`Lend a Hand, Brother'

Detroit Jewish Chronicle

Published by the Jewish Chronicle Publishing Co., Inc.
WOodward 1-1040
2827 Barium Tower, Detroit 26, Michigan

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.

SEYMOUR TILCHIN
President

Thursday, July 14, 13411

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE

Page Four

GEORGE WEISWASSER
Editor-in-Chief

Thursday, July 14, 1949 (Tammuz 17, 5709)

Detroit 26, Michigan

Speed Your Check in Campaign

Except for the final winding up, the Allied Jewish Cam-
paign is over. If you have not made your contribution up to
now and intend to, do not make it harder for the few devoted
leaders of the drive who are sticking to their desks these hot
days to finish up the job. Send in your check or pledge to 250
Lafayette west.

Those who have already made their pledge are asked to
send in a check as soon as possible to help relieve the critical
situation in Israel. Because help has been slow, 70,000 Jews are
living in makeshift camps without sanitation, breathing-space or
ample food. The Israelis are taxing themSelves to the hilt in
building their new State. They have voluntarily assumed an
austerity diet that includes only one ounce of meat daily, one
ounce of fish daily, one egg every three days, no butter except
for children and very little milk or anything else.

Speed your check so . that your brothers can at least have a
bit more to eat!

Witch Hunt on the Local level

Like an old maid, the Detroit News has succumbed to the
anti-Communist hysteria and is screeching away for want of
something better to do. The staid old lady has much good to
her credit, but it won't be easy for her to explain away the
fradulent move to fill the news vacuum in the period of these
summer doldrums.

It would be a waste of space to point out the fallacies and
absurdity of the campaign. The drive, however, must not turn
into a witch hunt against minority groups. The patience of
Americans who honestly venerate our basic freedoms should
not be tried too much.

Truman Is Still Israel's Friend

We believe our columnist Phineas J. Bison erred in alleging
that President Truman was himself responsible for the recent
State Department intrigues seeking to keep Israel within the
confines of the November, 1997 partition formula and to force
Israel to admit several hundred thousand Arab refugees at once.

Mr. Truman, we are confident, is a good friend of Israel and,
as Daniel Frisch, ZOA president, told Premier Ben Gurion, he
does not surrender easily to the pressure of officials.

That there is an intrigue in the making is patent, but it is
being nurtured by the minor career diplomats who hold on to
their jobs while Secretaries of State come and go and take their
cues from the British foreign and colonial offices which they
venerate with a respect that is plain idolatry.

So despite President Truman's reassurances, we must ever
remain vigilant lest the pro-Arab minor officials gain the upper
hand. It is to American advantage that a strong and friendly
State be built up in the Near East, up to now an exclusive Brit-
ish preserve. American Zionists should not permit British am-
bitions to nullify what has so far been done in bolstering the
tiny Jewish State.

Interestingly enough, only a few short months ago, Tel
Avi‘• circles felt that the political assistance of American Jews
had outlived its usefulness. Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett, a
ZOA memorandum reminds us, expressed this view in a speech
in Philadelphia which fortunately did not get much attention.

The situation is now changed and so has the thinking of the
self-assured Israeli officials. They now acknowledge that Ameri-
can Jews, especially the dues-paying Zionists, can continue to
help Israel tremendously, in political as well as in economic
fields.

Assimilationist Evil Assailed

We have often had occasion to deplore the unfortunate
practice of some Jews of celebrating Christmas and other non-
Jewish religious holidays in homes and communal institutions.
The celebration of such holidays, we felt, was inimical to the
basic tenents of Judaism and alienated our youth from the
practices of its faith.

We could never understand why such an idle weed had
been permitted to grow on our Jewish soil here. Certainly thc:re
is enough satisfying depth, spirituality and tradition in our own
holidays. There is no need for meandering in alien fields.

We were, therefore, glad to see the reform Central Conference
of American Rabbis take a forthright stand on the issue at its
60th anniversary convention at Bretton Woods. The conference's
resolution 'against an evil which has long been the target of
orthodox elements was as wise as it was timely. For it is clear
that if this type of assimilationism is unchecked it will in time
shake the very foundations of Jewish life in this country.

Life Is Easy,
and So We
Forget God

By ALFRED SF:GAL
N ''LIBERAL JUDAISM",
read a discussion between Rab-
bis Solomon B. Freehoff of Pitts-
burgh and David Polish of Chi-
cago on what's the matter with
us.
That is to say, what's the mat-
ter with you and me and a great
many other
Jews? Religious-
ly speaking.
The reverend
doctors have
been feeling our
spiritual pulse
which at times
is scarcely de-
tectable.We
seem healthy
enough othe r-
Segal
wise. We can
stay up till all hours at gin rum-
my; we hit the ball with pow.
erful strokes at golf; the night
clubs esteem us as the very best
among their customers and 2 o'-
clock in the morning finds us
still fresh at their gaming tables.
But we're seldom in the Syna-
gogue. By reason of the five-day
week many of us don't work on
Saturday, but we don't know the
By WILLIAM ZUKERMAN
Jewish Sabbath. The Temples,
(Jewish World News Service)
on the Sabbath, contain nice eld-
WO VIEWS BY representative American Zionists indicate that erly ladies in black who
have
at last the confusion which has reigned in American Zionist come there to recite Kaddish foe
circles since the emergence of Israel is beginning to rise and people their husbands and others of their
are beginning to see clearly a 5'
kinspeople. Few are the men. r
crucial question facing American pirations. Some hysterical speech-
1 . 1
Zionism today.
es were made and some fanatical ONLY 'THE AGED LEFT
THE ORTHODOX Synagogues
The question is: Is American articles were written to the ef-
Zionism to be a philanthropic fect that an American Jew who are inhabited on the Sabbath by
movement whose purpose it is to does not go personally to Israel old and aging men who have ear.
help establish in Israel a home to help to build the country, even vied the habit of religious woe.
for those homeless Jews who are if he helps financially in a gen- ship from their remote youth.
God has remained with them
in need of it, or is American erous way, is not a,Zionist,
To this chauvinistic zealotry, from their childhood to their
Zionism to become a nationalistic
the
"Detroit
Jewish
Chronicle,"
like the breath of their
movement which considers Israel
as the home of all Jews, includ- a Zionist weekly of that city, an- lives,
swered editorially (June 30), in
ing American?
Sometimes the old men think
Sometimes
the following strong words:
out loud: What will became at
Phrased differently, the same
"Any attempt to foster a large these Synagogues after they are
question can be asked: Are Amer-
scale movement of American through with them and they have
ican Zionists to help build up Is-
young men and women to go to gone away to speak to God at
rael as a home for others, or also
Israel is an INFAMY AND A person?
for themselves? Is American
THREAT TO THE WELL-BEING
Zionism to be a humanitarian or
The reverend diagnosticians
OF AMERICAN JEWRY, Who
a nationalistic movement?
think one way and another about
must
not
be
bled
of
its
young
• • •
leaders who will rightly be stig- us. Rabbi Polish says maybe it's
the prayers; maybe we're tired of
PRACTICAL BASIS
matized as DISLOYAL BY
saying the old prayers over and
FRIENDS
AND
ENEMIES
THE QUESTION WAS raised
over again. He proposes a re-
not theoretically, but practically. ALIKE. Let us remain sympa-
construction Of the prayer-serv-
A movement has been started in thizers, good Americans and fine
ice in accordance with modern
this country for a large settle- Jews, but withal Zionists, because Jewish experienc e— a prayer-
ment of American Jewish young we can love Israel with deep de-
service that will not be the same
men and women to go to Israel votion without having to make a
all the time, but will offer variety
trip
there
to
prove
it.
Let
us,
as Chalutzim, settlers, and ex-
each Sabbath.
change their American home, the Americans, be the Chalutzim of
He would make the pr ayes'
home of their birth, for Israel, the spirit, and let those who have
more meaningful to the modern
the home of their nationalistic as- (Continued on Page 7)
mind. Then, perhaps, people will
start going to Synagogue again.
• • •
2 POWERFUL SERVICES
RABBI FREEHOFF isn't too
sure what the cure is. Ile finds
that the spiritual sickness is not
developed dental ailments. The only among Jews but among
By NATHAN ZIPRIN
EW YORK—All toothaches old could not replace their de- Protestants and Catholics as well.
were forgotten in the small caying teeth with those shining
Ile points out that the Syna-
town of Oriskany, New York, substitutes for nature. And there gogues are crowded on Rost] Has.
was
trouble
in
the
land.
Appeals
when Alfred Grossman, a young
lionah and Yotn Kippur . . . "In
Jewish dentist from America's by the community failed to draw these two services," he says,
largest city, was paraded through answer. Advertisements in the "there is a tremendous power of
street and road in token of his New York City press were of no attraction as strong for modern
acceptance of an offer to open a avail—until there arrived one day people as for past generations. We
dental office in that community. a letter from Alfred Grossman.
have never analyzed the source of
Before opening the letter, the
The parade was headed by the city officials did some praying, strength of these two services.
'mayor of the town of 930 people, hoping against hope that this was Such a study may be of great
representatives of the chamber of not another rejection. And the help."
The doctors having spoken,
commerce and social and reli- prayers of the toothless and the
gious leaders. A band played stricken were answered. Here now let one of the patients speak
music loud and sweet and den- was a Moses that would lead up.
Reverend doctors: I, the patient.
tist-hating children cheered loud- them t of the Land
Tooth-
ly as they came within reach of ache, and the people were happy. am being constantly mindful of
what's Use matter with nie by my
the man who was aching to sub-
• • •
father. He is 93. Not that he ever
ject them to unpleasant drilling.
speaks to me directly with re-
It was not a hero, or a return- PEACE OF MIND
WHEN THE PARADE ended, proaches upon my spiritual sick-
ing veteran, or a long missing
person, or a popular athlete that history will tell, the sun settled ness. Without meaning to do it
they came to greet and cheer on. quietly over the town and sleep- he brings my own delinquencies
ers rested in their beds consoled to me in the evening when. on his
It was just a dentist that was
by' the knowledge that if their
the object of their adoration. And sleep is disturbed by pain, Moses sickbed, he opens his eyes and
sees that the day has passed.
they cheered and applauded, the
will lead them out of the mess.
Then he recites the prayers of
old and the young, because they
Whether it was mentioned or
learned
stood in sight of the man who not that this Moses too was a Jew the evening which he first
to say when he was six years old.
was to assuage their dental ills
has not been recorded. Certain it It comforts him the inure to
and, in the ease of the old, give
is that the midst of jubilation know that they are the same old
them new rest for food.
the word Jew was non-existent. pryceorns intuh ietyy osfugGg
the time-
• • •
Pain and the anticipation of al- less continuity
God:
APPEALS FAILED
leviation vitiated all differences
"Blessed art thou, 0 Loi d our
FOR YEARS the town had and united all men and women God, King of the universe who at
been without a dentist Children and children into one purpose.
(Continued ea rage 15)

I

For Whom, by Whom
Shall Israel Be Built?

T

• • •

Town Laughs Off Aches
With Arrival of a Moses

N

