As the Editor
Views the News . . .

SOS Day Sunday

Twenty thousand Jewish families are
expected to respond to the annual SOS
(Supplies for Overseas Survivors) appeal of
the Joint Distribution Committee for supple-
mentary relief for the displaced persons in
European camps, to be conducted in Detroit
on Sunday.
The hundreds of volunteers who have
undertaken the job of handling the SOS col-
lections should be given courteous coopera-
tion and it is sincerely to be hoped that the
response will be as generous as• last year's.
There is a change in the type, of material
that will be acceptable this year. Used cloth-.
ing will be rejected and emphasis is placed
on the need for layettes for DP babies.
Foreign language books and religious articles
are requested and there is need for toys and
recreation material.
Naturally, the greatest need is for canned
food of high protein value. It is imperative
that Detroit Jews should prepare their gifts
in advance so that the volunteer workers may
be enabled to work with the speed that is
required to cover 20,000 homes in a scattered
area.
A hearty response is awaited from De-
troit Jews on SOS Day.

Support Chest Drive

The annual Community Chest drive is
in progress and its appeal . is directed to all
Detroiters, people of all creeds and races.
This is the all-inclusive community fund
that cares for the major social service organi-
zations in our city. The Jewish agencies pro-
vided for by the Community Chest include
the Jewish Communip Center, Jewish Social
Service Bureau, Hebrew Free Loan Associa-
tion, Fresh Air Camp, North End Clinic and
the Jewish Welfare Federation.
Similarly, Detroit agencies sponsored by
Catholics and Protestants, Negroes and other
groups are included among the many Red
Feather causes of the Community Chest.
This is the one drive in our community
which is conducted on a non-secretarian
basis. It is a major means of cementing good
will among all element's in the community;
at the same time giving Detroiter§ :a . -serise,
of belonging and a sense. of sharing in corn-
munity services.
Detroit Jews traditionally have played
an important role in Community Chest
drives. These precedents should be carried
on faithfully and the 1948 drive should be
pursued successfully to guarantee the raising
of the full quota. It is a duty which each
group owes to itself and which all groups
collectively owe to Detroit.

Duty of All Voters

A serious political campaign is in progress
— a campaign which affects the welfare of
all Americans.
to the appeals of the candi-
In giving
dates for the Presidency and for other offices
— Federal, State and Local — all citizens
must resolve to go to the Polls, to assure in
advance that they will take time out for
themselves to cast their ballots and that they
will make use of the privileges of citizens of
this great land.
Normal electiOns seldom attract more
than a fraction of voters to the Polls. In Presi-
dential elections it is imperative that every
citizen should cast his ballot.
From now until Election Day on Nov-
ember 2, we must unite, regardless of our
party preferences, to mobilize Americans for
the sacred task as voters. To vote on Not-
ember 2 must be viewed as the major duty
of all citizens.

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-
ing 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-
fice. Detroit, Mich.. under Act of March 3 1879.

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ. Editor

VOL. XIV—No. 7

Page 4

October 29, 1948

Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the twenty-seventh day of Tishri,
5709, the following Scriptural selections will be
read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion—Gen. 1:1-6:8.
Prophetical portion—Is. 42:5-43:10.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Rosh Hodesh
Heshvan, Num. 28:1-15 will be read during mor-
ning services.

V•11-{11 A CITIZEN
BOOTH, I
CANT TELL WHAT
C01-OR OR RELIGION
I.E. IS

IS IN

A Right of
Every Citizen

Samuel's 'Prince' Ghetto
Great Literary Creation

Four years ago, when Maurice Samuel was
awarded the Saturday Review of Literature prize
for his great book "The World of Sholem Alei-
chem." the eminent writer was acclaimed as the
outstanding interpreter of Sho7
.em Aleichem in English. Today,
with the appearance of his corn-
1)anion volume, "Prince of the
3hetto," dealing with the life
and work of Isaac Loeb (Yitz-
th6k Leibush)—Yal—Peretz, he
merges in a much greater 'role
'S the ablest interpreter of Yid-
lish literature.
"Prince of the Ghetto", like
;'ainuel's earlier volume on Sho7
,Aleichem, is a masterpiece.
u>"' »::!,.
M. Samuel If the earlier volume was select-
ed as the best in 1944 on racial relations, then the
companion volume should be accorded a place
of great honor fOr linguistic achievement and as
one of the finest interpretations on 'record of Yid-
dish as a language and Hassidism as a creed and
as a way of life.
Samuel not only has selected the best of
Peretz's_ stories for evaluation and transla-,
tion in his new book. He has written a philo-
sophic work on JeWish life in Poland in Per-
etz's time. "Prince of the Ghetto," also pub-
lished by Knopf, thus deals with the creative
genius of a great writer; with the torments,
aspirations and culture of an entire people;
with folkways and the psychology of a great
sect in Jewry.
The chapter in this splendid book entitled..
"Ecstasy" should be.read by every one who de-
sires to have an understanding of Jewish life,
who seeks knowledge abOut the Hassidim. Peretz
wrote the best stories about Hassidism, and
Samuel emerges their outstanding interpreter
in English.
His book would be worth its weight in gold
if it were only for the brilliance of the chapters
which deal with Yiddish as -a language. He des-
cribes it as "A Language With a Policy" and he
emerges as a master interpreter and as a great
student of the psychologital elements of the
tongue and the people who use it. A brief quota-
tion will give the reader an idea of his approaCh..
He shows that "classical Yiddish cannot be trans.!
lated into Hebrew, that it was used to keep
Hebrew alive, that—
"The whole folkloristic - machinery that
was erected to keep Hebrew and Palestine
alive in the mind of the Jew becomes ob-i
solete in the Jewish homeland. It has fill*
filled itself. And it may be said of this machin-
ery, while it is being dismantled, that it suc-
ceeded in a task that baffled other peoples--
the Irish, for instance, who never set, up a •
similar machinery for the conservatkni . of
Gaelic and now find themselves unable to
revive it.
"It (Yiddish). served its purpose well, but.:%
. gave up its task most reluctantly; even in:
Palestine. It had, so to speak, become en-
amored of its job. There were Jews in pales.!
tine, in the early days of the Zionist Move-
ment, who wanted Yiddish to become the
language of the reborn Jewish National
Home. The means had become so preciOus and
interesting that -they were now an end in
themselves.- But then ZprFo.vill tells Us of the
old Jew who settled. in Palestine, and every
day at the Wailing Wall repeated the prayer:
`Next year in Jerusalem'."
"Prince of the Ghetto" is as enchanting as the
man and his works about whom the book was
written. It is an episode in our history, and a most
fascinating one. A generation that would have
known nothing about Peretz now has the best
available record and evaluation of the writer and
his creations. Jewry is indebted to Samuel for his
great accomplishment.

-

Courtesy Institute of American Democracy

Humanity on Trial

In spite of Dr. Ralph Bunche's statement to the United
Nations that the "Jewish State is no nominal or paper state"
and that, from the day of its proclamation, the Jewish State
was a "going concern" that rendered "entirely illusory" the
suggestion that it could have been prevented by anything
except a force strong enough to overwhelm the entire Pale-
stinian Jewish community, there is a. ganging up of hetero-
geneous elements on the infant state and on the people
related to it. College professors have assumed the role of
hate- mongers when speaking of Israel. Economic clubs for
years have shown bias in selecting speakers from the ranks
of the pro-Arabs and friendly efforts to secure a hearing
for Israel have ended in abuse and in charges of "pressure."
Newspaper reporters have yielded to the lure of sensational-
ism. Religious periodicals have made the outrageous charges
that Jews have defiled holy places in Palestine, in spite of
statements by Catholic dignitaries commending the Jewish
forces for the scrupulousness with which they enforced
laws in behalf of all faiths in the Holy Land.
These, in the long run, are passing phases in the battle
for freedom. The State of Israel will survive the attacks
from within and without and the People of Israel will over-
come the bias which persists in many ranks as an inheritance
from the Middle Ages. For the record, however, it becomes
necessary to correct many errors. When a Cairo professor
comes here to spread lies, we must use our best efforts to
refute them. When the Town Hall of the Air program pre-
sents anti-Israeli spokesmen, it is encouraging that able
men like Dr. Emanuel Neumann and Major George Fielding
Eliot are given an opportunity to challenge their provoking
arguments. When the Detroit Times permits the infiltration
into the columns of a tragic blunder by a staff member who
sees fit to link American gangsters who happen to be Jewish
with the Stern' GrOup. in Israel, the prOmpt criticisms by
many in the community were in order and here, again, it
is to the credit of the Zionist Council and the Community
Council that they acted firmly in presenting the true facts
in refutation of untruths..
In the main, the men of bias and prejudice have for-
gotten the meaning of freedom. They forget that the
fighters for liberty and justice in Israel are the modern
Lafayettes and Byrons, the counterparts of Washington
and Paine, the 20th century Maccabees who refuse to
bend their knees to tyrants. They are not "gangsters"
who are seeking to import "gunmen" to fight their battle,
and the Americans who have gone to Israel to share in
the struggle for liberty, David Marcus for example—
Jews and Christians alike—are men of vision who were
motivated by the same principles which caused Lafayette
to come from France to fight for the United States and
Lord Byron to leave the British Isles to fight for the
freedom of Greece.
The fight is not over, but neither is it lost. On the contrary,
- as long as men, women and children refuse to bend their
knees to oppressors—the fighters for freedom are certain of
victory.
There is, however, one disturbing element in the entire
issue: the attitude of the Christian community. Instead of
adhering to basic Christian beliefs in Prophecy and recog-
nizing the inevitable fulfillment of a people's connection
with the land of its birth, some Christian spokesmen have
acted detrimentally to Israel. It has gotten so bad in some
:quarters that so great a pacifist as Dr. Judah L. Magnes,
the man who advocates concessions to the Arabs, upon read-
ing an insulting letter in the New York Times accusing Jews
of trying to rule as enemies of Christ in Nazareth, felt called
upon to write a letter in which he pointed out the following:
That Nazareth fell to Israel without the firing of a shot, that
the territory was declared out of bounds to Israeli troops,
that the Christian holy places were protected and heads of
churches thanked Israel for this action. Dr. Magnes wrote
in reply to the Christian's insulting letter:
"Such words make me wonder if there may not be
something after all in the cynical belief held by many
that even pious Christians seem to lose no opportunity
to inject a drop of poison when referring to Jews."
It is clear that it is not Israel who is on trial but human-
ity; that Christianity has a grave responsibility in this test
of Israel's freedom. Israel is emerging victorious because
freedom must triumph. Israel's neighbors must mend their
ways because truth—also on trial—must be assured of simi-
lar triumph—not only for the sake of Israel but in the best
interests of peace and justice. Republican and Democratic
leaders in this country at last are acting to put into effect the
planks in their platforms. Apparently we are about to see
fulfillment of prophecy and political adherence to pledges.

Fine Kusevitsky Songs ;
Leah Crohn as Folksinger

FESTIVAL GEMS. Sung by Moshe Kusevitsky, the
Cantor of Warsaw. RCA Victor ReCords.
ISRRAEL IN SONG. Produced by Palestine Art Corp.,
111 Fifth Ave., New York. Distributed by Junior
Hadassah.

Here are two new sets of recordings which are
eminently worth while hearing and possessing.
RCA Victor again has issued a set of record-
ings of songs by Cantor Moshe Kusevitsky. It is
no wonder that the famous singer of Warsaw is
being acclaimed as the world's greatest living
cantor. His powerful voice is flawless. He is a
master interpretor of the Jewish song and the
clarity of his pronbriciation is a boon to his
singing.
His selections in the newest set of records are:
L'Dor Vodor, Umipnei Chatoenu, Shelboneh, Beis
Hamikdosh and Akavyo ben Mahalalel. He is . ac-
companied by a string . ensemble directed by
Joseph M. Rumshinsky.
"Israel in Song," the eight recorded selections
being distributed by Junior Hadassah, features
the music of the noted composer, Nahum Nardi,
and the narration of Ola Schlifko. Here are the
selections in this fine album:
J. Fichman's "Sisi Admat HaSharon" ("Rejoice,
0 Land of Sharon"), D. Shinionovich's "V'Af Al
Pi Chen" ("In Spite of All"), Levin-Kipnis' "Haga-
lila" ("To' Galilee"), "Himnon La-Avoda" ("Hymn
to Labor") by N. Alterman, "Zemer Halutzim"
("Song of Pioneers") by J. Lichtman, "Laila Ba-
Gilboa" ("Night in Gilboa") by A. Shlonsky,
"Hach Ba-Reggel" ("Stamp Your Feet") by R.
Grossman, "Ba-Galil" ("In Galilee") by A. Broides.
An able choir assists the singers in the various
songs. Among the soloists in the various selec-
tions are Simons Bermanis, LOla Gilbert, Judith
Knight, Selma Hurwitz,• Rema Weitz, Edgar Mills
and a Detroiter whose voice has been acclaimed—
Leah Crohn, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence
Crohn.
Both sets of records will enrich even the very
best collections of recordings. The Hazzanic selec-
tions and the Hebrew folk songs are not only the
newest but among the best recordings issued in
many years. An:. for Detroiters the Junior Hadas-
sah album has the added attraction of the inclu-
sion of a local voice which is .receiving national
acclaim.

