Chicago Tribune
JEWS PREPARING ROSTER OF
VICE
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List Already Contains the Names of Sixty-six White Slave Dealers
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JULIUS FRANK HIT AGAIN
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Editor and Yiddish Poet Says Office He Holds Is Insult to Hebrew Dead.
A list giving the names, addresses, and other particulars about sixty-six men who are engaged in the white slave traffic on the west side has been compiled by investigators for the union of presidents and rabbis of Jewish congregations.
Twenty more names of levee characters, it is expected, will be added to the list by the middle of next week, and then the committee of three, headed by Dr. David Blaustein, superintendent of the Hebrew institute, will visit Mayor Busse and seek his cooperation in suppressing the illicit traffic.
"We are going ahead with our work of investigation the west side levee," Dr. Blaustein said, "and expect to have all the evidence we desire in our hands by the middle or the latter part of next week, when we will visit the may. As soon as the information which our investigators are now gathering has been put in proper shape we will call a meeting of the presidents and rabbis of the Jewish congregations and a course of action will be mapped out.
"The amount of public sentiment we have created against the white slave evil is remarkable. The resignation of Julius Frank from the presidency of the Anshe Calvaria congregation is a decided victory. It shows we have succeeded in build up a public opinion among the Jews of Chicago."
Insult to the Jewish Dead.
That the resignation of Julius Frank from the presidency of Anshe Calvaria and his subsequent election by that same congregation to the superintendency of a Jewish cemetery is not, however, considered a complete victory in all Jewish quarters, especially among the more liberal and enlightened Jews, was evinced yesterday in the demand by the Forward, a Yiddish daily published in Chicago and New York, that Julius Frank be deposed from this office, too.
In a special edition devoted entirely to the Frank brothers the paper reviews the situation created by the revelations and admissions made by the Frank brothers at the trial of Inspector McCann and appeals to the Jews not to forget their Maccabean traditions, but to remove the stigma from their race. That Frank resigned from the presidency the paper rejoices in.
"But, it asks, "what have the Jewish dead of Chicago done to deserve such a dishonor that this Julius Frank, who had so mercilessly stained the honor of the Jews living should now stain the memory of the dead as superintendent of a cemetery?"
Editor Flays Congregation
Translations of extracts from the Forward follow:
"If ever a Jewish congregation openly sold itself to the devil the congregation Anshe Calvaria did it last Sunday. On that day the disreputable element of that congregation prevailed and the owner of dives and disorderly houses, Julius Frank, was reelected president.
"Julius Frank, evidently having a keener sense of propriety than those who reelected him to this office, resigned immediately after his election. The congregation, however, could not think of letting him go without an office, without an honorary post, and has elected him to the superintendency of the cemetery.
"And Julius Frank, who up to the present has besmirched the name of the living Jews, will from now on besmirch the memory of the dead in their graves. Julius Frank, condemned alike by rabbis and radicals, this Julius Frank is now the superintendent of a Jewish graveyard!
Calls for United Protest
"What have the dead don to deserve such a disgrace" Will Chicago Jews leave this stain upon their consciences" Will the better and more enlightened element of the Calvaria congregation permit the peaceful graves of their dead to be so deeply outraged"
"Will not the great Jewish center of the west find means of casting off this stain and filth from itself" Will not the Jewish population of the city raise its voice in protest"
"Will words of Dr. Hirsch and other Jewish representative men, the work of Jewish sages and scholars, remain like ‘a voice in the desert?’
"Chicago Jews, will Julius Frank, the owner of disreputable houses be the superintendent of one of your Jewish graveyards" Are there not left in your Jewish streets any modern Maccabees who will drag down the swine from the alter"
"We can hardly believe it!"
Condemned by Yiddish Poet
Morris Rosenfeld, the Yiddish poet, whose songs of the sweatshops have been translated into every modern language, and have become a household word in every Jewish home, in a signed article in the same issue of the Forward, says:
"Jew and Judaism in Chicago could not have got a severer blow than that delivered by the congregation which indorsed Frank and even reelected him to public office.
"Consider it well. In the second largest city in the United States public sentiment is suddenly aroused by revelations against a police official who has been taking protection money from keepers of disorderly houses. The witnesses against the official are two Jewish brothers by the name of Frank. On the witness stand one of the brothers admits he is a collector for the police, that he gathers money wrung from the unfortunate creatures of the underworld.
"All this is public knowledge. One would expect therefore that his congregation, the congregation to which he belonged, would instantly sever all connections with him, especially that it would depose him from any and all offices. Yet this congregation has done noting of the kind.
Evil Influence on Children
"And now every Jewish child in Chicago knows who Frank is. They know he is an officer of a Jewish congregation and they know at the same time that he is the owner of disorderly houses, that he has besmirched the name of the Jews in the western metropolis.
"For the sake of these children, if out of no other consideration, for the sake of these future members of synagogues, the Calvaria congregation must cast out the black sheep from its midst. The members of the congregation must do it to save themselves and their synagogue from falling into contempt in the eyes of their own children, who read the English papers and know the facts in the case even if they are suppressed by the orthodox Yiddish press.
"With such examples before us, is it a wonder that the Jewish youth of this country are becoming indifferent to the Jewish church, that they are unwilling to take part in Jewish communal affairs?"
