THE JEWISH NEWS
Page Six
THE JEWISH NEWS
Published every Friday by the Jewish News Publishing Co., Inc.,
2114 Penobscot Bldg., Detroit, Mich. Telephone RAndolph 7956. Sub-
scription rates. $3 a year; foreign, $4 a year.
Member of Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Independent Jewish Press
Service, Seven Arts Feature Syndicate, Religious News Service, Palcor
New,; Agency. Bressler Cartoon Service.
MAURICE
n.
SCHWARTZ and PHILIP SLOMOVITZ,
April 5, 1942
The Message of This Passover
Publishers
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Maurice Aronsson
Philip Slomovitz
Fred 31 Butzel
Theodore Levin
Maurice II. Schwartz
Isidore Sobelorf
Aliraham Srere
Henry Wineman
PHILIP
SLOMOVITZ.
Editor
On this Sabbath Chol Hamoed Passover. the Spiritual Selections to
be read in the Synagogues are E. 33:12-34:26: Num. 28:19-25. The
Prophetical portion for this Sabbath is Ezek. 36:37-37:14.
On the seventh day of Passover, next Wednesday, the Scriptural
selections to be read during services in Synagogues are Ex. 13:17-15:26,
Num. 28:1-25. arid the Prophetical portion is II Sam. 22. On the eighth
day of Passover. the selections from the Torah will be Dent. 15:1-16:17,
Num. 28:19-25. Is. 10:32-12:6.
VOL. 1 NO. 2
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APRIL 3, 1942
Freedom For All Mankind
Few festivals are as replete with a spirit of joy as the
Passover.
It is a great holiday serving as an occasion for family
reunion:4.
It is a festival brightened by the spirit of spring.
But above all else, it is supreme because it is the tra-
ditional festival of freedom.
Passover is the great event on mankind's calendar
'which preceded by many centuries the writing of the Mag-
na (Marta and the Declaration of Independence.
It is a supreme occasion for rejoicing and celebration
because it heralds the hope that liberty may be attained
not for Jews alone but for all humanity.
Therefore Passover assumes a most important role
at this time, when humanity is at war, when men, women
and children of all faiths and all nationalities hunger for
liberty.
The prayer that goes forth from all Jewish homes
and from all Jewish houses of worship is that Mankind
may attain the hopes entertained for it by Israel—that
there may soon be peace on earth, but that it be acquired
not through servitude but by the attainment of unqualified
liberty and freedom for all peoples.
The Saturday Evening Post Case
It all began as a Judge Jerome Frank case.
Now it is the Saturday Evening Post case.
At the outset, the article by the eminent jurist grated
bn the nerves of the Jews of America because it dealt
,unfairly with traditional Jewish aspirations and practices.
Later, the brilliant Jess*/lt writer, Waldo Frank, gave
his answer to his namesake and presented a message of
courage to the American people in behalf of the Jews.
But the final upshot, in the article by Milton Mayer,
is of a nature to arouse the indignition of all fair-minded
'Americans. The young Chicagoan, presented as "modern
Jeremiah," assumes to display the cloak of a Prophet in a
spirit which gives the impression
that there are no decent
people, and as if Jews and non-Jews alike, are bad.
A person who generalizes has not the right to judge.
Milton Mayer generalized in his article. He did not
'differentiate between the good and the bad, the creative
and the speculative—either among
Christians or Jews. To
him. it is a case of bad Jews learning
bad examples from
,t'hristians who are equally bad. We consider
it poor
judgment. We look upon his article as an unfair attempt
to wash dirty linen in public and to drag out dirt that is
non-existent.
In the main, people are not evil-minded or foul in
their practices. It is the exception to the rule that makes
for the undesirable in life. But when the Saturday Evening
Post provides a platform for one who generalizes as if
there were little good left in American life, this import-
ant magazine renders a disAervice to all Americans.
''The Case Against the Jews" alone? Why
not a series of
articles against the Greeks and the Poles and the Nor-
wegians and the Negroes—and Catholics and Protestants?
Simply because a trio of Jewish writers were called upon
to produce the sensational Post series does not exonerate
its editors from having committeed a blunder which is
highly insulting in its very nature.
Thank You, Well-Wishers!
The Jewish News is grateful to its many friends for
the welcome it has received at the hands of the com-
munity.
We are grateful to the leaders in our community, to
the laymen, and to our ('hristian neighbors whose deep
interest in our platform is a matter for great encourage-
ment to us.
We are appreciative of the editorial welcomes given
Us by the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit Times.
Our pledge to all our friends, neighbors and co-
workers is that we shall leave nothing undone to live up
to their expectations, to fulfillthe promises made in the
platform published in our first' issue, and to strive to
create that wholesome community spirit which will make
for good will and better understanding, not only among
Jews, but also among all faiths in our community.
The Weekly
Sernionette
From Servitude to Service
"Send forth my people that they
may serve me."—(Exodus, 10:4).
By RABBI MORRIS ADLER
Congregation Shaarey Zedek --
This is the challenge and the
demand with which Moses con-
fronts the Pharaoh of Egypt in
the name of the unseen God of
Israel. The words are vibrant with
dignity and courage, for Moses
speaks as the messenger of God
and as the representative of a
people, however humble and en-
slaved.
A moment's reflection, however,
will reveal that this petition - is
paradoxically worded. Moses stands
before the tyrant
of the Nile to
petition the re-
lease of a people
ground beneath
the heel of op-
pression. He seeks
freedom for the
fettered, emanci-
pation for the en-
slaved. Yet the
great Law-Giver
demands neither Rabbi Adler
unconditional release nor unlimited-
freedom for his group. He pleads
for the right of the children of
Israel to go" forth and serve their
God. The term he employs "Ya-
avduni," "That they may serve
me," must have fallen harshly up-
on the ears of the Jewish elders.
For it is a word that for them was
surrounded with grim and painful
associations. The root of the word
means "enslavement" and the
words "Avodim," slaves, and "Av-
duth," bondage, are both derived
from it. Moses, the protagonist of
freedom, employs a term that is
akin to the most dreaded word in
the lexicon of the Israelites of
Egypt.
Servants of God
Moses, by his use of this identi-
cal term, has elevated and 'trans-
The Drive Is On
Officially, the Allied Jewish Campaign has not
begun. In reality, however, it is already on in full force.
The moment the women begin their solicitations, the great
community effort to raise a sum of money approximating
a million dollars for overseas relief and national and local
needs may be considered as being in progress.
Elsewhere in this issue our readers will find an im-
portant article, compiled by members of our staff from
best available records, to indicate the greatly increased
needs for overseas relief work and the manner in which
the funds raised in Detroit and elsewhere throughout the
country are being expended. It is important that our
people should be fully informed on these facts, in order
that the best results may be obtained in the drive.
Our best manpower is engaged in making the drive
a success. The fact that Fred M. Butzel has assumed the
chairmanship of the - 1942 Allied Jewish Campaign is in
itself an indication of the brilliant leadership of Detroit
Jewry's fund-raising efforts.
Now, before the main arteries of the drive have be-
come visible, two weeks before the actual campaigning
will start, is the time for all Detroit Jews to begin to plan
their participation in the campaign, as workers, as con-
tributors, as sharers in the great effort to retain Detroit
Jewry's position as -a people that will not let-the unfort-
unates down and that will not permit the slowing up of
any communiy effort, whether it is in the field of relief,
education, recreation or character building.
formed it. He seeks to replace servi-
tude with service. He is asking not
for freedom from work but for
freedom to work; not freedom
from serving but 'freedom to serve.
"Heretofore," he is saying, "you
have been the slaves of Pharaoh.
Henceforth you shall be the serv-
ants of God." (Palestinian Talmud,
Pesahim). Moses is speaking of a
new and lofty discipline which is to
take the place of the old degrading
bondage. Israel is to be given the
opportunity of a great and de-
manding devotion instead of the
petty tyranny under which they
lived in Egypt. Subordination from
within is to be substituted for sub-
jugation from without. Israel, in the
words of the rabbis, was to replace
the yoke of Pharaph with the yoke
of Torah (Exodus R.).
Totalitarianism in its psycho-
logical aspects is the upsurge of
reaction against the nihilism and
anarchy in large areas of our per-
sonal and social life as a conse-
quence of our negative approach.
The Needs of All
We must make our way back not
to authoritarianism but to a true
freedom which is instinct with dis-
cipline and restraint. Liberty in a
democracy can only mean a liberty
which is limited by the needs. of
all, by a sensitive social conscience,
Jay lofty ideals and values.
In Jewish life, too, as a result of
the general environment influences,
ease and lack of discipline have be-
come equated with freedom. That
aspect of our Aradition which im-
poses daily discipline and practice,
activity and study, have for too
loiag and by too manyf been
ignored. They are, however, the •
indispensable means for achieving
that sense of oneness* with the
spirit and history of Israel which
results for the Jew in the highest
freedom, Neither anarchy nor auth-
oritarian dogmatism is our purpose,
but self-discipline, self-consecra-
tion, an self-knowledge.