THE JEWISH NEWS See. 542. P. I. & R. Published every Friday by the Jewish News Publishing Co., inc., 2114 Penobscoap131dg., Detroit. Mich. Telephone RAndolph 7956. Subscription rates, $3 a year; foreign, $4 a year. Member of Independent Jewish Press Service, • Jewish Tele- graphic Agency, Seven Arts Feature Syndicate, Religious News Service, Palcor News Agency, Bressler Cartoon Service, Wide World Photo Service. U. S. POSTAGE PAID DETROIT, MICR. Permit No. 3760 MAURICE H. SCHWARTZ and PHILIP SLOMOVITZ, Publishers BOARD OF DIRECTORS Maurice Aronscon Fred M. Butzel Theodore Levin Maurice H. Schwartz Philip Slomovitz Isidore Sobeloff Abraham Srere Henry Wineman PHILIP SLOMOVITZ, Editor On this Sabbath, the fifteenth day of Iyar, 5702, the following Bibical selections will be read in our synagogues: Pentateuchal portion, Lev. 21:1-24:23: Prophetical portion; Ezek. 44:15-31. Lag b'Omer will beobserved on Tuesday. ------- - MAY 1, 1942 VOL. 1—NO. 6 A Billion a Month America's clogan, impelled by the need for speeding up our war efforts, is: A Billion Income a Month Through the Sale of Defense Bonds and Stamps. This drive for the investment of funds with our Gov- ernment is now on in full force. Its call must be heeded by everyone who has any- thing to spare, from a dime up, as an investment in the cause of freedom. Delay will cost us more than money ; it will cost us additional manpower. If this war is to end speedily, we must throw in all our resources to achieve victory. For victory, we must provide the necessary Billion a Month. To make victory possible, no one is immune from in- v•sting in the cause of national freedom. Be sure you buy Defense Stamps daily, and Defense Bonds as often as possible. Deplorable Disunity The Weekly Sell monette ON TO SINAI By DR. LEO M. FRANKLIN Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Beth El. There is no standing still. Either we move forward or we retrograde. This is as true in the realm of the intellect and of morals as it is in the physical world. The stu- d e n t, however erudite and learned he may be, knows that he will become mentally d u 11 unless by con- tinued and con- stant study he keeps his mind k.. Dr. Franklin alert for more and more knowledge. The person who attains a high moral standard in his own day, may not of necessity serve as an examplar for the generation that follows him. The Biblical narra- tor of the story of Noah recogniz- ed this when he characterized his hero as "a just and perfect man" "b'Dorosov" in his genera- tion. A group of rabbis have decided to convene a con- ference of dissenters from the majority opinion of the ON TO SINAI Central Conference of American Rabbis on the subject of a Jewish Army in Palestine. In effect, such a conference is proof of the deplorable disunity which continues to split the ranks of American Jewry. It is a regrettable example of failure on the part of our people to get together in time of crisis. T he question of a Jewish army in Palestine has been debated in many quarters. The need for such a force has been recognized as a precautionary measure in the defense of the Middle East by British and American states- men. Outstanding American leaders have pleaded for such a military force. The large majority of the members of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, as well as the Conservative and Orthodox groups, have approved of the proposal. To create dissension at this time by calling a - , - protest conference against the action of the majority is hardly consonant with the dire needs of the hour on the world democratic front. The Plea of the Technocrats a A full page advertisement in last Sunday's Detroit News makes certain proposals which do not correspond with the best American ideals. The plea in that advertisement for the abolition of foreign language periodicals sounds like a return to the days of the Know-Nothings and the Ku Klux Klan. Even the most drastic steps taken by our Government during the last war did not include abandonment of newspapers published in languages other than Erglish. Two weeks before the Technocrats' advertisement appeared in The Detroit News, it was inserted in 40 other newspapers. At that time, the advertisement carried em- blems known as the "Monad" which have the shape of the Swastika. Nevertheless, the advertising copy inserted in the News by the Technocrats car, , s a call for the de- feat of the Fascists. There is something mysterious and inconsistent about such copy, and it calls for further study, by newspapers as well as Goveinment. To Leon Blum: Greetings r On the occasion of his 70th birthday, 200 leading 'Americans have cabled to Leon Blum a message of cheer in which we heartily join. The message, which included the signatures of Dr. Albert Einstein, Dorothy Thompson, Dr. John Dewey, Eddie Cantor, Senator Arthur Capper, Governor Herbert H. Lehman and others, expressed sympathetic greetings on M. Blum's "courageous stand in the cause of freedom and democrac y ." "I am a Jew and a Marxist," M. Blum has told the Nazi-controlled court at Riom. It took courage to say it, and it reflected the dignity of this eminent Jew and outstanding Socialist. We greet him, and we hope that he will soon be able to proclaim his ideals for freedom and democracy in the public squares of the land he loves so dearly and served so well. HOT-AIR BARRAGE This is exceedingly worth re- membering by those of our peo- ple who are accustomed to build their lives and to pattern their beliefs upon the basis of yester- day's thinking. Those who lay all their stress upon tradition and who believe that what was good enough for our fathers ought to be good enough for us, fail to apreciate that we live in a world that is constantly in process of change, even though the change may not always imply growth in the right direction. This thought becomes signifi- cant if we realize that we are today midway between Pesach, our Feast of Freedom, and Sha- buoth, the Festival of Emancipa- tion. Many there are who seem to believe that when the chains were broken from the limbs of our fathers who had been slaves in Egypt no further effort on their part needed to be made. They were free — that was enough. But those who thought out the problem more than su- per icially r ealized that the brea g the shackles that bound the limbs of these people was only a first step in their emancipation. They had to go forward—on to Sinai — where they might hear the Divine Voice calling "Thou shalt" and "Thou shalt not." THE SUPREME TASK This onward progress is the very key to the successful life. Yesterday's world cannot fit the pattern of today's thinking. The gruesome fact that we live in a day that is morally subnormal and in which every form of idealism has been cast to the winds, does not alter the basic truth of what is here stated. In- deed, it makes more imperative that morally at least we go for- ward. We need to create a world, or to narrow the term, to build a society, that shall in its prac- tices go beyond the presently pre- vailing standards of the jungle, and strive to reach up to the plane of the Prophets who saw in man the image of a just, right- eous and humane God. Indeed that is the supreme task confronting men in these troubl- ed times, and most of all men, those who hold themselves to be possessed of the religious spirit. Now, with no attempt to find fault with those who hold other views, it is my firm conviction that the one justification for the Give Because You Are Free Within ten days, the call will go forth to every Jew in Detroit to prove that he is worthy of the freedom he is enjoying as an American. The Allied Jewish Campaign asks of us a sum of $985,000 to guarantee the existence of our Jewish insti- tutions, and to provide for the minimum needs of millions of unfortunates who must be helped either with the bare necessities of life or with efforts to provide homes for them. We who are free can have only one answer to the appeal of the Allied Jewish Campaign : we must give to the utmost of our abilities if we are to prove deserving of the liberties that are our gifts as citizens of this great land. We should be thankful, every moment of our life, that we have been blessed with the privileges that go to Americans, and it should be a small token of appreciation that we are in position to help those who have been robbed of the most elementary rights of men. The least we can do to fulfill our obligations as free men is to give liberally for the liberation of the oppressed. Give MORE than you had planned to the Allied Jew- ish Campaign. It is one of the ways of demonstrating your human loyalties in this grave hour in history. separateness of the Jew or even for his survival is his sponsor- ship of a unique religious mission and a code of conduct that takes on character and meaning be- cause it is sanctioned by God. This gives to the Jew a place of dignity and of high responsi- bility today. If he is content to be a moral laggard, living in the reflected glory of his historic and heroic past; or if he is willing like the masses about him to be a spiritual nonentity, with no worthwhile aims and aspirations; if he finds it right to follow the multitudes whose God is gold, and to bow down at the altars of pleasure and self - indulgence there can be little hope for his survival, and his future, if he is to have one, will not in any sense be worthy of his past. paths to the heights. But it is not enough that his ideals express themselves in brave words. His achievements must not lag too far behind his aspirations. His practices must coincide with his preachment. Conduct and creed must be only the reverse faces of one shield. The priestly mis- sion laid upon him in ancient days and which is somewhat el- aborated in the Scripture portion that is read on this Sabbath must still inspire him now when altar and priesthood are no more. His traditional obligation to be a kingdom of priests and a holy people, must translate itself into the terms of modern living. modern thinking and modern ways of giving expression to his faith. Were Moses living today, I am "NO STANDING STILL" sure that he would repeat the It is the task of the Jew to rise ancient mandate spoken by him morally and spiritually above his environment, and in rising, to carry others upward with him. He must not be willing to follow the path of least resistance and to ride with the tide. Morally and spirtually he must cut new in the name of God: "Speak to the children of Isarel, that they go forward." Pesach must pres- age the message of Shabuoth. Emancipated from Egypt we must push on to Sinai. There is no standing still.