated that ac
curate information on the rate of
intermarriage was lacking. He
said that a CCAR committee was
engaged in an extensive scientific
study which it expects to con
clude in a year or two.
“The farther away Jews are
from centers of organized Jewish
life, the greater the tendency
toward intermarriage and ulti
mate assimilation,'* Rabbi Stem
emphasized. He said that the
Iowa survey proves this point as
does the statistic on the college
campus. The Washington,’ D. C.
study and the college campus
survey demonstrate that assimi
lation will occur in a large met
ropolis with a mobile population
and the absence of home and
family influence.
UN Appoints
New Emissary
On Jerusalem
JERUSALEM (JTA)— Ambas
sador Ernesto Thalmann, the
Swiss diplomat appointed by
United Nations Secretary-Gener
al U Thant as his special fact
finding emissary regarding Jer
usalem, has held his first confer
ence here with Foreign Minister
Abba Eban.
In greeting him, Mr. Eban said:
“I welcome you in Israel’s city,
the city of eternal peace.” The
Ambassador is here officially for
a two-week visit, the aim of
which is “to provide information
for the Secretary-General’s re
port to the forthcoming United
Nations General Assembly and
Security Council on the situation
in Jerusalem,”
In his greeting, Mr. Eban
stressed the importance of the
unification of the City Of Jerusa
lem and “the Aerty accorded to
all its inhabnants.” He also
stressed Israel’s protection of
all places of worship in the city
and free access to these places of
worship.
Two Jewish groups of demon
strators met the Swiss diplomat
at the airport, carrying posters
urging the United Nations to
“keep hands of Jerusalem.”
While high officials of Israel’s
Foreign Ministry greeted the am
bassador cordially, and a special
police escort formed a guard of
honor as he was taken to the air
port’s VIP room, the demonstra
tors picketed with banners pro
claiming, among other slogans,
Thalmann, go home; Jerusalem is
Israel just as :Beme is Swiss.’’
Another sign stated: "Where ws»
the United Nations when Hus
sein (King of Jordan) desecrated
cemeteries, using tombetnnse as
material forpaving army
camps?” * * -