Purely Commentary
Local Group Plans Roy Reuther, Abraham Harman Here
To Address 4-Day Habonim Parley
Tercentenary
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Speeches by Avraham Harman the Workman's Circle on Lin- ,
Expansion of Detroit's Jewish
Tercentenary Committee and. and Roy Ruether will highlight wood, will be David Breslau,
formulation of plans for the ob- the 23rd annual national con- past national Habonim' presi-
dent who currently is educa-
servance of the 300th Anniver-
tional director of Bet Berl
sary of the settlement of Jews
Institute in Israel. His topic
in this country was announced
will be "Israel Today."
this week after 'a. meeting of the
Dani Kerman, national Habo-
provisional tercentenary com-
nim president, will arrive early
mittee. •
to participate in Saturday even-
The enlarged committee -Will
ing's fourth conference of Garin
meet •March 3' at Temple Israel.
Gimel, which denotes the group
On Feb. 3, committee- chairinen
of Habonim members who are
will confer " on . the budgetary
preparing to make their homes
needs for the celebration.'
on a settlement 'in Israel. There
• Plans for Detroit's AserNiance
are currently 1,000 former mem-
include the publication Of a his-
bers of Habonim in Israel.
tory of Michigan Jewry, a Public
Delegates from all parts of the
meeting . to mark the event,
United States and Canada will
special school and religious
Ruether
Harman
represent 8,500 members in the
events, and women's participa- vention of Habonim, Labor Western Hemisphere at the
tion through special events.
Zionist youth group, which will four-day meetings. During the
Irving Katz was named chair- be held from SUnday through day, workshop sessions on all of
man of the editorial committee Wednesday, at Cong. Bnai Habonim's activities are plan-
for the i'proposed history of Moshe, it was announced by ned.
Included in the discussions
Michigan Jewry. 1 Eleanor Goldberg Wesley, con-
will be planning for Habonim's
Dr. Richard Hertz announced vention chairman.
that Temple Beth El is planning! Mr. Harman, Consul General 14 summer camps, organiza-
a special' Tercententary Service, Of the Israeli delegation in tion of membership drives,
Jan. 1g with the noted historian, America, will speak Monday improvements for its four
evening on "The Validity of publications and various other
Dr. Jacob Marcus, as speaker.
Zionism Today." Ruether, who items.
Plan Religious Observance
Habonim, which means "The
is coordinator of political action
NEW YORK. N.Y.—A national for the UAW-CIO, will address Builders," is open to all youth
religious program for the Amer- the conferees on Tuesday even.- in four catagories: 10 to 12;
ican Jewish Tercentenary was ing on "Crisis- in Democracy."
13 to 15; 16 to 18 and 19 to 23.
announced here by Rabbi Simon
Speaker at the opening ses- There are nearly 100 Habonim
G. Kramer, chairman of the sion, which is scheduled at members in Detroit.
Tercentenary committee on re-
ligious and education participa-
tion.
The religious program was
worked out at a conference of
rabbis and lay religious leaders
here last week.
Rabbi Kramer said that national
Deeply moved by the friend- nounced on the next morning
synagogue organizations and na- ships shown them on the occa- that they would plant the grove
tional rabbinic bodies—consti- sion of the deditation of their of 1,000 trees. Mr. Hordes said
tuencies of the Synagogue Coun- new office building at 17616 Wy- that he will have a tree certifi-
cil of America—will issue a oming ; the Hordeses . this week cate assigned to each person who
joint proclamation declaring the announced that they would was present at the dedication.
period from September 1954 plant a groxe of 1,000 trees in
Scores of bouquets of flowers,
through May 1955 to be a time Israel in honor of their friends. a large number of telegrams
for religious observance and cele-
More than
and other expressions of friend-
bration of the Jewish Tercenen-. 1,000 people at-
ship were in evidence at the
ary in America.
tended the ded-
The first religious event to ication of the
dedication.
mark the official launching of new building on
The new Hordes Insurance
the tercentenary on Sept. 12, Sunday a f te r-
Agency
Building has adequate
1954 will be a reconsecration noon.
office space for complete insur-
service at Congregation Shearith
Willian
ance services.
Israel, which was founded by Hordes, his son,
the first 23 Jewish settlers 'in Earl, and son-
New Amsterdam in September in-law, Edward
2 DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
1654. The Tercentenary will be Wishnetsky, an- William Hordes
Friday, December 25, 1953
brought to a close on May 29,
1955, with an outdoor religious
ceremony at the Carter Barron
Amphitheatre in Washington,
D. C., involving the Orthodox,
Conservative and. Reform move-
By BORIS SMOLAR
(Copyright, 1953, Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
ments of Judaism.
The Retraction of a Prophet of Doom
A major obstacle in the path of Israel's quest for peace in the
Middle East is the obstreperous attitude of her antagonists who
have even refused to recognize her existence. Until recently, the
Arabs went so far as - to avoid using the term "Israel." They kept
on referring to the Jewish State in veiled terms by speaking of
bad Jews (the good good Jews they know . are those who would
stab their fellow-Jews in the back) and Zionists.
There are, unforfunatelY, non-Arabs who join with Israel's
enemies in aimitfg;• at destroying they•young state. But the more
realistic must come to terms with reality, as one prophet of doom
did a short time ago. The story of this prophet's retraction—
which is modified by an, unjustified fear of Israeli "expansion"—
is told in the following item, taken from the London (England)
Jewish Observer and Middle EaSt Review:
"The State of Israel cannot last tong." This was what
Major-General. Sir EdWarcl, Spears told a Jewish Observer and
Middle East kevie.w.interviewer in July 1952. In over a year the
prophet of doom has not merely retracted,. he , has radically
recast his views.
"We must accept, for it _cannot be otherwise, that Israel. has
come to stay," writes Sir Edward in the July number of The
Arab World. 'And not only has Israel come to stay but Sir Ed- ..
ward now fears Israeli expansionism. "We must establish," he
writes, "a physical barrier that the Arabs will accept (which, .;
will be no easy matter) ; which will convince them that the Jews,
will not expand beyond the prescribed frontiers.
It would _ need nothing less than the establishment of lines
of military posts with irrevocable orders to resist _an advance
from either side"—a Middle East Maginot Line, it -Would seem.
In line with his new policy for the Middle East, Sir Edward
Spears no longer rejects the suggestion that the Arab refugees
be re-settled. Instead, he outlines a U.K.- and U.S.-Sponsored
development plan for the Arab countries that would include
provisions for the problems of the Arab refugees.
But drawing on his own war-time experiences in the Levant,
Sir Edward warns against allowing feudal landlords, specula-
tors and money-lenders to benefit from the plan and not the
people themselves.
Patience may solve many problems, and those who aim at
destruction may eventually join the builders of a better future
in the Middle East. But for those on the spot, the waiting is a
painful interlude.
*
But
*
*
the "Un - Jewish" Council Is Different
But the American Council for Judaism, to whom Dr. Leo Jung
refers (in his preface to "Jewish Leaders") as "un-American, un-
Jewish, and has no counsel of significance to offer," is differ-
ent. It must hate! It is bent upon a policy of destroying Israel.
Its December bulletin is devoted to an endless attack on Israel.
Half the face of the envelope containing this bulletin is devoted
to a reprint from a Memphis paper rebuking Israel on the strength
of information it received from the un-Jewish council. The 32
pages of the bulletin continue to pour out venom upon the Jewish
state. All the hate material that could be gathered is incorporated
in this periodical, and its contents seem to shout "hate Israel .
destroy Israel ... hate Israel ..."
It is unfortunate that this council should have been given
cause to gather the anti-Israel forces on the ground of the hor-
rible Kibya tragedy. No one has condoned that occurrence, just
as no one in a position of responsibility ever approved of the Dir
Yassin incident. But fair minded students of history and ob-
servers of events in the Middle East, while condemning the mas-
sacre, nevertheless recognized that endless provokations by Arabs
have been major causes for. retaliations.
The un-Jewish-un-American group could have been more tol-
erant, more considerate towards people who are struggling for
their very lives against enemies who are virtually in their back March of Dimes Seeks
yards. But not the small group of Jews who continually sound the To Double Volunteers
refrain of hate . . . hate . . . hate . . . hate . . . for an inexplicable
reason. They quote the few Jews whom they have misled and
"Two for One", according to
some non-Jews. They fail to take into consideration a viewpoint Anne Campbell, chairman, will
like this one, from the Dayton (0.) Daily News, whose editor view- be the slogan for Detroit's drive
ed the "Fault of the Blockade" as follows:
to enlist volunteer workers for
The firing by Egyptian shore batteries on an American the 1954 Mothers' March on Po-
freighter loaded with wheat for Palestine refugees in Jordan lio, climax of the 1954 March of
ought to dramatize something more than an offense against Dimes.
the American flag.
Between now and the end of
It ought to dramatize also the illegality of the blockade
December, every effort will be
which Egypt has thrown up against Israel.
made to sign up two workers for
The Egyptian gunners fired on a shipload of wheat des- every one who served last Janu-
ary. "Sort of a bring-a-friend
tined for one of their Arab allies under the evident misappre-
hension that it was bound; not for the Jordanian port of Aquaba deal," she said. "Of course, we
at the head of the Red Sea, but for the nearby Israeli port of hope that everyone who worked
Elath. The government of President Naguib will find it easy, to make last year's March of
therefore, to render the proper apologies. Since the aim of the Dimes such a success will work
artillerymen was bad, there will probably be no question of again in 1954. At least $7,500,000
will be needed for the new pre-
indemnities.
ventive polio vaccine tests which
But an. attacker's offhand apology: "Sorry, I was shooting will begin in January. Girls and
at the wrong guy," does not excuse that kind of gunplay. Since boys in second grade—a million
the Egyptian blockade has no standing in international law, of them in 200 communities
the offense would have been just as great had the American throughout the nation—will be
freighter actually been bound for Elath.
inoculated. In addition, $19,000,-
The fact is, not only was the shooting an unfriendly act, 000 will be spent for gamma
but it was perforMed in an unlawful endeavor to strangle the - globulin — at present the only
economy of a neighboring nation. TM) years ago the United means of stopping the spread of
Nations, by resolution, declared Egypt's Red Sea-Suez blockade epidemics and the prevention of
of shipments destined for Israel to be a violation of interna- paralytic polio, until a vaccine is
tional law. The violation has continued and the UN has done tested and found efficient."
nothing further about it. In contracst to the harshness of the
The Mothers' March chairman
resolution the General Assembly has- just passed in condemna- emphasized that this total of
tion of Israel's raid on the Jordan border town of Kibya, the $26,500,000 for the polio preven-
rebuke to Egypt two years ago apparently was little more than tion program was in addition to
a slap on the wrist.
the always staggering costs of
• The incident in the Red Sea presents an occasion for the giving financial assistance to po-
UN to move in on the illegal blockade as it has failed to do lio patients who need help and
forcefully up to now.
• continue the March of Dimes
The Prophet Isaiah described Jewish self-hating groups well programs of professional train-
when he said (1.2) :
ing, epidemic services and lab-
Children I have reared, and brought up,
oratory research.
To raise enough money will
And they have rebelled against me.
But the same Prophet, in the same chapter (1.27) offers require twice as many volun-
•
teers who will give' one hour
the hope: •
during the Mothert'' March on
Zibn 'shall be redeemed with justice.':
So that even' the , frightekred Jews; -.Who , !I tier'' now forging Polio to be held Thursday ; Jan.
8, 7 to 8 p.Y3a. - -
Sileapons against their own kinmen, 'may' yet' 4)e redeemed.. •
,
Hordes Family Honors Friends
With Grove of 1000 Trees in Israel
—
Between You and Me
The American Scene
American Jewry will ve engaged in a unique campaign dur-
ing the next three months . . a three-month drive to get well-
to-do Jews in the United States to supply their signatures to loans
for Israel in their local banks. . . These loans will be paid off
within a . period of five' years by the United Jewish Appeal . .
Thus, the loans will actually be made to the UJA, but the local
Jews will be the guarantors . . The money secured from these
loans—it is expected that $75,000,000 will be. raised—will go to
cover the short-term credits which the Israel government must
now meet in the United States . . . Already some Jews who are
able to do so have indicated their willingness to guarantee up to
$100,000 each toward the total which is sought . . . Others will
guarantee smaller sums, but all indications point to the fact that
this limited campaign will be met with sympathy by all friends
of Israel who wish to see the Jewish state maintain its good rec-
ord on payment of foreign loans ... The money raised through this
five-year loan will have no connection' whatsoever with the regu-
lar UJA fund-raising campaign for 1954 . . . However, within the
five years for which the loan stands, each of the guarantors will
deduct 20 per cent of his annual contribution to the UJA in order
to repay within the five-year period the full sum guaranteed by
his signature . . . There is a good deal of optimism among those
Jewish leaders who will direct the campaign . . . Private confer-
ences on this subject were held in New York with Jewish corn-.
munity leaders from all parts of the country, and the sentiments,
expreSsed at these parleys were exceptionally favorable to the new'
method of helping Israel meet its urgent dollar obligations.
Behind the Scene
A new plan to bring American Zionist and non-Zionist per-
sonalities together, now being prepared by Dr. Nahum Goldrnann,
provides for the. formation of an advisory council composed of
Zionists and non-Zionists to work hand-in-hand on behalf of Is-
rael . . . It is understood that non-Zionist personalities who hesi-
tate to become members of a expanded Jewish Agency executive
are not averse to being members of an advisory council ... The
entire problem of how to strengthen the relationship between Is-
rael and .all elementS of American Jewry may soon be discussed
at a national conference in New York . . . Originally, it was sug-
gested that the Jewish Agency executive be expanded by inviting
individual non-Zionist leaders to join it . . . The new plan of
creating an advisory council seems to have the same aim ... In
such a council, leaders of many Jewish communities throughout
the U. S. could participate . Israeli leaders are especially im-
pressed by the solidarity with Israel shown by all elements of
American Jewry when the State Department suspended its grant-
in-aid to the Jewish State - . . Similarly, the recent gathering of
prominent American Jewish leaders at the Economic Conference
in Jerusalem impressed the Israelis as "a heartening demonstra-
tion" of the determination of leading Jewish perSOInalities' front:all
walks of life=outside of . the Zionist
can to make Israel