Americo Jewish Periodical Ce

DETROIT JEWISII CHRONICLE

Page 4

Sowing for the Future

Detroit Jewish Chronicle

Published by the Jewish Chronicle Publishing Co., Inc.
WOodward 1-1040
2827 Cadillac Tower, Detroit 26, Michigan
SUBSCRIPTION:
83.00 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
Publisher
GERIIARDT NEUMANN
EMILY SOMA()
Editor
Business Manager
lyar 10, 5710
Thursday, April 27, 1950

Israel's Second Anniversary

Our readers probably still recall the excitement of those
hectic May days two years ago when David Ben Gurion pro-
claimed the Jewish state the same minute the British High Com-
mission left Palestine soil and Arab army columns began con-
verging on the infant state.
The fifth of Iyar will forever be a day of glory and happi-
ness in Jewish history, for it was on this day in the year 5708 that
the Jewish people, for the first time in 2,000 years, overcame the
curse of the wandering Jew and decided to be again sovereigns
in their ancient homeland.
There were quite a number of sceptics who doubted that
Israel would be strong enough to survive financially and mili-
tarily. Sceptics always have good reasons, and the odds certainly
were against a small state which had not yet set up its adminis-
trative machinery or was prepared militarily to meet the on-
slaught of a furious and fighting-mad Arab world.
Well, as in the days of the Maccabees, faith and perserver-
ance won out over blind hatred. The war was won, immigration
has never ceased, and the million Jews who have written such
a right to be self-
a brilliant chapter in Jewish history have
confident and proud.
In Israel itself, most people probably won't consider them-
selves as heroes. They have gone through battles, sieges, aus-
terity and shortages. They might rather think of themselves as
victims of a silly world which is unable to come to a modus
vivendi and which would rather commit suicide than be rea-
sonable.
The people living in Israel know that two years of a con-
tinued fight for existence does not mean much if measured
against the future. But they, as well as Jews in America and
other parts of the world, have reasons to be thankful on this
anniversary of the Jewish state.
American Jews may be credited with having given Israel the
means to survive the most critical period since its inception.
WithouLthe work of American Zionists, the United States
probably would not have recognized the new state the day
after it was established. President Truman's quick action was a
tremendous boost for a state which was more or less impro-
vised and did not know if it could manage to live through another
:week.
Israel's admission to the United Nations on May 11, 1949, was
the final seal on its international recognition. When the blue
and white flag was added at Lake Success to 58 others, there was
no Jewish heart anywhere in the world that was not overcome by
the solemnness and grandeur of the occasion.
Among the many achievements of Israel, its open door
policy is the greatest. Fifteen years ago, when Jews in Europe
were facing annihilation, America and other big countries did
not want to encumber themselves with immigrants. Depression
and political uncertainty were given as the logical reasons.
Little Israel did not look for such subterfuges. The Jewish
heart demanded action for the outcast and the starving. Israel
ignored its economic difficulties when it came to helping Jews,
saving lives. For this, not only the refugees will be thankful but
all Jews in the world. The admission of 400,000 newcomers was
an heroic act of unparalleled nobility of character.
Israel faces an uncertain future. Will the third year bring
peace or war? Will the country be able to continue its rapid
expansion? Will the civilized world support the young state
morally and politically?
These questions concern not only Israel but world Jewry.
'
There is no time to relax. We must not and will not forget thee,
Jerusalem.

The Nazis Come to Life Again

The reports about anti-Semitic outbursts in Germany con-
tinue to flow as in the first 10 years of the "Thousand-Year-
Reich."
Things must have reached the boiling point in the western
German republic when High Commissioner John J. McCloy
found it necessary to issue a statement calling the Nazis to
order and terming their behavior a "disgrace."
McCloy, however, qualified his statement by adding that
the majority of the German people were not involved in these
anti-Jewish disturbances and that they were still victims of
the poison generated by the "vicious agitation" of the Nazis
regime.
The Jewish people have suffered too deeply from the Nazis
to take such a philosophical view of the goings-on in Germany.
We think that if there is any disgrace it is one for us to
allow the Germans to resume their "normal activities" and to
continue beating up Jews as if nothing had happened between
1941 and 1945.
The abysmal rottenness of the German character is too
great to disgrace the Germans. They are already ''beyond good
and evil."
But the western nations should understand that by allow-
ing the Germans to reorganize along Nazi lines Hitler emerges
as the victor posthumously.
The indelible hatred of the Nazis does not find enough
living objects in Germany now, so it turns to tombstones. One
cannot dismiss such activities as childish. They are the expres-
sion of warped minds which live in an artificial world of super-
stitions, hallucinations and horror. If we tolerate them now,
they may again try to conquer the world when they believe the
time is ripe.
A disgrace it is ... for the western world to close its eyes
to wanton destruction of Jewish cemeteries and riots of mur-
derers against Jewish persons who escaped the gas chambers.
How long will the Germans be allowed to debase the

world?

Thursday, April 20, 1950

U. S. Jewry
Is in the Dark
About Itself

By GERIIARDT -NEUMANN
We would like to know how
many Jews there are in this
country. We would like to know
something about their distribu-
tion in cities and villages. We
would like to know the percen-
tage of men and women, the sta-
tistics of the age groups, or the
representation of Jews in the pro-
fessions and trades in which they
earn their livelihood.
We have missed a golden op-
portunity. This is census year,
and Uncle Sam is learning all
about his nephews and nieces,
except what religion or sect they
belong to. The census does not
ask such questions.
We do not wish to argue with
American tradition, but we be-
lieve it would have been in the
interest of all religious groups to
get a clear idea of their real
strength.
As things are now, we are sim-
ply guessing how many Protest-
ants, Catholics and Jews are liv-
ing in the United States. The nu-
merical strength of religious con-
gregations certainly is no indica-
tor of the true figdres.
We don't see anything wrong
with asking a man about his re-
ligion. We feel sure that most
Jews are no longer ashamed of
their race and religion. The exis-
tence of the state of Israel has
the English manor style.
convinced the majority of Jews
By ALFRED SEGAL
"We had three bathrooms and
UR MR. IIILLEL once more oriental .rugs. We had two re- that being Jewish is something
was relaxing from the ten- frigerators and a painting that to be proud of.
The lack of reliable statistics
sions of his business (The U. S. cost me $1000. They told me it
is
a handicap to the planning of
Widget Corp.). As everybody was an old master, the swindlers.
Jewish
drives. American Jewry
should know by now, when Mr.
• • •
is completely in the dark about
Hillel relaxes he
"THEN ONE DAY MY WIFE itself.
doesn't go to a
said, don't you think we should
The needs or local communities
belong to the temple? She sug- and the demands of national in-
rummy game or
gested this in the same eager tone stitutions are assessed by nego-
canasta. He
of voice in which she had pro- tiation instead.of being based on
comes to this
posed that we have Oriental rugs. factual knowledge of the commu-
column to help*
"She said it was time we gave nity and its resources in means
me write it, or,
the children the best advantages and personnel.
as occurred on a
. . . "We shouldn't deny them
We believe that The Recon-
number of occa-
anything. We simply will have to structionist has seen the problem
sion s, he has
join the temple.'
clearly when it writes:
written it him-
"'No; I replied as firmly as I
self. Segal
"There are in America various
could.
But
I
am
a
man
who
nev-
Now he was saying: "Widgets
organizations engaged in statis-
are driving me crazy, the way the er disagrees with his wife for tical surveys.
orders are coming in. And the long. What's the use? She'll win
"The National Jewish Welfare
the argument at the end, anyway, Board, in 1948, published the re-
way the profits are piling up."
and I may as well make it short.
"You mean," I said, "that this
sults of the survey of its commu-
"So we joined the temple."
nity center program which had
column is an escape from the lun-
Mr. Hillel wanted it known that been made under the direction of
acy of widgets?"
he wasn't quarreling with the Dr. Oscar Janowsky. The Nation-
"Put it that way if you want temple. "It's another holy Jew-
to," he replied. "It's like going ish place and it's all right and al Community Relations Advisory
Council is about to embark on a
to a sanatorium for a rest."
the same God's there. But in the study of the civic defense organi-
Mr. Hillel had called to re- temple is God as informal as in
port that he had returned to the the schul? In the temple He is so zations.
"These are good, but they are
old orthodox synagogue of his politely correct, more like a pre-
younger days. This was not to cise host than an indulgent fath- not adequatet because they are
limited to some special phase or
say that he had quit the reform
er.
area of Jewish life. The conclu-
temple. No, not at all!
"I sat stiff-necked before Him,
For his wife's sake and for his like somebody at the Metropoli- sions of such surveys are often
children's, he was sticking to the tan opera, not like in the friend- ignored by other agencies, who
assume them to have been influ-
more fashionable temple.
ly old house of my youth.
enced by the specific aims of the
"He's the same God in both
• • •
institution which undertook the
places," Mr. Hillel said, "but in
"WHEN I TOLD my wife I was survey.
the orthodox synagogue He is a
the old schul
"No organization which is de-
more homey God, like a geni11 going back to join
can go there but signed exclusively for that pur-
father you can sit around with, I she said, "You
compromised.
pose can, with only its own man-
feel at home with God there. not we.' I
"In
fact,
on
Yom Kippur it power and resources, conduct a
Nothing fancy. Sometime the de-
corum isn't just so, but how corn- has been my practice to sneak out survey of the total Jewish com-
fortable can your father's house to the schul at noon after sitting munity.
"All organizations interested in
be if there's always perfect de- with my wife in the temple all
morning. Now as a regular mem- the enhancement and survival of
corum, like in a temple?"
ber in the schul I feel at home Jewish life in America should
• • •
recognize the need for a central
MR. HILLEL'S EYES were again."
Mr. Hillel wasn't reporting all statistical bureau and should pool
misty with nostalgia for good old
days of his Jewish life. It was so this by way of making a pietist their resources to establish an in-
easy to be with God then, he said. of himself. He was mindful of dependent agency that will have
He didn't even have to dress up other temple members who, like the authority and the means to
for Him in the orthodox syna- him, have come out of orthodoxy gather the vital statistics con-
In fact, most of today's tern- cerning every area of Jewish life.
gogue.
"Without this information, Am-
Jewish religion had to do with pie members were orthodox," he
familiar Hebrew words out of the said. "They don't feel quite at erican Jews cannot function in an
ritual book, like beloved voices in home in the temple. It's so chilly efficient and organized fashion."
The various Jewish organiza-
one's own house; the chazan's there; it lacks the warm Jewish-
chant was something that sang in ness they knew in the synagogues tions may be separated by ideolo-
gies and aims, but they should at
Mr. Hillel's own heart, like his of their childhood."
I told Mr. Hillel the temple least be able to agree on the
mother's humming of an old song.
Even holiday services were as rabbis are conscious of this, too. necessity for the central statisti-
informal as sitting around in your Recently they had a round table cal bureau, of which The Recon-
own house. Sometime the cantor on reform Jewish practice which structionist speaks.
The cost of such a Jewish cen-
had to pound on his desk for or- "recognized the need to estab-
lish
norms
for
Jewish
observ-
sus would be high, but it would
der, but that was all right.
a bu-
Mr. Hillel remembered how he ances" .. . "to offer standards be worth the money. Such general
happened to move over to the and criteria" ... for "the preser- reau would enhance the
temple from the old homestead in vation of the Sabbath, festivals welfare of American Jewry'. This
the orthodox synagogue. The wid- and Holy Days" . . . for "the re- is the only reason why govern-
get business was getting better tention and development of such ments and private institutions
and better so that he could af- customs, symbols and ceremonials spend so much time and money
on statistical surveys.
ford a new house with gables in as possess inspirational value."

Mr. Hillel Goes Back
to Memories of Youth

O

