After Germany — Austria
THE JEWI.SII NEWS
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. XXIII. No. 18
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager
. Page 4
FRANK SIMONS
City Editor
July 10, 1953
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the twenty-eighth clay of Tammuz, 5713, the following Scriptural selections will
be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion—Num. 30:2-36:13. Prophetical portion—Jer. 2:4-28; 3:4.
Rosh Hodesh Ab Scriptural Reading, Monday, Num. 28:1-15.
Licht Benshen, Friday, July 10, 7:08 p.m.
People Can Live at Peace If They Try Hard Enough'
The above title is taken from a special
cable to the New York Times from its cor-
respondent, Kenneth Love, in Battir, Jordan.
The importance of his story moves us to
share it in full with our readers. Mr. Love's
report reads: .
BATTIR, Jordan, June 25—Perched on the
steep southern slope of the Valley of Roses, a
narrow ravine winding westward from Jeru-
salem toward the sea, this ancient village,
called Bether in the Bible, is today a testament
that warring peoples can live at peace if they
try hard enough.
Four years and two months ago the village,
until then unto,uched by the Palestine war,
was divided from its 500 acres of rich, terraced
fields by the armistice line drawn on the island
of Rhodes between the armies of Israel and
the Arab nations.
In this sector the line, marked by rusting
barbed wire, was placed 200 yards south of the
Jerusalem-Jaffa railroad running along the
valley floor in order to protect the communica-
tions to the coast of the Israeli-occupied part
of Jerusalem. Israel was thus given trucial
possession of not only the opposite side of the
valley but the lower 200 yards of this slope,
which cut off Battir's school and several houses
as well as the fields that are its livelihood.
Many other villages divided in this way along
the armistice line have been scenes of repeat-
ed bloodshed.
However, here, under the eyes of Israeli
soldiers in the evacuated and partly demolish-
ed hamlet of Walja across the way, the farm-
ers descend each morning unmolested to their
tiny-stepped plots to tend their vineyards and
groves of olive, figs, almonds and limes.
This arrangement between people still tech-
nically at war was made a few hours after the
Arab-Israeli armistice was signed May 1, 1949.
When the 1,300 villagers learned where the
truce line would strike them, they sent their
mukhtar, or headman, Hassan Mustafa, to the
United Nations Mixed Armistice Commission in
Jerusalem, seven miles east of here, to see what
could be done about it.
'Dealing directly with the Israeli military
delegates, Mr. Mustafa, a former journalist
who is now a local executive of the United Na-
tions Relief and Works Agency, obtained an
agreement allowing the villagers to use their
fields but forbidding them to go beyond their
stone fences. The agreement also forbids per-
sons not from Battir from entering the Israeli
part of the village lands.
Ever since then, the farmers and schoolboys
of the village have passed daily through a
gap in the barbed wire that, except for the of-
ficial Mandelbaum Gate in Jerusalem, is the
only legal point of passage between Jordan and
Israeli-occupied territory. The gap has been
nicknamed throughout the countryside as
"Hassanbaum Gate."
The situation is not without strain, Mr.
Mustafa said, asserting that three villagers
had been shot by mistake in the last four
years, "but at least we can live almost as we
did before."
Our quotation from this report for our
heading eliminates the word "warring" be-
cause we are convinced that it is possible for
'people to live at peace," and that it is not
necessary for cousins to be at war endlessly.
We not only believe that peace is possible,
but are convinced that destructive ele-
ments, which were responsible for prolong-
ation of the Israel-Arab war, are today guilty
of fomenting strife and encouraging discord.
Brig. John Bagot Glubb Pasha, the com-
mander of the British Legion in Jordan, is, in
our opinion, guilty of many of the wrongs
which have led to postponement of peace
negotiations between Arabs and Jews. His
recent statements have given courage to
war-mongers. Instead of joining in Israelis
efforts for peace, he has fanned hatred. In-
stead of affirming that he, too, desires to
see peace between the two nations on both
sides of the-Jordan, he has given credence to
reports of provocations and territorial ambi-
tions.
Glubb Pasha selected. an hour of tension
for his statements. Had he taken his cue
from the Battir experiences, Jordan would
have been brought closer to peace. Instead,
he revived • a quarrel that should have been
healed long ago.
Kennet Love's report from Battir should
have a salutary effect also our State De-
to the New York
partment. Another report to
Times, from its correspondent in Tel Aviv,
Dana Adams Schmidt, adds to the feeling of
distress over the lack of confidence that ex-
ists today among many Israelis in the pres-
ent Republican Administration of the United
States. Secretary of State John Foster
Dulles already has repudiated, through Bern-
ard Katzen, a New York attorney, the Time
Magazine story that he was pro-Arab be-
cause Jews voted Democratic. The latter
charge, which has become a pivot for anti-
Israel and anti-Jewish propaganda, remains
to be proven. The fact—as we evaluated it
during the last election—is that Jews vote
like their neighbors, and when there is a par-
ty change in the general vote there also is a
switch in Jewish balloting.
We are pleased, however, on general prin-
ciples, that Mr. Dulles has denied the story
he purportedly told the Arabs. There is an
American tradition of friendship for Israel
and we hope to see it perpetuated. There also
is an American-Arab friendship which should
be continued—and both friendships hinge
on Israel-Arab amity that can be attained
only through peace in the Middle East.
Israelis have proven that Arabs and Jews
can live peacefully side by side—in Israel
and on her borders. The obligation of sin-
cere people is to encourage it. The duty of
our Government and our State Department
is to strive for it. Then there will be no need
for a Pasha to preach war, for magazines
to invoke political differences in matters
that should be judged only on their humani-
tarian values, for the kinsmen of Israel to
be unduly disturbed by a situation made in-
creasingly distressing by fomenters of hate.
MSA Program to End: I srael Must Look Ahead
Assurances have been given, as a result
the passage of the $5,318,000,000 Mutual
Security Act, that Israel will receive the
sum of $65,000,000 during the coming year
as technical aid from this country.
But the Senate's decision is to end for-
eign aid in June of 1956. This represents a
challenge to the Jewish state.
Unless there is peace with the Arab
states by the time the Mutual Security pro-
gram ends, Israel will face serious trouble.
Jewish state bond sales are scheduled to
end next May. The income from the United
Jewish Appeal is decreasing and the reality
of statehood has caused world Jewry to ex-
pect Israel to become self-sustaining. It is an
unreasonable expectation, in view of the con-'
tinued threats to the young state from hos-
tile neighbors, and because of the heavy
economic burdens imposed upon it by the
necessity of caring for newcomers who must
be integrated into its economy.
Ample warning is being given Israel by
the United States of the planned cessation of
of
Mutual Security aid in 1956. In the interim,
the young state must prepare to face the
challenge of decreasing assistance f r o m
abroad. It must create opportunities for pri-
vate investments by removing obstacles
which, it has been charged, have been im-
posed by the dominant party in the land.
It must tighten its belt and must be ready
to balance the budget.
The responsibility, it must be recognized,
is not Israel's alone. It is world Jewry's. We
have embarked upon a great project and
must finish it. We have begun, jointly with
Israel, and with the cooperation of the
world's democratic powers, to provide se-
curity for the reborn state of Israel, and we
dare not let the Israelis down.
It is not too early to begin planning Is-
rael's self-sufficiency program NOW. Thanks
to Uncle Sam, major obstacles were hurdled
in the past five years. From 1956 on, Israel
must find means of being self-sustaining—
and her major partnership is with US, her
kinsmen who dare not forsake the struggling
state,
Dr. Hadas' Scholarly Apocryphal Book
Evil of Race Hate, Values of
Brotherhood Told in 'Maccabees'
Dropsie College, Philadelphia, once again has enriched Jewish
literature with "The Third and Fourth Books of the Maccabees,"
edited and translated by Prof. Moses Hadas. Published coopera-
tively by Harper & Bros., this Dropsie volume is the third in the
series of "Jewish Apocryphal Literature," It contains the original
texts, in Greek, with the Englisn translations on opposite pages.
The president of Dropsie College. Dr.
Abraham A. Neuman, explains in the for
word that the publishing of the two Mac-
cabees Books appears in one volume as a
matter of expediency. He points out that
"while the two books are not consciously
interrelated, these literary compositions
are mutually complementary in voicing a
truth to which Jewish history is the eter-
nal witness."
Dr. Hadas' introduction and explana-
tory notes provide a highly scholarly
source of material for/ study of the con-
tents of this significant book. He evalu-
ates the contents, analyzes the doctrines
incorporated in them and their influence
in religious development.
Dr. Hadas
Egyptian Jewry under King Ptolemy IV Philopator (221-204
B.C.) is involved in the Third Book in which the evils of race
hatred are exposed and their doom foretold. There are interest-
ing revelations of tyranny, of subjection of Jews to humiliation
and death. But there were heartening reactions among the peo-
ple, to wit, quoting the text:
"The Greeks in the city, who were in no way injured, when
they saw the unforeseen tumult involving these people and
unlooked-for concourses taking place, they were not strong
enough, indeed, to help them, for they lived under a tyranny,
but they did try to comfort them and were distressed for them-,
and they supposed the situation would change for the better:
surely so great a community could not be thus abandoned when
they had committed no fault. Some of their neighbors and
friends and business associates drew some aside secretly, and
offered pledges to protect them and to exert their utmost efforts
to assist them."
The "unceasing grief" of the Jews and the attempt to annihi-
late them is recorded here. But the elephants which were unloosed
to crush the Jews turned upon the tormentors of the Jews, creat-
ing havoc in their ranks. The result was that the king who sought
to crush them was filled with compassion, and the Jews were given
a rightful place in his society. The Jews found haven in Ptolemais.
"They had got greater authority than before among their ene-
mies, along with glory and awe; and no one at all disturbed them
in their possessions. All their property they recovered, according
to the registration; and those who had any of it returned it with
great fear, God the Greatest having perfectly wrought great
things for their deliverance. Blessed be the Deliverer of Israel
for ever and ever! Amen."
In the Fourth Book, entitled "On the Sovereignty of Reason,*
he shows the influence of the thinking of the time upon religious
expressions of latter days. As Dr. Neuman points out, in this book
"the spirit of the man of faith is portrayed in triumph over ty-
rants and their death-wielding instruments. For greater than
the terrors of death is the victorious faith of martyrdom." This
book teaches the value of „good will among men:
"You cannot be ignorant of the charm of brotherhood,
which divine and all-wise Providence has imparted through
fathers upon those begotten of them—implanting it indeed., even
in their mother's womb. There do brothers abide . .."
Scholarship is enriched in this volume. The two books,
printed in one volume, assist in strengthening faith, while ea-
lightening us on all-but-forgotten works of scholars of old.
Two New Books in the Making
In connection with the approaching Tercentenary celebrationl,
marking the 300th anniversary of the settlement of the first or-
ganized Jewish community in America, McGraw-Hill will publish
an interpretive history of Jewish life in America by Prof. Oscat
Handlin, in 1954.
Sholena Asch's "A Passage in the Night" will be published
Putnam in October. Maurice Samuel is the translator.