Celebrating 80 years ...

There were three editorials in the March 3, 1944, edition of the Jewish Western Bulletin. The first, “Purim,” was about Adolf Hitler, “the madman of Europe,” and his comment to the German people “that if they didn’t exert greater efforts to win the war, the Jews of the world would be offered another opportunity to celebrate a triumphant Purim festival.”

The editorial argued, “That he spoke of Purim weeks before its celebration, was no accident. He must have known from his long association with Jews during the time he was a starving and frustrated ‘painter’ that Purim is a festival of deliverance. He may, in fact, have assuaged his hunger on more than one occasion with ‘Hamantaschen.’ He may have even earned a few pfennigs [German coins or notes] as a ‘shalach moneth’ bearer.”

Hitler must have also known, claims the editorial, “that the name ‘Purim’ had been given to other occasions of deliverance by Jews in various communities” and that, when Hitler “spoke of Purim, he was haunted by visions of gallows.”

The editorial concludes by noting that Purim celebrants are supposed to drink until they are unable “to distinguish between ‘Cursed be Haman’ and ‘Blessed be Mordecai.’ Without attempting to improve on the Talmudic saying, we can only add that the day when Hitler will be hanging on the gallows there will be no need for stimulating the joy of the world through intoxicants. That day will be a day of universal deliverance, a universal Purim.”

The second editorial, “The Palestine Resolution,” is about Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, who would go on to make a statement to the National Conference on Palestine, held on March 9, 1944, in Washington, D.C. Silver was “leading the fight for the adoption of the Palestine resolution before the hearings of the [U.S. House] Foreign Affairs Committee,” and the vote in Congress had just been postponed. The resolution was an effort to get official American support for Jewish immigration to Palestine, which was restricted by the British. The proposed Palestine resolution also stated that Jewish refugees finding a haven in Palestine should be allowed to colonize it as a Jewish state.

The JWB noted the “possible protraction of the fight” for the resolution, but also the “great support which the resolution has attracted and the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs declares that only a few of the hundreds of telegrams received by the Committee have opposed the resolution.... Arab representatives had their say before the Committee this week and what was more significant, an American representative of Saudi Arabian oil interests, appeared to oppose the Palestine resolution. Oil has entered the picture. In our modern world, oil is a tremendously important thing and the big interests back of it will doubtless put up a tremendous fight.

“Saudi Arabia does not like the idea of a Jewish Homeland and while we are not in a position to say that it is offering American interests oil concessions provided they oppose the Jewish Homeland, still the picture is not one that looks particularly handsome.

“We believe the members of the House, when it comes to choosing between oil and human values, will choose the latter.”

The final editorial that week was on terrorism in Palestine: “The recent outbreak of terrorism resulting in the death of two police officials in Haifa and the partial destruction by time-bombs of the ofiices of the Immigration Departments in Jerusalem, Haifa and Tel Aviv will be condemned by all Jews, Zionists and non-Zionists alike, as the act of an irresponsible group.

“That the Jewish community in Palestine is aware of the menace constituted by the elements representing the group that took responsibility for the crimes – the ‘Irgun Zvai Leumi’ [sic, National Military Organization] – is evidenced by the statement issued by the Jewish National Council. The statement not only condemns the perpetrators of the acts of terror as ‘a band of lunatics attempting to impose a regime of terror,’ but calls upon the Jewish community to combat the terrorists.”

The Irgun was formed out of the Haganah. The group rejected the Haganah’s restraint policy, and carried out violent and deadly attacks against Arabs and the British. Its actions were condemned by the Jewish Agency, which worked with the Haganah against it.

The JWB editorial concludes, “Terrorism and force has never been a Jewish weapon. That we have grievances, no one will dispute. That the enforcement of the White Paper will constitute a criminal infringement on basic human rights and an act of specific discrimination against thousands of Jews who otherwise might enter Palestine, is not even questioned by the opponents of political Zionism. But for a self-styled Jewish military organization – the Irgun Zvai Leumi – to say that it will continue acts of terrorism until the doors of Palestine are opened to free and unrestricted Jewish immigration is simply outrageous.”

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