The Fiend Grinds On
As the Editor
Views the News .
`The Other Father' by Noted
Author a Well-Written Book
Israel and Zionism
Israel's Premier David Ben-Gurion was
right in -stating, at the meeting of the 77-
man Zionist General Council, in Tel Aviv,
last week, that the financial support Jews
outside of the Jewish state were giving to
the builders of Israel did not entitle them to
a voice in the government ofd the new land.
Reflecting the prevailino, opinion that is
crystallizing among Israel's leaders, Mr. Ben
Gurion welcomed criticism but reiterated the
view he had expressed on earlier occasions
that only those who came to Israel and as-
sumed citizenship in the land had a right to
participate in the government's affairs. He
emphasized that Israel is in dire need of
support from the outside world, but that
this does not entitle Diaspora Zionists to
share in policy-making.
It is of the utmost importance that this
viewpoint should be understood and appre-
ciated, especially at this time, while the
United Jewish Appeal is conducting its drives
throughout the United States and Jews in
other lands are gathering funds to assist in
the large-scale immigration flow into Israel.
Jews everywhere owe a responsibility to the
survivors from Nazism and to those who
continue to suffer indignities in Moslem and
other lands to provide homes for them in the
Jewish state. Diaspora Jewry has no right to
legislate for these people or to regulate their
Jives. We have a right to ask that Israel
should be conducted accordino. to highest
Jewish ideals and to the basis of
b the ethical
principles of our Prophets, but law-making
and state-building must be conducted by
those who will be affected by the laws and
conditions of the state to which they owe
allegiance as citizens.
Mr. Ben-Gurion is justified in his de-
mands upon Zionists that they limit them-
selves to fund-raising and to retaining cul-
tural ties with Israel. In other fields, Zionists
must remain neutral. The sooner Zionist
ideology is adjusted to comply with the pro-
posals advanced by Mr. Ben-Gurion, the
healthier for Israel and for Jews everywhere.
Barrier on Communism
The Cleveland Plain Dealer, in an edi-
torial commending the state of Israel on its
second anniversary, makes the point that
"the greatest factor for peace and security
that has arisen in the Near East in modern
times is this new state. This editorial con-
cludes with the following interesting obser-
vation:
"Israel, with its thousands of immigrants
from the iron curtain countries, has the strong-
est and most intelligent barrier against com-
munisri. These people who experienced it want
no more of it. Yet, by failing to accord ele-
mentary rights to the new state, failing to help
it build itself so it can raise the general level
in that part of the world, we are promoting
communism. It is on the depressed masses of
the Arabs that the Communists play and it
will not be surprising if they turn to Moscow
should any crisis break violently."
An understanding of the actual condi-
tions in Israel and the entire Middle East is
necessary for an appreciation of the full
value of this statement. Histadrut, Israel's
labor party, realizing the dangers that stem
from Communist-inspired groups, set out to
organize the Arab masses into labor unions.
As a result, the percentage of Communists
among the Arab masses has dropped to less
than a tenth of the original strength of the
group that was dominated by Russian theo-
ries. A strong labor movement and a secure
Jewish state will, as the Plain Dealer has
stated, serve as barriers against Commu-
nism. The iron curtain countries will gain
strength in Israel only if the position of the
Jewish state is weakened—and we are in-
clined to believe that neither the JeWish
people nor the world at large ever will per-
mit that to happen.
THE JEWISH NEWS
Member: American Association of English-Jewish News-
papers. Michigan „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. XVII—No. 8
Page 4
New Hobson Novel
May 5, 1950
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the nineteenth day of iyar,
5710, the following Scriptural selections will be
read:
Pentateuchal portion—Lev. 21:1-24:23.
Prophetical portion—Ezek. 44:15-31.
Lag b'Oiner Occurs 4)41 Friday, May 5
imeidami
A N
1111415/i
Y=
EC.60414 Ft MANCV
Can 12,000 People be Wrong ?
Approximately 12,000 people, by participating in the
demonstration which marked the second anniversary of the
state of Israel, at the State Fair Coliseum, on Sunday after-
noon, displayed a deep interest in the historic developments
in the revived Jewish state.
Being in itself one of the most remarkable outpourings
of people keenly concerned that a nation reborn shall not
be handicapped in its struggle for freedom and that de-
mocracy should triumph in the Middle East, last Sunday's
assembly posed several important questions :
When 12,000 people gather for a common cause, are
they motivated only by a desire to demonstrate their senti-
ments, or are they concerned that the people they cheer on
to victory also shall be helped in a material way?
Does such a gathering represent only lip service, or
does it herald a determined will to be of service to the strug-
gling state?
Does a mass movement represent a desire to make
sacrifices in support of the people in whose effort they af-
firm a kinship ?
The reactions of the large gathering of people at the
Israel second anniversary celebration on Sunday can be
interpreted in only one way : that the mass of 12,000, and
the tens of thousands of others for whom they undoubtedly
speak, are sincere in their acclaim of Israel and they mean
to help her. Else, there would be no purpose in their devot
ing a Sunday afternoon to a demonstration, in their travel-
ing, many with their children, to a meeting on a rainy and
bleak day.
We would be unfair to these people if we disbelieved
their intentions, if we did not rejoice in their expressions of
solidarity with libertarians. The problem is : how to mobil-
ize such manpower in behalf of Israel.
It is our firm belief that every one of the 12,000 who
demonstrated for Israel representes a potential giver to and
worker for Israel. If sufficient volunteers can be found to
mobilize these people for the Allied Jewish Campaign, which
today is the major undertaking for the support of Israel's
open-door policy for hundreds of thousands of new settlers,
the celebrants can be transformed into a working force for
Israel.
People who can be reached for a mass demonstration
should also be approachable for practical efforts in behalf
of the cause they acclaim.
Froln this point of view, we believe that 12,000 people
can't be wrong, that their sentiments can be forged into
weapons for constructive work.
By mergino- all our forces in support of the state of
Israel, through ° practical work as effectively as through
sentimental declarations, we have an opportunity to brino-
success to the present fund-raising drive and to all practical
undertakings aimed at making Israel's position secure in
the world.
Progress Report from Israel
While her internal problems are multiplying, the reports
on peace negotiations between Israel and her neighbor states
offer hope that the Middle East soon will be able to settle
down to cooperative wholesome efforts without fear of the
renewal of war.
By defining the frontier with Jordan and setting a dem-
arcation for the Lebanese border, Israel has scored new tri-
umphs during the past few days.
Great Britain's de jure recognition of Israel is another
step in the direction of peace and of better relations between
the Jewish state and the world powers.
Israel appears stronger on the foreign front than she
does in dealino- with her political, religious and economic
6 home front. It is reasonable to believe that
problems on the
peace with her neighbors will affect Israel's power to deal
with internal problems. Friends of Israel throughout the
world hope that peace abroad and tranquility at home will
be attained speedily by the Jewish state.
Laura Z. Hobson of "Gentleman's Agreement"
fame has written another good novel. Both the
text of "The Other Father" and the fact that it
is published by geniuses at choosing best sellers,
Simon & Schuster, should create a great demand
for it. While her new work, like the earlier one,
lends itself well to filming, it is not as sensa-
tional. The theme does not touch issues as seri-
ous as those which were exposed in the work that
became a subject for discussion whenever people
met. But it makes good reading, being excellent-.
ly written.
"The Other Father" is the story of a man
who carries on a family existence but whose
attachment to his wife has become limited to
living together in one home. Andrew Dynes,
who remains loyal to his children and to his
home, has fallen in love with another, a younger,
woman. He is not averse to divorce—until he is
forced to face a new fact: the love affair of his
young daughter with a married man, twice her
age, who is yet to secure his divorce.
The shock is great, and the challenge compels
Andrew voluntarily to interrupt his attentions to
Ruth whom he had hoped to marry and who, in
turn, is determined to wait until Andrew's daugh-
ter's affair is adjusted before he can, similarly,
abandon his wife and turn to his new-found
love.
The conflict in the story is, however, between
father and children. The tension in the home
reveals hidden hatreds, and the father discovers
that even between him and the daughter he now
loves so much—the young girl who is enamored
with the married man twice his age—there was
a hatred during her childhood. Andrew himself
analyzes his position: •
"If the child sent forth the unknown unacknow-
ledged hate, then the father most unknowingly, blindly,
turn it back. But the first source was the father . . .
Excess, I have exceeded. I have loved my children too
much . . . I have loved my daughters too 'much, I have
betrayed them by loving them too much . . . it was like
a seizure, unpredictable, roaring. through him, possessing
him, transforming him into another kind of man, another
kind of father. It was this other father who could shout
at a child, who could go from love to fury in one be-
wildering second—the other father within him, who cared
too much, who watched and pondered and demanded too
much, who hated too much and paved too much."
In a sense, the theme is confusing. After all,
the problem posed is not general—just as the
emphasis placed on multiplicity of divorces due
to affairs like Andrew's and his daughter's are
not the general rule. But insofar as the people
involved in the story are concerned, their tale is
well told by a master. Laura Zametkin Hobson,
in "The Other Father," continues to be the good
story teller and the master of narrative.
Novel of Modern Israel
'Young Hearts Describes
Kvutzah's Collective Life
"Young Hearts," a full-length novel of mod-
ern Israel by David Maletz, translated from the
Hebrew by Solomon N. Richards and published
by Schocken, has a great deal of merit on four
counts: The excellent plot, the splendid original
writing, the fine translation and the light it
throws on life and problems of a Kvutzah.
Menahem and Hannah, the heroes of this
novel, are a part of the struggling collective
community life of Palestine before the rise of
the Jewish state. Their married life, the birth
of their children, their work on the fields, their
doubts and their certainties, their disappoint-
ments •and struggles, make perfect material for
this novel.
After the birth of the first son they become
estranged. The hard life in the kvutzah was not
helpful. But the attack by Arabs which the
brave settlers repulsed and the part played in
the battle by Menahem are contributing factors
towards their total reconciliation.
Of major interest in this story is the splen-
did description of life .in the collectives. The
entire drama rotates around the kvutzah's ac-
tivities. The novel's author. having lived in a
collective settlement himself writes with con-
viction that comes from knowledge of the new
life that was introduced by Jews in Palestine
through the . settlements which formed the
foundation for the state of Israel and became
the major points in the defense of the Jewish
possessions.
David Maletz did not hesitate to point out
the negative aspects of communal life in Israel.
Because he realistically approached the issue, he-
has made an important contribution to the
available literature about the kibutzim and their
builders. The author became a member of the
Ein Harod settlement in 1922. His novel, which
appeared in Hebrew under the name "Maagalot"
won the Brenner Prize of the Palestine Authors'
Association and it merits high consideration in
its English translation.
The meetings and discussions at the Kvutzah
the problems affecting the policy of separate
quarters for parents and children, the financial
problems, the personal issues that affect the
bonds of marriage—these and scores of other
ideological questions emerge from the experi-
ence of studying kvutzah existence in "Young
Hearts."
The kibutzim are more prosperous today, un-
der the new conditions of the re-establishment
of Israel. It would be interesting to have Maletz
write a follow-up version of the newest activities
in the collectives. Meanwhile "Young Hearts" is
a most significant contribution towards an un-
derstanding of kibutzim as they began and
struggled in Israel.
ct—/