As the Editor
Views the News ...
Get Rid of Those!
This City's Youth Shares in Many
Efforts to Build the Jewish State
Israel's New Settlements
An impressive record of Israel's - coloniza-
tion efforts is outlined in the following de-
scription in the Tel Aviv Hebrew Daily
Hatzofeh:
The Agricultural Settlement Depart-
ment of the Jewish Agency set up nine
new settlements during September: four
of pioneer youth, one of demobilized sol-
diers and four of new immigrants.
Of the 99 settlements set up during
the past year 30 were established in Gali-
lee, 4 in the Jezreel and Jordan Valley, 14
in the Shamron and Sharon Valleys, 18
in the Jerusalem corridor and Lydda dis-
trict, 26 in Southern Judea and 7 in the
Negev. Of these settlements, 51 are kib-
butzim and 48 workers' settlements; 24
were established by natives of the coun-
try, 9 by immigrants from Poland, Hun-
gary and the Anglo-Saxon countries, 7 by
immigrants from North Africa., Czecho-
slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania, 4 by
Turkish immigrants, 3 by Yugoslav and
Yemenite immigrants, one by Greek and
Indian immigrants and 8 by settlers of
mixed origin. The number of people ab-
sorbed in new settlements during the past
year was 37,400.
This outline is sufficient to indicate the
extensive resettlement program in Israel.
While nearly 100,000 newcomers remain in
camps, awaiting assignments either to the
existing colonies or to start new settle-
ments, large numbers of 1949 settlers are
rapidly becoming acclimated to their new
life and, together with older settlers, are
dotting the new state with numerous col-
onies.
Many of the newcomers to Israel who
are suffering from the effects of persecu-
tions and life in Nazi concentration camps,
find it difficult to accept responsibility in
cooperative or collective settlements. It is
not so easy for them to be fused in the life
of cooperatives and to begin careers of se-
rious work in the creation of an exhaustive
agricultural economy in Israel. These peo-
ple prefer business enterprises. It will take
time to mould them for future constructive
efforts and Israel is patient with them.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of addi-
tional settlers are coming to the Jewish state
and means must be provided to welcome all
of them. Patience must be fused with liber-
ality. Without large gifts from the Jews of
America, the structure cannot be secure.
American Jewry must supply the tremen-
dous funds that are needed to write the final
chapter in the task of ending the home-
lessness of the surviving Jews of Europe
and Africa.
Justice Prevai ls
All Americans have reason to gain cour-
age from the decision handed down by the
Illinois Appelate Court revising the verdict
against the Chicago Sentinel in the libel suit
that involved Joseph McWilliams and a group
of others who do not deny that they are
anti-Semites.
Speaking for the court, Justice Scanlan
pointed out that "in their rebuttal plaintiffs
(McWilliams, et al) offered not facts but
merely the opinions of rabid anti-Semites.
... The real issue in the case was whether
plaintiffs were pro-Nazi .. Instead of meet-
ing that grave and embarrassing issue they
sought to becloud it and to win the case
through wild statements of witnesses and
lawyers that the trial involved a contest
between Christians and civilization on the
one side and dangerous Jews upon the
other."
Because of the `.`outrageous record," the
original verdict was reversed. True Ameri-
canism was vindicated and all have reason
to gain heart and courage that bigotry can
gain no sanction in the free United States.
We congratulate the Sentinel's publish-
ers on the good fight they conducted and on
being upheld in their appeal.
THE JEWISH NEWS
Member: American Association of English-Jewish News-
impers. 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. 708-10 David Stott Bldg.. Detroit 26, Mich., WO. 5-1155.
Subscription $3 a rear: foreign $4.
Entered as second class matter Aug. 6, 1942 at Poet Office,
Detroit. Mich., under Act of March 3. 1879.
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ. Editor
SIDNEY SHMARAK Advertising Manager
RUTH L. CASSEL, City Editor
VOL. XVI—No. 11 Page 4 November 25, 1949
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the fifth day of Kislev, 5710,
the following Scriptural. selections will be read
in 0Th synagogues:
Pentateuch al portion—Gen. 25:19-28:9.
Prophetical portion—Mal. 1:1-2:7.
Detroiters In Israel
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
tcutl. YELEY.RAritic AGENCY
Threat to U. S. Jewry's Unity
The unity of American Jewry, which was cemented
during the past decade by events in Israel and the estab-
lishment of the unified fund-raising effort of the United
Jewish Appeal, is threatened by forces within our ranks
whose leaders have injected the false cry that overseas re-
lief has led to the neglect of American welfare and civic
agencies.
. When responsible men find it necessary to assert that
the synagogue, Jewish education, civic services and com-
munity relations programs have not found an adequate re-
sponse in this country because of the emphasis placed on
overseas needs, it becomes necessary to challenge those
who malign the causes which support Israel's upbuilding
and the rehabilitation of survivors from Naizism.
Detroit's Allied Jewish Campaign is a typical example
of what has transpired in American Jewish life in the past
decade. While emphasis has been placed in local drives
upon our responsibilities to the displaced persons and to
the land which alone has been able to rehabilitate them, our
unified drive has included all social service, educational and
recreational projects. Only the synagogue is excluded from
our unified drives—for the obvious reason that the three
factors in our religious life—the Reform, Conservative and
Orthodox elements—are financing their own needs in their
own way, without hindrance.
The fact is that many secondary causes have tagged
along in UJA drives and have benefited from American
Jewry's liberality. While it is true that much larger sums of
money are needed by our education movements, it is doubt-
ful whether any cultural group could possibly raise even
enough to approximate their present income without being a
tail of the UJA kite.
The damaging aspect of the new trend in communal
circles—a trend that has been labeled "philanthropic and
ideological isolationism"—is that it may prove menacing
to the major responsibility in Jewish life : that of completing
the historic 'task of liquidating the problem of the persecuted
in Europe and North Africa while rebuilding the Jewish
state.
New York Supreme Court Justice Meier Steinbrink, na-
tional chairman of the Bnai Brith Anti-Defamation League,
speaking at the Joint Defense Appeal conference in De-
troit, gave tone to the new Jewish "isolationist" approach
when he stated: "Not all of us could see eye to eye with the
ideological drives that went along with the rescue move-
ments. But we did no cavil. We were concerned with only
one thing—the rescue of the remnant, no matter what the
cost. Now, however, the accumulated problem -s of our Jew-
ish communal life in this country can be neglected no longer."
At the outset, we deny catero, orically the correctness
of the second portion of this quotation.
To speak of_ "neg-
6
lect" of Jewish communal needs is to hurl an unearned ac-
cusation that the Jews of this country have been negli-
gent in their responsibilities to their own institutions. But
the judge's statement appears to indicate that those who feel
like him have grudgingly assisted in the work of the UJA
and that to them the Israel issue is solved.
The fact is that Israel is struggling today not because
it needs support for itself but because a the influx of hun-
dreds of thousands of immigrants who are . as much OUR
responsibility as they are Israel's. There are thousands of
Jews in Marseilles who are waiting to be transported to
Israel.- The sad plight of Jews in Arabic countries demands
our participation in all efforts to rescue them. Would Jus-
tice Steinbrink and those who share his regrettable view-
point call a halt to this rescue task, thereby creating even
greater problems for the future ?
American Jewry would have been tested to the full if
the 300,000 Jews who have come to Israel in 18 months
were to have been heaped upon these blessed shores. What
would the "isolationists" have done about homes, jobs,
food, clothing for these people ? We shudder at the thought
over what would have happened. Israel has saved US from
pressing responsibilities by taking in these people and by
keeping her doors open for hundreds of thousands who are
yet to be settled. The only way in which we can repay Israel
is by pooling all our energies to aid the completion of Is-
rael's state-building tasK and by repudiating the "isolation-
ists." We can't conceive of any other reply that will be given
by our people to those who seek to destroy our unity.
Detroit has tremendous stakes in Israel. Not
only its machines and tools, its automobiles and
buses; nor its contributions, which in the main
have been liberal; but primarily the manpower
stands out as a great gift to the new land.
An example of determined effort to assist
in this vast colonization scheme is the choice
of Hiram (Chaim) Zeldes to be settled at Hari-
zim, in the hot territory of the Negev, the south-
ern undeveloped portion of Israel.
One of the garden spots of Israel is the
Kibutz—the collective colony—of Ramat Yocha.-
nan. This settlement, named in honor of Gen-
eral Jan Christian Smuts, one of Zionism's
staunchest supporters, began like all Israeli
colonies on rocky ground. Its settlers have con - .
vented it into a veritable paradise. Its pioneers
include several Detroiters, some with University
of Michigan and Wayne University training.
Meir Harrison, who has followed the policy of
the land of adopting Hebrew names and now
is Meir Ben-Zwi, was on a visit in Detroit last
year for several months but returned to Ramat
Yochanan, where he resides with his wife and
three children, to teach Hebrew to 40 Bulgarian
children who have been accepted as residents
in the colony. Other Detroiters are Ephraim
Malamud and his family; Moshe Zamir (former-
ly Soloveiehick) and his family and his par-
ents, Mr. and Mrs. Dov Zamir, who recently
joining him there; Miss Euda Levin and Benny
Kaminker and his family.
At Sassa, on the Lebanese border, is a new
settlement composed entirely of Americans who
came to Israel to assist in building the Jewish
state. A group of Detroiters are among the tough
frontiersmen who are defying many dangers
as proof that they possess the true pioneering
spirit. In this new settlement—known as Kib-
butz Hei—whose rapid rise has captured the ad-
miration of all who have visited it—are these
Detroiters: Sara Epstein,. Ali Seigle, Jacob Wood-
row, Mort Shell and David Safferstein. Yisrael
and Esther Stashefsky will join them soon.
At Ein-Dor, in the Emek Jezreel (the Valley
of Israel), which is one of the flourishing areas
in restored Israel, is one of the numerically
largest group of Detroiters: Gershon Seigelman,
Zin Fesenstein, Abba Salter, David Nemoff,
Miriam Levine, Shoshana Marks HarriS, Aaron
Einhorn, Zippi Greenspan and Aryeh Raskin. .•
A sister of Shoshana Marks Harris, Mrs. Max
Goldberg (Ruth Ann Marks) — they are the
daughters of Dr. and Mrs. M. Marks—is at one
of the most interesting spots now being de-
veloped here, in the new settlement of Gesher
Aziv. A mixed settlement of Canadian' and
American halutzim (pioneers), Gesher Aziv is
digging deep to establish an agricultural settle-
ment and has found much water to assist it in
its efforts. One of the settlers explained to me
that this once was one of the richest areas in
the Middle East, that through the wadis (water
canals) water flowed from the hills through
the valleys down to the Mediterranean. One ex-
planation of the name Aziv is that it comes
from the Biblical reference to hekhziv—mean-
ing disappointment, to denote the disparage-
ment in olden days when the water stopped
descending at this point. At Gesher Aziv the
settlers are manufacturing beds for the new-
comers to Israel, to supplement their income.
Jacob Rycus, a young Detroiter, has found an
important place for himself in Jerusalem as one
of the editors of the Palestine Post.
Joseph Yanich is studying in Jerusalem on a
scholarship from Michigan.
*
Dr. Samuel Lewin-Epstein of Jerusalem,
brother of Mrs. A. M. Hershman of Detroit, is
president of the Palestine Dental Association.
He just came to the U. S. in the interests of the
movement to build a Dental College in Israel
The mother of the David Zellmans and of
Mrs. Lillian - Harrison of Detroit—Mrs. Ethel Zell-
man—makes her home in the Achva section. of
Jerusalem.
The family of Albert Elazar, associate super-
intendent of the United Hebrew Schools of De-
troit, resides on David Yellin Street here. Mr.
Elazar's father, Rabbi Judah Elazar, is a vener-
able scholar who was born in Jerusalem. His
father came to the Holy Land from Turkey many
years ago.
In an advisory capacity for engineering pro-
jects is Victor Avrunin, University of Michigan
graduate, whose father was a member of the
Jewish Legion which fought under General Al-
lenby for the liberation of Palestine. His wife,
Judy Avrunin, is the Haifa representative of
the Palestine Post.
Another engineer who is presently engaged
in important construction projects is David
Sklash. His wife, the former Shirley Subar, who
was active in Jewish educational projects in
Detroit, hopes to enter the social service field.
The Heyman family in Rishon LeZion and
Ness Tziona is among the first pioneers from
Detroit in Israel.
At Kfar Saba, at the Bet Berl whose library
(Sifriah) is being erected with funds provided
by Morris Schaver of Detroit, five Detroiters are
preparing for an eight-month course of study:
Lollie Marks, Roland Kaminer, Jack Braitman,
Evelyn Goldberg and Rena Silver.
These are merely brief references to the ac-
tivities of Detroiters in Israel. Their complete
story forms a rich chapter in U. S. aid to the
Jewish state.