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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 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Southern Israelite. P O Box 77388, Atlanta. GA 303S7 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 77388, Atlanta, Georgia 30357 Location: 188 15th St„ N.W., All., Ga. 30318 Phone (404)876-8248 Advertising rates available upon request. Subscriptions: $23.00, 1 year; $41.00, 2 years Member of Jewish Telegraphic Agency; Religious News Service; American Jewish Press Assn.; Georgia Press Assn.; National Newspaper Assn. 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? HJI A Public Service o! 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