Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 January 1962 — Page 10

Friday, January 5, 1962

Th* National Jewish PO&1 and Ot'iNtON

M. Z. Castigates Obituary Reports, U. S v UN Delegation

What They Didn't Print About Late Bercovici

By M. Z. Fraok Don’t believe everything you read in the papers, even if it is an obituary. Konrad Bercovici, who died in New York on Decmeber 27, at the age of eighty years, was not a gypsy, as the Herald Tribune says. I don’t know about his pedigree to confirm or

deny the statement in the New

York Times

that he was “part gypsy.” But I know that Bercovici i s just the Rumanian way of spelling Bcrkovitch or Berkovitz, which is a very

common name among Rumanian Jews, of which a large number is concentrated in Montreal, Canada,

M. Z. Frank

where I used to see Konrad Bercovici in 1913, when I first arrived from Russia, and for some time afterwards. He used to write short stories in Yiddish and publish them in the local daily “Der Keneder Adler” (Canadian Eagle.) On top of that he used to teach music. On top of that he used to teach singing in the local Yiddish school, which in those days was called “The National - Radical School” and is today known as The Peretz School. The late Bercovici taught the children to sing Yiddish — not gypsy — songs. Oddly enough, neither the HeraldTribune nor the NY Times mentions that Bercovici ever set foot on Canadian soil. Another thing they don’t mention is that during the 1940’s, Bercovici took a very active part in the outfit run by Peter Bergson and Ben Hecht in behalf of a Jewish Palestine.

Digest of the Yiddish Press

Israelis Import Yank To Teach Them How To Cook

By Sam Silver

Others may worry about wars, but Israel’s government is also worried that tourists don’t get the kind of cuisme they’re accustomed to. Sc the Israeli government asked Uncle Sam for help, and one of the

Point Four agencies sent out a call to Michigan State University for help. The college recommended one of its brightest graduates. and so soon the recommendee, Norman Held, a 31year old Brook-

lyn bachelor, will be off to Israel for six months, at U.S. and Israel expense, to teach Israelis how to cook, wait on tables, and in general make a good impression on tourists’ innards. Interviewed by Simon Baker, of the “Day-Journal,” the hefty consultant disclosed that his parents are European-bon, that he got his Jewish education at the Ahavas Achim Talmud Torah, in Borough Park, that he intends o keep a sharp eye out for Israeli girls. Whatever girl gets him will be lucky; not only is he a finelooking fellow, but he’s one of the

Rabbi Silver

world where reaction is rampant, was illustrated in Toronto when Rabbi Abraham Feinberg, one of the hemisphere’s great rabbis, was interrupted during a talk at the university by the cry of “Communist!” The eloquent anti-Commu-nist rabbi strongly rebuked the heckler, who turned out to be a recent immigrant from Latvia. As the “Day-Journal” reminds us, Canada was most anxious to increase its population and has taken in many Eastern Europeans, some of whom probably have fascists tendencies. In any event. Rabbi Feinberg, now emeritus at Holy Blossom, stood his ground in the teeth of the abuse and is currently tasting the hazards involved in being an articulate fighter for freedom. •

As a sanctimonious semanbdst. A dial Stevenson is a match to Jawaharlal Nehru. It was wrong of India to invade Goa at this time: wrong because of the delicate situation in the world and in the U-N; wrong because there was no element of urgency or threat to India's security and vital interests. But it is not wTong for Goa to belong to India: Portugal has no business there. Nevertheless, Stevenson, in his address at the Security Council, by likening the Council's failure to act in the matter of Goa. to the inaction of the League of Nations in 1938, when Mussolini invaded Ethiopia, was talking like one of the worst reactionary formalists. Of all the blunders and moral failures of the United Natkms since 1947, Stevenson picked on the Goa incident as the most fatal. Why? Take the Palestine question. In Novcmer 1947, the United Nations voted to partition Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state with Jerusalem intern under the UN auspices. It did nothing to implement its decision oc Jerusalem. It did nothing to stop the Arabs from attacking the Jewish state. It dallied as kmr as it looked that Tel Aviv would soon be reached by the Egyptian armies and the King erf Jordan would take all of Jerusalem. But when the tables were turned and the Jewish

forces begac to advance, th UN quickly calid for a cease-fire. When Israel came out of the war, holding aaost of Jerssaiem, the UN began badgering Israel about

Holy City. aRhtmgh the Holy Places, which are she exrsse for the ioiematBDcalixacaoB. are nearly all in the Arab {art of Jerusalem.

states belong to the privileged class of natmos whose sensibilities have to be fondled and cultivated, hut India — poor India.’, where AdHi pot him! — belongs with Israel among the recipients of justice as a matter of grace, but not of inherent right. They have to wait for their betters before they receive their justice.

At the recently completed sessaoa, the Uaked States delegation led by Adla: Sevens*, a. applied a transparast i:chie standard m dealing, oa the ooe hand with the hxka-Portnral dispute and. oa the other hand with the Arab-Israeli dispute India was weed to ester negobaUoas with Portugal, although Portugal had steadfastly refused to negotiate for fowrteea years and. at that moment. India had gone too far to stop to negotiate. Bat the principle of negoiataons. basic to the United Nances Charw-r, had to be pressed even as a mere goestvre. Bat when l€ Batsons atroifejced a resohztkfln calling on Israel and the Arab natkss to es:er direct negotiatKcs to resolve their differences, the Listed States delegation — led by the great champaco of the UK Chaster — decided it was as "imrcaiistie"’ gesstre because the Arabs dad not want to negotiate, and not only abstained from voting, bet voted agarast tt. Thus. Portugal and the Arab

According to a story by Gershon Jacobson in the Yiddish daily DayMorning Journal, an unnamed Jewish member of the American delegation expressed the thought that the Israeli delegation was betrayasg” a fnead by pressing for the passag of a resolution to which the freed — United States was opposed. How long is it since similar arguments were heard abowt Israel's vote about apartheid a Sooth Africa? There are also rumors — reported by Gershon Jacobson in the same story — of a difference of opinion on the question inside the Israeli deiegatioa and aside the Zionist movement.

The Jewish member of die United States delegation — assuming the sJory is accurate — has shown a good deal of ability to argue ►■s case logically. It is so logical that it just does not feel right. Anybody with an illogical Jewish instinct might sense behind this logic the familiar historic figure of the "court-Jew,” this time wrapped in the Stars and Stripes

I WRITE AS I PLEASE"

Everything in Israel's Not the Best, Nor Is it the Worst-But If s Exciting

By Carl Alpert HAIFA — We are supposed to be a highly emotional people, with a tendency to e .tremes. I find that in their attitudes to Israel Jews in the Diaspora often take a highly exaggerated view, and carry it sometime.' to

world's best cooks.

The risks run by liberals, in a

From the “Forward's” humor column, conducted by Tevyeb Shmaichel. Walking in the rain, the late Dr. Einstein explained to an inquiring Princeton student that he did not take an umbrella because “1 have one at home and one at the school. If I took one to the other place I’d have tw-o there and none at the other. So that’s why I’m not using an umbrella” Told that his deafness is due to age, the man asked the doctor, “But I hear all right with my left ear; is that one older than the right one?”

absurd lengths. The peculiar thing is that partisans of the extremes are so often pedes apart in their caevktxHis-

Alpert

Holocaust Heroism

We Waited For The Signal

On the one hand there are the friends of Israel who are

convinced that everything there is perfect, social relationships ideal, cultural elements superior to those of any other country, general conditions utopian. These are the people who when they come to Israel and find that the country 's bananas are shockingly smaller than they have ever seen cm the market at home, will at once insist that obviously the fruit is tastier and

sweeter.

For Revolt At Sobidcr...

Ada Lichtman stood before the that surrounded our camp and also Testimony Collection Division of the telephone wires. D o □ n e r Israel’s Yad Vashem in May, 1959, from Lwow sabotaged the engines long before the Eichmann trial, of the automobiles. Young boys In vivid terms she recalled, as distributed underclothes and bandthe “Bulletin” of Yad Vashem ages to the workers. . . (‘‘Remembrance Authority for the “We waited for the signal to be Disaster and the Heroism”) re- given and for our people who ports, the Sobidor Revolt: would leave together with us. It “On October 14, the day began seemed to us that the hands of — as it did every other day — the watch never moved. . .But sudwith a roll-caR. denly we heard shouts and imme“After the roll-call we all dis- diately aftenvards the sound of persed, each to the place of his firing. First there were single shots work. The organizers of the re- and then long volleys from mavolt began to take action. Leon chine guns. . .We were sure that Lerner (today in Israel) did his . . our comrades would come and job fearlessly. He went from place fetch us, but no one came, to place to liquidate the murder- Then again we heard shouts and ous SS men. . . we saw a group of workers run“Shlomo Schmayzner (today in ning past, with pickaxes, scissors Brazil) collected the rifles in the and knives in their hands. They guard room of the Ukranians, put shouted: Forward! They cut the them in the pipes of the ovens and barbed wire, climbed up and thus transferred them to our work- passed over. The mines began to shops. The electrician Schwartz explode. . . from Czechoslovakia cut the wires “Outside we saw the body of

Mira Shapira. All around there were other corpses. By the arms store our boys stood handing out firearms to the men. . . “My coat was caught on the wire. I threw it off. I also threw away my bag and began to tread on the area sown with mines. Not far off I saw an explosion. A man’s body flew up and then dropped like a rag. On the fence hung motionless the body of ooe of the workers. . J got to the trench, which fortunately was not full of water. With the help erf some comrades I crossed to the other side and reached the forest.

wimiria that the pounded of the worst elements of nigh: shytoJernsalem seems totalitarianism of the right and of ciotser to earth than anywhere else; the left. and Capetown, tfeaktfce cfciidrec movement is a crime against buare the most beaxtgto aal most mail ^ture; the desire to estab- ® *■* Ben friendly relations with all naGarem » tae greates: fiv»g states- whatever Woe, is a bethat trayal of America; the attitude body is happy, aad feat Israel is toward ^ refugees is bestial m every respect traiy a 5 ~.iaimmanitv; the exploitation of the example to the nations of the toensts. all that had bt~n reportworid. *d They enjoy their risks to Israel, these tourists who come whh rose- And these persons, too, to the colored glasses. Any evidence extent that they even come to Iswtuch seems to bene their preoocs raej with their pre-conceived ideas, beliefs is amoaftaticaPy rejected. also enjoy their risks, for they find Oc the other hand, there are coofinnatioc erf what they had be Jens who approach the whole sob- fieced. Any evidence which seewm ject of Israel with a chip oa their to the contrary is automatically resbociders They seme croc every jected. report of a cruae as evidence that Fortunately the great majority oariojEal morality is depraved and of tourists are not as extreme as that the cvwaBUry is goisg to the the two types cited above. But dogs. They sec in the estabiish- there is a little bit of extremism mens of a golf eearse poskire eri- is afi of them, even the most moddence of decadence. Statements by erate and temperate. Every one Israel's leaders are invariably coo- has a pet prejudice or phobia for sowed as Watam chanraBsm. coat- which he seeks confirmation. It may be his belief that Israel is dominated by theological tyranny Dinner Grows, Wit - or that I s r a e I is an atheistic, godless land. It may be the "knowl- ■ a • . • a, » , edge ' that free lore is practiced in maintains Kashrut Israel or that the Socialists exploit the capitalists — or maybe vice

“After long wanderings and various adventures I came to the Parchev Forest where we met a fairly large band of Jewish partisans. With them were already a number erf people from our camp . . .A new period set in. . . “Before the end of the war, when the Red Army came closer various partisan bands. . .came by. There were Jewish fighters in all the units. Some of them had nut revealed the fact that they were Jewish. .

ST- PAUL .P-O) — A Cooserra- versa, tire rabbi here lands governors of Gcwduess knows. Israel is not a local home tor the chrowyaRy perfect, bat neither are we guilty ill which serves aB branches of of many of the vices or virtues Judaism for makmg it possibie for which are ascribed to us. It is a preserving kashmt at an annual normal country. There are saints cinner for those who desire at. and samers among os. We make Past annual darners erf mistakes. We also do things of the Ladies' Asxihary of Shalom which we are very proud. Residence here have always been I sometimes feel that if we were kosher, eves though a unority of to catalogue on the one side all the the community observes kashrut. trds which are charged against us This year, the expected attend and oa the ocher ride list all fb* asce was so great that the superior virtues with which we are had to be moved to a hotel Sail, credited, the two lists would probpraises Temple of AArne Rabbi aNy tend to off-set each other Bernard S. Rastnas. the planners completely and in each detail went to the trouble to cuariase the I have lived here now for almost dinner as kosher. tea years, and there is only one Not only ooght every Jew is Sc thmg of which I am certain, that Paul support the home, says the fife m Israel is excitmg and dra rabbi, “fed m' addition to this, I mafic, rewarding and fulfilling, ur think traditional Jews mast come menseiy satisfying. By sock to the dmcer to gxre expression of statement I suppose I stand StU gratitude and roofidemce that car condemned as esporang an excommunity as understand mg and trensast point of view. So be it wi .* and reverent in its acceptance That is part of the paradooicat of our difference as Jews.” complexity of fife here.

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