Americall t ewish Periodical ea

Friday, June 22, 1951

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE

Page 4

Detroit Jewish Chronicle

Help Him Reach the Top!

Published Weekly by the Jewish Chronicle Publishing Co., Inc.
WOodward 1-1040
900 Lawyers' Building, 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
Publisher
GERHARDT NEUMANN
Editor

Friday, June 22, 1951

Sivan 18, 5711

Unity in War Only?

One of the strangest remarks made by an Arab in
the past few years was the recent statement of Dr. Char-
les Malik, chairman of the Human Rights Commission
of the United Nations and Lebanese minister to the
United States, "that communications and all types of war
operations will establish between the Arabs and Israel
relations and a common responsibility."
While we welcome this unexpected expression of
hope for unity in the Near East — and we are certain that
we still have a long way to go until the Arab world joins
Dr. Malik in his foresight — we ask ourselves: why is it
necessary to wait for a war in order to establish normal
relationships between Israel and the Arab nations?
Dr. Malik's remarks revealed him as an open-mind-
ed person who is able to approach the problems of the
Near East from a broader point of view than is generally
taken by other Arabs.
Dr. Malik has rightly understood that the defense
of the Middle East cannot be conducted without the
active aid and participation of Israel. However, this is
only half the truth. The other half is that the Middle
East cannot prosper in peacetime without a strong and
economically sound Jewish state.
The Arab nations have tried to disprove this fact
by building a fence around Israel which they hope will
keep all traffic from going out or coming in. Without
minimizing the effects of the Arab boycott it can be said
that Israel has been able to hold her own and to offset
the boycott by cultivating the European markets.
Boycotts — as Napoleon found out when he tried to
strangle Britain — are double-edged. They may hurt the
boycotter as well as the boycotted. Israel, as a result of
the blockade, is forced to build up its industries and to
concentrate on outlying areas instead of the adjacent
areas first. The net result is economic harm to the Arab
states, even if they do not admit it.
The drainage project in the Huleh is a case in point.
Cooperation between Syria and Israel would have meant
more water power for both countries, power which is
urgently needed to increase the productivity of agricul-
ture. Instead, Syria chose to oppose the project with all
means, regardless of the consequences or of arguments
of logic and common sense.
If the Arab states were able to overcome their re-
sentment and to reconcile themselves to the facts, a new
era could begin in the Middle East. The Arabs know this
very well, but they are afraid of the ensuing changes.
They know that dynamic Israel will force them to break
with their medieval traditions and become modern in
thought and in action.
This clash between the two worlds is the underlying
cause of the cleavage between Israel and the Arabs. The
change to modern concepts may be delayed, however, it
cannot be halted forever.

Allied Jewish Campaign Ends

Another Allied Jewish Campaign has been brought
to a successful conclusion, and high praise is due the thou-
sands of men and women who have given so tirelessly
and unselfishly of their time and energy in order to make
the most of the drive.
Detroit Jews have done well. They have again dis-
played a spirit of cooperation and understanding as well
as of civic responsibility. Many contributors have in-
creased their pledges over their contributions last year,
and as a whole the community can take pride in its co-
operative endeavor.
However, this does not mean that we could not have
(lone better. In fact, in some respects the campaign did
not fulfill the hopes which were entertained earlier this
year by some communal leaders.
The 1951 Allied Jewish Campaign again proved that
Detroit Jewry is an integrated and Jewishly conscious
community. The call for help to Israel as well as the need
to maintain and improve our local institutions has .been
generally understood and heeded.
It is interesting to note how we are rapidly learning
to give for Jewish causes, not for reasons of charity, but
for reasons of a clearly understood common responsibil-
ity. We are learning to think in terms of a Jewish des-
tiny. We are beginning to understand that there are no
more isolated Jewish groups but that the fate of one can
easily affect the others. If the campaign has taught De-
troit Jews this lesson, it has accomplished a lot.
The campaign also has proved again that there is a
capable and far-sighted Jewish leadership in Detroit. Abe
Kasle and all the other men who carried the burden this
year have reached the top after years of leadership in
smaller groups. Others are moving up. There is no dearth
of leaders in our community, and this fact is of great sig-
nificance.
As long as there are such men and women who are
willing to assume the burdens of leadership, we have
nothing to fear for the stability and future of Jewish life.

Hitler Period
Seen Through
German Eyes

By GERHARDT NEUMANN

THE SLAVE SHIP by Bru-
no E. Werner (Pantheon
Books, New York, 483 pp., $4).

Ilene is a remarkable German
novel (masterfully translated by
Eithne Wilkins and Ernst Kaiser)
about the Hitler period from the
jubilant beginnings to the bitter
end. The author, a Munich journ-
alist, is apparently a serious foe
of Nazi ideology; one can feel
his bitterness over a nation which
allowed itself to be ruined by
criminals.
The general mood of Werner's
novel is one of quiet resignation
mixed with a few feeble attempts
to undermine or overthrow the
Nazi regime. One has the feeling
that the writer Is trying to apolo-
gize for the intelligentsia (for
which he speaks) by saying that
it was very well known what
evil had befallen Germany but
that the Gestapo made it "too dan-
gerous" to fight the regime open-
ly.
In the Nazi movement, Werner
(N.J.)
INipettb
Mob
by
Ives
from
Ca, Ifea
finds, there were not only the
brutes and the sadists but "ideal-
ists of the purest water." If such
a man, he speculates, "hears any-
thing unpleasant, he declares that
the Fuehrer is only human. He
feels uncomfortable about the per-
secution of the Jews. But any talk
of crimes committed in that con-
By ALLEN A. WARSEN
nection, and of the concentration
Director, Adas Shalom Religious School
camps, he simply regards as atro-
Three decades ago, Bernard Isaacs, superintendent of the United city propaganda. As a result, no-
Hebrew Schools, brought together under one roof all the Hebrew body dares to enlighten him."
schools then functioning in Detroit, thus forming one of the finest
A hundred years ago. Werner
goes on speculating, he would
educational associations in the United States.
This act undoubtedly also served as a major factor in the found- have been one of the young ro-
ing of the Jewish Welfare Federation of Detroit. This of course was mantics, an enthusiast for the
freedom of man, the spirit of
only one of Mr. Isaacs major achievements.
Even if it were his only accomplishment, it would have estab- Christianity and the rights of the
lished him as the Detroit Jewish community's foremost educational nation. But romanticism has be-
come a crime today. Side by side
architect and statesman.
Ever since that time, Mr. Isaacs has kept on building "seats of with the new-style smooth sharks,
learning," and spreading Hebrew knowledge among young and old. with the crooks and cynics, stand
However, as time went on, other educational institutions came also the idealists. That is the real
into being. Innumerable religious (Sunday) schools were established; German tragedy."
It seems to us that Werner
Yiddish schools of various ideological shades were founded; Yeshi-
should not have glorified the ro-
voth were formed.
All these schools have been working independently and separ- manticism of the early 1800s, be-
ately. Though rendering services in their fields, they have often cause it contained already the
worked at cross purposes; competed with one another; maintained seeds of what later was to become
inadequate methods of teaching — all to the disadvantage of the Nazism. German romanticism
turned away from classicism with
Jewish child and community.
It is, therefore, the responsibility of an organized and responsible its global outlook and preached
community to guide such schools and lend them a helping hand.
a narrow nationalism, a return to
These institutions, I sincerely believe, should be united; but not pagan cults and, almost inevita-
unified. As Leo L. Honor, professor of education, Dropsie College, bly, hatred of the Jews who
pointed out in his article "The Function of a Community Agency for had just gained their emancipa-
Jewish Education" in "Jewish Education Register and Directory."
tion.
"Unity is essential; uniformity is not desirable. Many mistaken
We therefore are not too much
programs arise from the false identification of the two concepts. His- impressed with Werner's heroes
tory is replete with instances where the dominant element tried to of romantic heritage, although we
create a unified society through enforced uniformity. One of the still prefer them to the run-of-
glories of Jewish history is the Jewish people's fight for the right the-mill Nazis whose brutality
to be different and for the concept of unity in diversity."
could hardly be matched by any-
A united communal agency for Jewish education if established one.
in Detroit would function like the United Nations with each constit-
The Jewish problem, although
uent group maintaining its own sovereignty.
not the core of the book, takes
But at the same time, the central agency would help each group a dominating role. The burning
raise its educational standards; aid in improving its instructional of the synagogues on November
methods; discourage competition (aggression) and encourage inter- 10, 1938, receive only a scant
group co-operation.
mention, and the "elimination" of
A Bureau of Jewish Education would "serve as a lever for the Jews rates a few discussions.
uplifting and improvement of Jewish education,'' to quote Honor While the Nazis justify such ac-
again.
tions with the reason that ''if we
don't do it, it'll happen to us,"
Werner's intellectuals are stand-
ing by helplessly or running away
cowardly.
HAIFA — (Special) — A slick Israel less than a year.
Maybe this was the real Ger-
Instructions are issued in eight man tragedy. People who saw
new automobile rolled off the
ramp on June 14 in the presence languages—English, Hebrew, Yid- that crimes were committed had
of David Ben Gurion, prime min- dish, Romanian, French, Arabic, not the courage to fight against
ister of Israel, to inaugurate the Hungarian and Serbian.
the criminals who themselves
plant of Kaiser-Frazer of Israel,
The plant will turn out 20 cars made their laws and administered
a day in four months' time gradu- them. Certainly, it was a danger-
Ltd.
The plant is as modern as ally building up to this from the ous business. We doubt, however,
American know-how could make present rate of four a day. Nego- that danger is sufficient reason
it. It has been brought into pro- tiations already concluded have for acquiescence, if the principles
duction in less than a year from placed $4,500,000 worth of orders of justice and freedom are at
the start of the building, and or in Finland, Norway, Sweden, stake.
But on the whole, Werner's
ders obtained already have made France, Turkey and British East
automobiles the second largest Africa, with payment either in novel is intellectually honest. He
item—next to citrus—in the Is- hard currency or in the goods vi- does not try to evade the issues
tally needed to cope with heavy and his realistic approach is re-
raeli export economy.
freshing.
The plant has given new proof immigration.
The descriptions of air raids on
At preseht, all parts for the cars
of the adaptability of the un-
skilled immigrants now flooding are being brought here from the Berlin, and especially the piece
the country. Under the direction United States, but negotiations on the destruction of Dresden,
of Robert J. Rice of Detroit, who are under way to make some of are perhaps among the best writ-
has spent nearly a year here, and the parts locally, including uphol- ten on this subject. Translated in-
to atomic language, they make
four Willow Run specialists who stery plastics and glass.
The plant represents an invest- the reader ask: what is there
came for six weeks, a labor force
of 200 men has been trained to ment of $2,500,000, one-fifth of left of civilization and of man's
which has been supplied by the soul?
handle the operation.
Whether or not the book is a
There are complications to put- Kaiser-Fraser Company of the
symptom
for a reorientation in
United
States.
ting together in this country the
The Haifa assembly plant will some German circles is difficult
skilled labor force necessary for
automobile assembling. Of the 200 build the Henry J. and Kaiser to say. It should, however, en-
lighten the German public.
men, 57 per cent had been in models.

Educator Urges Unity
in Jewish School Setup

Kaiser (Haifa) Builds First Car

