On New York's lower East Side 93 years ago, twelve public-spirited Jews, headed by one named Henry Jones, met in Sinsheimer's Essex Street barroom. Before the matzoth crumbs were swept away they had established a philanthropic society known as B'nai B'rith (Sons of the Covenant) to establish orphanages, run schools and convalescent homes. Originally a secret society, B'nai B'rith came into the open in 1920 with publication of its ritual. Today over 600 lodges of B'nai B'rith exist in 30 countries.
Last week armed German police smashed their way into Berlin's-B'nai B'rith lodge, arrested the members, cleared out the premises and seized the property. All over Germany other B'nai B'rith lodges were raided, seized and evacuated, as were children's homes, sanatoriums and homes for the aged supported by the society. Though most of those arrested were later released, the entire organization was ordered dissolved and its funds seized, on the pretext that one of the 14,000 German members of the B'nai B'rith had "engaged in Communistic propaganda." For years B'nai B'rith expenditures in Germany have averaged a million marks a year. Three weeks ago an order was issued forbidding Jewish organizations of any sort to hold any meetings whatever for 60 days. So stringent was this rule that if so many as five Jews should meet over a herring in a public cafe they might be liable to arrest.
It was not only his old punching dummy, the Jews, that Adolf Hitler was attacking last week. The doughty Führer and his trained press squared off at the U. S. also. Though Nazi propagandists have been remiss in neglecting the satiric possibilities of Father Divine (see p. 61), they found a ripe windfall in Mississippi's savage blowtorch lynchings of last fortnight (TIME, April 26). This was amplified by newsreel shots of Sit-Down strikes. And Schwarze Korps, organ of Hitler's special guards, was able to do its bit. It filled a front page with pictures of U. S. female wrestlers, headlined it: AMERICAN LADIES.
Not forgotten was the private grudge fight between the Reich and New York's peppery little Mayor LaGuardia. With great disregard of time & space, the Berlin press picked Borough President George U. Harvey of Queens to be its candidate this autumn for Mayor of New York. All but annihilating Mr. Harvey's chances before the race began, Berlin newspapers solemnly declared: "If he is elected Mayor, Mr. Harvey has promised to eradicate Communists from New York in two weeks, with rubber hoses." In many ways Adolf Hitler's toughest opponent remained the Catholic Church.
Pope Pius' pastoral letter of last March, which took Germany sharply to task for persistent breaches of the Vatican-Nazi Concordat of 1933, had been answered by a rude peremptory note. Read the official resumé: "The Vatican applies to the new Germany, democratic and parliamentary standards which are not applicable . . .