Thursday, January 12,
eV,-,o
DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE
Page 3
STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
Selection of 10 `Greatest' Jews Omits the Great
By PHINEAS J. BIRON
THE ENTERPRISING EDITOR of the National
Jewish Post polled his readers on the question
as to who are the 10 leading living
Jews. We do not know whether the
referendum was sent to all the read-
ers of that publication or only to a
cross-section. Several New York
subscribers of the Jewish Post
never heard of the contest till they
read about it in the publication. In
any case what disturbs us are the
selections. They seem to indicate
that the I.Q. of the Post readers is
of a very strange vintage, to speak
mildly. Biron
We shall never understand, for instance, how
eizmann, Silver or Ben Gurion received more votes
an Einstein.
The editors of the nation listed the professor as
the only Jew among the leading mortals of the first
half-century.
O
. YET THE PRIZE-WINNING reader of the Post
listed Sen. Lehman and Henry Morgenthau, Jr. ahead
of Einstein.
And will some kind soul explain what makes
Bernard Baruch a great Jew? Baruch is unquestion-
ably a very astute and successful financier and Wall
street manipulator. He also ranks as a top presiden-
tial advisor on economic affairs. But why de these
very important accomplishments qualify him as a
great Jew? •
Baruch, and, for that matter, David Lilienthal
have not lifted a finger to advance Jewish interests.
They have never risked prestige or influence to ob-
tain support for a Jewish political or social problem.
Lehman, it must be admitted, always retained
an interest in Jewish matters and even when occupied
with affairs of state could be counted upon to do his
Jewish bit.
Henry Morgenthau, of course, deserves listing by
virtue of his selfless leadership of the United Jewish
Appeal.
Felix Frankfurter's past record as a co-worker of-
Brandeis in the Zionist field entitles him to a slight
consideration.
Surely the Post readers could have considered
names such as Arthur Miller the playwright who will
be a Nobel Prize winner one of these years .
And what about Ludwig Lewisohn, the critic,
Lillian Hellman, the dramatist, the novelists Norman
Mailer and Stefen lleym, the actor Lee Cobb, the
playwright Clifford Octets, Leonard Bernstein the
conductor, Yehudi Menuhin, the greatest violinist of
the 20th century, to mention but a few?
Is our cultural life really so poor that politicians
and financiers represent the greatness of the Jewish
nation?
(The prizewinning Post reader listed the 10 as
follows: Weizmann, Ben Gurion, Silver , Morgenthau,
Lehman, Einstein, Lilienthal, Baruch, Frankfurter,
OFF THE RECORD
Keep Quotes Straight,
Ben Gurion Asks Paper
and Eban.)
•
•
•
YUSIF EL-BANDAK, who styles himself "Beth-
lehem Christian Delegate." is the spokesman for the
ex-Mufti of Jerusalem. His diplomatic activities in
this country have not been very successful although
El-Bandak sh o uld be happy that the Arab League is
rather reluctant to do business with Abdullah of
Transjordan.
But while the resolution to internationalize Jeru-
salem gives the Mufti a breathing spell (because it
refuses to accept Abdullah as leader of the Palestinian
Arabs) it does not advance the possibilities for a
comeback of the Mufti as ruler of an Arab Palestine.
But make no mistake. The Mufti is not dead.
This war criminal is building up a strong political
following within the countries of the Arab League.
In truth the Mufti has more legal rights than
Abdullah to be the spokesman for Palestine Arabs.
All of •vhich means that the Jerusalem issue will
be settled only on the day that Abdullah will have •
to evacuate Jerusalem and the United Nations and
Israel will be ready to deal with the Arab people
whose homes are in Palestine.
If that should happen then the Mufti will give uo
his political ambitions, and Britain and America %•id
have to let go of Abdullah and devote some attention
to the people in the Middle East and not only to the
Pashas, prin c es and Moslem oil barons who are un-
concerned about the holy places of any religion and
whose only religion is American dollars.
lIeads University Reform Leaders
to Hold Meeting
JERUSALEM AIRPORT
JERUSALEM — (1St) —
Preparations for building an air-
port in Jerusalem are being
speeded by the Ministry for
Transport and Communications in
order to facilitate communi•atioti
between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Jewish community and congre-
gational leaders of four states will
discuss current problems of lib-
eral Judaism at the annual meet-
By NATHAN ZIPRIN
ing of the Great Lakes Council
THE ISRAELI DAILY Davar has a reputation for linguistic
of the Union of American Ile-
purism but in its zeal to maintain its high standard it
brew Congregations on Jan. 29
recently fell into an error which had the whole country laughing.
Prime Minister David Ben a>
in Milwaukee; Wis.
Gurion had addressed the Knes- church services and the other •
The Union of American He-1
set and ended his speech with synagogue services.
brew Congregations is the central
the words, ''In that clay it shall be
If baby sitting can help where
body ot reform Judaism, repre-
said to Jerusalem: Fear thou not:
other remedies failed, let's try it
senting more than 400 congrega-
0 Zion, let not thy hands be
by all means.
tions in 325 communities in the
slack."
• • •
United States and Canada.
•However, Davar's editor per-
THEY SAY everything hap-
National board members who
formed a word-inversion opera- pens in Brooklyn.
DR. ABRAM L. SACIIAR, are expected to participate in
tion on the Hebrew text.
, Although this story happened president of Brandeis Univer- the conference include Leonard
Ben Gurion immediately sent a in Brooklyn it might have hap- sity, and George Alpert, chair- T. Lewis and George M. Stutz of
letter to the editor saying that pened almost anywherb else.
men of the board of trustees, Detroit.
while he did not question the
It was New Year's Eve. The will outline the story of the
right of the editor to challenge spirit of Clvistmas was still over university at a dinner to a
the grammatical authority of the land. Signs of good will group of local community
Lsrael's chief he doubted the need were shining from the windows leaders. Chairman of the
to correct the language of the ot the homes on Bedford Avenue,' dinner, to be held at 6:30 p.m.,
prophets.
particularly on that block on Tuesday at the Book-Cadillac,
is Leonard Simmons.
•The passage, he wrote, was Bedford avenue where only one
front the third chapter of Zeph- Jewish family resides.
aniah.
The Jewish family- was con- poisoned hig dog.
The newspaper carried Ben spicuous on the block for two
The incident would have gone
Gurion's letter in a boxed space reasons. One was that the family
unnoticed if it were not for a
on the front page.
owned a candy store.
Catholic woman who was in-
It occurs to us that Ben Gurion
The youngster of that family censed by such un-Christian con-
might have called the attention had a dog. The youngsters on duct during Christendom's most
of the newspaper to the coinci- the block had absorbed all the sacred season.
dence that that very chapter prejudices of the adults: They
She wrote a letter to the local
speaks of .purity of language.
didn't like Sammy and his "Jew-
paper
and asked what would
ish
dog."
.Verse 16 of the third chapter
reads:
And so they did to the dog be the answer if Sammy should
"For then will i turn to the what they wanted to do to ask how people who consider
peoples a pure language, that Sammy.
themselves Christians can com-
On New Year's eve they mit so degrading an act?
they may call upon the name of
the Lord, to set ve Him with one;
consent."
• • •
MST LISTENING IN TOWN!
SID IT EVER OCCUR to you
that •baby.sitting could be trans-
formed into an instrument for
promoting interfaith relations?
If baby sitting begins losing its
commercial character in the fu-
ture the blame will rest on a
number of veterans residing in
the Levittown housing project in
the Long Island region of New
York.
The Jewish and Christian vet-
3Ratieting
erans had a problem—What were
MUSIC
they to do with the babies on the
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occasions they wanted to attend
JEWISH
for o low $ ► 6 54)
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religious services?
They agreed that Christian and
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