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Community Currents
Southwestern Jewish Press, September 28, 1951,  page 2

By Albert Hutler, Executive Director, United Jewish Fund

Community Relations Review —Last year the women's chapters of B'nai B'rith of San Diego were given the blessings of the Community Relations Council to go ahead with an essay contest in the City Schools. The Council made contact for the women with the schools system and the essay contest was approved and carried out with a great deal of success. It is with a great deal of satisfaction that we find that the City Schools have again invited the Women's Chapters to run an essay contest on Americanism for the pupils. Bay City Chapter of B'nai B'rith has agreed to undertake this proposition and will again find that the Community Relations Council is willing to assist. One hundred religious calendars, prepared by the American Jewish Committee, were purchased and presented to the City School System by the Community Relations Council. One was sent to each school. On the first day of receipt the Board of Education was flooded with calls from principals asking for more calendars for their teachers. The request of the City schools for additional calendars will be met by the Community Relations Council.  The McIver Report, which I mentiion(ed) some time ago, is becoming the hottest controversial issue in American Jewish life today. After ADL blasted its contents, the 10 largest cities approved the report. The National Community Relations Advisory Council is preparing a statement which should be issued in November. The report speaks favorably of the Jewish Labor Committee, the Jewish War Veterans and the American Jewish Congress. It gives few bows to the anti-Defamation League or the American Jewish Committee. The Union of American Hebrew Congregations get a "hats off" for its work in Human Relations in the religious field.  This controversial report will be analyzed in a debate at one of the future B'nai B'rith meetings.

Community Center Meets—By the time this grand holiday edition has gone to press, the Community Center Board will have met and decided what action to take in the next few months to make the dream of a Center, to serve the entire community, a reality. Pressures have been put on those interested in the Center, to make it a reality. Those individuals who are putting the pressure on will have to do less speaking and take more action in order to accomplish their aim. There is no question but the need for a Center in San Diego is great. Just the other day, I talked to a prominent Christian civic leader, who is well known and respected by the members of the Jewish community. We happened to be talking about a USO program and how much more effective it could be in the community as a whole if it were held in a central building. He made the statement that he could not understand why a community like San Diego had not been able to achieve the type of Jewish Community Center he had seen in other communities.  Along this line it is interesting to note that 40 Jewish Communities have embarked on building programs at a total cost of $13,130,000.00 to date in 1951.  Nashville, Tenn., has just laid the corner stone for a $500,000 Jewish Community Center building. The fact that was most interesting to me was that the two Rabbis of the community have played a prominent part in creating the fund for the building. Both will speak at the dedication. The new building which will be finished by January 1st will have a large gymnasium, 6 club rooms, an auditorium, arts and craft studio, adult lounge, library, bowling alley, swimming pool, youth lounge, children's pool room, Boy Scouts room, adult game room, photography room, several offices for the Center and local Jewish agencies, and a nursery and a kindergarten. I hope that some of us understand what we are missing in San Diego. Jerry Freedman brought me a booklet showing what a small community like Pittville, Mass., is doing in the way of a Jewish Community Center. They are putting up a building which will also contain many of the facilities that can be found in the Nashville building. A few of our members visited the San Francisco Jewish Community Center and had their eyes opened as to what a Jewish Community Center can do. They are beginning to realize that the facilities that are in existence in San Diego, and are about to be in existence in San Diego, are not the answer to our Community Center problems.

How DPs Become Americans Fast—Our eyes really opened wide the other day when one of our younger DP's came into the office in his uniform while on leave from the army. We began talking about his experience, and I noticed a complete change in his conversation and how quickly he had picked up Americanisms. And I knew the adjustment had become total when he said, "if you keep your nose clean, you'll get along." That plus such an expression as "my aching back," which many of us will recognize, told me in no uncertain terms that here is a short two years an American has been born. Stanley  Firestone is on his way to Seattle, there to take off for Japan or Korea. He was proud of being an American, he was proud of the girl he was leaving behind and to whom he had just become engaged. Alex Mijitlis, the last DP we received, has already gone to work and was given an opportunity to begin life in America by Dave Ferrer in his surplus business.  Calivin's Electrical Appliances also hired one of our Displaced Persons. With these firms and other understanding businesses, such as Ratner's, Moorsteen's, Bland, as well as scores of others, a good job can be done in giving these New Americans a new chance in life. The Community Chest has also joined the ranks of organizations hiring Displaced Persons. They just put on a DP for the Chest Campaign.