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Pa*e 4 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE April 22. 1977
The Soathera Israelite 1 JACK QELPBART
Published weekly by The Souther* Israelite, I*c., P. O. Box 7738JI,
18# Fifteenth 8t.. N.W., AtlanU. Gs. 39357, Pboaa875-8248. Second claaa
postace paid at AtlanU, Georgia. Yearly subscription, $12.50. Deadline U
5 p m Friday, but material received earlier will bare a much better
chance of publication.
Editor and Publisher: Jack Geldbart; Managing Editor:
Vida Goldgar; Office Manager: Cathv Wood; Advertising
Director: Mike Faass; Advertising Sales: Martin Gelb,
Kathleen Nease, Alva Engelhard, and J. Allen Anderson; Cir
culation: Sarah Duwell; Editorial Assistant: Marian Harelik.
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Georgia Press Assn
World Union Press Asjv)j
Society of Professional
Journalists. Sigma Delta Chi
A letter to Rabin
Dear Yitzhak,
Well, we see where you have decided to take a “vacation”
from your job as Prime Minister.
We want you to know that we are very sorry over what has
happened but I guess you realize now that you should have
known better than to have that bank account in the United
States.
We may be wrong in this, but we somehow expect Israelis
to be above that kind of thing. Not that what you did was so
bad, hut right now Israel is in a struggle for her life against
the Arabs and it seems somehow unfitting that an Israeli
leader should be interested in temptations of the flesh.
NtHPArc
The art of speaking out
There has been substantial criticism of Jimmy
Carter's “new style” and Ambassador Andrew
Young, the Presidents close al
ly and “unguided missile," has
come in for a large share of that
heat because of his statements <
on foreign policy.
I do not always agree with
Ambassador Young’s shoot-
from-the-hip conclusions but
I like his style.
For too long we have been re
stricted and guarded in our public statements
and where did it get us? Think of the years that
slipped by before anyone had the temerity to speak
up and say that the Viet Nam w&r was immoral.
The most painful example of all time, of course,
was the failure of political leaders to speak out
while six million Jews were being systematically
exterminated.
If I’m given a preference as to whethei I want
our public servants to speak out — and occasional
ly make mistakes — or remain silent and cir
cumspect, I’ll choose speaking out everytime.
At last Sunday’s Holocaust Day of Remem-
h'tn/'e ceremony at Greenwood cemetery, Young
spoke forcefuly on the subject. “We might just as
well take on evil wherever and whenever we find
it,” he said. “We ought to be willing to violate
proper protocol in the interest of humanity and the
future of mankind.”
There are obvious perils in this kind of speaking
out, but the risks are fully outweighed by the
shock value of what is said, and — most important
of all — by the idea that evil cannot long exist in
the full glare of publicity.
Oh, how the Arabs howled recently when Young
compared their hatred of Israel to the Ku Klux
Kian vendetta against blacks. What upset them
most of all, I think, was the pure aptness of the
analogy. ,
The true art of speaking out requires that one
play no favorites, that evil be exposed wherever
and whenever it exists. Young follows this axiom
closely. At the Holocaust ceremony he took black
dictator Idi Amin to task for creating a “holocaust”
in Uganda. Young shook his head sadly as he said,
“There are still holocausts in this world. In Ugan
da there are killings of Ugandans by black
brothers.”
President Carter has apparently made no
attempt to silence Young and I hope he resists any
impulse to do so. So what if Young touches a nerve
in Great Britain when he charges they “invented
racism” or raises an outcry in South Africa
when he terms their government “illigitimate”?
Remember that evil abhors light.
Young may well have to retract some of his
statements and apologize as he goes along. He
may also say things we don’t like, but if he had
been around during World War II, I would guess
that some of the six million might have been saved.
The risks of speaking out would have been worth
it, don’t you think?
The Yiddish world
We remember when you came into office, a new, young,
vigorous leader who represented the new breed in Israel —
the native born taking over from the Ben Gurions and Golda
Meirs who came out of the Diaspora. We still believe in you
and your kind but as one critic put it, I guess you got caught
up in the Pucci and Gucci clothes, lunches at the St. Souci,
and all the other frivolous things that jet-setters think are im
portant.
Somehow we get the feeling that you never meant any
harm but that you got enmeshed with the “good life” and lost
sight temporarily of the goals set by those who founded the
State of Israel 29 years ago.
We hope you are joining with us in celebrating Israel
Independence Day this week and that you recapture that
single-minded spirit of purpose that you once had. Maybe you
never lost it. But whatever the case, we hope you won’t be a
stranger.
The Editor
Mazel tov: the "Forward"
is 80 years old and kicking
by Boris Smolur
No Jewish newspaper in the
world can boast existence of 80
years. The Jewish Daily
Forward, the Yiddish paper
published in New York, can. It
celebrates its 80th birthday this
week.
Numerous Jewish daily
newspapers have been published
in the United States during the
80 years since the Forward was
founded. Even William Ran
dolph Hearst tried his hand at
publishing a Yiddish daily
newspaper in New York. There
wac also a tabloid Yiddish paper
in New York some 50 years ago.
The Forward survived all of
them and today is the only Yid
dish daily appearing in the
United States.
The Forward grew under the
editorship of Abraham Cahan
who was not only a great editor
but also a man who understood
the needs of the immigrant
Jewish masses.
An immigrant from Russia,
Cahan came to the United States
in 1882 and soon became
Americanized to a point where
he was given a position on the
editorial staff of the Sun, one of
the leading afternoon English
papers in New York. He left The
Sun for the Forward because of
his devotion to the Jewish im
migrants who were in those
years cruelly exploited. He
helped organize them into labor
unions to improve their lot. At
the same time, he was deeply in
terested in seeing them more
Americanized.
Soon the Forward became the
trusted and favorite organ of the
Jewish masses, reaching a cir
culation of about 250,000. But
before reaching this high point
— overshadowing the more than
half-a-dozen other Jewish dsily
newspapers that appeared in
New York — the Forward
struggled hard for its existence.
I remember the years when a
part of~~4he Forward income
came from “Forward Balls”
huge balls held in Madison
Square Garden in New York and
in the Coliseum in Chicago,
supplementing the income that
the paper had from adver
tisements and its sale on the
newsstands. At these balls, the
adherents of the Forward, in the
tens of thousands, not only paid
admission but also made in
cognito contributions in cash.
Many women in the audience
donated their golden earrings
and marriage rings.
The devotion of the readers of
the Forward to their paper is
deep even today. This can be
seen best from the response to
the fund-raising effort made by
the Forward last year when its
reserve funds dwindled marked
ly because of the high cost of
producing a newspaper — which
forced many great American
newspapers into liquidation —
and also because of the decline in
advertisements and the fall in
circulation, since many readers
have died during the years and
no new immigrants arrived.
Seeking funds to cover its
deficit and to strengthen its
financial position, the Forward
last year issued a call for $250,-
000 in the hope that a good part
of this sum would be forthcom
ing from national and local
Jewish organizations served for
decades by the paper with un
paid publicity. However, the an
ticipated aid from this source
did not come. It did come from
the needle-trade labor unions
which the Forward helped to es
tablish, and from readers. From
thousands of readers. The great
majority of them probably live
on meager Social Security, but
they did not want to see “their
paper” in distress. Their con
tributions came from all parts of
the country. As a result, the
Forward campaign exceeded its
$250,000 goal.
The tradition of Abraham
Cahan in the Forward was
carried on by his successor Hillel
Rogoff, also a brilliant editor. It
is being carried on today by
Simon Weber, the able jour
nalist and editor who started his
career in the Forward years ago
aa city editor.
The paper sold its imposing
U-story building on East
Broadway a few yean ago. It
moved to the Workmen’s Circle
Building in the very center of
New York, in the vicinity of the
New York Public Library. Its
popularity is today strong even
among American Jews who can
not read Yiddish. Its editorial
views are also finding an echo in
Washington.