"

Friday, May 9, 1947

THE Ji3W1SH NEWS

pogo Four

As the Editor
Views the News ...

will They Be Forgotten?

Max Brod's Biography
Of Literary Genius

Symbols of Solidarity

Detroit Jewry has an historic opportunity
to prove to the world at large its solidarity
with the forces that are striving to secure
justice for our people in Palestine at the
United Nations.
Inclusion in the Allied Jewish Campaign
of the United Palestine Appeal provides us
with the instrument of financing the activities
for land redemption, colonization, education
and industrial development in the Jewish
National Home.
While the battle for just rights proceeds in
the political arena, it is the duty of all Jews
to indicate their readiness to support the
causes which assist in Palestine's develop-
ment by contributing to them most liberally.
Support of the work of the Joint Distribu-
tion Committee similarly serves to show our
people's determination to stand firmly in de-
fense of the survivors from Nazism.
We owe it to ourselves to bring speedy
success to the Allied Jewish Campaign in
order to proclaim its objectives as the sym-
bols of our solidarity with the remnant of
survivors in Europe, with the courageous
builders of Zion and with those who are
carrying on the fight in defense of our
political rights in Palestine.

Franz Kafkrt—Modet;t Job

111D JEW* pi 'Tsui 4404141.

Mew. .

III-Famed Immigration Bills Palestine's Fate in Hands of U.S.
While the battle goes on to secure a home

for the People of Israel in the Land of Israel,
other efforts to force the opening of doors in
democratic countries for Jewish setlers ap-
pear to be doomed to failure.
Informed observers report from Washing-
ton that pending bills—especially the measure
introduced by Rep. Stratton (R., Ill.) calling
for the admission to the U. S. of 400,000 DPs-
have very little chance of passage. GOP
policy-maker Senator Robert Taft, while
favoring the bill, is quoted as having said
that he can't sponsor it because "I have too
many fights on my hands already."
While there is considerable pressure in
favor of lowering the U. S. immigration bars,
from many inter-faith, liberal and Jewish
organizations, an equal amount of influence
is being exerted against them on grounds
that employment and housing will be affected
by an influx of DPs.
Chances of attaining liberalization of immi-
gration restrictions are as limited in other
lands as they,,a,Fe here. Even in South Africa
the avowed friend of the Jewish people,
Premier Jan Christian Smuts, in an address
in Parliament pledging support to the Jewish
National Home, declared that he opposed
Jewish immigration on the ground that it
would aggravate anti-Semitism. Such views
do not augur well for the movements to
acquire peace and security for the homeless
and dispossessed.
Naturally, the fight for liberal immigration
".taws cannot be abandoned. It must be carried
on determinedly not only for the sake of
rescuing the displaced persons in Europe,
but also in order to perpetuate the basic prin-
ciples which have made this country the
haven of refuge for the oppressed.
Meanwhile, also, there must be no end to
the tasks of securing havens for the perse-
cuted elsewhere—ever keeping in view the
basic truths that:
1. The most permanent solutions come
first and Palestine's priority as the basic cure
to J e wish homelessness must never be im-
paire ; and that
2. The desires of the DPs,' more than 90
per cent of whom desire to go only to Pales-
tine, must be respected and we must help
them to attain them.

'

THE JEWISH NEWS

Member Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Independent Jewish
Press Service, Seven Arts Feature Syndicate, Religious
News Service. Palcor Agency.
Member American Association of English-Jewish News-
papers and Michigan Press Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publish-
ing Co., 2114 Penobscot Bldg., Detroit 26, Mich., RA. 7956.
Subscription, $3 a year; foreign, $4. Club subscription,
every fourth Friday of the month. to all subscribers to
Allied Jewish Campaign of Jewish Welfare Federation of
Detroit. 40 cents pei year.
Entered as second-dais matter Aug. 6, 1942. at Post Of-
fice. Detroit, Mich., under Act of March 3. 1879.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Philip Slomovits
Maurice Aronson
Isidore Sobeloff
Fred M. Butsel
Judge Theodore Levin Abraham Srere
Henry Wineman
Maurice H. Schwartz

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ. Editor

- VOL. XI—NO. 8

MAY 9, 1947

Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the twentieth day of Iyar, 5707, the
following Scriptural selections will be read in our
synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion—Lev. 21:1-24:23.
Prophetical portion—.Ezek. 44:15-31.

One certainty emerged out of the discussions at the
United Nations Special Assembly on Palestine: that the fate
of the Jewish position lies in the hands of the United States.
The traditional policy of our government, dating back
to President Wilson who had a share in framing the Balfour
Declaration, favors large-scale Jewish immigration leading
to the eventual establishment of the Jewish Commonwealth.
The sentiments that dominate American opinion today
favor establishment of an independent Jewish State in a par-
titioned Palestine, and the crucial issue revolves around the
danger that the portion of the land to be assigned for Jewish
self-government may be too small and therefore inadequate
for the solution of the Jewish problem. The need, therefore,
is for firm action to secure justice for Jewry.

410.

•

*

*

*

.

While the picture looks very gloomy at the moment, the
fact that Jews will have an opportunity to appear before the
political and security committee of the UN—a committee
which in effect comprises all member states of the UN—serves
as encouragement that we shall not be sold down the river.
Also—the increasing interest in Palestine by all the
nations of the world, the educational processes which evolve
out of the chaos that was created by the one-sidedness of the
Arabs' presentation of the ease and the rise of new champions
of justice for homeless Israel, give us courage to believe that
a great measure of justice yet will be promulgated by the
international organization.

Meanwhile we must recognize our responsibility as
Americans and as Jews in this important issue.
We must pursue our tasks in accordance with the major
duty of enlightening our own people and our neighbors and of
keeping the leaders of our Government fully informed on the
pledges inherent in American policy on Palestine.
As long as our government adheres to established policy,
we shall have nothing to fear. So long as our government
insists upon fulfillment of pledges to Israel, justice will pre-
vail. It is our responsibility to be vigilant in seeing to it that
our representatives in Washington adhere- to these pledges.

(1%

411F Ow

*

*

It is encouraging to know that prominent Americans
recognize their responsibility to our people and are prepared
to fight for our government's adherente to traditional pledges
made to us on the score of Palestine's reconstruction.
The letter addressed to Secretary of State Marshall jointly
by Senators Ferguson and Brewster, published in this issue,
is an important indication of the position taken by promin-
ent Americans.
The memorandum submitted to the -United Nations by
The Nation Associates, analyzing the Palestinian situation
and presenting proposals for Palestine's solution, is another
indica9on of the thinking of American Christians who feel
keenly the need for a just solution of the problem and who
are ,anxious to be helpful to the end that injustice should
be averted.
•
*
The Nation Associates, of which Miss Freda Kirchwey is
president, proposes the establishment of two states in the
territory now occupied by Palestine and Transjordania—one
Arabic, in an area of 37,200 square miles, and the other Jewish,
to occupy an area of 7,600 square miles and to include the
Negev and the land now mainly occupied and neighbored by
Jewish colonies.
While this proposal does not fuIfill all of the Jewish
aspirations, we believe that it would be acceptable to Jewish
needs—provided no other strings were attached to it, and
provided further that this territory would be placed under a
United Nations trusteeship until the Jew attain a majority.
Naturally, as indicated in the Nation Associates memo-
randum, both states would have to guarantee equality" of
rights, without distinction as to race or religion, to all other
inhabitants. This is a principle that is inherent in all Jewish
projects, and it is essential that it should be enforced not
only by our people but by all others.

Max Brod's biography of his friend and
associate, the late Franz Kafka, just published
by Schocken Books, Inc., 342 Madison Ave.,
New York, is one of the masterpieces in
biographical writing.
Only in recent years has Kafka's name
come to the fore as one of the great novelists
and essayists of our time. But Brod recognized
his greatness long before his death, at the
age of 40, in 1924.
The Jewish feeling that motivated Kafka's
works, his acceptance of the Zionist ideal
after a pericid of wavering, his letters to his
father in which he argued on varied aspects
of Judaism, represent some of the most fas-
cinating elements in the Schocken book.
*
•
A most interesting chapter in this bio-
graphical book is devoted to a comparison of
Kafka whose attitude Mr. Brod describes as
being closely related to Job's, with several
differing points. To prove his point, Mr. Brod
quotes from the Biblical Book of Job in juxta-
position to excerpts from Kafka.
Thus: "Job comforts himself with the idea
that God and man cannot be brought to the
same levels. Kafka, however, does not com-
fort himself. And that shuts him out of the
line of Job—Kierkegaard--theology of the
crisis. That brings him back to the Jewish
creed, in one sentence ofewhich, 'Our God is
One God,' I see the strongest spell against all
attempts to attribute to God ethical laws
fundamentally different from those of man-
kind."
*
Kafka's approach to Zionism—Mr. Brod
affirms that he personally became, an ad-
herent of the movement long before—and his
incorporation of aspects of his national loyalty--
in his works are additionally interesting as
indications of his strong Jewish loyalties.
The resume of Kafka's "The Castle" is a
valuable portion of the biography. Mr. Brod
writes: "The word Jew does not appear in
"The Castle.' Yet, tangibly., Kafka in 'The
Castle,' straight from his Jewish soul, in a
simple story, has said more about the situation
of Jewry as a whole today than can be read
in a hundred learned treatises. At the same
time this specifically Jewish interpretation
goes hand in hand with what is common to
humanity, without either excluding or even
disturbing the other.
Of necessity, because of the brevity of this
review, it is impossible to go into the details
of the description of "The Castle" or into the
issues covered by the Letter to Father. Suf-
fice it to say that they prove the genius of
Kafka, the loyalties of the man who became a
Zionist and a Jewish nationalist, and at the
same time the vast importance of other
aspects of the Brod biography which deserves
a very large reading public.

st-t-.

,ti31:er

t mir

It 5- ••---

An Appeal

By SAUL KLEIMAN

(Dedicated to the United Jewish Appeal)

Awake, 0 man! Awake, 0 Jew!
The voice of Conscience speaks to you:
O save your skin from Bevin's ban,
Fanatics' ilk, and bigot's clan!
And give that they may live!

O save the Jews who rot in camps,
And those who live a life of tramps!
Restore the homeless to their land!
Extend to them a helping hand!
And give that they may live!

Make haste to rescue daughters, sons
From ruthless foe, from British guns.
The victims' cry for help appals!
The voice of justice loudly calls:
Give that they may live!

O
A
O
A

give them courage to endure
life of exile insecure!
give, and share, and aid redeem
people tossed by Satan's scheme!
0 give that they may live!

Respond to calls of human woe;
Your Torah's precepts bid - you so.
A hapless •nation's in despair;
Mankind's ill-will he's forced to bear!
Give that they may live!

O lend your brother heart and soul,
And all you can, to reach the goal;
And give them hope without fail
That justice, goodness, may prevail!
Give that they may live!

Let kindness be your heart's. domain,

Where mercy, love, supremely reign!
Awake,' 0 man! Awake, 0 Jew,
The voice of conscience speaks to you:

Give that they may live!

