AIMMINIIIIMPIIIPMEMPIMMINIMPOMMINF .

THE JEWISH NEWS

incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20. 1951

'No Partiality to Ile Shown' - Dulles

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. 5-1156
Stibseription $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

SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager.

VOL. XXIII. No. 15

FRANK SIMONS
City Editor

Page 4

June 19, 1953
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
•
This Sabbath, the seventh day of Tammuz, 5713, the following Scriptural selections will be
read in our synagoues:
Pentateuchal portion—Num. 19:1-22:1. Prophetical portion—Judges 11:1-23.

■ ••••

Lich Benshen, Friday, June 19, 7:11 p.m.

History's Parallelisms: Right to Rebel for Freedom

In his scholarly study, "Don Isaac Abra-
vanel: Statesman and Philosopher," one of
the newest Jewish Publication Society vol-
umes, B. Netanyahu makes a most interest-
ing observation.
He shows that "the Spanish anti-Jewish
_literature of the second half of the fifteenth
century and the German anti-Semitic 'litera-
ture of the first half of the twentieth cen-
tury show a remarkable similarity." Fur-
thermore, he indicates that "just as the ex-
propriation of the German Jews in our time
helped materially in building the German
war machine, so the expropriation of the
conversos was an important. element in fi-
nancing the war enterprises of the Spanish
kings."
Mr. Netanyahu shows the similarity be-
tween the Nazi and. Spanish tactics of de-
picting Jews as "reprehensible" and "sinis-
ter." Just as Streicher caricatured Jews, so
also were the Marranos pictured as evil and
of "criminal nature."
History thus repeats itself. But history
also has its warnings and its lessons. Mr.
Netanyahu shows how the Jews of Spain
and Germany were akin in their failure to
perceive the impending dangers that faced
them. He tells us in his book on Spain and
her great Jewish leader Ab•avanel:
"Just as the Jews of Germany failed to
foresee Hitler's rise to power at any time dur-

tion contributed to their misintel -pretation of
the events."

This is a significant analogy. Yet we
wonder whether a possible recurrence of any
similar event — the Inquisition or Nazism--
could create a different line of thinking.
Placing faith in humankind, Jews always
hope, as they pray, for the emergence of
the best instincts in their neighbors. There
were Jews under the Czars who placed faith
in some public officials under whose very
instigation they subsequently suffered from
pogroms. In Poland, Jews were massacred
by the very people with whom they fought
side by side for Polish independence. Jews
were loyal to Spain, always hoping that the
Inquisition would be short-lived. There were
Jews in German who believed in the influ-
ence of Goethe more than in the menace of
Hitler. In all these instances, faith was un-
real. Yet it is this very faith that has kept
Jewry alive and has caused our people to
survive and to be witnesses to the downfall
of our would-be destroyers.
The aftermath is as important as the par-
allelism. Yet it is to be hoped that we shall
learn the lessons of history. In the new age
which finds us often called upon to defy
persecution, we must not only be on guard
against the resurgence of anti-Semitism, but
we must fight it to a finish. Today Jews can
speak up against their enemies—unlike the
days when Czarism and Nazism and Spanish
ing the period preceding that rise, so the Jews
persecutions made it impossible for our an-
of Spain failed to notice, even a few years
cestors to protect indignity. And because
before the expulsion, the mountainous wave
the right to rebel against oppression matches
which was approaching to overwhelm them - our faith in mankind, we have earned the
.. Their erroneous conception of the Inquisi-
right to be more confident of a better future.

Beware Also of 'Je wish Anti - Semitism'

-

While on the subject of anti-Semitism,
there comes to mind the time when the late
Dr. Stephen S. Wise was deeply appalled by
an unusual apparition: "Jewish Anti-Semi-
tism." He would have been even more upset
today, in an era in which a "council" that
uses the term "Judaism" in its name under-
takes to advise our government to be less
friendly to Israel, using as the basis for its
argument the need for granting aid to Middle
Eastern nations on the same basis to all in
the area.
On the face of it, the latter point sounds
logical. But it is not a new one. It was not
coined by Lessing J. Rosenwald, who offered
the suggestions we refer to on behalf of the
American Council for Judaism to Secretary of
State John Foster Dulles. It has been heard
time and again in Congressional debates and
has been offered as an argument against aid
to Israel from Israel's antagonists. While Mr.
Rosenwald dislikes it, the truth is that pro-
Arabs have propagated "equality" in order
to harm Israel. But Israel's friends under-
stand the situation. They know that you can
not offer parity to all the Middle Eastern
states which, in spite - of the Rosenwaldian
blindness and deafness, continue to threaten
war on Israel. If there is to be eqUality, then
the already vastly enriched Arab states will
have eight times the ammunition they
possess today, without even the appearance
of an equal chance for Israel.
Thus, in his letter of acclaim of Mr.
Dulles' recent statement on his tour of the
Middle Eastern states, Mr. Rosenwald states:
"We particularly applaud your third con-
clusion relating to the need for the United
to seek' to allay the deep resentment against
it that has resulted from the creation of
Israel.' " Without stating it, the implication
is clear: curb Israel by pacifying the Arabs,
and the Arabs will be more friendly to the
United States. By implication, also, our gov-
ernment is advised to curb its traditional
friendship for the small, struggling -Jewish
state.
Mr. Rosenwald is not so original when he
submits a statement declaring that his Coun-
cil believes in "peace and good will in the
Middle East." Peace is the major hope and
aspiration of Israel. If it were not so,,Ameri-
can Jewry would not support the United

Jewish -Appeal, the major philanthropic

cause in Israel's behalf. The Jews of this
country would not be partners in a scheme
that propagated war. We seek to uphold
Israel's hands because we know that while
surrounded by avowed enemies—the Rosen-
wald- statement to the contrary notwith-
standing—she begs for amity.
We would not hold it against Mr. Rosen-
wald and his associates if they were to ad-
vocate the complete abandonment of the
Middle East and would urge the United
States and the United Nations to offer a
guarantee that Israel would not be attacked.
Instead, he seeks parity for all—and parity
in this instance means an eight-to-one dis-
advantage for Israel. There are 1,600,000
Jews in Israel. A million of - them were res-
cued from behind the Iron Curtain and the
Nazi crematoria. The Rosenwald proposals
would reopen the death pits for all of Israel.
Our last week's analysis of the Dulles
statement expressed confidence that with the
aid of the United States and the United Na-
tions there can be peace in the Middle East—
for the good of the Arabs, the Jews, and the
entire world. We deliberately avoided mak-
ing an issue of the Secretary of State's ref-
erence to "Zionism" which was, regrettably,
introduced by Mr. Dulles, and which served
as a weapon for the Judaism Council. We
plead with Mr. Dulles not to fall victim to
false propaganda. The major problem is
one of security for Jews, of humanitarianism
in behalf of hundreds of thousands who have
escaped persecutions and for hundreds of
thousands who are yet to reach Israel-out of
lands of despair.
Mr. Rosenwald and his group have not
helpe-d the cause of peace with their message
to our Secretary of State. On the contrary,
they harmed a great cause by speaking of
the "dangerous aspects of Zionism." If Zion-
ism is dangerous, then the Red Cross is dan-
gerous, then democracy's fight in Korea is
criminal, then the battle against Nazi-Fas-
cist-Communist ideologies is unworthy.
We repeat: all of the arguments offered
by the Judaism Council already have been
demolished in Congressional debates. We ap-
peal to. the State Department to weigh the
facts, to adhere to our government's tradi-
tional friendship for Israel, to strive for
peace, not by arming those who threaten
their neighbors with warfare but by con-
tinuing to encourage the lovers of true peace.

'Good-For-Nothing' Preferred Over Prize-Winner

Two Novel With Varying Themes

THE GUILT MAKERS. By David Weiss. Rinehart &
232 Madison Ave., New York 16.
THE GOOD-FOR-NOTHING. By James Yaffe. Little, Brown & Co.,-
34 Beacon St., Boston 6.

This reviewer searched for reasons to commend the selection
of David Weiss' "The Guilt Makers" as the first novel to win
the $5,000 Frieder Literary Award established through the Union
of American Hebrew Congregations by Alexander Frieder. He was
disappointed. -
It is a story about a boy who, after leaving a Nazi concentra-
tion camp, where he was eye-witness to the destruction oh thous-
ands of Jews, including his own family, set out to attack Germans.
Upon the entrance of the American army, he attacked the SS
guard who molested, him. He befriended an American whom he
later met in the United States and became deeply attached to
him. In fact, the Christian American David Hutchinson, became
inseparable from the youth, Saul Swoboda, practically sacrificing
his own existence in behalf of the escape from Nazism.
So ._far so good, although the very attachment, to the sacri-
fice of the Christian's beloved, sounds utterly unrealistic. What
the reviewer takes exception to is the publication by the Reform
congregations of a novel which is packed with so many misrepre-
sentations of Jewish facts.
Thus, when we are told that Saul bought his own Torah,. me
wondered: was it to march in a Simchat Torah parade with chil-
dren ?
The description of Saul's uncle is neither amusing nor elevat-
ing. He is described as a man of learning, who lives the Bible.
The author should have been able to subgtantiate it with an en-
tirely different characterization.
. No, this reviewer 'was not too impressed.
The Wholesomeness of "The Good-For-Nothing"
Vastly different is Yaffe's "The Good-for-Nothing." It does
not claim to be an evaluation of a cause, or a deliberation on
traditions, or historical. It is a simple tale, Well told, replete with
humor, un-offending.
The "Good-for-Nothing" is the younger brother of the hero
of the story who, with the encouragement of his mother, makes
untold sacrifices in behalf of the happy-go-lucky fellow. The
conscientious older brother is disturbed when his brother cheats
in cards. He enlists the rich uncle's aid in saving his honor.
There follows. the uncle's plot: to marry off the young
run-about and move him to another city. The plot would have
worked, but the older brother, disturbed by the attempt to mis-
lead an innocent girl and her rich family, exposes his brother
and the love match is abrutly called. off. The older brother returns
to his former way of falling for his younger brother's charms
and the old cycle is in motion again. .Yaffee tells his story well.
He amuses his readers and this accomplished the novelist's aim.

Illustrated De Luxe 'Book of Jonah'

THE BOOK OF JONAH.- Original woodcuts by Jacob Steinhardt. Hand-lettering
by Franzisca Baruch. Philadelphia, Pa., Jewish Society of America, 1953. 48 pages.
inches by 131/2 inches. $5.

A Review by Edwin Wolf 2nd, Curator, Library Phila. Association.
The artistic presentation of the Bible in book form has been
a challenge to craftsmen for centuries. Churches and synagogues,
princes and scholars have sought it in a physical dress which
would in some measure match its importance to their spiritual
life. As a result it has been beautifully written on vellum by both
Jewish and Christian scribal calligraphers. It has been encased ; in
gold and silkS and precious stones. The artists of the Middle Ages
decorated its pages with magnificent illumination, and typograph-
ers from Gutenberg to Bruce Rogers have bestowed on it the best
of their craftsmanship and imagination.
Now, the Jewish Publication Society of .America presents its
first de luxe publication, "The Book of Jonah," in Hebrew and
English, with woodcut illustrations. It is a handsome successor
to the great editions which have preceded it.

'It is significant that 'the volume is a joint product of Israel
and America. The woodcuts, strong, modern and yet harmoni-
ous to both test and format, are the work of Jacob Steinhardt.
German-born, and a participant in the art movement known
as the "Berliner Secession," he is now an Israeli citizen and the
head of the Bezalel. School of Art in Jerusalem. The calligraphy
is by Franzisca Baruch, also of German birth and also today a
citizen of Israel. The English lettering is with sonic individualis-
- tic variations quite similar to the great English calligrapher,
Edward Johnston's Foundational Hand, and the Hebrew, a more
original design, presents a strong, square letter. It is interesting
to note that Miss Baruch has been among .those who have de-
signed paper currency-for Israel.

The Hebrew text, here presented without vowels, is of course
the ancient, traditional Masoretic text. The English is the Jewish
Publication Society version, first printed in 1917, and here for the
first time presented with illustrations and with the Hebrew.
The book was printed by the Optak process of Edward Stern
and Company, of Philadelphia, who most successfully reproduced
both the clarity of the pen lines and the delicacy of the graver's
knife, while at the same time maintaining a deep and uniform

blackness.

