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The Southern Israelite
The Weekly Newspoper For Southern Jev-'n'
Since 1W5
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
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Was it by chance?
At last
Leo Frank would probably be surprised that more than 70
years after his death, he is front page news.
The decision of the State Board of Pardons and Paroles to at
last grant a pardon to Leo Frank merits our appreciation. To Gov.
Joe Frank Harris, for his support of the efforts to clear Frank's
name, we also say thank you.
If we feel justice came mighty late in this case, at least it came.
It could not have happened without the belated testimony of
Alonzo Mann or the Nashville Tennessean’s decision to go all the
way in pursuing the tip about an ailing, aging man w ho said he had
information about a murder case for which the wrong man had
died.
Just as the press of the day played a major role in fanning the
emotions of the public in 1913, so today’s journalists played their
part in this week's achievement.
Still, that might have gone for naught without the hundreds
and hundreds of hours of effort by several members of our legal
community, w ith the backing of Federation, the Anti-Defamation
League and the American Jewish Committee.
It might have been easier to say “Well, we tried,” when the
initial petition for a pardon declaring Frank’s innocence was
turned down. But they didn’t let it rest there and this week’s
pardon is the result.
While the pardon granted does not address the question of
guilt or innocence, to us the implication is clear, and the end result
is almost the same.
Not only are we grateful as Jews, but as Georgians, that our
state has now officially acted to eradicate this tragic blot in
historv.
by Don McEvoy
National Conference ol Christians and Jews
If this story doesn’t bring a
warm tingle to your heart I don t
know what it would take to touch
you.
It happened at an Elderhostel
seminar at Bates College up in
Maine last summer.
Gerda Haas was the instructor
in a course on the Holocaust. Jerry
Siegel of Silver Spring, Mary
land. was one of her students.
Gerda Hass is a Holocaust
survivor but deliberately avoids
references to her own experience
w hen teaching courses of this kind.
Members of the class, however,
pressed her to share with them
some of her own personal re
collections about midway through
the week. She agreed, and told
them of being ostracized by
classmates,expelled from her hometown,
imprisoned at Theresienstadt. and
ultimately being liberated and sent
to Switzerland in early 1945.
The following day, when the
class reconvened, Jerry Siegel
spoke up. “Were you in Lucerne
when you were liberated to
Switzerland?”
“Yes, with the Erlanger family.”
“Did they have a little boy whom
you took care of 0 ”
"Yes. that was the reason I was
there.”
“Were the Erlangers very reli
gious people?”
Gerda Haas began to panic.
Who was this man who seemed to
know so many details of her life
and why was he asking these ques
tions. Scenes of w artime interroga
tions began to flash through her
mind.
Then Jerry Siegel began to tell
his story, a recollection of long-
forgotten events brought to rem
embrance by her recitation of the
previous day.
As a young GI he was in Lucerne
on the eve of Yom Kippur in 1945.
He sought out the synagogue and
was invited home by the Erlangers
to share their pre-fast dinner
There he had met Gerda Schild
recently released from Theresien
stadt, and who spoke of her dream
of some day going to America. The
two young people exchanged
addresses, agreed to keep in touch
and then he went back to join his
unit.
After the war they did corre
spond a few times, but both mar
ried and lost touch with one
another.
Thirty-eight years later in Gerda
Haas’ Elderhostel classroom these
two young people, now both
grandparents, had a joyous and
totally unexpected reunion.
Was it pure chance that led Jerry
Siegel to sign up for that particular
Elderhostel course? Just a lucky
spin of the roulette wheel? Or was
there some other force that
brought the two of them to that
particular time and place 0
I’ll leave it to you to decide.
Seesaw Spain
by Stanley M. Lefco
The improvement of relations
between Israel and Spain provides
a good opportunity to review the
history of Spanish Jewry. It is one
marked by contradictions.
Howard Sachar, a professor at
George Washington University, in
his book, “Diaspora: An Inquiry
into the Contemporary Jewish
World,” provides an interesting
review of its development.
In the sixth century. King
Reccared converted as many as
90,000 Jews to Christianity. In the
late 1400s Queen Isabella and King
Ferdinand signed an order for the
expulsion of the 150,000 Jews then
living in Spain. Fifty thousand
stayed and converted to Christ
ianity.
Although the Inquisition, a
response to the Renaissance, was
not directed at Jews, it sought to
ferret out Christian heretics, and
the heavy hands of the inquisitors
fell on the Marranos, Spanish Jews
who had converted to Christianity.
The word is one of disdain,
meaning “swine."
Sachar notes that during the
16th and early 17th century,
descendants of “cristiana neuvos,”
Jewish converts to Christianity,
may have comprised one third of
the population of the larger
Spanish cities. Francisco Franco's
ancestors claim to belong to this
group.
In 1876 Spain adopted a new
constitution, which proclaimed
“freedom from molestation" for
non-Catholics. Under the dicta
torship of Prime Minster Primo de
Reveia, a decree was enacted in
1924 recognizing the decendants
ol exiled Sephardim as Spanish
citizens.
1 he year 1931 marked the birth
of the Spanish republic and saw
groups of Italian, North African
and Balkan Jews, who were all
Sephardim, settle in Barcelona.
Ihe mid-1930s brought an influx
of German Jewish refugees. In
•936 the Spanish Civil War broke
Jews were Loyalists, and the
- °* the Nationalists led a
number to return to Morocco or
emigrate to Portugal. Following
the Nationalist victory in 1939.
synagogues in Madrid and
Barcelona were forced to close and
religious worship went under
ground.
During World War II, Franco
allowed Jews and other refugees to
pass through Spain,but they were
forbidden to settle in the country.
Sachar notes that 30,000 crossed
Spain into Portugal. Jews making
wa >' acr °ss the Pyrenees
out.
victorv
their
were interned in concentration
camps and reduced to near
starvation if they did not have visas
for Portugal.
After 1945, evidence of anti-
Jew i s h propaganda could be found
in the press and from the pulpit.
Yet, during the 1950s and 60s. the
Franco government aided in
settling Moroccan Jews in Israel
and France. Clearly, the response
of Spain to Jews was an am
bivalent one.
According to Sachar, one of the
great Jews of Spain was Polish-
born Max Mazin. He came to the
country in 1950 and became a
successful and prominent bus
inessman. He served as chairman
of Spain’s World Trade Center and
is credited with ridding the schools
of books that contained anti-
Semitic material.
In 1965, the Franco government
approved the first Jewish public
religious service on the island of
Majorca since the Inquisition,
which had ended in 1834. C huetas.
Majorcan Jews who had been
concerted to Catholicism in the
15th century, came to pray. been
after the passage of 500 sears, they
still maintained ties to then Jewish
heritage.
In February 1976, King J uan
Carlos tendered a warm reception
to the congress of the World
Sephardic Federation, which was
meeting in Spain. The country has
13,000 Jews with about 4.000
Us ing in Barcelona and 3.000 in
Madrid. Today, notes Sachar.
Spanish Jews remain detached
from the country’s political issues
and are discreet in their support o
Israel.
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