CHILD OF THE
CENTURY (II)
Ben Hecht
In the last Outpost, Hecht described his vain effort to inspire leading Jewish American writers to focus theattention of the American public on the ongoing Holocaust. Only a few responded--Moss Hart, Kurt Weill, and producer Billy Rose--and with Hecht they created a pageant "We Will Never Die" to be shown in Madison Square Garden. Here Hecht describes the reaction of "mainstream" Jewish leaders both to the pageant and more broadly to his efforts (in cooperation with the "Bergson group" who came from then Palestine, initially to obtain support for a specifically Jewish legion to fight the Nazis) to awaken the public to what was happening to Jews in Europe.
I am likely to sound rather immodest in this chapter, but truth is truth, and a man should not be afraid to speak it even if it embarrasses him. My activities quickly
produced a new Jewish battle cry. And not only in New York but in Chicago, Boston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, San Francisco and even in London. This new Jewish battle cry was "Down with Ben Hecht." It came roaring from synagogue pulpits (reformed ones).
It filled the Jewish press and the Jewish magazines. I can still see the headlines in the American Jewish Congress Monthly and other such periodicals. They identified me as the American Goebbels, as Hitler's Hired Stooge, as the Broadway Racketeer Growing Rich on Jewish Misery, and this and that.
The first Jewish outbursts against me remained,
actually, unknown to me. I was too busy getting the pageant ready....
I first became aware that there was annoyance with me among the Jews when Rabbi Stephen Wise, head of the Jews of New York, head of the Zionists and, as I knew from reading the papers, head of almost everything noble in American Jewry, telephoned me at the Algonquin Hotel where I had pitched my Hebrew tent.
Rabbi Wise said he would like to see me immediately in his rectory. His voice, which was sonorous and impressive, irritated me. I had never known a man with a sonorous and impressive voice who wasn't either a con man or a bad actor. I explained I was very busy and unable to step out of my hotel.
"Then I shall tell you now, over the telephone,
what I had hoped to tell you in my study," said Rabbi Wise. "I have read your pageant script and I disapprove of it. I must ask you to cancel this pageant and discontinue all your further activities in behalf of the Jews. If you wish hereafter to work for the Jewish Cause, you will please consult me and let me advise you."
At this point I hung up. When I informed Bergson of Rabbi Wise's fatheadedness, he answered moodily,
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"We'll have to get the spies out of our organization. There are obviously people among us carrying information and documents to the enemy."
I was confused by the word enemy. I had up to that moment been thinking only of an enemy with a swastika.
Another hint of the new battle cry hatching among
American Jews came to me during one of the pageant
rehearsals.
"We are having a little trouble with the B'nai Brith," Bergson said. "I think you ought to know about it."
"Yes, indeed, Mr. Ben Hecht," Merlin added, at his side.
I knew only of the B'nai Brith that my uncles belonged to it, when they were able to pay dues. And I remembered that my father had scorned it--preferring the
Loyal Order of Moose, The Modern Redmen, The Knights of Pythias and the all-wise B.P.O.E.--the Elks.
"The B'nai Brith," Peter said to my surprise, "demands that we do not place your latest propaganda advertisement in the newspaper--the one attacking the American State Department. They say that if we print such a full page ad in the Times, the American State Department will raise Hell with the Jews of America."
The ad under discussion was in rhyme and was
called, Ballad of the Doomed Jews of Europe." Its refrain
ran:
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Hang and burn, but be quiet, Jews,
The world is busy with other news.
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Some further lines stated that by Christmastime all the Christians could enjoy their peace on earth without theJews, who would all be killed by that time.
"Judge Proskauer, who is president of the American Jewish Committee and a very educated gentleman," said Peter, who had learned wisely never to take my knowledge of Jewish affairs for granted, "states that such an anti-Christian attitude could well bring on Jewish pogroms in the U.S.A."
"What is your opinion of Justice Proskauer's theory?" Merlin asked, puffing aloofly on his pipe.
"You can tell Judge Proskauer for me," I answered, "to go gazump himself."
"Very good," said Merlin. "I think your approach is correct, Mr. Ben Hecht."
"We will print the ad and not bother you about it any more," said Peter Bergson.
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