pegs Foor

Baeck Speaks

As the Editor
Views the News

C ivilization Negates Itself

`Holier-Than-Thou'

Former British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill, famous for "blood, sweat and toil"
appeals to the people of England during war
times of crisis, saw fit, in his political attack
upon the British labor government, to add
confusion to the tragic problem of Palestine.
"No British interest is involved in Pales-
tine with our retention of the Mandate," he
told a large Conservative rally, and he added
that: "For nearly 30 years we have done our
best to carry out an honorable, self-imposed
task. A year ago I urged the government to
give notice to the United Nations that we
could no longer bear these insults and in-
juries, but the ministers only gaped in shame-
ful indecision -. They are still only gaping."
This is typical of Churchill. Correct in his
accusation that the labor government is "only
gaping," he nevertheless assumes to assign
a position of martyrdom to the British ad-
ministration in Palestine.
We, too, would like to know why, as
Churchill put it, his government has cast
away India and Burma while clinging "at all
costs to tiny Palestine." But when Churchill
undertakes to whitewash the Palestine mili-
tary administration with the statement that
"our sympathies go out to the British soldiers
who have endured unspeakable outrages in
Palestine with so much fortitude," we would
like answers to a few questions:
Was the murder of five Jews in Tel Aviv

Friday, August-14, 1947

THE JEWISH NEWS

If it Discards Judaism

By GERHARDT NEUMANN

Fred M. Butzel Reaches 70

For more than a generation, August 25 has been an im-
portant date on the community calendar in Detroit.
As we prepare on this approaching date to celebrate the
70th birthday of Fred M. Butzel, we shall have an opportunity
to go over the remarkable record of a most -remarkable man
who, practically all his life, has been in the vanguard of
an act of fortitude and discipline? Does not
Mr. Churchill really mean that it is the
major community responsibilities.
Non-Jews as well as Jews, people of all creeds and races,
Jews who have suffered "insults and in-
Zionists and non-Zionists, count him among their friends and
juries" in the arrests of venerable leaders,
owe him many debts of gratitude for services he has rendered
among them the Mayors of Tel Aviv and
Nathanya who have cooperated with the
to improve the lot of his fellowmen.
The interview with him appearing in this issue reveals
British for many years, in the destruction
of Jewish property, in the smashing of • that our staff member, Ruth Miriam Levine, apparently left
his office so deeply impressed that she felt impelled to coin a
shops, in the molesting of men, women and
new term in tribute to the Dean of Michigan Jewry: trouba-
children? Would Churchill have us bow to
the ground with thanks for the heroic at-
dour.
We sincerely hope that Mr. Butzel will like this appella-
tack by British warships upon the Jewish
tion. The derivation of the term "troubadour" dates back to
immigrant ship Exodus 1947?
Holier-than-thou Churchill, seeking to re- the time of the lyric and amatory poets who flourished in the
gain control for the Conservatives from the south of France during the late 11th century down to the end
present labor government, repeats old shib- of the 13th century. They were singers and story-tellers who
boleth in his appeals to the passions of the made life real and enjoyable for the people of their time.
Mr. Butzel is the highest type of story-teller. When he
British masses. He would have done better to
•eminisces, in private conversation or in a public address, he
excoriate the hoodlums who have looted Jew-
ish stores, allegedly in retaliation for the thrills his listeners. An able musician, he loves to play the
"Palestine outrages," Actually, the occur- piano and to participate in musical soirees.
It is perfectly in order that we should mention these
rences in England are a result of pent-up
emotions which have reached a new high things at this time because they describe the man who, as
in anti-Semitism as a result of the Mosleyite leader in the Jewish community, as honorary president of
activities. --It--would be better for England the Ford Republic, as president of a Negro hospital, as holder
and for her politicians, who are trying so of a score of high honors awarded him by his co-workers,
hard to secure sympathy for the country's combines in his Make-up the highest type of community
starving population, if there were a house leadership and of service to mankind.
He is as much at home with a group of young people as
cleaning to put an end to prejudices. Per-
haps the eradication cf bigotry on home he is with filature fund-raisers. He is as highly repected
nationally as he is in his own home town.
ground will have some bearing on the re-
The very name BUTZEL inspires reverence and respect—
moval of bias among officials in Palestine.
The record, of course, is very clear, and it the highest degree of honor that can be given to any man.
The thrilling thing to know on his 70th birthday—on
would not be difficult to challenge Church-
26, 1947—is that he is as effective in his leadership
ill's statement that "we have done our best August
today as he was in his early twenties when he first assumed
to carry out -an honorable, self-imposed task."
for all groups
The Palestininan "task" is as much "self- responsibility for the betterment of conditions
community.
imposed" as Britain's "noble" aspirations in in our
We hope that he will be given very many more years in
her other colonial holdings. The imposition of
which
to carry on his great work.
a police state on Palestine, the high-handed
Detroit needs him.
manner in which Jews are kept from the
Jewry needs him.
country, the terroristic acts of her soldiers
May he be blessed with health.
do not speak so well for the great English
This is without question the major wish of an entire
traditions. There is, in Palestine, a regret-
community.
able "Jewish terror." This "terror" is all the
more deplorable because it was brought into
being by the "British terror." We demand
the end of the latter while aiming to eradi-
Tension is rising in Cyprus. Realizing that they may not
cate the former.
be able to get to Palestine before - February, 1950, the .17,000
prisoners of the British are beginning to despair. On the last
lap of their road homeward, they have orders to remain on
the dreaded island in the Mediterranean. They learn that'
Member Jewish Telegraphic Agency. independent Jewish
Press Service. Seven Arts Feature Syndicate. Relleinus
passengers on other ships approaching Palestine are being
14c•.vs Service, Palcor Agency, King Features, Central
Press Association.
deported to Europe and may eventually be sent to Africa.
Member American Association of English-Jewish News-
Heart-breaking details of the position of the Cyprus de-
paners and Michigan Press Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publish-
tainees are described in a cable to the N. Y. Herald Tribune
ing Co., 2114 Penobscot Bldg.. Detroit 26. Mich., RA. 7956.
Subscription. $3 a year: foreign, $4. Club subscription,
from Ruth Gruber, its correspondent in Famagusta. The
every fourth Friday of the month. to all subscribers to
silence behind the barbed wire enclosures which form the
Allied Jewish•Campaign of Jewish Welfare Federation of
Detroit. 40 cents pet year.
prison of Cyprus is now being likened to the silence with
Entered as second-class matter Aug. 6. 1942. at Post Of-
which Jews marched to their death in Nazi-built camps in
flee. Detroit. Mich.. under Act of March 3. 1979.
Poland. Miss Gruber quotes Dr. Paul Friedman, New York
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
psychiatrist, head of the JDC mission in Cyprus, as warning:
Maurice Aronsson
Philip Slomovitz
"Cyprus is very dangerous in the journey of these people
Fred M. Butzel
Isidore Sobeloff
from DP camps to Palestine. Cyprus, because it is closer to
Judge Theodore Levin Abraham Srere
Maurice H. Schwartz
Henry Wineman
Palestine, is eating their last strength, their last initiative,
PIITLIP SLOMOVITZ. Editor
their last creative reserve."
. This being the case, then Jewry's .responsibility to these
AUGUST 15, 1947
VOL. XI—NO. 22
people is mounting hourly. We dare not let them down. "Their
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
last creative reserve" must not be permitted to be destroyed
This Sabbath, first day of Rosh Hodesh Elul,
by the callousness of an indifferent world and an indifferent
the 30th day of Ab, 5707, the following Scriptural
Jewry. Perhaps the UN will yet provide solutions which will
selections will be read in our synagogues.
not only solve the problem of Cyprus but also of all DPs.
Pen ta teuchal portions—Dent. 11:26-16:17; Num-
28.9-15.
In that event we must be prepared to give new life to those
Prophetical portion—Is. 66.
who watch Palestine in silence and despair from the nearby
On Monday, second day of Rosh flodesh Elul,
island which holds them prisoners.,
Num. 28.1-15 will be read during morning services.

Cyprus -- Last Creative Reserve'

THE JEWISH NEWS -

.0'

•

Pause for a moment and see if you can answer
t he question: What is Judaism and why did we
survive? It is important to keep our eye on the
future, -but the future must and always will be
linked with the past.
The reprint of seven essays by Leo Baeck* is to
be welcomed as a guide to self-analysis, to better
understanding of our past and to a clearer idea of
our ties with the civilizations that have molded
the western mind.
Leo Baeck, the courageous leader of German
Jewry, in its darkest
hour, and the recog-
nized interpreter of
Jewish thought, needs
no introduction. He
survived two years of
Theresienstadt, b u t
some of the essays
printed in this book
died a temporary
death when in 1938,
the Gestapo destrt ■ yed
a newly printed edi-
tion of Baeck's book,
"Out of Three Thous-
Leo Baeek
and Years". Now they
have come to life again.
And life it is. There is nothing dead about the
past. Baeck does not tire of driving home the point
that we carry the past with us. Our experience
is the mirror of the past. Our way of looking at
life is determined by the age-old experiences ac-
cumulated ‘ithin us. As a matter of fact, Baeck
explains the conflicts and tensions in history and
human life as the clash between "old" peoples
with experience and "young" peoples without ex-
perience, tlkus, following Spengler's thesis to a
certain extent.

"There are old eyes," Baeck says, -in
which we can read a millenial experience and
life, and there are young eyes which imagine
that the years they have seen are centuries.
There is moral memory and moral inexperience.
... When nations and communities do not under-
stand one another, the reason is often that some
look at the world in the light of experience,
while others question it only in the light of the
present."
Judaism is to Baeck "the life of a unique spirit,

one might also say, it is a unique kind of life. . . .
Its rationale draws its strength from the irration-
al_ Therefore it can never be refuted—one can only
live opposed to it. It can never be fettered, if only
because it has no dogmas. It is elastic, like every-

thing dynamic. . . . Until the end of days, it will
not reach its end."
And Baeck reminds the world strongly that
it is toe deeply rooted in Jewish ideas to draw
a dividing line between Jews and non-Jews.
"Wherever they have attempted to negate Juda-
ism, they themselves were negated." This is a
point which cannot be emphasized too emphatic-
ally. If the world wants to preserve the funda-
mentals upon which civilization is built, it mast
not destroy Judaism, as one of the roots of this
civilization.

The Jews, on the other hand, according to Baeck,

are more interested in principles than in results.

"Although they lacked the sense of power that
comes with success, they had in its place the con-
sciousness of conviction." Baeck is optimistic be-
cause he knows that Jews have always found their
way back and "proved their right to spiritual
existence in face of the challenge of each new
day."
We would not like to conclude without quoting
from Baeck's credo of what a preacher should be:
"The preacher is entrusted with the dignity of
his religion: his awareness of this ought to sharpen

his conscience.. 1 . The soul receives its office only
through the commandment, which does not speak
of pleasing, but of teaching. This requires an
honorable character; only a man inwardly free
can preach. . . . All of us are subject to moments
of half-heartedness when we listen to the counsel
of inertia and shelfishness. . . But then let each
and everyone recall Virgil's admonition to Dante,
"Come to the heights with me, and let men talk?
It is a masterful self-portrait. It is the whole
man Baeck, fighter for the idea, ardent Jew and
. . . human being.

• The Pharisees and Other. Essays by Leo Baeck.
(Sehocken Books. New York. 164 pp. $3.)

Facts You Should Know

Answers to Readers
Questions.. ..

Please give the translation of the metal re-
cited by Jews at the beginning of a meal?
"Blessed art Thou, 0 Lord our God, King of the
out of the ground."
Universe, who dost bring bread
*

*

*

When was the American Bible Society estab-

lished?

The society was organized in New York City
May 11, 1816. In the first year, 6,140 Bibles were
distributed.
*
•
*

What is the Testament of Abraham?
A Jewish apocryphal book telling of Abraham's
death and ascension to heaven. It was probably
written in Hebrew in the second century by a

Jew or a Jewish Christian.

*

What is the meaning and origin of the term
"benshen?"
The term "benshen" is a Yiddish expression

signifying the act of saying grace after a meal.
It is also used in the general sense to indicate the
action of blessing. The saying of grace, of course,
is a means of "blessing God" in thanks for his
food. The term "benshen" is hence used both to
indicate the blessing of man and the offering
of a benediction to God.