Thursday, May 12, MI DETROIT JkIVISII CHRONICLE Page Four Detroit Jewish Chronicle Published by the Jewish Chronicle Publishing Co., Inc. 2827 Barium Tower, Detroit 26, Michigan But Be On Guard WOodward 1-1090 SUBSCRIPTION: $3.00 Per Year, Single Copies, 10c; Foreign, $5.00 Per Year Entered as Second-class matter March 3. 1916, at the Post Office at Detroit, Mich., under the Act of March 3, 1879 GEORGE WEISWASSER, Editor in Chief SEYMOUR TILCHIN, President Thursday, May 12, 1949 - (Iyar 13, 5709 In Brief . . . $ There is great merit to the plan of re- organization of the ZOA submitted to the the Zionist regional conference by Lawrence Crohn of Detroit. Let it be acknowledged from the start that there is little new in Crohn's major suggestions and that parts of the prc;posal are "utopian", as a prominent Zionist labeled them at the conclave. This is not the place to discuss Crohn's plan in detail but the major. section of the seven- point proposal should be surveyed at this time. It is his demand that America's Zion- ists must unite. We made a similar demand in these columns in unequivocal langugage just a few months ago, and our words were echoed by no less a personage than Emanuel Neumann several days later at the Zionist coriventton. The value in Crohn's reiteration is the fact that his plan will be formally pre- sented to the Zionist command and to dis- tricts throughout the country at the behest of the Michigan region, and that, if given careful study, it may increase the clamour for unity among the rank and file of Zionism. American Jewry—and we cannot say this vigorously enough—is sick to the death of the petty squabbles among Zionist groups, their partisanship and their self-seeking. The American-born group which will take over the leadership in the not far distant future views the factionalism as a carryover from foreign environments and as inconsistent with the American scheme of things which deprecates fragmentation among groups with a common aim. To the American Jew, there is only one reason to be a Zionist, and, we submit, the rebirth of Israel has not changed that objective despite the frantic search of our leadership for a "reorientation of program" tejusfify the existence of the • Zionist bodies. That goal, that aim is to help the Jews of Palestine. That was the objective before May 15, 1948 and that is today's pur- pose. The Jews of America must be educated to understand and love Israel for its histori- cal, religious and philosophical connotations. The Jews of America must be rallied in sup- port of Israel politically and economically. The promulgation of the state has not changed any of this. There must be a Zionist organization of America to do the job now as it has done it four decades before this. The need for education and support will never end But the American Jew will not countenance the fact that, with the establish- ment of a politically sovereign State, that state's internal political ideologies will be in- troduced into the Amerkan Jewish environ- ment to tear our unity and our equanimity asunder. There must be an amalgamation, an accord of disunited forces be they of an econ- omic. religious, chauvinistic, sociological or any other basis. ZOA and Hadassah members' must center their affection and support upon all Israel, not on the General Zionists and the middle class alone; Labor Zionists in America must learn to sustain and strength- en all Israel, not the Histadrut alone; Miz- rachi must build and create for all Israel and not for the religious elements alone. That's what- Americans understand Zionism means today. That is why there must be amalgama- tion, visionary as the idea may be to its de- tractors. For without unity, American Zion- ism will fail. * * * Give Israel 'Religion' Time Many persons are prematurely disturbed about religion in Israel. Our learned col- league, William Zukerman, writes as if Israel is irrevocably destined to,be a theocracy be- cause of the insistance of the Rabbis on religious observance in public institutions and because of Rabbinical supervision over marriage, divorce and matters of the family. Another eminent colleague, Robert Gamzey, editor of that gxcellent newspaper, the Inter- mountain Jewish News of Denver points out - Detroit 26, Michigan that there is little religious observance in Israel outside of the orthodox settlements and centers. One naturally expects that a Jewish State in the ancient Homeland would retain certain religious controls in addition to nationalistic observance of the festivals. The Sabbath must inevitably be respected in a Jewish State and some Rabbinical control over family subjects is to be expected. Yet, it should not be assumed that the Rabbis are so dominant in the political field that Israel will be turned into a nation of medievalists and fanatics. Rabbinical spokesmen agree that there will be alterations consistant with the needs of our age. We quote the late rev- ered Rabbi Berlin in this vein elsewhere in these columns. Also in this issue, we have a statement of Premier Ben Gurion's recogniz- ing the spiritual significance of the preserva- tion of religious tradition. His labor party, he said, would have insisted on Kashruth in public .institutions and a strict observance of the Sabbath by governmental departments and officials even had the Rabbis never de- manded it: Ben Gurion is well aware of the fact that Israel, too, is a -melting pot; that it is in a critical stage of change and flux. Out of the amaigam of Israel's new people and ideas, out of the experiences of Statehood, out of respect for the beautiful and rational in tradition and the rejection of the incon- sistent will come a practice of Judaism in Israel that will not disturb our brethren here. * * And We Echo This Rabbi Harry Kellman of Camden, N. J., makes some pertinent remarks about the English-Jewish press, which are not at all flattering to our fraternity—but whose criti- cisms cannot be dismissed as so much pulpi- teering. "Whereas, other journalism reflects and even influences the current thought and philosophy of life, the Anglo-Jewish press is celebrated for its lack of ideas," he says— "even boastful of it and goes its undeniably tiresome way, dedicated to the theory that its main business is to report who did what and where, and other stimulating chit-chat. Of course there are exceptions in this field, but I speak of the greV bulk." We agree with the Rabbi—there are some exceptions, and the Bnai Brith Messenger attempts sincerely to be one of the leaders among the few ex- ceptions in this country. But we wonder whether the good Rabbi realizes that if the English-Jewish press is uninteresting, un- stimulating, devoid of ideas and devoted to the banalities and chit-chat that this con- dition may be attributed tg himself as a member of the Rabbinate, whose only in- terest--in the main—as far as the English- Jewish press is concerned, is to see his own name mentioned prominently therein. Has Rabbi Kellman, or any other Rabbi for that matter, given the English-Jewish press the active support it should receive to make it the ideal journalism that it can become? Have the Rabbis ever discussed with editors and publishers how best to make the press in their own communities really serve them? Most of those who have talked Jewish journ- alism with this editor have done so on a purely personal basis. That is, they felt posi- tively that if we printed their sermons and their articles we would have achieved the acme of Jewish journalistic worth. Have the Rabbis ever spoken from the pulpit on the English-Jewish press and its problems? Do they know anything about the problems of the English-Jewish press? Have they dared, to recommend• to their parishioners that they should support the Jewish press by subscribing to it, and advertising in it, and patronizing those who do advertise in it, so that there would be a big enough bal- ance to employ the service of a better grade editorial department? And while we're on the subject, these questions. may be asked of many of our Jewish communal leaders as well. —L. A. Bnai Brith Messenger Warns of Israeli Cockiness; Cites Distorted View on U.S. By WILLIAM ZUKERMAN (Jewish World News Sen ► iee) NEW YORK—Another interesting report on Israel was gives by Robert Gamzey, editor of the Intermountain Jewish News et Denver, who has just returned from a tour of Israel., Gamzey belongs to the younger:: type of American Jewish editors will be repeated in the U. S., says who are taking their journalism Gamzey. For this reason they do as a social responsibility, not not hesitate to demand that Am- merely as a source of income, and erican Jews should transfer who are attempting to introduce everything that they have of their American methods and American worldly goods to Israel before the tolerance into the Jewish press pogroms start, in the form of in- in English. vestments, contributions and skill- According to Gamey, the pre- ed labor, vailing mood in Israel now is that COOL TO RELIGION of optimism, self-confidence, self- Religion does not play the irn- assertion, bordering almost on portant part in Israel propagan- expansionism. The average Is- dists try to imply. The average raeli, native, old timer, or new Israeli, native and immigrant is arrival, he says, is convinced that indifferent to institutionalized re- there is nothing in the world that ligion. Israel cannot achieve militarily, Only the Sabbath, Yom Kippur economically, culturally and in and Yizkor are generally observ- every field of human endeavor. ed. Otherwise the Synagogues are TOO COCKSURE empty, or they are filled with old There is a certain cocksured- Jews, or with Jews from back- ness about these Oople which ward Arab countries who are might become dangerous, if it becoming one of the difficult were not controlled and discip- problems of Israel. lined by a level-headed and pro- A new and rather interesting gressive leadership, Gamzey theory prevails in Israel about warned. religion, according to Gamzey, The Israelis have a terribly one which is best described in his wrong conception of American words. Jews, he adds. Most of them be- "Over ,and over again," he said, lieve sincerely that the good and "you hear young people saying; prosperous days of American 'Religion was necessary to keep Jewry are counted. Sooner or the Jewish people together dur- later there will be persecution ing two thousand years of dis- and even pogroms in America and persion. Now that we have the American Jews will have to look Jewish State and a land of our for refuge in Israel. own, we do not need religion any • They are obsessed with the more. Those old people who want tragedy of Germany that they it can have it, but it is not for are certain that the Hitler process ui.' " Jewish Culture and Religion Curbed by Reds, Says Study NEW YORK (WNS)—Existence in the Soviet Union and the coun- tries within its orbit of "a com- mon pattern of suppression of all independent religious, cultural and communal activities" was re- vealed in a survey released by the American Jewish Committee, conservative defense gcoup. The study alleges that Commu- nists in the Soviet satellite na- tions, backed by state power, oc- cupied all key posts in Jewish organizations, that neutral or in- dependent Jewish leaders were purged, that several of the organ- izations were compelled to dis- band "voluntarily," and that even Jewish schools had been taken over. CURBS,CITED Subsequently, the teaching of Jewish history and language was cancelled, a move, the report says, which accorded with the "nation- alization" of Jewish welfare or- ganizations, hospitals and orphan- ages. Jewish relief agencies were closed down and many Jewish religious and civic leaders were jailed or forced into exile. the study says. The survey declares that, in Romania, Dr. Filderman was forced to resign from the chair- manship of the Union of Roman- ian Jews and flee the country. The same fate overtook Dr. Alex- ander ShafTran, Chief Rabbi of Romania, RAN RELIGIOUS STUDY Later the Union was forced to merge with a left wing splinter group and, ultimately to dissolve. The Federation of Jewish Relig- ious Communities was taken over by pro-Communist leadership without an election being held. In the summer of I948, 69 ele- mentary schools and 23 high schools with a total registration of 13,000 pupils were nationalized, and religious instruction is pro- hibited under threat of heavy punishment.