April 23, 1976
From an installment of former JCRC head Earl Raab’s column, “Candid Comments,” headlined “Open Season on Jews”
The evangelists must consider this open season on the Jews.
The San Francisco County Jail just received a letter from one Marvin Pressman, the director of something called the B’nai Yeshua Fellowship. B’nai Yeshua is described as “an interdenominational organization dedicated to assisting, through many different means, young Jews a) to come to the Messiah Jesus and b) to help get them grounded in society as responsible citizens.”
B’nai Yeshua is headquartered in Texas and has a 16-acre place called Camp David where they try to tidy Jews up and make them respectable Christians. These fellows say they have “a burden for the lost sheep of the House of Israel,” and are looking for them in jail.
“Our ministry,” Marvin explains “is seeking to reach these Jews as well as for those on the streets … We would like to share Jesus with them in a Jewish way.”
All he wants is “any information you can send us on any Jewish resident at the penitentiary presently, such as how many there are from a Jewish background, their names and mailing address.” This outrageous request was, of course, not honored by the San Francisco County Jail. The entire jail and prison system in the state is being forewarned of the impropriety of this request, lest any chaplain fall carelessly into a response.
April 16, 1946
From “The Editor’s Chair,” a signed editorial by Eugene B. Block, editor of what was then called Jewish Community Bulletin
Though the war is won and the Nazi propaganda machine has gone into oblivion, home front rabble-rousers and anti-Semites still are spreading their poisonous hate. …
Of late, newspapers have been commenting on the dearth of office space encountered by the medical and dental profession, especially by returning service men. These published reports gave anti-Semites just what they were looking for — another opportunity to snipe at the Jewish people.
Rumors began to circulate that returning doctors and dentists could not find offices because Jewish emigre doctors were “glutting all the office space in town.” And the gossip-mongers, to make their canard all the more realistic, added a further touch. They said the medico-dental building at 450 Sutter St. was “overrun” with emigre doctors.
Preposterous as all this sounded, the Jewish Survey and Bnai Brith Community Committee began an immediate investigation. It found that in all San Francisco, a total of 54 emigre physicians are practicing. Of this number, 10 have been in military service.
The management of the building at 450 Sutter St. then was approached for further information. The rumor as it pertained to that building was quickly refuted. It developed that this structure houses approximately 500 physicians and dentists. Of that number, 15 physicians are Jewish emigres. There are no emigre dentists. …
I am relating the facts here, for the Survey Committee believes that after proving the falsity of malicious gossip its next responsibility is to give the truth to the community so that canards of such sort can be exploded when they are encountered.
Truth is power and we cannot combat our enemies unless we have the ammunition, which in this case is factual information.