1 '
Page Four
THE JEWISH .NEWS
As the Editor
Views the News ...
Mr. President, Your Help Is Needed
The Appeal to Truman
Our appeal to President Truman, on the
first page of this issue, is part of a nationwide
plea to our Chief Executive, with all the
Jewish newspapers—Yiddish and English—
participating simultaneously in sponsoring
this Jewish Press Palestine Defense Day. We
sincerely hope that these urgent appeals will
bring desired results in securing speedy ac-
tion by our Government for the implementa-
tion of the UN Palestine decision.
The situation is too grave for any respon-
sible person to overlook the moral aspects of
an issue which involves the lives of hundreds
of thousands of people. Action NOW should
be the motto of all Americans who are
anxious to avoid another war.
THE JEWISH NEWS
Member Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Independent Jewish
Press Service, Seven Arts Feature Syndicate, Palcor
Agency, King Features, Central Press Association.
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., WO. 5-1155.
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 per year.
Entered as second-class matter Aug. 6, 1942, at Post Of-
flee, Detroit, Mich., under Act of March 3, 1879. .
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Maurice Aronsson
Philip SIOmovitz
Fred M. Butzel
Isidore Sobeloff
Judge Theodore Levin Abraham Srere
Maurice H. Schwartz Henry Wineman
SLOMOVITZ, Editor
VOL. XII—No. 25
MARCH 5, 1948
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the twenty-fifth day of Adar I,
5708, the following Scrptural selections will be
read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion—Ex. 35:1-38:20;30:11-16.
'Prophetical portion—II Kings 12:1-17.
On Thursday and Friday, Rosh Hodesh Adar II,
,
Latest Schocken Books
Agnon's Novel, Lazare's
Essays: Literary Gems
On the Defensive
Palestine was built with Jewish labor and
through the initiative of our pioneers. No one
has given us anything on the construction
front—although we recognize with genuine
gratitude the encouragement we have re-
ceived from our Christian friends on the
political front.
The UN decision of Nov. 29, 1948, was not
a "gift" of a Jewish state. It was recognition
of the existence of the strong Jewish corn-
m.unity which already is the nearest approach
to a Jewish state.
Now, with betrayals threatening to undo
what we had hoped would be the final politi-
cal act, we are again placed on our own.
Again, we are on the defensive. As in the past,
we alone can defend and protect what has
been built during the past 30 years.
The latest happenings in the UN Security
Council may prove disillusioning to thou.-
sands of Jews everywhere. To those who are
fully aware of the implications—in the light
of our experiences since perfidious Albion
assumed control as mandatory power—it can
mean only one thing: a growina responsibility
for all of us to join forces in b defense of the
Yishuv.
Attempts have been made in the past to
destroy our settlements. They have failed in
the past and they will fail in the future—
providing we retain , the determined will of
the Jewish people to continue to build and
to uphold the hands of the pioneers in Eretz
Israel.
We are, admittedly, on the defensive. It is
imperative, therefore, that the battle should
go on politically to secure the help of the
nations of the world in our behalf. At the
same time we must recognize that if we do
not provide the means for Palestine defense
and reconstruction, no one else will.
There is only one instrument for Palestine's
reconstruction: the United Jewish Appeal
(the all-inclusive agency which secures funds
for the Joint Distribution Committee, United
Palestine Appeal and United Service for New
Americans). In Detroit, the Allied Jewish
Campaign, now girding for action, is the
medium for giving to the UJA. Haganah will
receive its support from UJA. The coloniza-
tion and land-redemption efforts are provid-
ed for by UPA. Jewish courage will be com-
mensurate with the strength our pioneers
will receive from the UPA. JDC meanwhile
continues to care for prospective settlers in
Zion in' DP camps.
To guarantee strong defenses, the UJA
must receive its minimum needs this year.
Detroit's Allied Jewish Campaign MUST
succeed if Palestine is to be secure. Let us
remember these facts as we mobilize our
forces for the defense of the Yishuv.
Friday, March 5, 1948
11041.“ 7ascarosos Awake*
Action: Even If It Takes Force
President Truman, in a statement supporting the recom-
mendation of United States delegate to the United Nations
Warren Austin that the Palestine security problem be re-
ferred to the Big FiVe, stated:
"The Palestine problem has been and is the deep concern of
this government. It has been given the most careful consideration
by me, the Cabinet and other responsible government .officials.
The United States position has been developed through a long
and exhaustive study and many consultations. This position has
been accurately presented by Ambassador Austin in his speech
before the Security Council of the United Nations today."
On the other hand, Congressman Emanuel Celler of New
York went so far as to brand Mr. Austin's statement as "out-
rageously hypocritical," asserting that so many studies have
been made of the Palestine situation that "no further com-
mittee studies are needed."
« « •
Meanwhile some very emphatic opinions have been ex-
pressed on the question.
In his testimony before theJlouse Foreign Affairs Com-
mittee, Henry A. Wallace maintained that the U. S. can effec-
tively help the situation in Palestine by withholding our
money from Great Britain until the British stop sending arms
to the Arabs. He declared that "it is American money that
enables the British to deliver arms to the Arab states 'in ful-
fillment of their contractual obligations.' " American money,
he charged, finances the training and equipment of Arab
forces in Arab states and enables the British to subsidize
Transjordania's. army. He added: "Today in Palestine innocent
Jewish pioneers are being slaughtered as a direct result of
the Truman doctrine—protection of private American oil
interest is more important to the administration than human
lives and support of the_ UN's decision."
Williani Green, president of the American Federation of
Labor, expressed the hope that the U. S. would "stand un-
compromising" behind the UN policy on Palestine "even if it
takes force." He asked for the lifting of the embargo on arms
so that Jews in Palestine should be able to defend themselves
and call on the UN to meet the Arab challenge because "the
UN cannot surrender to a dissenting Arab group or to the
Arab nations."
James F. O'Neil, commander of the American Legion,
stated to the press in Des Moines, Ia., that "if the United
Nations is going to continue to be an effective organization it
must support its Palestine decision with a police force;" that
"the United States must be willing to furnish a part of that
force; either that or withdraw."
There have, of course, been some very unfavorable state-
ments. It stands to reason that the Jewish position has enemies
as well as friends. The fact is, however, that it is the estab-
lished, traditional policy of our Government to support the
Jewish aspirations and any efforts to the contrary must be
considered obstructionist. It remains to be seen whether Presi-
dent Truman will yield to intimidation from the oil interests
or whether he will insist that justice be done to the Jewish
people.
*
*
By straddling the fence, responsible leaders in our Gov-
erment are permitting the continuation of bloodshed. A con-
sistent policy should be enforced at once, for the sake of the
peace in the Middle East.
Only an ultra-isolationist policy—which is unthinkable
under present conditions—could possibly be invoked to leave
the Jews of Palestine and in the DP camps at their mercy. As
lang as the Marshall Plan and aid to Greece are realities, Pal-
estine must be considered as one of the major obligations in
our Government's peace-seeking program. Any other course
will be considered, as Congressman Celler put it, as "out-
rageously hypocritical."
Responsible leaders—Christians and Jews—have made
serious demands that our Government should stop dilly-
dallying. Men like Sumner Welles, Adolf Berle and Mrs. F. D.
Roosevelt; 62 of the leading American. Christian organizations
acting through the American Association for the United
Nations; labor, civic and Christian forces are demanding
action. Let there be no delay in guaranteeing peace in the
Num. 28:1-15 will be read during morning services. Middle East and in the world at large.
Schocken Library has made another signifi-
cant contribution to the Jewish book shelf with
its latest two books — S. Y. Agnon's "In the
Heart of the Seas" and Bernard Lazare's "Job's
Dungheap."
Lazare, brilliant French-Jewish essayist, who
died as a very young man at the turn of the cen-
tury, will be remembered as one of the great in.
spirers of the Dreyfusard movement. He was for
an all-out fight to liberate the innocent man. He
rejected concessions. His passion for justice was
stronger than that of any other man in that group.
His essays reveal a fearlessness that we could
well emulate in our own time. For Zionists es-
pecially there is a strong lesson in "Job's Dung-
heap." ,
The pen portrait of him by the essayist
Charles Peguy adds to the value of the book. The
general introduction by Hannah Arendt rounds
out the perfect Schocken job. More about the
Lazare volume in these columns at a later date.
I. M. Lask translated the Agnon volume from
the Hebrew. It is a masterful job of translating
the thrilling story about Hassidim in Galicia who
set out on a journey for Palestine. The love for
Zion was never before as well depicted as in Ag-
non's book and in Lask's translation.
Schocken has made great gifts to Jewry in
the publishing field. The two latest works make
this publisher's contributions stand out more
luminously than ever before.
Hebrew, the language of the Bible, is also the
language of modern Jewish Palestine. Although an
extensive modern Hebrew literature has already
been created, it is virtually unknown in America.
In publishing Agnon's "In the Heart of the Seas,"
Schocken Books brings to the attention of the
American public one of the leading figures of the
modern Hebrew literary renaissance. A.gnon is not
entirely unknown in America—one of his novels,
"The Bridal Canopy," appeared in English transla-
tion in 1937 and was a selection of the Literary
Guild. Hailed by critics such as Alfred Kazin, John
Cournos, Isaac Frank, and others, it was called
"one of the great novels in any language," by Bur-
ton Rascoe.
"In the Heart of the Seas," at one level, is simpl3r
the story of a journey—a journey made by a group
of Polish Jews ' to Palestine at some indeterminate
time in the past. But these Jews are Hasidim—mys-
tics who inhabit a world where miracles happen
every day, and for whom God exists, not at some
great transcendental. remove, but here, now—and
so this journey is also a pilgrims' progress to the
center of sanctity, the Holy Land.
With quiet humor, with great affection and re-
spect, and with subtle skill, Agnon captures the un-
affected, direct, "primitive" quality of the Hasidim
in particular, and of all such pilgrimages in gen-
eral. Perhaps the closest thing to the world that
is evoked in these pages is the art of Marc Chagall
Like Chagall's, Agnon's Hasidim have a happy-go-
lucky quality, a gentle joyfulness, that is no secon-
dary attribute but the eseence of their spirituality.
The excellent translation by Lask has largely
succeeded in rendering the artful simplicity of the
classical Hebrew in which the story was written. -
Ten full-page pen drawings by the young American
artist, T. Herzl Rome, superbly illustrated the book.
Vocational Education
Appraised in New Book
"Jewish Vocational Education: History and Ap-
praisal," by Bernard D. Weinryb, the first volume
in the Jewish Social- Research series published
by Jewish Teachers' Seminary, 154 E. 70th St.,
New York 21, tells for the first time the story of
Jewish occupational training and retraining dur-
ing the entire period since the 18th century.
During this century and a half, both Jews and
non-Jews have been concerned with Jewish voca-
tional restratification policies. Enlightners, assim-
ilationists, Zionists, Socialists, community leaders,
all have tried to change the Jewish occupational
structure as a means of improving the Jewish lot,
combating anti-semitism, reconstructing a Jewish
homeland, etc. Jewish organizations, local and
world wide as—ICA, ORT, Joint Distribution Com-
mittee—have built hundreds of training institu-
tions, spending millions for this purpose. The
study tells of all these attempts, analyzes the work
and the results. But it goes beyond merely telling
the story and evaluating the results. A wide back-
ground of the legal, social and economic situation
of the Jews in most of the European countries is
depicted and the trends and ideologies behind the
vocational redistribution is related.
The book is divided in three parts. The first
presents the background, historical origin, ideals
and practices of Jewish vocational training, makes
comparisons with non-Jewish training, and offers
yardsticks for purposes of evaluation. The second
part tells the story of Jewish vocational education
in the various countries of Europe up to World
War 1. The third section deals with the period be-
tween the two Wars. The summary and conclu-
sion contain an appraisal of the entire system - and
of its significance for future practice.
The book reflects the aspirations and social and
economic trends among the Jews in Europe. The
historian, social scientist, and the intelligent read-
er generally, may find the book useful as a guide
to modern Jewish economic and social history,
while the social worker, the executive of a relief
organization or of a vocational guidance bureau
may find helpful 'practical hints.
Facts You Should Know
Why do Jews refrain from using the hind.'
quarters of cattle for food consumption?
Originally Jews used this part of the cow too.
In certain parts of Palestine and in pre-Hitler
Europe hindquarters were sold as kosher food - on
the market, as is the case in some sections of
Palestine today. The reasop we generally do not
use the hindquarter lies in the intricate system of
extraction of veins and arteries which must be
employed before the meat is considered fit to use.