`Come, Build, Educate'
As the Editor
Views the News •
Buber's 'The Way of Man'
,•
Welcome, Mr. Sharett
Detroit Jewry will be privileged next
Wednesday to welcome Israel's Foreign
Minister Moshe Sharett who comes here to
spur our community's efforts in behalf of
the Israel bond drive.
Coming here on the eve of the national
conference for Israel bonds, which will open
in Washington on Sept. 20, Mr. Sharett's
message to Detroiters is expected to be of
vital importance. Israel is pressed for funds,
and American dollars—coming through the
UJA as well as investments—are urgently
needed. Without them, it will be difficult to
protect the state's frontiers and 10 bring in
the hundreds of thousands of dispossessed
Jews who are awaiting an opportunity to
escape from the persecutions in their lands
and to settle in free Israel.
The Israel bond drive must succeed dur-
ring the coming four months in enlisting
the cooperation of all Jews. With the UJA
campaigns scheduled to start throughout the
land ieJanuary, it is imperative that bonds
should be sold in large quantities, leaving
the early months of 1952 open for increased
efforts for the United Jewish Appeal.
We welcome Mr. Sharett with the hope
that his mission here should meet with great
success and that the bond drive should re-
ceive the encouragement it needs from our
community.
Danger of Neo-Nazism
"The enemies of democracy are organiz-
ing to use the freedoms of democracy in
order to destroy it," the American Jewish
Committee warns in a 30-page documented
analysis of "The Recent Growth of Neo-
Nazism in Europe."
This analysis shows how anti-American
fascist political parties, patterned after the
Hitler-Mussolini types, are gaining ground
in Europe, and it describes as especially dis-
turbing the "apparent inability or unwilling-
ness" of West Germany and Italy to take
"forthright and effective action" against the
new fascist parties.
It is urgent, for the safety of the demo-
cratic countries, that the warnings contained
in the Jewish Committee's pamphlet should
be heeded and that steps should be taken to
curtail the growth of fascism. The Commit-
tee's analysis points out that the German
Socialist Reich Party last spring won 11
per cent of the total vote recorded in the
Lower Saxony and that the Italian Social
movement quadrupled its vote in Sicily. Last
May, confident of their rising power, the
totalitarians held "an international confer-
ence which set up a permanent organization
with a clear hostility towards the Western
democracies, especially the United States."
The Committee's analysis states:
"The Western democracies thus face an ex-
traordinary challenge. From abroad there is
the ever-present threat of aggression by the
Soviet Union or its enslaved satellites. At
home there is the endless shrieking of the
Communist parties serving the Soviet interests.
Now it is clear that some Western countries
again face the danger. of Communist tyranny's
counterpart, nazi or fascist totalitarianism."
What's to be done about this re-emerging
menace? It certainly will not be destroyed
through appeasement. It is being abetted by
rearmament. It is encouraged by fear and by
concessions of those who, only six years ago,
were the vanquished but who are re-emerg-
ing as a dominant force in Europe.
Those who are being rearmed, the neo-
Nazis who are regaining power, stem from
the same sources which were responsible
for the murder of 6,000,000 Jews and
millions of Catholics and Protestants. They
dragged us into a war. Now we are faced
with a loss of that war because democracies
are softening and are not firm in opposition
to Neo-Nazism, which also will bring with it
increased threats from Communism.
THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle
commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
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., W0.5-1155.
Subscription $4 a year; foreign $5.
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
FRANK SIMONS, City Editor
Vol. XX—No. 1.
Page 4
September 14, 1951
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the fourteenth day of Elul,
5711, the following selections will be read in our
synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion—Dent. 21:10-25:19.
Prophetical portion—Is. 54:1-10 or 54:1-55:5.
I
10*
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J61444
Hasidic Essays Glorify
The Divine Presence
"The name chasidism' (in Hebrew hasidut,
i. e., originally 'allegiance' and hence, 'piety')
designates a mystical - religious movement
which seized Eastern European Jewry about
the middle of the 18th century and numbers
many congregations to this day.
"In most systems of belief the believer con-
siders that he can achieve a perfect relation-
ship to God by renouncing the world of the
senses and overcoming his own natural being.
Not so the hasid....
'Hasidism is not pantheism. It teaches the
absolute Transcendence of God, but as com-
bined with His conditioned immanence . . •
C. . . in every man, is a force divine. And
in man far more than in all other beings it
can pervert itself, can be misused by him-
self.
"The task of man, of every man, according
to hasidic teaching, is to affirm for God's
sake the world and himself and by this very
means to transform both."
,
, C•Arr, TILLGRAIIWR
Amt.*
American Aid for Israel
One of the most deeply moving manifestations of friend-
ship for Israel was in evidence during the debate in the
United States Senate on the Mutual Security Act of 1951.
The most prominent leaders in our country's highest legisla-
tive body joined in supporting the measure which authorizes
grants totalling $88,000,000 for military and economic as-
sistance to the Jewish state. Senators Taft, Douglas, Hum-
phrey, Benton, Brewster, McKellar and many others told of
their anxiety to help the little state that has become a factor
in world affairs, contrary to State Department predictions.
Senators Douglas and Taft especially distinguished
themselves in this debate. But even the younger men—Sena-
tor Blair Moody of Michigan stood out among them—were
unhesitant in their desire to aid struggling Israel. Had he
been in this country—he was absent by leave of the Senate
to attend the meeting of the Interparliamentary Union at
Istanbul, Turkey, as a delegate from the Senate—Senator
Ferguson was certain to be among the leaders in the pro-
Israel effort since he had joined the original sponsors of the
$150,000,000 aid-to-Israel measure.
Senator Taft made an important point when he said:
"I believe we have received direct financial assistance from
the State of Israel, because they have taken 600,000 refugees,
who would largely have been supported by .the United Na-
tions. To the United Nations we contribute 80 per cent of the
money which would have been used for such support. So
there has been in this case direct financial assistance to the
United States." It will be recalled that two or three years
before the establishment of the Jewish state, Congressman
Dingell of Detroit made a similar point when he advocated
that this country, instead of supporting survivors from
Nazism in displaced persons camps,'. should settle them in
Israel and support them in their homeland. It was the Detroit
Congressman's contention that since the United States must
care for DPs, as the guardian of the surviving remnants of
Europe's oppressed and peisecuted, that it would be more
practical to provide a home for them. Now, in Senator Taft's
words, the United States is making partial restitution for
the burden Israel took off our hands.
In the course of the debate in the Senate, Senator Mc-
Kellar of Tennessee repeated several times: "I should like
very much to vote for the authorization for the Jewish
people . . ." Senator Morse of Oregon, although he intro-
duced into the Congressional Record a statement from the
misled Oregonian farmer, A. M. Churchill, who apparently
has been serving as a tool for the Arab effendis, asserted: "I
shall, however, support the amendment of the Senator from
Illinois (Douglas)."
The repudiation of the State Department's anti-Israel
policies, quoted in this issue in Commentary, interestingly
reflects the resentment that exists in some ranks against
attempts in high quarters to poison the minds of our people
in matters involving the status of Israel.
Inclusion in the measure adopted by Congress of alloca-
tions for the relief of Arab refugees has added to the merits
of the Mutual Security Act, and has removed from it one-
sidedness and bias. Israel was the first state to offer aid to
the Arabs who have left Palestine. If not for the obstruction-
ism of the Arab states, whose rulers are more concerned
with plots to destroy Israel than to help their own people,
the problem of their refugees would long ago have been
solved. In line with American traditions, our country now
has again taken the lead to help these homeless people.
The sincerity with which our legislators have acted to
help Israel, the determination with which the sponsOrs of the
aid-to-Israel clauses in the bill have labored to secure sup-
port for the portions intended to give advantage to the Jew-
ish state, now form a new chapter in the story of philo-
Semitism. Our country's leaders have emerged as worthy
successors to the humanitarians who founded this great
nation and established its traditions. Israel is greatly indebt-
ed to this land and its leaders—for the sp -eed with which they
recognized her existence, for supporting her admission as a
member of the United Nations, for the loans granted through
the Export-Import Bank, for the encouragement to numer-
ous economic and cultural ventures, and now through the
gift voted by Congress. This great nation will forever be
blessed because she does not begrudge blessings to others
and shares her bounties with the rest of the world.
ItiJOititt
These are excerpts from Prof. Martin Buber's
"The Way of Man: According to the Teachings
of Hasidism." It is a small book of only 46 pages,
but great in its contents. Published by Wilcox .
& Follett Co. (1255 S. Wabash, Chicago 5), this
volume, in addition to the inspiring preface, con-
tains a number of traditional Hasidic stories
which have been developed by the eminent .
author into powerful essays on Judaism and
morality—from the Hasidic viewpoint.
Dr. Buber, now professor of philosophy at
the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, is the
world's outstanding interpreter of the Hasidic
ideology. The book under review, "The Way of
Man," contains a number of the Hasidic pearls
and the brilliant Buberian interpretations. In
one of the essays he points out that "never
should asceticism gain mastery over man's life,*
and adds: "A man may only detach himself from
nature in order to revert to it again, and, in
hallowed contact with it, find his way to God."
In another inspirational essay he states,
commenting upon a famous related tale to H-
lustrate his point: "If we maintain holy inter-
course with the little world entrusted to us, if
we help the holy spiritual substance to accom-
plish itself in that - section of Creation in which
we are living, then we are establishing in this
our place, a dwelling for the Divine Presence."
"The Way of Man" helps the reader appreciate
all the more this Divine Presence.
New Kusevitsky Record
Piety Characterized in the
Two Traditional Selections
Music lovers of all faiths have a new treat in
store for them, in the two new selections on the
45" RPM RCA Victor record by Cantor Kuse-
vitsky.
"B'Rosh Ashono" and "Ashrei (Slichos)" are
rendered in their traditional fashion. The power-
ful voice of the noted singer, the spirit he infuses
in his interpretation of synagogue songs, the
piety that emanates from it, combine to give
these recordings the strength which has charac-
terized Kusevitsky's previous recordings.
This record comes to us at an appropriate
time, on the eve of Rosh Hashanah. Both selec-
tions will be received with elation by discriminat-
ing musicians.
New Jewish Recordings
A new set of recorded liturgical selections
by Cantor Leibele Walanan issued by RCA-
Victor should attract wide attention.
Cantor Waldman, who possesses one of the
finest cantorial voices, renders feelingly the
selections in the new album of three large re-
cords: "Odom Y'Sobo M'Ofor," "Al Horishonim,"
"Zochrenu B'Zikoron," "Sarfe Matloh," "Ki
K'Shimcho," " L'Fichoch Anachnu Chayovirn."
His prayers, glorifying the Almighty, his
powerful voice, his new interpretive touches,
make these recordings stand out as fine addi-
tions to liturgical music.
RCA-Victor also released two Yiddish jazz
pieces by Leo Fuchs, with accompaniment by Abe
Elstein's orchestra. One must have -a liking for
this type of song which is passing and gradually
losing following. Adherents of the passing Yid-
dish theater still will enjoy these two songs-
"Beilebel" and "Come-on Tzu Mein Hois." If
they had been in better taste, they might have
a better following.
Facts You Should Know .. .
What is the "Palmach?"
"Palmach" was the name for the command*
.squads that operated as shock troops. It played
an heroic role in the days when the Haganah was
doing "underground" work and later in the War
of Independence. Later it was merged into the
regular army units of the State of Israel. The
word "Palmach" is an abbreviated form of twe
Hebrew words "Plugat Machatz." "Plugat" comes
from a Hebrew root meaning to "divide." Thus
the term means a 'division" or "segment."
"Machatz" comes from the Hebrew root which
means to "break" or to "strike." The whole term
thus means the 'striking division" or "the group
that strikes," or the "striking force."
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