5714-WHO SHALL:LIVE...WHO SHALL DIE?
THE JEWISI1 NEWS
f
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., 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit 35, Mich., VE. 8-9364.
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. 26
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager
FRANK SIMONS
City Editor
September 4, 1953
Page 4
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
ji
This Sabbath, the twenty-fifth day of Elul, 5713, the following Scriptural selections will be
read in our synagogues:
,Pentateuchal portion, Dent. 29:9-31:10. Prophetical portion, Is. 61:10-63:9.
Rosh Hashanah 5714 Scriptural Selections
Pentateuchal portions—First day, Thursday, Gen. 21, Num. 29:1-6; Second day, Friday; Gen.
22, Num. 29:1-16.
Prophetical portions—First day. I Sam. 1:1-2:10: -Second day. Jer. 31:2-30.
Licht Benshen, Friday, Sept. 4, 6:04 p.m.; Wednesday, Sept. 9, 5:56 p.m.; Friday, Sept. 11,
5:52 P.m.
Injustice of Alien Law: The
President Must Ad
needs of our country and also to safeguard its
Doubt has been expressed, by Senator
McCarran himself and others, whether fur-
ther steps will be taken in Washington,
when Congress reconvenes, to correct the
injustices inherent in the McCarran-Walter
Act. The much-acclaimed emergency refugee
bill which was adopted at the last session of
Congress now is proving most ineffective
and may have to await three months of pro-
cedural action before it can be put into ac-
tion.
"Revision of the Alien Law" is the title
of a revealing New York Times editorial in
which the inadequacy of the existing law is
described. The Times points out:
1. It is becoming increasingly clear that the
-
emergency refugee bill passed in the closing
days of Congress is likely to turn out to be
considerably less effective than it was cracked
up to be. It is, of course, far better than
nothing and we still have hopes that it will do
good. But Senator McCarran's bitter struggle
against a meaningful bill had such great suc-
cess in complicating and restricting it that it
is now reported that at least three months will
be required before the State Department will
be able even to establish the procedures to put
it into operation. And then it contains so many
barriers and pitfalls that one wonders just
how many of the 200,000 refugees from Com-
munist terror covered by the law actually will
be allowed to make their way to this country in
the next three years.
I While the whole purpose of President Eisen-
hower's demand for an adequate emergency
immigration bill was to help those who have
escaped from Communism and also to make a
gesture of relief to certain friendly countries
struggling with internal population pressures,
the measure as passed bears unmistakable
evidence of the anti-immigration policy that
Senator McCarran and friends have to a large
extent succeeded in fastening upon our coun-
try. Security against spies of the Communist
or any other variety is of course essential; but
when absurd, unfair and harmful rules are
established in the name of security, they can
only have the result of playing into Commu-
nist hands. In any case, it is hard to see why
a real . spy would bother about the difficulties
imposed by law when our southern boundary-
is so notoriously easy to cross—as hundreds of
thousands of Mexican "wetbacks" have discov-
ered during the past few years. Yet many of
our security-conscious statesmen from the
• Southwestern areas where "wetbacks" are ern-
, ployed as temporary labor under unspeakable
conditions and at lowest wages do not appear
to be too concerned about the security menace
of that particular border-.
,
I • What is really required- for an immigration
policy adequate to meet -the principles and
•
Holy Day Bond Drive
Our congregations are mobilizing for
serious efforts to' enroll the entire commu-
nity ha ea special Israel bond*purchasing drive
during the Holy Days..
By this time it should be needless to re-
iterate the iMporta.nce of giving Israel eco-
nomic encouragement. --We owe an obliga-
tion to the young • state to become self-sus-
taining so that it may be able to we for the
huhdreds of thousands =of suOiVors from
Nazism who were rescued theie since the
nation had acquired independence. •
' It is impossible to imagine the horrors
that would have been visited upon the sur-
vivors if Israel had not come to their aid.
Without a free Israel we would ,have had to
beg for refuge for the surviving Jews in
lands throughout the world. The unwilling-
nesS of the nations of the world to welcome
them would have created havoc in our ranks.
We were spared the agony of such hopeless-
ness and helplessness by Israel's rebirth. The
least we can do is help her become econom-
ically free. At the moment, the Israel Bond
Issue is the major Instrument for such as-
sistance. We urge all Detroit Jews to respond
liberally to the call for the bond drive that
will be sounded in our synagogues during the
lioly Days.
security is complete revision of the law. The
McCarran-Walter Act of 1952 was a recodifica-
tion and reworking - of our immigration and
nationality statutes; but, as President Eisen-
hower has said, the McCarran Act "must be
rewritten." He would surely be the first to
agree that it must be rewritten in the Ameri-
can spirit of courage, humanity and freedom;
not in a frightened atmosphere of xenophobia
and withdrawal from reality. Senator Lehman
and thirty-one other members of Congress
have introduced a monumental measure (S.
2585) to accomplish this purpose—a measure
that should serve as the basis in the next few
months for intelligent discussion of this prob-
lem that means so much to the welfare of
the United States and to our position of leader-
ship in the free world.
The Plight of the Blind
Dr. Twersky's Deeply Moving
Novel 'Face of the Deep'
It is impressive enough that 32 Senators,
under the leadership of Senator Lehman, should
be sponsoring a proper measure to revise the
McCarran-Walter Act, but this number is insuf-
ficient to assure just legislative action to remove
An American Jewish Press Feature
injustice. Correction of the inadequacies re-
quires the active interest of the President. Unless
When you have given a coin to a blind man, for a pencil or
President Eisenhower acts promptly to call upon a pair of shoelaces, or without accepting merchandise for your
Congress to rewrite existing laws, the efforts of gift, did you stop to think of the unfortunate person's background,
the minority that recognizes the unreality of of his inner struggles, his emotions, his attitude toward society?
McCarranism will be in vain.
Dr. Jacob Twersky, himself blind, a man who has reached a
high
rung on the educational ladder, helps us to understand the
We urge the President to exert his energy
for the fulfillment of a campaign sentiment that blind in his powerful novel, "The Face of the Deep" (World Pub-
the IvIcCarran Act "must be rewritten." By lishing Co., 2231 W. 110th, Cleveland 2).
This deeply moving story reads like an autobiography. The
achieving this end he will add honor and dignity
reader
has the feeling that Dr. Twersky is the Dr. Joe Berkowitz
to his official record.
in his novel. Joe, who was injured as a child, is the son of a doc-
tor. He went to a school for the blind, acquired a desire to teach
history, fought against many odds and finally secured a college
teaching position.
Here is the comparable story of our able author: Jacob
Among the treasures included by the em- Twersky,
now a U. S. citizen, born in Poland in 1920, was brought
inent Israeli author, S. Y. Agnon, in his to this country by his parents in 1 . 928. Scarlet fever caused his
"Days of Awe," is this quotation from Mish- blindness. He was totally blind at 12, attended braille classes,
nah Rosh Hashanah:
received his B.A. at N. Y. City College, his M.A. at Columbia and
Ph.D. at New York University. For several years he taught
his
"It has been taught: Rabbi Eliezer saus,
the blind and now is history instructor at C.C.N.Y.
In the month of Tishri the world was created,
In his novel, Dr. Twersky tells about blind men who excelled
in Tishri the patriarchs were born, in Tishri in wrestling. He himself, as a C.C.N.Y. undergraduate, was cap-
the patriarchs died. On Rosh Hashanah, Sarah, tain of the wrestling team and state lightweight champion.
But these are the happier details of his story. His novel is an
Rachel and Hannah were remembered on high
and conceived, on Rosh Hashanah Joseph left interlinking of the experiences of a number of blind men and
prison, on Rosh Hashanah the bondage of our women whose complete life stories are related in "The Face of the
Celli, Fred Harris, Clare •
ancestors ceased in Egypt. In the month of Deep." Ken Werner, Joe Berkowitz, Rosie.
the same passions as those who
Thompson,
are
human,
yielding
to
Nisan they were redeemed, and in Tishri they
see, possessing the sex urges that at times aggravate their prob-
will be redeemed in time to come."
lems.
Their tragedy haunts you. As the case of Joe Berkowitz,. who
Thus, the month we are about to usher imagines,
while on the sand by the sea, with his seeing. brother
in with Rosh Hashanah has great signif- Phil, he sees everything: "My eyes seem to see again, to take in
icance on our calendar. It offers hope and my surroundings;" And after he goes through imagining what he
inspires faith.
sees: "But I cannc se% mot a damn rotten thing." In addition,
Joe faces the prejudices aroused by his being a Jew. Before he
Quoting again from Misnah Rosh Ha- marries Karen, the seeing girl who reads to him while he studies
shanan, Agnon's "Days of Awe" refers to for his Ph.D., her family objects to him not only because he is
this passage:
blind, but also because he is a Jew!
As a youngster, just before his Bar Mitzvah, when he asked
"The world is judged at four seasons: at
his father whether he would see again, and his father sobbed:
Passover, in regard to grain; on the feast of "I had never heard him weep before. I ran from him and his
Weeks, in regard to the fruit of the tree; on answer, ran upstairs and threw myself on my bed. It was from
Rosh Hashanah, all the inhabitants of this that moment on, I think, that I stopped believing in God."
world file before Him. As .it is said, 'He that
"The Face of the Deep" does not aim to glorify the blind in
fashioneth the hearts of them all, that con- their suffering. It deals with their frailties as well as their better
sidereth all their doings' (Ps. 33:15). On the qualities while viewing the miseries that haunt them. There are
Feast of Booths., the world is judged in re- good and bad among them. Some, like Fred Harris, are highly
successful; others, like Ken Werner, are impoverished. Fred re-;•
gard to rain."
fuses to give Ken a job and Joe gets into a bloody fight with him- . • -•
The major importance of Rosh Ha- In his despair, after the third child is born to his blind wife, Rosie •
shanah thus is all-inclusive: the filing of man- Celli, Ken gives up the struggle, resorts to begging to support his -
kind before the Ali-nighty for judgment on family: "The people pass, giving the toins.that mean so little to
all things, as the author points out with this them. The wind burns my face. I burn -inside."
This is the story of the blind—by a- blind man who knows and
additional reference to TOsefta .ROsh Ha-
understands their feelings. It is a tragic story; it won't make any-- , '
shanah:
We'- "."
"All things are judged on Rosh Hashanah, one feel. elated. But it is a story that. should be known, else or
fiddle or the pencil
the
shall
never
understand
the
fellow
with
. and their fate is sealed on Yom Kippur, are .-
shoelaces—and the white cane. By' helping us understand the'
, the words Of Rabbi Meir. Rabbi . Judah, "in the, the
blind, Dr. Twersky may have opened an avenue for better human,
name of Rabbi . Akiba, says: All things. are. relations • to assist these unfortunates.
judged on .goSh Hashanah, but the fate of
each and every, one of them is sealed in -its
proper season;'' at Passover, the fate of the
An American :Jewish Press Feature .
grain, at the Feast of Weeks, that of the fruit
Fear for the result.of a duel led poet 'Henrich Heine to
of the tree, and at the Feast of Booths, that - of matize his relations by marriage to:Matilda Matiat in 1841 as.
rain."
didn't want to leaVe her to a "dubious widowhood. " Heine's bride
We are about to gather. in our houses of was wholly unedudated aid Heine sent . 1m: to boarding, school
Heine Would visit her, in great
prayer for the Day of Judgment. Israel will to learn to read and write. When
she would rattle off history'whiCh she had heatd fpr,
be one in spirit on that day. All mankind will excitement
,
tine.
be judged, and to avert the evil decrees we the ! first tilying
to explain this union; the greatest 1;Yric poet Of
reaffirm in this' season our obligation to be age, said "A more civilized woman Would, have misunderstood pcke,
just to all so that the Judgment be JUst.' .
more pretentiously." Her wifely faith was wonderful. Never ham
In the spirit of re-dedication to Faith and ing read his bOoks and therefore imdazzled by the glitter of-
Justice, we wish the community a Happy fame, she attended him unwearily and devotedly througil hid long; .
illness of eight years.
New Year.
On Eve of New Year
The -. ROt.iiance,
pen:
Jewi:sh'.5- upir
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