Get Rid of It!
Pis the Editor
w Jews tile News
Pro-Israeli Arabs
Palcor's report from Tel Aviv describing
Arab resistance to the anti-Israeli aggressor
Arab nations, published in last week's issue
of The Jewish News, is only part of the evi-
dence now mounting to prove that the Pal-
estinian Arabs are not so pleased with the
attacks on the Jewish State.
Another Palcor report, received this week,
relates how the Bedouin El Lexhab (The
Flame) Tribe joined forces with the Palmach,
Israel's shock troops, and fought side by side
with its Jewish neighbors to check the Sy-
rian-Lebanese. invasion.
The Flame's village, Tuba, was attacked by
the invading Arabs, but the enemy's mech-
anized forces were repulsed—although the
Bedouins had only 30 rifles—and Palmach re-
inforcements helped stem the tide of invasion.
The Flame's headman, Sheikh Hussein
Mohammed el All Abu Yassif, told newspa-
permen: "We now have a weapon for every
man who needs one, • and we are ready to
fight to the last man in this struggle for right
and against foreign instigators. It is they
who are foreigners, and if they have their
way it will result in impoverishing the Arab
masses. The hope of the Arab masses is with
the Israeli state."
Itzhak Hankin, the Palmach commander
who fought side by side with the Bedouins,
stated that "the tribe's varied activities con-
stituted a considerable contribution .towards
Israeli victory, and their morale is hardly
matched."
Peace efforts would take a different turn
and the battle for justice would be strength-
ened if the UN mediator were to take these
facts into consideration. The UN mediators
should be fully informed regarding another
interesting aspect of Israeli-Bedouin coop-
interesting
leader Hankin speaks
eration;
Arabic fluently and The Flame's Bedouin
headman speaks a voluble Hebrew.
Israel knows how to advance friendly rela-
tions--by cooperating with the Arabs and
improving their economic status, contrary to
effendi principles. Given a chance, Israel will
flourish and the Arabs will be helped thereby.
PreWecl Prejudice Note
Bessie Baron, 20-year-old native American
pre-medical student in an accredited mid-
western college, has a B-average and wants
to be a doctor. She has applied to 20 medical
schools, but—and here is her own story, as
told in a letter to the New York Star:
"When I try to enter U.S.A. medical
schools, I get the continued reply, `just no
room now.' But off the record, I am told
`you are a Jew, and a female. You might as
well forget about being admitted. Go to
Europe.' . .. I am told again off the record,
'for the sum of $5,000 upwards, acceptance in
an accredited medical school can be assured'."
The story is an old one—except for the
$5,000 item. Has it come to this—that for a
price you can buy admission even in a medi-
cal school?
Who said that prejudice is dying and that
Brotherhood is advancing?
18th Century Footnote
Back in 1762, the famous philosopher Jean
Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) made this
statement:
"The Jews in Dispersion have not the
possibility of proclahning their own truth
to humankin* but I beh'ieve that when
they once have a free Commonwealth,
with schools and universities of their
own where they can speak out safely,
we shall be able to leakn what it is that
the Jewish people have to say to us."
If Rousseau were alive he would be able
to testify that this quotation, which is for us
a mere footnote to current history, was a
bit of prophecy of what was to become reality
*early 200 years after it was uttered.
THE JEWISH NEWS
Member Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Independent Jewish
Press Service, Seven Arts Feature Syndicate, Palcor
Agency, King Features, Central Press Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publish. .
9ng Co., 2114 Penobscot Bldg., Detroit 26, Mich., WO. 5-1155,
Subscription, $3 a year; foreign, $4.
Entered as second-class matter Aug. 6, 1942, at Post Of.
Dete, Detroit, Mich., under Act of March 3. 1879.
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ, Editor
%OL. XIII—No. 23
Page 4
August 20, 1948
Sabbath Nabamu-Scriptural selections
This Sabbath—Sabbath Nahamu—the sixteenth
of Ab, 5708, the following Scriptural selections
Will be read in our synagogues:
F'entateuchal portion—Deut. 3:23-7:11.
Prophetical. portion—Is. 40:1-26.
'day
'The More Perfect Union'
/
'Vicious Circle Exposed
In Study of U.S. Bias
Prejudice and discrimination resulting from it
are viewed by Robert M. MacIver as the sorest
spots in our modern life, and his latest book,
"The More Perfect Union," (published by Macmil-
lan), presents analyses of the situation and a pro-
gram of action against bias.
In his review of the Jewish position in this
country, Mr. MacIver shows that in states like
Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey and Con-
necticut, Jews, next to Negroes, suffer the most
in the fields of economic and occupational dis-
crimination. He shows that exclusion of Jews
from social life of the "upper middle class" leads
to the banning of Jews from inns, summer resorts,
clubs and private wards of some hospitals.
Limitation of the employment of Jews in Banks
and insurance companies and the quotas on Jew-
ish students in universities are among the resul-
tant practices of bias alluded to by Mr. MacIver.
He points out that very often groups which them-
selves suffer from discrimination—including Ne-
groes often resort to bias against Jews.
One of the studies quoted by Mr. MacIver
(D. I. Levinson and R. N. Sanford in "A
Scale for the Measurement of Anti-Semitism")
states: "On total anti-Semitism score Republi-
cans were higher than Democrats . . . and sor-
ority members higher than non-members, all
these differences being statistically significant.
Anti-Semitism score was found to increase di-
rectly with amount of the father's income."
Exception will be taken by many Jews to some
of Mr. Maclver's conclusions. He states, for in-
stance, that Jews own "exclusive" shops, and the
implication that Jews cater only to Jews is a bad
one and serves to undo the good in the book as a
whole. The author states that Jewry's exclusive
cultural traditions have caused them to "set apart
from other peoples" and he advises Jews to "find
ways of identifying themselves with the communi-
ty as a whole.' It is, in the main, a gratuitous bit
of advice which is not based on thorough appre-
ciation of the extreme effort made by most Amer-
ican Jews to integrate themselves into all com-
munity affairs. We deny that Jews have failed ei
ther to seek admission into the community's ef-
forts or to become thoroughly a part of it. It we
are not entirely fused with the Red Cross it is be-
cause Red Cross_ in some communities has been
snobbish and has invited Jewish board members
only when it was severely criticized. If we are not
completely fused in other civic affairs it is be-
cause of being snubbed. When Mr. MacIver says
that Jews- "must somehow place the symbols of.
their own group under the sign of the great com-
munity," he goes to ari extreme that disproves
his point.
In the main, Mr.. MacIver's book is an excellent
study of the subject of ,prejudice. He points out
that even if it is truev that some Negroes are
"dirty, careless, immoral, lazy"; some Jews "vul-
gar, ostentatious, clannish, socially inibred," "no
headway can be made by that kind of 'you're no
better'." He states that after admitting these
things "we have not weakened but rather have
strengthened the case against discrimination:
He calls it the "vicious circles" and states that
"the more severe the discrimination the more evi-
dence it will itself provide to justify its own per-
petuation." He adds that "the best contribution
we can make toward their removal is to cease our
discriminating."
Mr. MacIver does not believe in resorting to
legal action against prejudice because there are
no legal-judicial mechanisms to deal with the
issue and because legal action gives prejudice
undue publicity. He urges the challenging of con-
ditions rather than attitudes, approaching the is-
sue on the basis of national welfare rather than
upholding the banner of particular groups.
—
Peace—Or Freedom to Act
Israel's spokesmen at Lake Success have asked for drastic
steps by the United Nations to set "an early time limit" upon
the conclusion of which "either peace must be concluded or
invading armies leave on the understanding that, failing
either, the Provisional Government of Israel would thereafter
be free to seek a way out of the impasse by its own action."
Numerous complications which have set in had compelled
Israel to take this drastic step which, in a sense, means a re-
pudiation of the efforts of the UN Mediator Count Folke Bern-
adotte. Charged with being prejudiced against Israel and with
nurturing a secret desire to force upon Israel a so-called feder-
alized state which was incorporated in the rejected Morrison-
Grady plan, the UN mediator must prove the sincerity of his
intentions by taking a firm stand against Arab aggressors
whom he has whitewashed on several occasions while criticiz-
ing Israel.
Destruction of the Latrun pumping station upon which
JeruSalern Jews depend far their--water supply, rejection by
Arabs of the Israeli peace proposal and • Bernadotte's appeas-
ing treatment of the aggressor Arab nations have not helped
the situation. The issue of Arab refugees, whose status has re-
sulted from pressure upon the fleeing Arabs from powers out-
side Palestine—with the encouragement of the British—has
further.aggravated the situation, with the result /that Israel's
leaders are forced to take firm steps to end the impasse and to
demand a speedy solution to a problem which will become
much more serious if the Bernadotte plan of an unlimited
truce is permitted to continue.
Israel's request is a logical one. It declares:
"The Latrun incident reveals the clear necessity of
replacing the truce by a peace settlement between Israel
and the belligerent Arab states. The Provisional Govern-
ment of Israel cannot contemplate the indefinite duration
of a truce which, in the absence of any peace negotiations,
and in view of the continued presence of invading armies
on Palestinian soil, imposes heavy burdens of war expen-
diture, delays progratns of development and construction
and subjects the State of Israel to an intricate scheme of
international supervision which is, in the - long run, quite
unfruitful and is further complicaed by unwarraned
attempts to limit freedom of immigration through such
misinterpretations of the truce as that exemplified in the
-Cyprus questions."
While British authorities continue to justify the detention
of more than 10,000 Jews on the island of Cyprus, it is in-
conceivable to Jewry that the men, women and children who
have suffered detention on that island and were prevented
from going to Israel should continue to suffer indignities.
Condemnation of Bernadotte's truce efforts is not one-
sided. The New York Herald Tribune stated last Sunday in an
editorial under the heading "A Truce Is Not Peace":
"Whether or not the Security Council accedes to
the Israeli request fore time limit on the truce, it should
certainly get peace negotiations started, and discover
whether there is any real chance for a settlement. In the
four weeks since the cease-fire order Count Bernadotte's
efforts have been directed toward enforcement of the
truce, and even in this he has not been notably success-
ful. If the period of the truce is not used to work for a
permanent settlement, nothing will have been gained in
the end by the cease-fire. The Security Council must ask
Bernadotte for a report on the willingness of both sides to
negotiate, so that it may be seen whether any useful pur-
pose is. being served by prolonging the truce."
This represents the thinking of Israeli spokesmen who
are charged with the responsibility of 'building a homeland
for huridreds of thousands of Jews who must be rescued
from the shameful conditions under which they continue to
live in displaced persons camps in Europe. The truce and
those who would enforce it without thinking of the honor
and needs of Israel or the necessity for a permanent peace
Merely delay action on the humanitarian front. They postpone
solution of the problem of the Arab refugeec a problem
not of Israel's but of Britain's and the aggressor Arab states'
making. Therefore, the UN must either order Bernadotte
to go home or to strive for peace and for an end to aggression.
Israel, fighting, in the main, single-handedly, is compelled to
follow the line outlined' by her spokesmen—even if it is an
anti-Bernadotte line. And an anti-Bernadotte line certainly
is not an anti-UN line.
C
‘ Nallarni.j /
Nahamu Ami
'
By DR. NOAH E. ARONSTAM
x `Comfort thee, my people!" the sun
again
sheds his lustre
Upon the peaks and dales of Israel,
On the sloping fruit-kissed mouth of
Carmel,
On the Negev with its budding promise
Of a new life and still greater tasks
To fulfill the prophecy of old!
Comfort thee, my people;
Thy fears shall change in joys
Thy -weeping into smiles,
Behold the dream of ages bath come
true.
And the might of Israel, imposing,
proud, yet humble,
Casts its eyes towards the Guardian
Vowing to shield and protect thee
As in the golden days of yore.
So onward, onward, do not falter—
The Lord is with thee!
Facts You Should Knott;
What is a "chalef?"
The slaughtering knife used by the "shocher•
in the ritual slaughtering of animals and fowl it!
commonly referred to as a "chalef."
Why is this' name attributed to this instill.
ment?
This question leads to a number of interesting
obs6rvations. Technically, the term "chalef''
comes from an old Semitic word meaning "to be
smooth" or "to cut." What is even more interest ,
ing is the interpretation of the word "chalet' tO
denote the slaughtering knife by Rabbinic sources
who claim that its component letters (Chet,
Lamed and Peh) stand for the requirements or
a proper Jewish slaughterer. According to one
version the "Chet" is the initial which represents
"chochom" which means "wise," indicating that
the true Jewish slaughterer should be a learned
man; "Lamed" denotes the numerical value of 30
which indicates that he should be at least 10
years of age; and "Peh," which has the nurnericall
value of 80, stands for the fact that he shotdif
not be allowed to slaughter once he reaches the
age of an octogmariam.
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