Who's Next?

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. 8-9384
!Subscription $4 a year, Foreign $5.
Entered as second class matter Aug. 8, 1942, at Post Office, Detroit, Mich., under Act of March 3, 1879

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher

SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager

VOL. XXVI. No. 25

Page Four

FRANK SIMONS
City Editor

February 25, 1955

Sabbath Scriptural Selections

This Sabbath„ the fourth day of Adar, 5715, the following Scriptural selections will be read
in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Ex. 25:1-27:19. Prophetical portion. I Kings 5:26-6:13„ -

Licht Benshen, Friday, Feb. 25, 5.56 p.m.

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Israel and the 'Softening' of the Arab League

Israel's fate is seriously involved in the
crisis that has struck the Arab League. The
friendship that has been evidenced for Is-
rael in Turkey has heartened Israelis and
caused them to place much faith in the pro-
posed Iraqi-Turkish defense treaty. The
mere fact that Egypt opposed this move was
an indication of a rift, and the refusal of
other Arab states to turn against - Turkey
emerged 'as the brightest ray of hope for
peace and for security for Israel.
The Christian Science Monitor summed
the situation up very clearly when it stated,
editorially, 'under the heading "The Arab
League Softens"

It may not yet be accurate to say that the
Arab League has fallen apart. But Major
Salah Salem, "national guidance" minister of
Egypt, says that his country, hitherto its lead-
ing member, will withdraw from the League
whenever Premier Nuri as-Said of Iraq signs
a mutual defense treaty with Turkey, as he
has declared his intention to do.
Furthermore, Major Salem gives an expres-
sive description of the break-up of a 15-day
conference held in Cairo among eight member
countries of the Arab League, a meeting
evidently designed to- put pressure on Iraq to
abandon its plans: The representatives, he
says, simply "all walked out without saying
goodby to each other." The Egyptian Govern-
ment sought a pledge that none would join
outside organizations.
The upshot is a significant improvement
in prospects for Middle Eastern cooperation
with British, American, and Western Euro-
pean defense measures against communism.
Turkey is a member of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization. Thus an Iraqi-Turkish
defense treaty approaches the goal of a .Mid-
dle East security system such as the Atlantic
nations once hoped Egypt might join.
The Egyptian appeal was to make the Arab
League a completely neutral bloc between
Western powers and the Soviet Union after the
fashion of India; but this was not encouraged
even by India's Premier Nehru. Then it was
suggested they might bargain with the West
as a unit for military aid "without strings"—
which might bode ill for the young Republic
of Israel.
As matters stand, Egypt will be free to con-
tinue to enjoy its isolation from Communist
and anti-Communist power blocs; there is
some intimation that Lebanon, Jordan, or
Syria may join Turkey and Iraq; and the
rumblings of a more heavily armed military
machine under new Soviet Premier Bulganin
may make Islam more conscious of commu-
nism's threat. Israel will perhaps feel just a
little more secure, and Egypt's military junta
under Premier Abdel Nasser will have the more
reason to attend to internal reforms.

Perhaps,. after all, comfort to the. war-
threatened Mediterranean area will come
from Turkey, whose statesmen have shown
a great deal of vision in their friendly rela-
tionships with Israel. Perhaps the Westren
powers will recognize in the Iraqi-Turkish
pact a step in the direction of striving for
-peace among all the nations involved .in
sorely afflicted territories whose peoples suf-
- fer in the struggle for military supremacy.

Ghost of Hitler

Adolf Hitler's ghost hovers over Ger-
many. The London Sunday Chronicle re-
ports from Berlin that 49 of every 50
Germans would welcome Hitler today as the
"man who gave them the best years of
their lives." The Chronicle states that this
report is based on a nationwide survey of
German public opinion which has become a
best seller overnight.
The Chronicle states that the survey, a
result of eight years of study by its authors,
has caused concern among West German
officials who fear that its revelations will
have an adverse effect on public opinion in
the United States, Britain and France.
The trouble is that there is so little re-
action to the evident resurgence of Nazism
in Germany. We have much to fear from the
new strength that is being acquired by
Germany and from the popularity retained
by the Hitler spirit. There is need once again
to place emphasis on one word, in our deal-
ings with Germany: beware!

One thing appears certain: the refusal of
a number of the Arab states to go along with
Egypt's aggressive policy points to a clear
road for peace talks, provided the major
world powers will set their hearts to the task
of finding a peaceful solution to the Mid-
dle Eastern problem. Our own Government
can and should take the lead in assuring an
end to the present war threats. Will our
State Department take the cue from
Turkey?

'How About Monday?'

For generations, Jews have been asking
and wondering; puzzled, they have been pos-
ing the question: "What happens to the
Monday that follows Sunday? On Sunday,
Christians in backwards lands were in the
habit of. reciting the Psalms of the Hebrew
King David in their churches, but the same
night, or the next day, they would' par-
ticipate in pogroms on their Jewish neigh-
bors. How could religious people forget so
quickly their devotions of the day before?.
On the occasion of the annual Brother-
hood Week, the National Conference of
Christians and Jews has released a few brief
and pithy sayings by Walter Kiernan (Cour-
tesy International News Service), under the
heading "How About Monday?': It has such
an important bearing on the ageless ques-
tion we have just posed that we present it
here for the benefit of our readers, during
the final hours of Brotherhood Week:

We are nearing the end of Brotherhood
Week but there is nothing in the book that
says we must, start slugging each other Mon-
day.
If a fellow has gotten anything out of
Brotherhood Week he ought to be able to -
stretch it for another seven days minimum.
And if enough of us took a two-week try
at Brotherhood we might be able to run a week
into a month and a month into a year.
Some one labeled this "the century of the
common man" but how much better if we
could truthfully label it "the century of the
brotherhood of man."
There are values above and beyond
money and if ever we get around to, under-
standing them ... that will be "the century
of mankind."

Nothing more need be said. All we need
do is repeat the question: "How About Mon-
day?" What about the weeks and the
months that follow' Brotherhood Week?
Why the limitation of a week? The answer
lies, of course, with each of us — with all
faiths. If we could only permit the lessons
of brotherhood to sink in, we might not have
too many more problems to plague us. We
Might be spared the threats of war, the fears
that continue to poison men's hearts when
xenophobia—the dislike of the unlike—takes
hold of us.
How about the Monday that follows Sun-
day, the months that follow the Brother-
hood Week?
• • •
Brooks Atkinson, the New York Times
theater critic, in his book "Once Around the
Sun" (Harcourt, Brace) defines the word
brother as the most sublime word in the
English language. "It denotes love and re-
spect freely given without obligatio n.
Friends have qualities of loyalty and esteem.
But in brothers the bonds are deeper and
the understanding is more profound. Nor
does understanding between brothers have to
be renewed by frequent demonstrations of
affection, for it is permanent year after
year, and unspoken clear across the globe
and possibly into eternity. The finest world
that people can imagine is the brotherhood
of man. When all men are brothers, the
golden age will begin."
Israel Zangwill once said: "It takes two
men to make one brother." But even within
the ranks of related religious groups there
still are the Cain and Abel struggles. True,
"when all men are brothers, the golden age
will begin." But first brothers must them-
selves agree on amity. Then all men will
have a better chance of getting together to
assure the golden age without which we can
never attain a world of peace and amity.

'Ben-Gurion of Israel'

Biography of a Genius

"Ben-Gurion. of Israel," the .biography of Barnet Litvinorl,
published by Frederick A. Praeger (105 W. 40th, N. Y. 18) is a very
informative book. It is an excellent compilation of facts about
the Israeli genius who guided the young state through the most
trying years after liberation.
The book has merit for many other reasons,
supplementary to the facts about the hero of
the story. It is a fine resume of the ha.ppeningos.
in Zionism and in Israel during the years of
David Ben-Gurion's activities—first as a laborer
on the farms, then as a leader in Histadrirk
as the chairman of the Jewish Agency and finally
as Premier,
Also it is valuable for an understanding of
Ben-Gurion's relationship with Chaim ' WeizT
mann, Itzhak Ben-Zvi, Joseph Sprinzak, Beni
Katznelson and other noted personalities whose.
pioneering efforts contributed to the success of
the Zionist movement.
Ben-Gurion
Mr. Litvinoff does not hesitate to criticize Ben-Gurion where,
necessary. His biography, therefore, is not a biased work. It deals
with Ben-Gurion the patriot, the soldier, the statesman, the
mystic.
No matter how critical, the reader, regardless of the party
he may favor in Israel, must emerge from the Litvinoff biography
a strong admirer of Israel's strongest man.
Mr. Litvinoff writes an interesting summary of Ben-Ourion'*
accomplishments when he states:
"In five years Ben-Gurion went far towards realizing Ma
goal. The 650,000 became one-and-a-half millions. New in-
dustries were created to employ them, and new towns for the
to live in. The army was expanded and every young newcomer
baptized by national service into citizenship. The nature el
the landscape, no less than the quality and the distribution
of the people, changed. With all this Ben-Gurion's position as
national leader grew daily stronger as the rivalries of earlier
times became more and more academic. All but his constant
enemies on the extreme Right and the-extrethe Left accepted
him. The General Zionists, though they considered his economie
policy, ,suicidal, the Orthodox, _though they knew he flouted time
Torah, and Mapai, despite his many heresies, were with hins.
The masses of newcomers, condemned for years to live In
shanty-towns and forced to suffer the rigors of a discipline
for which they were wholly unprepared, blessed him for bringing
them home. The children, like his army, adored him. He em-
bodied authority, power, decision. And in his simplicity and
devotion to the things of the spirit he touched greatness.
"Why, then, had he to suffer years of political frustratio*
after the achievement of statehood? Partly because his party's
popularity lessened as his own increased. Partly also because
he drove the people into their messianic responsibilities ts•
hard."
It is a good analysis. But one must read the entire biography
to understand all the aspects of Ben-Gurion's life, from child-
hood, as the son of Zvi Aryeh Green in the Russian town og
Plonsk, through his many trying efforts for the socialist-Zion
movement and in his battles with the British.
. i
His greatest achievements were the organization of Israeril
army, his defiance of the extremists, Revisionists as well sta
Mapam, whose obstructions could well have destroyed the Jewiail
•
state, and his efforts to make peace with the Arabs.
the
Litvinoff
bie-
There are some interesting revelations in
g•aphy of fairly definite approaches to Arab leaders for what
could have developed into a permanent peace. It was not. his
fault that assassinations—including Abdullah's—and premature
publicity interfered with his plans. His efforts were in the right
direction.
A point that emerges from this biography with great power is
that Israel's statehood might never have materialized were it
not for Ben-Gurion's determination to proclaim his nation's
independence .on May 14, 1948.. And the sole American Jewish
leader who backed him to the limit was Dr. Abba Hillel Silver..
There are a score of incidents in Ben-Gurion's life which
combine to emphasize the man's strength of character, his patrio-
tism and devotion. To review them would require a special article
for each.
The Litvinoff biography in its totality presents frankly and
factually the life of the hero of Israel's liberation, the deviltry
of those who interfered with Jewish efforts (the British obstruc-
tion—chiefly Bevin's—emerge once again as barbaric) and the
courage of this hero who fought a battle to victory. It is a splendi41
biography, desprving of the greatness of Ben Gurion.

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