40c

00ToBER, t967

LUIIER OlI THEIIIIIDIE EAST

An Answer

By

BEN TOSEPH

RI|SH HASHOIIAfflll

JEUTISHIDEI{TITY

By

MIORRIS U. SCHAPPES '{!;oo!!'ft !{,i',,ro"lJ,,f !tH'l,f,u!*,,iVi:",rfo?{::;

Museum,, IYew Yorlt, Oct. 24 to Dec. 3,

EXPtoSrOlr il RoxBuRYTHE COIWIWSSION ON CHARCH AND RACE

IWASSACHASETTS COUNCIL OF CHARCHES

IIIA KATII]ISKA $PEAKS

FR0rfi REvulsr0il T0 [cTr0rNBy RATH HEIT BAHARAS

O]I YIET]IAilIAN EDITORIAL

Vol. 21, No. 9 (235) Oct. ,1967

EDITORIAL BOARDLours H,tnepSeu PnvznpnDevrn PrarrMonnIs U. Sclraprus

Editor

CONTBNTS

Fnovr Rsvur.stoN To AcrtoN on Vlrrnlm An Editorial

Explosron IN Roxeunv The Commission on Churchand Race, M assachusettsCouncil of Churches 4

Luurn oN Tr{E Mtnor.s Emr Ben toseph

Ir H.q.ppnNED IN Isurr, L. H.

Ioe K.lrrtNSKA Sprers Ruth Heit Baharas 16

Auscrrwtrz Poemby Leon Felipe 20

SoNc oF rHE CrurunpN oF AuscHwrrz Poem by Martha il'Iillet 2L

Tnr ErrroR's DreRv M. U. S. 22

Rosn Hlsnoi,l.t exn Jswtsn Iornrlrv Morris U. Schappes 26

Ilcsrop tnr Jrwlsn ColruuNITY S. P.

Frvn BooKS oN GsnNrlNv Book review byCharles It. Atlin lr. 32

Anrr-SBrvurISM; WHIra Rl,clsnt

RploBRs' Fonuu oN IsRAEL

Anouxo rne Wonrl 1l[. U. S.

FROllil REI|UISIO].| TO ACTIO].| O1.| I|IEI1.|A1[/I

T4

fIEVULSION against the U.S. pres-It en"" in Vietnam is spreadingamong all levels of the American peo-ple as LBJ persists in systematicallyescalating the war-to the point wherethe U.S. air force has already bombedNorth Vietnamese sites seven miles,less than one jet minute, from China.Vlassive action is needed fully to ex-press this revulsion and to compelLBJ to stop the bombing. The peaceforces in our land have set Oct. 2las the date for the culmination inWashington, D.C. of tides of protestbeing mobilized all over the land. Weurge the fullest, most energetic sup'port of this mobilization.

The wave of rwulsion spreads,deepens and reaches into higher andhigher government circles. "An un-necessary and immoral warr" is whatthe Vietnam venture was called bySen. J. W. Fulbright, chairman of theSenate Foreign Relations Cornmittee(1V.Y. Times, Arg. 20). Immediatewithdrawal of all American troopsfrom Vietnam was advocated byCatholic Bishop Fulton J. Sheen ofRochester in a sermon at the SacredHeart Cathedral July 30. Retired Lt.Gen. James M. Gavin resigned Aug. 3from the Massachusetts DemocraticAdvisory Council because "I stronglyoppose the Vietnam involvement" anddeclared Aug. 15 that the U.S. shouldphase out "our vast commitment toVietnam as quickly as possible andturn our energies to our domesticcrtsls. ,-

In the Jewish community, after anunderstandable preoccupation with thedanger of destruction taced by Israel

OcronrR, L967

AN EDITORIAL

in June, there is beginning to appearthe sign of an awareness ol the decrsiveimportance of the Vietnam issue. Eventhe convention of the jewish WarVeterans, while endorsing LBJ's policyfor the third year) registered criticismof Administration aims and methods.And Morton London, past nationalcommander of the JWV, stated theviews o{ large numbers of veteransinside and outside the JWV when hesaid on the convention floor: '0. . . thereis a deep sense of futility and frus-tration among many Americans onthe military aspects of the war andthe debacle of the pacification programand the myth of national interest andcommitment to South Vietnam."

In a Rosh Flashona message releasedSept. 15, Rabbi Levi A. Olan of Dallas,president of the Central Con{erence ofAmerican Rabbis (Reform), pointedout, "The accelerating war in Vietnambecomes more senseless and wantonevery dayJ' In his Temple bulletinSept. 6 Rabbi Louis M. Levitsky ofConservative congregation OhebShalom in South Orange, N.J. writesabout Vietnam: "What is absolutelyterrifying is that we have given rp unysemblance of rationality in even at-tempting to justify it. We even stoppedtalking about stemming the tide- ofcommunism. As o{ now, there is novestige of any cause. . . . Let us get outor restrict ourselves to one enclave tomark our 'presence. '"

Undoubtedly such statements couldbe multiplied but much more will beneeded-especially in terms not onlyof words but of action. Let us helpmake Oct. 21 the day of decision.

3

37

39

4 6

CHANGE OF ADDRESS JEvr H Cunryry1p, Ocrober,, 1967, yor.,21, No-To be Eure you d.o not tniss an o^"J,3?tJ;." tili:Hf,tr:ff'!!f','ti't1'.,#;i: tni

issue, your change ol add.ress tnust Bgqg 091'. 22 Ea.st--l7^ St, New York,. N. Y.,

be receioeil by uE no tater than the 198$?lr,Xf'ff: i?Jif uli:'lif?0"1",*Xor;.,l;':70th of the month.Changesreceioed :ltfl!:t.-.1dd El g year. -Secon-d- clas postage

afrer ihot -rlt not tdke effect lotr f|'fr tr tl.t*,3t:'t,ift:,,"!nf'* York' Copvright

ornother month.4E!' zoe

EXPLOSION II\ ROXBTJRYEyewitness aecounts of the role and

conduet of the police

BY THE COMMISSION ON CHI]RCH AIVD RACENIASSACHASETTS COUNCIL OF CHARCHES

o.f the 70,000 lYegroes who make up 2.0 per. cent- ol Boslon,s popula,-tion, most liue.in _R_oxbury_. An eription' ol uitolen'c"-;i;;;"li"i z-swas. repressed'--by r,7.00 -police,,1uin[ s.ubmachinc guns, b"yii"ii ond,police -do_s:.- [Yegro lead,irs called ii "a polic:e riot.,' ouer r00 wereiniured,, L_59 arrgsted and ilrc property iamage u)as or",, #f,ooo,ooo.We p.ublish the accompanyilg -"y9:witn_ess" report lrom obuiousiyr.esponsible sources t.o hilp

-chick'the obseruable ,,ihite bi"kiorh,,

(which is also affecting_si^-" Jews). This "backlash" auoitl-s tiokingat the 2?use: -of the oitbreaks antl'sees only the lvegro ,;iio,rpr-r.;

nuta:s an e^ditori'al,"what Did we Expect?," irrihe EortoiJewish Advocatetune B pointed out, ". . almoit anything

"o"ti hr;; ,ri-g["*i l"r,

ueekend's euents,in the.Roxbury-ghetio, ptigur:i os it is and, has been.with graue problems ot' -substaidird, h,oit!r,"g,-a-bysmal publi.c iihoolr,unemployment estimated most recently -by"'the'i.i. bipirr*"",t ,1!:2::^::r^!:__?!",

cent, deteriorated, ond dui"ri,oiating potice.com,nuniti,relations, serious public health problems locusing ,noit ,"r"ntltr aroundcommunity, protests ouer treatment ot' thi poo, it Bostorn ctli'i"rpttot::o.^::r:!:r,? :ystem

calculnted to.destro.y.the integrity of io^tty tiy"at the .tame time it treats the recipients ol its largesle ,iith' i ,l"p,irror_alized lack ol dignity."

To the thougEtt"is white workers and, others, includ,ing Jews. whoreact to tlrc .6lr"r:o.explosio.ns by turning. a.way 1i"i1ni "b;1" ,ignt,mouement, Abe Feinglass, international Jice-pieriqgnl i1 ,i" )*kgo-mated Meat cutters and Butcher worhmei, eir-fuci,

-"di;;;;, asharp question: "shouhd we desert the ciuil niij, moaement becausesonTe in its ranlu haue made mistakes, becauie

" f"i ir" """if"

,omake any distinction between the unitid stit"r- a;ni 1,"rini'C;; *,expect all the- millions !t',ne2ple who are impou"rishea a"nd iobiii" onaalierwted, and, frustr?!"qby th.e inhumanity i1 tilg t! ghcttos will alwaysact like sir Gala'had? Toiay wg haue_no tnore right to desert the causeof ciuil rights b_ecause so*b gt' its ad,herents haie mad," i;iniir"lho,,we,haue the right to turn scab's on felrow-*oriiii br"";r;-;;;;';;;r",and some leaders h''ae also mad,e eulen more serious mistakes. . . . Thesef.res ol uiolence haue had glegt aisibitity; i"in iu* uisible is th.e z0years ol racist uiolence ,oiich gaue thim t'ueti;

-(Butcher "wo*ilur,,Sept., 1967).

THE following account of Roxbury,sI disorder of June 2, 1967 is com-

posed from testimony of eyewitnessaccounts of members and staff ofthe Massachusetts Council of Churches'Commission on Church and Race.

The following members of the Com-mission on Church and Race werepresent in Roxbury on June 2: Mrs.Ruth Batson, The-Rev. Gilbert Cald-y_ell, The Rev. Michael E. Haynes,Mr. Melvin King, Mrs. Ellen Ja"ksor,,The Rev. Edward Blackman. Th;Rev. Earl Lawson, Mr. Leroy Boston,The Rev. Virgil Woo.cl, Mrs. DorisBland, lhe Rev. James Breeden, Mr.Byron Rushing, Mr. Charles Turner.

. . . In a situation as explosive as thatwhich is described in theie pages, it isdiflicult to assemble an acc6unt ofrvhat really happened. The news mediafound this veiv difficult. The accountthat follows was carefully written andcarefully checked bv those whoseknowledge

^of the situation was per-sonal an'd first hand.

The Commission has had a con-t'inuing relationship with the Mothersfor Adequate Welfare. This is a'jgrass_

roots" organization which wasform_ed three yei.s ago. MAIV seeksto alleviate the often painful condi-tions of being on welfare. The Com-mission has sought to assist them tosecure those conditions which rvouldmake for a more humane lvelfaresystem.

There will be other reports of theRoxbury week-end. Some will confirmwhat is here written; some will con-test it. The Commission believes thati t has "no ax to grind" except a deepinterest in the welfare of the peopllof Roxbury.

The Mothers for Adequate Welfarefformed in 1964] planned and began

a sit-in at the Grove Hall welfareoffice on Thurs.. June l. 1967 at 3P.M. The purpose of the sit- in was to

Octonun, Lg67

evoke response from the Welfare Com-missioner to the following demands:

l. No denial of aid based on hear-say evidence or malicious gossip.

2. Removal of police from al[ wel-fare offices.

3. Welfare workers must be avail-able every morning to talk with re-cipierrts-not just one day a week.

4. W'elfare workers must respectclients and treat them as equal humanbeings. W'orkers must have the powerto make decisions quickly withoutrunning to supervisors.

5. There must be boards set up ineach office, with a majority of re-cipients, that can act on emergencydemands and policy statements

"with-

out waiting for the long appealsystem.

6. Welfare mothers must be ap-pointed on all policy making boardsof welfare

7. All mot'hers should be able tosave as much money as they can fortheir children's education-and eachdollar should be matched by the wel-fare department-so that our chil-dren won't be on welfare, too.

B. Mothers should be able to earn$85 a month, and to keep T0 per centof the amount above $85.-There shouldbe no deductions of this moneyrnothers earn.

9. There should be a campaisn tochange the image of the weliare" .yr-tem. 99 per cent of the recipients irehonest and responsible.

10. Welfare Director Daniel J.Cronin should be dismissed-and weshould be able to have a say in whoreplaces him.

The MAW's had been trying to getthe Department of lVelfare to" act ontheir concerns for several months.

The immediate cause of the sit-inwas that a welfare mother had beendeprived of support without noticeand without hearing. The mothers

5Jawrsn Cunnpxrs

rernained in the Welfare office Thurs-day night, June I. Police were presentwithin the building. They did notcharge the motherJ rvith irespassing.The police were reported to be cor-dia-l but they did not allow represen-tatives of the news nredia into thebuilding.

On late Friday afternoon, havingreceived little notice or t"rponr", urrdfeeling that the sit-in would provefutile, the MAW locked themselves inthe welfare building with bicyclechains at about 4 p.m. Police werein the building at ihe time. Severalnrale members-of conrmunity organi-zations had ioined the motheri inorder to offer support and assistance.They also remained inside.

The_ strat_egy of locking the doorswas devised to encourage the Com-missioner of Welfare, Danlel J. Cronin,to come to the Welfare office to talkrvith the mothers. The mothers andtheir supporters sat down before thefront and side exits of the buildine.both of which had been chained.

After the doors rvere locked. Mr.Cronin arrived but refused to discussthe issues with the mothers unlessthe chains were removed from thedoors, and unless he was admittedthrough the front door. The mothersrefused, saying afterward thev be-Iieved that they would not be ailowedto remain in

-the buildins. A small

,crowd besan to gather Sutside thebuilding. The impaise was interruptedbv the report tlrat one of the whitewelfare workers who had been lockedin th_e bujlding was suffering a heartattack. The demonstrators offered tohelp the woman out of the window,but she refused._ This report appar-ently panicked the police officei i.,charge of the detail. H" sul'" an orderand officers began to move the dem-onstrators from the doorn,av in theWelfare office.

6

The participants inside at the frontdoor heard those at the side doorscream, "they are beating on awoman." The demonstratori at thefront door began to go towards thescream. Police blocked their way andbegan to hit them with their

'"l,rbr.

Th"y clubbed the people about thehead ."1{ body.. 4J people fell theywere kicked and beaten.-

Th"y were -not told that they wereunder arrest. Some were never arrestedalthough they were clubbed andkicked; the police inside the buildingbeat those people who were insidEthe building,- bolh men and women.

Two staff members of communityorganizations who were standinq oui-side responded to the cries by *kinnfor admittance to the buildins"in ordeito investigate what was tak'ing placeinside._ As they approached u .tuir-

ryay, they. were mei by police pushingthem back down the .tii.r br. swins:ing their night sticks. The t:wo mJrrushed out into the street and ap-proached a police officer to ask himwho was in

-charge of the police de-

tail. One o[ the men received a blowwith a 'obilly"

club rvhich cut hisheqd badly. The policeman grabbedand twisted his arm and threw himinto _the paddy wagon. Another bv-stander wis in' the wigon already. Thedoors to the wagon were closed andopened while another man, a lawyer,was tossed in. He also had beenbeaten.

The police at the same time weresmashing the doors at the Welfarebuilding" and broke througho scatter-ing people. Someone said,

-"it seemed

Iike al l hel l was breaking loose."

A nxan on his uoyv horne frornwork observed the ruckus and'cameup to a pol iceman, who was beatinga woman lying on the ground. toprotest this brutal action. Two police-

Jrwrsn CunnsNTs

men went after the man with theirsticks. He ran to the hallway of anearby building and the officers fol-lowed and clubbed him on the headand body. The man reported later.'oAfter the first few hlows I didn'tfeel anything, you just hear the thud,and know you hurt." He was draggedto, and thrown in, the paddy wagon.By this time the crowd had begun torespond with bricks, stones, andbottles.

When the first paddy wagon reachedstation nine, some ot'her communityleaders and organizers had alreadyarrived. The Captain in charge hadindicated that he was ignorant of anydetails of what had happened at thewelfare office. When the paddy wa€{onarrived, the police moved peoole fromthe rear entrance of the building sothat the unloading could not be ob-served. People were removed fromthe wagon inside the building andbeaten. They were knocked againstthe walls and thrown to the floor.The Captain in charge rvould not admitthat prisoners were present or iden-tify those arrested. When a lawyerarrived he finally allowed individualsto be interviewed only if the lawyerknew their names. Men" visiblv in-jured and bleeding, came out tb seethe lawyer, were booked and placedin cells. While one man was takento Boston City Hospital for treatment,others refused treatment.

One man was so severely beatenhe did not know where he rvas. Paleand trembling, he was unable to standalone. He had been brought in man-acled, with his belt tied around hisfeet.

Another man, badly beaten, re-ported that he had been arrested whilewaiting for his wife, a welfare worker.N{ore people, bruised and bleeding,began to arrive at the police stationlooking for their friends. One of

Ocronrn, 1967

them had a seriously laceratedshoulder from a blow that barelymissed his head. Some were fromthe welfare office, others from thestreet.

The Captain denied that any ar-rested women had arrived at the sta-tion. He reported that they were takendown to the Women's House of De-tention. Bvstanders later saw a womanwho was' brought out to make aphone call, but the Captain refusedcleruy or the lawyer permission tosee her.

Meanwhile the crowd would bechased from one side of Blue HillAve. to another by

" line of police

with riot sticks and helmets, cursing,calling names, knocking people down.

A minister entered the Welfareoffice buildinq and tried in the con-fu"ion to find out who was in charge.The deputy in charge was anxiousabout the safety of the welfare workerswho were still there. Some communityIeaders suggested that the workerscould leave without fear if they werenot escorted by the police. The policeasreed and about half of the welfarewtrkers departed. Some were escortedbv communitv leaders and otherswalked out by themselves.

The deputy agreed to move onehalf the police out. Horvever, at thatmoment, riot equipment from head-quarters began to arrive. So, whilethe discussion about reducing thepolice force was continuing with onedeputy, another denuty near the doorrvas distributing helmets an'd riotsticks. In the front hall of the build-ing someone announced that "tear gasis coming." ft seemed to those presentalmost a declaration of war. A momentlater the depury at the door yelledto the men outside, t'Clear the area."

Persons from the communityagain attempted to reduce the tensionand restrain the police. However, the

7

situation rapidly was deteriorating.The police had carried it beyond allpossibility of control and the com-niunity, leaders left the building.

In the meantime, a meetin! washurriedly convened at Freedom Houseand a call was put through to theMayor. Back on Blue Hill"Ave., thepolice had gathered in assault forma-tions and were moving up and downthe street. In phalanx positions withclubs swinging, they charged groupsof teenagers, many of whom werehurt. In one instance, a policemanwas chasing a teenage boy down BlueHill Ave. As he ran past an old manseated on a doorstep, the policemanstruck him, leaving the old man witha long gash on his head. The police-r6an continued running after the boywithout even looking back.

By this time a medical station hadbeen set up at Operation Exodus [alocal organization that buses RoxburyNegro children to predominantly whiteschools]. Injured people were treatedt'here and at Carnev. Beth Israel andBrigham hospitals as well as at theBoston City Hospital. Members o{the staff were dispatched to severalpolice stations and hospitals to ob-serve and aid the injured. Manv wentunattended. In l ist ing the injuries, thereporters were apparently countingonly those at City Hospital where allof the police were treated.

By l0:30 P.M., Operation Exodus'office had become a focal point fororganized attempts by the communityto reslore order. The group at Free-dom House had reached Mayor JohnF. Collins, who responded coopera-tively to all attempts to control thepolice and restore order. The police,ho'wever, continued to act rvith a largeshow of force which was felt b1' thecommunity to be an attack upon themand which served to prolong theconflict.

B

On Blue Hill Ave., near IntervaleSt., where several small fires hadbegun, someone threrv a rock at apolice wagon. The police then movedinto the crowd and knocked a womandown. When a community organizermoved to protest this action the policebegan to beat him to the ground. Afriend moved to his aid and wasbeaten and arrested. The police thenattempted to enter the Exodus office. Alocal law student denied them en.trance, pointing out that the officewas peaceful and that the police didnot have a warrant. He and a com-panion were knocked to the ground,and beaten, cut about the face, andwere thrown into the wagon. By thistime a majority of the young com-munity leaders had been beaten andarrested.

Later on in the night a troop of 25tactical patrol policemen assembled inthe street in front of Exodus. Theymoved up !h" street firing carbinesinto the air between 40 and 100 times.This incident greatly increased thetension. It Iater was described as amis_take by a deputy. It was a mistake,and another provocation to whiclrteenagers and others responded withangry bott les and bricks.-

The remainder of the ni.qht wasspent in sporadic battles between thepolice and community people. Rocks,bottles and bricks intermirtently raineddown on police. The police wouldthen be reinforced, and temporarilydisperse the crowds. Severil firesbroke out, many store windows werebroken, and many people were hurt.

Finally the street settled into an un-easy calm as dawn broke. The mem-bers of the Commission on that firstnight clearly observed that the con-flict was precipitated by the panicand overreaction of the police. Theissue became how to forestall furtherviolence while restrainins their actions.

lumer on the Middle EastA refutation of his analysis

the Israeli-Arab war

The lVlidrlle East Crisis, by HymanLurner. New Outlook Publishers,N. Y., 1967, 23 pages, 25 cents.

ITHE recent Arab-Israel war was the-E third act o,f an unfinished tragedy.

The claims and grievances of bothArabs and Israelis are largely validand rnutually exclusive. Right andwrong are intertwined on both sides.Anci on both sides the {use of chauvin-ist hate burns toward a new explosion.

The 50th anniversary of the Bal-four Declaration Nov. 2 is a reminderthat the Zionist colonization project,from which Israel traces its descent,was sponsored for its own ends-andbetrayed-by British imperialism,with the United States empire-buildersalso lending a hand. But Israel is morethan the culmination of that Zionistenterprise. Next month marks anotheranniversary-the 20th of the UnitedNations partition resolution of l{ov.29, 1947, and this is a reminder t'hathundreds of thousands of non-Zionistrefugees from the Nazi gehenna helpedcreate the Jewish nation in Palestine.

And it is a reminder too that thestruggles o{ both Jews and Arabs drovethe British out of Palestine and, withthe decisive aid of socialist Russia,enabled Israel to be born.

Had not the Arab governments thenchosen to inake war on the UN parti-tion plan, there would be an inde-pendent Arab as well as a Jewish statein Pale:t ine. And we should not todaybe speaking of war and tragedy.

To say that both Arabs and Israelishave val id claims and grievances is notlci abdicate judgment, but rather torecognize complexities and the needfor rooting judgment in ; fact and notin prefabricated formula. The Arab-Israel conflict, which for so manyyears has defied solution, containsmany shades of gray as well as blackand white, and simplistic approachesare l ikely to founder.

The ilIiddle East Crisis is an ablestatement of the U.S. Communist Partyview by its national educational sec-retary. Lumer unequivocally brandsthe six-day military action as a warof aggres:ion by Israel against its Arabneiehbors. He argues:

l. The crisis that developed in MaYhad i ts origins in a U.S. plot to over-t'hrow the government of Syria.

2. In collusion with the UnitedStates, Israel planned to attack Syria.

3. This attick failed to come off

9

of

By BEN IOSEPIT

BnN JosneH, a stud,ent ol Palestineand, Israeli affairs lor 20 years, haswritten utidely on the utbject in manyperiod,icals. He last appeared in ourpages in our Sept., L966 issue.

Ocrospn" L967Jrwrsn Cunnpwrs

himself refers to, the closing of theGrl-f of Aq?-!", the sudden sfning ofurilitary alliances between govern-ments that only yesterdav were it eachother's throati,

-and tho complete en-

circlement of Israel-all this indicatesa- purely defensive Arab posture! Andthe facts that lead to thii conclusion?"The UAR stated at the outset that itsactions were taken not for the purposeorf attacking Israel but for the purposeof defending Syria . . . in the event o{an Israeli attack." Thus the UAR'sassurances-but never fsrsgl'"-_a1saccepted at face value, and Lurner addsthat u'no visible evidence has been of-fered to the contrary."

By aoerting onets eyes lrorn cer-tain phenomena they become invisible,but they do not thereby cease to exist.I t is true that prior tc the lVlay-Junecrisis Nasser had played a moderatingrole among the Arab rulers and hadarg-ued for postponing a confrontationwith Israel, in contrast to the Syrianleaders'clamor for immediate wai. But

_goaded by the Syrians and Jordanians,he evidently decided that the time hadcome to prove himself if he wished toassert leadership in the Arab world.On Muy 25 Piesident Nureddin el-Attassi of Syria told a meetins of theCentral Council of the InteriationalConfederation of Arab Trade Unions:"Today we are living in a prelude towar. The time of the battle- you haveIong awaited has come." (Monitoredradio broadcast, cited in TheodoreDraper: "Israel 'and iVorld Poli t ics,"Commentary, August, 1967. Draper'sarticle contains important documenta-tion, but its attitude toward Israel'sforeign policy is uncritical and it isweighted with anti-soviet bias.)

The following day Nasser addressedthe same group, explaining the mean-

Tg of his actions in ousting the UNEmergency Force, blockading the

12

Cul^f- of Aqaba and stationing troopsin Sharm el-Sheikh. Lumer rninimizesthe economic importance to Israel ofthe closing of the port of Eilat by theUAR blockade. To a small strugglingcountry he suggests that giving up theport which is_s-o vital fof the

-develop-

rnent of the Negev "could hardly besaid to be t 'atal" (my emphasis-B.J.).Above all, he sees no reason why theblockade rhould have caused Israel togo to war.

Of course, the blockade was onlyone part of a noose-tightening p.ocer-"that Lumer also finds

-quite irino".rou..

As to the blockade's aggressive im-pligations, Nasser's opinion evidentlydiffered from that of Lumer. "Takingover Sharrn el-Sheikh," he told theArab trade union counci l on May 26,"nreant conf rontat ion wi th I i rae l .Talcing such action also meant thatwe were ready to enter war with Israel.I t was not a separate operation."(Draper, source cited.)

And the Soviet Llnion did not seemas confident of Nasser's peaceful in-tentions as does Lumer. In his resiena-tion speech Nasser revealed that on"the

-night of May 26-that is, only a fewhours after his statement aboui Sharmel-Sheikh-"the Soviet ambassadorasked to see me urgently at 3:30 A.M.and told me that the Soviet sovern-ment strongly requested we shoirld notbe the first to open fire" (N. Y. Times,June 10). Whv should the Soviet arn-bassador have'awakened the head of afriendly state at such an hour andmade this kind of request if he did notthink Nasser's act ions may have seth i rn on a eo l l is ion course?

For that rnatter. whv does Lumerhimself speak of "the long-threatenedn'ar of extermination against Israel"?Why does he write thai "one must, ofcourse, take into consideration the im-placable hostility torvard Israel whichexists on the part of Arab leaders"-

advice which he unfortunately does notfollorv? Why does he chide the Arableariers for thinking that their prob-lems "can be resolved by wiping

[Israel] off the map"? Why does hewrite that "such an appeal only playsinto the hands of imperialism . . . andaggravates the lvar danger" ? If all theacts of the Arab leaders in the latterpart of May and early June were notdesigned to implement their threats"then Lumer's cautionary words arerneaningless. Can he conceive of any-thing else that the Arab governmentsrnight have done to indicate that theyreally meant business ?

But it rvas Israel that launched thewar, Lumer tells _u_s. Although UN ob-servers were unable to determine whostarted the fighting in Sinai, there iscircumstantial evidence that the Israelisstruck first. (On the eastern front itwas the Jordanians who struck f irst.)Has this any bearing on the characteroI the war? Who fired the first shotin the American Revolution? Did theLatin American governments that de-clared war on Nazi Germany commitaggression? As a Marxist Lumer mustknow that for Marx, Engels and Len-in the question of who attacked firstin a military conflict was inconse-quential. And I believe that progres-sives today can agree rvith the found-ers of Marxism that the decisive ques-tion is the interests of the workin--people, and this is determined by thepolitical objectives of the contendingsi'des.

The basic political objectives o{the two sides in the Arab-Israel warare clear. The Arab governments soughtthe destruction of Israel as a state andnation; the Israeli government souehtto preserve its state and nation. Thefact that reactionary elements in theIsraeli government also have annex-ationist aims no more nullifies thefundamental objective than did im-

Ocronnn, 1967

perialist influences in the RooseveltAdministration nullify the anti-fascistcharacter of World War II .

Lumer points out that "the crisisin the Middle East has also siven riseto a terrifying flood of intenie nation-al ism and anti-Arab chauvinism"amonq the Jewish people in the UnitedStates. This is true. But the antidote isneit'her national nihilism with respectto Israel nor pro-Arab chauvinism.

The Middle East cr isis and war havedivi'ded the Left in this country and innlanv others. Nor is ihere unanimityof official view even among the so-cial ist countr ies since Romania doesnot agree t'hat Israel was the aggressor.I believe that many Comrnunists andothers of the Left have repeate.d theen'or made during the Nazi-Sovietnon-aggression pact of regarding theexigencies of Soviet foreign policy asr. prescription for their own approachto a most complicated question. Thishabit has led to uncritical identifica-tion with Arab nationalism, which hasreactiondry as 'well as progressiveaspects.

No one has more clearly delineatedthe role of that nationalism in relationto Israel than Dr. Moshe Sneh, editorof the Israeli Communist daily KolHa'am: "The common denominator.tte basic element in the war frontagainst Israel is not a.nti-imperialismbut pan-Arabism. . . . This anti-IsraeliArab chauvinism objectively servesimperialism and invites its interven-t ion no less than Israel i anti-Arabchauvinism" (Freiheit , July fB).

One can agree wit'h Lumer thatIsrael's military victory solve'cl noneof its basie problems-though it didtemporarily solve the core problem ofIsrael's survival. He rightly pointsto the fact that Israel must continue toexist in the midst of the Arab worldarnri in the long run its survival can be

(Continued on page 38)

13Jnwrsn Cunnanrs

Wl sReffiLThe lyfi !"lrl ol Ben-Gurion and Nloshe Dayan oo,tetr aug. 2iIto rejoin the Mapai Party, 'from which it seceded-in 1965. In th"e lastelections Rafi recEived eight per cent of the vote while the Mapai-AhdutAvodah slate reecived 37 pei cent. . . . Arg. 27 the Mapai paity centralexecutive committee voted unanimcusll' to ipprou" a thiee-party mergerof N!ap11 Ahdut Avodah and Rafi thaf wouli control 55 of it

" iZO seats

in the Knesset. Ahdut Avodah, however, announced Sept. 5 it c;uldnot accept the merger terms.

l,o.ong- dJoisirln exists n:ithin the "Goaernrnent o! NationalUnitl'," whoEe constituent parties range from the left-rving- Mapa* tothe r ight-wing Gahal. Cabinet discussions has been so .ha"rp u.,d o.o-longed on issues left by the war that no debate has been held at ihislvriting on the serious economic siLuation and the severe unemploymentproblem.

The first official t:isit by-an rcrlrai presid.ent to an arab aillagetook lrlace Aug. 28 when Pres. Zalmai Shazar was feted in Nazare"thand received honorary citizenship of the city. . . . Sheikh MuhammedAli Jabari, mayor of the Arab city of Hebron declared July 30 thatno residents of the_ city had been harmed by Israeli soldiers.Mayor l{ohammed Habaishi of Acre said in July that both Arabs andiews of Israel are tired of wars and bloodshed. . . . Three Arab villagesin west Galilee in mid-Aug. celebrated electrification of their urlu;1,500 houses will have electricity {or the lirst time State-ownecitelevision broadcasting will begin in Israel in a few months. Broadcastswill be aimed chiefly at Arabs on the west bank of the Jordan Riverand on the Gaza Strip. Three-quarters of the broadcast time will bein Arabic, only one-quarter in Hebrew.

Great concert, has been "our"dt

in Israel by the prayer seraicesconducted by Brigadier Shlomo Goren, chief rabbi of the ArmedForces, and his proposal to build a synagogue on the Temple Mount,which contains the Haram Esh-Sharif, Is-lam's most ru"t"d shrine. Iiis feared that these actions will arouse great resentment among Mos-lems.

Three mernbers ol the Centraltcorn^ittee ol the Nlikunis-SnehCommunist Party resigned July 1l because of disagreement with theparty_ on_policy now although they had supported the ParLy's positionthat the June ryar was a war of netional def-ense. Among them was the

poet Alexander Penn. However, they have not joined the Vilner-ToubiLommunist Party; Meir Vilner rvrote that the three still retained somepositions held by their former party. . . . The Mikunis-Sneh Commu-nist Party has proposed that the Palestine Arabs on the right b,ank ofthe Jordan decide by referendum whether they wish to form a separatestate, an autonomous state federated with lsrael or join with Jordan.

I)amages to Israeli buildingr" ,luring the Loar arnounted. to7,500,000 Israel pounds ($2,500,000 ) . Two thirds of the damages weresuffered by Jerusalem structures during the fighting and the rest by36 kibbutzim and 18 moshavim.

Neus briefs,. . . A large rroui ol cultu,ral f igures and, proles-sors in Israel issued a call in Aug. "to all citizens and soldiers strictlyto follow a policy of hurnanism ancl not to violate the rights and prop-erty of the Arabs." The statement asserted that "We did not wish tcrmake war but, since it was forced upon us, we should keep our handsclean and conduct ourselves accordrng to the principles o{ moralityand jus t ice. " . . . A protest was sent to the Wor ld Federat ion for theDeaf an'd Dumb and to Unesco by the Israel Association for the Deafand Dumb over the exclusion of Israeli delegates from the world con-ference of the organization to be held in Poland. The protest urgedtransferring the site of the conference. . . . An agreement will be signedby the United States and Israel for sending to Israel about $27,500,000in agricultural commodities, prirnarily food grains supplied under theFood for Peace Program. . . . The Israeli daily Doaar denied in mid-Aug. a report that Moscow Chief Rabbi Y. L. Levin had criticizedIsrael for its war with the Arabs in a letter to Israeli Chief RabbiItzhak Nisim. The article explained that in a letter received three daysbelore the outbreak of war, Rabbi Levin had criticized some actionso,f the Israeli Embassy in the Moscow synagogue as inappropriate ina holy place and had said that Jews should pray for peace

-in iny war.

The Israel Philharmo'nic OrchJs*a cond,ucted. a 24-d,ay tour inthe U.S. beginning with a concert in New York's Philharmonic HallJuIy 29, visiting Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, D_enver, St. Louis,Cleveland, Louisville and Toronto in Canada. Noted a.rtists and con-ductors appeared with the orchesira without fee, since the procee,clsof the tour went to the Israel Ernergency Fund. . . . The Seventh An-nual Festival of Music and Drama was held in Israel beginning July27. Several of the groups from India, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia with-drew from the Festival because of their government's position on thecrisis. An evening of Yiddish folklore and a liturgical evening withmany noted cantors were held The Fourth International Confer-ence on Health Problems in the Developing World was held in Israelin Aug. Twenty-five representatives o[ 15 African countries, includingfeven ministers of health, three representatives from Asian countriesand eight from international health organizations attended. L. H.

14 Jrwrsu CuRRrNrs Ocroeen, 1967 I5

IDA IOMI]ISKA SPEAKS

An fnterview

By RUTH HEIT BAHARAS

her norrnal routine of work. On thisday she had given an extensive inter-vierv to representativcs of the PolishRadio and our conversation was sand-lriched in between several consulta-tions. One was with Jacob Rotbaum.director of a Polish theater in Wroc-l_aw, who has also staged several pro-ductions for the State Yiddi.tr Theaterand was in Warsaw to discuss a re-vival of his Goldt'aden's Dream, amusical-dramatic spectacle based onGoldfaden's most popular charactersand creations.

Miss Kaminska ushered me into heroffice and took her seat behind a qlass-

lopprd- desk. Seeing her at close i.nguis both a heart.warming experienceand a bit of a shock. She is u di-in-utive woman, barely five feet tall.Across the footl ights, playing an agedgrandmother, a proud matriarch or abereaved ghetto mother, she comesthrough larger than l i fe by virtue ofher utterly authoritative, compellingstage presence. Here she is ui' o.r""frai lJooking and beguil ing in hersmallness and thinness.

Then she begins to speak. Her warm,blue, intelligent eyes carry half theconversation and you are struck bv themobility of her face, by her wide ex-pre:sir.e mouth, which breaks so easi lyinto a rich, captivating smile. Soon

Jnwrsn Cunnrurs

the personality you know from thestage begins to, mesh with this slight1,et vibrant an.d still youthful-lookingwoman perched on her high-backedupholstered chair.

Shq spoke of many things: thefounding of the Theater, its work, itsaccomplishments and its plans. Herfirst remarks were in response to myquestion about what she consideredto be the role of the Yid.dish StateTheater here in Poland and in theworld.

"I don't think I need to answerthat," she said with surprising vehe-mense. "The Theater speaks for itself.It is a well established institution, fullyintegrated in the Polish theatricalscenee and its acceptance in the worldis unquestioned. In f965 we touredSouth America. We played in BuenosAires-a city with 350,000 Jews andnot one Yiddish theater; in Sao Paulo,in Rio de Janeiro and in Montevideo.We gave 60 performances in 62 daysfor 10,000 spectators. Jews came to usbackstage with tears of joy and grati-tude. Back in Warsaw a vear. we werestill receiving letters from membersof the audience. One man wrote us:'Your appearance was a Yom Tou.When vou left vou took our Yom Touaway.'

"And when we toured Poland earlierthis season we had sold-out houses notonly in cities with Jewish communitiessuch as Lodz, Cracow, Katowice, By-tom, Gliwice and Swidnica, but inPoznan" Bydgoszcz and Zielona Gora,where the audiences were chieflyPoles."

"There was a timer" she said, morereflectively, "when I had to explain mypassionate, mI fanatic feeling on thesubject of the Yiddish theater, that is,on the need rfor a Yiddish theater inPoland, precisely here in

'Warsaw.

rvhich had nurtured the finest seedsof Jewish culture, and where all that

OcroenR, L967

flUR conversation took place in ther-z building of the State YiddishTheater in Warsaw, where, Ida Kamin-ska serves as manager, artistic direc-tor and leadins actress.

_ On _the wai to her office I passedthrough the theater lounge, bire ofany furnishings save a bronze bust ofthe legendary Esther Rachel KaminskaI,LB70-I925), famed as the "mother ofthe Yiddish theater." Under the lead-ership of her daughter, Ida, the StateYiddish Theater has carried on thetradition of the realistic-expressionistictheater, completel). communicative andsocially engaged, which Esther Rachelhad worked to establish at the begin-ning orf this century.

Several days before our interviervthe ̂ company gave i ts opening nightperformance of Cecil Taylois ilIr.Dg,uj.d, _a,fantasy about the appearanceof the Messiah in a Jewish communitysomewhere in England. Miss Kamin.ska, who does not"appear in the play,translated the original English text,adapted and direct""a it.

Now the excitenrent of the premiereryas over and she had settled back into

had remained were the roots of thatculture. I had to explain and demandthat help be given so those roots wouldcontinue to exist, perhaps, even, stillto bear fruit. That was over 20 yearsago, soon after the war. I had ipentthe war years in the Soviet Union-andmy return to W'arsaw had been a cruelcon{rontation with reality. All thepeople whom I had ever- performedwith, worked with, dreamed withabout shaping the future Yiddish the-ater were gone. Warsaw was in ruins.There were no theaters, there wereno houses There lrrere no Jews.

"What was my choice? To leave,to say t'hat Hitler had triumphed com-pletely? To go to another land andyage the perennial struggle againstthe impresarios, to tremble foi themorrow?

"I remained, and so did others. Asmall group of actors, survivors ofthe concentration camps or, Iike my-self, persons back from the SovietUnion, formed an ensemble in Lodz.Performing in an old convertedcinema, under the most difficult con-ditions, the ensemble began to stagerevues, concerts and regular produc-t ions. The group was joined by others.Hevel Buzgan, who had been a leadingmember of the I/ilna Trupe, came fromArgentina with his wife, Riva Shiller.Jacob Rotbaum, formerly a directorof the Vilna Trupe, came ,from NewYork. ln 1947 I took over leadershipa.nci soon we built our own house. Andthen, three years later, we rvere na-tionalized. We became the EstherRachel Kamin--ka State Yiddish The-ater of Poland. Our great 'dream hadcorne true of a permanent Yiddishtheater in which we coul'd guard andcarry forward the f ine tradit ions andvalues which had formerly pervadedthe entire Jewish culture.

"For the first tirne we had a t'he-ater which could exist year in, year

t7

Rurn Hnrr Blnanls is an AmericanIew who, a lew years ago, settled, inPoland zuith her husband. She uorksfor the. Polish radio.

16

out, could be accepted just like allother theaters in Poland; a theaterwhere one does not have to worrythat tomorrow the play will be a failureand the manager will stop paying. Atheater in which the actor knows hewill work through this season and theseason after this.

"fn W54 we moved to W'arsaw,where we have had our base since.performing eleven months out of theyear-71 tirnes in Warsaw, the other75 in the provinces. The following yearwe made our first trip abroad, to Paris.To our surprise we found a largenumber of Jews from Poland. I t wasthen that we realized that our The-ater, now unfortunately the one per-rnanent theater performing exclusivelyin the Yiddish language, provided aliving bridge with the past for Jewsuprooted from their native lands andscattered far and wide over the Euro-pean and American continents and inIsrael.

"Since then we have been to Paristhree more times. to London threetimes, to Israel once, to Amsterdam.Brussels, Vienna, East Berlin, SouthAmerica-as I mentioned-and mostrecently to East Berlin a second time,where we took part in the Berlin The-ater 'Festtage' ."

There was special pride in IdaI(arninska's reference to the Festtage.The Yiddish Theater was the only non-German company invited to appear inthe Berlin festival. The two plays itpresented, with Ida Kaminska in theleading roles, had an excellent recep-tion and a capacity crowd filled thel\{axim Gorky Theater to see the com-pany in an extra non-festival per-formance. Undoubtedlv the name ofIda Kaminska, which

' is now known

throughout Eastern Europe and theSoviet Union following her appear-ance in the Czech frlm, The Shop onMain Street, has reflected glory 0n,

IB

and generated wider interest in, theState Yiddish Theater itself. I raisedthis point and Miss Kaminska concur-red :

"I t'hink you will believe me thatfrom the moment the success of thefilm became widespread and every-body got to know about i t my f irstand automatic thoueht was whether it'lras good for the TYheater. You knorvhow we put i t among ourselves: ' Is i tgood for the Jews?' I t was good andit has gained us many new friends."

Ida Kaminska's neto pride andconfi.dence in the Theater is not basedsolely on the current \rave of popularapproval. As she says:

"Today we have a stable company.This was not always so. In the earlieryears when we loEt an actor there wasnobody to replace him. We also suf-fered a drain around 1956 and manya time the greatest ingenuify was re-quired to be able to work out a sea-son's production plan, to juggle actorsaround so as to cast each play.

"Now we have both a core of sea-soned actors and a group of youngerpeople who have been drarvn into thecompany. Most of the latter have beentrained in our Actors' Studio; 15 areattending the Studio at present. Wecould have SO-there is always an ex-cess of applicants-but that is beyondour possibilities. A very significantthing is that young Polish peonle arealso interested in acting in our Theater.Several are now enrolled in the Studio,learning the Yiddish language as wellas studying their craft.

'oWith respect to repertoire, ourchief problem is still the dearth ofplays on contemporary Jewish themes.Not that we restrict ourselves to Jew-ish material. Aside from plays by Jew-ish writers and adaptations of theclassic writers: Mendele Mocher Sfo-rim, Peretz and Sholem Aleichem,

we have presented Moliere, Gorky,Ostrorvski,

'Wolf, Brecht, Priestley,

Arthur Miller as well as Polishdramatists and authors: Fredro, Or-zeszkowa, Kruczkowski and others.

[One produtcion was Leon Kruczkow-ski's play, Iulius ond Ethel, about theRosenberg case, with Ida Kaminskain the role of Ethel-R.H.B.] Never-theless the bedrock of our repertoireremains Jewish material, and findingnew plays is still a difficulty. This yearwe presented Mr. Dauid, by a contem-porary English playwright. Of the twonelv plays slated for production, oneis Ben Jonson's Volpone and theotlrer. Haim Sloves' War with God.'l'hough

based on the Sabbatai Zvistory in the time o{ the Hmielnickipogroms in the Ukraine during theITth century, Sloves' dranra has im-portant links to events of our era.

"Then too, there are our foreignappearances. We have invitations tocome to Paris, London, the Scandi-navian countries and Israel. Of coursethe big event is our forthcoming firsttour in North America. We shall beappearing in New York in Octoberand then in Philadelphia and Montreal.Of the three plal's we expect to takewith us, one has been definitely de-cided on and that is Mirele Efros, inwhich I will be playing the title role.'o

This play is one of the company'snrost popular productions. I t is partof what is called here the Theater's"iron repertoire." It is also part of itspre-history. Jacob Gordin's play pro-vided Esther Rachel Kaminska withher greatest role and when Ida wasseven years old she was appearing to-sether with her mother, playingMirele's grandson. The melodrama,revised by Miss Kaminska, still wearsrvell. In depicting the humbling andnear-destruction of the rich, despoticMirele Efros by her social inferior,whom she had so condescendinslv ac-

Ocronen, 1967

ROI}TANIAI\ CHIEF RABBIoN CHARLES H. IORDAN

TalE mysterious death in Praguer AuB. 16 of Charles H. Jordan,

executive vice-chairman of the JointDistribution Committee (his largelydecomposed body was found Aug.20 in the Vltava River) drew thiscomment from Dr. Moses A. Roserr.Chief Rabbi and member of theRomanian Parliament, in the Sept. IIournal ol Romanian Religiouslewry: ". . . For more than half acentury . the noble activities of'Joint ' saved hundreds of thousandsof l ives, restored to our communi-t ies so much of what they had lost,warred against suffering wherever itexisted . . . Charles Jordan was fore-most in the leadership and directionof the activities which ha'd as theirend the healing of the woundssuffered by Jews and the rebuild-ing of communities in Europe whichhad been destroyed during theSecond World War. . . . The trasicand untimely death of this grEatman has shattered us all. . . ."

cepted as her daughter-in-law, jacobCor.din created a powerful study ofl i fe among Jews in old Russia.

Ida Kaminska's special talent liesin her ability to express great, agelessthings, above al l those dealing withthe life and de,ath of a person. MireleEfros, like Tfe Shop oi Moin Street,offers her full latitude for t'his talent.

The appearance in ihe United Statesand Canada of this professional Jew-ish company which has for 2l yearssteadfastly upheld the finest progres-sive traditions of the Yiddish theaterwill be an important event. It will-to paraphrase Ida Kaminska-be goodfor theater-lovers, it will be good forlovers of Yiddish theater, it will begood for the Jews.

L9Jpwrsn Cunnunrs

AUSGHWITZ

I F-T those in,fernal poets.I t Dant'e, Blake, Rinrbaud,Speak more softly,Play rnore soft lv.Let them keep quiet !TodayAnyone l iving on this earthknows more about the Infernothan those three poets combined.I know that Dante plays the violin very wellOh. he is a great virtuoso !But let him not now pretendthat rvith his marvelous tercetsand his perfect herrdecasyllabicshe can frighten t'hat little Jewistr girlthat is there, torn from her parents . .And alone,Alone !waiting her turnat the crematories of Auschwitz.Dante! you descended to Hellin the company of Virgi l(V i rg i l , that ivonder fu l ' gu ide ! )and your Divine Comedywas a venture full of musicand sights.But this is something else . sonrething else.How shall I explain 1t to you,S-ince -you can have no conception of i t?You, Dante, cannot imagine i t !Agree, that in your InfefroThere is not a single l i t t le gir l . . .And that one you see over there,is alone,alone! Without a iuidelWaitiirg for the do"ors of such a Hell to openas you, poor Florentine, cannot inragine !

LpoN ̂ Fnrtpn (pseudonyry lo, Felipe Camino y Galicia) , born ln lBB4near ,salamanca, !voty,_ b:6"? pltblishing about 1920. supporting theLoyalists in the Spanish, Ciuil War, he ient into exile in'Mexicoi nr-garded a,s o_ne ol the lorernost Spanish poets, he has recently id,entifierlhims_elf with the lewish past and the !ewish people. The poem u;as fthns-la1"ed ft Fnuonruc rwrw lrom Cuadernos' Americuno., Mexico, t/ol.I44, lYo. I, Ian.-Feb., 1966.

By LEON FELIPU

No, you can never imagine it !Yes, this is a dif ferent thing! Ho*, shal l I explain i t to y,u?L--ook: This is a place n'here-.rne cannot play the viol in.Here the str ings of al l the viol ins of the world)nap.Hty" you _understood me, you in{ernal poets:

Virgil, Dante, Blake, and Rimbaud? -

Speak more so'ftly !Play more softly !H u s h . . .Keep quiet.I too am a great violinistand have often played in Hell.But now, here,I break my violin,And remain si lent.

S(|]IG t|F TIIE CIIIHNEil AT AUSGHWITZBy MARTHA I}TILLET

rf,\HEY made us pul l the wagons.r The u'agons ful l of ashes;

Like tiny beasts of burden,They drove us on rvith lashes.

Some of us were nine and ten,None of us rnuch older;Even the smallest darecl not crv.And they nere weaker . co lder . '

They made us strew the ashes,The ashes gray and enclless.We paved the road with ashes,Shivering, friendless.

God of Hell , defend us IOrphaned sisters, brothers-These ashes were our fathers.These ashes were oul rnothers.

Like t iny beasts of burden,They drove us on with lashes.They made us ,clraw the wagons,The wagons ful l cf ashes.

Mlnrna MIner has published seuerol, uolumes ol poetry; she last ap-peared, in our pages with a poent. in our Aug., 1957 issue. The presentpoelrr is based on the l{. Y. Times lune B, 1967 report ol the testimonyol an Auschnitz suruiaor at th"e Eichmann trial.

Oc:rosun, L967 ZI20 JEwrsu CuRReNrs

o ttn flIdeaL Sabtrnil:pn, Epnlha W. ?{patp-

On Nov. 6 she will be 101. When she says, "my age-it's my greatest

claim to renown," she is not telling the whole truth. For it is not onlythe length of her life but the quality o{ her life-a quality continuinginto hei l0lst year-that makei it notable. Her story is well presentedin An American Century, The Recollections ol Bertha W. Howe, 1866-1966, recorded (on tape) and edited, and with a biographical introduc-tion by Oakley C. iohnson, rvith ( I I ) photographs, published for theAmerican Inst i tute for Marxist Studies by Humanit ies Press, N. Y.,1966, 142 pages, indexed, $5. The book is unique, for it tells o{ onewho has bei.rin active rank-and-file radical since she became interestedirr social ism at the beginning of the century, joined the Social ist Partyiri 1906 and later turned c<.rmrnunist. For almost 40 years she workedas a clerk in t'he N. Y. Surrogate's Court, but all this time her after-workl i{e, which she regards as her real l i fe, was devoted to her cause. I fUpton Sinclair gave a fictional name to her male counterpart as JimmieHiggins, the veritablbe name of the woman Jirnrnie Higgins is _BerthaW. Howe. One of her distinctive traits is her continuing intellectualcuriosity. In 1956, for example. she became a subscriber to our maga-zine from her home in Orlando, Fla. We knew nothing about her. Occa-sionally she wrote me letters; frorn them l inferred that she was a Cen-tile int'erested in progressive matters, but she expressed her failure tounderstand the purpose of the magazine. Replying briefly each time, Icould give only scanty and obviously inadequate answers. Then on

Jan. 17, 1959 wie had our Conference on Jervish Survival and publishedthe main papers in our Apri l . 1959 issue. From Bertha Howe came aletter, printed in our Sept.. 1959 issue, saying t 'hat at last she understoodus and, rnore important, grasped why Jews wanted to survive. "Mybetter understan'ding contributes greatly to my peace o{ mind, and forthis I must thank you and Dr. Harap" (rvhose paper, 'olmpact of Anti-Semit ism on Jewi:h Survival," was in our Apri l issue ).

But non' that she understood, Bertha Howe had to do something aboutJewIsH CunRrNrs. By that time I had learned from subscribers inMiami that she was over 90 and a local spark-plug. One day we re-ceived payment from her. collected from a group of her friends in Or-lando. for four or f ive subscript ions to Jswtsn CunRpurs to go to al l theOrlando rabbis. Soon thereafter, the name of one of these rabbis ap-peared on a petition in behalf of Morton Sobell. And Bertha Howe isstill sowing seeds . . .

o 7a- 0nalonio, "3i0eL Ehide,t'The music of Jacob Schaefer (1888-1936) to "Zvei Brider,, bv peretz(1852-1915),

.cogpose.d when Schaefer was conducting the New yorkiewish P99n_19's Philharrnonic Chorus. has since then bJen sung by pro-gressive Yiddish choruses in rnany lands. Generations of r i t !" ir L"daudiences have -grown to_love it. and concerts at which it is pe'iformedare crorvded- Now the Jewish Vlusic Al l iance has issued a i 'ecording,PILgut by Tikva_Records ($5t. u' i th iVlaurice Rauch c.on.ducting tfeJPPC, and with.Ingrid Rypinski, rnezzo-soprano, and wil l iam ffoIf f ,bass-baritone. _ An_acc.orypanying booklet helpful ly provides the textin Yiddish and in Englislrtransl i terat ion, and'therl is a ,rerse transla-tion into English

.by William Avstreih. Although I should have pre-ferred f piano rather than the organ accompaniriient, the Chorur, ,irrg-ing with _1{:.gives a. good account of i tsel i in this'classic of the pro-gressive Yiddish rnusical ̂ repertory- The Chorus conveys with convic-tion the deep rneaning of P;eretz' fable about the brothlr who learnedfrom the snake how to turn his brother's sweat into r iches for himself.

c Jrrlahinq- on- Ihp- Illiddlp- €aalSunday afternoon, Aug. 6, at the Reynolds Hills Colony in Ner,v york,talked on the present situation to 95 LoloniEts and guests. a.rd answeredquesti_ons for another hour and a half. Very few i-ndeed are those whoregard Israel as the aggressor in the Six-Day War.

o "AAltpA- and- hiarutnd^ai'At the Museum of Modern Art Aug. I0 u'e caught up with the r95B po-l ish f i Im, Ashes and Diantontls..- Picturing 1[" counter-revolut ionarygroups operating in Poland imnrediately after the wgr, the film helps oneunderstand the situation out of which carne the Kielce poero-'-undthe execution of a large number ,,rf the pogrorn-makers. Iiro"- the firstshot of a cross over a church to the last one of one of the counter-revo-lutionary assassins dying in a garbage heap, we get an effectiu" d"pi"-tion of how tho.se who fo rght-th" Ger-a.ts in the Warsaw Rising' of1944 turned their guns against the communists after May 7,1945.Thefi lm is candid about the role of Soviet troops, about careerists who turnleft, about the difficulty of building socialisrn against such a background.

o "AtL fwninq- atillL lamnt- Ealduiil'After -two years in Ista'bul, James Baldwin has returned fmt:i3elected to make his fi_rst- pullic appearance at the Village Theater undert'.L" jo^i1t_ agsqice_s 9f^ thb _ch_a_rtei Group for a pledge of Corrrci"rr""(Box 346, cathedral_Qtu., ry. Y. 10025) ind the Dorcliester, s. c. com-mittee- _("_l_o Grace Methodist _Church, 200-08 Murdock Ave., St. Al-bans, N. Y. LL4l2). When Baldwin, after a long, varie.d and sometimesexciting program that included,Joe Frazier, Dick Davey" Richie Havensand a montage of poetry read by four actresses and a'narrator. finallvcame on it was after ll P.M. and he therefore could speak for onlv

Ocroaun, L967 2?:22 Jpwrsn Cunnnxrs

some 20 minutes. But he said "plenty": "You must bear in mind t'hat Iam speaking about the salvation of a fyoung] generation. You mustrealize I am past 40 and you can expect nothing frorn my generation.. . . The American black man is a surpius population. The economycannot absorb him. The Great Society has no room {or him. . . . Bywhite people I do not mean biologically white, but those who thinkwhite-supremacy. . . . The fault lies in white supremacy, which stillrules this country and will rule it as far as I can see until long afterI am dead. . . . In 1954 fwhen the Supreme Court decision on ichooldesegregation was handed down] Rap Brown was l0 years old. . . . Onehas to consider what that generation has watched in terms of brokenpromises, bad faith, pure brutality, sheer oppression. I and otherpeople have tried to warn the nation that a day was coming when theyoung would not speak not only to Bobby Kennedy-t'hey would notspeak to Martin Luther King and me. . . . Black power is Eelf-determina-tion what's happening today is simply part of the age-old battlebetween poverty and privilege in a rnask of color. . . . It is the failurein the rniddle of the 20th century of all the social arrangements.I have concluded for myself that if we cannot reach the Arnerican con-science, we must find some n,ay of intimidating the American sel{-inter-est." Therefore he proposed a massive boycott of General Motors,e t c . . . .

The proceeds of the Evening with James Baldwin went to the Dor-chester Committee, which sends aid to a community of 14,000 Negroesin South Carolina engaged in various self-help projects, and for the de-fense of the Harlem Six, which has been espoused by the Charter Group.The Harlem Six have been sentenced to life imprisonment after a trialthat is being appealed, on grounds of grievous injustice, on charges ofmurdering Margit Sugar and wounding her husband Frank in a hold-upof t'heir second-hand clothing store at 3 W. 125 St. April 29, 1964. Anilluminating Fact Sheet of 22 pages quoting from the trial record hasbeen drawn up for the Charter Group by Dr. Annette T. Rubinstein andRuth Messinger and can be obtained from the Group. A petition circu.lated in behalf of the Harlem Six by the Charter Group has been widelysigned; one of the signatories is Rabbi Simon Greenberg of the JewishTheological Seminary of America. The Fact Sheet notes particularlythat Frank Sugar persistently refused to identify the clefendants as in-volved in the murder of his wife.

24

o Enoutinq-It rvas good to see our Louis Harap's name on the cover oI The. lVationJuly 3, announcing his review of four books, "The Holocaust: Mythsand Facts." In two pages he dealt succinctly and critically withSteiner's Treblinlm and digested the essential significance of Yuri Suhl'sTh9, Fought Baclt, Simon

'Wiesenthal's The hlurderers Among IJs

and Norman Cohn's Warrant t'or Genocide, dealing with the forgedProtocols of the Elders of Zion ( which circulate extensively in theUSA and, recently, in the Arab States).

Our C. E. Wilson has an incisive art icle. "Black National ism at theCrossroads," in a nev/ magazine, Onyx: A llellection ol Black Thought,(for subscript ions at $5.25 per year and the f irst experirnental issue,write to Onyx. 626 Riversi 'de Drive, Apt. 15-O, N.Y. 10031) . Onyx,is directed to "the generation of black people who have maturedduring and since the 1950's to the type of person who consi'dershimself a black man. and who does not wish to lose and leave behindhis uniqueness as his economic opportunit ies broaden." The f irstissue contains a moving poem by Sara E. Wright, " l-ament of a HarlemMother," and a revealing profi le of "Core's Floyd McKissick" by theeditor, Charl ie L. I tussel l , guided bv the pointed formula: "f i rst youconsolidate, then you integrate." At one point, however, Mr. Russelllapses into a stereotype: " in New York City the Jews control education."If he means that Jews are well or even heavily represented at alllevels of the educational apparatus in the public and high schools,that may be true-but control? lt is not the iews who make decisionson pol icy and on the budger, which defines the l imitat ions of pol icy.. . . Other meaningful contr ibutors to the f irst issue are John O. Ki l lens.Lansston l{ughes and Douglas Turner Ward. I look forward to thenext issue.

Our Eric Mauer has 1, '1, poems in a new "l i t t le rnagazine," Virgin,publ ished rnaybe bi-norrthl), by Nathan Weber, 266 W.73 St., N.Y.10023, 56 pages. photo-offset. 50c. "It's calle.d Virgin," Weber explains."because new people are going to sai l into your minds on a maidenvoyage . . ." Mauer's poems are deeply felt , simple in form, often veryexpressive. All the work in Virgin is youthful and bewildered butthere is also a welcome strain of human involvement and socialcommitment.

The militant ra'dical monthly. The llfinority of One, devotes almosti ts entire Sept. issue to an indispensable ait icle by i ts editor, M. S.Arnoni, "Rights and Wrongs in the Arab-Israel Conflict (To theanatorny of ihe forces of prJltess and reaction in the Middle East)."In 227/z laree pages that rvould add up to a little book, Arnonihas compressed more vital and often little-known facts than I havefound anywhere else in current discussion of the Middle East cr isis.While I may not agree with al l of his approaches (for example, Idissent from his criticism of the Sor,iet position on Vietnam an'd regrethis ignoring the posit ion of the progressive Jewish movement), Ifound his facts frequently illuminating. his argutnentation sober andeffect ive, his conclusions mature and constructive. Part icularly usefulis his carefully documented material on the Nazis who infest theArab governrnents, and thus ad.d a senocidal background to the clamorfor the destruction of the state of Israel. and his discussion of suchdetails as napalm, prisoners of lt'ar and "atrocities" in war. I anra'dding this issue to my top-ready arsenal for discussions of thissubject. Copies at 50 cents each (5 for $2) from TMO. Bor 5++.Passaic, N.J. 07055. M. U. S.

ocroBER" 1967Jswlslr Cunnpilrs 25

-l

0ahanla(ontun

By MAX ROSENFELD

ing was actually done by the non-Jew-ish teachers or by the few Jewishteachers who came. But for sorne timeit has been a matter of principle forrne not to go to work on Rosh Hashona

1nd Yom Kippur. Why the change?And what is the meanins of ih"change?

"

In the early 1930's I was an un-sophisticated atheist who assumed, asso many Jews maintained, that theiervs constituted only a religious com-munity. In a Jewish religious com-nrunity, a Jewish atheist-or an atheistwho had withdrawn from the Jewishreligious community-had no place.So, to assert the principle of my sepa-ration from the Jewish religious com-munity, I went to work on RoshHashona. There were many like me.

The change was brought aboutmainly by two factors. The first wasHit ler ism, the wave of nation.wideanti-Semitism in our own land, andthe slaughter of six million Jews-twothirds of the Jews orf Europe, one thirdof the jews of the world-bv theNazis. The second factor was a morescrphisticated examination of my as-sumption, and the common assump-tion, that the Jews were only a religi-ous community. I reached the con-clusion that the Jews were an ethnicsroup that included both adherents ofJudaism, the rel igion, and non-be-lievers in Judaism or any religion, thatis to say, atheists. The link betweenlhe two factors was the fact that Hit-lerism slaughtered Jews without re-qard to whether they were religiousor not. His genocide of the Jews wasqenetic, ethnic; he aimed at all Jews,including atheists.

The content of the change, then, inmy going to work or not going torvork on Rosh Hashona was that notgoing to work was for me an act ofsolidarity with my ethnic group, my.f ewish people. In the context of Amer-

OcrosnR, T967

FOR ROSH HASIIONA

October 5-6

A HAPPY NEW YEAR

- t r r l r r t r lt t - t - l t / a /

THE EDITORIAL BOARD

I|AS it ever occurred to you thatIf Rosh F{ashona, the Jewish NewYear, has become-nhatever else itnray be-the day of maximum, but nottotal, voluntary Jewish identification?

I do not mean only that the 1,100synagogues that function in the cityof New York al l year round werefilled to capacity on Rosh Hashona asthev have not been on any other dayduiirtg the year, or that they may evenbe overflowing for Yom Kippur. theDay of Atonernent. Many rabbis haver:ried out against the s\varrns of whatthe1. cal l " three-clay-a-year Jews,"rvho virtual ly boycott the synagoguesall vear round but flock to them forRosh Hashona and Yorn Kippur;sometimes this seasonal floo.d cannotbe contained in the existing synagoguefacilities and ordinary meeting-hallsare rented, and easily filled, for serv-ices for improvised and transient con-gregations.

But these "three-day-a-year" Jewsare nothins new in American Jewishlife. I"or a long time now the inrvardlvpious Jews and the ritually observantJews rvere joined on Rorh Hashona inthe synagogues by those who wereonlv formally-or even conformingly-religious. These "three-day-a-year"Jews have for some time constitutedthe majority of American Jews. Evenwhen middle-class Jervs, like other

26

middle-class Americans, thrust out intothe suburbs and swelled the rol ls ofJewish congregations, it was the mem-bership in congregations that mul-tilrlied but not synagogue-attendancefor services of worship-except atRosh Hashona and Yom Kippur.

But I meant more than this whenI suggested at the beginning that RoshHashona has become the day of max-imum-but not total-voluntary Jew-ish identi f icat ion. I am thinkins ofthose Jews who do not go to

"ny ierv-

ices even on Rosh Hashona and YomKippur but who still make these daysthe occasions for their annual reaffir-mation of Jewish identity.

There is a large nurnber ol lewswho are on principle non-observant,or non-believing, or apinostic or athe-istic. Not being religious, such Jewsdo not join the throngs in the syna-gogues or temples, but seek other waysof expressing their Jewish identity.The most common way oif doing this isfor such Jews not to go to work onRosh Hashona and Yorn Kippur.

Now in the earlv 1930's. when I wasteaching in the English Department atthe City College here, it was a matterof principle for me to come to workon Rosh Hashona and Yom Kippur-although almost none of the Jewishstudents attended and very little teach-

ican life, almost all non-jews regardthe Jerus as only a religious commun-ity. (Too many Jews itill have thisfalse definition, but that's anotherrnatter.) Going to work on RoshHashona as an act of separation simplvfrom the Jewish religi-our

"o--.roityis sure to be misunderstood by non-Jews and Jews as an act of sepa-ration from the Jewish people, from theiewish ethnic group.

I avoid such a misinterpretation.I choose instead to affirm my bwn Jew-ish identity as part of th" Jewishethnic group by the elementary butnoticeable method of not going towork on the days that, to th"e J""*i.ttr,eligiou.: community, are High HolyDays. There are many like me. In oneform or another, our act is an act ofsol idari ty rvi th the Jewish people-withthose slaughtered in the-Hii ler holo-caust, as well as with the l iving.

This does not, ol course) meanthat all Jews in our count.y uuuil them-selves of Rosh Hashona io. p.urpose.of Jewish i.dentification in a ielisiousor any other way. Ten days ago i meta young intellectual who looked suspi-ciously at a table displaying the maga-zine JawtsH CuRRENTs and said to me,"Oh no, Mr. Schappes, you are notgoing to trap me. I arn no Jew. I was

27

RI|SH HASHO]IA IINDJEWISH IIIETITITY

By MORRTS U. SCHAPPES

Jnwrsn CunnoNrs

born a Jerv, but I am not a Jew. I arnan in ternat iona i i . t . "

Apparently, 2 | 1'ears aftel the t leattro f H i t {er and the .Jeu is l i ho locaust .there are st i l l unsophist icated youngiewish atheists who are trappecl in aweb of jewish self-denial. The1, assulnefalsely that ideological denial of the factof their jewishness is somehow a Dass-port to progressive social ucl ior,.Obviously, one of the great lessons ofthe 1930's that has not been adequatelytransmitted to militant and progiessiv-eJewish youth is the danger 1o iny realinternational ism, of national nihi l isrn.o,f ethnic self-denial, of personal psy-chological self-mutilation.

But so long as this trend exists, Irnust recognize that while RoshHashona has become the day of rnax-imurn voluntary Jewish identificationon the part of both rel igious and non-rel igious or secular Jews, this identi f i -cation is not yet total. Far more im-portant, however, than the incomplete-ness of this Jewish identification isi ts vast extensiveness, encompassingthe overwhelming majority. bf theJewish populat ion, despite diversity otclass and social posit ion, organiza-tional affiliation or belief and practice.

This diversity. of course. cries outfor detai led descript ion an.d analysisimpossible in these brief broadcasts,Wil l iam James once wrote a large vol-ume on the variet ies of rel isious ex-perience. As large a volume loul,d bervritten by a cultural anthropologiston the variet ies of Jewish experience^secular and rel igious-and a fascinat-ing chapter would undoubtedly includethe varieties of Jewish experience u,ithRosh Hashona.

First, perhaps, should be noted theatt i tude to the High Holy Da1's of thegeneral or ncln-Js\a.ish cornnrunity.Politicians, from the White F{ouse tocity hal ls and state capitols, "greet"th; Jewish people. Tiaffic coirmis-

28

sioners suspend alternate-side-of-the-street parking regulat ions so that(Jlrhodox jews rvi l l not have to violatetheir Holy Days h1' nroving their cars.In Neu York and'Los An[eles, publ icschool clas-es are suspended. In onel\eu' York college, Jewiih students weregiven alternate registration days topermit them to observe their Holyl)avs. In Harlem, the weekly ,ry. y.Amstercl,arn News, which usually ap-pears on Thursdays, was available laitweek on the stands on Wednesdav. itannounced, "because of the Jewishholidal-s," which began on Thursday.Parenthetically, I wonder whether thispart icular change in publ icat ion sched-ule of the Negro weekly was rnade indeference to i- ts Jewish'rrewstand dis-tr iJrutors or to i ts Jervish readers.

Then our culturul anthropologistlvoul.d have to look into othei aspectsof diversity. For example, Orthbdoxand Conservative Jervs observe RoshFlashona for trvo days; most RefornrJews for oniy one. Secular Jews, I havenoticed. decide whether to take twodll-: or one, depending on the daysof the week involved. If there is a fourday _week-end po-ssible. any principledsecularist will take two days-un.d *enoticed thai one l ial lsbure resort thatadvertised "Reforrn Servic-es on Prem-ises" also stressed the four duyrveek-end this year. Of course thervhole question of spending Holy Daysin r,acation resorts deserves study-in-depth _by thg cultural anthropologist.' I racl i t ional ly

the 10 days frorn-theheginning of Rosh Hashona to the endof t!" Dly o_f Atonement are sup-posecl to be Days of Awe, days otaririetl' as to rvhat fate the Supreme.f u.dge of the tlniverse has writtendow-n and sealed for each Jew in theiegendary book of l i fe; days of seri-ous searching o{ conscience to im-pro\-e man's relation to man in ways

of peac_e and social justice. And un-doubtedly there are iel igious Jews ofal l persuasions to whom these daysare just such l)ays of Awe.

But along come the resorts withtrdvertising-tlrgt offers what they call' ' t radit ional

Holy Day services"' in asetting of fun and frolic, in the Cat.skills or Atlanric City or similar areas.'l 'he

biggest of them all announcedthat services will be conducted, not byi rabbi, but by u "world ,"no*.r"dCantor" (name given) with a ,.mag-

nificent choir." -

Some had onlv 'o

"renorvned Cantor" (name olten notgivgn ) without a choir. One resort,rr i th a kosher cuisine, invited al l anisundry. to -" l ive-i t-up-Everything in{rr l l

.swing for the Higtr Holy Days--services on premises-prominent can_to.r--specia_l teenage programs, activ-ities, band"-in facl, ihree bands.One Monticel lo hostelry had not onlvan "outstan.ding tenor" Cantor and his. 'hoir but also i rabbi to conduct theservices-while one resort had only arabbi. Some merely promised ,.services

9n th,e premises,"-and a couple prof-ferred the information that ih".,rvould be "tradit ional synagogue ser\,-ices nearby." Rare indeed ila"s the re-sort that advertised nothing more than"Indian summer's wonderl-and of col-r)r" in Chestertown or "the winevtingl ing season of autumn" in El len-r i l le.

Neverthelers, as Rabbi Maurice N.liisendrath, president of the Union ofAmerican Hebrew Congregations (Re-Iorm), said in his Rosh- H-ashona mes-sage, "The world is increasinclvdesperate for a way to end the

"o.rfii.tin Vietnam . . . The bieots st i l l fan thel ires of violence I bel ieve thatlarse numbers of Jews wil l expresstheir Je-wish identi ty this t tew vear bvextending their efforts on both frontJ.tT'ext, ot' a broadcast ouer WBAI-FM,.Sepr. 20, L966.)

Ocroesn. 1967

In loving melnor)

ROSE YAFFE

Devoted wife and mother

An active fighter for

Peace, just ice and racial equali ty

Leona, Sicl and Ross

Roxbury, Mass.

In rnemory of my son

LIEUT. LEOIVARD WITKI]V

He died October lB, 194+While fighting the barbaric

(lerrrran Nazis in Worlcl War IIl"or a bettel n or.lcl to l ive in

Jacob WirltinBronx

o f

JnwIsn CuRnnurs 29

Anti-S emitisn'r, in SI\ CC

o Anterican. tewish Congress: WillMaslow, executive director ofAjCongress, issued a statement Aug.15 on the anti-Semitism expressed inthe June-July iEsue of S/VCC News-letter. The staternent said: "The shock-i.g and vicious anti-Semitismexpressed in the S/VCC Newslettermust be condemned as a kind of poi-son that can only cloud the atmospherein which white and black, Christianand Jew rnust work together in thecornmon effort to make the prorniseof equality come true for every citizen.. There is no room for racists inthe fight against racism. As partnersin the common struggle for racialjust ice . . . the Jewish comrnunity hasa right to expect that those who claimto seek equality will neither give voiceto nor tolerate anti-Semitism, publiclyproclaimed or privately whispered.

"At the same time as Jews we reiter-ate the moral and historical impera-tives that have determined

- our

comnitrnent to the brotherhoo.d of allrnen and to the goal of full equalityin a free society for all Americans."

o Emrna Lazarus Federation: In aIetter Aug. 18 to Stanley Wise, execu-tive secretary of SNCC, the EmmaLazarus Federation of Jewish Wom-en's Clubs "vigorously" protested:"Such anti-Semitic statements encour-age racists and anti-Semites and willhurt not only the Jewish people, butalso the Negro people and their heroicstruggle for equality. We are surethat the majority of the Negro people

30

HB JEWISHOMMUI{ITY

crusade" against "Jew dornination."Another of the party's publications,The Thund,erbolt, announced it wasr.u-shing - into_ print a pamphlet en-titled "Jervish Crimes and At.ocitiesAgainst the Arab People."

Cerald L. K. Smith's Christian Na-ti.onalist Crusade lYeusletter hea.d-l ined: "Crucif ixion Begins Jewsr'apture Jerusalem Holy ShrinesI)esecratecl . . . God Save the ChristianlVorld."

The American lVazi Party. in its

staternent by leaders of the civi l r ightsmovement "urging the Negro corn-rnunity to reject mob violence," anrlendorsing "their cal l for Con:lre,.-siolral act ion to end racial discrirnina-t ion an.d economic injust ice againstthe Negro people." Call ing for ai enclto " lawlessness and criminal acts., ,AJCong ress u rsed t ha t " t hose v i c t i r r r s*ho have su f f e i ed ph l s i ca l i n i u r y andeconomic loss be compensated.,,but i t warned that "the senseless de-struct ion to which our country is nowbearing witness wil l not end with theirnprisonment of those found euiltr,.T!" despair and desperarion

-rvt idt,

grip so. many black Americans todayare a sign of our nation's fai lure tonieet the promises made to every citi-zen of every color. We can continueto d,en1, these- r ights only at our ownper i l as a nat ion.

o Neu;a,rlt, lVJ.: Followine thetlevastation caused by the eheito

"*-plosion_ in that city, the N.j. R"giono f AJCong ress s t i t ed Ju l y .Z6 i ha t"the City of Nervark . . . faces a gravedanger- today-the danger of ina"ct ion--the danger that we ni l l scold. prom-ise, procrastinate and ult imaieiv dolothing. We must not allorv that tohappen." The statement urged .. l r ,hat-

ever steps are necetsary to close thegap befween u,hites and Nesroes. ' ,I t added that "si lence and ir iact ion

are not in agreement with your posi-tion expressed in your article, for therecent studies by the Anti-DefamationLeasue of the B'nai B'rirh show thatin iir" big city ghettos the majorityof Negroes are actually less anti-Semitic than other Americans. Ourorganization has, since its inception,participated in the struggle for justice,equality and for the eradication ofracism, anti-Semitism and all forrns ofdiscrimination and will continue inthis just struggle.

"We call upon you to change yourposit ion."

. tewish Cultural Clubs: In a letterAug. 21 to Stanley Wise, the JewishCultural Clubs and Societies ex-pressed 'oprofound

shock and protest"and declared: "As an organizationwhich consistently supported SNCCand other militant civil rights organiza-tions we feel it incumbent upon us tostate that your historically-false andanti-Semitic answers pertaining to Is-rael and the Jews are a blow againstyour own avowed aims of equality,Black Porver, of a world cleansed ofracism ul.d exploitation of man byman.

The I|ltra-Right and Israel

The Sept. issue of the ADL Bulletindealt with the reaction of variousgrolrps to the Israel military victory.Some examples from Ultra-Right or-sanizations:

The lYational States Rights Party'sPersonal lYewsletter: ursed "all otherright r,r,ing groups" to j"oin in a "new

"Rockwell Report, 2' warned against^ocftweLt, fteport," warned against

"a third World War to save thesetrouble-making Jews."

_ Action Il[agazine, publication ofSons of Liberty, featured the GrandN{ufti of Jerusalem on its cover withthe headline: "Liberate Jew-OccupiedPalestine."

o In deal ine with whar the ADLBulletin calls ihe "Radical Left,,, theeditors fail to take into account thatthere are differences among left groupsand individuals on charaCterizine thesix-da1' Arab-Israel war. I t is not"true,as ADL asserts. that the whole lefttook the same posit ion as the SovietL'nion regarding the character of the

l.T. They omit the fact that quitedif ferent posit ions, in one degree oranot'her, were taken by such publica-tions as the Mornin.g Freiheit) JetoishCurrcnts, Yiddishe Kultur, Minority olOne, I. F. Stone's Weehly and Nam'-parts. Also progressive organizationssuch as the Jewish Cultural-Clubs andSociet ies, Emma Lazarus Federation.,f Jewish W'omen's Clubs, YiddisheKultur Farband (YKUF) and thel"r iends of Yad' Hana sent tens ofthousands of .dol lars in emersencvIunds in June and July to proerlssivlins t i tu t ions in Is rae l .

Anti-Riot Bill Opposed

o American tewish Congress issued;r statement July 27 welcoming the

o(;roBER. 1967

l)orlr wouldd isas te r . "

be an invitat ion to

This r,r'arning applies as well to allurban areas which have or have noterperienced r iots.

_ o Deleat ot' BilI Asked: The EmmaI-azarus Federation of Jer,r,ish Wom-en's Clubs and the Jewish CulturalClubs and Societ ies urged N.y. Sen-a-tors Jacob K. Javits ind Robert F.Kennedy and Pres. Lyndon B. Johnsonto rvork for the defeat of the Anti_.Rio, Bill, passed by the House andbeing considered br- the Senate.-S. p.

Jnwrsn Cunnnnrs 3r

BooKREVIE,W

FIUE Bt|t|TS l|]T GERITAilY

Tuo Germanies, Mirror ol An Age,by Peter Lust. Harvest House, Mon-treal, 1966; paperback, 240 pages,no price listed.

The Muted Reuolution, East Germany'sChallenge to Russia and the West,by Welles Hangen. Knopf, N. Y.,231pages, $5.95.

Iourney Through & Haunted Land,The lYew Germany, by Amos Elon.Holt, Rinehart & Winston, N. Y.,L967, 259 pages, $6.50.

fulenace 6;l the Miracle, Germany lromHitler to Adenau,er, by HeinzAbosch. Monthly Review Press,iN.Y., 1963, 278 pages, $5.

Berlin Diary, by William L. Shirer.Popular Library, N.Y., L967, re-print, paperback,464 pages, 95c.

6|AN there possibly remain a "Jewish\-t question" in today's Germanys-East or West-in view of the terriblefact that t'here are but some 30-odd

Cnanrns R. Arr,BN Jn. is the author olHeusinger of the Fourth Reich: TheStep-by-Step Resurgence of the GermanGeneral Staff and the essay "GermanHand on the l,luclear Trigger," both olu;hich are international best sellers. Herecently returned from cr,n extensiaetrip tirough both'Germanys. He lastappeared in, our pd,ges in Il[ay, 1966.

32

o{ China is as abysmal asil l i teracy about tire GDRvails in this country.

rian corsciousness should besince oniy our collective

office to be succeeded by the one-tirneNazi Party stalrvart, Kurt CeorgKiesinger

Elon-whose political acumen iseasily measured by the unboundedfaith he posits in the W'est Germanpress, radio and TV corps-cites un-critically Der Spiegel's empty boastthat it "succeeded iust in- iime inshooting doln" Franl joseph Strauss.Defense Minister under Adenauer. To-doy Strauss is acknowledged as the"strong man" of West Gelman poli-t ics who hand-picked Kiesinger- fort'he chancellorship because of the bal-ance o{ por!er exercised by Straussand h is Chr is t ian Soc ia l Union.

Moreover, Elon's imputations ofofficially inspired anti.Semitism-i{not a subtle continuance of a latterduy cultural genocide-can not bepassed over. An exarnple o,f t'his occurso-n p. 130: "Herr [Heinz] Hennig,chairman of the Leipzig Jewish com-munity [i" the GDR], gives the fol-lowing count: before the War" 18,000Jews l ived in Leipzig, only f ts areleft today-69 of them above 60, tlunder 30. The '{ inal solut ion of theJewish problem' wil l soon be com-pletell' realized, at least in this partof C_errnany." ( !) Mr. Hennig, bir i tnoted, endured I0 years in assortedNazi death camps.

The implication that the GDR hasanything to do with Hitler's "FinalSolution" is a heinous affront.

trn order to seeure an infortnaliae)balanced and insightful view of theJevyish cluestion and i ts broader corol-lary, one must repair to the rvorksof Lust and Abosch.

Peter Lust is a Canadian lournal istrvho is an editor of one of

-Canada's

largest German language newspapers.He is above all a reporter wlro

-digs

ancl comes up with the story. More-over, he was born and reared in

welcomed,ignorance

the generalwhich pre-

By CHARLES R. ALLE.N JR.

thousand Jews living there-the ma-jority in the W'est-since the Holo-caust destroyed virtually the entire550,000 Jews who were Gerrnan citi-zens at the time of Hitler's rise topower?

To raise the question in its broadestapplicability-religious, ethnic, social,economic-implies essentially a twin-pronged political and philosophicalissue: what has happened to the fascistpast in the two Germanys; and, oncethis has been determined, what doesit augur for the future? Obviously,there are many aspects of the twoGermanys which the books under con.sideration here treat but I am re-stricting my analysis to this singlepoint, the heart orf the ma,tter as faras I'm concerned.

The most recent of the books-thoseby Lust. Hangen and Elon-are sig-nificant enough, merits to the sidefor the moment, because they deal,either in part or in whole, with theGerman Democratic Republic. TheGDR's extraordinary developmentover the past 17 years as a force tobe reckoned with in Europe surelyrnust be adjudged one of the im-pressive facts of modern history-de-spite the official American govern-ment's policy that the GDR does notexist. So the fact of at least this muchrecognition on the part of the Ameri-

Since specific data, coupled ofoourse with insightful observations"are rvhat is needed above all on thisissue, let us repair to the two morervid_ely_ acclaimed books - Hangen'sand Elon's.

Hangen proaides no intormationrvhatever on what has happened to

tb" Jews l iving today in the GDR.His book is not reportorial so rnuchas it is the cornplaints of a hand-somely salaried correspondent for theNational Broadcasting Company,

1,!ose chief preoccupation is thit theGDR is not nearly s-o affluent as WestGennany; consequently, he is alwayshaving -trouble accommodating hispoo'dle dog and Volkswagon.

As for Elon, that an Israeli iournal-ist can see clearly enough some ofthe more obvious featurei o{ the re-stored past in West Germany and notparrot the Ben-Gurion line that a newdemocracy has been established thereis all to the sood.

He rightly" underscores the ,fact thatHit'ler's generals, the Big Businessforces which financed fascism, theNazi jurists and pro{essors are "re-spected citizens" and are to be foun.d"among_ the, mighty today in Bonn."

Yet the sharp limits of both Elonand Hange.r are demonstrated by nu-rnerous misfirings when it comls toprognosticating West Gernran pol i t ics.Tu'o quick exarnples are sufficient:

Hangen confidently tells the rea.derthat former Chancellor Ludwie Erhardr .1r lurrr lur urra luel lor Luowlg [ rnard

will not step down before ihe 1969{general] elect ions." A month afterihe book's appearance, Erhard-whoselroi i t ical future was at bss[ fsnu6u5-ir &s unceremoniously turned out of

o(:roBER. J_967Jnwtsn CuRnpNrs

33

Germany until shordy after the Nazitake-over. He knows his subiect thor-oughly. He writes clearly and simply.

His two chapters enti t led "WestCennany's Jewish Community" ando'East Germany's Jewish Cornmunit^y"directly confiont this issue; tlieyshould be reprinted in every Anglo-iewish publication in the U.S. andCanada.

Lust minces neither wor.ds nor factson the obvious anti-Semitism and ra-cism which lie just beneath the thirrsurface of West German "democracy."He points out that the Jews still repre-sent a major target for the resurgentNazi movement rvhich has rnade omi-nous gains recently in the F ederal Re-public. Although there are fewer than27,000 Jews living in West Germanyto.day, it is not required to have anoverabundance of Jews on hand tohave virulent anti-Semit ism; what isrequired ale anti-Semites and thesocio-economic grounds which breedthem.

He goes direct ly to the crux ofRight i'deology rvhich prevails inclay's Gennan Federal llepuhlicresard to restitution.

In 1951 I wrote an editorial inThe lYation on the isrue of restitutionr,vhich at that time exercised the Jewishcomrnunity. While certainly conced-ing that in'dividual vict ims-should beable to collect damases frorn ,theGermans (after all, wh-=at are repara-t ions i f not rest i tut ion at the statelevel? ), I warned then that rest i tut ionwas a tr ickl. danqerous resolut ion inand of itseif of t'he question o{ Ger-rnan guilt in the extermination ofthe six mil l ion. No amount of monelrI insisted, could ever serve as a rnoralmeasure of genocide; an.cl I antici-pated that once the Germans had paidup in terms of cold cash on this point"th"y would eventually take politicaladvantage of their act; that a r".r.-

34

theto-ilr

gent, unrepentent Nazism would userestitution for its own ends. Lust'sassessrrent of what has happened inregard to restitution in West Cermanyconfirms this expectation.

ln the first place, the vocal fascists(not "neo-Nazi" or any other emphe-misrn accurately describes them) likethe NPD (National Democratic Party),West Cermany's large:t minorityparty today, say openly, as did itschairman, Von Thadden: "We have

lraicl the Jews endless indernnities inwhat is called 'restitution.' They [theJervs] never stop moaning about thepast. They continually demandmore. . . ." (World iewish CongressBackground Paper No. 2, Nov., 1966,p. 6). This patent anti-Semit ism exer-cises a direct appeal to significantsections of West German society today.

This view is not extreme. It isnierely a logical extension of theofficial Bonn policy of re-establishingthe national past which paved the wayfor Hitler. There is an indissolublenexus between ending war crimestrials. calling for a blanket amnestyfor Nazi war criminals, deman'dingthe "return of the lost Eastern terri-tories" (parts of Poland, Czechoslo-vakia and the whole of the GDR),insisting upon W'est Germany's "right"to a nuclear arsenal and the rise ofa resurgent fascism in today's FederalRepublic.

Per:haps it is in order to considerhou' restitution works out in WestGermany. Lust comments as follows:"If rve take the word's meaning liter-ally, the payments miss the rnirk bysome 90 per cent. No one maycollect more than the salary of alWest German] :enior civi l iervant.

If a claimant lived throush theentire Hitler years, he will ieceive$6,000" no matter what the actualextent ol his claim! (Pages 86-87.)

He describes the demeaning difficul-

ties rvhich any victim seeking restitu-t ion must submit to: "Exact proof oflo-"s must be given-and the GermanGovernment is stricter than any NorthAmerican insurance company wouldbe. Affidavits mean little. There musrbe corroborating evidence. Since theHitler years were lawless . . preciouslirtle evidence is available."

-

In Elnst Germanyt es Lust cor-rectly reports, the contrast is strikingand of far--reaching significance. I;the GDR there are I,642 "religious"Jqws- in eight regional groupingswhich c_omprise the Jewish communiiyof the GDR. There are, it is estimated.an additional 3-4,000 Jews rvho do notconsider themselves religious, yethonor and uphold the Jewiih heritagein many ways. All adult Jews areconsidered automatically (.ro proofis needed) "vict ims of

-fascism." ' As

such -they are accorded not only sO"-cial honors by the state but receiveprimary ^preferential treatment: theyare the first to receive housing, cars,e'ducational benefits, vacationi. resthome passes and hospital izat ion care.At_age 60 for men and 55 for women,a Jervish citizen automatically receives-in addit ion to his regulai pension--600 marks per month for fhe rest.rf his l i fe. I f a jew is a "f ighteragainst fss6igrn"-4n even hiehert 'ategorl ' -his rnaterial and honoii f icrervards are yet more substantial.

The GDR has preserved as memorial-rnuseums the sites of the infamouscamps Buchenwald, Ravensbruk andSachsenhausen. Anyone who visi tsthese places will treve, forget the ex-1rcrience. Th-ere the precious memo.y,,f those who perished is lovinolvrnaintained; and a porn'erful publ ic eclu-cational force ,for the survivors ofthe Holocaust is k"pt. Al l is relevantlo the extraordinary anti- fascist con-tent of the GDR's educational, pol i t i -

( )t;roetrR, 1967

c:a l . soc ia l anc l cu l tura l ins t i tu t ions.' l 'he

rea l mi rac le o f Oerr r rany is notthe {everish American-inf latt l<l coon-t l rn) ' o f the West but the genuineelini ination of the Nazi past ancl thecreation of a truly anti- fascist gen-eration of youth in the East. Lustu'r i tes:

"The GDR's Jews are divided intotruo easi ly dist inguishable groups:ruper-assirni lated Jews who have eitherforgotten or would l ike to forget theirbaclground and origin; and irembersof the religious community. Assimi-lated Jews often hold hieh Govern-ment offices. In fact, proportionatelvthey are more prorninent than non-jews, an'd this is understandable. Thepower of f the GDR] Government isexercised by an 'elite' forged in theNazi concentrat ion camps. Most Jewsnho had remained in Germany andsurvived went throueh the hell of 'KZ'.

. . . 15 per cent of al l resistance f ight-ers hacl been Jewish. When the GDRGovernment was formed, resistancefighters became the nerv elite.

"The Jervs of the rel igious com-munit ies are the remainder of theqlce teemine Cerman-Jewish group.The si lent n' i tnesses of their past aret'heir greatest as sets : temples-, ceme-teries, literature fall suppoited by thestate-C.R.A. Ir. ] . The small congrega-tions-far from being persecuted bythe Government-are treated like rarespecimens. And rare_ specimens theyare indeed prooff] to the outsider,i'orl.d that [the GDR] is indeed themost anti-Nazi government in Europe;that Jews are being helped and en-couraged; and that rel igion is notp.rse"ut"d in East Germiny" (pages213.214\.

Heinz .Abosch'sMiracle remainsaccount of WestIt is a bri l l iant.

Menaee of thethe best al l-aroundGernany at hand.

fundamental historl'

35JBwrsrr CuRner,rrs

and analysis. (I t is to be hoped thatthe 1962 edition will be revirss'd forcurrent cotntuent.) Abosch. a WestGerman journal ist, deals in basics andhis sol id research forms the ground'work for innumerable profounC in'siehts.*H"

put his finger on the funda-ment of today's West GermanY whenhe observed: "The young louts whodaubed swastikas on synagogues arethe inevitable product of this official

[Bonn] reconci l iat ion with the past:the swarms of ex-Nazis in responsibleposit ions, of generals and judges oncein the SA, professors who once t;roteweighty tomes in support of racism,of bishops who prayed for Hitler . . .10 -vears of hypocrisy and consciouslyorganized obscurantism were boundin the end to bear poisoned fruit . . .

[Bonn's] whole policy tended in thisd i rect ion" (p . 201) .

He also scored a cogent point whenhe showed that it is West Germany-not East Germany-which is purelythe product of an artificial manufac-ture: ". the impulse to create aW'est German state came, not frornwithin the country, but from outside.All the great nations of the world arethe result of profound political move-ments, of moral revolutions or llopu-lar upheavals : WesI Cermanv $ 'asbrought into being on orders frorrrabroad, under foreign fcapital l donr-

36

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nd correct evaluation of the Israel-Arabrt of all progressive people. Our supporttion for $200 is enclosed.

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ination and within the strategicalframework of the Cold War. The latters tanrped i t w i th i ts sea l " (p . 28) .

It -is

easy to forget this basic truth.The implication of course is that t'hereis much unfinished business left inWest Germany, business which mayyet have painful consequences. Per-haps it is not inappropriate to endwith a grim observation which ap-pears in the re-issue of the classicBerlin Diary. William L. Shirer madethis observation at a hotel in BadSaarow, a health spa outside of Berlin,on April 2I, 1934 (almost nine yearsto the day of the immortal

'Warsaw

Ghetto uprising ! ) : "Taking Easter off. . . hotel here mainly filled with Jews

. we are a little surprised to seeso many of them prosperine andapparently unafraid. I think they areunduly optimistic."

TIHIS IS the anti-Semitic cartoonI that appeare'd in the June-July.SNCC lVewsletter, illustratin;,; ther:enterspread of the tabloid, headlined:' 'Third

World Round Up-The Pales-l ine Problem: Test Your Knowledge"(see our Sept . issue, p . B) . The car-loon shows the "Jew-Money" Powert Star of David around a $ sign ) lynch-ing Nasser and Muhammed AlitCassius Clay) while the Thir 'd Worldn'ields the sword of the Liberation\'Iovement to cut the noose. This is"classical" anti-Semit ic propagan'da up-rlated. I ts message is that world Jewryis strangling the Arab world and the\merican Negro-typical anti-Semiticl ies. This cartoon dorninates the page.l ls lnessage is reinforced b,v otherrrrrt i -Semit ic and anti- Israel statements.

oCTOBER. L967

rg!t{IS disgusting. vicious rvhite racistt 'I cartoon appeared in Der Tog-

hI or gen lurnal (Day-l euish. I ournal),the Yiddish dai ly, on Sunday, Aug. 27in the magazine section. The revolt ingfigure at the r ight, rvi th i ts horr iblecaricature of an Afr ican-type face onthe body of sorne fanciful aninral withclarr,s and a tai l , is labeled "Snick-Black Power." This creature is crank-ing an old phonograph out of whosehorn comes what is described as"Anti-Israel Propaganda." At the leftis a figure of an Arab about to put ane\,v record on the turn-table; therecord is enti t led "Jew-Bait ing." Thecaption below reads: "He has someonefrom lvhorn 1s lssr'n?'-that is. SNCCis learnins Jew-bait ing from the Arabs.'Ihis

cartoon is a nasty. chauvinist re-action to the anti-Semit ism in theSNCC cartoon.

We call upon all those Jews whoproperly scored the anti-Sernit ism inthe S/VCC l{ewsletter (Theodore Bikel,Harry Gol'den, the Anti-DefamationLeague, the American Jewish Congress,etc.) to condernn this rvhite racist car-toon in this Yiddish dai lv an.d to sivetheir conderrrnation the sarne curre-ncythel' save the criticisrn of SNCC.

In Loving Memory of

SAMUEL DAT/ID GILLwho alrvays worked towards

a world of peace and freedom

Mirinm,

the Child,ren and Family

New York Los Anseles

Jnwrsn Cunnuurs ?t7

LUhIER 011 ISRAEL(Continued t'rom page 13.)

assured only throueh reconciliationwith its neighbors. zThe need for areversal of the present Israeli foreignpolicy," he writes "is more crucialthan ever, and especially with regardto the Arab refusee problem."

This problem has been placed evenmore directly in Israel's lup by thefact that the newly occupied Arabterritories contain the vast majorityof the L9+7-M refugees and their chil-dren. Surely the t ime has come for anIsrael i ini t iat ive that could bringnearer a settlement with t'he Arab coun-tr ies and beqin to renovate a moralimase staine'd with anti-Arab racism.Lunier is on solid ground when hecal ls for a pol icy of compensation orrepatriation-the solution probablyl ies in a cornl ination of both.

WE REPOR|

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The author is also on soli.d groundin opposing all annexations. However,in demanding restoration of the statusquo ante, he is holding to a positionthat the Soviet Union it:elf has, aIleast on the diplomatic level, begunto modify. Toward the end of thespecial UN General Assembly sessionthe Soviet delegation was reportedready to support jointly w,ith theUnited States a compromise resolu-tion calling for Israeli withdrawal tothe previous armistice lines in returnfor Arab abandonment of the stateof rvar they have maintained againstIsrael for nearly 20 years. The Arabdelegations refused to accept this com-promise. It seems to me that this pro-

lrosal is a minimal quid pro quo iIthe next act in the Arab-Israel dramais to mark a break with the tragedy,cf the past.

Disagreesq l\apalnt?

It is sad (although not too surpris-itg) to see the extent to which yourYiddish nationalism has carried youand Jnrvlsn Cunnnxrs. But I must ad-mit I was startled to read in the firstline of your editorial, "Having won ajust war. . ."

For the record, I am completelyopposed to U.S. and French arms tolsrael, and just as much opposed toUSSR arms to Egypt (and lndia !) butto just i fy the Israel i war as ju,st!

Let me ask you just a few questions:I ) Is it not true that, from the outset,

lsrael has willingly served as a tool ofAmerican imperialism vis-a-vis theArab world?

2) Is it not true that practicallyevery year (sometimes more than oncea year) Israel, since its establishment,has raided Arab territorv (with not afew casualties among Arab women andchildren) and illegally increased itsown terr i tory thereby? (Look up areastatistics in any almanac !) And whatabout the million and a half refugeesfrom our Chosen People's state (per-haps 3 mi l l ion norv ! ) .

3) Is i t not true that Israel has op-posed all African liberation movementsin recent years? Algeria is a good ex-ample.

4) Isn't Dayan one o{ the worstlrloodthirsty military types to be found,rnywhere on this bloody earth?

5) Can a "just" war include inciner-ir t ing of the "enemy" with (U.S. pur-, 'hased) napalm? !

( )CTOBER, L967

$25,oOO$ 14,563

l,0oo260

39

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READERS'FORT]M OI\ ISRAtrLTIIR ouerwhelming majority ol our readers support ow positionon the Israel-Arab war. Howeu_er,_there is also ol iourse sonle'd,issen^tiY" !or? therelore enla,rged the Lerters from Readers to this specinlReaders' Forum on Israel.-Ed.

6) Hasn't the cocky government ofTel Aviv made it clear that a largepart of its seized Arab lands are goingto be kept as booty?

7) Can you find anything admirablein Israeli foreign policy since the verybeginning?

I must admit that I have no love forany Zionists - even progressive ones.

CasrySiluer Spring, Md,. Iuly 2

iWe shall restrict ourselves only tocomment on Number 5, about napalm.We agree with I. Ir. Stone (VeeEly,

July 3) that "Israel 's use of napalmmust lie heavy on every Jewish con-science." We also knolv that the leru-salem Post reported June 6 that theEgyptians had droppe.d napalm onKibbutz Ein Hamifratz near Haifa. Wetrust this knowledge will lie heavy onthe consciences of the Egyptiani, asmust the fact, verified by the Interna-tional Red Cross, that Egyptian troopshave used poison gas against Yemen-ites.-Ed.l

Renewa\ Pl,us-

I started writing this on Independ-ence Dav. but mixed emotions re theArab-Israel crisis seem to freeze clearthinking out of all the confusing prosand cons. Yes, I've read editorSchappes' WBAI broadcast of Muy30, also the material dealt with inNlay, June and especial ly the July-Aug. issue. But how could i t be other-wise. since this horrible situation hasbeen al lorved to bui ld up over l9 yearsl

Jrwrsn Cunnrxrs

I fervently hope and pray that de-spite many revulsions and convulsions"the hosti l i ty n' i l l abate because just anrlhumane nesot ia t ions n ' i l l n in out .

And r ight on our cloorstt:ps, LosAngeles is st i l l in the state o[ shock i tsuffered because of the pol ir ,6 lrrutal-i ty of last June 2lJ. lvhen pe.r(:e march-ers tr ied to cott lrorrt LBj at the l)enro-crat ic hucksters' $500 plate dinner !And the rnarchers rvi l l continue unti lVietnam is fre' : of t .S. imuerial ism.

Corning back to the Israel-Arab war"I rvas also taken aback when I rea.dyour ad in the July I National Guard-ian., "L)o lou think the l ,eft is o1:posedto Israel?" While you rnay have in-serted this to attract readers toJnlvtsH CuHnnnrs, rea.ding the rest o,fthe ad made nre {ee[ that in this adyou \,\'ere de{endins \,our positionabout the Israel i side. I t made mefeel funny. lW" rvere challenging themisconception that the Left as a wholewas opposing Israel.-Ed.]

JEW'SH CURRFIITSEXCLUSIVE SPECIAL FEATURES,ARTICLES FROM ABROAD,NEWS OF AMERICAN.ISRAEL, WORLD JEWRY

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Ile that as it Inal, I'm enclosing acl-rec,k {or $10-$7 to cover a two yearsub renewal, plus $l i contr ibution. . . .l /enice, Cali l . , . luly l0 Harntq Ross

Kibbutz Casualt ies

Enclosed is a check for $9. Thisn i l l pay up our one-year subscript ion.and also renew my Israel i cousin'ssubscript ion for another year. They'like it very much. I am delighted thatthey in Israel are getting it. Pleasecontinue to send it to them at KibbutzN{ishmar-Haemek. It is heartbreakins-indeed that ther- just jost four mostrvonderful peopie

-out of the kibbutz

and many lvounded.F. B. R.

I(onstts City, luly It)

"In Full Agreernenf'

Just a few nords to commend youan.d the sta{T for the latest issue o{ themasaz ine.

I u* in full agreement with yourposit ion on the \{ icldle Ea t. I am com-pletel l . at a loss, to put i t mildly, atthe posit ion laken by sonre of ottr peo-ple in relat iun to lsrael. I t 's very dis-couragine.Chicago, luly l0 MAnrrN Jorr-p

I)iscontinues Sustainer

I am remirs. When I read JplvtsuCunnorlrs. I f ind I disagree, but al-though I have dra{ted a letter or two Ihave failed to rnail them. Horvever, atthis t irne I can no longer be passive.

I have many t irnes objected to yourstrong{ national ist view. I t seenred tome that you expected the Soviet Unionto be "a l i t t le more concernedu'; i tseemed to me that you fai led to recog-nize that national ism is but a step toa people's rvorld. I am of the opinionand bel ief that the working peoples al lover the world have nrore in common

than the artificial boundaries ofguage and 'oculture."

I believe that"powers that be" encourage thist ional ism to divide and Jonqu"r.people in the Soviet Union wantlose the nationalist view and

lan- Israeli and Arab workers who are inthe jeopardy.na-

I fto

areto

I have been a $15 a year sustainerfor many years but I now find thatI cannot in good conscience supportyour policy. I am. therefore, contin-uing as a regular subscriber to themagazine. I am still in,terestecl inyhul you say. Enclosed is my checkfor $,1, for one year's subscripiion.

Nlantrn J,tcxsoNThe Bronx, N. Y ., Iuly L2fSince_ Mrs. Jackson, a long-time anclvalued sutrscriber an.d sustai.rer, hasdecided to renew her subscription, wehope we can still "reason togeiher."

First, Mrs. Jackson coulcl not haveread our July-Aug. materials on theIsraeli-Arab iituation very attentivelyif she can write: "Nothing is said aboutoi l or CIA!!!" The fact is that wespoke about both on pages 14. and 16of the July-Aug. issue. We wrote: "W.ehave continually opposed United States

working at it, they are on the roada better life-

No ole says life is peaches andcream there but they are certainlyrnaking their own deitiny. And ho#many_of us Jews keep the-',traditions,,

1nd how many inlerpretations arethere in these "traditions.', I am aJew-but first I am a worker, a mother.etc., before f am a Jew.

Your present position on Israeli-Arab situation

- is heartbreakins.

\jothing is said about oil, or CIA\|!All you seem to know is Israeli ,.state-

hood," which f am sure you know wasnever in jeopardy since l i rael 's al l iance\vas an imperial ist one with the U.S.lnd Western Germany! Rather it is the

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ROSH HASHONA GREETINGSFrom Friends of Kihhutz Ysd Hsna

Help in the $25,000 Rehabilitation Campaign of theAlmost Destroyed Progressive Kibbutz yad Hana !

$151000 already raised from all over the country.

$l0,o0o MORE NEBDED!

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JnwlsH CuRRenrs ( )(:ToBER, 1967

policy on the Nliddle East because it isbased on oil-imperialism and ColdWar strategic needs rather than on theneeds of the Arab states, the State ofIsrael or the principle of peaceful co-existence. In our May issue, weexposed the role of the CIA in theMiddle East, showing that it was op-erating on both sides orf the street,financing anti-Israel propaganda in theUSA, working in Israel and in theArab States. . . ."

'We may add that the

CIA would of course be operatingamong Arab chauvinists as well asamong Israeli chauvinists. The CIAfunctions in Syria as well as Israel.

Mrs. Jackson is also sure that"Israeli 'statehood' . . . was never injeopardy . . ." Because the Israelis wonthe war so swiftly and decisively, manytend to forget the real and terrible dan-ger of destruction that the people andState of Israel knew and felt theyfaced. In the ll[orning Freiheit Jwre29 in Yiddish an'd July 9 in Englishthere was reprinted from an Israelicommunist newspaper an article, "WasIsrael in Danger of Being Wiped Out ina 'Holy'War'?" by Dr. A. Berman, one

A PIGTORIII HISTORY OFTHE JEWS IlI AiIERICA

by Morris U. Schappes

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JEWISH CURRENTS, Dep t . P ,22 E . l 7 S t . ,Room 601 , New York , N . Y . 10003

42 Jowrss CuRnuxrs

of the leaders of the Warsaw GhettoUprising and now chairman of theAnti-Nazi Alliance in Israel. Dr. Ber-man quotes a sampling of the _contin'uing threats of destruction and exter'mination that came unremittingly fromArab leaders in May and June. For in'stance, Iraqi Pres. Abdul RahmanArif, acldressing on June 2 the soldiershe was sending to Jordan for the waragainst Israel, declared: "The creationof Israel is a fatal error. Now thiserror must be rectified. The Arabs andall the Moslems must, in the name ofGod, protect the holiness of Islam andcorrect this error. We now have a glor-ious opportunity to wipe out our dis'srace ii rqag. We have suffered fromihi. disgrace for 20 years. Now themoment has arrived to wipe out ourshame. With God's help we will meetshortly in Tel Aviv and Haifa." AndDr. Berman comments, "This is thetrue {ace orf the so-called Arab 'anti'

imperialisrll,' B blind, zoological hatredof the people of Israel." And Dr. Ber-rnat asierfs: "There is not the slight-est doubt that the war which we live'dthrough these past days was a defen-sive war, a war for the existence ofthe State of Israel and for the physicalcontinuity of our people."

Mrs. Jackson rejects our views as"nationalist." American progressiveshave a double standard, apparently,about "nationalism." Thus Freedom'wa,ys, A Quarterly Review o{ the Ne'gro Freedom Movement, early this yearprinted an excellent statement by Os'sie Davis, the militant Negro drama-tist, actor and freedom fighter. In thecourse of rejecting anti-Semitism, Mr.Davis wrote: "You see, I consider my'self a Black Nationalist, and proud tobe one . . . but not a Black racist." An.dso far as we know there has been nocriticism in internationalist circles ofMr. Davis' announcing he is proud tobe a nationalist. It is s'ood that the term

nationalist is not simply a term ofabuse when applied to the Negro peo-ple, or to the Arab people. But in ref-erence to Jews the term is still usedonly as a whip.

Nevertheless, we deny that we aresimply "nationalists." We are pro-gressive American Jews rvho integratetheir Jewish identity and Jewish con-sciousness rvith an international out-look.

Mrs. Jackson writes i ". . . first I ama worker, a womane a mother, etc. be-fore I am a Jew." Since she was bornsimultaneously a woman and a Jew,what can it mean to say. "I am a w0-man betore I am a Jew" or "I am anAmerican belore I am a Jew" or 'oI amirn internationalist belore I am a Jew"?(See our pamphlet, Jewish ldentity:llialogue with lewish Youth, for dis-cussion of such points.) Mrs. Jacksonrvas born an American Jewish woman;then she became a worker and arnother and a progressive. We believein integrating all these aspects of aperson's rdentity, not in having to, orin vainly tryins to, choose rvhicfr comesfirst or second or third. We do notbelieve that in our historic period aninternational outlook requires that peo-ple give up or sacrifice iheir ethnic ornational identitv. Could Mrs. Jacksonrnake an intelligent choice between

In Loving Memory ofDORA BRIN

who died July B, L967Louis Brin and, Family

Los Angeles

being a worker and being a woman,or being a worker and being a mother?Could she, would she, sacrifice mother-hood to workerhood, or workerhood tomotherhood? Would she not struggleagainst anyone who tried to force herto make such choices,? Similarlv lyereject attempts to compel a choice be-tween a progressive international out-Iook and a progressive American Jew-ish outlook. We refuse to sacrifice onet-o the other; we insist on integratingthe two. Only dogmatists out of touchwith present reality can deflne this asreactionary nationalisrn. - d'd.]

On the Arab Relugees

The editorial on Israel-Arab neso-tiations in your July-Aug. issue is w6n-derful in its views on the situation andthe clarity of expressing those views.However, _it is very disturbing to meto find that Jrwrsn Cunnnxrs soes

In Loving Memory of

DORA EDID

died Aug. LB,1967

aged 65

devoted to peace

progress

and progressive Jewish culture

Rachmiel (Rubie) Edid

New York

ocroBER, L967

emory Of

:REENBERG

and Liladelphia

along with I. F. Stone on his views ofthe Arab refugee situation.

I am enclosins an article from alocal publication

-lThe Calit'ornia leu-

ish Voice], which states the facts ofthe refugee situation as I have knownthem for manv vears. It does not seempossible that

"I. F. Stone or Jowlsn

Cunnrilrs does not know these facts.Assuming that these facts are knownto you, for what reason can you dis-regard them or not believe them? Iwould l ike to know.

IN MEMORY OFTESSIE SHENKERdied, I,rtg. 27,1967

partisan of peace, progress andprogressive Jewish culture

Morris U. Schappes

My deepest sympathy toAtvrvE

on the loss of Frankher beloved husband

my dear friendDAV ID

In Memory of

Our beloved aunt

LEAH ZILBERT

Yeta, Helen and Hy

New York

M Jrwrss CuRnuurs Ocronnn, L967

In I.'he Voice the article says thatin the War of Independence "IsraeliJeaders used every public relatioumeans to persuade the Arabs to re-main in their homes and become partand parcel o'f Israel." I wish to a.dd thata person close to me living in Israelat the time of the l9,tr8 war and stillliving there, told me that loud speakerswere used in the streets bv the Israelisurging the Arabs to stay and to livein peaceful coexistence. But the Aralrleaders rvere using loud speakers inthe streets urging all the Arabs to leave,to leave all their belongings, as theyrvould be away only one week. duringwhich time all the Jervs rvould be killedand they, the Arabs, could then comeback and appropriate the belongingsof the Jews.

I would also l ike to refer to Stone'sstatement that "a kindred people wasmade homeless in the task of findingnew homes for the remnants of Hitler'sholocaust," and add one word whichhe omitted. He omitted the word "mur-derous" between t'kindred" and "p"o-p1.." Also I would like to state that itis a lie to say that these people weremade horneless. They made themselveshomeless. It is also a lie to say that thearea was needed for the Hitler victimssince it is a fact that there was roomfor all and still is for people who wantto work and not iust si t around.

BUYING SERVICBW'e shall be glad to get for youany book or record iesued inthe USA mentioned in lewishCurrents. Send us your eheckor cash and we ehall sent it toyou postpaid. Add 15 centr forPap'erbacke.

JEWISH CURRENTS22 E. 17 St.. New York f0003

How can he say that now is thetime to be magnanimous on the part,,f the Israelis when he knows andt 'verybody knows that the Arabs re-

RESERVE THE DATE

December 10, 1967,

2 P . M .

JEWISH CURRENTSANNUAL CONCEITT

Brooklyn Academy of Music

luse to even talk with Israel?How Jnwrsu CuRRENTS can

rvith such thinking is veryttte to understand'

Sene

go alonghard for

GBnsrLos Angeles, luly 17

[The article in the Calilornia tewishI/ oice presents only one part of thepicture about the origin of the Arabrefugee question. Arab chauvinists arewlgng in holding Israel alone respon-sible for it. Zionists are wrons in liold-ing only the Arabs themselv& respon-sible._The fact is, as we have frequentlystated in our pages, there were threefactors that created the Arab refugeeexodus.

First was the fact that the British,before surrendering their Mandate onVIay L4, 1948, were calling on thcArabs to leave Palestine because, with-out _Brit ish protectors, they would beat the mercy of the Jewsl Secondly,tfre A_rgb Higher Committee, headed bythe Hitler collaborator, the Mufti,urged the Arabs to leave Palestine lestthey get caught in the crossfire of theimpending war; the Mufti promisedthe Arabs they would return very soonbecause the Arab invasion would-quick-ly drive the Jews out. But then'someextremist Zionist gloups, headed byllenahem_ Bei_gin and th-e lrgun, playedinto the handi of the Britiih u"a th"r\rab propaganda by such acts as the,\pril, l94B "rnassacre of 25A men,

U pholst"era Craftsman: Re-Vebbing _& Repairs done in yourbome. Reupholstery, slipcovers,drapes, foam nbber cushioning.Serving all NYC boros. Fraternilattention. Tel.: [fY 3-8899.

women and chiltlren in the peacefulArab village of Deir Yassin per-petrated by the Irgun and the Sterngroup. . ." (A. B. Magil, Israel irtCrisis, International Publishers, N. Y.,1950, pages 120 and l4,6ff ).

News of such actions by the Irguno,f course led lnany Arabs to pa"icflight, and the public appeals of Jewishleaders cited by Mrs. Gerst, by herfriend in Israel'and by the CaliiorniaIewish Voice could noi undo the dam-age done by the Jewish terrorists.Therefore the State of Israel sharesresponsibility for the existence of therefugee question and must, as I. F.Stone pointod out. begin seriously towork for a solution io it-even' be-latedly.-Ed.l

Notiee to Fortner l|lelrnbersof the Cemeterg lDepolrttnent

ln case of death in the fami ly, p lease br ingwith you the deed of the qiave plol our-chased f rom the Cemeieiy Department.We wi l l take care of every+hing'wi lh theleasl i rouble to you.

f. J. Morris, fne.97OI CHURCH AVE., BROOKLYN

Tel.: Dl 2-1273In Hempstead L. 1., Tel. is lV 6-2500

Chapels in every part of the city

45

AT HOME

'0. . . u'nless U.S. troops ure withdrawn'there will be disastrous consequences notonly in Vietnam but throughout the world"is the conclusion of a Position Paper signedby 659 returned Peace Corps volunteers,one-eighth of them Jewish, who had servedin Asia, Africa and Latin America, pub-lished in the Sept. Ramparrs. Those wantingto add their signatures may write to Com-mittee of Returned VoLunteers, Box 380,Cooper Sta., N. Y. 10003. . . . Addressing aHiroshima Day rally Aug. 5 in New York,Seymour L"oy, World War II Army ser-geant and father of Capt. Howard B. Lev,y,told over 1,000 demonstrators for the with'drawal of U.S. troops from Vietnamn "Thisis the 63rd day of Howard's incarceration.He'd be very lonely if he didn't have sup-port such as yours." Capt. Lelry, sentencedJune 3 to three years and dismissal fromthe army for refusing to give medical train-ing to Green Berets and for advising sol-diers not to serre in Vietnam, appealedAug. 14 to the U.S. Fourth Circuit Courtof Appeals in Richmond, Va. for releaseon bail. The appeal was denied Aug. 28.. After two weeks in Saigon, Drs. Her-bert Needleman and Frank R. Ervin of theCommittee for Responsibil ity to, Save War-Burned and War-Injured Vietnamese Chil-dren (777 U.N. Plaza, N.Y. 10017), re-ported South Vietnamese governmental redtape ruas thwarting their efforts (N.Y. Times,Aug. 15). Dr. Needleman said that , in c iv i l -ian hospitals in the northernmosl combatzone, they saw fl ies crawling in patients'open wounds and that "Typhoid cases andother cases of other communicable diseaseswere placed in beds next to patients whohad been operated on."

Four men) two of them rnentbers ol theJohn Birch Society, were arrested Aug. 23in the Bronx, New York, charged withattemntins to murder Communist theoreti-cian Dr. Herbert Antheker June 15 by rrlant-inq a home-made bomb on the roof of 683Allerton Ave., set to explode when he was

46

addressing a social club on the top storyof that building. Weapons seized in thehomes of the four arrested included an anti-tank gun, a submachine gun, 45 rif les, 14handguns, 7 shotguns, dynamite and 250,000rounds of ammunition. The four are held in$25,000 bail each for a hearing Sept. 15.. . . Last Oct., 19 Minutemen were arrestedin Queens on charges that they planned tobomb left-wing headquarters; tons of weap-ons were seized. No trial has yet beenheld. June 2L in Queens 17 Negroesl{ere arrested on charges of conspiracy tokill Roy Wilkins and Whitney M. YoungJr., civil rights leaders; an arsenal ofweapons was also found in the homes ofthose arrested. A hearing is set for Oct. 24.

In Silaer Spring, MiL. IuIy 26 hugeswastikas were painted on a sign defining thesite of the Silver Spring Jewish Center; aslogan praising Nasser was painted on thesidewalk. No arrests have been made.Aug. 4 in Brownsville, Brooklyn, the stainedglass window of Hevra Torah Anshe Hesedsynagogue was smashed, prayer books weretorn up and other religious objects vandal-ized. No arrests have been made.

The Morymount Manhattan College Aug.23 named Dr. Elaine S. Klein as its academicdean, the first time a Jew or any non-Catholic has had an administrative nost ina Catholic educational institution. . . . A-onnthe 24 members of a citizens committeEappointed Aug. 9 by Gov. Nelson A. Rocke-feller of N.Y. to review state laws asainstdiscrimination and to ascertain wh"etherstronger legislation is needed are MurravA. Gordon, vice chairrnan, American JewishCongress; Nat H. Hentel. former Oueen,.District Attorney; Henry Minkoff, chairman,L. I. Advisory Council, State Commissionfor Human Riehts; Gus Tvler" assisranrpresident, ILGWU, and Peter' Weiss, chair-man, Manhattan Advisory Council. HumanRights Commission. . Will iam Reivich,owner of Lew's Lamppost, Glassboroos lead-ing men's clothing store, orqanized theSoviet friendship tour of Glassboro, N.J.residents.

ABROAI)

Jews in l rub Stut t ' r i i . . . In Tunis IuIy31 the t r l i l i t r r r v

' l ' r i b t r r ra l sen teuced 54 pe r ' -

sons to o l ( . l ( ) 20 lears in pr ison for takrnl ipart in arr t i -J e iv ish r iots J une 5, when Lsynagogue rvas burned down, Jewish shopswere looted and there were attacks onthe British and US Embassies. All 54 pleadedguilty. Of the 23,000 Jews in Tunisia June5, about 8,000 left Tunisia during the sum-mer. . In Morocco the opposition right-rving Istiqlal party conducted a boycott ofthe j10,000 Jews in the country, denouncedi ts Ziorr is ls for sympathiz ing wi th Israel .. l t r l y ( l t l re ( la l r inr : t conr lenrned thc boycol las a ' r ' r i t t t i t n r l ac l . " Nex t r l uv l h t : N Io ro r : r ' anLabor Un i , r r l , ' r , r l t ' r ' l r l i on . ' r i l l c , l a g r .n , , ra ls t r i ke aga i r r s l l l r c go l ' e r ru r r tn l . w i t l r t l r esec re ta ry g t r r c ra I o l ' I l r r , I " r r r l t ' r i r l i , , r r , \ l a l r . i , , r r l rBen Sedr l i ck , r l t ' r r , , r t r r c i r rg l l r c g , r ' r ' r ' n r r r l r r l ' s"cons ta t t I an r l t t t t r ' , r t t r l i l i 0 t i l t l su l ) l ) ( ) t ' l ( ) l ' l Ihand fu l o f Z ion is t g r lov r r l i r l r : r r l s . " . f r r l y I LBen Sedr l i ck uus so r l r , r r c l r l I o l l l r r ron ths .The Wor ld l " t : r l c t ' r t l i r t t r , [

' l ' n t rL r I l n io r rs i n

Prague prote stcr l I l r r : r r r t ' r 's t . r \ l r ra l rarn Se r-IaLy , a Jew is l r r : t t g i t t r , r ' r i r r t l r c N ' l i n i s t r y o fIndustry ancl t \ l i r r r .s , r r rar lc a statr rnenL i t rt he le f t -w ing rv r : , ' k l r . . l l K i l uh u l Vu t tan i ,suppor t i ng t l r r : , , \ r l l r c l r r r s r : an r l dcsc r ib ingIsrael as a "Nlz. i s t r r t r ' . " I r r I rat l thegovernment l runrrr , , l t l r r . rvr i t ings of Jean-Paul Sartr t : at r , l .Si r r r . r re r le l icauv<- l i r JuneI because ol ' t I r r , i r s t i l lenlcnI support ingIsrael . . . . . f r r l r ( ) I l r r , governrncnt said i twould boy<'o l l go,r ls I rorn I iomania, USA,England arrr l Wlst ( icrrn lny for support ingIsrael . Et 'orrorrr i r ' , l t r : rccs were issued re-str ic t ing l l re r ig l r ls of . f crvs lo o l l la in mort-gages on l r i r r ; i l r t r r r l ( ) r l r r r i l r l i ngs an r l l os e n d m o t t r : y i t l , r , , l , l . ' l ' l r c l i l ( ) , ( X X ) . f r : w s i r rI raq in 194 ,7 l r r r r c , l r l i r r r l l r : r l t o l l - , 1 , .000 .In Egy l r t , ac r ' , , r r l i r rg l o i r L t ' , l l on le ( :o r ro -sponden l A r rg . 22 . l l r o r r t ( r0 l )o r c ( ' n l o f t l r ema le Jews \ r ' ( ' r c s l i l l i n c r r s lo r l v i r l ' t e r l r c in , rr o u n r l e r l t t p . l t t r t r ' 5 .

' l ' l r r ' . f c r r i . l r 1 , , , p r r l a t i , r r r

i s ove r 2 . (XX) . I r r l , i l r ya l n l i - . f c rv i s l r r i o t saga ins t l l t e ovc r 4 , i r00 L i l r yun . l cws l , , r l t , t2 . 5 1 0 0 r , f t l r e n r f l t ' r ' i r r g t o I t a l y l r y . I u l y 2 1 .

Comntotul ol NATO Forces in Europewill go in Jan. to West German Gen. AlbcrrSchnez, the Bonn Defense Ministry an-nouced June 20 whlle Der Spiegel June 19indicated he had a Nazi record as a Wehr-macht officer under Hitler. While servins inPol tava, Ukraine in l9M he reported-hissuperior ofl ict'r for making anti-Nazi re-marks. FIe wirs known to his

' lVehrmlcht

associates as "l l ir0 per cent Nazi." Gen.Schnez wi l l corrr r r r r r r r l 23 div is ions of US,Br i t ish, Canrr , l i r r r r . l l . lg i i rn. Dutch t r -oops.

Ocronrn.1967

USSR: The Birobiiljan .A.rnateur Dra-matic Collective, which won first prize inthe recent All-Russian dramatic contest, ltasbeen elevated to the rank of a Peoirle's'l heater by the iVlinistry ol Culture of theitsl 'S't. l 'he group is now preparing pro-ductions o{ Emanuel Kazakevitch's MiLk andHoney and Sholem Aleichem's "200,000." . . .Sholem Aleichem's llandering Srar in Julywas performed in Russian by ttre Cher-novtsy (Chernovets) Olga Kabi lansi ia Xlusi -cal-Dramatic Theater. The Kovno(Kaunas) Anrateur Yiddish I ) ramat ic En-semble performcd at the summer resort ofJ 'a larrgc, L i thuania i July 24, Ior the per-for-tttarrce r-rf i l l irele Eiros 600 crowded al l rcalcr hol t l ing 400. The group also per-f , r r r r rer l N' l ik l roels ' Frei lechs. . Aug. 15,lor

'I ' isha lJ'Av (9th of Av), commemorat-

ing the destruction of the temple in Jerusa-lenr in 586 ts.C.E., the N'Ioscow radio "Prog-l'css and l 'eace" had a program in Yid-dish and Hebrew on the history of this an-cient Jewish memorial duy and reportedthat in Jerusalem thousands of Jews willLre going to the Wailing Wall. At the end,the radio commentator scored Israeli De-fense Minister Gen. Moshe Dayan. . . . TheN. Y. Post July 11 and /[. Y. Times Aug. 11reported that Moscow hotel and restaurantbands have found the Hebrew song, HauaNagi.la, very popular with their audiences.

. July 27 the Soviet government in-formed the West German embassy thatSoviet files on Nazi war crimes were nowavailable to West German prosecutors (ashave been the files in Poland, Czechoslovakiaand East Germany) In Riga, Latvia,early in Aug. two Latvians were convictedof ryar crimes against Jews and others un-der Nazi occupation in 1941. Jan Ladzinswas sentenced to death and Felix Ulpe toJ5 years. ln Al i ta, L i thuania, ear iy inJuly Vladas Karpavicius was sentenced to<leath for similar war crimes In Gli-lrov, Ukraine, S. Velicasto lvas sentenced totlcath for war crirnes. . In Alma Ata,Kaz.akhstan early this year the historian\lalik Kabirov published a monograph onI he rnodern culture of the Uighur people(there are 60,000 Uighurs among the Ka-zakh poprr lat ion of 9,310,000. He reportsthere are 60 schools now giving tuition inthe Uighur language ancl a department ofUighur stur l ics at the Inst i tute of L inguis-tics of rhe Kazakh Academy of Sciences. . . .In Russian translation, the N{oscow pub-lishine house, Progress, issued this summera novel l-ry Israeli Hebrew writer, MordecaiAvi-Shaul, Sr.uiss Metamorphoses, dealingwith Spanish anti-fascists.

N{. tr. s.Jrwtsn CuRnrrsrs

47

IIJEWISH GURRETTS''READER

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Annelte T. Rubinsiein

". f resh, sf imulat ing t ru lyrelevant to ihe problems and in-terests of our duy . ."Frederic Ewen, National Guardian

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