Their Democratic Heritage THE JEWISH NEWS Iscorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle. commencing with issue of July 20 1951 etw Member: American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association. Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 708.10 David Slott Bldg., Detroit 26. Mich., WO. 5-11155. Sisbscription $4 a year, foreign SS. Entered es second class matter Aug. S. 1942, at Post Office, Detroit, Mich... under Act of March 3, 1879. SIDNEY SHMARAK Advertising Manager FRANK SIMONS City Editor PHILIP $LOMOVITZ Editor and Publisher • January 30, 1953 Page 4 Vol. XXII—No. 21 4 Sabbath (Hamisha Asar b'Shvat) Scriptural Selections This Sabbath, the fifteenth day of Shvat, 5713, the following Scriptural selections will be read In OW synagogues: Pentateuch& portion, Ex. 13:17-17:16; Prophetical. portion, Judges 4:4-5:31. Licht Benshen, Friday, Jan. 30, 5:16 p.m. Problems Facing Budgetary Conference Sunday Sunday's Allied Jewish Campaign budgetary conference, convened by the Jew- ish Welfare Federation, will be called upon to tackle many problems incorporated in the overall community picture and in the issues that will face fund-raisers in the months to come. While facing a decline in income, if last year's campaign was a guide in viewing prospects for the current year, the needs are greater on all fronts. The new wave of anti- Semitism in Russian-dominated lands and in Moslem countries calls for greater relief and rehabilitation efforts through the United Jewish Appeal. The expansion of educa- tional agencies and the construction of the impressive Sinai Hospital will tax our local needs. In order that neither the overseas nor the local agencies should be adversely affected in the campaign balance, Sunday's conferees will have to plan the year's pro- gram with great caution. How is the stream to be crossed ? First, let us view our needs. In a recent statement to the Central Conference of American Rabbis, Rabbi Philip S. Bernstein presented the following eloquent analysis of American Jewry's communal responsibilities: "In the Torah we read of Jacob's return to Canaan. He had left as a youth, fleeing be- fore his brother's wrath. Now he returns to meet his brother again, but as a iTtature man with a family, flocks, and substance. He gets down on his knees by the stream and says: " '0 Lord, I am not worthy of all the kind- ream hast bestowed, upon me. I crossed ness st this stream with only a -staff in my hand and now I return with this great company.' "Is there a Jew in this land who should not today echo Jacob's words? We remember the recent past of our own parents and grand-: parents, the ghettos from which they fled,, the oppression from which they escaped, the pov- erty which they left behind. As we recall again—for. we may never forget the terrible decimation of those who were left behind in Europe — should we not say, 'Oh Lord, I am not worthy of the kindnesses which Thou hast bestowed upon me?' "Today, Jews must - not ask, 'How long must we go on giving,' but must exclaim, `How lucky we are, to be able to give!' "We must go on giving as long as there is one Jew living in a land where he is not wanted; so long as Israel requires our help to accept and rehabilitate our brethren who are at least as much our responsibility as theirs; so long as there is one blow to be struck for freedom and for equal rights; so long as there are people in our own land who need help because they are sick, aged, or unhappy. "It is not a question of either/or. There is enough substance in the Jewish community to take care of our local needs and our over- seas responsibilities. There must be the will, the vision, the gratitude, the social statesman- ship, the Jewish heart. "This is a world-wide program for the rehabilitation of our oppressed brothers, for Trees in Israel Trees always have played a vital role in Israel. Parched for water, the Holy Land's major problem, from the days of Abraham at Beer-Sheba (the Seven Wells) , through the ages, down to our own time, has been linked with the need for reafforestation, for retention of water, for irrigation to assure good crops. That is why the traditional Jewish Arbor Day, also known as the New Year of the Trees, commonly spoken of as Hamisha Asar b'Shvat, is observed so lovingly. That is why TU (the 15th day) b'Shvat is utilized for the planting of trees in Israel, for partici- pation in tree-planting on soil of the Jewish National Fund in Eretz Israel by Jewish communities throughout the world. Tree planting again will be on the agen- da of our communities this week-end. Once again, this project will drain swamps, it will reafforest barren hills, it will cause vegeta- tion to take root in soil that, will be made fertile through the efforts of the Jewish National Fund's laborers on ground that is once again being made holy by creative Jewish efforts. the strengthening of Israel to the point of self-sustenance, for the building of a strong, religiously T motivated, self-conscious Jewish community in a free America. Such a pro- gram is within the range of accomplishment: Such a program will alone - give meaning to our survival as Jews." * * * This is a brief analysis of the total. It is all-too-brief insofar as Israel is concerned. The new challenges, the pressures from lands where new waves of persecution are making the lives of Jews insecure, the importance to Jew's everywhere that Israel herself should be made secure, impose upon us multiple du- ties to increase our giving to the United Jewish Appeal, to multiply the bond sales, to offer encouragement to every undertak- ing in behalf of the struggling Jewish state. But, first the Jews must understand the is- sues and must will it that Israel should be strengthened with unrelenting speed. The late Justice Louis D. Brandeis posed the question in its real aspects when, back in 1923, when we spoke of a Jewish Pales- tine and when this Zionist aim was a dream, he stated: "Do we Jews care enough for the things worth while in life to take the necessary part in that adventure? That is the question. Do we care enough, not only to contribute some money but to be a part of the undertaking? To be a part of it we need not be physically in Palestine, althOugh for- many that is the best place in whiCh to do their part and the most satisfactory one. "In the task of establishing a Homeland worthy of the highest Jewish ideals every man and woman can aid and aid effectively, if he or she will only bear in mind what .it is that we wish to accomplish; and will make the daily contribution requisite to that ac- complishment. I mean literally that we must give some aid each day. Why should we, who care for the development of Palestine, let a. day pass without increasing our knowledge of Palestine, and at least thinking what we may do something to advance its develop- ment?" S *. "Do we came enough" may be a harsh question, but it is a proper and a real one. Sunday's budget planners face a serious chal- lenge in viewing the prospects of the next drive and in formulating the distribution of available funds. They must ask themselves the Brandeisian question and they must give the proper, the humane answer. , The conferees cannot, they dare not, sac- rifice the local causes. But by the same token they must not, they dare not; risk a decline in UJA funds and a reduction in income for Israel. If they should find it difficult to ar- rive at a mutually acceptable formula on Sunday, their _decisions should be postponed in order that possibilities of securing larger funds should be formulated to fit into a pro- gram of expanded expenditures. It is better to work with caution, rather than to err into methods that may affect our overseas pro- grams of activity and, eventually, also our local obligations. Sunday's conference faces a most serious business. It will be attended by men and women whose devotion is above reproach. We pray that their decisions should be wise and constructive. Beth El's New Rabbi The high standards for service to Congre- gation and Community set by its previous rabbis serve as a challenge to the man who has been chosen to succeed the late Dr. B. Benedict Glazer. Rabbi Richard C. Hertz comes here to fill a post that has been held, during the last half century, by Dr. Leo M. Franklin, Rabbi Leon. Fram and Dr. Glazer. The committee which selected him took into consideration the important tasks to be attended to. by Beth El's spiritual leader, the services he is to be called upon to render to the entire Jew- ish Community, to the city, state and nation. While he is challenged by the opportuni- ties that face him, Rabbi Hertz also has the good fortune of serving one of American Jewry's outstanding congregations. We wish him great success in his new post. Alici(f2/4 1 t4 :,;4177 /044.c/Ae-filh.e..— I tf).1E ► r1sti. rtEl..ec,ANPHic AGENCY— --nOMMOW H I STOR I ETTE Dr. Lowdermilk's Antecedents An American Jewish Press Syndicate Feature Dr. Walter C. Lowdermilk's plans for the harnessing of the Jordan, through the development of his Jordan Valley Authority project, will go down in history as one of the great contributions towards the development of Israel. His plan had its antecedents. - Thirty years ago, the Illustrated London News reported the following under the headline "Pour the Mediterranean Into the Dead Sea": The ingenious plan of using the waters of the Mediterranean to pro- vide electrical power for Palestine— comes from a Frenchman, M. Im- beaux, Ingenieur en Chef des Ponts et Chausees. His idea is quite simple. At the present time the evaporation from the surface of the Dead Sea, which has a water area of about 926 square kilometres, more than balances the inflow of the Jordan River, which is taken as being, on the average, '70 Lowdermilk cubic. meters or 15,400 gallons per second, say, 1,186,560,000 gallons per day. M. Imbeaux points out that there is a site near the ancient city of Jezreel, and at a distance of 356 kilometres, say 22 1/4 miles, from the port of Haifa, and near the junction of the valleys of the Nahr el Moukattah and the Nahr Djaloud, where a reservoir could be built at a height of 80 m. above sea-level. "By means of a tunnel about three kilometres long, water could be led from that reservoir to a fore bay immediately above the, valley of the Nahr Djaloud—a tributary of 4,he Jordan—which fore bay would stand at an elevation of 78 m. above sea-level, The proposal is to form an enlarged port at Haifa which could be entered by sea-going vessels, and to construct a series of eight locks between sea-level and the reservoir. These locks would have an average rise of ten meters, and at each of them there would be electrically-operated pumps, so that sea water might be lifted into the reservoir and be employed not only for the produc- tion of electrical energy by allowing it to flow through turbines into the river, but also for providing a navigable waterway from the sea right up to just above the Jordan Valley, a distance of just over 64 kilometres. At an elevation of 265 m. below sea-level it is proposed to construct the first of two hydro-electric gener- ating stations." Concise 'History of the Jews' . In 1911, the distinguished English Jewish scholar, Paul Good- man, published a brief "History of the Jews" which, by its con- ciseness and accuracy, attracted wide attention and thereafter was widely used in Jewish ranks. Several revised editions have been published since that time and Mr. Goodman had planned to expand his work and to bring it up to date. His death on Aug. 13, 1949, however, made that impossible. But his splendid history has not lost interest. The eminent historian, scholar and communal leader, Israel Cohen, has written three additional chapters which now bring Mr, Goodman's work up to our own time—through the rise of the State of Israel. "His- tory of the Jews" in its revised and enlarged form has been published by E. P. Dutton & Co. (300 4th Ave., NY10). In its 252 pages it incorporates all the basic facts about our history. The new edition undoubtedly not only will retain but will increase the popularity of this fine work. The new edition is enhanced by an interesting introduction by Dr. Abba Hillel Silver who evaluates the present status of Jewry and the transfer of importance of the centrality of Jewish leadership to America and to Israel. From now on, he points out, the Jews of the United States will be charged with the "major responsibility for carrying on the burden of their people's proud herit-age in the Diaspora." Dr. Silver expresses the view that American Jewry "is not a}- together unprepared or unequipped for this task," and that there is ground for confidence because "there is a strong concordance between the spiritual and ethical traditions of the two peoples' (Americans and Jews). "History of the Jews" by Paul Goodman, revised by Israel Cohen, is a small volume, but it is remarkable for its all-inclusive- ness. In 252 pages it covers the vast field of thousands of yeas of Jewish happenings. It is a volume well worth expanding intir3 enlarged new editions and certainly well worth reading.