Volume XXXV No. 11 November 1980 INFORMATION ISSUED BY THE AssoaAnoH OF ximH RBV^S m OIEAT BRITAH

Margot Pottlitzer security and respect." In 1858 Jews became elifiible for the House of Commons, and in 1885 the first Jew was admitted to the House of Lords. ANTISEMITISM IN BRITAIN Liberal opinion hoped that through the process of emancipation Jews would move closer to The Changing Faces of Hatred British society. As against this, in the course of prolonged discussions, the opponents of emanci­ To those of us who grew up in Germany, even all subsequent outbreaks had evolved from re­ pation charged the Jews with foreigimess and long before the Nazis came to power, anti­ ligious prejudice. In mediaeval England, there was divided loyalties, with possessine a low moral semitism was a fact of life. This does not mean certainly very strong religious anti-Jewish feeling, character and concentrating on financial gain. that it affected all of us all the time, but at some culminating in the killing of many Jews on the These were the roots of many later expressions of time in ever>body's life it cropped up in one form strength of ritual murder accusations in Lincoln antisemitic hostihty. or another, at school and university, in the choice and York. Sadly, Britain was fertile ground for There were many instances of it in the follow­ of a career, in business and professional life and ritual murder stories, and as late as 1898, a ing years. When continental Jews looked with in one's social relations. Furthermore, Nazi in­ posthumous book by the highly regarded Vic­ admiration and a degree of envy at a country fluence made itself felt a long time before 1933, torian ethnologist and scientist Sir Richard where a Jew, albeit baptised in early youth, was and over the years the often maligned Central­ Burton, claimed ritual murders in Damascus and Prime Minister and a close friend of the Queeu, verein had to deal with an increasing number of Rhodes and found credulous readers. Disraeli was constantly attacked as a Jew. He was antisemitic smears in public life and with personal By then, however, antisemitism had appeared accused to wage war in the Middle East and in attacks. in a new guise. There were mounting and well- South Africa in order to further the wealth of his There are many of us who felt, when we came supported attacks on the refugees from Russia fellow Jews in those countries. Lord Derby, his to this country as refugees, that on the whole and Poland who had settled in the East End of close friend, said of him that his mental activities there was very little antisemitism here. Even London and in towns like Leeds and Manchester. were those of a foreigner and the "Church Mosley's Union of Fascists tried to deny its As so often before and after, there was a fusion Times" referred to him as the "Jew Premier." intrinsic antisemitism, and in any case, it seemed of the omnipresent British xenophobia and of anti­ Politicians both on the Left and on the Right in decline in the late 1930s. Many of us, it is semitism. A short while ago, the writer Chaim indulged in antisemitic remarks. The early true, encountered some occasional hostility, but it Bermant, himself an immigrant from Poland, said Fabians disagreed on the Jewish question, but was directed against Germans rather than against in a TV interview that Britons were averse to all were careful not to formulate a corporate Jews and was largely ascribed to the political newcomers. Foreigners always settled at their opinion. The Intemational Labour Party under ignorance of the great majority of British citi­ point of arrival, mostly in the East End of its rexered leader Keir Hardie announced that zens. Indeed, when in the early war years there London and were invariably reviled. The immigrant Jews had a special propensity for get­ was a public outcry against refugees which Huguenots, the first to do so. had the right ting on in a capitalist society. culminated in the internment policy, the cam­ religion, but the wrong language, their successors, Both books under review lead to the conclusion paign was directed at foreigners rather than at the Irish spoke English, but had the wrong that, unlike in Germany and France, antisemitism Jews, and it just happened that most of these religion, the Jews had neither, and to crown it was not a shared subliminal emotion of the people foreigners were Jews. Most refugees felt that all, the latest arrivals, the Pakistanis, had not on the whole, but that throughout the years, ani neither the authorities nor the limited circle of even the right colour. He was only too right. The as the Jewish population grew, it erupted—often British people with whom they came in contact, Jewish settlers at the turn of the century were violently—in specific circumstances and among even knew what antisemitism really meant. "It accused of the same faults as the present-day specific groups, and it all too often became could not happen here" was a cherished convic­ Pakistanis, as the Turkish guestworkers in Ger­ respectable. In Germany, books like Houston tion. Even now, there are many who are still many, and alas, even the African Jews in Israel: Stewart Chamberlain's "The Foundations of the convinced that antisemitism proper, as against they were said to take work and housing away 19th Century" or Arthur Dinter's "Die Siinde xenophobia and social snobbery, hardly exists in from the indigenous population, they were car­ wider das Blut" were hardly taken seriously by Britain. riers of disease, unclean, despoilers of native women and ignorant of the simplest rules of educated people, even if they were not free from They will be sadly disillusioned after reading hygiene. some prejudice. Over here, the wildly antisemitic two important scholarly works which have re­ outpourings of serious writers like G. K. Chester­ cently been published: "Colin Holmes, Anti- ton and Hilaire Belloc were widely read and Semitism in British Society 1876-1939" (Edward Problems of Emancipation discussed, and Fieldmarshal Montgomery once Arnold (Publishers) Ltd., London 1979, 328 pp., The new immigrants, however, were not the said one of the greatest influences on his life was £13.50). and Gisela C. Lebzelter, "Political Anti­ only targets of antisemitic attacks. Emancipation Guy Thome's now mercifully forgotten b)est- semitism in England 1918-1939" (published by had come later in Britain than on the continent seller, "When it was dark" with a Jewish demon­ Macmillans in association with St. Antony's Col­ of Europe. In a country without a written con­ ology compared to which Dinter reads like a lege, Oxford. 1978, 222 pp., £10). These books are stitution there were no laws defining the rights harmless fairy-tale. On another level, when in aptly named: in this country, antisemitism has and duties of residents, but there were many 1911 Lewis Namier, the brilliant historian, always been a social and a political phenomenon. inherent ret>trictions. The .Tewisb community, applied for a fellowship at All Souls in Oxford, Dr. Holmes's book is the first study in depth of officially re-admitted after years oi expulsion in he was refused. Professor A. P. Pollard who antisemitism as an ideology. Dr. Lebzelter, who is 1664, had grown to about 8,000 by 1753, was attended the election meeting, reported "the best non-Jewish and studied at the Free University of largely urban, close to markets and, where pos­ man by far in sheer intellect was a Balliol man Berlin and at University College, London, con­ sible to royal castles. To all newcomers, naturalis­ of Polish-Jewish origin and I did my best for centrates on the political aspects of its mani­ ation was only granted by Parliament, but it was him, but the Warden and majority of the Fellows festations. Her lxx)k describes a shorter and more restricted to those professing the Christian faith. shied at his race, and eventually we elected the recent period, whereas Dr. Holmes's research goes An attempt to remedy this by introducing the two next best." back to the first overt signs of a concerted attack. so-called Jew Bill in 1753 failed, and only in 1825, The First World War brought new tribulations. The parallels with our own experience are after a parliamentary debate with fiercely anti­ At a time, when anything with German conno­ frightening. semitic undertones was this qualification removed. tations was immediately suspect, the playwright Many years ago, Austrian Count Coudenhove- However, as Dr. Holmes stresses, "official re­ strictions did not totally hinder the community, Sir Arthur Pinero suggested in a letter to "The Kalergi—the Father of the Pan-Europe idea— Times" that naturalised Britons of German origin wrote a study of antisemitism in which he said since although Jews lived under legal disabilities, that everywhere its roots were religious, and that they nevertheless enjoyed many of the realities of Continued at column 1 page 2 Page 2 AJR INFORMATION November 1980 ANTISEMITISM IN BRITAIN JEWISH VOTE CONTROVERSY THE PARIS SYNAGOGUE ATTACK Continued from page I Opposing views on the effect of Jewish voting The bomb attack on the Paris Synagogue patterns in British elections have been given culminates the terror acts against Jews in France should openly declare their hostility to Germany. expression in two recently released reports on the and, alas, also in other parts of the world. Immediately afterwards, "The Times" published subject. A research report published by the Perhaps one of the most alarming aspects is the a spate of letters mainly from Jews which have Institute of Jewish Affairs and prepared for it by Dr. Barry Kosmin, director of the research unit high membership of pwlice oflicers in the French become known as "Loyalty Letters". Sir Ernest extreme right-wing and antisemitic organisations. Cassel, grandfather of Lord Mountbatten's wife, of the Board of Deputies, rejects the idea of a "Jewish vote" in the United Kingdom and claims It is one of the bitter ironies of history that the was among those who protested their loyalty. that, even in isolation, the Jewish electorate is country which almost two centuries ago stood in However, once more the campaign was not only barely capable of affecting the result in a handful the forefront of the fight for human rights is at directed against the Jews, and again antisemitism of constituencies. In only one, Hendon North, the same time stained by widespread antisemit­ and xenophobia had fused. where there are 15,(X)0 Jewish voters in an elec­ ism, symbolised, among other happenings, by the The war threw up another problem with serious torate of 55,000, might it be possible to talk of Dreyfus affair and the ready collaboration of consequences. Many of the refugees from the East an MP being a "prisoner of Jewish voters," a claim attributed to the proponent of the opposite wide circles in the implementation of the anti- had never become naturalised, very often through Jewish measures under the German occupation. sheer ignorance, but also because most of them viewpoint. Dr. Geoffrey Alderman, a lecturer in British Government at the Royal Holloway Col­ As the first victims of Nazi persecution, we have were not interested in politics and did not volun­ lege, London University. In a recent paper. Dr. added reason to express our feelings of horror to teer for military service. After an appeal to them Alderman expounds his theory that there has our Jewish brethren in France and to participate to erdist voluntarily had failed, the Home Sec­ been a steady move to the right in Jewish voting in all efforts aiming at overcoming the evils of retary, Herbert Samuel, announced that Russians patterns in Britain, which even extends to there hatred and terrorism. of military age would be required to enlist in the being at least six members of identifiable Jewish British army unless they preferred fo return for origin in the National Front, a figure that is military service in Russia. An agreement to that strongly doubted by the director of the Board of effect was signed with Russia, but the Russian Deputies' defence and group relations committee. Front collapsed before it was acted upon. There Dr. Jacob Gewirtz. Constituencies where Jewish 100 YEARS WEISSENSEE CEMETERY was, however, an ugly incident in Leeds where voters hold the balance in Dr. Alderman's view Jewish and non-Jewish representatives from include Hampstead, Ilford North, Hove, Middle- East and West Berlin, including the East German the refugees lived in a comparatively small ton and Prestwich, and Barnet. Finchlej', the seat State Secretary of Church Affairs attended a quarter of the town. Enraged by the sight of of Margaret Thatcher, the Prime Minister. In ceremony to mark the centenary of the opening many young Jews not in uniform, several thou­ 1975 she became the first leader of a main of the Weissensee cemetery, one of the largest sand people attacked the Jewish quarters, political party to contest a constituency where Jewish cemeteries in Europe with 115,000 burial smashed every shopwindow in sight and ijltreated the Jewish vote, then approximately 8,700 or 16 plots. The East German Institute for the Pro­ many Jews. The police was unable to prevent per cent of the electorate was crucial. Dr. Alder­ tection and Maintenance of Historic Sites has these incidents, but arrested a number of culprits man claims. In May, 1979, Mrs. Thatcher's published a booklet on Jewish cemeteries in and brought them to court. In his letter to the majority was 7,878. That this could be overtumed Berlin to mark the occasion. The East Berlin by the Jewish electors in the constituency is municipality allocated about £37,000 a year for Home Office, the Chief Constable pointed out discounted by Dr. Kosmin as a "flight of fancy." that of about 1,400 "alien Jews" of military age, the care and maintenance of the cemetery. His report denies that an articulated and orches­ Designed by Architect List, Weissensee was the only 26 had joined the Forces, and a large num­ trated Jewish vote exists in Britain. third Jewish cemetery in Berlin. The first one, ber of Jews were alleged to have gone fo Ireland opened in 1672 in Grosse Hamburger Strasse, was to avoid conscription. the first cultural institution of the small Jewish community established a year earlier. Before that Between the Wars ANTI-SEMITISM ON THE CAMPUSES time, Jews were not admitted to the whole of the Mark Brandenburg. The first synagogue in The events which followed the War, so clearly Jewish students at the universities "are up Heidereutergasse was not opened until 1712. That described in their motivations and their extent by against some of the vilest anti-semitism I have first cemetery which saw more than 7,000 burials Dr. Lebzelter, in particular, have been written ever encountered and have had to forge some between 1751 and 1827, Moses Mendelssohn about before, though not with such clarity and unholy alliances to defeat anti-Israel motions," among them, was closed in 1827 and, on orders erudition. There were, however, two instances of Mr. Martin Savitt, vice-president of the Board of of the Gestapo, destroyed in 1943. To-day it is a antisemitism which reached a wide public, and, Deputies and for many years Chairman of its park, surrounded by a wall which contains some which is more alarming, a public that should at Defence Committee, told a recent seminar organ­ old tombstones. A simple memorial stone on the ised by the Union of Jewish Students to demon­ lawn remembers Mendelssohn. least have had ifs reservations. The first con­ strate the problems young Jews face on British cerned involvement of the Jews in Bolshevism. The second cemetery on the Schonhauser Allee campuses at the present time. The audience was was opened in 1827. When it was closed, there The accusation was not only eagerly taken up by provided with a special display of the pro-Arab were 23,(X)0 graves and 750 family vaults, one of the anti-Jewish organisations which had sprung up propaganda in circulation. It ranged from so­ which was that of the old Berlin Liebermann with alarming speed and of which at least Sir phisticated posters and leaflets to such leaflets as family. The painter Max Liebermann who died Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists "Do not buy from racists—boycott Israeli goods." in 1935 and his widow who committed suicide in claimed at one time to have a membership of UJS Chairman Daimy Josephs stated that Jewish 1943, were buried there. half a million, but also by the Tory papers. students were not only under attack from anti- For many Jews from Berlin, now dispersed all Zionists. The death of Benjamin Lesser, who took The second was the publication of the "Proto­ over the world, the Weissensee cemetery has his own life after being under pressure from great importance: to some it is the last link with cols of the Elders of Zion" by Eyre and Spottis­ Christian missionaries, highlighted another the past, the only tangible memorial for family woode, publishers of the highest reputation. They danger that they faced. members and friends, and when they visit Berlin, were favourably reviewed by the High Tory most of them also pay a visit to Weissensee. For "Morning Post" as a "very remarkable book, not this reason it is difficult to explain why no Jewish to be dismissed as mere antisemitic propaganda", attempt has been made to describe the history and "The Spectator" called for a royal commis­ and fhe importance of the cemetery, not only sion to enquire "whether or not a revolutionary because of the many eminent persons buried "the sort of thing one heard in private conver­ conspiracy involving Jews could be detected in there, but also because cemeteries are documen­ sation", and that he was simply quoting "some­ society." Blackwood's magazine called the book tary evidence of historical development and an thing in the air." In a Radio 4 survey of anti­ important source for historical research. A sur­ "a devastating insight into the Bolshevik-Jewish semitism around the world, the conclusion was vey of the graves might throw new light on a way to power and its implications for the world." reached that British Jews were now "relatively period which saw a vast influx of Jews from the Even after "The Times", following painstaking secure, prosperous and predominantly middle- former Prussian Eastern provinces and from and exciting detective work by one of its re­ class. They have managed to integrate into British Eastem Europe as a whole. Some 50 years ago, porters, exposed the book as a crude forgery by the historian Jacob Jacobson (1888-1968), direc­ life while keeping intact their own religious and the Tsar's secret police, its impact hardly lessened. tor of the Gesamtarchiv der deutschen Juden, cultural traditions." Dr. Lebzelter seems to agree Both Dr. Holmes's and Dr. Lebzelter's books made an attempt to supplement W. Wohlberedt's when she concludes: end in 1939. Refugees from Nazi Germany are survey of the graves of eminent personalities in hardly mentioned. Alas, as we all know, anti­ "In England, the antisemitic campaign was a Greater Berlin with data about Weissensee. A passing phenomenon that changed neither the historian of his stature is missing to-day, but semitism did not end in 1939. Recently, the perhaps the centenary will serve as a challenge to "Daily Telegraph" was taken to task for saying attitude of English society towards Jews nor the self-assessment of Anglo-Jewry. The reactions a researcher who might collect, reconstruct and that people who attacked the monetarism of Mrs. describe the relevant data. It is an immensely Thatcher's Govemment, would say that she was against it were pragmatic and ad hoc measures difficult task, in present-day circumstances, but following "the doctrinaire advice of a foreign which illuminate the patterns of response both even starting from small beginnings, it might lead Jew." The editor retorted that he only reported from the host society and from the minority to invaluable new material for the historian of under attack, but they did not affect the course the period. Continued next column of history." E. G. LOWENTHAL (Berlin). AJR INFORMATION November 1980 Page 3 HOME NEWS AJR ROUNDABOUT ATTACKS ON SYNAGOGUES CHURCHILL'S POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY COVENANTS AND BEQUESTS Attacks on synagogues and Jewish cemeteries Martin Gilbert's Lectures NEW TAX RELIEFS in the London area are on the increase. The most As already announced in our previous issue Some welcome reliefs in the law relating to serious this year was a fire at Edgware Syna­ (p. 10), this year's biennial series of "Thank-You covenants and bequests in favour of charities gogue, which severely damaged the main doors Britain" Fund lectures will be given by Martin were made by the Finance Act, 1980. before it was put out by the caretaker. Other Gilbert, of Merton College (Oxford). His subject incidents include daubing at the Palmers Green will be "Did Churchill have a political philo­ Deeds of Covenant Synagogue and at Hendon Synagogue, where the sophy?". As the official biographer of Churchill, These need now only be for a period of four foundation stone was painted with swastikas and the speaker is particularly qualified to deal with years (seven years previously). Payments under anti-semitic slogans. At Edgware the arsonists this interesting and historically important prob­ Covenant made after 5 April, 1981, up to £3,000 had attempted to set fire to the synagogue's oil lem. a year can be deducted in computing the taxable storage tanks and a classroom. A drainpipe was income of a taxpayer who is liable to tax at daubed with the slogan "88 skins", considered The lectures will be held at 5 p.m., on Monday, 24 November, Tuesday, 25 November, and Thurs­ higher rates and/or additional rate (Investment to be a possible reference to Column 88, the neo- Income Surcharge). This implies, for instance, Nazi Hitler-worshipping organisation. Cemetery day, 27 November, at the British Academy, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W.l. It that a covenant for £70 nett made by a taxpayer desecrations have occurred at Streatham, East who is liable to a total rate of tax of 60 per cent Ham and Edmonton. Dr. Jacob Gewirtz, director will be helpful if acceptances (with an indication of how many will attend) could be notified to the costs him only £40, as his tax liability is reduced of the Board of Deputies Defence and Group by a further £30 of higher or additional rate tax. Relations Committee, has expressed concern that Secretary of the Academy, the increase in such incidents corresponds with Payments under Covenant can now also be the so-called "skinhead revival" and the efforts made by family companies (close companies) made to cultivate them by right-wing movements. ARTHUR KOESTLER, 75 and are deductable up to £3,000 from the com­ The writer Arthur Koestler celebrated his 75th pany's income in respect of each individual FATEFUL VISIT TO THE PAST birthday on his Suffolk farm. He was born in shareholder without being apportioned to him as Budapest, but educated in Vienna. As a foreign income, as was the case in the past. Weraer Mayer, deputy headmaster of the King correspondent for a number of important news­ We do hope that more of our friends will make David High School in Manchester, recently went papers, he covered the Graf Zepf)elin Arctic use of these facilities by making covenants in to Germany as the guest of an old German favour of the AJR Charitable Trust. Their sub­ woman who had risked her life to help his Expedition in 1931 and the Spanish civil war. He parents during the war. On his return home, he had joined the Communist Party in 1931 and scriptions, except for a nominal amount to be was involved in a motor accident on the auto­ subsequently spent a year in Russia. In Spain he retained as membership fee by the AJR proper, bahn and detained in hospital for several days. was imprisoned by Franco and condemned to can also be paid in this way. death, but he escaped to France and served in PR.4GUE EXHIBrriON FOR BRFrAIN the French Foreign Legion 1939-40 and in the Charitable Bequests British Pioneer Corps from 1941-42. He left the The legacies left to charities in a person's will To coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Communist Party in protest against Stalin's are now completely exempt from Capital Transfer founding of the Prague State Jewish Museum murder of dissidents. In "Darkness at Noon" and Tax up to £200,000. Legacies have in the past an exhibition of some of its Jewish art treasures "The Yogi and the Commissar", both published constituted a very substantial proportion of the was opened at Manchester's Whitworth Gallery, in English after he finally settled in this country, income of our Charitable Trust and we shall in on 7 October. Professor Reginald Dodwell, direc­ he strongly attacked Stalin and the Soviet future be even more dependent on this source of tor of the gallery has devoted eight years to Regime. In later years, he became interested in income for our charitable activities. It is essential arranging the bringing of the exhibits to Britain, science and psychology and published a number that the legacy is left to the AJR Charitable which he hopes will result in non-Jews leaming of very successful books on both subjects. In Trust, which is the charitable instrument of the more about synagogue art, about which they 1968, he convened a symposium in Alpbach, Association and registered as such, and not to know very little. Among the 300 exhibits will be Austria, attended by eminent scientists dissatisfied the Association of Jewish Refugees itself. 60 drawings and paintings by adults and children with modern tendencies in biology. from Theresienstadt concentration camp. An illus­ Koestler has always retained a special relation­ trated history of the collection tells visitors how the IRMA SREBNTK collection was established by the Nazis as a permanent ship with Israel. Between the wars, he lived there record of "an extinct race". for several years, farming, doing odd jobs and Mrs. Irma Srebnik, who died suddenly on September eventually reporting on developments for news­ 24, was a most devoted communal worker who BOHEMIAN SCROLL FOR LIVERPOOL papers. He has published two books as a result: rendered her voluntary services unstintingly to several "Tliieves in the Night", dedicated to Jabotinsky Jewish organisations. The AJR in particular benefited .\ memorial scroll from Bohemia was recently and telling the fights and tribulations of the early from her activities as a member of the panel of ceremoniously installed in the Ark of the Liver­ Kibbutzim in fictionalised form in 1946 and voluntary drivers for the Meals on Wheels service. pool Progressive Synagogue by Mr. Frederick "Promise and Fulfilment — Palestine 1917 and For many years she conscientiously lent her co­ Masserick, president of the congregation who was 1949" giving his views on the Establishment of operation, never shirking her often strenuous duties born in Ceske Budejovice from which the scroll the State of Israel in 1949. In the epilogue to in all kinds of conditions. She also established strorig originated. The relic is on permanent loan from this book, he describes himself as a man "who personal contacts with those she visited, and she will the Memorial Scrolls Committee of the Westmin­ has been a supporter of the Zionist Movement be greatly missed by many and gratefully remembered ster Synagogue, London, in memory of Mr. for a quarter-century, while his cultural allegiance by all who knew her. Masserick's Bohemian relatives, all of whom died belonged to Westem Europe". in the Holocaust. OUR "ENQUIRIES" COLUMN LADY CHAIN TO HEAD NEW TRUST IT'S A GIFT" Widespread Reaction Lady Ann Chain has been appointed Chairman Mr. Fred Worms, a Board member of the AJR, Each issue of this journal carries enquiries by of a new British Ort Trust which has been set up to sponsored a new guide: "Gifts to Charities. How persons of various walks of life, who are anxious Undertake specialist educational projects in this to maximise benefits at minimum cost." A prac­ to trace the whereabouts of relatives and friends country. While part of its activities will be con­ tical publication, written by experts, it is amus­ of theirs. Hardly a month passes in which we cemed with Jewish education, it will also provide ingly illustrated by Jeremy Gerlis, and is issued do not receive grateful acknowledgements of the expert help to non-denominational schools. by the B'nai Brith Foundation, B'nai Brith successful results of such enquiries. Sometimes Housing Trust and the Hillel Foundation. readers in this country can supply the required AID TO THE DISADVANTAGED information. In other cases readers abroad hap­ Our contributor. Dr. Julius Carlebach, head of pen to see the paper and provide the answers. Jewish and IsraeU Studies at Sussex University, There are also quite a few cases in which resi­ is directing and supervising a project to help Your House for— dents in Germany want to get in touch with their Israel with the care and education of socially FLOOR COVERINGS emigrated former schoolmates, often in cotmec- disadvantaged adolescents by training Youth tion with the arrangement of school reunions. As .^liyah personnel for advanced academic quali­ CURTAINS, CARPETS, far as readers have reason to assume that the fications. SPECIALITY record of the enquirer is not stained by the Nazi ENGLISH & CONTINENTAL years, they are happy to resume the contacts. All OBSCENE HOLIDAY IDEA this re-affirms that also in this particular field the According to German press reports, 41-year- DOWN QUILTS, DUVETS, facilities given by "AJR Information" serve a old Bob Acraman, a former Army lance- DUVET COVERS & SHEETS most useful purpose. corporal, has hit on the idea of opening a ALSO RE-MAKES AND RE-COVERS holiday camp in Hampshire which is supposed to be a replica of a Nazi concentration camp. ESTIMATES FREE LEGACY FOR AJR The guards wear German uniforms, and the camp DAWSON-LANE LIMITED Frieda Gordon of London, N.W.6, left £1,000 is surrounded by barbed wire with watchtowers. (ettabhthed 1946) to the AJR Charitable Trust, and the residue of The price of a three-day stay is £30. According 17 BRIDGE ROAD, WEMBLEY PARK her estate after several bequests to other organ­ to Acraman, his offer has met with a lively Telephone: 904 6671 isations and personal friends, to the Belsizc response. personal attention of Mr. W. Shackmart Square Liberal Synagogue. Page 4 AJR INFORMATION November 1980

ARGENTINE Persecution Figures Disputed NEWS FROM ABROAD An Argentinian immigrant to Israel, Mr. UNITED STATES CBS Discovers the Vanessa Handicap Nahum Solan, a member of the Mapam secre­ tariat, has accused the Argentine military regime Army Excludes Neo Nazi CBS, the American television company, are of responsibility for the brutal murder of 2,500 A US Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld an having trouble in selling advertising space for the Jews, many of them members of the Zionist Army decision to exclude a student holding Nazi screening of "Playing for Time", in which they movement. Intemal evidence gathered by Jewish, views from the Reserve Officer Training Corps. cast Vanessa Redgrave in the part of Auschwitz- international and diplomatic sources suggest that The Chicago Court ruled that the applicant's survivor Fania Fenelon, whose personal story the 2,500 figure is exaggerated, but that about right to free speech had not been violated and provided the basis for the screen-play, written by 500 young Jews are known to have "disappeared" that while citizens are entitled to espouse any Arthur Miller. CBS went ahead with the casting in Argentina. cause they wish the sentiments he held were of Miss Redgrave in the part despite the objec­ "incompatible" with "an important public office." tions of the book's author and many Jewish Reform Synagogue's New Ministo- groups in the USA. Fania Fenelon plans to sue Temple Emanu-El, Buenos Aires, the only Seen but not Heard Reform Synagogue in Argentina has a new A statement that "God Almighty does not hear CBS over its TV version of her story. Demonstrators bumt an effigy of Vanessa Red­ Minister. He is 38-year-old Rabbi Reuben Nisen- the prayer of a Jew," made by Dr. Bailey Smith, bom, a graduate of the Conservative Rabbinical president of Southern Baptist Convention, has grave outside the CBS Hollywood studios on the eve of the first proposed screening of the film, Seminary in the city, and now a member of its been disavowed by his fellow Church leader Dr. teaching staff. Some 400 people attended his James Dunn, director of the Christian Life after giving the actress a mock trial. The 150 demonstrators included members of the Jewish induction ceremony, including Dr. Roberto Commission of Texas Baptists, who described it Bravo, an Under-Secretary of the Ministry of as the "sort of ultimate anti-semitic remark." Dr. Defence League and a group called "Children of the Holocaust." Foreign Affairs and Religions. Smith tried to defend his position by a further Morse Fellowship Award statement, saying: "I am pro-Jew. I believe that Jacobo Timerman, the Jewish-born newspaper they are God's special people, but without Jesus CANADA editor who fled from political persecution in (ihrist they are lost. No prayer gets through that And-Nazi Hero Dies Argentina to Israel, has been granted the Arthur is not prayed through Jesus Christ." D. Morse Fellowship Award in Communications Special Privileges' Charge Disproved A Canadian non-Jew arrested in 1938 by the and Society, presented by the Aspen Institute for Nazis for helping Jews to leave Austria has died Humanistic Studies for courage in joumalism. Mr. Tom Bradley, the black mayor of Los in Toronto at the age of 79. He was Mr. R. C. A. Angeles, acted swiftly to disprove allegations that (Charles) Grant, who travelled in Europe in the CUBAN JEWRY DOWN TO 900 Soviet Jewish immigrants had been receiving 1930s, buying and selling precious stones, and Of the 100,000 Cubans fleeing to South Florida favoured treatment over black applicants in the was arrested in Vienna in the spring of 1938 in the recent mass exodus from that country, it purchase of driver-owned taxis from the city's because he was a "Judenfreund." After his re­ is estimated that between 60 and 100 were T«w« Transportation Board and that the local Jewish lease he managed to provide false passports for Prior to Fidel Castro's seizure of power in 1959. community had been giving them large loans to some 650 Jews before again falling into the hands Cuba had some 10,000 Jews, but a large propor­ outbid blacks seeking membership of the inde­ of the Gestapo. When war broke out in 1939 he tion of these left the country, belonging as they pendent taxi association. was intemed as an enemy alien and spent the did to the middle classes, which were mainly Shanghai Refugees Meet next years in various concentration camps. After eliminated by his regime. Now about 900 Jews 35 years after the end of the war, just under the war he devoted his life to fighting racial are left on the island, but most Jewish organi­ 1,000 former refugees who spent the war years in discrimination in his native Canada, where he sational buildings are gone. The new arrivals in Shanghai, held a re-union meeting in San also worked to find homes and foster parents for the United States are gradually dispersing through­ Francisco, to review "survival and progress", as European orphans. out the country; some twenty families have been the invitation said. One of their number, Henri I. integrated in the Miami area. Lewin, who after the war emigrated to the DUTCH QUEEN MEETS United States where he started as a waiter in a Baron Hirsch's Achievements JEWISH SCHOLARS restaurant, organised the meeting. He is now In Saskatchewan, Canada, a commemorative Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands was hostess managing director of the Hilton Hotel Organ­ ceremony was held to honour the memory of to some 350 participants in a three-day sympo­ isation and accommodated them in Oakland on 19th century German-Jewish philanthropist Baron sium on the history of Dutch Jewry held in the other side of San Francisco Bay. Most of Maurice de Hirsch who in 1892 established a Amsterdam, when they were her guests at the them now live in America, but some came from settlement called "Hirsch" in the district which royal palace in the city. The symposium spon­ Israel, Austria, Switzerland, Canada and Hawaii. existed for 50 years. More than 100 descendants sored by the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences, The largest group from overseas, however, came and friends of Jewish pioneers who farmed there was held under a cultural agreement between all the way from Australia. Guest of Honour was Israel and Holland. Michael Blumenthal who came to the States with attended, some of them coming from as far away 60 dollars in his pocket and rose to become the as Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Vancouver. RABBI FOR NORWAY first Treasury Secretary of the Carter Govern­ Saskatchewan's Minister of Industry and Com­ The appointment of Rabbi Michael Melchior ment. His name appears on dollar notes. In his merce, Mr. Norman Vickar, a member of a to Oslo has ended a long period of years during address at the official dinner, he said that all pioneer Jewish farm family in Western Canada, which Norway was without a Jewish minister. those who had survived, should demonstrate unveiled a plaque noting the history of the settle­ He was inducted into oflice by his own father, their gratitude to their new countries, and those ment. At the same time, the Canadian Jewish the Chief Rabbi of Denmark, Rabbi Bent Congress took over the cemetery, established in Melchior. in America should assist the new refugees who the early days of the settlement on the land of a were constantly arriving, remembering that they settler called Blank, and set up a perpetual-care had once shared their fate. fund financed by ICA and the descendants of the pioneers. At pwesent, there are still three Jews farming in the area, but in its heyday, Hirsch had a population of 200, three synagogues, a school, a hotel and three shops.

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With acknowledgement to the news service of the Jewish Chronicle. iS^H'JJ'],'i AJR INFORMATION November 1980 Pages

man like Bmno Walter, himself one of the great Robert Weltsch interpreters of Mozart's music, describes Mozart "as a gay, simple-minded young man". That corresponds to the wishful thinking of the pub­ THE MOZART MYSTERY lic, but it is far from the truth. The relationship Letter to a London Friend of Vienna and Salzburg to Mozart is also system­ atically distorted. Both cities treated him badly and almost let him starve, and he hated both Dear Dora, Public Information Office of the Mandatory government, and after the war was interpreter at places which afterwards claimed him as their Thank you for your letter which was very product and darling, basking in his glory. interesting for many reasons. I was impressed by the Nuremberg trial of the top Nazis. During all your description of the unceasing stream of these varied activities, he never neglected his To Wolfgang Hildesheimer's passionate cam­ Israeli tourists whom you are so kindly helping to artistic interests which were his true concern; he paign for a re-interpretation of Mozart we owe enjoy their stay in London. One point struck me became a painter and in post-war Europe a very an enthralling and fascinating book which touches for special reasons. You say that most tourists successful writer of books and radio plays and upon the most mysterious sides of great artistic wanted to see Peter Shaffer's play "Amadeus", winner of many literary awards. creation and the paradox of its relations to the that the performances are sold out for a long Wolfgang's parents were a couple of rare character and actual life of the artist. In the time and you had to queue for hours to obtain personal charm. His father Dr. Arnold Hildes­ present context I cannot go into the rich and tickets. I do not know the play, but you say it heimer was an important industrialist in Pales­ many-sided details, but I want to add some describes the murder of Mozart by "his rival", tine, familiar to housewives as producer of Blue remarks about the author's version of the poison the composer and conductor Antonio Salieri who Band margarine; he was also a scientist who story which according to your letter is taken for poisoned him. wrote a brilliant history of modem physics. granted in the new play. Hildesheimer regards the rumour of Mozart's poisoning by Salieri as a Now I was just reading Wolfgang Hildes- Hildesheimer's Interpretation heimer's marvellous book on Mozart* easily legend invented to dramatise the end of a genius' the most sensible treatment of the subject. Wolfgang's book is the heavily expanded fourth life. On the other hand, Mozart himself is Hildesheimer applies to this work modern methods revision of a lecture originally given on the reported to have told his wife Constanze that of psychoanalytical experience while aware of the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the com­ somebody had given him a slowly working strong fact that the mystery of one of the greatest geniuses poser's birth in 1956 and now grown to a book poison ("aqua toffana")—as Constanze said to of human history defies all rationalist explanations; of more than 400 pages. It is the militant con­ Mary Novello in 1829. one has to confine oneself to avoiding superficial tradiction of aU the familiar Mozart biographies Expounding the medical aspects of Mozart's phrases and to stating the true facts, including which aim at reducing the man Mozart to the death, Hildesheimer believes that the mercurial the contrasts between Mozart's personal charac­ level of the average reader. Only a person who poisoning about which seems to exist agreement, ter, his sometimes strange social conduct and the has undergone psychoanalysis, the author suggests, may have been the result of the usual treatment boundless manifestations of his creative genius. will be able to exclude all positive or negative of lues. This disease Mozart may have contracted Whatever attribute you would use it could only "affects" and never to mistake the potential in the last phase of his life, because in his trivialise the real phenomenon. One cannot say in reaction of his own psyche as a yardstick. As to permanent depression he seems to have lost all words what can be expressed only in sound. the music, Hildesheimer shows an astonishing moral consistency and became what Hildesheimer I wonder whether in your Palestine days you knowledge of all details of Mozart's compo­ calls a "Dionysic" character seeking amusement. have met young Hildesheimer, gifted son of a sitions. In this way he may have caught lues as many tmly "aristocratic" German-Jewish family, with It is this Jewish author's declared intention to other prominent people did. This is a hypothesis, roots in Hamburg and Mannheim. Educated in revolutionise by his lonely and isolated voice the of course, not more convincing than the murder the Odenwaldschule and later in England, he predominant tendency of the various biographers story. learned joinery and furniture carpentry in Pales­ to please their readers and to bring a formidable To whitewash Salieri from the suspicion of tine, later scenic design in Salzburg and London and uncanny subject nearer to their capacity. murder although he is reported to have confessed until 1939, returned to Palestine, served in the Only in this way one can explain that, e.g., even a it on his death-bed in 1825, Hildesheimer says that Salieri was a conciliatory man, teacher of inter alia Beethoven, Schubert and Liszt. One may doubt whether this argument is convincing. It ignores the possibility of demonic forces in the soul of an outwardly respectable man, as we know from Dostoyevsky and from our own RENAULT recent experience. We shall never be able to decide what is the tmth. This gives the dramatist the freedom to build a play on one of the hypotheses, or even on free invention, as other There's a lot happening at Old Oak. dramatists like Shakespeare and Schiller did whh historical figures. Last year, more people than ever before bought a Anyhow, Hildesheimer's book is an achieve­ new Renault from Old Oak Motor Company. ment of momentous interest. Mozart died on This might be because we are a family firm that still 5 December 1791. On the same day, the Zeittafel believes the customer should come first. tells us, Giacomo Meyerbeer was born. Or maybe it was because Renault produce Europe's You can see how many memories were evoked by your charming letter. Thank you. most up-to-date and economy-conscious range of cars, Yours from the thrifty 5, to the super-luxury 30TX. Robert Weltsch. It could even have been because cur unique Jerusalem, August 1980. "Service Preference" scheme guarantees our customers cheaper and faster servicing and after-sales care. •Wolfgang Hildesheimer: Mozart, sutirkamp tasclienbuch 598. Suhrkamp Verlag Frankfurt 1980. 418 s., mit Zeittafel But whatever the reason, shouldn't you come along und Verzeichnis der erwiihnten Werke. DM 10. (Readers who have seen "Amadeus" at the National yourself and see what happens at Enfield's Renaujt^ntre. Theatre, will of course realise that the play does noi •confirm Mozart's murder by Salieri—Ed.). o^ Service for cars —and people. Annely ]uda Fine Art 11 Tottenham Mews, London WIP 9PJ MOTOR "'-637 SSI7/8 COMPANY CONTEMPORARY PAINTING OLD OAK LIMITED AND SCULPTURE 79 WINDMILL H!IL FMFIELD EN2 7AG 01-363-2261 Mon-Fri: 10 am-6 pm Sat: lOam-lpm AJR INFORMATION November 1980 Page 6 F. Thorn F. L. Brassloff WISDOM WITHOUT TEARS There are very few poets who were tempted to JEWS KSf HABSBURG EMPIRE elucidate the written image by adding a graphic The Habsburg Empire which appeared from policy of "tolerance", which aimed at integrating one—Wilhehn Busch proceeded in the reverse outside as a uniform entity, was actually a also the Polish Jews into the general population: order and Cocteau did not proceed at all, but complex combination of various units and na­ the measures, animated by imperial self-interest and provided afterthoughts — and Kurt Franken­ tionaUties, which had been assembled in the ideas of enlightenment, met with strong resistance schwerth in his new book* does it probably course of centuries: Austria proper, which con­ by those Jews who wanted to uphold their religious- because the draughtsman in him fights the sisted of "kingdoms and lander" represented in national identity unimpaired, and by non-Jews (stronger) writer and has to win sometimes. In the "Reichstag", and the kingdom of Hungary, who for reasons of their own and out of preju­ spite of this inequality his "Gedichtsammlung mit which stressed its independence from "Vienna". dice, had no sympathy for the reforms imposed Zeichnungen", (30 years after "Seid Ihr Wach") After the collapse of the monarchy in 1918, the from above. shows one other aspect of the age-old question. newly formed states also inherited its problems A brief study by Wolfgang Hausler "Das whether to express thought or feeling in more and failed to solve them satisfactorily. galizische Judentum in der Habsburgmonarchie, than one art form strengthens or weakens either: II Slovakia which had belonged to Hungary im Licht der zeitgenossischen Publizistik und in Frankenschwerth's work the witty drawings became part of Czechoslovakia, very much Reiseliteratur von 1772-1848" (in the series serve as a protective shield, protecting both against the will of Slovaks, most of whom strove "Oesterreich Archiv" of the "Institut filr Oester- author and reader against pain. The three head­ for autonomy in the new state. Within Slovakian reichkunde"; Verlag R. Oldenbourg, Munich, ings too show the former's concem with soften­ Jewry a considerable sector had still emotional 1979, DM 14.80) is interesting also for the non- ing—not diluting—the very deep sorrow we old bonds with the Hungarian past, another group specialist reader. It contributes to a better under­ ones cannot escape when comparing the world had links with German-Austrian culture, and a standing of Polish Jewry, which Western and we hoped for and sometimes expected with the third one considered itself primarily as forming Westernised Jews tended to patronize and even to world we live in, 50 years later. "Satire" and a distinct Jewish nationality. Orthodox tradition despise. Already before the National Socialist "Epigramme", the first parts of the book, re­ played a large part in all camps, but the period, convinced anti-semites hardly dis­ present the wisdom to t>e extracted from events secularist-minded Zionist movement had a con­ tinguished between the "assimilated" German and and experiences one can guess, but their serenity siderable fellowship, too. In contrast to the Austrian Jews and their Polish and Slovak rela­ is tinged with sadness and the affinity to Morgen­ majority of the Slovaks, the Jews accepted loyally tives. Such serious research as that undertaken stern is more than an appealing skill which both the existence of democratic Czechoslovakia. by the authors of the two books here reviewed, writers used to our delight; it is rather the same and only escape route from evil. Religious and political anti-semitism had been should help to dispel still persisting ignorance The third part, "Lyrische Gedichte", in itself a constant feature of Slovak thought and prac­ and pru-conceived notions. in four parts according to subjects—albeit in a tice; Jews were hated and distmsted as an alien personal, semi-coded order—is probably a con­ element, their predominance in the economy was IRAN BANS GROUP EMIGRATION firmation of the fact, that the introductory ones strongly resented. When Slovakia was accorded and their serenity were after all the result of autonomy and subsequently separate statehood "Group emigration" by Jews to Israel has been banned by the Iranian govemment. The news was conscious effort. These lyrical poems are deep by Germany in 1939, its new rulers, who were given in a Tehran radio announcement which and honest, and where the author indulges in a willingly subservient to the Nazis and largely threatened severe punishment for any Jew foimd little sentimentality it is still the legitimate sympathetic to their ideology, started immediately to be planning to emigrate. Foreign airlines were daughter of genuine sentiment and subject to with the discrimination, and spoliation of thc also warned not to carry passengers whose even­ strict poetic discipline. This reviewer's loyalties Jews, with the proclaimed aim of eliminating tual destination was Israel. are divided: There is much worldly fun to be them from the body politic. In dose cooperation found in satirical poems as "Ein Ausweg" and with their German masters, they introduced CHRISTIANS FOR ISRAEL "Der Hdndedruck" and we feel grateful for the forced labour and concentration camps, followed An evangelical organisation, the Almond solace provided, for our benefit as well as the by deportations for mass liquidation. Branch Association, plans to establish a "Chris­ tian Embassy" in Jerusalem in order "to express poet's, but the consistency and permanent val­ "Die Juden im Slowakischen Staat 1939-1945" publicly the desire of millions, whom we believe idity of his "reine Lyrik" transform a series of by Ladislav Lipscher (a publication of the re­ we are representing at this cmcial time in Israel's themes into one single and very moving statement search institution "Collegium Carolinum"; Verlag history, that Jemsalem shall remain the united of humanitarian understanding. R. Oldenbourg, Munich, 1980, DM 49)—is a capital of Israel and that she shall live in her meticulous and fair account of a chapter of the land that God has promised to her as an ever­ Today it is not obvious that a poet should lasting possession in an etemal covenant with master the poet's craft, so we shoidd probably holocaust period. It shows how bigoted Catholic him." churchmen, like-minded politicians and out­ mention that Frankenschwerth handles rhyme spoken National Socialists implemented anti­ and rhythm with masterly restraint and skill and semitic policies ruthlessly and how opportunism that the musical content of his verses equals the THE ANNUAL CONCERT intellectual message. It is no coincidence that one and corruption played a part in their behaviour, in aid of but there were even within their ranks notable of the most appealing poems is "Grosses exceptions, Slovakian Jewry, by and large, SELF AID OF REFUGEES Konzert". . . . evinced considerable resilience and a large (In conjunction with AJR) It does not do the wise serenity of the book measure of solidarity, though some individuals will take place at the justice when we conclude with one of the few helped the oppressors. Jews played an active part Queen Elizabeth Hall on deeply pessimistic lines—it just so happens that in the liberation movements; their role has so far Monday, 10 November, 1980 to quote them is to quote something which is not been acknowledged sufficiently. It is one of at 7.45 p.m. hidden between those of witty optimism: the merits of the book that its author gives due Jetzt, mit gebeugtem Riicken, credit to Jews and Gentiles who showed great with auf unsichtbaren Kriicken, courage in very difficult times. SYLVIA SASS, soprano geh ich des nachts umher. « « * accompanied by Ich zahl der Stunden Schlag, In Galicia which became part of Austria in thc CRAIG SHEPPARD ich warte auf den Tag und will den Tag nicht mehr. last third of the 18th century, the Jews had their and the weU-established communal organizations and sep­ BOCHMANN STRING QUARTET arate status. Emperor Joseph II inaugurated a *Kurt Frankenschwerth: Satire, Epigramme. Lyrik, J. G. with Blaschke Verlag, Darmstadt, 89 pp., DM 9,80. JOSE FEGHALI MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENT Works by by Haydn, Dvorak, Chopin and BECHSTEIN STEINWAY BLUTHNER Kbdaly ILAN & HIS ACCORDION Finest selection reconditioned PIANOS for birthdays, anniversaries etc. Tickets: price £3, E4, E5, E6, £7 available Always interested in purchasing from Self Aid of Refugees, 8 Fairfax Man­ well-preserved instruments Israeii, Continental & popular music sions, London NW3 6LA. Tel.: 01-328 with accordion and piano 3255/6 and from 10 October from the JACQUES SAMUEL PIANOS LTD. Royal Festival Hall, London SE1 8XX. Phone:01-806 3892 Tel.: 01-928 3191 142 Edgware Road, W.2 Tel: 723 8881/9

»f AJR INFORMATION November 1980 Page 7

ISRAEL'S NEW BONN AMBASSADOR Yitzhask Ben-Ari, the newly appointed Israeli NEWS FROM GERHANY ambassador to the Federal Republic, was born in Austria 56 years ago. He is a former ambassador BERLIN'S CAPACITY EXHAUSTED THE BERLIN DOCUMENT CENTER to Deimiark and has recently worked in the Heinz Galinski, chairman of the W. Berlin Israeli Foreign Ministry. E.G.L. Jewish community, told representatives of the For several months the Bonn Foreign Office 2,3(X) recent Jewish immigrants to the city that has conducted protracted negotiations with the BOAT PEOPLE MURDERED the community had made strenuous efforts to US authorities about the "Docmnent Center" in assist most of the newcomers in legalising their Berlin which has hitherto been administered by Members of a right-wing organisation threw a stay and in finding accommodation and work. the Americans. It contains a great number of Molotov cocktail bomb into a hostel for foreign The success of these efforts was to a large extent documents from the Nazi period, including the refugees in Hamburg and killed two young due to the good relations between the community niembership index of the NSDAP with inform­ Vietnamese who had been among the boat people and the civic authorities. He strongly criticised ation about more than 10 million party members, rescued by the German "Cap Anamur" last year. fhe small minority among the new arrivals whose lists of the SA and SS membership and of about A few days earlier, two Ethopian women were illegal activities had recently led to unpleasant 2.5 million ethnic Germans who came to Ger­ seriously injured in a similar attack on a hostel publicity and added that it should be realised many during the war. The Center still receives in Lorrach near the Swiss border. between 3,000 and 4,000 enquiries a month from that the city of Berlin had now exhaiisted its "YOUTH UNDER HITLER" capacity for receiving and accommodating new govemment offices and researchers in the Federal immigrants. Republic, the USA, the East German authorities, A joint enterprise by various German TV Poland and Czechoslovakia and employs 33 full- companies is preparing a four-part serial "Youth JEWS IN EAST GERMANY time researchers. under Hitler" relying on autobiographical notes According to a recent report, based on an and diaries of the period. German and American interview with Helmut Aris, president of the school children between 10 and 16 years, play the Jewish communities in the German Democratic FIRST MENDELSSOHN AWARD main parts. Republic, there are now only about 650 men and women of the Jewish faith living in the GDR. In The Moses Mendelssohn Prize for Tolerance, THE 1972 MUNICH MURDERS 1971, there were still over 1,100. 300 of the 650 created last year by the Mendelssohn-Gesellschaft on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of In Israel, thousands of people congregated in live in East Berlin, nearly 80 in Dresden, and cemeteries and sports centres to commemorate others in towns and cities like Halle, Karl-Marx- the philosopher's birth was adjucated for the first time. The recipient was Amtsgerichts- the 11 sportsmen killed by Palestinian terrorists Stadt (Chemnitz), Leipzig, Magdeburg, Schwerin during the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. At and Erfurt. Eight communities receive subsidies direktorin Dr. Barbara Just-Dahlmann (Mann­ heim). In her address at the presentation ceremony, the same time, the Beirut paper "Magazine" for the upkeep of 130 cemeteries. For the last revealed new information about the perpetrators: 15 years there has not been a permanent rabbi, held on 7 September in the State Library Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Dr. Just-Dahlmann exemplified the Lebanese-born Fuad Chemali was the master but a guest rabbi from Hungary officiates on strategist of the terrorist organisation "Black special occasions. need for tolerance by referring to the Israeli-Arab problem. The Arab States, she said, should make September". It was he who planned the Munich Israelis attending the Inter-Parliamentary clear, whether they genuinely desire peace if Israel massacre; he died of cancer before the Games. Union meeting in East Berlin joined the com­ withdraws her troops from occupied territories. In On his deathbed, he made his wife Elissar pro­ munity for the Yom Kippur synagogue services. her laudatio Dr. Cecile Lowenthal-Hensel, chairman mise to carry out his plans. She therefore went The East German Government and the Pales­ of the Mendelssohn-Gesellschaft as well as of the to Munich and took part in the taking of host­ tine Liberation Organisation have concluded a Prize Jury, paid tribute to Dr. Just-Dahlmann's ages, but left before the fatal outcome. cultural and scientific co-operation agreement. numerous activities, which included the mem­ INaTEMENT TO RACE HATRED bership of the "Jews and Christians" sub-committee EVERYDAY LIFE UNDER THE NAZIS A West Berlin Court gave a six months' sus­ of fhe German Evangelical Kirchentag and the fight This year's History Prize of the Federal Presi­ pended prison sentence to 45-year-old lawyer for a liberalisation of the German Criminal Law. dent for students will be awarded to the writer of Josef Moritz who, when in summer 1976 a E.G.L. the best essay on "Everyday Life under National Jewish guest at a Berlin restaurant protested Socialism". ComjJetitors are asked to investigate against his giving the Hitler salute, had said the in their own families how the regime affected the only thing he reproached Hitler with was that he REFUGEE AMBASSADOR FROM CANADA individual in his or her day-to-day activities. had not annihilated all Jews. 58-ycar-old Klaus Goldschlag who was born in KASSEL OTIZENS VISIT ISRAEL A court in Stade, Lower Saxony, sentenced a Berlin and went to Toronto as a refugee in 1937, 51-year-old neo-Nazi activist, Edgar Geiss, to is Canada's new ambassador to the Federal Members of the Kassel municipality, led by 15 months' imprisonment for incitement to Republic. His father died when he was a small Lord Mayor Eichler, visited Israel and met the hatred against the Jews. During the Cologne trial boy, and his mother who had to earn a living, Association of Israelis from Kassel. They stated of Kurt Lischka, the SS officer who was Nazi sent him to the Auerbachsche Waisenhaus in they had come to further the many contacts security chief in Paris during the occupation, he 1933. In 1936 the Canadian Alan Coatsworth went between Israelis from Kassel and individuals and had distributed pamphlets claiming that the gas- to Berlin in order to adopt a Jewish boy and official institutions of the capital of Northern chambers were a Jewish lie. Last February chose young Klaus. During the war, he served Hesse. Lischka received a 10 years' sentence for com­ in the Canadian Forces and, after 1945, spent a plicity in the deportation of more than 70,000 year with them in Oldenburg. After leaving the HONOUR FOR HERMANN KESTEN Jews from France. Army, he joined the diplomatic service and was The author Hermann Kesten, 80, was made a GERMAN BISHOPS PRAY IN AUSCHWITZ sent to Turkey and Italy as ambassador and to Freeman of Nuremberg, his city of birth. In the Auschwitz death cell of Father Maxi­ the Venice economic summit meeting as Tm- milian Kolbe who was recently beatified, German deau's personal representative. FAMOUS AUTOGRAPHS and Polish bishops prayed together for the elimination of hatred and the spiritual renovation During the last two years, the autograph of Eurofw. They said that in Auschwitz they department of the State Library of Prussian were reminded of the pitiless and ruthless power cultural documents in Berlin acquired the literary ^, of injustice exercised by the Germans. Father estate of the writer Clara Viebig (married to ^k Kolbe had swapped jrfaces with a family man publisher Fritz Cohn who died in Bierlin in 1936), wT' condemned to be starved to death in the cell. the physicist Max Born and the files of the ^a^'JLTater! Ullstein publishing house with letters from many ROEDELHEIM MEMORIAL DESECRATED needs famous authors, particularly of the Twenties. The commemorative stone which was put up Overcome the problem of dry air in They include letters from Herwarth Walden (real on the site of the old Frankfurt-Roedelheim stuftv homes and offices! For your health's sake and that of your name Georg Levin) and a copy of Kleist's synagogue in November last year, was daubed pets, piano, furniture, antiques, paintings "Kleine Schriften" with 34 lithographs by Max with swastikas, SS mnes and antisemitic inscrip­ AOD the required moisture with an Liebermann, published in 1917. tions on the eve of Yom Kippur. One drawing The firm of J. A. Stargardt, antiquarian book­ showed a gallows on which hung a Star of David. sellers and famous for their auction sales of Spokesmen for the Churches and the Munici­ autographs, celebrated its 150th anniversary at pality expressed their horror and promised to Marburg, Lahn, its present domicile. The firm do everything to find the culprits. was set up by bookseller Joseph Stargardt in OBJECTS FOR GERMAN ART SHOW Berlin, in partnership with Paul Julius Reuter Starting in the autumn of 1981, an exhibition (1816-1899), better known as the founder of the dealing with East European Judaism—its history, EGRO HUMIDIFIER famous news agency. E.G.L. social stracture, religion and influence on the (mad« in Switzerland) Simpla to use. Models available for all HISTORY OF THE JEWS OF KREMS West—will open in Frankfurt/Main and travel tvptts of heating. Phone or write for free through various cities in West Germany. Any explanatory leaflet to The Vienna Institute for Contemporary His­ readers who can offer objects are asked to write THE HUMIDIFIER CO. tory has published the thesis of Hannelore 25 Bridgi Road, Wembley Park. to: Deutscher Koordinierungsrat der Gesellschaf­ Middlesex, HAS SAB Hruschka on "the history of the Jews of Krems ten fUr Christlich-Judische Zusammenarbeit, Telkfrtionc 01-904 7603 (est.1958) from the beginnings until 1938." There have been Braubachstr.l3, 6000 Frankfurt/Main, West Ger­ Jews in the small town of Krems in Lower tnany. Austria for at least 900 years. Pages AJR INFORMATION November 1980 Fritz Friedlander {Melbourne) .-^ ... 1897 at Oppeln. It was there that he found happi­ ness in his marriage to Natalie Hamburger; there LEO BAECK — A NEW BIOGRAPHY too he wrote his magnum opus "The Essence of Judaism", the standard work on progressive Before Auguste Rodin began his statue of chiefly on American subjects. Why did he aban­ Judaism. Moving to Dusseldorf in 1907, Leo Balzac, he made a profound study of the subject's don this field for five years in order to work on Baeck perfected his technique as a rabbi and life, his writings, the places he had lived, what­ a comprehensive biography of a leading figure in religious teacher. When he was called to Berlin ever had been reported of him: only after this German Jewry? An answer may be found in his in 1912, he worked there not only as a rabbi but thorough preparation did he create a statue which dedication to the memory of his grandfather. also as a lecturer at the Lehranstalt fur die Sir Kenneth Clark has called perhaps the greatest Rabbi Abraham Baker, and we may perhaps con­ Wissenschaft des Judentums and became a leading sculpture since the days of Michelangelo. clude that this work is the fruit of a spiritual figure in German Jewry. A serious biographer can scarcely do less than affection and a testimony to the author's strong During the First World War he served as an follow Rodin's example and, happily, Leonard Jewish consciousness. army chaplain. I myself have heard from a Baker, the author of a new life of Leo Baeck, has A quotation from Goethe's preface to "Dichtimg cousin of mine, who was wounded in the war, fulfilled this requirement. He spent five years on und Wahrheit"" is apposite here: "Deim dieses that Dr. Baeck's spiritual assistance to him in the II his book, visiting no less than ten countries and scbeint die Hauptaufgabe der Biographie zu sein, military hospital strengthened his will to live, interviewing about one hundred people who had den Menschen in seinen Zeitverhaltnissen dar­ when he would otherwise scarcely have survived. had personal contact with Baeck. Memorabilia zustellen und zeigen, inwiefem ihm das Ganze It may be noted as evidence of Leo Baeck's and documents were studied, as were Leo Baeck's widerstrebt, inwiefem es ihn begiinstigt . . .". reputation in Germany that the philosopher Count own writings, supplemented by research on his Leonard Baker's portrait of Leo Baeck fulfils this Hermann Keyserling invited him to lecture at his period. The fruit of Mr. Baker's efforts is con­ task, for he also sets before us the major aspects School of Wisdom in Darmstadt. tained in a book of 396 pages, richly illustrated of the era in which he lived. Under Nazi rule, the hour of trial began, when and annotated: "Days of Sorrow and Pain—Leo The unfolding story of Baeck's life falls into Leo Baeck took up the presidency of the Reichs­ Baeck and the Berlin Jews" (Macmillan, New four parts: the promising years of 1873 to 1918; vertretung der Juden in Deutschland. With his York; Collier Macmillan, London: 1978. £11.25).' the gathering clouds between 1918 and 1932; the fellow workers, he built up the "Aufbau iw The title is taken from Leo Baeck's Yom evil forces confronting him from 1933 to 1945; Untergang" (in Ernst Simon's apt phrase), while Kippur prayer of 1935: but the subtitle is perhaps and the gentle sunshine of his evening years until doing what he could for those who wished to rather too narrow, for while the Berlin Jewish his death in 1956. emigrate. Though five times arrested, he remained community was by far the largest in Germany, Leo Baeck's youth was spent in a time which the soul of Jewish resistance whilst courageously and while Rabbi Baeck lived and worked there offered perhaps the best opportunities for German maintaining contact with the German resistance from 1912 to January 1943, he belonged not only Jewry. Born in Lissa in the former Prussian movement. An example of his fearlessness, which to Berlin but to the whole of Germany. For province of Posen on May 23 1873, he enjoyed I should like to add to Mr. Baker's account, was example, as President of the Reichsvertretung der a thorough Jewish education, for his father his reaction to Julius Streicher's notorious Juden in Deutschland, he visited most of the Samuel was the rabbi of the small community "Ritualmord" edition of the Sturmer; nothing Jewish communities to show his attachment to there. Leo, too, wished to become a rabbi; he daunted, Baeck addressed a strongly-worded letter them. Nevertheless, the wealth and variety of Mr. studied in Breslau and later in Berlin, where he of protest to Hitler. He never wavered in his Baker's material mean that his account is full of was deeply influenced by the philosopher Wilhelm belief that so morally debased a regime was life and colour, and the later chapters in particu­ Dilthey and by the writings of Hermann Cohen doomed. In those "days of sorrow and pain", he lar display a dramatic sweep. A few slips may be (who is said to have looked on the young man as was further troubled by petty internal strife with­ mentioned: Ludendorff had no "von"; Georg his successor in spiritual leadership). His gradu­ in the Jewish community and unspeakably Grosz was not Jewish; Else Meidner is mis-spelled ation thesis was on Spinoza's early influence in grieved by the loss of his beloved wife in 1937- "Mediner"; the November Putsch took place in Germany and he first officiated as a rabbi in 1923, not 1926. Contd. on page 9 Leonard Baker, a political journalist, had already published six works on modern history. France & Germany's LEON JESSEL LIMITED Finest Wines with the compliments of Manufacturers of SHIPPED BY Fancy Leather Goods, l» HOUSE OF Gift Goods HALLGARTEN which are advertised throughout the world as I am able to offer you a superb selection of French (incl. Kosher "EMBLEMS OF GOOD CRAFTSMANSHIP BY Alsace) and German wines Pafra THE JESSEL ORGANISATION" shipped by the famous importers, House of Hailgarten, and to advise synthetic adhesives you personally and help you with adhesive applicators We also manufacture Industrial your wine purchases. The selection Equipment in Leather and Canvas ranges from your everyday wines to the finest for your special P O Box 12. Corporation Street Simcha. Pafra Limited Walsall, WSl 4HP Delivery to all U.K. addresses Bentalls. Basildon Please write or phone : Essex.SS14 3BU West Midlands JUSTIN GOLDMEIER Wine Merchant TaleplMiM. 0922-24649 or 0922-220»6 22 Pennine Drive, London, N.W.2 Tal«x Chacon) G Waliall 338212 LEJES Tel: 01-455 8672 AJR INFORMATION November 1980 Page 9 LEO BAECK {continued) William Guttmann Beyond this, the November 1938 pogroms pro­ foundly shocked him, yet he quickly regained his MAGDA "FRIEDLAENDER" GOEBBELS self-possession. Leo Baeck not only taught the moral principles It was their respective spouses' rdlected in­ the unprincipled womaniser is different. The of Judaism, but was strong enough to put them famy that lent some significance to the lives of sordid tale of his proclivities and various esca­ into practice. When anxious friends urged him to Nazi big-wigs; broadly speaking this is tme also pades is of course quite familiar, and however emigrate while there was still time, he declared of Frau Magda Goebbels, as one may conclude penetrating Herr Meissner's account of those that as long as there was one other Jew on from Herr Meissner's biography of the wife of marital crises and their ramifications and solu­ the late and unlamented Joseph Goebbels.* She German soil, his place was by that man's side. tions, it does not amount to more than a cheap came from a middle-class family and received a novelette that has not stood the test of time. But Eventually the Gestapo sent him to KZ good middle-class education. Her mother, div­ one notices that about the same time all that was Theresienstadt where, in an attempt at humili­ orced from Magda's father, remarried, the going on—1938-1939—such terrible things as the ation, he was forced to collect garbage. Neverthe­ second husband being a Herr Friedlaender, a November 1938 pogroms happened with which less, he retained his dignity and self-respect amidst Jew, whose name the stepdaughter assumed for Dr. Goebbels was very much concerned—and hunger, filth and disease, although four of his a while and with whom she had an excellent there is not a word of it. sisters died in the camp. Half-starved (he lost relationship based on mutual affection. That some fifty pounds in weight) he consoled his Then the war came and the life of the Goeb­ temporary stepfather became of course an awful bels moved inexorably to its conclusion in the fellow-sufferers and lent them spiritual strength, embarrassment and the source of much snide Berlin Bunker where their children were put to giving clandestine lectures on Plato, Kant and comment when the young lady embraced Nazism death and the parents committed suicide. Herr Maimonides. Even in this time of catastrophe, he and Goebbels. So the ominous name and any Meissner describes these days with a wealth of mustered up sufficient concentration to write the trace of that dark spot in her past had to be detail and colour: but although this is indeed profound "Dieses Volk", in which he demon­ eradicated and she herself, judging by the record, the stuff of tragedy, here it strikes one rather as strated that the character of the Jewish people did nothing to keep the memory of that con­ mere melodrama. manifested itself in their history. nection alive. There is no hint in her life story There is of course in this book a great deal After the war, he settled in London and ac­ that she ever interceded in favour of any victims about its real protagonist, Joseph Goebbels him­ quired British citizenship. In the United States, of Nazi persecution as some people in a similar self, his personality, his character and his work, he was honoured by an invitation to say the position later, at least, claimed to have done. On and although the subject has been more opening prayer in the House of Representatives the contrary we are told that she wholeheartedly thoroughly treated elsewhere, this book brings on February 12 1947 and in the following year accepted the official antisemitism. home one point to the reader very well. Goebbels lectured in the Hebrew Union College in Cincin­ no doubt possessed a brilliant brain and powerful nati. In 1947, he revisited Jewish Palestine, which Her outstanding assets were her striking good looks and still young, she married Herr Quandt, intellect. He was highly educated (a Jewish he had first seen with his wife in 1935. He a millionaire industrialist. The marriage, because professor, Friedrich Gundolf, had been his became head of the Council of Jews from Ger­ apparently it did not offer her sufficient scope master), knowledgeable and capable of making many and of the World Union for Progressive and excitement, ended in divorce and a very his own value judgments; had admired and it Judaism. At his death in London on November 1 favourable financial settlement which enabled her seems emulated and imitated Heinrich Heine, 1956, he was mourned not only in Jewish circles to employ her time and talents to her heart's not to sp)eak of other Jewish writers. Yet for the but throughout the civilised world. desire. This happened to be enthusiastically sake of his ambitions he betrayed everything that Leonard Baker's biography obtained him the joining and working for the Nazi party and the should have been sacred to him, and so, just Pulitzer Prize, the first time a book on a non- up and coming Dr. Goebbels. She fell for his because he was in many ways supwrior to his American subject had been so honoured. His charm and genius and with Hitler's blessing fellow Nazi leaders, he stands out as the most work differs from Rabbi Albert H. Friedlander's married him, to become a sort of first lady of the nauseating and despicable among them. earlier biography: while Baker stresses the back­ Third Reich when Hitler came to power. ground of political events and the pressure of She played her part as the Minister's wife well, ISRAEL'S POPULATION circumstances, Friedlander presents a fine analysis everything was very elegant, stylish and "cul­ of Leo Baeck's system of religious thought. Both Israel's papulation is expected to top the four tured"; the story of the wife of Joseph Goebbels, million mark during the current Jewish year. books renew the image of a man whose greatness Figures issued at Rosh Hashanah by the Central is best summed up in Jacob Burckhardt's "Welt­ 'Magda Goebbels—A biograpliy by Hans-Otto Meinner. Bureau of Statistics gave the number of Israelis geschichtliche Betrachtungen": "Das AUerseltenste Sidwick & Jackson. £8.95. as 3,885,000, including 631,000 non-Jews. Al­ aber ist bei weltgeschichtlichen Individuen die though 28,000 new settlers arrived in the last 12 Seelengrosse. Sie liegt im Verzichtenkonnen auf months, some 12,000 emigrated. The natural Vorteile zugunsten des Sittlichen, in der freiwil­ pjopulation increase among Jews dropp)ed from 2.3 pwr cent last year, to 1.9 this year; the figure ligen Beschrankung nicht bloss aus Klugheit, for non-Jews droppjed from 3.6 to 3.4 p)er cent. sondern aus iimerer Giite . . .". Dor/on WORLD INFLATION RECORD •Stocldey Close, Stockley Road. West Drayton, Middleiex UB7 Israel's annual rate of inflation has risen to 9BE 134 per cent, the highest in the world. Its effect has been offset by the index-linking of wages and salaries to the cost of living at quarterly inter­ Chocolates vals. The government has authorised an average increase of around 20 per cent. AIR-GROWN AGRICULTURE POLISH VISIT POSTPONED The Israeli Govemment is to allocate sub­ Because of the recent unrest in Poland, the stantial sums for research into a revolutionary Warsaw Yiddish Theatre company has p)ostp)oned system of growing plants without either soil or its planned visit to Israel until next year. During irrigation. Known as aeroculture, the system a visit to Jerusalem, the theatre's director also provides plants with the nutrients they need by stated that the 36-member company would not subjecting their roots to a fine spray composed make be giving any jjcrformances in Jerusalem or in of a mixture of oxygen, moisture and nutrients. places outside Israel's pre-1%7 borders out of The process has already been used to grow citms "political considerations." A planned visit of the fruits, avocados, carnations, chrysanthemums, very special gifts Polish Minister for Religious Affairs, due to have cucumbers and a wide variety of pot plants. been held in October, to coincide with a mem­ orial meeting for Dr. Janusz Korczak, the martyr of Treblinka concentration camp, has also been postpxjned. BELSIZE SQUARE SYNAGOGUE Caxton Chocolate Co. CAMPS 51 Belsize Square, London, N.W.S INTERNMENT-P.O.W.- FORCED LABOUR-KZ Our new communal hall Is available for Ltd. I witli to buy cards, envelopei and folded post­ cultural and social functions. For details marked letters from all camps of both world wars. apply to: Secretary. Synagogue Otfice London N22 6UN Please send, registered mall, stating price, to: 14 Roselyn Hill, London, N.W.3 Tel.: 01-794 3949 C. PETER I I Page 10 AJR INFORMATION November 1980

DR. RICHARD AUERBACH Dr. Richard Auerbach, who died in New York OBITUARIES at the age of 88, took a leading part in the work of Jewish organisations both before and after his WERNER CAHNMAN work is indicated by his recently published pxapjer emigration. For many years, he was President of Dr. Werner Cahtunan, who died in New York on "Asian Indians in New York". Only one year the American Jewish KC Fraternity. Before he at the age of 77, will be remembered by many before his death, when his illness was already left Germany, he was a lawyer in Berlin. After a Jews from Germany, esp)ecially from Bavaria, as diagnosed, he undertook a journey to Germany short stay in England, he and his family went to former "Syndikus" of the Bavarian district of and gave the opjening lecture at the Kiel meeting the United States, where he first worked as a the Central-Verein. A courageous spjokesman and of the Ferdinand Toennies Gesellschaft on certified accountant and later became an expert active fighter against Nazism, he had to serve a "Toennies Theorie des sozialen Wandels". In his and successful adviser to restitution and com- term of imprisonment as early as 1933. Yet last New Year circular letter to his relatives and pjensation claimants. though the Nazis had closed the Bavarian branch friends he stated with feelings of satisfaction that DR. MARGARET BLUMENTHAL of the CV as soon as they came to pxjwer, he he had been able to complete all his outstanding Dr. Margaret Blumenthal who died recently, continued his work for his fellow Jews after his scholarly projects. This is certainly the best was the longest-serving tutor at Queen's College, release. After being put into Dachau concen­ epitaph he could have wished for. W.R. London. She taught German, comparative litei'a- tration camp during the November pogroms he ture and dressmaking and conducted the daily had to leave Germany. He first stayed in England DR. KURT MENDELSSOHN Jewish assembly. For many years she lectured at and re-emigrated to the US. There he held Dr. Kurt Mendelssohn, FRS, who made im­ Morley College to students taking the London several academic positions and, at the time of his portant contributions to the developwnent of low- University extra-mural course and was visiting death, was Professor Emeritus of Rutgers Uni­ temperature research in Great Britain, has died tutor in Jewish Studies at the Roedean School in versity; he was also a lecturer at the New School at the age of 74. Born in Berlin, where he took Sussex. She came from Germany as a refugee for Social Research, New York, and, after the his doctorate in 1930, he worked in the research with a degree from Cologne University and was most war, at the University of Munich. He retained group of his cousin. Professor Franz (later Sir active in helping young refugees, especially the con­ his links with the German p>ast as a co-founder Francis) Simon. In 1931 he moved to the Tech­ centration camp children who came after the War. of the Rashi Association, which aims at preserv­ nische Hochschule, Breslau, but after the Nazi ing the Jewish memorabilia in Germany, and he takeover he accepted an invitation from Professor IRENE EGER was also chairman of the American Committee F. A. Lindemann (the subsequent Lord Cherwell) One of the last surviving Jewish social workers, for Dachau. vvho, after their dismissal from German welfare to the Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford, in March service, devoted their knowledge and expjerience Werner Cahnman was not only a compjetent 1933. Until his retirement in 1973 he directed a to Jewish relief work, Irene Eger, died in Zurich communal worker but also a versatile and con­ thriving indep»endent research group and did at the age of 86. From 1934-1936 she was head stmctive scholar. A member of an old established much to establish the reputation of the Claren­ of the Provincial Jewish Welfare Office for East Southern German family, research on the socio­ don as an important centre of low-tempKrature Prussia. Later, she joined the staff of the logical stracture of that section of German and solid-state physics research. At his death he "Reichsvertretung" in Berlin, where she held a Jewry was pjarticularly near to his heart. His was Emeritus Reader in Physics at Oxford and responsible pwsition in the Vocational Retraining analysis of the history and compxjsition of Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College. He is Depwrtment. After her emigration she was until Munich Jewry 1918-1943 is one of the manifold survived by his widow, four daughters and a son. 1968 one of the expert social workers of the examples. At the Conference of the Leo Baeck DORA PHILIPPSON "Verband Schweizerischer, Judischer Fliichtlings- Institute, held at Arden House near New York hilfen" in Zurich. In this capacity she was for in 1973, he dealt with Village and Small Town Studienraetin a. D. Dora Philipjpson died in helper to innumerable Jewish refugees. E.G.L. Jews, a subject on which hardly any systematical Bonn in her 84th year. Together with her father, research had been done before. Equally new the eminent geographer Alfred Philipp»son (1864- RUDI FABIAN ground was covered in his essay "The Three 1953) she survived the Theresienstadt camp and Mr. Rudi Fabian who came to this country as Regions of German Jewry" (in the South West, returned to Bonn, where, for many years, she a refugee and who has died recently, devoted the North East and in the Austrian-Bohemian took an active part in the work for post war most of his time to working for the Liberal Party. region). All his works on Jewish subjects were Jewry. She was a granddaughter of Rabbi Ludwig He was treasurer of its Publication Department prompted by his deeply rooted Jewish commit­ Philipp)son (Magdeburg), the founder and first from 1962-1973 and was responsible for its period ment. Yet he also dealt with sociological subjects editor of the "Allgemeine Zeitung des Juden­ of expansion during his time in office. He was outside the Jewish sphere. The wide range of this thums". E.G.L. also an officer of the Ilford Liberal Association.

FAMILY EVENTS CLiASSlFIED Personal Kosterlitz:— Sarah Kosterlitz (pre­ Entries in the column Fctmily Events The charge in thett columns is SOp ATTRACTIVE WIDOW, independent, sent name unknown), born 1918/19 are free of charge: ound of flesh cut could provide any information to ftelp us find out reported that the play "The Jew of Malta" at from himself amounted to attempted suicide. In tome personal details about Annie Zunz, after the Old Vic has been replaced by "The Merchant the end the Pope let both off against payment of whom wards in several London hospitals are of Venice" as the "Jew of Malta" was too anti­ very large sums for and to a "good cause". named. We have a plague on the ward reading as semitic. Why Shakespeare "turned round" these facts 1 follows: "By the terms of the Will of Siegfried I don't think that the "Merchant of Venice" is would not conjecture. Rudolf Zunz his Trustees have made a grant of very philosemitic. Still, I was wondering how R. KNOLLER (Brissago, Switzerland). the sum of £10,000 to this Hospital in memory of many people know the real background of Annie Zunz 'the best of wives whose whole life Shakesf)eare's play. The story of the "Merchant ANNA SEGHERS, 80 was spent in helping and aiding others' 1901." of Venice" has indeed its foundation in history. The novelist Anna Seghers (born Netty Reiling We know that S. R. Zunz of Henry R. Merton But the facts were just "the other way round"! in Mayence) has celebrated her 80th birthday in (Ltd.), Metal Merchant, who died on 31 Decem­ It was in 1587. Paolo Maria Sacchi was a ship­ East Berlin. To honour her, her 1922 thesis on ber 1891, aged 57 years, bequeathed £80,000 for owner in Rome. Most of his ships brought to Jews and Judaism in the work of Rembrandt has London Hospitals, but all our efforts to find out Italy spices from India and the East. A certain been republished in the DDR. She became a details about the family have, so far, failed. Sansone Ceneda, a Jew, was a "sleeping partner" member of the German Communist Party in of his. One day Sacchi received news that Francis 1928. In the same year she received the Kleist The Royal Free Hospital, Drake had captured and looted San Domingo Prize for her novel "The Revoh of the Fisher­ ^TA ^^^^^^' PHYLLIS GEORGE, FRCS, where Sacchi had extensive and impxjrtant in­ men of St. Barbara" for which she was denigrated terests. He told Ceneda. But Ceneda did not in the "Volkische Beobachter". By adopting the >jw5 ?r>r- Consultant Surgeon, believe it in spite of Sacchi's assurances. In the pen name of Anna Seghers, she tried to conceal ^^3 2QG. Zunz Ward. end they agreed before a notary that Sacchi her well-to-do Jewish background. E.G.L. would have to pay Ceneda the sum of 1,000 gold ducats if his story was false but that Sacchi could AUSTRIAN GOLD MEDAL AWARD cut with his own hands a Pound of Flesh of Miss Paula Fichtel, 78, housekeeper to the Ceneda's body from any part of his choice in case Freud family for 50 years, and still looking after ERNST BUSCH the story should be true. 84-year-old Dr. Anna Freud at her Hampstead As we know Sacchi had been informed home, has been awarded a gold medal for ser­ Sir,—Your short obituary of Ernst Busch (AJR correctly; Francis Drake had indeed sacked San vices rendered to the Austrian Republic. Miss Information, September, 1980), states that after Domingo. Ceneda offered Sacchi 1,000 gold Fichtel started working for the Freud family in the war Busch "occasionally still appeared on the ducats. But Sacchi insisted upon his Pound of Vienna in 1929 and accompanied them to stage". In fact he was one of the most prominent Flesh from the Jew. The case went to the England when they fled from the Nazis in 1938. and successful Brecht interpreters in the "Berliner judicial authorities, the Governor of Rome and She has still many clear memories of the late Ensemble", particularly in the memorable parts he finally to Po{>e Sixtus V who had always been Sigmund Freud. played as Azdak in the "Caucasian Chalk Circle", quite friendly towards the Jews. The Pope de­ as Pfeifenpieter in "Mother Courage" and above creed that Sacchi could have his f)ound of flesh NEW WOLFSON FOUNDATION DIRECTOR all as Galileo. He took part in the first London from the Jew. But only exactly one pound. If he The new director of the Wolfson Foundation, tournee of the Berliner Ensemble in 1956, shortly would cut one ounce more or less he would have which disp>enses some £4 millions annually for after Brecht's death. to be executed for murder. But also Ceneda, the niedical and educational projects, is Sir John 5 Endersleigh Gardens, Jew, deserved the death penalty, as the condi­ Barnes, a former British Ambassador to Israel. London, N.W.4. F. HELLENDALL.

GERMAN BOOKS THE DORICE DAWSON HOUSE HOTEL BOOKS WANTED BOUGHT • Free Street Parking In front ot the Ho

PROFESSOR WILHELM FELDBERG, 80 MISCELLANY On 19 November Professor Emeritus Wilhelm Feldberg, CBE, FRS, MA, FRCP, will celebrate his 80th birthday, and his many friends, col­ EXHIBITIONS Stuttgart, came to England with a Kindertrans- leagues and students will welcome the opportunity Ben Uri Gallery Anniversary port in 1939, and vras re-united with his father to congratulate him and to pay tribute to his This year marks the 65th anniversary of the in America in 1940, where he studied at the art many achievements. Ben Uri Art Society. To celebrate the occasion school transplanted from Munich by Hans an exhibition will be opened in the Gallery Hofman. He has had many one-man exhibitions He was born in Hamburg. Whilst still a medical (21 Dean Street, W.l), on 17 November to mark in America and has also participated in numer­ student, he started research at the Physiological the centenary of the birth of Jacob Epstein. The ous group exhibitions. His work is represented in Institute in Berlin. In 1930 he became Privat­ exhibition will comprise numerous portrait many public collections. dozent at Berlin University, and when the Nazis bronzes, water-colours and drawings, drawn from .\LICE SCHWAB. threw him out of his appointment in 1933, he was the Society's own collection and from many pri­ invited by Sir Henry Dale to work with him at vate and public sources. PRIZE FOR JEWISH POETESS the National Institute for Medical Research in The Ben Uri, established during the First Rose Auslaender, the Jewish poetess living at London. For 11 years he taught and carried out World War in London's East End, has gone a Dusseldorf, has been awarded the literary prize research at Cambridge. In 1949, he became Head long way since then and "is part of the artistic of Gandersheim, worth 10,(XX) marks (about of the Division of Physiology and Pharmacology and cultural life of London." It has a large and (£2,300). at the Institute. important collection of works by Jewish artists; In 1965, the year of his official "retirement", it mounts exhibitions by well-known and pro­ "THEATRE AND CULTURE" the Medical Research Coimcil established a new mising artists; it holds concerts and recitals; it Our S.B. contributor is on holiday. His column department for him, the Laboratory of Neuro­ arranges lectures and it engages in many activities will be resumed next month. pharmacology. Even now, 15 years after hi» of a cultural nature. official retirement, he continues his work of re­ The constant problem of the Society has been HANS LIBROWICZ, 90 search at the Institute. one of finance. As stated in the Annual Report Dr. Hans Librowicz recently celebrated his Many honours have been bestowed on him. He for 1954, "of the many thousands of people who 90th birthday. Born in Hohensalza, he practised received honorary degrees from eight imiversities visit the Gallery each year, very few trouble to as a dental surgeon in Berlin. In 1937 he came to and was made an honorary member of eight enrol themselves as members." The situation has this country, where he successfully resumed Ms medical societies in Britain, France and Germany- not changed much since then and it is a sad professional work. As a student, he was a mMi- He continues to travel extensively in order to reflection on the Anglo-Jewish community that it ber of the KC Fraternity and he has retained ojs fulfil lecturing engagements overseas. Yet desi)ite is not prepared to give its full support to an connections with his "Bundesbrueder" ever since, the honours and distinctions which the scientific institution of this kind. The Jewish community especially as chainnan for 10 years of thcyferoup world has conferred on him, his iimate modesty in Germany developed first-rate cultural activities of former KC members in the North of England. and gentle sense of humour have remained his as a response to the Nazi onslaught. An Anglo- most endearing qualities. Jewish Cultural Centre in London has been talked At the same time, he did spadework in the about for years and plans have been drawn, but Bradford (Reform) Synagogue. His religious up­ He used restitution monies and his pension as the public response has been negligible. Must we bringing and his great knowledge of Hebrew and Emeritus Professor in Germany to establish a await a similar external stimulus to see such an Jewish history enabled him to conduct the ser­ Foundation for Exchange Lecturerships in medi­ essential need tumed into reality? vices for many years, when the Synagogue vvas cal research between Britain and Germany. Wolf Kahn without a Rabbi, and also to prepare barmitzvah We join with Professor Feldberg's friends all boys and keep post-barmitzvah classes. We join over the world to wish him many more years of At the Waddington Gallery recently there has his wife, his children and grandchildren in ex­ scientific work in undiminished health and vigour. been an exhibition of works by the distinguished pressing our sincerest congratulations to the American painter Wolf Kahn. He was born in public-spirited nonagenarian. O.E.F.

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