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PAGE 4 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE December 20, 1985
The Southern Israelite
The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry
Since 1925'
Vida Goldgar
Editor and Publisher
Leonard Goldstein
Advertising Director
Luna Levy
Associate Editor
Eschol A. Harrell
Production Manager
Lutz Baum
Business Manager
Published every Friday by The Southern Israelite, Inc.
Second Class Postage paid at Atlanta, Go (ISSN 00388) (UPS 776060)
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Southern Israelite, P.O Box
77388, Atlanta, GA 30357
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 77388, Atlanta, Georgia 30357
Location: 188 15th St., N.W., Atl., Ga. 30318 Phone (404)^876-8248
Advertising rates available upon request.
Subscriptions: $20.00, 1 year; $35.00 2 years
Member of Jewish Telegraphic Agency; Religious News Service;
American Jewish Press Assn.; Georgia Press Assn.; National Newspaper Assn.
Hats off to Commerce
The northeast Georgia city of Commerce put the icing on its
Christmas cake this week when it invited a black minister to be the
featured speaker at its city-wide Christmas program.
Earlier, Commerce cancelled its annual Christmas parade
rather than allow a Ku Klux Klan float to participate. A KKK
float which appeared recently in several other Georgia towns
carried the double-entendre message, “I’m Dreaming of a White
Christmas.” We’re sure Irving Berlin did not have the Klan’s inter
pretation in mind when he wrote the song.
The officials of Commerce are to be congratulated for their
actions—first in refusing the Klan float and now, carrying the
season’s message a step further by inviting the Rev. Leroy Doe to
be the featured speaker.
In the words of another songwriter: “The Times, They
a-Changing.”
It’s a mitzva
Once again, members of the Jewish community are participating
in the Christmas “pinch hitter” program sponsored by B’nai
B’rith’s Gate City Lodge, with special help this year from Nachal
Lodge.
Volunteers fill in at Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital and the
Jewish Home to perform non-professional duties so Christian
workers can spend the holiday with their families.
This is an outstanding project that not only creates good will,
but gives volunteers a tremendous sense of satisfaction on what,
tor many, can be a downer of a day.
Anyone wishing to volunteer can call Gary Jackson, 659-1 320
during the day or at 355-5842.
And while we’re on the subject of volunteering, these cold
nights make the work of those who help the ongoing nightly
shelter programs at The Temple and Congregation Shearith Israel
all the more vital.
W'hile these two congregations provide the actual locations
and coordination of programs, other temples and synagogues are
involved. Yet the need for more help is great.
Either program—or both—would welcome our help.
Vida Goldgar
‘Must’ reading
David Wyman’s book “The Abandonment of the
Jews” lay on my night table for weeks. Each time 1
thought about starting it, something held me back. 1
I didn’t really want to see, in
documented black and white, w hat
I already knew in principal. . .
that my country which has worn
proudly the “melting pot” mantle-
had knowingly shut the door on
perhaps hundreds of thousands of
Jews who were therefore abandoned
to Hitler’s holocaust. Nor did I
want to be forced into accepting
the fact that at a time when my youthful list of most
admired people was headed by franklin Delano
Roosevelt, my hero was, at best, indifferent to the
tragic events that were unfolding.
Monday evening, I could no longer avoid the issue.
Along with the hundreds of others who packed The
Temple’s sanctuary to hear author/history professor
Wyman, 1 listened as the horror stories, confirmed by
Wyman through years of painstaking and painlul
research, were related. It was Wyman’s 51st public
lecture since Labor Day and 103rd this year. And still,
he said, “It makes me angry and anguishes me each time.”
Significantly, much of the huge audience which turned
out to hear him was comprised of young adults. While
this wasn’t really surprising, since his lecture had been
arranged by Federation’s Young Leadership Council,
it was nonetheless important. They are of the post-war
generation, and undoubtedly many gained new and
broader insights into this tragic failure in our country’s
history.
Among the significant findings detailed in Wyman’s
book (which has been cited by the New York Times
Book Review as one of II best books of 1985) is
evidence that as early as November of 1942 there was
public knowledge that the Nazis were systematically
exterminating European Jewry. He says this information
was in the hands of the United States government in
August of that year. Yet, he says with great sadness,
“fourteen months were allowed to go by before the
Roosevelt administration began to act.” Even then,
according to Wyman, the State Department and the
British Foreign Office gave only lip service to rescue efforts.
The media was guilty as well. “The mass media in
this country never gave Holocaust information the
attention it should have had. It was treated as a minor
news story until the camps were liberated.”
There is so much more in his book, including insights
into the overt and covert anti-Semitism in Congress
and the country which made it politically inexpedient
for Roosevelt—the consummate politician if not the
great humanitarian he’s been painted—to take the kind
of action which could have saved so many lives.
In an interview at The Southern Israelite the day
after his lecture, Wyman was asked why he—a New
England Protestant Christian—would devote so much
time and energy to this subject, all the while carrying
a full teaching schedule at the University of Massa
chusetts at Amherst. He is obviously driven by much
more than a need to publicize his book.
He doesn’t have a ready answer: “I’ve analyzed back
into my past and don’t see any direct action that was
the basic stimulus. The underlying reason has got to
do with what 1 feel about the Holocaust. It was much
more than a Jewish tragedy. It was a tragedy in a
broader sense that has not really been recognized by
non-Jews; the extermination of European Jews was a
tragedy also for all of humankind.”
Perhaps he drew closest to the root of his motivation
when he said, “This was a terrible, terrible catastrophe
for Christians, because it was Christians who werethe
killers (even the many Nazis who had rejected
Christianity had grown up in Christian homes) and
while they were doing that, the two societies most
capable of helping, Britain and the United States,
basically Christian societies, turned their backs." It is
this violation of what he calls “the center of ethical
Christian teaching helping people in need," that he
calls a spiritual failure and a grievous loss.
His book has already made a difference beyond its
effect on individual readers. The book was one of the
arguments used to convince Vice President George
Bush to support American involvement in last January’s
airlift of 812 Ethiopian Jews from the Sudan.
“The Abandonment of the Jews” is not pleasant
reading; but it is “must" reading for Jews and
Christians alike.
No names in lights
by Stanley M. Lefco
No one chases after them for
autographs. Multi-million dollar
contracts are not begging for their
signatures. Their names do not
appear in lights. They are not
household words.
But where would be without
them—the volunteers?
They are driven people. Home,
family, career, business and personal
enjoyments are important in their
lives. But sometimes and many
times their valuable time is devoted
to other pursuits. They make time
they don’t have to help others and
further causes while others stare in
amazement and w cinder where they
find the time.
Volunteers are caring people.
They want to make the world a
better place for those here now and
those who will follow.
They like to be frustrated. It
only makes them work harder. On
the one hand they are knocking
their heads against the wall while
on the other they are cajoling,
encouraging, insisting, planningand
having brainstorming sessions.
Volunteers love meetings. They
are pacmanique: they devour them.
They run from one meeting to
another, morning, noon, night and
in-between. Sometimes they go to
more than one in an evening. Some
even try to attend two or more at
the same time, a feat even David
Copperfield would surely admire.
They are planners and schemers.
They constantly are putting ideas
into operation in the face of and
against insurmountable odds. Like
Don Quixote, they haven’t found a
windmill they won’t challenge.
Volunteers are habitual worriers.
Take the famous testimonial dinners
as an example. The date, place,
menu, time, flowers, dress, publicity,
invitations, to name but a few, all
have to be planned and coordinated.
They just don’t happen on their
own.
And then when every detail down
to the dessert spoon is considered,
somebody always comes along and
reminds ot w hat has been overlooked
Did we chose an honoree? What
about that special on TV which
everyone has been waiting to see'’
Is it the same night? A sporting
event that evening? Did we double
check the community calendar?
Will people come? Momentary panic
ensues, but everything magically
works itself out. The invitations
are mailed, sometimes in spite of
the post office, and nails are chewed
to the bone as prayers for a good
response are heard throughout
volunteerland.
The night of the event arrives,
hut the abdominal butterflies still
flutter, for it is now in the hands of
a higher being. Please no snow,
storm, tropical hurricane, power
failure, or the worst, construction
work on the expressways. The guests,
oblivious to it all, arrive for a
delightful evening, speeches are made,
dinner is served, and finally every
one departs. Now the volunteers
can take a deep breath and collapse.
They are masochistic. Let us not
forget the task no volunteer really
enjoys: soliciting. Nobody likes to
ask somebody else for money No
matter how many training sessions
on technique, it is still not easy. Is
there another way? The volunteer
fearlessly tackles the phone or makes
that personal visit knowing that it
has to be done.
No names in lights, no milli° n
dollar contracts, no autograph
seekers. Why do they do it ’ I here
are wrongs to right, impossible
dreams to fulfill, and causes that
must be supported. Quoting Hillel.
the volunteer asks, “II not 1. ^ho
will?”
Just where would we be without
them?