Welching on a Responsibility. 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, National Editorial 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. 1879 Entered as second class matter Aug. 6, 1942, at Post Office, Detroit, Mich., under Act of March 3, SIDNEY SHMARAK Advertising Manager PHILIP SLOMOVITZ Editor and Publisher Page Four VOL. XXVI. No. 16 FRANK SIMONS City Editor December 24, 1954 Sabbath Hanukah Scriptural Selections This Sabbath, Sabbath Hanukah., the following Scriptural selections will be read in our syna- gogues. Pentateuchal portions, Gen. 41:1-44:17, Num. 28:9-15. Prophetical portion, Zech. 2:14-4:7. On .Rosh Hodesh Tebet, Sunday, the Scriptural reading will be Num. 28:1-15, On Monday, the last day of Hanukah, Num. 7:54-8:4 will be read., Licht Benshen, Friday, Dec. 24, 4:45 p.m. Anti-Israelism Breeds Anti-Semitism James Luther Adams, who since 1946 has been Caleb Brewster Hackley professor of religious ethics at the Meadville Theolo- gical School of the University of Chicago Federated Theological Faculties, has re- turned from a visit in the Middle East with a warning that there are hidden dangers in anti-Israel-ism which must lead to an anti- Semitism inspired by super-nationalism. In a thorough discussion of his theme in the Unitarian Christian R e g i s t e r, Prof. Adams reviews the reports on Israel and her Arab neighbors by Christian leaders and reaches these conclusions: we should .be aware of the way in which an Anti-Israel position is increasingly being made a part of American anti-Semitism. We do not need to cite alone the activities of such fringe groups • as Liberty Belles and the Minute Women. The anti-Israel and the anti- Semitic views of these and similar people in the United States can be as destructively na- ationalistic as anything in the nationalism of the Middle East. It feeds on the 100% Ameri- ean super-patriotism of the current hysteria. Thus whereas Arab anti-Israel sentiment helps oligarchic rule and Communism in the Middle. East, American anti-Israel sentiment, especial- ly when combined with anti-Semitism, nourishes racist erypto-Fascism in the United States. Where it does not do this in the United States it often moves into isolationism. The drift of much of the so-called impar- tiality and objectivity and of the stress on American "interests" is scarcely conducive to the creation of peace with justice. The Yid- dish writer, Y. L. Peretz, has conceived a para- ble that indicates this danger. This is the par- able of "The Pious Cat." "Three songbirds," he writes, "successively occupied the same cage, and each in turn succumbed to the cat. It was no ordinary cat. She was a truly pious sciul. It was not in vain that she wore her White, orthodox gabardine, and owned those little eyes which reflected the light of heaven. It was a pious cat." But it reasoned that "the very fact that the bird has been set in a cage proves that it is an evil being, although so young, so sweet, and such a fine singer— GC Enriching Gifts The allocation of a sum of $590,000 for the construction of Jewish Centers in Oak Park and the Evergreen-Seven Mile Road sections and the provision of funds for the expansion of the Jewish Home for Aged and the removal of North End Clinic to Sinai Hospital, announced by the Metropoli- tan Detroit Building Fund Drive, point to greater progress in the fields of social service in our community. Lack of facilities in the health, recrea- tion and, care for' aged areas have handi- capped activities in our community. Now, with the funds to be provided by the Metro- politan Detroit Fund and by additional gifts from - the Jewish community, the gaps are certain to be filled. There is an urgent need for Jewish Cen- ters in the expanding Oak Park section and in the Evergreen area. The hopes of our community's leaders to be in position to ful- fill these needs now will be realized. The plans for the expansion of the Jewish Home for Aged are of equal importance, in view of the large number of applications for admission to the Home and the long waiting list of approved applicants for whom there are, thus far, no facilities. The allocation of $870,000 for the re- moval of the 40-year-old North End Clinic to Sinai Hospital serves to recall the im- portant services rendered the community by this health center, which was operated for decades on Holbrook Street. By providing for the needs of men and women of all faiths and all races, North End Clinic acquired an honored place in our community. Its re- moval to Sinai Hospital will enable it, in enlarged quarters, to render greater service. Added to the recent most generous gift of $500,000 by Mr. and Mrs. Nate S. Shapero for the establishment of a school for nurses at Sinai Hospital, the enlarged North End Clinic now is part of a vital health program which will enrich the Jewish . community and all of Detroit. proves that it believes more in dynamite than in the Law. And what about the singing it- self: that unrestrained singing, that whistling —and that impudent staring right into the sky —and that tearing to get out of the cage, into the sinful world, to the free air, the open win- dow? And a sacred fire flared up in the cat— the fire of Pincus, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, and she sprang upon the table where the cage with the songbird was standing, and—feathers were fluttering about the room." The bird had disappeared. And so it is that a "pious" one-sided anti- Israel position can issue in a destructive anti- Semitism. It can also promote the destructive rejection of "the fact of Israel," a fact in the face of which we Americans should adopt a critical, morally responsible attitude and policy. The lesson for all Americans is plain. The at- titude of the United States towards the Near East and Israel is no incidental matter; it is a litmus test for the health of the American spirit and also of the healing forces which can bring peace with justice in the Near East. These views deserve serious considera- tion, especially because of the apparent lack of conviction in matters involving the arm- ing of the Arabs in important government quarters in 'Washington. Prof. Adams' warning that anti-Israelism breeds anti-Semitism should be brought to the attention of responsible leaders of both our political parties. There is added cause for concern over the arms issue in the JTA report from Washington that the South Carolina Democrat, Rep: James P. Richards, who will be the next chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, supports the present U.S. policy of granting arms to the. Arab nations. Together with the man he succeeds to the chairmanship of the House Affairs Committee, Republican John M. Vorys, Rep. Richards has just visited Israel and the Arab states and has urged continua- tion of the arms-to-the-Arabs policy "re- gardless of pressure groups." He has said that he was "not at all in favor of efforts to stop military. aid to the Arab states" and that he believes it is "in our national in- terest" to provide the Arabs with munitions. Impartial observers and students of Mid- dle Eastern affairs bring contrary reports. It has been shown that the Arabs have created a war-like situation in that area and that they have failed. to establish per- manent homes for the refugees who had fled voluntarily from Israel. But granting that there is some truth even - in the ex- tremely unfavorable reports abOut Israel's relations with -the- Arabs, there remains the moral issue. The arming of the Arabs will mean an increase in war threats in the en- tire Mediterranean 'area. It will continually breed a spirit of war and not of peace. It does not, in any sense, counteract Commu- nist propaganda which is mainly spread in Arab lands and among Arabs in Israel by Arab propagandists. • • What is even worse for the peace of the world is that anti-Israelism, as Prof. Adams has indicated, encourages anti - Semitism. This can give encouragement to a revival of Nazism and the fomenting of another war. Many members of both Houses of Con- gress have gone on record in opposition to the arming of the Arab states. Last week, the national convention of CIO, in Los An- geles, called on our Government to end the arms shipments to the Arabs and to use its good offices with Israel and the Arabs to bring about direct negotiations "so that peace may be established in the Holy Land." The American Federation of Labor has taken a similar stand. Men of good will, seeking peace, have gone on record against sending arms to war-mongers. At this time, when Christians everywhere are preaching "good will on earth," the posi- tion to be taken by all who seek amity is that a weak nation, surrounded by war- mongers, must not be endangered by the arming of its enemies. The best message of good will to Israel, by the Christians of the world must be the assurance that those who aim at Israel's destruCtion will not be encouraged. This is our plea for peace as we send forth messages of good cheer to our , Chris- tian neighbors. 410 Dr. Sol Liptzin Throws New Light on Heinrich Heine "The English Legend of Heinrich Heine" (Bloch) by Dr. Sot Liptzin offers a most interesting analysis of the manner in which the eminent German-Jewish poet was first rejected then heartily acclaimed in England. Prof. Liptzin has delved into every available source to gather the interesting material for his fine book. He throws a great deal of light on reactions to Heine, the poet's conversion, his complexes, and incidentally we learn about Carlyle's animosity to Jews and therefore his hatred for Heine and Charles Kingsley's bitterness towards the German poet. Heinrich Heine Dr. Sol Liptzin Other Englishmen, however, succumbed to the poetry of Heine, and several of them accepted him and recognized the genius his poetry—among them George Eliot, Julian }Pane, Israel Zang. will, Matthew Arnold. In this country, Ralph Waldo Emerson was among those whO disapproved of Heine, but that proved an isolated case. To Watt Whitman, Heine was great, and Emma Lazarus, and in our genera- tion Louis Untermeyer, wrote in glowing terms about the poet. The chapters on Heine as the "wandering Jew are especially interesting in Dr. Liptzins evaluation. We learn that "the typical English reaction to Heine's Jewishness was nearer to that of Rich- ard Monckton Milnes: ,calm, judicious, unaffected by love, um- marred by malice." At the same time it is interesting to know that: "The British Quarterly Review wrote that Heine's strength and his real service to humanity sprang from his JeWish roots. William Cory, the author of `Ionica,' stated that Heine as a JeW interested him but that Heine as a German meant little to him.* Israel Zangwill undertook to reclaim Heine for the Jewish peo- ple and included him among the characters in his "Dreamers of the Ghetto." We learn also that Heine "deeply regretted" his apos- tasy, that "he envisaged the religion of the future as Judaism broadened by Hellenism, the beauty of goodness mated with the goodness of beauty." Heine is presented to us as the "gifted bard" of democracy. In the main, Prof. Liptzin has written a truly instructive and illuminating work and throws new light on the character of Heine and the reactions to him in the English-speaking world. a Modern 'Ani Maamin' Rabbi Swift's 'Because I Believe' The "ani maamin"—"I believe"—is the root of Jewish affirm- ation in the highest spiritual values, in principles of justice, in the Almighty Powers that hover over us. The sermons and articles of Rabbi Harris Swift, published by Bloch as his exclusive U. S. selling agents, is a modern "aril maamin." It is an affirmation of faith and an evaluation of Jew- ish festival, Jewish ethical values, Jewish needs—especially educa- tion—as well as Zionism and anti-Semitism. Formerly rabbi in London, England, Rabbi Swift now serves the Durban congregation and the Jewish communities of Natal (So-,Ith Africa). A prefatory letter from Israel's Chief Rabbi Isaac Halevi Her- zog reveals the important role Rabbi Swift played in rescuilag Jewish children from apo,s.asy. Rabbi Herzog wrote: "No one knows and appreciates better than I your valuable and historic contribution to the Jewish people in the practical sphere by your rescue of tens of thousand of children from "schmatt" following the European catastrophe, and by your able assistance in the erection of the Supreme Religious Center in Jerusalem." Rabbi Swift's sermons are supplemented by the text of an address delivered by his son, I. Lionel Swift, LL.B., delivered on a day of mourning for martyred European Jewry. Laymen will be well guided by Rabbi Swift's sermons and essays and rabbis will find new inspiration in the devotion evinced by , Durban. rabbi in every situation he faces in the subject, coveked'in his interesting book.