Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 March 1936 — Page 2

Tlie Jewish Post

A Journal for Indiana Jewry Published every Friday by The Spokesman Company, 423 Citizens Bldg., Louisville, Ky. Subscription rate, $1.00 a year. For advertising rates apply at office. Entered as second class matter October 17, 1935, at the post office at Louisville, Ky, under the act of March 3, 1879. Editorial office, 2101 East Washington Street, Indianapolis, Ind. Telephone CH 4385. Changes of address should be sent direct to the Circulation Department, The Jewish Post, Box 503, Louisville, Ky. Unless received two weeks in advance, The Jewish Post cannot assume responsibility for issues missed. Please include old address. G. M. Cohen, Editor and Publisher Friday, March 20, 1936

HEBREW CALENDAR 5696-1936 Rosh Chodesh Nissan... .March 24 I t Day Pesach April 7 •Rosh Chodesh lyar April 23 Lag b’Omar May 10 Rosh Chodesh Sivan May 22 1st Day Shabueth May 27 •Rosh Chodesh Tammuz... June 21 Rosh Hashonah September 17 Yom Kippur September 26 •Rosh Chodesh also observed previous day.

Faced with the announced decision of President Otto J. Kraemer, that he would not stand for reelection to office, the Board of

Rabbi Goldenson Returns To The Pulpit

After an absence of a number of months, Rabbi Samuel H. Goldenson, last Saturday returned to the pulpit in the vast awe-inspiring hall of Temple Emanu-El, in New York, to be welcomed by a grateful congregation. Rejoicing in the return td more robust health and to active participation in synagogue leadership of Rabbi Goldenson are the members of the Temple and the rabbinate of the nation. For too long a time the stirring but careful A Rabbi Delivers In San Antonio, Texas, recently ,it was remarked here, the women's group of the Metho dist Church entertained the Council of Jewish Women, the Sisterhood, and the Ladies’ Auxiliary of Agudath Achim, In what was the most forward movement towards religious amity in the nation. Now a disptaeh from Columbus relates that Rabbi Samuel Gup was guest speaker at Lenten services in St. Alban’s Church, of that city. Undoubtedly these are isolated cases, which it will be argued have no further signflcance than of a possible common friendship between a rabbi and a minister or two influential members of the congregations Yet we contend that these instaces are symptoms of a growing movement of understanding among the clergy and laity of the

words, pointedly orated and pointedly chosen, of Rabbi Goldenson have been missed by a loving congregation which even on Saturday mornings attended in gratifying numbers. The return of Rabbi Goldenson, a spiritual giant who has never hesitated! to excoriate even the members of his own congregation—it is hoped will be lasting and fruitful of the same vigorous accomplishments as in the past A Lenten Sermon nation which will lead to increasing exchange of social and religious courtesies. Interchange of pulpits are more or less regular and accepted arrangements which awaken only a heightened interest for the specific occasion but no aroused and sustained feeling. The incident in San Antonio and Rabbi Gup’s Lenten speech go a step farther. One instance might be compared to a handshake between two casual acquaintances, while the otheil is the exchange between two close friends which follows the handshake. As stated in the editorial in connection with the tea given in honor of the Jewish groups by the San Antonio Church, other communities, other rabbis, and, other clergymen should follow the innovation in religious friendship established there and in Columbus.

Book List For Jewish Bookshelf Now Available

"It Is impossible for a German biologist to write honestly on certain medical, anthropological or genetic topics without running the risk of imprisonment Physics, mathematics, chemistry, steping out to Nazi music— it is a sad spectacle. With only approved meetings held in Germany and a Science Congress Center organized to trumpet the Nazi racial ideology at International scientific gatherings, the generous days when Japanese and Germans, Frenchmen and Americans, Italians and Scandiavians could meet and discuss science without a thought of country, race or religion seems almost like a nostalgic memory.’’ Such being the case, we do not see how American universities can lend themselves to this glorification of the Nazi idea. Have you, by the way, seen a statement made by Professor Gilbert Murray in The London Times, in which he denies the possibility of British universities accepting the Heidelberg invitation? ‘‘It would,” Professor Murray said, ‘‘be a terrible thing to send a delegation. Wof should stand together for the freedom of truth.’’ And, after Oxford did refuse, his com ment was “I am quite in agreement with the action taken by the Oxford authorities for the obvious reason that Heidelberg has turned out 44 professors because! of their Jewish blood or liberal opinions, which is in itself perfectly monstrous.”

Trustees, of Temple Beth El, of Portland, Ore, after resorting to every persuasion possible, attacked the problem in a novel and successful way which should furnish a good weapon for similarly harasseed Boards in other cities. As a last resort the Board, of which former Governor Julius L. Meier, is a member, addressed a signed letter to Mr. Kraemer and dispatched a copy to The Portland Scribe, Anglo-Jewish weekly. The letter which every Jewish home in Portland read, said in part: ‘‘the problems with which the Congregation is confronted render anoth er year's effective service by you . essential.’’ To all intents and purposes, the resultant pressure from members of the congregations and others served to make Mr. Kraemer realize that even the strongest determinatoin could be swayed, for today Mr. Kraemer is serving his second term in an office which he had declared should rotate every

year.

* • * In an attempt to determine the reader reaction to our radio news, the editors have not printed the radio cc'umn this week. If you like i this feature and want to see it printed in the future, It behooves you to sit down and write your opinion to the editors of this paper. The same test will be made in coming weeks with other features. However if you want to forestall missing your favorite fea ture, you might write to the editor telling him what you like or what you don’t like. It is only by this means that reader preference and dislikes can be determned. Our book notes, which were to have been printed this week, have been delayed and will not be ready for publication until next Friday.

If Reform Judaism meant no other contribution to a healthy religious life in the modern Jew. ish environment in the United States than the intelligent efforts made by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations to eliminate the evils which have led to religious apathy on the part of American Jewry, it long since would have jutsified its existence. But now additional evidence of this continued fight against the pathetic ignorance of American Jewry about things Jewish forthcoming in the announcement of the completion of a Jewish book list by Rabbi Louis 1. Egelson of the Union staff. Composed of twenty-five volumes, on Jewish religion, history, literature, essays, biography and fiction, the list seeks to supply the bookshelf in the Jewish home, hitherto polluted with a plethora of magazines and inane fiction, with a

comprehensive, yet financially reasonable, selection of well-rounded volumes of Jewish interest. In commenting on the list Rabbi Egelson. declared: "It is unfortunately true that there is a woeful lack of knowledge of things Jewish among our Igymen. Jewish history, Jewish literature is their terra incognita. The Jewishly educated laity constitutes a very small SToup in Jewish life today. Time was when the layman vied with the rabbi in the possession of Jewish learning. In Orthodox Jewish circles this enviable state of affairs still obtains. In Liberal Judaism, however, such a layman is indeed a rara avis.” The list is now available Those wishing a copy of the list may write to this paper. No longer will the excuse of unfamiliarity with Jewish books be valid.

Anti-Nazi League Takes Up Heidelberg Celebration On receiving reports in the press that certain American universities had accepted an invitation to be represented at the coming celebration at Heidelberg University in commemoration of the so-called 550th anniversary of the founding of that university the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League protested most vigorously to the colleges named. The League has since received a disclaimer of having received an invitation from Western Reserve University of Cleveland. It has also received a letter from the assistant to the president of the University of Michigan explaining that Michigan’s acceptance of the invitation was a matter of form only and that such acceptance did not constitute an approval of the present political structure of Germany. In response to this letter the following communication has been sent to the assistant to the president of the University of Michigan by whom the university’s letter was signed. • • • March 12, 1936 Frank E. Robbins, Esq., Assistant to the President University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. My dear Mr. Robbins: Permit me to thank you for your

Freedom Of The Press

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

courteous answer to our letter protesting the acceptance by the University of Michigan of Heidelberg’s invitation to the celebration of the 550th anniversary of its founding. In the first place, you no doubt know that there is a very grave doubt as to whether the university was actually founded in 1386, and there is no question whatever that if the university was founded that year, the date was some time in October rather than in June. This fact bears out our contention that the proposed celebration is merely camouflage for the dissemination of Nazi propaganda, coinciding as it does with the second anniversary of the Nazi “blood purge” of June 30th, 1934. You say in your letter that, "If, by accepting the invitation sent by the University of Heidelberg, the University of Michigan intended to constitute approval of the political structure of Germany, or even if this action could reasonably be interpreted as constituting such approval, the propriety of acceptance might be questioned.” As a matter of fact, the ac-

ceptance of the invitation and the representation of your university at the celebration will be so considered by the Nazi government. They will flaunt before their people, and most probably before the peoples of the w’orld, the fact that the attendance of foreign university representatives proves the might and worth of the Nazi ideology, and that the world acclaims Heidelberg as at present conducted and supervised. You may not have heard of the manner in which the Nazi propagandists treated the International Prison Congress held in Berlin last August, or the Congress for Health and Hygiene. In both of these instances these gatherings were made the backbone of copious Nazi propaganda. The dele gates were inundated with speeches by Nazi officials and these speeches broadcast to the German people and to the world at large, the attempt being made to link up these gatherings of scientists directly with the Hitler regime. The following extract from an editorial in today’s New York Times may be of interest to you:

officially friendly terms with Germany affects your decision, may I point out that you may be on a friendly basis with your neighbour on the street but. if you dislike his morals or his manners you will not accept an invitation to dine at his house. There should be, we feel, no compromise whatever between the eternal principle of academic freedom and the temporary shiftings of political power. In this connection, Mr. F. L. Lucas, fellow and librarian of King’s College, Oxford, has spoken well: "Today there are two conceptions of a university in the world. Is it a place for the study of truth or of propaganda, of the humanities or of inhumanity? Of tolerance or persecution? Between these two ideas there can be no reconciliation. In Germany as a whole, 1,250 professors are said to have given up or lost their positions. over forty of these belonging to Heidelberg, Two centuries ago the Elector Palatine invited the Jew Spinoza to become professor there Are we to congratulate Heidelberg on its progress?., nor does it seem very intelligent or dignified to welcome with one hand the refuses from this oppression and offer the other to their oppressors. Courtesy there can always be; not congratulations. . . . The universities of England may congratulate the University of Heidelberg; but, if so, posterity may* * be far from congratulating them.’’ I do not for a moment doubt that the invitation was accepted in good faith and without consideration of the factors lying behind its acceptance. We feel, however, that such a university as yours, standing for all that is finest in American culture, for freedom of thought, conscience and teaching, cannot under the circumstances allow itself to be used as an instrument of propaganda through the presence of an official representative at the Heidelberg celebration. Yours very truly, G. E. HARRIMAN, Executive Secretary. N< w York, N. Y.