Looking Forward in Retrospect

'THE JEWISH NEWS

Incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of fitly 20, la?

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., VF,. 8-9364
Subserption $4 a year, Foregin $5.
Entered as second class matter Aug. 6, 1942, at Post Office, Detroit, Mich., under Act of March 3, 1879

SIDNEY SHMAR/11(

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Advertising Manager

Editor and Publisher

October 22, 1954

Page Four

VOL. XXVI, No. 7

FRANK SIMONS
City Editor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the twenty-sixth day of Tishri, 5715, the following Scriptural selections will be
read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Gen. 1: 1-5, 8. Prophetical portion, Is. 42: 5-43: 10..
On Wednesday and Thursday, Rosh Hodesh Heshvan, Num. 28: 1-15 will be read during
morning services.

Licht Benshen, Friday, Oct. 22, 5:20 p.m.

The Sound Reasons for the Defense of Israel

In his latest autobiographic work, in
which he does some soul-searching and re-
sorts to self-analysis in explanation of his
former Communist activities, Arthur Koes-
tler makes interesting references to his
former status as a Zionist.
Koestler, in his new MacMillan-published
book, "The Invisible Writing," again reviews
his former pioneering experiences in. Israel
and emel:ges, as in his other words, the dis-
illusioned Zionist. But he has cause to feel
proud of some of his achievements and he
makes this assertion:

"I had made England my perManent home,
wrote in English, and had become attached to
the country and the people . .. I had applied
for British citizenship, and I was .awaiting the
day when I would again have a nationality, a
country and a passport. The most wretched
moment in this conflict - torn period came
when my application was on the point of be-
ing granted, yet I felt unable to take the oath
of allegiance at a time when Englishmen and
Jews were virtually at war. This, too, was part
of• the penance, but it had its reward. When,
at the end of 1948, the State of Israel was
safely established and the agony and conflict
had come to an end, it gave me much satis-
faction to know that my becoming a British
citizen was the result of a free choice, and
the end of a long and difficult journey.
"I have not visited Israel since 1948. But I
felt an equally deep satisfaction when it was
reported to me that several members of the
United Nations Commission of 1947, which
made the historic Recommendation for the
establishment of a Jewish State, had gone to
the trouble of reading 'Thieves in the Night'
and that this book had had some influence on
them. It is the most satisfactory reward that
a writer can hope for, and represents my main
solace when,_ in hours of depression, I ask
myself whether in forty-eight years full of
sound and fury, I have - achieved anything
worthwhile."

This is an interesting confession on the
part of a man who is not so helpful now. But
he must admit that the little he had done for
Zionism was of great value in establishing
the just act represented by the rebirth of
Israel.
Koestler, describing his abandonment of
Zionism, and his decision that he "belonged
to Europe," makes also this interesting con-
fession:
On the other hand, there were six mil-
lion doomed people in Germany and East-

Election Bias

Important election contests often—too
often—are accompanied by evidences of
racial and religious prejudices which should
and could be avoided. There is no earthly
reason why candidates for office can not
limit their differences to the basic issues
involved in their appeals to the voters.
There are issues involving the interests
of labor and capital which must be argued
on their face values, but they need not be
accompanied by appeals to the religious
sentiments of voters. It is when efforts are
made to influence the sentimentalities of
voters that we get into trouble and thereby
abuse basic American principles.
In the current campaign, the Jewish or-
igin of Richard L. • Neuberger, candidate for
the U.S. Senate in Oregon, has become an
issue. His Republican opponent disavows
guilt, but the issue becomes aggravated when
supporters of a candidate seek to gain votes
through the medium of bigotry.
In the Harriman-Ives gubernatorial race
in New York, charges of anti-Semitism have
been hurled unnecessarily.
Bigots are at work in New Jersey where
the charge again is being heard that Presi-
dent Eisenhowere is the tool of Jews and
Communist sympathizers.
Fortunately, the average- voter usually
shows better sense , than the candidates
themselves. We hope this will be in evidence
again when- the final votes are tabulated in

Mweinber.

ern Europe who had no such freedom of
choice, and for whom Palestine meant
their only chance of. survival. Whether
they were welcome or not, whether the
climate and culture suited them or not,
were irrelevant questions when. the al-
ternative .was the concentration camp,
the ghetto and finally, the crematorium.
In this limited, resigned, and utilitarian
sense, I was still a Zionist."
• This serves to recall another important
statement, made by another former Com-
munist. Isaac Deutscher, writing recently on
his experiences in Israel, made this 'signifi-
cant • assertion:
"Israelis who have • known me as an
anti-Zionist of long standing were curious •
to hear what I was thinking about Zionism
now. I have, of course, long since' aban-
doned my anti-Zionism, which was . based
on a .confidence in the European labor
movement, or, more broadly, a confidence
in European society and civilization which
that society and civilization have not justi-
fied. If, instead of arguing against Zion-
ism in the 1920's and 1930's, I had urged
European Jews to go to Palestine, I might
have helped to save some of the lives that
Were to be extinguished in Hitler's gas
chambers." •
Confessions like these prove without
doubt- the unending validity of the Zionist
idea. Without it another million Jews would
have been - doomed to destruction. With it,
a new community has a chance to prosper.
But this community is in danger. The
sending of arms to the Arab nations by our
own 'Government and by Great Britain mean
new threats to the :struggling young 'state.
.We call to witness' men who are not Zionists;
who are apologetic in their approaches to
Israel but who nevertheless realize that the
creation of Israel means so much as a hu-
manitarian and life-saving undertaking, to
indicate that the little state, surrounded by
enemies, must be supported. We can best
help it now by striving for its security—and
such • security is unobtainable unless the
western powers stop arming the Arabs at
the expense of Israel's safety.

Undivided Duties

Bill of Rights- Traditions

'Continuity' of U. S. Traditions
Indicated in Dr. Konvitz's Book

In his preface to "Bill of Rights Reader: Leading Constitutional
Cases," of which he is compiler and editor, Dr. Milton R. Kon-
vitz, professor in the New York State School of Industrial and
Labor Relations at Cornell University, writes:

"In the seventeenth century it appeared to John Milton
that 'none can love freedom heartily, but good • men; the rest
•love not freedom, but license.' To us, three centuries later, it
appears that 'the rest' love not freedom, but retraint. The con- .
'test before our eyes, at home and abroad, is not between freedom
and anarchy, but between freedom and tyranny: In this contest
the Constitution of the United States, the constitutions of ,the
states, and the traditions, ideals, and aspirations of the American
People are on the side of freedom. In the opposing camp, within
the United States, is—again to quote from John Milton—an
`inquisitorious and tyrannical duncery.' Such men have always
played .a role in the American drama. To their contemporaries
they have a satanic character; they are seen as grand inquisi--
tors and as men with an overweening ambition to win power
sufficient to control the destinies of millions of human beings—
push-button tyrants. But to the next generation, or once they
are defeated, they appear as pathetic dunces."

This, in a sense, is a warning to all Americans.to be on guard
lest their liberties should be sacrificed to dunces and should be
The announcements made of important abandoned to the whims of tyrants.

gifts to Wayne University, at the Tercenten-
ary Dinner here on Sunday, and supple-
mentary news about programs for the con-
struction of new Centers, may cause disturb-
ance in some ranks that are concerned over
Israel's future.
It is a fact that American Jewry has em-
barked upon an immense building program.
New synagogues are being erected, Hebrew
Schools and Centers are being built and the
existing hospitals and other institutions are
being enlarged.
Is this a program at the expense of Is-
rael?
It is possible that the contrary can be
the truth. Our major fears in recent years
have been over t h e dangers of a cultural
and spiritual decline in Jewish life in
America. The gifts to Wayne University, the
LaMed Fund for a Professorship in Jewish
History, the Schaver Publications Fund, the
Simons Library Gift and similar contribu-
tions are indications of a cultural revival.
If there is to be an increase in interest in
Israel and in the status of Jews everywhere,
it must be attained through education, from
well informed communities. The new schools
and centers should make that possible. They
should help create a recognition of un-
divided duties—of devotion equal in scope
when we think of our local communities and
when we offer assistance to Israel.
Through such recognition we believe that
it is possible to envision the realization of the
prophecy spoken by Dr. Abba. Hillel Silver
at the Tercentenary Dinner here — that
"American Jewry is destined to enjoy a re-
splendent century of .spiritual growth in- this
gracious
- land."

Dr. Konvitz's scholarly and voluminous "Bill of Rights Read-
er" (published by Cornell University Press, 124 Roberts Pl., Ithaca,
N. Y.) reviews the most important decisions of the Supreme Court
on vital issues. Included are the utterances of the Supreme Court
Justices on freedom of the press, freedom of speech, censorship and
contempt of publication, race discrimination, separation of church
and state, the constitutionality of taking children to parochial
schools in tax-supported buses, and a score of other issues.

This book. is an excellent guide for lawyers and laymen. Of
special interest is the editor's and compiler's confidence in the
"continuity" of our way of life. We quote again from his prefac
"After the book was completed, I realized, with some emo-
tion, that not a single opinion by Justice. Holmes or Justice
Brandeis had been included. •Ten years ago this would have
been unthinkable; at that time it seemed to many of us that
Holmes and Brandeis had written for ages. Yet today we find
that it is not their opinions so much as those of Justices Mur-
phy, Rutledge,. Black, and Douglas that speak with a special
urgency and relevance. With this experience before us, we may
anticipate that the next generation will select the opinions of
Justices not yet named to the Court. Yet there is continuity; but ;
it is- the continuity of the living; men stand upon the shoulders
of their forefathers, and see further; and if not further, at least
differently—but being men, stand upon the shoulders of their
forefathers they must."

This, too, is a guide to Ainericans who must realize the value
of "continUity." Furthermore, Dr. Konvitz's fine book has this
additional lesson: that it encourages dissent in order that the
right may emerge with time. As he writes:
"If it Is true that, as Jefferson said, 'The naturals progress
of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground,'
then it is equally true, as Woodrow Wilson added, that 'the
history of liberty is a history of resistance.' Often that resistance
is directed against the Supreme Court itself by one of its awn
members when he thinks that a majority of the Court do not
sufficiently stand up against 'the natural progress of things.
Thus it is that a dissenting opinion often is,. if. not the candid
itself, at least a match that may yet light the candle."

