Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 July 1960 — Page 7

friday, July 1960

The National Jewish POST and OPINION

♦ How the Jews Want

jjy HARRY GOLDEN (Editor of Carolina Israelite) Thirty years ago when the Jewish boys were studying law at the Catholic Fordham and St. John law school, the Irish boys were trying to get into Yale, Harvard, and Princeton. The Jews Wanted to be Irishmen and the Irishmen wanted to be Episcopalians. In those days an Irishman would say, “I am Irish and what will you do about it?”—an aggression and an apology, which made some of the Callahans become Cahanes. At this stage of- our development the Jews did not yet say, “I am a Jew and I am proud of it.” This bit of apologetncs was still thirty years off in the future. But times have indeed changed, and the Irish have it made. They no longer worry about going to Princeton. They will even elect a President of the United States within the next 12 years, you can be sure of that, as thirty million Golden Jews wear a green necktie on St. Patrick’s Day. Today the Irish get belligerent only about that short left field fence in the Dodger’s Coliseum and now they say, “I am Irish." There is no apology, and there is no hostility. EN 1960 THE JEWS are where the Irish were in 1920. Now it is the Jews who want to go to Princeton and it is they who Want to be Episcopalians. But a slight improvement. They say, am Jewish and I am proud of it”—the evidence of both an apology and an aggression. Often, too, and unfortunately, a bit of ethnocentrism (“We are the best,” “We are the smartest,” etc.), the truest sign of both fear and self-hate. And while the Jews want to be Episcopalians, the Puerto Bicans want to be Spanish, the Negroes want to be light-brown, and the DAR’s want to be Cherokee Indians, but the Irish simply say, “I am Irish!” Ah, they’ve done done it, as we say in the Carolinas. BUT SOME OF this will soon disappear. The Jews are catching up. In another thirty years they will be as happy when their sons go to the Yeshiva College and to Brandeis University as the Irishman is now when his son goes to Boston College. The Jews Will merely repeat after Jonah, “I am a Jew,” and let it go at that. Yom Kippur will be, if not nominally, at least practically, a national holiday, probably established officially by a Roman Catholic President, and our civic defense society will concern itself entirely with petitioning Walter O’Malley to get rid of that Short left field fence.

Teen-Age Negro Singing Idol Is Converting to Judaism

By MOISHE MATTHEW CHICAGO (P-O) — Sammy Davis Jr., the popular Negro entertainer, last year refused to work on Yom Kippur. Another top Negro singer was asked to perform in his place, but he too refused. Why? The reason is simple: Jackie Wilson is to become a Jew. “I am still in the process of studying. In November I will convert to Judaism either in Detroit or New York,” the soft spoken singer told this reporter in an exclusive interview. Jackie, 26, who hails from Detroit and is the father of four children, got his start in show buisiness in 1953. He worked his way up the ladder and in 1958 started working as a single. Where did Jackie originally get the idea of converting to Judaism? “I got the idea from my recording and personal manager, a Jew, Nat Tarnopol,” he said.

He also received a great deal of encouragement from his good friend Sammy Davis Jr. “I spoke to him a great many times about J u d a i s m,” said Jackie. Jackie was born a Baptist, but admitted he was never a regular church goer. *T began to study practically every religion there is to study, and, thus far, Judaism is the best religion that I came across. “I want to have something, and find Judaism very interesting,” he said. What branch will Jackie accept Orthodox, Conservative or Reform? “Most likely, I will become a Conservative Jew,” he said proudly. Does he think that he will be accepted favoribly by the Whites? ‘.Anyone is entitled to believe in what they want to,” he said. What are his feelings toward

lars,” “Nothing,” “Two hundred dollars,” “Nothing,” “Nothing,” “Nothing . . Thus I do not know this town by its streets or addresses or its history or its inhabitants, but by its Bond purchases. Like Hollywood, it’s a place where people live, all right, but it does not seem to have geographical substance.

the many people — who lik« Sammy Davis Jr. — will refer to him as “Nigger Jew?” “I personally don’t care what they call me, whatever it is it doesn’t matter.”

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There are guided tours in Hollywood past the palatial mansions of what the movie world calls the “great and near great.” The guide calls over his megaphone, “On your' right, you see the home of Greer Garson. On your left is the home of Cary Grant. The two story dwelling is the home of William S. Hart who sold St to Gene Autry.” I WENT ON A similar guided tour recently in a New Jersey Suburb. I had come to make a speech for Bonds for Israel. In fact, I had followed Eleanor Roosevelt who had spoken for Bonds for Israel on the same platform a few months earlier. This little Suburb hasn’t done too well on behalf of Bonds, despite the fact that there is considerable wealth in the community. The Bonds people therefore believe that the town could be “built up” to a reasonable quota, and this explained the reason for Mrs. Roosevelt and myself to speak there within a month or so, the director told

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He gave me an unusual guided tour. “See that house over there?” he asked, but he never told me the name of the owner. He merely said, “Fifty thousand dollars to build. Last year he bought—nothing. See that mansion beside it? $100,000. Look at that colonial!—nothing. The Frank Lloyd Wright looking house? One hundred and fifty dollars,” and so it went for an hour. He pointed to homes and described them thusly: “One hundred dol-

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