As the Editor
Views the News ...

`That Is the Villain!'

Rabbi Adler Urges Halt
To Undignified Affairs

Belated Expose

In a description of the anti-Semitic riot
which occurred on Peoria Street in Chicago
last November, the current Anti-Defama-
tion League Bulletin makes this comment:

By RABBI MORRIS ADLER

(From Shaarey Zedek Recorder)

"The national revulsion that followed
the Peekskill (N.Y.) incident was its most
encouraging factor. By the same token
the lack of national reaction to the Chi-
cago riots is discouraging. These incidents
are warning beacons to America. When
they are ignored the democratic fabric is
injured."

When news of the Chicago riots first was
published — then already belatedly — . there
were denials of their authenticity and there
were people who insisted that it was a minor
_ anti-Negro riot. Now, in the expose in the

ADL Bulletin and in an illuminating article,
"Civil Rights on Peoria Street," by Mike
Hecht, in the February issue of Frontier
Magazine, the true facts in the horrible in-
cidents which disgraced the city of Chicago
have only begun to be emphasized.
To the credit of the Sentinel, Chicago's
English-Jewish weekly p e r i o d i c a 1, it
should be stated that it presented the
Peoria Street story in all its horrors. But
its revelations were poo-pooed.
Whose fault is. it that the "national re-
action" was lacking? Was it the fault only
of the newspapers of Chicago which failed
to publiciie 1t properly?
But there is another side to this charge:
there is the 'Jewish side. Whose fault was it
that the American Jewish community was
kept in the dark about the Chicago happen-
ings for which there is only one term:
pogrom ! Is it possible that our national
organizations, which are asking for huge
sums for civic-protective work, failed to do
their dutY?
Gentlemen, gentlemen ! Don't start de-
ploring a lack of "national reaction," but
look to your .own laurels, lest there be repe-
tition of the nasty occurrences and accom-
panying injury to the democratic fabric.

True Fraternity

Pamphatria, the body representing 16
Greek letter houses on the campus of Co-
lumbia University in New York, in a policy
statement issued last week urged its mem-
bers to work for the elimination by consti-
tution means of membership restrictions
based on race, creed or color.
Two years ago, Columbia • University's
Interfraternity Council, referring to the
action of an Amherst College fraternity
which pledged a Negro to membership,
stated that "the occurrence of such restric-
tion is entirely a matter of internal relations
within a single fraternity." Pamphatria now
has reversed its stand by stating that "re-
strictions of this sort . . . should be removed
as soon as possible through constitutional
procedures provided in each organization."
This, definitely, is a progressive step that
should lead to complete abandonment of
bias in fraternities and thenceforth in other
university fields. Perhaps the trend also is
towards the wiping out of percentage quotas
practiced in the admission of Jews and Ne-
groes in professional schools.
At Rutgers University, the school's board
of trustees took action a few days ago re-
quiring campus fraternities with discrimina-
tory provisions to "make bona fide efforts"
to repeal them. Rutgers' board asserted that
student organizations with restrictive
clauses no longer will be admitted. Last
year, the Dartmouth College Interfraternity
Council led 12 northeastern schools in a
move to end discrimination in fraternities.
Indeed, we are on the road to progress.
If our college students should continue to
lead the way to true fraternity, perhaps we
shall see the decline of bigotry in other
fields—economic, social and cultural.

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.

Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing
Co. 708-10 David Stott 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
RUTH L. CASSEL, City Editor

Vol. NATI—No. 25

Page 4

March 3, 1950
.

Sabbath Scriptural Selections

This Sabbath, the fifteenth day of Adar,
5710, the following Scriptural selections will be
ruid in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion—Ex. 27:20-30:10.
Prophetical portion—Ezek. 43:10-27.

Programs That Disgrace Us

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PURIM THEME)

Urgent Israel Problems

Problems affecting the future of Israel again are rising
to the fore and are demanding the attention of the Jews
of this country.
War threats in the Middle East have compelled Ameri-
can Jewish leaders to make strong representations to the
U. S. State Department on the score of arms shipments to
Egypt and other Arab countries. Unfortunately, the pro-
tests of the American Zionists have been rejected and it
becomes necessary for the Jews of America and their non-
Jewish friends to ask that, in the interest of fair play, there
should at least be impartiality in the release of arms to
Middle Eastern countries. If there are questions of security
in the Middle East, it is only fair that the small state of
Israel should be given an equal opportunity for self-defense;
and if there are to be arms shipments, Israel, whose demo-
cratic leanings are unquestioned, should receive her share
in order that the sale of weapons to Egypt should not be
out of balance in the troubled Mediterranean area.
In behalf of the American Zionist Council delegation
to the State Department, Mr. Louis Lipsky found it neces-
sary to issue this statement after receiving a rebuff to his
delegation's requests for an end to arms shipments to the
Arabs.

"We repeat that we regret the position taken by the State
Department. We are convinced that American public opinion
will not share the complacency of Mr. Acheson toward the re-
arming of the Arab states. The danger we refer to is not far
off; it is right around the corner. The state of Israel is now en-
gaged in negotiating for peace agreements to take the place of
the armistice arrangements with the Arab states. Sending them
large quantities of arms at this time inevitably disturbs all talks
of peace with them. It is like handing a revolver to a potential
assailant, who has once been disarmed.
"We solemnly declare that the approval of England's sending
of new planes and heavy artillery and submarines to -any Arab
state at this time is a direct encouragement of Arab aggression.
We deplore that the state of Israel will have 'to use a larger part
of its hard-pressed budget not for the restoration and rehabili-
tation of the tens of thousands of new settlers, but for the mo-
bilization and equipment of its armed forces."

This statement indicates quite clearly that Israel's
energies must be diverted from practical efforts to those
of defense and the conditions of 1948 are repeating them-
selves. While, on the one hand, the infant country is wel-
coming large numbers of settlers and is providing for them
on small budgets, the Israel government is compelled to
think seriously of defense.
Thus, the Jews of America, who are called upon to pro-
vide the major funds for reconstruction and immigrant ab-
sorption purposes, again are challenged at least to fulfill
the obligations inherent in the serious task of liquidating
those Jewish communities whose security lies only in Israel
and whose people must leave their "homelands" which have
been turned into infernos by their antagonists. How will
American Jewry react to the increasing needs?
The Jews of this country already have proven that
they are politically-minded, that they know when and how
to act in an emergency. A new crisis has arisen and our
people must call upon our government's leaders to be fair
on the arms shipment question. If it is a question of se-
curity, then Israel—the only democracy in the Middle East—
must not be tranformed into a whipping child to take all
the punish.mbent while Egypt is being armed. Let Israel be
given an equal opportunity for self-defense.
Then there is the constantly recurring duty of pro-
viding the means with which to assure Israel's ieconomic
and social security. There has been too much talk of late
about the difficulty of raising the necessary funds for the
United Jewish Appeal. A determined effort should be made,
from now on, to adopt an optimistic attitude through reso-
lution not to permit failure in the coming drive. Unless we
mean to be partners in Israel's hardships—which the Arabs
would like to translate into destruction—we must lend the
Jewish state all the support it needs in the immigrant ab-
sorption program.
The test is at hand—on the political front involving
the attitude in Washington and our readiness to act in de-
fense of the Israel frontiersmen—and on the home front,
involving our duty to the UJA. We must make good on
both scores.

The greatest problem of most chairmen of
organizations seems to be how to achieve what
is usually described as a good "turn out." More
thought is probably devoted by those who direct
the affairs of clubs, lodges and societies to
means by which a large audience might be at-
tracted, than to any other matter. Successful
meetings are those at which all seats are
filled.
This, it appears to me, is not only a fallacy
but also a danger. The ouality and content of a
program are entirely lost sight of, for the com-
mittee is exclusively concerned with attendance.
Dignity, Jewish values and good taste are thrown
to the winds, as a hodge-podge of entertaining
varieties is assembled aimed to catch the fancy
of the hitherto absentee membership. Night clubs,
burlesque houses and vaudeville theaters are
imitated in the hope that their appeal to num-
bers of people might be duplicated. "Cultural (?)'"
programs are devoted to humorists, whose stories

often reveal both Jewish self-hatred. and offen-
sive vulgarity; to mesmerists, hypnotists, chorus
girls, non-Jews who can sing Eili-Eili, acrobats
and jugglers. Since it is assumed that people
will come only for entertainment, we give them
entertainment with a vengeance. What matters
it, if every canon of dignity and propriety is vio-
lated? "We get the crowd, don't we," says the
program chairman when chided for the cheap-
ness of the evening's program.

That this is not the way is obvious. Not only
will we succeed in driving intelligent and sensi-
tive Jews out of organized Jewish life, but even
those who now come will soon tire of the mo-
notonous fare of vulgarity. Lt* organizations ask
themselves whether they are not paying too high
a price for the "crowd." What purpose is served
by their attendance? How do these programs
contribute to the purpose of the organization?
The time has come to call a halt on "fashion-
shows," "jazz-dances," "canasta-parties," "stag-
affairs," "imitations of radio and television
broadcasts," "minstrel shows" that are sponsored
by Jewish groups and that parade as Jewish
programs. Better no meetings at all, than some
of the meetings I have recently seen anhounced.
Let responsible Jews .stay away from programs
that disgrace us, and inform those in charge of
their indignation and protest..

Lewy Says Prophet Nathan
Was Author of Pentateuch

Immanuel Lewy's "The Birth of the Bible:
A New Approach" (Bloch Publishing Co., New
York) is an unusual book.

The author, a descendant of Rabbi Mordecai
Jaffee, a rabbinical codifier who traced his
descent from Rashi, maintains in this work that
the Prophet Nathan, who was Solomon's teacher
and King David's political adviser, was the
author of the basic document of the Pentateuch
and of the Books of Samuel.

In an introduction to this interesting book,
Prof. Mordecai M. Kaplan states that "we can-
not do without some kind of reconstruction of
the past which will possess far more inner co-
herence than those proposed hitherto"; that
"the criterion in reconstructing the history of
the Bible, the theories concerning the authorship
of the text, and those concerning the vicissi-
tudes of Israel's religion, will not only have to
be mutually consistent but also mutually illu-
minating"; and he adds that this book for the
first time meets this condition. Therefore, Dr.
Kaplan thanks Dr. Lewy on behalf of the Recon-
structionist Foundation "for having given us the
privilege of introducing to the public this tour-
de-force of his on the Bible."
The Prophet Nathan is portrayed as having
possessed a strong love for Solomon. We are
told by Dr. Lewy that "before Solomon was
familiar with the difficulties of ruling in his
days, he was still full of the teachings of his
master. We know that the older he grew, the
more he adapted himself to the conventional
outlook of his time."
Dr. Lewy maintains that: "Nathan did not
want to have any priestly caste:as there was in
Egypt, where they had the privilege of possess-
ing private land property without. being subject
to taxation (Gen. 47:22). He coined the phrase
that the whole people should become a nation
of priests (Ex. 19:6), which practically meant the
non-existence of any privileged priest-caste."
Hailed as a valuable contribution to Biblical
criticism, Dr. Lewy's book may arouse consider-
able controversy. In the meantime, as Dr. Kap-
lan states in his introduction, it "should be of
vital concern to every student of the Bible,
whether Jewish or non-Jewish."

Facts You Should Know .

How many Jews remain • in Germany?
The latest figures show that 46,000 Jews stHi
are in Germany. Of this number, 4,000 are "hard-
core" cases. Of the rest., it is believed that about
20,000 are potential immigrants to Israel.