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PAGE 4 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE April 25, 1986
The Southern Israelite
The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry
Since 1925
Vida Goldgar Luna Levy
Editor and Publisher Associate Editor
Leonard Goldstein Eschol A. Harrell
Advertising Director Production Manager
Lutz Baum
Business Manager
Published every Friday by The Southern Israelite, Inc
Second Class Postage paid at Atlanta. Ga (ISSN 00388) (UPS 77606OJ
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The
Southern Israelite
A Prize-Winning
Newspaper
A Pesach thought
by Rabbi Arnold M. Goodman
Yetzial Mitzraim, the Exodus
from Egypt, does not belong only
to the Jews. For centuries the stor>
of our ancestors’ liberation from
Egypt and their odyssey from op
pression to deliverance and the
Promised Land has been read as a
metaphor for liberation—and e\ en
revolution. Throughout Western
history, Yetzial Mitzraim has been
a paradigm of the struggle to a-
chieve political freedom.
During the early days of our
republic, one of the proposals for
America's Great Seal w as a picture
of the Israelites at the Red Sea with
the caption that resistance to tyr
anny is obedience to G-d. Count
less sermons and political addresses
in 17th century England and in
Colonial America focused on the
symbolism of Egypt as an inspira
tion to the downtrodden to have
faith that their liberation would
somehow become reality. Yetzial
Mitzraim is truly the original lib
eration theology text.
The rabbinic perspective, how
ever, perceived Mitzraim as more
than a place or a society where the
weak and the vulnerable and the
stranger suffer political, social,
and economic oppression .Mitz
raim is the existential state of living
without options. Mitzraim is being
circumscribed by our emotions so
that we react irrationally and often
against our best interests. Mitz
raim is fear to confront injustice
and pandering to the forces of evil
in the hope that we might be per
sonally spared.
Mitzraim is being burdened with
petty jealousies that cause us to act
without compassion and consider
ation. Mitzraim is being so ena
mored ot material well-being ( 1 he
Golden Calf) that our judgement
becomes skewed with the result
that our actions further the cause
of mammon rather that man, and
gold rather than goodness Mitz
raim is drowning out concerns for
Soviet Jewry and Syrian Jewry
who live in a political Mitzraim
much like the one ruled by the
ancient pharoah.
Pesach summons us to be dedi
cated to the liberation of our op
pressed brothers and sisters. This,
means doing whatever we can to
sensitize our administration and
our congressional delegations to
share our concerns about oppressed
Jewry, and to raise these concerns
at every occasion where we nego
tiate with the Soviet Union and
Syria.
Pesach also summons us to purge
that existential Mitzraim which
can so warp our personal and
communal lives. Pesach affirms
that we can overcome and that lib
eration from every Mitzraim is
part of G-d’s plan for the universe,
for humanity, and for the Jew
We can’t forget
At this midpoint in our celebration of the liberation of the
Jewish people from slavery, we begin to look ahead to solemn
observances of a modern-day attempt to enslave—actually to
annihilate—the Jewish people.
Adolt Hitler's diabolical plan for a master race failed, but not
before six million Jews and almost as many other human beings
died.
Yom Hashoa, the days of remembrance of the Holocaust,
begins on May 4 and will include a number of special programs,
beginning with the annual memorial service at the monument in
Greenwood Cemetery (See story, page 1).
We recognize that not everyone can attend each of these
programs. However, in these days when there are those who still
claim the Holocaust never happened, it is incumbent upon us to
make every effort to show the world that we shall not forget. We
especially urge the participation of the new generations born since
those dreadful days. The torch of remembrance will be theirs to
carry on.
It’s that time
It’s that time again...time to roll up our sleeves and make that
life-saving donation that doesn’t hurt us or our pocketbooks.
We’re talking about the quarterly blood drive which will take
place Sunday, May 4, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Ahavath Achim
Synagogue.
It only takes a little while, it’s safe, and it's a mitzva.
The Augusta connection
by Stanley M. Lefco
Thomas W. Loyless, editor ot
the Augusta Chroniele, decided
"to set right...much downright mis
representation.’’ The headlines of
the Sept. 13, 1915, issue of his
paper blared. "An Appeal to Geor
gians—In Behalf of Georgia!” In a
tedious and painful apology, the
paper sought to explain why it
undertook to review in great detail
the events surrounding the tragedy
of the Leo Frank case. Frank was
dead, lynched by a mob just a
month before on Aug. 17 in Mari
etta, but Tom Watson, a powerful
political figure, w horn Loyless con
sidered the prime agitator, “a very
Mars of malcontents,” was bask
ing in glory.
Gov. John M. Slaton's political
career had been shattered by his
commutation of Frank’s sentence
from death to life imprisonment.
Loyless also credited Watson with
unbridled character assassination
as well as political ruin of Slaton.
The time had come to "put an end
to the veritable orgy of misrepres
entation. abuse. \ ililications,
threats, violence and lawlessness.”
As for Frank’s lynching, the
front page editorial asked, "What
did those Marietta ‘vigilantes’ —
those self-appointed executioners
of Leo Frank and of the law itself—
‘x indicate’ w hen they forcibly entered
a state penal institution and cooly
and deliberately put to death one
of its inmates?
Noting that ex-judges of the
Georgia Supreme Court, 500 law
yers, thousands of businessmen,
educators, and even law partners
of Solicitor Dorsey urged Slaton
to commute, the paper also ques
tioned whether they were any more
guilty of “betraying” the state than
the governor allegedly was, as
Watson had so vehemently urged.
Wrote Loyless, “And, right here,
let me say, that while 1 had always
believed, more or less, in Frank’s
guilt—though with doubt enough
in my own mind to cause me to ask
for commutation of his sentence —
1 am more shaken, today, in that
belief than ever; and for the reason
that 1 know, now, the mob had
charge of his case from beginning
to end. w ith never a chance for him
to prove his innocence, had he
been guiltless as you or 1.”
In its elforts to vindicate the
state, the paper rattled off the
names and positions of those who
had called for commutation. They
included the presidents of the
Georgia Railroad Bank, the Na
tional Exchange Bank and the Mer
chants Bank. The vice president of
the Citizens and Southern Bank
along with the cashiers of several
other hanks and the mayor and
mayor-elect of Augusta were also
among the list. E\en Judge Leo
nard S. Roan, w ho had presided at
the trial, had written to the gover
nor urging commutation on the
ground of "reasonable doubt.”
Watson had tried to make a
point ot Slaton's connection to the
law firm who represented Frank.
Slaton was a partner in a firm
which merged with the firm repre
senting Frank. How-ever, it had been
arranged that he was to have no
connection with the firm and espe
cially was not to receive any fees
generated by the representation.
Nevertheless, Watson charged that
the “rich Jews” employed the firm,
knowing that it gave them access to
the governor’s office. Loyless re
torted to this attack on Slaton’s
qualification to consider the case.
“The only person who had any
right to make a point of Slaton’s
alleged ‘disqualification’ in this
was the solicitor-general himsell
(H ugh Dorsey)—and he did not do
it.”
In fact, Loyless argued that the
enemies of Frank wanted Slaton to
pass on the case, because they
didn't think he had the fortitude or
courage to commute.
Loyless claimed Watson stirred
the emotions of prejudice to in
crease the circulation of his paper.
The Jeffersonian, and cited figures
to prove his point. For Watson to
name his paper after a president
noted for his stand on religious
freedom while filling its pages w ith
religious prejudice created a strange
irony.
In the end all of Watson’s charges
proved groundless, but by then it
was too late. An innocent man had
died and a political career had been
ruined, while Watson later became
a U.S. Senator; lawlessness was
allowed to run rampant and unpun
ished, the fires of hatred and prej
udice had been fanned, and a black
mark in Georgia and American
history had been registered. I he
posthumous pardon, had it e\en
been unconditional, would ne\er
erase these events. The lessons ot
the Frank case merit telling and
retelling.
American
RedCroeB
We’ll help.Will you?
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