1 /
The Canadian English-Jewish Weekly
VOL.XXVH
. The vital need for immediate political recognition of a Jewish national home and a Jewish State in Palestine by the great powers was stressed by Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio and Rabbi Abba RUki Silver, Zionist leader, at a testimonial dinner for the latter *t the Hotel Commodore, in New York, which was attended by 1,200 persons.
"Unless the principle is adopted iftsw by the great powers and in-|ejsrporated in the peace settlement, -�wre will be no Jewish national ''��fcme and no Jewish common-ieslth," Senator Taft said.
"We cannot long support the Ar b position and the Jewish po-* n at the same time. This iraent must take a definite aon now, and urge now upon ^ British Government the performance of its obligations; or its fssttion on the question will be-Osuit of no importance.
Senator Taft declared that
President Roosevelt and the ad-
-ministration have no consistent
policy on the Palestine question,
"V saying one thing and doing an-
^ �chtr. The resolution, sponsored
r* ay himself and Senator Robert
^ fr. Wagner, which proposed that
-t liit American Goremment use its
Last December he resigned the latter post when opposition developed to his demands for action on the Taft-Wagner resolution in Congress. Dr. Silver is still a member of the council.
In his address, Dr. Silver not only emphasized the'importance of a political decision now in favor of a Jewish state, even though it might take several years to set it up, but he also warned against the danger of deferring aggressive demands for it to stress Palestine as a place of refuge for homeless Jews. He said that President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill are known friends of a Zionist state, but said they are now subject to pressure from other interested groups and sharp-
(Continued on Page twelve)
offices to obtain free entry sit Jews into Palestine and the eventual establishment of a Jewish eamntonweslth last December be-esuse of the opposition of Secretary of State Edward R. Stetinius " apparently under the Presi-^ direction," he declared. The tor said he was prepared to fseintrodoce the resolution at any " Jewish leaders "think it ad-
'J7/-?y Hs said he questioned whether * -^ theTrssideat h*d told King Dm
Roosevelt Gets A.J.C. Bill Of Rights
A proposal by the American Jewish Committee for the formulation of an International Bill of Rights was received by President Roosevelt with "profound interest**, Joseph M. Proskauer, former New York Supreme Court Justice and president of the committee, declared after a meeting with the President
Mr. Proskauer and Jacob Blau-stein, chairman of the organization's executive committee, presented to Mr. Roosevelt a copy of the committee's interim report on suggestions for the establishment of tiers* postwar eomiaisaioni at dsg PsjilW Katiooa CinlliMri ia
MONTREAL MARCH 30, 1945
Criticize U.S. And British On Palestine Policy
NAMED TO AID
REFUGEES
ABROAD
Earl G. Harrison, of Philadelphia, former Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization, was appointed by President Roosevelt as the representative of the United States on the Inter-Governmental Committee on Refugees. .
Myron C. Taylor, the president's personal representative at the Vatican, served as vice-chairman of the committee until his resignation last May. Since then Ambassador John G. Win-ant in London has represented the U.S. Government on the committee.
Mr. Harrison proceeded to London immediately to confer with officials of the committee with respect to its plans for caring for the racial, religious and political refugees who cannot return to their homes.
With increasing numbers of refugees being liberated by the Allied armies, it is estimated that the number to be cared for by the committee may eventually exceed 1,000,000. Thirty-six countries are mem* bers of the committee.
Asks US. Not To Follow British In Palestine
The United Nations conference in San Francisco should consider carefully the future of mandated areas and the consequences of a closed door policy in the Near East. Senator Ralph 0. Brewster, Republican of Maine, said at a dinner aponaoMd far the Now Zionist
J*
WORD "AMERIKAN-
SKY" SAVES
U.S. MAJOR
The word "Araerikanaky" saved Major Robert Rosenthal's life a couple of weeks ago.
Commanding a U.S. bomber division during a raid on Berlin, he was trapped in a Flying insrtresa riddled by enemy flak.
Rosenthal stayed in the crippled plane until he had flown it past the German capital and over the Russian battle line. There he bailed out and landed.
Rosenthal found himself in a field east of the Oder River, with the .muzzle of a Russian rifle poking him in the ribs.
That's when he said the magic word which saved him. �
"Amerikansky!" the Soviet lieutenant echoed joyously. Rosenthal was almost smothered by the ensuing bear hugs.
A round of parties and talks with Russian generals followed, and a plane ride ultimately brought Rosenthal to Moscow.
Thus ended the major's 52nd mission.
Nazis Set Up "Perfect Ghetto" In Lodz
Herewith is the epitaph of the "perfect ghetto*1 of Litzmannetadt, writes Cyrus Sultberger, in the New York Times:
Litzmannstadt is Lodz in central Poland, but it was Teutonized between 1939, when the Nazis rolled into Lodz, and 1944, when they straggled out of Litzmannstadt
In Litzmannstadt they devised what they called their "perfect ghetto." It ha4 three purposes: to
OUTLOOK OF JEWS IN FRANCE IS GLOOMY
The whole atmosphere in Prance, writes a correspondent of the London Jewish Chronicle, is not one to make Jews hopeful about the future. The Nazis have been driven out, but the Jew-hatred which they planted has taken deep root. Now that the Jews who have survived are trying to regain their former possessions, their homes and businesses and their occupations, the French don't like it. They are, however, not openly umi-Semitic. That would be dangerous now, for a Frenchman en-K&tfcd in anti-Jewish agitation would be suspected of having Nazi -syrnpatfriesrAnd it is a risky thing these days in France to be suspected of having Nazi sympathies.
Therefore French anti-Semitism has gone Underground. Anti-Jew-i?h propaganda i� being widely disseminated. It uses a new language, according to circumstances. Strangely enough, it is even directed against the Germans. But together with it there is a lot of poisonous talk about the "new Jewish peril."
The Jews cannot help feeling it. That is why they have no illusions about their future in France. Moreover, they see that the very same officials who carried out the anti-Jewish,,policy under the Nazi occupation still retain their posts in the administration offices. They see many of the police who had helped to round tip and deport Jmws still in the police force. They see that those who were put by the Vichy Government and by the Nazi into houses and flats, shops and factories owned by Jews are still in possession.
Jews are coming back to Paris from all parts of France. They euieige from their hiding places, and make their way to the, capital.
Urn -A . . ' ' mK _� _ _ . '. fc . ^ . .
14
victims, or they took them away when they left
thousands of Jews, especially the younger people, are going about with false identity papers which were supplied to them by the Jewish and by the non-Jewish resistance movement. They are in no hurry, for a number of reasons, to change back to their old names.
In broken, ruined, martyred Jewish Paris, efforts are being made to revive at least part of its economic, cultural, and political life. There are the beginnings of new Jewish cultural institutions, and Jewish papers have begun to reappear.
The various Jewish parties are again active, 'but without the passionate partisanship of old. There is today unity in French Jewry. All the parties, Right and Left, Zionist and nbn-Zionist, religious and irreligious, are represented in the C. R. J. P. (Representative Council of French Jews), the official body of French Jewry. It includes�for the first tirae^-all the Jews of France, both the foreign and the French Jews who have been French for many generations.
Almost all the Jewish parties in France have new leaders today. They are almost all young people, who have been hardened by the perils of the Nazi occupation. Most of them were in the Resist* ance movements, Jewish or French. They do not speak with any great love of the older Jewish-leaden, who have returned, or are about to return, from Switzerland or America* where they lived in safety, and axe now-trying to regain their old leadership.
The Jvwm in Paris proudly show �f tn�
: '
"I cannot OM> eniphasfri1 the vital nature of the pibaisut moment and the sewiaalty of the United States Government taking an unequivocal position with the British and the Arab*," he said.
He soggestod as reasons for the Government's -present policy fear of arousing Arab opposition, desire to obtain Arab oil, and fear of antagonizing the British Government.
The dinner for Dr. Silver, a resident of Cleveland was initiated by Hew York Zionists as a tribute to his leadership among American Jews for many years. He was national chairman of the United Palestine Appeal for seven years and waa co-chairman of the American Zionist Emergency Council.
be in it i at Ban . _,_____to fonrabfts an international bin of rights, the commit-te� nrged the fonsatios of commissions on migration and state* lesoness.
The International Bill of Rights Commission urged by the report would be authorized not only to devise the document, but to enforce it The migration commission would carry on the displaced persons work of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and other agencies. The problem of statelessness can best be coped with, the report said, by an international commission with definite policies as to the protection and welfare of the thousands of stateless persons in Europe after the war.
Mafic words on which your � hoit<M <4�p*ndfc MJk* * fVuM Ourtity i �(i'Mrwn*rtt*� our delicious wtotr of ufcn .
�*
Victoriaville
Furniture,
Limited
Victoriaville, P. Q
Manufacturers of
MEDIUM PRICED
VENEERED FURNITURE
advocated transformation of Fat-eatine into � Jewish state, declaring that ite Jewish population had demonstrated - full capacity for self-government. Mr. Brewster held that solution of the Jewish question in Palestine could no longer be delayed on the grounds of temporary expediency.
(.Continued on Page Twelve)
Free Palestine For Jews Favored
President Roosevelt reaffirmed his support of a free and democratic Palestine, after a conference with Dr. Stephen S. Wise, chairman of the Zionist Emer-gency CouneiL
Dr. Wise talked with the President for three-quarters of an hour, and an official statement issued later quoted the President as saying:
"I made my position on Zionism clear in October. That position I have not changed and shall continue to seek to bring about its earliest realization."
The October declaration to which the President referred .was in a letter to Senator Wagner of New York, who submitted the text to the Zionist annual convention in Atlantic City.
In this message the President repeated the pledge of the Democratic party platform which said: "We favor the opening of Palestine to unrestricted immigration and colonization, and such a policy as to result in the establishment there of a free and democratic Jewish commonwealth,**
An appeal for Palestine to be opened to Jews and addressed to President Rooeevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and Marshal Stalin was presented at the White House by a delegation on behalf of the Ministerial Associates of The-Protestant, which says it has a membership of 6,000 Christian ministers pledged to fight anti-Semitism in all its forms.
The appeal urged the opening of Palestine to the Jews "now while there i� still time to save the Jewish survivors from the fascist terror" and stated "there can be i�o juft peace for the world until there i-� a just peace for the Jews."
The delegation was received by Jonathan Daniels, Acting Preset Secretary, who promised that it would receive careful consideration. It also submitted the appeal to the British and Soviet Embassies for transmission to London and
So to
sd a Jewish faahrar. Hs wss 71-yearlold Mordecnai Ohsim Bonv kowski and his official title was "the oldest Jew in Litzmannstadt.'' His job was to assist the Gestapo in separating the sheep from the goats in the Nazis? sadistic slaughter processes.
He received documents printed in German, Polish and Hebrew to distribute among qualified persons Delected for residence in the "per- ' tect ghetto." His bosses gave him specially minted ghetto coins and stamps.
Rumkowski and his special board
(Continued <m Page Twelve)
the
Belgian Regards Reffngees As Nazis
Five thousand Jews from Germany and Austria who took refuge in Belgium and who managed to escape capture and deportation during the Nazi occupation have been classified as "enemy nationals" by the Belgian Government and are being subjected to restrictive security measures.
These refugees, who were deprived of German nationality by Hitler under the racial laws ami so became stateless, have been re-classified by the Belgian Government as "German" and are being treated accordingly.
Under the Belgian Law for the Protection of the Attied Armies, all security controls except interment which applied to German nationals have been imposed on these refugees. Several hundred have been arrested and imprisoned solely because they are deemed German subjects. Strict police supervision has been established over the remainder. They are required to report to the police at least once a week and may not leave the district in which they reside.
Their" property has been sequestrated and their bank and postal accounts have been blocked. They cannot receive insurance benefits or collect money from their doctors. They cannot sue in coort, Permission to work is rigidly denied to them.
Some of the refugees h ganised a "Jewish Refugee mittee for the Victims of Racial Laws," They protest bitterly against the stigma of being placed in the same category as Nazis and swek restoration of their status as refugees enjoying sanctuary until �uch time as the future of all victims of Nazi racial policy is determined.
Harvard Faenlty Member Cnaries Bias
A Harvard faculty member charged that Harvard University has practiced religious discrimination in awarding of scholarships. The statement waa made by Albert S. Cooljdge, a member of the university's chemistry department, before the legislative committee on state administration which is considering seven anti-discrimination bills.
Describing himself as a representative of the Massachusetts branch of they*American Federation of Teachers, Mr. Coolidge said that in. selecting students for scholarships at Harvard "we know perfectly well that names ending in 'berg* or 'stein' have to be skipped over."
"A gentleman's agreement between the university and the employer sponsoring a scholarship has resulted in such discrimination." Mr. Coolidge said.
"Harvard officials often find themselves in the humiliating experience of not being able to give the best students the scholarship.'*
------, �T-T�v the nesses of Jewish heroes of the Resistance movement, which are now training in different parts of France as regular units of the New French Army.
Young Jews want to know whether there is a chance of joining the Jewish Brigade. Young women were anxious to join, too� as soldiers. Most of them, however,
(Continued on Page Twelve)
U^Aiti-Biw Act Waited
Economic democracy in the United States can become a fact only through the enactment of Federa] legislation for the elimination of racial or religions discrimination, Senator Dennis Chavez of New Mexico declared at a meeting in the Hotel Commodore, in New York, under the auspices of the American Jewish Congress.
Senator Chavez, chairman of the Senate Committee, on Education and Labor, now conducting hearings in Washington, outlined the features of two bills before the committee. One bift would create and give power to a Federal Fair Employment Practice Committee; along the lines of the Quinn-Ives Act in New York State.
The Senator arraigned those
(Continued on Page Twelve)
THE BAR MITZVAH
. . . The moet important Jewish ceremony, when at thirteen, the boy, now a Jew, is welcomed to the Synagogue to read a portion of the law in the midst of bis eiders ... TTcere-mony that fills the parents with pride, the boy with reverence.
Appropriate Giffs for the Bar Mitzvah Occasion:
WRIST WATCHES GOLD SIGNET RINGS GOLD CUFF LINKS PEN AND PENCIL SETS
LEATHER POCKET-BOOKS LEATHER KEY CASES SILVER MILITARY HAIR BRUSHES
KIDDUSH CUPS
HENRY BIRKS & SONS
LIMITED