“What’s the big idea?” asked Mr. van Paassen. His face was very red and his hair seems, didn’t like the article about him that appeared in last Monday’s Jewish Daily Bulletin. That’s what he told a Bulletin reporter yesterday afternoon just before the meeting of the Handassah, the women’s Zionist organization, in the community ho9use of Temple Emanu-El, 1 East 65th street. The reporter had been sent to cover the meeting, at which van Paassen was to speak.
The article that the Canadian journalist objected to simply said that he may or may not have spent nine days in a German concentration camp, as he said he had.
“What’s the big idea?” said van Paassen again, while a reporter from the Bulletin was trying to make out just what idea was so big as to make Mr. van Paassen become so excited.
Meanwhile, “What’s the big idea?” van Paassen asked once more.
“What big idea?” asked the reporter from the Bulletin.
“What do you mean by vilifying me like that?” said van Paassen.
“Like what?” asked the repoter.
“Like those lies you printed about me in the Bulletin,” said van Paassen.
‘PEACE BE WITH YOU’
He turned to Mrs. David de SolaPool, president of the New York chapter of the Hadassah, who had come forward, hand held out. welcoming van Paassen with a “Sholom!” The word, of course, means “Peace.” But the man who either had or had not been in a concentration camp merely turned to the reporter and cied, “If you don’t get out right now, I’ll knock you down!”
Mis. Pool singnalled to the reporter to leave, so that her guest of honor could be calmed down. “If he doesn’t get out, I won’t make a speech today!” threatened van Paassen.
Mrs. Pool’s signals became frantic.
Sympathizing with her predicament the reporter turned and left. Mr. van Paassen ddelivered his speech in peace.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
