THE CANADIAN JEWISH REVIEW
MAY 14, 1943
______�_. JEWISH REVIEW
Impartial Medium for Ihe Dls^mtostlon of Jewish New* and Vlem Publtahed Weekly by the Canadian Jewish Review
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Entered as 9w�nd-Cla*s Mall at the Post O�ice �t ^tmwa, in D*~ ctmber Itn, SubscripUon PriM $2.00 per y�ar. United States �3JO
F. Cohen. �*tor. Ratbi H. J. Stem,
' George W. Oohen. Mtmaptr.
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MAY 14. 1943
VOL. XXV, No. 32
Commentaries
By Dr. Harry J. Stem.
Tffit Coll For Action In BehoIf Of Rtfugws
That was a memorable Intercession Service held last Friday evening at Temple Emanu-El for the victims of Nazi barbarism. The Temple was thronged with both Jewish and Christian worshippers. Among the distinguished clergy representing the various denominations were The Yen. Archdeacon A. P. Gower-Rees, Rev. Dr. M. F. MoCutcheon, Rev. ABgiwrCamercm, Rev. Dr. William Orr Mulligan and Professor R. B. Y. Scott. At. this great assembly organized religion pleaded the cause of the persecuted. The following is an excerpt from the speech given by this writer:
This service of intercession is part of the programme which the Synagogue Council of America has outlined for the Jewish community, and during the next six weeks we observe days of mourning as well as days of intercession. This service is also supported by the recent action of The Council of Churches. The Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America observed a Day of Compassion for Jews, who are suffering under the Nazi yoke.
Many nations and peoples suffer under the Nazi yoke at preterit, but there is a special Jewish phase to this tragedy. We Jews not only suffer but we have been singled out for extermination as a people. Two millions of Jews have already been done to death. Six millions in mid-Europe are sentenced to die. Appalling is the tragedy of our martyrdom, but equally appalling is the fact that those who proclaim beliefs in the FVrar Freedoms have done so little to give freedom to live to our people.
There are immigration laws barring those who might escape to freedom. What a great act of humanity it would be on the part of Canada, for example, to revise those immigration laws in order to meet the present emergency and to permit, say, 100,000 refugees, Jews as well as non-Jews, to come in. What a great humanitarian act that would be! But there to be a conspiracy of silence.
point of view, if we fail to
I-----------------��T"T1� I "We Are Condemning To Deal
every friday | Every jew In Axis Hands
' q WKom We Refuse To Admit"
"Homettaies when people censure roe,
I tell the�n without raneor That far what it cost me to be free,
I might have had an anchor."
Recently the Review received a renewal of a subscription from a Jewish male who proffered the mild suggestion that accounts of weddings and the like, giving all the lavish details, should not be published in these times because so many Gentiles see the Review. This seems to be one of the old subjects which are always new for one reason or another.
The Review does not arrange these weddings, it merely reports them because it believes that what goes on in the daily life of its readers is of interest to them. Nor does it believe that these social occasions are vulgar or objectional for any reason at any time except perhaps during a depression when many, people are out of work or living at low standard when contrast would be painful for them.
According to ancient rabbinical interpretation, when the famine which Joseph had foretold in his explanation of the dream of Pharaoh reached beyond Egypt into Canaan, where Jacob and his family dwelt, and Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to buy food, he cautioned them against any display of .wealth, told them to enter Egypt by different gates so as not to excite commentL and warned them not to appear too prosperous because of the want and distress which were prevalent among the population. This was wise, understanding, and prudent advice and Would apply anywhere in -times of. poverty and depression, but not any more to the Jews than to their fellow-countrymen.
If it is anti-Semitism the Review subscriber is worried'' abouCthat has little or nothing to do with what he may re-gard as ostentation on the part of Jews. An anti-Semite will sneer at a jolly wedding party of Jews because his face is set in a sneer where they are concerned, anyway. One who is not an anti-Semite will look on it with good humor or indulgence, the same as at a wedding party of Gentiles, remarking, perhaps, that Jews do seem to enjoy themselves with the greater robustiousness which is part of all their celebrations and true to their nature. Things like this, harmless enough in themselves, do not cause anti-Semitism and if they are seized upon by an anti-Semite to justify his already deep prejudice he will still find something or other to complain about in the behavior of Jews. They cannot stop living to meet the nagging requirements of an enemy who can never be satisfied because he does not want to be, and for that reason finds end-Jess reasons for unjustified blame.
If there were ever a time when Jews could enjoy family celebrations with all the trimmings it is now, despite the war and havoc. It is hardly a time of severe economic suffering that is prevalent now, if only to judge by the newspaper advertising for Mother's Day. Luxurious gifts, available to millions who for the first time in their lives were able to buy something special, do not stigmatize the general Canadian as a
Toronto Saturday Night says:
May 2 was set aside by the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America as a "day of compassion for the Jews/' We are so convinced of the good intent of the authors of this idea that we hesitate to comment upon its appalling irony.
Here are some millions of human beings, made in God's image/or at least as near to it, surely, as Hitler and Goebbels, who are being systematically murdered by means which a humane people would not tolerate for use upon animal; and all that we in this favored hemisphere feel that we can do about it is to devote a day, one single day, to feeling sorry for them!
The thing that we in Canada ought to be doing, and the only thing that would give us the right to respect ourselves, is taking.every conceivable step, compatible with our Chances of ultimate victory in the war, for the rescue of as many as possible of these victims from the hand of the murderer. Everything that we could do and fail to do to that end is simply so much more added to our guilt as accessories to the murder.
There are hundreds of thousands of Jews in Europe who could still be rescued from the Gestapo, if any nation on the face of the earth were willing to guarantee them sanctuary. We have no right to ask any 'other nation to do that unless we are willing to dp it ourselves; and as every Canadian knows, we are not willing. Our immigration laws are a part of the wall which encloses these wretched victims, which they cannot break through nor climb over, and against whJch they will ultimately be shot or clubbed to death by the disciples "Mem Kampf."
The argument that Canada would be swamped with Jews if we admitted those who are now in the power of the Axis is one that defeats its own ends. For we are condemning to death every Jew in Axis hands whom we refuse to admit � and many thousands more who would be admitted to other lands if we4ed the way.
It therefore becomes a question of nothing more than this: Is it better for Canada that/let us say, a hundred thousand Jews should enter the country, or that those same hundred thousand Jews should die because we kept them out? The answer perhaps depends to some extent on whether we believe that <3od judges the nations of the earth�Canada included.
Conniving With Hitler
There Is SHII The Natkm wi:
To Help His Victims
the reiuRs of tbe Bfer-
todfe.
So it is oa* payer tiat tb�" service, in a taBafcfc way. may influence those who can initiate the work of ftscue. I have taken the liberty of inviting to this pulpit my Christian friends, representing various religious denominations, to bear witness to this great historic hour and lend their voice that it may be heard throughout the land of this Dominion, the call of the Church and the call of the Synagogue, in the name of Moses who said "Thou shalt love thy fellow man," and in the name of that Jew of Galilee, Jesus of Nazareth, who became the greatest inspiration for the Church and who taught "Love ye one another." We must do all we can to save those that still can be saved.
Anti-Semrrism In The North African Situation
The following appeared as a letter to the New York Times:
The Ecofe Ubre des Haute* Etudes is an institution of higher Learning and of disinterested research which, by its very aims remains
Yet, precisely because it endeavors to perpetuate the traditions of French culture, of the French spirit and particularly of French tew. the Eoole Libre has fek it its7 duty to give an impartial and objective opinion on a question wMch is currently dividing public opinion: that of the abrogation or lav Otarieox tew In Algeria. We better* that the following state. �Matte �pt of a Mtvre to clarify the issne:
1. It to a profoundly regrettable contradiction that a law of the
mud have been at the very same mo-jHteiiiiiiji pro* Ms return to the laws of the republic.
2. This abrogation is unjust in itself aad is contrary to ail th-UadUiun� of French law. because
a. It penalizes retroactively persons who are in no wtoe guilty of soy offense, and thos infringe* upon the principle of non-retroaction of laws, which in afl ctvlliz-ed countries fct the very safefoard of aoouired rights.
b. It depiivei of their citizenship men who ane French by birth. For the Qdwfeux decree was apptied at a specific moment � rn 1970. At that moment native-born Jews-who wttbin a short spare of time. falfiUed the necessary formalities, baomne French citizens by virtue of the Cremmn decree. Since then their children have been French, not throufh the application of this law but became they were born of French parents, just as the
Far Tfce Executive Comndttee, In New York
children of AmerfCan citizens are citizens by birth. The 100,000 men who were deprived by Vichy and who arc now again deprived of French citizenship did not them, selves benefit by the Creraieux decree � their fathers and grand* fathers so benefited. They themselves axe French because they art-sons of Frenchmen.
c. In modern legislative practice the withdrawal of citizenship rights is a very serious penalty meted out to nationals who have committed the crime of espionage or treason. As a result of the abrogation of the Crenueux law a whole category of citizens fad themselves thus penalized for the sofe reason of being Jewish�a sanction which is without precedent except under racist law.
3. The normal wsy to remedy the unequal ti�a<inMH of which AJ-
is progressively to toad to French citizenship those of then who will have proved their sincere desire to become a pan of the French community.
Faced with the dangerous excitations of German propaganda, k is not by depriving the Jews of their rights that th� Moslem population should be protected against this propaganda but by giving to the Arabs of Algeria the aasurans* that the dsy the French people is able to express its will their tofftimat* claims win be firmly defended, provided they wTO have JoyaDy cooperated toward victory over the enemy.
4. The exceptions] circumstances created by the state of war and by the troubled situation in North Africa forbid the turning of any protest, even legitimate into an occasion for agitation in
** g�m in tl* fMp * cause, deapfte the fact that *ntt-S�Bftkm in this cooatry i� a matter of common knowledge and acceptance, admitted or deplored, or slyly encouraged by Gentiles every day in print somewhere in this democracy, shameful displace that it is.
The argument that the Review should not publish accounts of wedding celebrations because so many Gentiles see this paper is the poorest one in the world. If it is right for Gentiles to read about these occasions among Gentiles it is a'l right for them to read about them among Jews. And, if there is ever a flaunting of wealth evident, such vulgarity can be found among Gentiles as well as among Jews. If Montreal, for example, is a materialistic city, much more intent on things than ideas and ideals, it is not because there are Jews here, but because human life is held cheap.
In the way the Jews order their lives they need only to have regard for What is right and what is wrong and establish self-respect on that basis. To live in constant anxiety as to what the Gentiles think is to subvert self-respect, and the Jews have too much sense and appreciation of personal liberty to conform to such an idea. f.f.c.
Algeria. If the Jews of Algeria therefore abstain .from such agitation this does not mean that they recognize the invalidation of. their rights.
As for Frenchmen who are the guests of the free nations, it behooves them to assert the principles of justice involved in a question which concerns part of the national territory, all the while endeavoring to promote the union of an in the struggle against the enemy and evincing every confidence In the United Nations.
5. It should also be stated that if patriotic duty and concern about victory sometimes demand the temporary acceptance of factual situations in which certain rights sacrificed, nevertheless the ktion of a law of the re-
public without the consent of the Preach people is and remains by nature an act without juridical value. We believe that the French administration in Algeria wou!d fulfill a duty and honor itself hv revoking as soon as possible this unjust measure.
Moreover, as soon as France has retuwred her freedom, the provisional government of France will have the moral obligation to declare null and void the abrogation of the Cremieux law � assuming that this will not hav* been done hi th* meantime. And when the* sovereignty of the French people ts again able to as-**rt itself, we have no doubt that The Jews of Algeria win have Their rights corroborated at the sanv time, as a fair and equitable status will have to be found for The Moslem population.
6. Finally, if those who today declare themselves in favor of a measure contrary to law, in the name of expediency, give as their, reason the unequal treatment of the Arabs � an argument whose validity we deny, because unequal treatment'is not remedied by an even greater injustice � still we feel that such an argument deserves to be discussed and refuted.
But If an attempt were made to justify the abrogation of the Cre-mtenx law merely as a measure of appeasing the anti-Semitic feel-las* developed by German propaganda and by the servility of the Vichy regime toward Nazi Germany, such an argument would deserve only to be branded as on-worthy of the cause for which the free peoples are fighting. A precedent of this kind would Involve the greatest dangers for the future reconstruction of Europe and cannot be accepted by the human conscience. Anti-semitism is the vehicle of all Nazi poisons, and in no event must any concession be made to it.
TUNIS JEWS FREED
/Ctmtiimmg from Pttfw O**t Tunis s knar time are not enthusiastic Faartsts. they have been by the cufamJfc into
doing their bidding by threats to families tn Italy.
Jews in Tunis have dominated trade in wheat oil and anost major exports and Imports, except trade m "wine, which is In French sad Italian hands. Th* Frencti have been government leaders, bankers and k'aders in the commerce and of Tunwa.
i , � ,v r . �.��*
foaialy witfc
in Axifroccupied Europe. Hitler is now engaged in a campaign of systematically exterminating them, men, women and children, with a demonstration of cold-blooded savagery very nearly unique in the annals of mankind. He has already butchered many hundreds of thousands; unless he is stopped, he will butcher millions more.
One way to help these victims is, of course, to win the war before he has time to carry out his plan; but another and far more hopeful line is to �et his victims away from him. The governments of satellite countries, such as Rumania, have indicated they are willing to release some Jews, and even Germany might be induced to do the same. But the bitter truth is that Great Britain and the United States have thus far shown no willingness to let these potential refugees fronTmurder go anywhere and settle down on a permanent and self-supporting basis.
Emergency camps in North Africa or Ethiopia may temporarily take care of a few thousands or tens of thousands; but no government is likely to accept the financial burden involved in relief for a long period when the number of victims runs into hundreds of thousands. Great Britain won't Jet them go to Palestine, or to England, and earn their own livings; we won't let them come to the United States and take care of themselves, though for a long period we formerly absorbed a million immigrants a year, and our people were prosperous and had a minimum of unemployment while we did so.
If the Anglo-Saxon nations continue on their present course, we shall have connived with Hitler in one of the meet terrible episodes of history. For our own sake, as much as for that of the innocent victims of this fearful man-made catastrophe, the British and American governments should reconsider their evident decision not to fight the Hitler mass murder on any adequate scale. There is still time for us to help; the need Is great; if we do not do what we can, our children's children win blush for us a hundred years hence.
Jewish Farmers In Canada Raise More
Than Enough Produce For
Jews Of Country
The number of Jewish farming families in Canada lias ii 20 per cent since 1�1 although that period included the yean of drought, depression and tne lowest prices for farming products in Canadian history, according to a statement by the United Jewtafc Refugee and War Relief Agencies in Montreal whjch has just con^rfeted s study of Jewish refugee settlement in Canada.
The study shows that there has been a slight decrease of Jewish farm settlement in Western Canada where there are long established Jewish farming communities. However, a considerable number of refugees from overseas has been suecessfuny settled on farms in eastern Canada.
The study points out that the produce of the Jewish farmers in Canada is more than sufficient to feed the Jewish population of Canada, which i� only 1.4 p*�r cent of the *�ntir> population of Dominion.
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