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Little Man, You Have a Big Job

Israeli's Feeble Attempt
To Glorify the Romance

Facing 1952 Issues

III

So vast is the field to be covered, involving
the problems that we shall have to face in 1952,
that we could continue the discussion ad infini-
tum. Suffice it to state at this time that Israel's
status, the mounting demands for action in be-
half of the oppressed and the need for vigilance
in areas where the Nazi spirit again is in evi-
dence represent major challenges to U.S. Jewry.
• In order to be able to meet these needs, our
first obligation on the national scene is to the
United Jewish Appeal and locally to the Allied
Jewish Campaign, which provides the funds for
the agencies which comprise the UJA as well as
for the local and numerous national and over-
seas agencies for whose continued functions all
of us are responsible. Without the millions that
are provided for her upbuilding by . the UJA,
Israel could not possibly carry on the work of
unlimited immigration and rehabilitation. With-
out the Joint Distribution Committee, one of the
partners in UJA, the overseas relief efforts would
cease and hundreds of thousands of Jews in
medieval Moslem countries and in hate-ridden
Europe would be left helpless and destitute.

Mobilization of Jewish loyalties in support of
the basic needs is, at the very best, a most dif-
ficult job. It becomes even more difficult due to
a lack of understanding of some of the issues
involved. Only a well-informed community can
be expected to respond promptly and liberally to
calls to action in defense of overseas Jewish
communities and in behalf of our inetrnal needs.
We are better . equipped now to spread knowl-
edge in Jewish ranks. Nearly every movement
possesses a home of its own. Our synagogues
and centers, the war veterans, the Zionist organ-
izations all possess their own headquarters
wherein they can organize classes, provide liter-
ature, create libraries, which should function as
instruments for the imparting of information
about vital Jewish issues.
The Zionist Organization, because it remains
in the vanguard as the battler for the right of
Israel to prosper as a creative nation, now has
a better opportunity to render good than ever
before. In its new building, the Detroit Zionist
Organization must establish classes and discus-
sion groups for the advancement of the Move-
ment without which the Jewish state's position
would be less secure, without which the dignity
of the Jewish people would not have been ele-
vated to the higher rank AX, e have attained with
the rebirth of Jewish statehood.
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Another issue that can not be ignored is the
one involving racial prejudice and anti-Semitism.
From Florida come new warnings to all of us
to be on guard against the revival of the worst
elements of discrimination and hatred. Jews,
Negroes and Catholics already have felt the, sting
of bigotry in the Miami area. The Nazi ideology
appears to have been planted on American soil.
Xenophobia, the dislike of the unlike, is visible
in its ugliest form. A bigoted element that con-
siders itself in the majority is at work spread-
ing venom. But it does not stop there. It seeks
to destroy those it dislikes by using - forte, by
resorting to violence, by spreading terror, by
turning into vandals and by showing the lack
of respect for the sanctity of religion by 'using
dynamite to destroy houses of worship. They
show a lack of respect for the dead by defiling
cemeteries.. They are shockingly ugly in their
un-American and inhuman practices.
We must place faith in state and federal au-
thorities which have promised to preserve law
and order. Unfortunately, there are charges that
the authorities are not as alert to the situation
as they should be. On this score, therefore, we
must renew the admonition that there is need
for vigilance—not only in being on the lookout
for facts to be presented to the authorities, but
also in being militant when occasion calls for
action, By being militant we mean being ready
to demand action from the proper authorities.
It would be a sad day, as we stated edi-
torially three weeks ago, if we were to be called
upon to take matters into our own hands. But it
would be even sadder if we failed to press for
action and to be critical of an inactive govern-
ment in time of need.
*
•
C
The problems that face us are great. They
are not insoluble. Only the weak and the dying
are unable to face issues and provide whole-
some solutions for them. We are a living and
flourishing people capable of meeting the chal-
lenges that are hurled at us. Let us face our
issues with dignity, in the best interests of
Israel and America.

Ford's Lesson in Fair Employment

In his address of acceptance of the citation given him
by the Joint Defense Appeal in appreciation of his services
in the fight to extend human rights, Henry Ford II, president
of the Ford Motor Co., made some very pointed comments
on the question of fair employment policies which his firm
has enforced. Mentioning specific instances, including names,
of personalities associated with him, Mr. Ford went on rec-
ord with the following significant statement:
" 'Fair employment' at the Rouge Plant means that
we employ men of every national origin—that we employ
Protestants, Catholics, and Jews—that we very probably
employ a great many individuals who have, as yet, ac-
quired no formal religious ties of any kind. I can't tell you
how many there are of each, because we don't inquire into
a man's religious convictions when he comes in to apply
for work. Jobs are assigned and men are hired on a basis
of competency—not because of other miscellaneous con-
siderations that have no bearing on a man's ability to work.
- "For me, that is . what 'fair employment' really means
—and . I think that any man or company that undercuts
that meaning does himself, his country and the cause of
human freedom a great dis-service."
This is a remarkable lesson in true Americanism. It
places emphasis on the proper approach to the principles
involved in fair employment practices prOposals, in the en-
forcement of a rule that only a man's ability to produce is
used as a yardstick to measure a person's qualification for
a job. _
Using the Ford statement as a basis for action, the Jew-
ish Community Council, in an appeal to the Detroit Common
Council to adopt the pending Municipal Equal - Employment
Opportunities Ordinance, justifiably added the following
comment:
It is our conviction that in addition to the inherent
American justice and value of this ordinance, there is now,
more than ever, the need to have such ordinance on the
books of our City so that America's enemies would be de-
prived of the constant argument and accusation against
our Country and our City that it denies some of our citi-
zens their rightful opportunity for employment and to
earn a livelihood because of their color or religious beliefs.
We are convinced that our Common Council can make a
very substantial contribution in our struggle against to-
talitarianism by favorably considering and passing the
Equal Opportunities Ordinance."
The Ford policies may go a long way in stimulating
other plants and our City in support of fair employment
practices. In that case, the Fords will have rendered services
in the field of human relations which will far excel the value
even of the great firm's technical achievements.

A Plea for Iraqi 'Clemency

Major Jewish organizations in this country and in Eng-
land have issued appeals to the government of Iraq for a
stay of execution of two Jewish youths who were condemned
to death on the fantastic charge of having bombed a syna-
gogue and the American Information Center in Baghdad.
The American Jewish Committee's spokesmen have dis-
cussed the case with our State Department. The American
Jewish Congress' president, Dr. Israel Goldstein, expressed
`grave anxiety" in a message to Prince Abdul Illah, Iraq's
Regent. In London, A. L. Easterman, acting on behalf of
Incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle
commencing with issue of July 20,1951
the World Jewish Congress, submitted documentation con-
Member American Association of English-Jewish News- cerning the trial to the British Foreign Office in an effort
papers, Michigan Press Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publistung to prevent the carrying out of the executions.
Co. 108-10 David Stott Bldg., Detroit 26, Mich., W0.5-1155.
Subscription $4 a year; foreign $5.
The anxiety created by this case is agonizingly widened
Entered as second class matter Aug. 6, 1942 at Post Office,
by the report that one of the youths was compelled to make
Detroit Mich, under Act of March 3, 1879.
a "confession" after being hung up by his hands for seven
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ, Editor
SIDNEY SHMARAK, Advertising Manager
hours. The tortures to which these youths have been sub-.
FRANK SIMONS, City Editor
jected savor of medievalism.
Vol. XX—No. 18
Page 4
January 11, 1952
Jews everywhere naturally join in the hope expressed
by Mr. Easterman to Anthony Nutting, Parliamentary
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the fourteenth day of Tebet, Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, that his gov-
5712, the following Scriptural selections will be ernment will find it possible to prevent the death sentences.
We join in directing a similar appeal to our State Depart-
read in our synagogues:
ment to act quickly in behalf of the two youths who were
Pentateuchal portion—Gen. 47:28-50:26.
convicted by a prejudiced court. Every available effort
Prophetical portion—I Kings 2:1-12.
Licht Benshen, Friday, Jan. II, 4:59 p. e.
should be. made to prevent injustice.

THE JEWISH NEWS

,

•..

"David and Bath-Sheba'

Ari Ibn-Zahav will be remembered as the
author of "Jessica, My Daughter," the modern
version of the Shylock story which was popular-
ized on New York's Second Avenue by Maurice
Schwartz's Yiddish Art Theater. This Israel
author has produced another novel, "David and
Bath-Sheba," which has been published in I. M.
Lask's English translation from the Hebrew by
Crown.
Ibn-Zahav deviates from the Biblical routine.
He commences his story by introducing King
David on his deathbed, his royal scribe, Saraiah,
reading to him from the records. David. bored,
interrupts him and instead offers to tell his own
life story—which he does. The novel, therefore,
is in the first person—David relating the story
of his life, his rise to power, the attendant exper-
iences, his love affairs, his battles.
David tells that he suffered from a complex—
his being rather short. He considered it a short-
coming and squirmed in the presence of taller
men. But the Bath-Sheba story is the main
concern:
The Ibn-Zahav novel introduces Bath-Sheba
as David's first and only genuine love. He meets
her as a young lad, long before he joins the
forces that battled the Philistines, long before
his kingship. In every one of his subsequent love
affairs, he saw only Bath-Sheba in the image of
every girl. Bath-Sheba was betrothed to him,
but her parents opposed a match with David.
She was wed to Uriah—the warrior whom David
later caused to be sent to the front and to be
killed so that he should himself get possession
of Bath-Sheba, thus attaining his life's ambition.
And the Hebrew author's chief task in the new
novel is to justify the king's act, to glorify it, to
condone a romance that is dragged into a full-
length novel.
Only portions of the Ibn-Zahav story corres-
pond with the Biblical narrative. The author
would have done better if he had followed more
closely the Scriptural details. In its present
form, the tale drags, it is unconvincing, it leaves
a bad taste for the great King David whose gen-
uine qualities for leadership are lost in the
rather silly approaches of the romance under
review.
It recently was reported from Tel Aviv that
when the film "Samson and Delilah" was shown
there, Scripture-conscious children shouted, "lo .
nachon"—that the story is not true. In the case
of "David and Bath-Sheba" they might even
scream: "lie!" And it wasn't necessary! There
is enough drama in the original story not to
have necessitated the perversions, in Ibn-Zahav's
novel.

Yemenite Naomi Zuri's Six
Songs Enhance New Recording

Among the exceptionally fine recordings
which have just been made available to music
lovers is 'Song of Songs," a 78 rpm product, the
long-playing 33 1/3 microgroove, featuring modern
Israeli songs and dances on Biblical themes.
Naomi Zuri, the vocalist, ably interprets the
sr ix selections, to the accompaniment Of the Jeru-
salem Broadcasting Sympnony Orchestra, with
Shabtai Petrushka as conductor. Distributed by
Dauntless International (225 Lafayette, NY12),
the recording was released by Artzi Records, 1566
First Ave., New -York 28.
"Im Baarazim" from Moed Ka.tan--and "Ozi"
from Exodus XV. 2, will thrill the listener, who
also will find great joy in the following selections
from Song of Songs: "Dodi Li," "Iti Milvanon,"
"Ana Halach Dodech" and -"El Ginat Egos."
Naomi Zuri, the Yemenite-born singer, was
discovered at Kibbutz Eyn-Herod where she lived
for a year and a half. She studied voice in the
Jerusalem Conservatory and then was given a
place as soloist with the Israel Broadcasting
Service. She has developed into one of Israel's
leading musical personalities and her songs, now
heard on records in this country, will serve to
increase interest in the Jewish state's accom-
plishments among Americans.

Facts You Should Know:

Why are the containers -of the Tefillin
Phylacteries square?
The Talmud (Talmud Babb., Tractate Meno-

choth, 35a) declares that this tradition is one of
the oral traditions handed Moses at Sinai. There
is a statement in the same source, however,
which claims that making the containers round
would be considered a dangerous hazard to the
individual who wears the Tefillin. This is ex-
plained by Rashi as meaning that one who wore
them might knock his head against the threSh-
old. If the Tefillin were round they might more
easily pierce the head while the square Tefillin
would offer more resistance. It must be under-
stood that people once wore Tefillin the whole
day through and thus precautions were taken to
eliminate hazards.

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Why are the Tefillin and their straps al-
ways black?-

The reason for this too is mentioned in the
Talmud (Menochoth 35a) as one of the oral pre-
cepts handed to Moses at - Sinai Some claim
that a different color might look like an orna-
ment instead of a religious symbol. Some claim
it might appear as blood if it were red. It must
be remembered again that the Tefillin were worn
all day and black seemed to be the color most
unlike any of the every day materials used in a
man's labors.

