Page Four
THE JEWISH NEWS
As the Editor
Views the News
Friday, April 16, 1948
Kicking It Around
Strongest Defense for
Dignity: Self-Knowledge
Democracy on Defensive
"It is futile to teach the youth baseball
and harangue their elders on the virtues of
democracy and brotherhood."
This is the warning made in the current
issue of American Mercury magazine by
Richard Hanser, authority on conditions in
Germany.
Mr. Hanser states that less than two of
every 10 Germans "can be relied upon to
resist overt actions against the Jews;" that
"there have been anti-Semitic demonstra-
tions where nobody, not even German officials
who were present, made any resistance or
protest."
We also are told that "one of the clearest
indications of the depth and prevalence of
Germany's current anti-Semitism is the flood
of murderous vilification that pourk through
the mails whenever any effort is made to re-
mind the Germans of their guilt in the
slaughter of Jews."
Instead of teaching the Nazis baseball, it
would have been well for the armies of oc-
cupation to stop fraternizing with them and
to use the sternest possible methods with
the people responsible for the extermina-
tion of six million Jews.
When, however, we hear of the acquittal
of Alfred Krupp and 11 directors of the Krupp
munitions combine, and are told of conces-
sions to Nazi moguls in Germany, we begin
to doubt that WE had won the war and are
inclined to the belief that the Hitler program,
in the main, has triumphed.
Miracles--Man-Made
Passover is a festival of miracles. In our
own time we are led to believe that Freedom
can be achieved only through miracles.
In Jewish life, however, we have learned
that miracles, although they arise from in-
destructible faith, are man-made. The mir-
aculous growth of Jewish Palestine is ascrib-
able to the creations of man. Moved by deep-
rooted faith in the validity of the V sacred
promises contained in Scriptures, the pion-
eers implemented their devotion to tradition
with .th,e works of their hands.
By the sweat of their brows did our pioneers
build the wastelands and transform them into
garden spots. They now are battling for their
lives and for the perpetuation of the ideals
which motivated 75 years of constructive
efforts in Eretz Israel.
Collectively we have wrought miracles and
shall continue to break ground for new col-
onies and new creations in Palestine. The
victims from Nazism are to be rescued, even
if the process is to be a slow one. Provided
that the United Jewish Appeal is supplied
with the necessary funds, there will be de-
fense in Zion on all fronts. But miracles are
impossible out of whole cloth, without the
wherewithal for creative effort.
It is on this score that we must emphasize
that miracles are man-made, that they are
valueless unless means for defense and crea-
tive effort are provided.
We are on the eve of Passover, and as faith-
ful people we refuse to yield to despair. We
insist that we shall overcome all obstacles,
that we shall survive the indignities of White
Papers, whether they are made in London or
at Lake Success. As a signal of our determin-
ation to carry on the fight for justice, we must
make good our pledge to the UJA. In De-
troit, it calls for a total triumph for the Allied
Jewish Campaign. This is a time fOr action
in mobilizing all our resources. Let us
go forth to victory and to fullfillment of faith
by making a reality of the miracles which
temporarily are visionary.
THE JEWISH NEWS
Member Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Independent Jewish
Press Seryice, Seven Arts Feature Syndicate, Palcor
Agency, King Features, Central 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-
fice, Detroit, Mich., under Act of March, 3, 1879.
BOARD. OF DIRECTORS
Philip Slomovitz
, Maurice Aronsson
Fred M. Butzel
Isidore Sobeloff
Judge Theodore Levin
Abraham Srere
Maurice H. Schwartz
Henry Wineman
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ, Editor
VOL. XIII—No. 5
APRIL 16, 1948
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the eighth day of Nisan, 5708, the
following Scriptural selections will be read in our
synagogues:
—
Pentateuchal portion—Lev. 14:1-5-15:33.
Prophetical portion—Mal. 3:4-24 or II Kings
7:3-20.
People Want to Know
By DAVID SCHWARTZ
(Copyright, 1998, Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
$Itmsf** 111A.1100"911%
Justice Must Prevail
Never before, in all our history, has the Jewish position
been as black as it is today.
This date—April 16, 1948—marks the beginning of a new
series of debates as to whether or not a sacred decision made
by the nations of the world is to be reversed. The gathering
of United Nations representatives at Flushing Meadows, N. Y.,
commencing today, theatens either to destroy or to postpone
the international efforts for the implementation of a serious
decision which marked fulfillment of prophecy for the in-
gathering and regathering of the People Israel in the Land of
Israel.
The lives of 700,000 Jews in Palestine are in danger as a
result of a vacillating policy which has kept world govern-
ments from defending the UN decision and now is marked
by an about-face in favor of sending troops to Palestine to
enforce a negative plan. The hopes of more than a million
survivors from Nazism have been dimmed. For a few brief
hours, after the Nov. 29, 1947, decision, we believed that the
historic, 2,000-year-old injustice had been righted. Today, in-
sults are being added to injuries and the enemies of our people
in Palestine go so far as to threaten to destroy all we have
built in the past 65 years for the good not of Israel alone but
of the entire Middle East.
The hurt is the more serious because the reversal is
being engineered under the guidance—and at the demand—
of our Government. A traditional policy of aiding the down-
trodden is being abandoned. A new Truman policy threatens
to make a pawn of world Jewry and a scapegoat of the Yishuv
in Eretz Israel in the present world conflict.
Once again, we are compelled to think in terms of mir-
acles. Last November we thought it was a miracle that Soviet
Russia should have joined with the United States in backing
the UNSCOP-proposed Palestine solution. We consider ed it
Heaven-inspired that the spokesmen for Australia, Canada
and Brazil should have been so strongly moved by a quest for
justice to back our claims before the UN and to assist in se-
curing the favorable decision for the re-creation of Jewish
Statehood.
Today, with the picture so dismally dark, we again pray
for a miracle. We hope that the nations of the world will re-
fuse to repudiate their earlier decision. Perhaps the Evatt-
Pearson-Aranha combination again will act in our favor and
in defense of justice. Perhaps the U. S. will experience a
change of heart and the military will cease hounding us. ,
There is a story of a man who, of his own
choice, preferred Hades, but when he went down
there he was very disappointed. He called at the
main office and said he had been cheated. He had
been shown a display on hell before he made his
choice. It pictured gorgeous women and said that
the meals were prepared by a former chef of the
Waldorf-Astoria. But, said this chap, he had found
nothing like this to be the case. In fact, he said,
it was "a devil of a place."
- The complaining man was told that the gor-
geous display he had seen was just propaganda.
You know what propaganda is.
Yes, the world gets propaganda, when it re-
quires facts. There is a thirst for facts; sometimes
it is almost pathetic. I am told that at the Jewish
Information Bureau, an agency which—as its name
implies—devotes itself to answering inquiries for
information, the kind of letter which they receive
most often is a simple postcard on which some
young man or woman has scrawled the words:
"Please tell me all about Judaism."
*
*
*
You may think these are extreme cases, but
if you want to know how ignorant even many
supposedly informed Jews are on simple Jewish
matters, just try asking a few questions.
Not long ago, this writer, speaking of the
present administration's handling of the Pales-
tine question, quoted a Talmudical epigram to a
friend: "DO not fear those who talk like Phari- s
sees and do not fear those who talk like Sad-
duccees, but fear those who talk like Pharisees -
and
and act like the Sadduccees."
My friend remarked when I quoted this that,
"it is from. the New Testament, of course." He
knew that the New Testament had a good deal
to say about Pharisees and so concluded that this,
too, was from the New Testament.
But the saying comes from the Talmud and
the Talmud very naturally has more to say about
the Pharisees than the New Testament, and you
can get a far more correct picture of the Pharisees
from the Talmud than from the New Testament.
But I am not concerned here with the relative
merits of these works. I merely note my friend as
an example of probably what would have happen-
ed had the authorship of this saying been put to
most Jews.
I think a majority of Jews, if asked where
the passage, "Love thy neighbor as thyself"
comes from, would not know that it is first
used in the Old Testament.
Try asking your friends about the name of that
moving picture being currently shown, "The
Voice of the Turtle." See how many will know
what book of the Old Testament it is derived
from.
Ask them where the inscription on the Liber-
ty Bell, "Proclaim liberty throughout the land
and to all the inhabitants thereof" comes from,
which book of the Hebrew Bible, see if they
know. I'll wager they never knew it comes from
the Hebrew Bible.
*
*
Oswald Spengler in his classic "Decline of the
West" says of the Baal Shem Toy that he was a
force as unique as the founder of Christianity.
Spengler was a great Christian scholar. He knew
about the Baal Shem Tov, yet ask American Jews
about him and at least 50 per cent will tell you
they know nothing about him, yet not perhaps
since Maimonides has one person had more in-
fluence on Jewish. life.
Ask your friends to name the Jew who con-
tributed the money for Columbus' expedition of
discovery to America; who persuaded Queen Isa-
bella to authorize Columbus to go on his voyage?
See how many will know.
I could list such questions indefinitely, impor-
tant questions which most Jews wouldn't know
how to answer. It is a terrible state of things.
Those youngsters who scrawled on a postcard,
"Please tell me about Judaism by return mail"
are asking something that is very important to
them.
We will talk until doomsday about trying to
*
*
*
get non-Jews to free themselves from anti-Semit-
until we have first corrected this evil. The
If this miracle does not occur, we shall again be doomed ism
chief bulwark re-enforcing anti-Semitism is our
to disappointment and to the challenge of holding the fortress own lamentable lack of knowledge about our-
selves. If we do not know about ourselves, what
of Zion in spite of the threatened about-face.
we are, how can we stand up to fight for our-
What's our next move? How are we to react to the new selves?
situation? Suppose—Heaven forbid!—that we actually lose
If we are fortified with the dignity that comes
the battle at the UN and the most reactionary aims of our from self-knowledge, which leads to self-respect,
we may count on even our enemies perceiving
present administration should triumph?
this and checking the forces of hate.
Should this happen, we will be compelled to adopt a new
program of defense to guarantee the survival of our citadels
in Zion and the protection of the Judaean settlers. We shall
be called upon to re-evaluate our position and to hold fast to
the faith that justice and decency can not possibly be up-
rooted.
We have been told by Divine encouragement that "no
weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper." We be-
lieve it during the most tragic days of Nazi rule. We have
been convinced that as long as the shearith ha-pletah—the
remnant of the surviving Jews—is redeemed, prophecy will
have been fulfilled. Today this theory is challenged. Jews ev-
erywhere are in danger. The after-effects of the Palestinian
situation may bring an increase in anti-Semitism. The threats
to world peace affect us first and menace our hopes.
Nevertheless, we dare not despair. Human beings have
no right to abandon hope. If we yield to panic it will mean
capitulation to tyranny and an admission that civilization is
doomed.
Now, more than ever before, we must hold fast to faith
in Divine rule, in the ultimate triumph of decency. We must
carry on in the interests of the Yishuv, for the sake of Jews
everywhere and most particularly in order to keep American
Jewry's courage from declining. Because we had faith, we
overcame obstacles in the past. By retaining faith, we may
triumph even now, in this dark hour for mankind. The un-
dying faith of Israel MUST lead to complete salvation for
our people and therefore also the redeeming of the honor
of all humanity.
Sail on, Ship of State
. By DR. NOAH E. ARONSTAM
Sail on, Sail on, my Ship of State,
'Midst roaring waves and raging <sates,
Through 'oceans turbulent with hate
To brighter shores and tranquil vales.
Sail, on!
Sail on, Judaea's Ship of State
To sterner task and braver deed
On Concord's wing, that shall create
-Yet greater leaders, who will lead
The world in righteousness and love,
With justice that will never cease.
Sail on, my model Ship of State
To freedom and a glorious peace!
Sail on!
Facts You Should Know
What are "Tenaim?"
The word "Tenaim" means "conditions." The
term usually refers to the ceremony of drawing
up agreement for a wedding ceremony. In ancient
times, and in many places today, this is an im-
portant ceremony. The main event is the drawing
up and signing of a legal document stating the
date, time and place of the wedding and the
amount of the dowry. In most cases a sum is
named as a penalty for failure to abide by the
terms.