'As the Editor Views the News . Is Land in Sight? Good Story Ruined by Repulsive Characters Christian Anti-Israelis In his exceedingly good book, "The Re- alities of American Palestine Relations," Prof. Frank E. Manuel describes the de- structive anti-Zionist role that was played in Palestine by American Missionaries. His indictment is corroborated in a statement that has just been issued by the Rev. Dr. Karl Baehr, who, together with ten other prominent Christians made a study tour of Israel. Dr. Baehr, who is the executive sec- retary of the American Christian Palestine Committee, declares that he and his group Were deeply impressed by Israel's achieve- ments and the determination of its people to build a democratic society with freedom and justice for Arabs and Jews alike, and he asserts : "The most significant way to counteract the voluminous reports that come to the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America and to denominational leaders from the many missionaries and ed- ucators in the Arab areas of the Near East, is to send Christians to Israel to see at first hand what is developing there." Norman Katkov was a stormy petrel when his first novel ("Eagle at My Eyes") was pub- lished more than a year ago. His second novel, "A Little Sleep, a Little Slumber," also pub- lished by Doubleday & Co., Inc. (14 W. 49th St., New York 20), may not arouse as much of a storm but it certainly won't be accepted as a great Jewish work, in spite of the author's bril- liant writing. Perhaps Katkov should be excused for his choice of characters on the ground that he could have substituted an Italian for the Jew, or a Greek or a Peruvian, and it would have suited his purpose. As a story-teller, Katkov is superb. He tells his tale well and the sequence of the life's ex- perience of his hero, Lev Simon, interspersed with the story of his wife, his four sons, his brother-in-law and sister-in-law, • h old the reader's attention like magic. Once you start reading this novel, you've simply got to finish it. Lev comes to this country illegally and until one of his sons learns about it and ascertains that the stay of illegally entered immigrants was legalized in 1923 he lives in deadly fear of being caught and sent back to Russia. As a re- sult, his dishonest and immoral brother-in-law Ben Baratz constantly demands and gets from him large sums of money—until the showdown. Then comes the great tribute to the man who struggled to raise an American family—when Lev is granted American citizenship- The strong pro-Israel statement made last week by Supreme Court Justice Wil- liam 0. Douglas, in Haifa, adds weight to the Christian tourists' viewpoint. Dr. Baehr states that his group discover- ed an overwhelmingly negative answer to the question whether Israel is communistic, that the treatment of Arabs by Israel is good, that religious freedom prevails there. Then comes the following expose of a de- plorable situation involving Christians: A tragic experience, which deserves special mention, was our interview with James E. Sut- ton, then acting head of the Jerusalem YMCA. He was outspokenly hostile to Israel, frankly stated that he hoped the "Y" could be included in the Arab section of the City if the City is to be permanently partitioned, firmly believed that Israel should be required to take back the Arab refugees even though the refugees might successfully be resettled in Arab lands, considered Zionism and British and American support of Zionism a mistake. His position was consistent with that held by A. L. Miller, General Secretary of the Jerusalem "Y" who just recently completed a visit to the United States, where he spoke before innumerable public—and private—gatherings. Wilbert T. Smith, formerly of the Jerusalem "Y" and now a member of the Institute for Arab- American Affairs, and Paul Hoffman, also of the Jerusalem "Y", have been outspoken pro- Arab representatives in America. It is important, I feel, for you to know this so that you might be alert to the fact that hostile forces might well operate through lo- cal YMCA's. Efforts should be made to have programs arranged in "Y's" that would be fair to Israel. Of course it should not be as- sumed that all local YMCA secretaries are hostile. Many are neutral or don't know enough to have reached an opinion. A few are mem- 1.̀.-3rs of the American Christian Palestine Corn- xnittee. The attitude of YMCA workers appar- ently stems from the same source as the antagonism of the missionaries. The hatred which has caused spokesmen for a religious group to fight Israel—before and after the rise of the Jewish state—represents the blackest mark on any non-Jewish group, not excluding even the Moslems. Dr. Baehr's proposal should be taken seriously, it is evident that the job of edu- cating the non-Jewish community has not ended. While Christians admired the cour- age of Jews during the battles in Israel, it is necessary that they should now under- stand the difficulties which Israelis face in settling hundreds of thousands of newcom- ers, in order that they may appreciate even greater heroism in the process of state- building. Serious responsibilities face all of us, in the struggle to uphold the hands of the builders of Israel. THE JEWISH NEWS Member: American Association of English-Jewish News- papers, Michigan Press Association. Services: Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Seven Arts Feature Syndicate, King Features, .Central Press Association, Palcor News Agency. Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing 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 Office, Detroit, Mich., under Act of March 3, 1879. PHILIP SLOMOVITZ, Editor SIDNEY SHMARAK, Advertising Manager VOL. XV—No. 21 Page 4 August 5, 1949 Sabbath Nahamu Readings of the Torah This Sabbath, the eleventh day of Ab, 5709, she following Scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues: Pentateuchal portion—Dent. 3:23-7:11. Prophetical portion—Is. 40.1-26. Katkov's Ugly Men Separation of Church and State We retain the view we have expressed in these columns that church and state should be separated, that our school system should retain its secular character and that private and parochial school systems should be kept outside the or- bit of our educational system. For these reasons, we are inclined to support the view held by Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Herbert Lehman, Ber- nard Baruch, the leading New York newspapers and Rep. Graham A. Barden of North Carolina that Federal assistance to schools should be limited to public and not private in- stitutions. We would oppose deviation from such a principle as strongly if yeshivoth and Jewish parochial schools were in- volved as we are toward private and parochial schools of other denominations. While there is justice to the claim that the health of all school children, regardless of _their attendance in public or private or parochial schools, should be protected, there is a deeper principle involved in differentiating between sup- port of education in public and non-public schools. The root of our dearest American ideals is threatened the moment we resort to European practices of recognizing publicly the existing private religious schools. It would be the first step in breaking down the barrier between church and state and making it possible for religion to influence state, and we urge all conscientious Americans to battle against the danger of church-state fusion, whether it is through the schools or in any other fashion. Israel's Handicaps, Jewry's Duties Alvin Rosenfeld, writing for the New York Post from Tel Aviv, points out that "foreign capital is coming only in trickles" to Israel and presents the following interesting facts : "The -Ministry of Finance has estimated that it will require $900,000,000 yearly to absorb immigration at its present fantastic rate of 200,000 to 250,000 yearly. That is nine times the govern- Ment's 'ordinary' income for 1949. 'Extraordinary' sources of revenue will be far from sufficient. Two-thirds of whatever funds will be. raised by the American Jewish Appeal's campaign —which is lagging far behind its set goal—is earmarked for Israel. A good part of the $100,000,000 Export-Import Bank loan will go for immigrant absorption. The government will raise, by mortgaging its own property, another $60,000,000 for the same purpose. That still leaves a considerable deficit. No one knows where the rest of the money will come from." This is not idle talk. It is a campaign speech used to secure additional dollars from contributors to American funds intended for Israel. The Post correspondent presents hard facts which,. if they are not digested realistically in this country, will choke Israel's economy. Mr. Rosenfeld reveals that the 20,000 immigrant dwell- ings to be built in 1949 will house only half of the homeless settlers. He states that "of the 250,000 who've entered the country since mass immigration began, 120,000 are in aban- doned Arab villages and another 60,000 in the camps." These figures raise serious issues with respect to Ameri- can Jewry's responsibilities. If the 250,000 had not been settled in Israel, the Jews of this country would have to provide funds in astronomical figures to care for the dis- placed persons in European camps. Their settlement in Is- rael does not absolve us of responsibility for their well-being and their ultimate integration into Israel's economy. While most of the UJA drives are over, with only a few yet to be conducted in large cities, it is important that the figures just quoted should be given serious consideration for future planning. In the first place, pledges made in the 1949 drives must be paid immediately in order not to add further handicaps to Israel's upbuilding. Secondly, Ameri- can Jewish communities must plan to participate in the ex- tension of loans to the Jewish state and in encouraging large- scale investments which, alone, can supplement the meager incomes that have been provided for the settlement of DPs. It is a deeply moving story of family love, of devotion of father for wife and children, of his self-sacrifice and their return affections, of his love for America and her institutions. In- deed, as the author states in the story, anyone following the experiences of the Simon family will go home and shower love on his own kin— such is the inspiration of this novel. But because the characters are all Jewish, the reader—this reviewer at least—will be left with a nauseating feeling. There is nothing Jew- ishly inspirational about the entire crew. Only the mother Sarah evinces a sense of charity— and the ridicule she gets for it—apparently re- flecting the sentiments of the author—proves our contention, when we reviewed his first novel, that his abuse of Jewish feelings stems from ignorance. Katkov knows such terms as Bar Mitzvah, frumer, shikseh, yarmulke, kaddish, and then his vocabulary is exhausted. But he is a master in the use of filthy sex terms. There is one incident that lends least credit to the author and certainly does not elevate the character of the hero—when Lev, finding a Jewish beggar in his home eating on the porch because he would not eat in a non-kosher home, teaches the bearded Jew a lesson by pouring milk on meat and by producing ham as his own diet. It may sound like a pretty piece of mischief, but it does not enhance the stature of the Jew and it, does not lend particularly good credit to Jews in the eyes of non-Jewish readers. Katkov undoubtedly will chalk up a good circulation for his second novel, as he has for the first. But if he desires to do it at the ex- pense of moulding the filthiest types of Jews, he may find his conscience plagueing him. It's a pity that so able a writer can't dig up the best among Jewish patriarchs, the noblest in Jewish tradition, the finest in American Jewish creative life, rather than the smile on a father's lips while he reprimands his son for having taken advantage of the tailor's virgin daughter. (And—since when has Katkov become an au- thority on the lowliness of a tailor's status?). Katkov, because he lacks an elementary knowl- edge of Jewish traditions, will never earn a place of honor in Jewish ranks, even though he • writes best sellers. Facts You Should Know . . Why does a bride wear white for the wedding ceremony? Originally the bridegroom was required to wear white. One notices even today in an ultra- religious ceremony that the bridegroom is also dressed in a white gown (a "kittel"). There are a number of reasons for this: the day of the wedding is like the Day of Atonement for bride and bridegroom. (It is customary to wear white on the Day of Atonement). Like Yom Kippur, that day takes away all their sins and thus the white is a symbol of purity. Some say it is an indication of the purity with which peo- ple should enter into marriage. Others say it is to resemble the shroud of the dead—reminding the couple that earthly pleasures are but vain and temporary while the finer things in life that last forever—like true love—should be their goal in married life. * Why is it customary to recall the memories of parents who passed away when standing under the wedding canopy? A wedding day, because it forgives the sins of bride and groom, is like the Day of Atonement. On Yom Kippur it is customary to recite me- morial prayers for the dead, and the wedding day, being like the Day of Atonement, is also a. time for such prayers. Furthermore, it is a means of paying respect to the deceased parents.