Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 September 1949 — Page 14

THE RATIONAL JEWISH POST

Friday, September 23, VMS

Why Einstein Quit Brondeis U.: His Laski For Prexy Bid Rejected

By PHIL LEVINE

LOUISVILLE (NJP)—Albert Einstein withdrew his name from association with Brandeis University when sponsors of the Jewish-sponsored university turned down his proposal that Prof. Harold M. Laski be named the school’s first president, it was reported this week. The report on the surprise withdrawal of the famed physicist from backers of the school in 1947, the frst to give any details on the incident, was made here by George Alpert, president of the board of trus-

tees of Brandeis.

Alpert, who visited Louisville to raise funds for the university building program, described the back-

ground of Einstein’s withdrawal of his name on June 21, 1947, from the Albert Einstein Foundation, set

«f> Vo raise $15,000,000 lor the proposed school When approached in the beginning to give his support to the project, Einstein showed great sympathey for the idea, Alpert said, and Einstein’s liaison man, Prof. Otto Nathan of New York university, did join the board of trustees. Shortly afterwards, Alpert visited Einstein at Princeton and in the presence of Prof. Nathan, Einstein suggested to Alpert that Einstein be permitted by the board to name the first president of Brandeis. Alpert was hesitant about making any commitment himself, but told Prof. Einstein that it might be arranged, and then asked the physicist whom he had in mind. Einstein named Laski and Alpert was dismayed. Laski was a controversial figure and had leen labeled a Communist. ‘‘Do you think it proper that the first president of an American university should be an Englishman?”

A*pert asked Einstein. Einstein replied that he was an Internationalist and that Lasld’s nationality had nothing to do with Am case. Alpert said that his remark seemed to upset Prof. Nathan more than it did Einstein but the final result was that shortly afterwards, Nathan resigned from the Brandeis board and at the meeting at which he did so, he submitted a note from Einstein in which the famous physicist dissociated himself from the enterprise. Alpert said In Louisville that laler he spoke to Max Lemer, now on the faculty of Brandeis, about the matter. He said Lerner told him that he knew Laski very well and that he knew Laski was not a Communist. Lemer also told Alpert that if Laski had been named president of Brandeis, it would have been one of the "greatest mistakes,” Alpert said.

EINSTEIN

Digest Of The Y iddish Press COMMENTARY HIT BY YIDDISHISTS AS APOLOGETIC, SIMPLE-MINDED

By KABBI SAMVEL SILVER ^VUITE FREQUENTLY an artide in the magazine, ‘‘Commentary” provokes a Yiddish writer into commentary. Recently, statements by Elliot Cohen, the editor of “Commentary,” about the attitude of Jewish intellectuals toward Judaism touched off several retorts by the

DAY’S S. Marg- ^ oehes and S. Bici kel. But Dr. A. Mukdany, of the JOURNAL, writes that Jewish writers should not even dignify "the assimilated, aplogetic, and ! simple - minded” magazine with any recognition.

Cohen that he need not send him his magazine any more, for there is nothing he can learn from it. On the contrary ,says Mukdany, instead of sending articles from

SILVER

He tells Elliot

‘‘Commentary’’ to the Yiddish press, why doesn’t Cohen run a digest of the Yiddish papers in his magazine? "He has much more to learn from us then we do from him,” sniffs Mukdany, who is especially angry at a Jewish writer who stated in the magazine that Ezra Pound’s poetry had a greater influence on him than did the Besht or the Book of Job. * • • What’s Lehman’s Stand Now On Church And State? And the JOURNAL’S reaction is "astonishing” to Herbert Lehman’s stand in favor of federal support for parochial schools. Lehman joined hands with Mayor O'Dwyer—and also with Cardinal Spellman—in a denunciation of the Barden Bill, which provoked the Spellman-Roosevelt controversy. The Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate reminded New Yorkers that, as governoi, he supported legisla-

HAPPY

/ —

May You Be Inscribed For A Year Of Health And Happiness

♦ ♦

LAZAR KOSHER SAUSAGE FACTOHY

3612 W. Roosevelt

Chicago, QL

tion for state financing of transportation to and from parochial schools. Lehman said he was opposed to the Barden Bill because he does not believe in discrimination. One gathers that he also no longer believes in strict separation of church and state. * * * M. I. Nirenberger, of the JOURNAL, expresses his admiration for the valiant fight which U.S. Solicitor General Philip Perlman put up to win support for the outlawry of genocide at the recent convention of the American Bar Association in St. Louis. He also registers his revulsion over the refusal of the association to pass the resolution and thus to strengthen the hand of those pushing for U.S. Senate ratification of the proposed U.N. ban on genocide. « • • Is Rabbi Feldman One Of The Anti-Zionists? Like a rabid Republican reporting on a Democratic conclave, the pious JOURNAL’S London correspontent, S. I. Dorfson hisses out a dispatch on the 6th convention of the Union of Progressive Judaism which took place last month. Dorfson professes that he could not understand what the “yahudim—or

STANLEY IN TROUBLE AGAIN; MAY QUIT ISRAEL FOR PARIS TEL AVIV, Israel—Sidney Stanley, the British public scandal figure who was rejected by his native Poland and found refuge in Israel after a frantic appeal to the Mizrachi (religious Zionist) controlled immigration office, may leave Israel to settle in Paris,

it was learned this week.

A migration officer told a MaJews, as they call themselves” gistrates’ court in Tel Aviv that were talking about in London. Stanley had received a travel He was especially rubbed wrong document and intended to leave by a resolution adopted by the * or Par ’ s shortly. Reformers asking the Israel gov- Ht , >8 ln Trouble ernment to treat liberal Judaism The report was made in TOn . with the same deference given to nation with a claim for $20,000 Christianity and Mohammedan- against Stanley, filed by Barnet * sm ‘ Rosen of London. Rosen notified Men like Rabbi Israel Mat- the court he had helped Stanley luck have been fighting Zion- leave London and disposed of ism tooth and nail; Orthodox some of Stanley’s property. He Jews have been praying for a also filed an appeal for a restrainredeented Zion for hundreds of ing order to prevent Stanley years. Now these "yahudim” have from leaving the country, the chatzpah to ask for equality! Stanley first became an inter-

Dorfson grants that a few "litvishe” Reform rabbis are on the side of true Zionism, but he beHeves that there will still be plenty of trouble from the Die-

hard anti-Zionists.

A HAPPY NEW YEAR

: g>19 4 9-5 71 0

national figure when he emerged as one of the chief personalities to an investigation of a scandal in British Govern-

mental activities.

Efforts by British authorities

In the latter category, he in- to deport him ran into a blunt eludes Rabbi ^braham J. Feld- refusal by his native Poland to man, of Hartford, outgoing presi- take him. He was twice refused dent of the Central Conference an entrance visa from the Israeli of American Rabbis. Governmen until he cabled an

appeal to the late’ Rabbi Meir Berlin, then head of the world

Mizrachi movement.

The Mizrachi-dominated immigration department issued Stanley an entry permit. He arrived

in Israel last May.

^.J****!! m, t»b*ue 3.00 jtMs , . i ffe wish all our friends and patrons and all the Jewish people —a year of health, happiness and prosperity

New Chicago Temple Uses Church Facilities CHICAGO— (WNS) —Congregation Beth Am, one of Chicago’* newest synagogues, will use the University” Church of the Disciples of Christ for its Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services this year. Last year, too, the church made its facilities available to the synagogue, whose Jewish worshippers this year are expected to number more than 650.

One hundred and four new flats will be complete this week at Kiryat Shmuel, one of the oldest Hapoel Hamizraehi quarters in Haifa.

BmaMUIk* 94*

I or cl rREAT instead of a.TREAT WENT ... smoke OLD GOLDS

SUNSlTf... Arrfkrtca * Fine t ■Since 1894 SUNSET, INC. ° ' CHICAGO lUINOiS