Need Opening—To Pitt It to Good Use
THE JEWISH 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., 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit 35, Mich., VE. 8-9384
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
FRANK SIMONS
City Editor
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the eleventh day of Shan, 5714,-the following Scriptural selections will be read in
our synagogues:
Pentateuch-al portion, N11771. 8:1-12:16. Prophetical portion, Zech. 2:14-4:7.
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Licht Benshen, Friday, June 11, 8:07 p.m.
June 11, 1954
VOL. 70(V. No. 14
Our Jewish Center and Centers' Centennial
Our Jewish Community Center's 20th an-
nual meeting, held last week for the purpose
of reviewing the services rendered our com-
munity by this very important movement,
served to call attention to one of the major
events on the American Jewish scene — the
observance of the centennial of the Jewish
Center movement in America.
The end of two decades observed locally
refers only to the present structure of Jewish
Center activities in Detroit. But preceding
the formation of the present Center move-
ment in Detroit in the early '30s we had a
functioning Center organization dating back
to the Hannah Schlosg days. The various
classes sponsored in the centers that were
financed by the Jewish Welfare Federation:
the art and music classes, the lectures in
Yiddish and in English, the dances and social
functions—these will be remembered with a
sense of appreciation by the thousands who
shared their values.
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Our Center movement has grown since
then. It is now called upon to expand, to
establish new quarters for activities in the
northwest and the expanding suburban areas,
and it is in the best interests of our commu-
nity that the projected buildings should be
erected as soon as possible. By merging the
future plans with the needs of the United
Hebrew Schools and by offering the planned
facilities for use by our houses of worship,
the Jewish Center of our community is regis-
tering an appreciation of broad communal
needs. Nationally, the Center movement,
encouraged by the Jewish Welfare Fwid and
supported by the Welfare Federations, occu-
pies a very vital place in American Jewish
life. Its centennial year deserves to be made
note of in the wider scope of the American
Jewish Tercentenary celebrations, in the in-
terest of cultural and educational programs
for all groupings in American Jewry.
The double anniversary of the present
year—American Jewry's Tercentenary and
the Centers' Centennial—presents a chal-
lenge that strikes at the very root of our
communal needs. Many changes have taken
place in American Jewish life since the for-
mation of the first Jewish Center in Balti-
more in 1854. From mere athletic centers,
and in some instances settlement houses, our
Centers are becoming headquarters for the
dissemination of Jewish knowledge.
On the occasion of, the Centennial, it is
important that Center leaders should em-
phasize the Jewish content in the Center
program. There shotild be an extension of
programs for the study of our history, for
the advancement of our cultural values,
for encouragement among Center mem-
bers of interest in communal activities
through the acquisition of information
about the status of the American Jewish
community.
In congratulating the Jewish Community
Center of Detroit, whose position continues
to gain in stature under the direction of Irwin
Shaw and the leadership of an able set of offi-
cers, we greet also the entire Jewish Center
movement and its sponsoring organization,
the National Jewish Welfare Board. May
their influence increase for the good of Jewry
and America.
Traveling Arab Propagandists Menace Israel
National Jewish organizations have taken
note of the new menace that is threatening
the good relations between Israel and the
United States-L--the spread of propaganda by
a number of traveling "salesmen of hate."
Dorothy Thompson's .associates, the Ameri-
canFriends of the Middle East, and others
who have . aligned themselves against Israel
are indulging in propaganda that is ex-
tending its damage.
Among the • most "refined" propagan-
dists is Dr. Nejla Izzedin, Vassar graduate, .
first Arab woman to hold a Ph.D. degree,
whose book, "The 'Arab World," subtly
spreads poison against Israel and the Zionists.
She goes far afield to prove that Dr. Chaim
Weizmann was and all Zionists are "expan-
sionists." This is one field in which friends of
Israel have found many obstacles. By spread-
ing the word that Israel has imperial aspi-
rations, these Arab propagandists are cre-
ating suspicion for Israel and hatred for
Zionists. A foreword to her book by Dean
Hocking of Harvard University, a member .
of the pro-Arab front, lends encouragement
to the anti-Israels.
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Recently, the Rev. Joseph P. Connell, S.
J., Dean of Baghdad College, Iraq, toured
a number of states and added fuel to the
fires that are being lit under Israel.
The chief intention is • to unciermane
Israel-U. S. friendship, and to strike - blows
at Israel's economic security. The two aims
are inter-linked. By creating animosity to-
wards Israel in this country, the Arab propa- -
gandists hope to reduce Israel's chances for
financial aid, thereby increasing the young
state's difficulties.
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Fortunately, American Jewry is aware
of these tactics, and many of Israel's Chris-
tian friends are on guard against the des-
tructive activities of those who, by under-
mining the friendly relations between the
United States and Israel, also are harming
the chances of peace.. - -
There.is an added element of danger:-the
blind group within Jewry whose members
are so frightened over possible suspicions of
their loyalties that they join hands with
Israel's enemies. The result is a lowering of
chances for peace and a.diminishing of morale
among the panic-stricken. And for the
2 i *14 k
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seekers of peace it means a tough battle
until that far-off' day when common sense
will dominate over fears, suspicions and
hatreds.
'Jewish Thought' Book
Sperber's 'Journey Without End'
Novel About Partisan Fighters
Against Nazism, Communism
There is real power and genuine drama in "Journey Without
End," by Manes Sperber, a.Doubleday (575 Madison, N.Y. 22) novel'
translated by Constantine Fitzgibbon.
The author's background explains the origin of the thesis in
which the heroes fight both Nazism and Communism. Sperber,
author of several popular and well-selling books, was born in the
Ukraine, studied under Alfred Adler, Viennese psychologist, was a
professor of psychology at Berlin University, held posts in the
German Communist party and in 1933 was forced out of Germany
by Hitler. He broke with the Communists in 1937, after the Mos-
cow purge trials, became a fugitive from Gestapo and NKVD, has
fought, Communism since. He is the editor of a French publish-
ing firm and lives with his wife and son in Paris.
The author of this outstanding novel therefore knows the sit-
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uation in Europe, and the conviction with which he describes how
the Djoura Brigade, Doino Faber, Edi Rubin and others fought
Nazism and opposed Tito Communism emerges as a genuine ex-
pression from a man with knowledge of European conditions.
"Journey Without End" begihs with the story of partisans who
fought totalitarians whose brigade was annihilated, who were
given refuge in a little French town. Faber . proceeded to Poland
and the scene of the second half of this novel is in that land
where the Jewish community was destroyed.
The idealism of the martyr Djoura Zagoriac is fascinating.
But especially moving is the story of the young 16-year-old boy,
Bynie, son and inheritor of the title of the martyred Polish Rabbi,
who adhered to faith and instilled it among the unbelievers
around him.
Then there is Doino Faber's rebuke: "As a child I lived through
a pogrom, only a small one. Somebody gave the peasants, poor
devils, a barrel of brandy and then set them loose in the little
Jewish town where I lived. It isn't hard for me to see a potential
pogromist in every drunken man." In this there is the universal
lesson. Only those who know the background of pogroms in
Russia and Poland can understand the horrors that have been
perpetrated on Jews.
This novel is a study of human reactions, of the relations be-
tween men of different -faiths, the betrayals—as of Poles who
lined up against Jews under the Nazis—and the loyalties of Poles
n the human spark and the de-
and others who would not abando
sire to struggle for a free mankind.
Sperber has produced a truly great novel. It was a relief at
last to read a good story after so many months of literary
drought.
,
Scheduled for release at the end of this
month is a UNESCO (United Nations Educa-
tional, Scientific and Cultural Organization)
booklet on "Jewish Thought as a Factor in
Civilization," written by Leon Roth, a Fellow
of the British Academy and a lecturer at the
Hebrew University. UNESCO's preface to Valuable YIVO Studies
this book makes these interesting assertions.
'It is not the least of the injustices com-
mitted by the West towards the Jews that it
has forgotten their contribution to that in-
tellectual and moral heritage of mankind
which we regard as the very essence of our
civilization. We cannot of course expect from
peoples the feelings of gratitude that are,
under certain circumstances, due from individ-
uals; but the idea of 'debt' has, all the same, .
played its part in history. Yet the same
Christian West has all too often displayed
indifference and cruelty when the Jews were
going through times of grievous trial. Even
today, those whose indifference or silence en-
abled massacres of the Jews to take place set
their conscience at rest by accusing them of
having been the instrument of their own mis-
fortune, through their own exclusiveness and
their own 'racism.'
"Conscious - or unconscious racists—and
there are millions in the latter category—
often speak of the destructive spirit of the
Jews, as if every Jew carried within himself
germs that threatened the stability of our
society. The discriminatory measures adopted
by Nazi Germany and its satellite governments
were justified, in the view of Chauvinists, by
what they claimed to be the impossibility of
assimilating the Jews whO in their opinion
constituted, within each nation, a foreign
body that was a perpetual menace. The anti-
Semites consider that the Jew is disposed to
destroy the fundamental values of our civiliza-
tion because of his biological background. This
prejudice has by no means disappeared with
Nazism. Its currency today has inspired the
inclusion of the present booklet in this series."
This is a valuable approach to a painful
issue. Prejudice persists and must be fought
through logical methods, preferably by
means of education. The UN renders a serv-
ice, in filiS dire,ction, by this type of publica-
tion. !DiainaP-IP and
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Epoch of Jewish Catastrophe
Dealing entirely with the - catastrophe of the Jewish, people in
the years 1933-1945, "Studies on the Epoch of the JewiSh Catas-..
trophe," the third volume of YIVO Annual of Jewish Social Science,
published by YIVO (Yiddish Scientific Institute, 535 W. 123rd,
NY27), not only commemorates the 11th anniversary of the heroic,
upriSing of the people in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1933, but also
incorporates a great deal of historical data about events which
would otherwise be forgotten.
Ably edited by Koppel S. Pinson, this volume is revealing in its
many aspects. A committee of noted historians assisted in the
gathering of material. Moods of resignation, stories of salvage
and rescue, the internal life of Jews in the ghetto are among the
subjects covered. '
Pointing out that the annals of survival and rescue must be
sifted and studied, the editor asserts that these subjects have thus
far received inadequate attention and that "much more interest
was focused in the years immediately following the war, and
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rightly so, upon the story of extermination and liquidation."
thorough study of subject, we are told, "will uncover record of
humanitarian service and self-sacrifice that deserves be told ..
The future of the Jews as of the entire human race depends on
faith in the enduring . strength of this humanitarian ideal to
triumph ultimately over the Satanic forces of evil and violence,"
Of the many .essays incorporated sin this volume, Zelig Kal-
manovitch's "A Diary of the Nazi Ghetto in Vilna" is especially
soul-stirring for its revelations of the tragic events in the city that
was known as "the Jerusalem of Lithuania." Equally heartrending
is Isaiah Trunk's "Epidemics and Mortality in the Warsaw Ghetto,
1939-1942." Statistical tables illustrate the latter.
Philip Friedman writes on aspects of Nazi Jewish policy. W.
Glicksk-nan discusses "Social Differentiation in the German Con-
centration Camps." "The Transnistria Reservation" is outlined by
Joseph B. Schechtman. Bruno Blau is the author of The Last
Days of German Jewry in the Third Reich." L. Koniuchowsky
views "The Liquidation of the Jews of Marcinkonis."
Special importance is attached to Hugo Valentin's essay "Rescue
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and Relief Activities in Behalf of Jewish Victims of Nazism in
Scandinavia." J. Kermish studies "Mutilated Versions of Ringel-
blum's Notes.." Jewish resistance in France and Greece and the
positior of refugees in France are. described by L. Poliakov, Zanvel :
Iga4 Habeli.
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