Page Four

THE JEWISH NEWS

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Office at Detroit, Michigan, under the Act of March 3, 1879.

MAURICE H. SCHWARTZ and PHILIP SLOMOVITZ, Publishers

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
MAURICE ARONSSON
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
FRED M. BUTZEL
ISIDORE SOBELOFF
THEODORE LEVIN
ABRAHAM SRERE
MAURICE H. SCHWARTZ
HENRY WINEMAN

THE JEWISH NEWS

Friday, February 12, 1943

If the Great Emancipator Could Speak

The Weekly
Sermonette

THE WORLD WILL NEVER
TOLERATE YOUR
NAZI SLAVE-SYSTEM

Scripture Lore

By RABBI JOSEPH E.
KRICKSTEIN

(Congregation Beth Tephilath Moses,
Mt. Clemens, Mich.)

"And seek the peace of the city
whither I have caused you to be
carried away captive, and pray unto
the Lord for it, for in the peace
thereof shall ye have peace."—
Jeremiah 29: 7.

Israel. has accepted the Proph-
ets exhortation and his words
have become the classic text of
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ, Editor
Jewish patriotism. "Seek the
peace of the city where you are
VOL. 2—NO. 17
FEBRUARY 12, 1943 carried away captive" has always
been the Jewish doctrine and the
basis of the Rabbinical decision
This Week's Scriptural Portions:
—"His country's law is Israel's
This Sabbath, the eighth day of Adar Rishon, the follow..
law." This patriotism of the Jew,
ing Scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
however, was at the same time
consciously superimposed upon
Pentateuchal portion, _ Ex. 25:1-27:19; Prophetical portion,
I Kings 5:26-6:13.
his cwn old territorial traditions
and aspirations, which it never
occurred to him to relinquish.
"In this palimpset patriotism,"
as Zangwill puts it, "the basal ,
tradition was still Palestine." It
was only when, early in the nine-
teenth century, the craving for
emancipation created_ a powerful
assimilationist current in Jewish
life that an attempt was made,
Outstanding American liberals, including prominent in
the name of both patriotism
Jewish leaders, have joined in the renewed fight to pre- and "higher" Judaism, to dras-
vent the continuation of the activities of the Dies Com-' tically eliminate the basal Pal-
Conflicting views on the position of the Jews of North
mittee. The statements made on the floor of the House estinian tradition. And then a Africa, under the rule of Gen. Henri Honore Giraud, add
of Representatives by Congressman Dies justify such ac- new and startling significance to the worry which has arisen in Jewish ranks.
tion.
Thus, President Roosevelt is quoted as having told
was read into the ancient letter
The Texan's view that anti-Semites are not necessari- of the Prophet.
a press conference that he was satisfied with the progress
made in solving the Jewish problem in North Africa. On
ly pro-Nazi or pro-Fascists or that Fascism is anti-Semitic
Religious Realism
is sufficient to earn for him the distrust of those who have
Abraham Geiger, the St. Paul the other hand, the London News Chronicle, the London
learned to know that you can not separate the two and of the reform movement, ap- Daily Express and writers in numerous newspapers in this
that in the main the American Fascists are inspired by pealed to it in all seriousness in country have expressed concern over Giraud's statement
his passionate polemic against that the Jewish issue is a "purely internal matter of in-
Hitlerite propaganda.
Unfortunately, the liberals' fight appears like a lost the romanticism of the "Holy" terest only to France."
Land. He viewed Jeremiah as
battle. Sentiment in Congress seems to assure the con- the
American Jews are justified in their concern over the -
creator of that religiously
tinuation of the Dies Committee. It is clear that there is a realistic, sane and healthy spirit status of their kinsmen in Algeria and Morocco, and noth-
long fight ahead in efforts to secure an internal American which resolutely turned the Jew ing should be left undone to assure justice for our people
victory for liberalism.
toward the world and left be- in North Africa.
General Giraud stands condemned by his own words,
hind the Land of Promise as
something negligible and of no and if our own Government is misled in the matter, it
real importance.
should be kept fully informed on the dangers facing the
It
was
the
task
of
mod-
Jewish pople. If, however, the press in this country and
The American Jewish Committee's declaration of
ern Jewish history, as he in England is lacking in information available in Wash-
principles should prove heartening to the Zionists of saw
it to follow the logic of this
America because it approaches needs for the upbuilding spirit whither it led, that is to ington, then it is our turn to be set straight on this issue.
of the Jewish Commonwealth on the basis of demands say, to extirpate every vestige of
for post-war rehabilitation of large numbers of oppressed Palestinian romanticism and free
European Jews.
the roots of Judaism from the
Colonial Secretary Oliver Stanley's statement in the.
While the Committee's statement does not thorough- Palestine soil that still clung
ly satisfy the Zionist position with relation to the Arabs parasitically about them. Thus House of Commons last week that 4,000 Jewish children
and the British government, it is encouraging in that it was Jeremiah made to mean what and 500 adults from Bulgaria would be admitted into
does not recognize the extremist views of the anti- he, Geiger, wanted him to mean. Palestine as soon as transportation facilities can be made
Zionists. Its acceptance of the principle of "absorptive Conceiving the Prophet after his available, is the first good news of its kind to reach us
capacity" as an approach to Jewish colonization assures own image, Geiger arbitrarily in many months.
transformed the poet of deep in-
a more realistic view of the immediate problem.
Too many of us have taken for granted the existence
sight and submissive piety into a
The American Jewish Congress is extremely critical shallow rationalist and cosmo- of a Unitel Nations policy to facilitate the saving of ref-
of this statement and the editorial in the Congress Weekly politan doctrinaire.
ugees, especially children. Because of our partnership
implies that negotiations between Zionists and non- Zion-
in Palestine with Great Britain, it has also been assumed
Secret of Immortality
ists have come to an end.
Jeremiah's really historic that the settlement of as many as possible of the unfort-
It is difficult to accept such a conclusion, in view achievement was properly de- unates who have wandered over the face -of the globe
of the membership on the American Jewish Committee scribed by Dr. Louis Finkelstein, since the advent of the Hitlerite plague would be per-
of outstanding Zionist leaders. If friendly negotiations -head of the Jewish Theological mitted by the mandatory power. It is a source of deep
can be carried on and a sincere effort made to cement Seminary, in his monumental regret, however, that this has not been effected and that
good will among all elements in American Jewry on the work on "The Pharisees." Re- many obstacles have been placed in the path of these
question of Palestine's redemption, then all the fears ferring to the phrase "and pray wanderers.
expressed in the Congress Weekly should prove un- unto the Lord for it," he says:
Thus, the order for the admission of 4,500 Bulgarian
"It was certainly no revolution-
founded.
Jews
into Palestine comes as a source of relief mingled
ary thought for Jeremiah to de-
mand that the exiles of Judah, with regret that it should become necessary to rejoice
who had been taken as captives over an act of justice on the part of the British Govern-
to Babylonia, continue to worship ment, which is proclaimed as a concession.
It has fallen to the lot of the Jews of America to
Those who have been disturbed in recent months by the God of their fathers on the
the threats that the Arab peoples will not tolerate the foreign soil." The entanglement provide for the new influx of immigrants from Bulgaria
establishment of a Jewish Commonwealth in Palestine of the gods with human locales, into Palestine. Judge Bernard A. Rosenblatt of New
will find ressurance in the warning to the Arabs publish- he explains, was one of the dark, York, president of the Palestine Foundation Fund, has
superstitious errors of antiquity hailed the issuance of immigration certificates to the
ed in the London Times last week.
and a great peril to the world. Bulgarian Jews as a "great opportunity for salvage," and
The Times statement declared that "the welfare of
For it elevated national preju-
the Jewish National Home in Palestine is a matter of deep dices and conflicts from a human has announced that the Palestine Foundation Fund, as
the American fund-raising arm of the Jewish Agency
concern to Britain and the United States and constitutes
a moral obligation from which no British Government plane to a divine, and thus for Palestine, "has assumed the financial responsibility
caused patriotism to become
could divert itself."
"absolute, bigoted, and intoler- toward the Palestine Government for the transportation
This declaration should serve as a reminder not only ant," while at the same time it and maintenance of the children."
This has ever been the case with any responsibility
to the Arabs, but to Jews and to the governments which fatally tied down and circum-
had made their pledges to the Jews that Palestine would scribed the vital powers of re- assumed by Jews for the protection of their wandering
ligions to their specific areas and kinsmen, and the unsympathetic attitude shown by the
be redeemed as the Jewish National Home.
In the course of the debates of recent months, dur- ancestral soils. The prophetic British becomes all the more objectionable by virtue of it.
idea of a transcendent Deity,
ing which the Palestinian issue became complicated as a whose
worship is independent of the development of the whole
result of the rise of groups like the American Council for the soil,
estine is holy. Palestine soil will
was first proposed as a
Judasim and the supporters of Dr. Judah L. Magnes, the guiding principle in a concrete conception of human brother- cling forever to the roots of
Judaism. Nevertheless, Palestine
sacred pledges contained in the Balfour Declaration, the historical situation by Jeremiah hood."
is given to the Jewish people to
League of Nations Mandate for Palestine and the Con- in his letter to the exiles in
Palestine's Value
gressional endorsement of Jewish aspirations appeared to Babylon. The idea triumphed. This is the essential truth of disengage itself from its author-
ity, to whatever variable extent,
be forgotten.
"It was the first time in history the matter. Jeremiah was cer-
in case of a violent need, and
The London Times statement serves to remind Arabs when a considerable community tainly no cosmopolitan doctrin- Israel
is not given to Palestine,
and Jews and the governments concerned that there are dissociated the worship of its aire, neither a Paul nor a Geiger, to be fatally imprisoned under
moral obligations to Jewry which must not be abused. God from its ancential soil," and but like Johanan ben Zakkai in its exclusive and irrevocable con-
Those who are actively engaged in the movement for the results were, indeed, epochal. a similar historical situation, he trol. For the value of all values
Palestine's reconstruction should derive much courage The Jewish people discovered the recognized that a religion must in Judaism is their life-giving
secret of immortality and created have safety-valves and real alter- power—"That a man shall live
from this declaration.
at the same time "the basis for natives, if it is to survive. Pal- by them, and not die by them."

As the Editor
Views the News -

Congressman Dies' A ssertions

The Fate of North African Jewry

The Jewish Committee Program

The Child-Saving Program

-

A Warning to the Arabs

