Inst§hf and Outioor
THE JEWISH NEWS
Human Reactions In
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Entered as second class matter Aug. 6, 1942 at Post Office,
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Koestler's be Great
Wbrk
a psychiatrist and anthro-
A person has to
pologist, a philosopher and sociologist, and a few
PHILIP SLQMOVITZ. Editor
VOL. XIV—No. 22 Page. 4 February 11, 1949
'
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the thirteenth day of Shevat,
579, the following Scriptural selections will be
read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion—Ex. 13:17-17:16.
Prophetical portion—Judges 4:4-5:31.
Hamisha Apr b'Shevat will be observed Feb. /4.
Gershon Agronsky'sVisit
lie-croit is honored to be included in the
Itinerary prepared for Gershon Agronsky - s
brief tour of major U. S. cities in behalf of
the Israel Histadrut campaign.
As editor of the Palestine Post,- the only
English language daily newspaper in the en-
tire Middle East, Mr. Agronsky has been in
the most responsible position to watch • the
trend of events affecting the rising State of
Israel and has been- the guide for scores of
newspapermen and public officials who have
come to Palestine to study Conditions in that
part of the world.
Very few men of importance who have
gone to Palestine have failed to visit with Mr.
Agronsky, at his home or office, to get his
viewpoint on the issues revolving around
Palestine's problems. Many a foreign corres-
pondent has gotten his -education in Zionism,
the problems affecting Jews and their rela-
tion to Great Britain, from Mr. Agronsky.
His editorials have had a leavening influ-
ence in British and Jewish circles. - Strongly
opposed to the extremists, he nevertheless
has been unyielding in his opposition to the.
British attitude of obstructionism to the Jew.
ish cause.
His present tour results from a deep-root-
ed conviction that Israel's most effective in-
strument in the upbuilding of the Jewish
State is the Histadrut. The message he brings
to Detroit is of vital importance at this time,
when the Jewish State is preparing to wel:
come hundreds of thousands of dispossessed
Jews. Detroit's Histadrut campaign will re-
ceive important encouragement from his vis-
it here, and the community will have an op-
portunity to hear a most interesting report
from Israel from the man best equipped to
give it.
Plow versus Sword
There undoubtedly will be many obstacles
to peace in the Middle East and many month
may elapse before the stability of the
terranean is assured. The fact, however, that
discussions in support of a permanent armis-
tice have begun in earnest is an indication
that we may look forward to amity.
Even during the weeks of fiercest conflict
between the Israeli forces and their antagon-
ists, Jewish spokesmen pleaded for peace and
reiterated Prophetic aspirations that the plow
must replace the sword and that not by might
but by the spirit of justice will Israel and
mankind prevail and survive.
During the struggle in the Negev, Israel's
Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, in an ad-:
dress to the Israeli Commandos, made the
following declaration:
Our future, the future of the Jewish
people, will not be built by the sword.
War-making is not a Jewish vocation.
This war has been imposed upon us. We
have been forced to fight for our inde-
pendence, for the liberation of our coun,
try. We will fight. as long as these objec-
tives are endangered. But our future will
not be built upon the army. The future
of Israel will be built only on our ability
to work and create, on colonization in the
countryside and town, on the blossoming
of art and literature, and the vision of the
Prophets of Israel: honest and purposeful
labor, justice and peace, fraternity and..
freedom. The political and social system -
toward which we strive can be formu-
lated in the ancient words. "Love by
neighbor as thyself." This is the vision,
we are destined to realize in our lives.
We will draw the sword from the sheath
to protect our freedom, our homeland
and the vision of our prophets, only when
attacked, when fighting is forced upon
us. A generation ready to die for these
values will never be defeated.
This is the sentiment that prevails in Is-
rael, among the military as well as civilians.
Such idealism, as Ben-Gurion has_ said, can
not - be destroyed. The great ideal of the
Prophets is about to be realized, thanks to
the prevalence of common sense and a pas-
sionate desire for justice among Israel's
guides and leaders.
Brotherhood:erving Justice
Brotherhood Week, which this year will be observed
from Feb. 20 to Feb. 27, has been endorsed in a most in-
spiring message issued by the President, of the United States,
an's statement urges "a personal rededication
Mr. Truman's
to the principles of equality and justice which have made
our country great." The "urgehcy of its (Brotherhood Week's)
reminder" is outlined by the President in this statement:
"We approch another Brotherhood Week at a time
when none can doubt the urgency of its reminder that
men of all creeds and races are bound together in one
common fate.
"This- association in a common destiny means that
the real problems of the world are those of human rela-
tions. In this age when science has tapped the atom's
nucleus, man must tap the nucleus of understanding with-
out which there is no wisdom, no spirit for righteous
action, and no mutual Concern.
"Brotherhood is the solution. It is 'the source of the
unity within our nation - -which will make us powerful
in example and strong in. -moral purpose so that we may
give to our world the leadership worthy of our heritage.
Moreover, our future as a nation can be bright with im-
measurable achievement as we extend liberty within
our borders and lead mankind to a united world without
ancient hates and enlightened by the recognition that all •
mankind is one family.
"Brotherhood Week is the occasion for rededication
of the American people to these high spiritual objec-
tives.
"I, therefore, call upon the American people to par-
ticipate in Brotherhood Week., sponsored by the National
Conference of Christians and Jews. . .
"Let us join as - a united people to serve with diligence
that brotherhood whiCh springs from the Fatherhood of
God and which offers true glory to our nation and hope to
all mankind." • .
Our chances of eradicating the mischief of prejudice
and misunderstanding are better today than ever before.
The President is right in stating that "Brotherhood is the
solution"—provided it is advanced in the home as well as in
the schools and in our community ,institutions.
We won't get very far if the search for Brotherhood
will be limited to a few parlor meetings, to half a dozen
luncheons a year sponsored by Round Table organizations,
to a smattering of lip service. Unless there is a determined
effort to break down bigotry in the home, the school and
the house of worship, the "source of unity" that is necessary
for the advancement of genuine good will may be indefinitely
postponed. An aggressive educational effort and a sincerity
of purpose will assure true Brotherhood. Perhaps 1949 is
the-year for it.
Bar Associatidn
and Genocide
for liberals representing the natio:Mt)
It took many years
or the.world to Torce the adoption of the UN genocide cosi-
other -ists besides, to be able adequately to review
Arthur Koestler's "Insight and Outlook," one of
the most challenging books of
our time, which has just been
published by Macmillan. But
anyone who loves good writ-
ing and appreciates brilliant
composition will be fascinat-
ed by this truly great book.
It is a study of hurnor and
its effects on those who hear
the joke; of the scientific and
Moral forces in the world, of Arthur Koestler
Fraudian theories, of "association trains" and hab-
its of thought. It is a great artist's evaluation of
human reactions and :human behaviors.
Koestler was born in 1905 in Budapest. His .
father was Hungarian, his mother Viennese. He
in -
was educated in Vienna, then spent two years
the near East—Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Iraq—
working as a farmer in Palestine, selling lemonade
in the streets of Haifa, becoming assistant to an
Arab architect, editing a weekly published in
Cairo in German and Arabic. At the age of twenty-
one he was Middle East correspondent for the
Ullstein chain of German liberal newspapers and
magazines, including the Vossische Zeitung later
abolished under the Nazi regime. In 1929 he be-
came Paris correspondent and the following year
the
was called to Berlin as foreign editor. He was
only journalist to take part in the, Arctic Expedi-
tion of the Graf Zeppelin in the summer of 1931.
That year he joined the Communist Party and
later travelled as a correspondent in Russia,
through Soviet-Central Asia, Turkestan, Buchara,
Samarkand, the Transcaucasion Republics, etc. In
1933 he returned to France and wrote a- novel
which was awarded a literary prize in Switzer-
land but was never published. The manuscript of
this was lost after the collapse of - France during
World War II.
In 1934 and 1935 .Mr. Koestler did free lance
journalism in - Paris and Zurich and in 1936 went
to Spain to cover the Civil War. He was arrested
by the Fascists and condemned to death. After
spending 'three months in prisons at Malaga and
Seville, he was released through the intervention
of the British Government and the pressure of
world-wide public opinion. From these experi-
ences he wrote "Spanish Testament," most of
which was published in the United States in 1942
under the title of "Dialogue with Death." His first
book to be published in the United States was
"The Gladiators," a historical novel about the
slave war in the days of Julius Caeser.
Eighteen months before the Non-Aggression
Pact was signed between Germany and Russia,
stler left the Communist Party and in
Mr. Koe
1938 edited an - anti-Soviet, anti-Nazi weekly in
Paris. His "Darkness at Noon," published in 1940,
told a psychological story of the Moscow trials.
When the war broke out Mr. Koestler was arrested
and sent to Le Vernet detention camp from which
he was released in 1940. After reaching England he
joined the British army as a private and later he
worked with the Ministry of Information and the
British Broadcasting Corporation in London. In
"Scum of the Earth," Mr. Koestler recounted his
experiences in the concentration camp.
While in America in 1948, Mr. Koestler re-
ferred to his latest work, "Insight and Outlook,"
as a philosophical manuscript on which he ha l
been writing five years, but which he had been
thinking about for twenty years. He called it an
attempt to unify the creative and social activities
of man; to clarify the roots of man's scientific
discovery, artistic invention, and moral action. in
it he analyzes all of the aspects of human nature
and the human social scene and structure as he
has viewed it in his own experience and study
and through which he has "discovered" an indi-
vidually broadened outlook on our past and future
history. He terms his concept "bisociative" psy-
chology, as distinctive from "associative" psychol-
ogy. "Insight and Outlook", is subtitled "An In-
quiry into the Common Foundations of Science,
Ar_t and Social Ethics."
At the close of the Preface, written at Blaenau
Ffestiniog, December, 1947, Mr. Kosetler writes:
"This book, then, is about some of the forces and
circumstances which make men laugh, weep, cre-
ate, and destroy their creation; and, very indi-
rectly; about some of the reasons for believing that
the present crisis in our civilization is not the
end, but only a transition."
Mr. Koestler spent the summer and early fall
Of 1948 in Palestinewriting articles for Press
Alliance, Inc. of New York, and gathering mate-
rial for a new. book. In October he returned to
France, where hg, is now' living.
Mr. Koestler was criticized in these columns
for some of his views expreSsed on the. Israeli
situation. But it is a great relief to be able to state
that he has written a notable book which places
him on top of the ladder or modern writers.
vention, prohibiting the destruction in whole or in part cm
national, ethnical, racial or religious groups. This UN decisaun
provides punishment for complicity in genocide and for con-
spiracy to incitement in such crimes.
Freedom-loving people everywhere acclaimed the victory
for justice in this UN ruling. But in Chicago last week the
House of Delegates of the American Bar Association, which
earlier had approved a resolution calling on the U..S. delega-
tion to the UN to delay for at least one year final action on the
proposed international covenant on human rights, unani-
mously adopted a resolution calling on the U. S. not to ratify
the UN convention outlaWing genocide:
This is the most shocking -decision ever arrived at by a
responsible body of American leaders.-It is worthy of the Ku
Klux Klan but not of the great Rar Association which holds
the dignified role of framer. of ethical codes for the legal
profession.'
Frank E. Holman of Seattle, president of the Bar -Asso-
ciation, was the author of the resolution urging the U. S.
Senate not to approve the genocide convention "until and
unless there has been accorded the time and opportunity for
adequate public dismission and understanding of the conven-
tion." What, Mr. Holman, do you suppose has been happening
all these years since we "defeated" Hitler? Do you suppose
the UN was twiddling its thumbs while acting on the Geno ,
cide plan?
The American Bar Association stands disgraced by its
-
latest action.
Facts You Should Know:--
What is the "Yishuv"? What is a "Moshav"?
The Jewish community in Palestine was corn-
'monly referred to as the "Yishuv" before the es-
tablishment of the state of Israel. The term comes
from an old Hebrew word meaning "to sit" or
"to settle." The term in its reference to Palestine
is thus a Hebrew term meaning the (`settlement."
A "Moshav" is the name given to an agricul-
tural village in Palestine. It is characterized by
the fact that the colony is settled on land secured
from thq Jewish National Fund with each family
owning fts own home and farm implements.
What is'the origin and meaning of the term
"diaspora?"
The term "diaspora" comes from a Greek eosn-.
bination of two words related to the Latin com-
bination of "dis" which means "apart" and
"spargo" which means "scatter.". The term refers
to the Jewish people and their settlements outside
of Palestine where they have • been "scattered
apart." The diaspora is thus either the place or
the people (of Israel) which has been "scattered
apart."