411117:-
. 70
THE JEWISH NEWS
Remove the Blemish!
- Incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
MeMber: American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers,• Michigan Press Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 708-10 David Stott Bldg., Detroit 26, Mich., WO. 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 and Publisher
Vol. XXII—No. 13
FRANK SIMONS
City Editor
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager
December 5, 1952
Page 4
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the eighteenth day of Kislev, 5713. the following Scriptural selections will be
read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Gen. 32:4-36:43; Prophetical portion, Hosea 12:13-14:10 or11:7-12:12 or
Obadiah 1:1-21.
Licht Benshen, Friday, Dec. 5, 4.43 p.m.
Communist-Cloaked Anti-Semitism
Communist tyrants in Czechoslovakia
undoubtedly will rue the day on which they
inaugurated the witch-hunting anti-Zionist
trial in Prague. Cruel to the nth degree in
their efforts to fan anti-Semitism, the
Czech anti - Semites, who undoubtedly ac-
quired their hate from Nazi teachers, have
put on such a ridiculous show that it is dif-
ficult to- believe that even their own people
may fail to see through the stupidities they
have perpetrated upon a world that listened
aghast to the nonsense incorporated in the
tPjal of the 14 defendants.
The irony of it all is that the exploiters
of anti-Semitism in Czechoslovakia linked
the names of the accused-13 of whom were
Jews—with groups, governments and per-
sonalities who were charged with complicity
in an anti-Communist plot. Among the ac-
cused were the government of Israel, the
Joint Distribution Committee, the next U. S.
Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, Gen.
Bedell Smith and others.
Even more ironic is the rebuke to anti-
Semites in many lands inherent in the
Prague burlesque. While bigots have been
accusing us of encouraging Communism, the
Communists have periodically purged Jews
in their governments—in Russia, in Romania,
in Poland, and now in Czechoslovakia. Will
the Gerald L. K. Smiths change their tunes?
The entire "shameful spectacle," as
Moshe Sharret, Israel's Foreign Minister,
described it in his repudiation of the Czech
purge, in an address to the Israel Knesset, is
based on Communist—and anti-Semitic—
policies of condoning the end that justifies
the means. It does not matter who suffers,
as long as Communism stays in the saddle,
as long, in the instance of the anti-Semites,
as the Jew remains the scapegoat.
Mr. Sharett reminded the Knesset, and
world public opinion, that Israel and Czecho-
slovakia have been friendly, that the Czechs
aided Israel in her war of liberation by sup-
plying the young state with munitions—to
the knowledge of all. He asserted that "none
of these operations were performed in the
dark." This must be said also with regard
to JDC and Zionists activities in Czechoslo-
vakia. But it is not an argument with purg-
ers, and it offers no proof of anything to
those who seek to call Mr. Dulles "a spy."
*
*
*
The tragedy is heaviest on the shoulders
of Jews in Communist and Communist-con-
trolled countries. A frightful campaign has
been launched against East European Jew-
ries in the Communist-dominated press and
over their radio stations. The entire farce
is reminiscent of the darkest years in Czar-
ist Russia, when Jews were in danger of their
lives as a result of government-inspired an-
ti-Semitism. The hatreds kindled by the
Czech trials are akin to the pogrom hysteria
of Czarism. The so-called "confessions" of
"Zionist spies" are typical of previous "con-
fessions" in Communist "purges." But this
time the Communists took out the complete
Nazi page from the book of hate and applied
their poison primarily at Jews.
Dr. Max Lerner commented on "The
Slansky Trial" in his N. Y. Post column:
"We are witnessing in Prague the Red ver-
sion of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion,
in a form reminiscent of Goebbels and
Himmler. What a baleful light this sheds on
the efforts of American Communists, in the
campaign about the Rosenberg case, to con-
vince the Jews -Opt Communism fights an-
ti-Semitism." A similar warning thus is di-
rected at the Communist-sympathizing Ma-
pam in Israel.
The First Jewish. Omnibus
Joseph Leftwich °s Yisroer
Histadrut 's Drive
It will hardly be disputed that the sub-title to Joseph Left-
wich's "Yisroel: The First Jewish Omnibus"—"a treasury of the
beSt Jewish writing of the 19th and 20 centuries"—is a proper
description for this magnificent 723-page book.
Originally published in London in 1933 on the day—May 10—
when the Nazis burned books by Jews and anti-Nazis, this volume,
then hailed as a symbol of anti-Nazism, has just been republished
in this country, by Beechhurst Press (11 E. 36th St., N.Y. 16). It
is, in our own time, a symbol of Jewish learning, of creative writ-
ing by Jews. It is a splendid antholOgy and is certain to live am
one of the great books of its kind. •
Mr. Leftwich, whose ability as -translator, author, poet, have
made his name stand out in Anglo-Jewish circles, has shown keen
understanding of literary values and Jewish concepts in his selec-
tion of authors and titles for this fine work. The long Foreword,
reprinted from the first edition, throws interesting light on the
results attained by Jews in literature.
There are nine sections in the book, the shortest—the Czech—
being represented by V. Rakous' story "How Rezi Bakes Motzas.*
There are three stories in the Dutch section, five in the Russian—
including one each by Jabotinsky, Frug and An-sky; four in the
French and seven in the Hebrew. The ablest writers were selected
to do the translating into English. There are stories by seven
writers in the American section—and here one wonders whether
Mr. Leftwich has fully rendered duty by limiting hiMself to this
small group, in so vast a field that has developed in the past
quarter century in this country.
The three longest sections are the English, German and Yid-
dish. There are 18 stories translated from the Yiddish, and in-
cluded among the writers are Asch, Peretz, Sholem Aleichem,
Mendele, Rosenfeld, Hirshbein.
Included in the German section are stories by Werfel, Arnold
and Stefan Zweig, Kafka, Wasserman, Nordau, Herzl, Brod, Heine.
First place is given to the English section, with stories by
Disraeli, Zangwill, Golding, Roth, G. B. Stern and others. There
is genuine revelation of genius in the story "Cohen of Trinity" by
Amy Levy who died at the age of 28.
In its entirety, "Yisroel" is what it is acclaimed to be—a tre-
mendous work, by outstanding JeWish writers, brilliantly com-
piled by one of the ablest literary figures of our time.
Having set a goal of $300,000 in its cur-
rent campaign, the Detroit Israel Histadrut
Committee makes the urgent plea for sup-
port of the Israel labor movement this year
in order to supplement the funds gathered
for the Jewish state's social and economic
needs by the UJA and the bond drive.
The important functions of Histadrut,
the Israel labor movement's sponsorship of
a vast system of medical centers and hos-
pitals, its program of integrating newcomers
into cooperative movements, have earned
commendations and encouragement.
Israel's pressing needs for American Jew-
ry's support must be taken into consideration
in viewing the Histadrut appeal. While the
major functions are cared for by the UJA,
and the economic investment program is
aided by the bonds, there are supplementary
obligations which can only be fulfilled by
aiding specific causes like Histadrut, Pioneer
Women, Hadassah and the Jewish National
Fund.
The supplementary activities of Pioneer
Women have been of vast importance to Is-
rael's special project devoted to the working
women. Together with the Histadrut lead-
ers, the women's group has rendered services
of incalculable value to the Jewish state.
The current Histadrut campaign makes
legitimate claims upon American Jewry's
concerns with Israel's position. The courage
we have given this movement with our as-
sistance in the past two decades aided in
building a powerful organization that helped
establish the foundation for statehood.
This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Emile
Zola, the great and robust French writer who will long be revered
by Jewry as the champion of right and justice in the vindication
of Captain Dreyfus.
The wrongful indictment of Dreyfus had divided the whole of
France in two hostile camps. Taking the part of a discredited
Jewish officer against the army which was the idol of the whole
people, he could hope for little sympathy. He was actually pros-
ecuted and sentenced in 1898 to one year's imprisonment. "All
seem to be against me," he said; "the two Chambers, the civil
power and the military, the great newspapers, and public opin-
ion, which they have poisoned. On my side I have only the ideal
of truth and injustice, and I am perfectly calm. I shall be vic-
torious. I would not have my country left in the power of hex
and injustice. I may be punished here. One day France will
thank me for having saved her honor."
But Zola did not live to see Dreyfus rehabilitated; for it was
only on July 12, 1906, four years after Zola's death, that Dreyfus
was declared innocent and re-instated as a major in the French
army. On July 26, 1906, he was decorated in the presence of the
same regiment which had witnessed his degradation.
Public opinion remained hostile toward Zola; when during
the transfer of Zola's body to the Pantheon in 1908 an anti-Sem-
itic journalist fired a shot at Dreyfus, wounding him slightly.
The jury acquitted his assailant.
Thus writer Emile Zola possessed something more than a pen.
It is his human 'qualities, even more than his literary talents, that
has earned him a place in the hearts of Jews the world over.
We are not concerned with the condemned.
The accused were themselves the creators of
the jungle upon which the Communist beasts
had just imposed a reign of terror. Our con-
cern is with the remaining millions of Jews in
Soviet Russian and Communist - controlled
lands whose fate is sealed and" whose lives
have been made worthless.
The Czech anti-Semitic trial is a tragic
commentary on an era of darkness imposed
upon Eastern and Central Europe. It also is
a warninc, to all of us to guard our rights
jealously by defending our democracy, no
matter what the cost.
BIG Day: A Voluntee rs' Service for Israel
Dec. 14 has been declared BIG (Bonds of
the Israel Government) Day throughout
the United States, and our community is
called upon to render services in advancing
Israel's investment plans through the pur-
chase of bonds on that day.
Up to this point, the Jewish community
of Detroit is on record as having played a
great role in the Israel bond drive. The ac-
complishments to-date, however, represent
merely a beginning in the primary activ-
ity of providing Israel with investment dol-
lars with which to lead the young state on-
ward to the road of self-sustenance. Thous-
ands of families are yet to be enrolled in the
investment program, and this aim can be
achieved on BIG Day. -
The success of BIG Day depends in great
measure upon the number of volunteers who
Will undertake to approach former and new
purchasers in behalf of the Israel bonds pro-
gram, The larger the volunteer force, the
greater the prospects for success. While
hundreds ali‘eady have volunteered to work
on that day, many more are needed to pur-
sue the task of making Detroit Jewry Israel-
bond-conscious.
We urge all participating organizations
to utilize the week that remains for prepar-
atory activities before BIG Day for the en-
rollment of volunteers. We are confident
that the educational activities now being
conducted through local organizations will
prepare the ground to create a friendly at-
mosphere among potential bond-buyers. The
first duty, however, is to assure the enroll-
ment of a large working force for the im-
portant day. By pooling our forces—volun-
teers and bond purchasers—it should be pos-
sible for Detroit Jewry to set a new record
for effort in behalf of Israel on BIG Day,
Dec. 14.
Emile Zola: Humanist and Literarian
-