liks the Editor Views the News Her Contribution Eliakum Zunser's Life Brilliantly Portrayed Sense vs. Party Strife Dr. Peretez Bernstein, leader of the Gen- eral Zionist Party in Israel, made a very important statement in Tel Aviv last week. Pledging his party's support to the present government of Israel, despite its (*position to the government's economic policies, Dr. Bernstein said that the General Zionists will continue to "struggle for attainment of their objectives, without precipitating the govern- ment's resignation." And he added that "the present economic crisis—which culminated in the unplanned clothing rationing ordi- nance—is due chiefly to a shortage of fore- ign capital investments, for which urgent corrective action is necessary." In the main, Dr. Bernstein's statement makes sense. His party is fully justified in striving to advance' its oconomic theories- although.his statement appears to refute his criticism of the "unplanned" rationino. ordi- nance. If corrective action is needed, because of the shortage of foreign investments, the Israeli authorities may have been right in their action. On the other hand, there is evidence of a rather mean approach, based on party am- bitions, from other quarters. The Mapam has proven to be a menace to Israel's status. And the Herut Party, composed of former members of Irgun Zvai Leumi, has issued a call to its membership to be ready "to take over the country's administration." Any legally organized group has a right to take over responsibility for ruling the country it owes allegiance to, provided it is done by majority rule. But Herut is a minor- ity. So is Mapam. Nevertheless, Herut's lead- er, Menachem Beigin, in an invitation to other minority parties in Israel "to rally around the Herut for planning the prepara- tion of a new regime" in Israel, stated: "The Herut will extend its hand to all bodies and parties concerned with the welfare of Israel, in order to bring about the liberation of the country from the present regime." This, clearly, is a charge that the ruling majority is oppressive. It is a call to rebellion and we doubt whether the sensible people in Israel, who do form an overwhelming majority, will pay attention to such appeals to strife. Herut would have done better . if it, could have proven that the ruling party in Israel is not fulfilling its obligations to the people and the state. Its statement is / not helpful in a time when, acting in behalf of the joint coordinating committee of the Israel gov- ernment and the Jewish Agency, Itzhak Raphael, the Agency's immigration chief, submitted a comprehensive three-year plan which calls for the transfer to Israel of 650,- 000 Jews now living in 58 different countries. The sum of $100 will be needed to transport each Jew. Iraq and Iran are the two main countries involved in the transfer plan. To carry out such a program, a certain measure of unity is necessary, and neither Herut nor Mapam have offered it. Joshua Shye, director-general of the Israel Ministry of Immigration, has indicated that Israel's growth from a population of 650,000 when the state was established to its present 1,- 125,000 has changed the country's complex- ion ; that 60 per cent of the new settlers come from Aden and North Africa, with the result that "Oriental communities in Israel now number 31 per cent of the population, com- pared with 20 per cent in 1943," that since the Orientals are "more prolific" than the westerners, 60 per cent of the citizens under 17 belong to the Oriental community. This is one of many problems facing the new state. The existing issues are stagger- ing, but the present government has proven its ability to weather many storms. An in- crease in party strife will harm Israel. The General Zionists should be commended for their willingness to be helpful. Herut and Mapam have earned condemnation for creat- ing party bitterness and internal strife. 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. 25 Page 4 September 1, 1950 Sabbath Scriptural Selections This Sabbath, the twentieth day of Elul, 5710, the following Scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues: Pentateuchal portion—Dent. 26:1-29:8. Prophetical portion—Is. 60. Bard of the Jewish People Prof. Sol Liptzin's "Eliakum Zunser: Poet of His People" (published by Behrman House, 1261 Broadway, New York 1) is a remarkable story about a remarkable man and about an import- ant era in Jewish history. Dr. Liptzin, professor of literature at the Col- lege of the City of New York, revives interest in the man who was his people's Bard, who made an art of being a Badchen, "a career which was not then in the best repute because of the un- savory character of its practitioners. but which he was able to ennoble by his high idealism and superior artistry." He was his people's poet and his songs, which became an important part of Jewish folk- lore, were sung by millions everywhere. His fame spread from Russia to the United States, and when he came here he at once was accepted as hero and idealist, as inspirer of faith. The author succeeds in many ways in his biography of Zunser. The book reads like a Flouting Public Opinion A short time ago, a group of Chicago Jewish leaders accepted an apology from the Chicago Tribune—for publi- cation in the Jewish press only—for an article in which Senator Herbert H. Lehman, Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter and Henry Morgenthau, Jr. were charged with being the heads of the "secret governthentP that is dominat- ing policy in the United States. The countrywide criticism that has been leveled at the Chicago leaders for accepting such a vague apology, which the Tribune refused to publish in its own columns, proves justified by subsequent articles which indicate that the Tri- bune's offensive policies have not been changed by an iota. A few days ago, the Tribune published another article by 'Walter Trohan, under the heading "Foreign Born Hold Many High Federal Posts," listing many names of disting- uished people in the service of our country who happened to be born overseas. Some were infants when they came here. For instance, Ugo Carusi, who heads the displaced persons commission of the department of justice, "was brought to this country shortly after his birth" in Italy. The point of the article is clear: to arouse prejudice against foreign-born who happen to be in this country's service in President Truman's administration. Referring again to Mr. Justice Frankfurter; the Tribune writer makes sure that he informs his readers that he was born in Austria and was brought to this country at the age of 13 ; that he is a close friend of Secretary of State Dean Acheson; that Alger Hiss was his protege. And of Mr. Acheson the Tribune writes that he "was born in Connecticut within four years after his parents came to this country." There is a sprinkling of Jewish names in the Tribune list. But the important point to be noted is that an issue is made of foreign-born—no matter how loyal and devoted they may be—and that an old policy of arousing prejudice is resorted to by the Tribune writer. His article—sub-headed "Acheson, Douglas First Generation- Americans"—clearly was not intended to prove that newcomers to these shores make great contributions to America, but rather to resort to innuendos, to tie in again the names of Hiss and Harold Laski with officials the Tribune dislikes, to generaliie in accusations against an entire group, under the guise of fight- ing Communism. And from these spreaders of hate mis- guided leaders saw fit to accept a tongue-in-cheek apology! U.S.-Israel Diplomatic Relations Dr. James G. McDonald, lifelong friend of the Zionist movement and the sympathetic first United States Ambas- sador to Israel, is in Washington for a discussion of his dip- lomatic status with State Department officials. It is assumed that he will not return. to Israel and that he will become active in this country in behalf of the United Jewish Appeal and Brandeis University. Why did Dr:sMcDonald resign from his Ambassadorial post? The most lOgical explanation appears in Kenneth W. Bilby's faScinating • story Of his experiences in Israel, "New Star in the Near East" (Doubleday). Listing a number of cleavages between Israel and the U. S., Bilby Writes: "Lumped together, these varied conflicts still do not rep- resent an abandonment of America's traditional pro-Israeli policy. Out approach to the Jewish state remained hesitantly friendly; but in my opinion relations could be much improved by a change of diplomatic representation with a career diplo- mat guiding the American Embassy. If our ambassador were a man of not unsympathetic approach to the new state, but one who could convince the Israelis themselves that he had the con- fidence of the State Department and accurately reflected its views, friendly or hostile, then you would note a change for the better. More than one influential Israeli has confided to me his belief that reports from our Tel Aviv embassy, pertaining to the attitude of the local government or the mood of the popu- lace, were discounted in Washington because of Ambassador McDonald's known pro-Zionist sentiments. There was a spread- ing conviction in Tel Aviv when I departed that the time for emotionalism in diplomacy had passed, that American-Israeli relationships should be fixed on a more realistic plane. Ex- perienced, unbiased diplomatic representation was the answer." On the strength of this viewpoint—which may be tinged with some bias against the retiring U. S. Ambassador— it is doubtful whether any one like Bartley C. Crum has the re- motest chance of being chosen to succeed Dr. McDonald. The Editor has heard comments like Mr. Bilby's about Dr. McDonald while in Israel. The trend, apparently, is to- wards the selection of a career diplomat as the next U. S. Ambassador to Israel romance in its discriptions of the hero's struggles and the difficulties that were en- countered by Jews in Russia under the Czars. He proves that Zunser was a pioneer Zionist who was convinced that only the end of Jew- ish homelessness will solve the Jewish problem. But the story of Eliakum Zunser is more than a biography it is a chapter of Jewish history, describing the era of the Cantonists—the Jewish lads who were taken from their homes to serve for 25 years in the Russian army under Nicholas I (Nikolayevskiye soldati). It is the story of men and women who withstood persecution. Zunser learned the art of braiding to earn a. • livelihood, but later turned to composing songs, to singing them to Jewish audiences who craved . . for spiritual encouragement in their hours of suffering. In this country, he operated a printing shop to which flocked the outstanding leaders in America Jewry. The reader will meet some of the greatest men of the past: two generations in the pages of Dr. Liptzan's book. For instance : "Among his (Zunser's) playmates in Kochel's Hoif,a Vilna courtyard, the youngest and brightest was Motke, the innkeeper's Son, - who was later to win re- nown as Mark AntokolSky, the favorite sculptor . of Czar Alexander II." Interesting facts are re - • lated here about Antokolsky. Zunser was a pioneer in popularizing Yid- dish. Until his day it was looked upon as a, •, "jargon"and those who used it in print ap- pologized for it. "Hebrew was the normal med.. •,`:: ium for dignified abstract poetry." But Zunser aimed to reach the masses and his creative. works helped to encourage the wider use of Yiddish by -writers, publicists. and Jewish lead- ers. The story of the Cantonists is one of the most moving portions of the entire book. Zunser'S brother -was. "caught"- for service in Nicholasr army and later he, too, became a victim of the horrible system. But he was freed in the nick of time, . when it was abolished by Alexander II.- The man who was responsible for Zunser's forced enlistment came in for severe punishment and on this occasion, as on every one throughout his life, Zunser composed a song to sing a paean of joy—or sorrow, as the case may have been—to commemorate the event. And the Jewish people sang his songs with him. . He didn't have an easy life. Ten children of his first marriage died tragic deaths and his wife, too, was called to the great beyond. The second marriage was lasting, happier, and his children shared his joys with him. Even as Badchen he didn't have an easy time. His competitors caused him misery, but he sur.? vived all difficulties. Zunser's advocacy of Zionism is one of the strong points in his career. He learned to know that there is no hope for Jews under the rule of oppressors and he became American Jewry's staunchest of the early proponents of Jewish statehood. Dr. Liptzin has rendered an excellent service with his fine biography:: He has brought to light forgotten chapters of Jewish history and has given proper status to a great Bard. Facts. You Should Know . What are "Selichoth"? "Selichoth" is the term used to refer to a traditional body of penitential prayers which' are recited in the. synagogue on various ocea. sions, especially before Rosh Hashanah, either • beginning on the Sunday before the holiday, or, if the holiday falls on Monday or Tuesday, then on the Sunday previous to the Sunday before the holiday. The term "Selichoth" comes from a Hebrew word which means forgiveness. The prayers are therefore prayers which seek for- giveness. Tradition required these Selichoth to be re- cited after the individual had gone through the relaxation and spiritual uplift of the Holy Sab- bath so that he starts the week off in penitence, and in purity and is in the proper mood for the prayers. Starting on a week day, one's mind is usually preoccupied with mundane affairs. Since it is forbidden to say the penitential prayers on the Sabbath, because the latter was to be spent in luxury and relaxation, and the spirit of the Sabbath is usually stretched until the midnight hour on Saturday, the Selichoth are traditionally recited juSt as the atmosphere of the Sabbath leads into the beg inning of the week.