[yshavurah] this week's snippets
- From: "Cherie Kurland" <kurlandc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "stephen.sacks" <stephen.sacks@xxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 07:00:20 -0400
An embarrassment of riches of articles this week, and many are already
circulating so widely that I can?t justify repeating them: new Jenin study;
controversial survey of Palestinians.
Recommend that you check out www.debka.com for its headlines and articles. A
few recent ones suggest that Arafat and Saddam will work simultaneously to
implement round 2 of Gulf War II.
One that needs maximum circulation:
http://www.thejewishpress.com/news_article_print.asp?article=2561:
Bob Hope And The Holocaust: No Laughing Matter Posted 6/26/2003 By Dr. Ravael
Medoff
Bob Hope`s 100th birthday has been the occasion for an outpouring of heartfelt
tributes to one of America`s greatest comedians. Among his many achievements,
Hope is perhaps best known as the premier entertainer of America`s troops,
particularly during the Vietnam War. What is not well known about Bob Hope is
that he also rose to the occasion during another war ? Hitler`s war against the
Jews.
At the peak of the Holocaust, in early 1944, Hope volunteered to perform in an
all-star show at Madison Square Garden to benefit the Emergency Committee to
Save the Jewish People of
Europe.
This was not merely another benefit concert for a worthy cause. For Hope to
support the controversial Emergency Committee took real political courage. The
committee?s public criticism of the Allies? apathy toward the Holocaust had
infuriated government officials in Washington and London. In fact, the State
Department repeatedly tried to have the Emergency Committee`s chairman, Peter
Bergson, drafted or deported. At State`s urging, the FBI opened Bergson`s mail,
rummaged through his trash, and planted informants in his organization in an
unsuccessful search for information that could be used to muzzle or prosecute
the Bergson activists.
Bergson, a maverick Zionist emissary from Palestine, established the New
York-based Emergency Committee in 1943.The news of the Nazi mass slaughter of
millions of European Jews had been publicly confirmed by the Allies, yet the
Roosevelt administration insisted nothing could be done to help the Jews except
winning the war.
Bergson, by contrast, urged the Allies to take immediate steps, such as opening
the gates of Palestine or using empty supply ships returning from Europe to
bring refugees to temporary detention camps in America.
One of Bergson`s most important supporters was Academy Award-winning
screenwriter Ben Hecht, whose Hollywood connections helped bring stars of stage
and screen to Bergson`s ranks. His pageant, We Will Never Die, publicizing the
plight of the Jews, opened at Madison Square Garden with Edward G. Robinson,
Paul Muni, Sylvia Sydney and Luther Adler in the leading roles. Later
performances included guest stars Claude Rains, Edward G. Arnold, Ralph Bellamy
and Howard Da Silva.
The Bergson group also placed full-page ads in hundreds of American newspapers,
organized public rallies, and staged a dramatic march to the White House by 400
rabbis. Bergson persuaded leading Members of Congress, in October 1943, to
introduce a resolution urging creation of a U.S. government agency to rescue
Jewish refugees.
The resolution quickly passed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and was
the subject of well-publicized hearings before the House Foreign Affairs
Committee. This Congressional pressure, boosted by behind-the-scenes lobbying
efforts by Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr. and his aides, persuaded
FDR to establish the War Refugee Board. The Board`s activities, which included
financing the rescue work of the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, ultimately
saved the lives of over 200,000 people during the final months of the war.
During the crucial early months of the Board`s work, in the spring of 1944,
Bergson`s Emergency Committee played an important supporting role. The
committee sponsored newspaper ads backing the rescue effort; provided the War
Refugee Board with information about rescue opportunities; and dispatched two
special emissaries to Turkey to assist rescue activity (one was Ira Hirschmann,
the Bloomingdale`s executive).
To raise funds for this work, the Bergson group organized an all-star Show of
Shows at Madison Square Garden on March 13, 1944. More than 20,000 people
attended, including 150 servicemen whose tickets were paid for by the famous
Jewish boxer (and World War II hero) Barney Ross.
The evening was a combination of pleasant entertainment and bitter reality.
On the one hand, it featured skits and comedy routines by ob Hope, as well as
by Gracie Fields, Jimmy Durante, Ethel Merman, Zero Mostel, Molly Picon, and
others. Milton Berle served s master of ceremonies. Musical numbers were
performed by Paul Rbeson, Perry Como, the Andrews Sisters, the Xavier Cugat
Band, and the Count Basie Band, among others.
But the evening also included a dramatic reading by Helen Hayes of a Ben Hecht
poem about the Nazi massacres. Emergency Committee chairman Dean Alfange (a
leader of the American Labor Party), in a stirring address, declared that it
was the duty of the Christian world to help these stricken people in this black
hour of their misery and distress. Bergson also spoke, appealing to Allied
officials and Jewish community leaders to brush aside political considerations
at a time when thousands of us are dying daily.
According to The New York Times, the Show of Shows netted $80,000--quite a sum
for that era and an important boost to the rescue campaign. While other
entertainers used their talents simply to gain personal wealth and fame, Bob
Hope and his colleagues had demonstrated that they were a cut above the rest.
The participants in the Show of Shows took the risk of associating with a
controversial group, for the sake of the vital humanitarian cause of rescuing
Jews from the Holocaust.
As Bob Hope`s centennial is celebrated by saluting his contributions to
American culture and his aid to American troops overseas, his aid to the Jews
in Hitler`s Europe should also be noted. For that, too, Bob Hope deserves our
salute.
Dr. Rafael Medoff is director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust
Studies, which focuses on issues related to America?s response to the
Holocaust. He is the author of several books, including ?A Race Against Death:
Peter Bergson, America and the Holocaust? and ?The Deafening Silence: American
Jewish Leaders and the Holocaust.?
Excellent, somewhat lengthy summation of 20th century Italian Jewish experience
and the Middle East:
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0703/nirenstein_2003_07_10.php3
--- Cherie Kurland
--- kurlandc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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