Lots of `Hamans' Still Left

THE JEWISH NEWS

Incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951

Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspape rs, 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 S4 a year, Foreign $5.
Entered as second class matter Aug. 6, 1942, at Post Office, Detroit, Mich., under Act of March 3, 1879

SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher

FRANK SIMONS
City Editor

March 4, 1955

Page Four

VOL. XXVI. No. 26

Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the eleventh dan of Aday, 5715, the following Scriptural selections will be
read in...our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Ex: 27:20-30:10. Prophetical portion, Ezek. 43:10-27.
Licht Benshen, Friday, March 4, 6:05 p.m.
Fast of Esther Readings of the Torah, Monday
Pentateuchal portion, Ex. 32:11 14; 34:1 10. Prophetical portion, Is. 55:6 56:8.
Scriptural selection for Purim, Tuesday, Ex. 1 7:8 16, and Book of Esther.

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The Everlasting Message of Purim

Next Monday evening, in synagogues
throughout the world, our people once again
will usher in the festival of Purim. The
Megillah—the Book of Esther—which we
will read that night will remind us of a
struggle in ancient times against a tyrant.
The festival's lesson is a simple one: that
tyranny can not survive and that those who

Speaking in Millions

Last week-end, spokesmen for Ameri-
can Jewry convened again in Florida to
launch the 1955 United Jewish Appeal.
Detroit's Jewish community has reason
to feel especially proud of the share it has in
the UJA and of the encouragement it gives
to the national leadership in the sponsorship
of the annual campaign-launching confer-
ences. As in previous years, the advance
gifts of Detroiters approximated the million
dollar mark. Always in the 'lead in philan-
thropic efforts—locally and nationally— and
having established enviable records in the in-
vestment fields in Israel, our community
helps show the way to genuine , generbsity
for worthy movements, and especially for
Israel.
We speak, of course, in terms of many
millions of dollars; and because the millions
are so vitally needed for Israel, it is our hope
that there will be a cooperative effort on
behalf of all. 'Jews to assure a triumph for
the UJA this year.
In order to assure such a triumph, it is
necessary that conflicting drives should be
avoided. We have pleaded for the abandon-
ment of competitive drives locally. We make
this appeal also to national organizations.
Also in Miami Beach, last month, the Jewish
Theological Seminary adopted a program to
secure $60,000,000 in the next 10 years. We
concur in the principle that priority should
be given to educational efforts, and we agree
that without a well-informed Jewry it will
be difficult to secure de aid that is necessary
for Israel and for other Jewish causes. But
that does not grant us the privilege of using
fantastic figures in campaigns, thereby cre-
ating confusion in many minds when they
compare the vast amounts—which seldom
are raised—with the vitally needed money
for Israel and for the rescue of Jews who still
live in lands cf oppression. We need, indeed,
to acquire a sense of realism and to pursue
pragmatic programs. Merely to speak in the
millions does not secure them for us.

The Butzel Month

It is heartening to know that the names
of men of distinction who have rendered im-
portant services to our community are not
being forgotten.
This assurance comes to us as a result
of the decision of the Detroit Historical Soci-
ety to dedicate the month of March in tribute
to the late Fred M. Butzel, on the occasion of
the centennial of the Jewish Center move-
ment in America.
The Centers' centennial is in itself occa-
sion for justified jubilation over the creation
of a very effective and important movement
for American Jewry. The late Mr. Butzel
was instrumental in advancing that move-
ment. He encouraged it with his labors, with
his generous contributions, with his endorse-
ment of its values.
The tribute to his memory, at the Detroit
nistorical Museum, is not limited, however,
to the Jewish community. It is a tribute of
all Detroiter's, of men of all faiths and all
racial and nationality backgrounds. It is a
mark of recognition to a man who may well
be called one of the builders of this great
city.
In philanthropy, in social service, in the
field of education, and especially in under-
takings in behalf of youth, Mr. Butzel showed
vision in encouraging modern techniques and
proper approaches to good citizenship. He
was tireless in his personal labors in behalf
of every phase of social service in Detroit
and his name is written indelibly in the his-
tory of our city.

carry on the battle for justice and decency
and refuse to submit to tyranny must tri-
umph against all who seek to impose in-
human rules upon their fellow men.
Jewry has a special reason to believe in
the principle of the survival of decency over
inhumanity. We have triumphed over many
Hamans throughout the ages. But often,
when vigilance subsides, tyrants threaten to
rise again. While we have triumphed over
Hitler, Hitlerism will always threaten us
and the world unless we are on guard
against the recurrence of Nazism.
Purim's call to all of us, to the entire
world, is to be vigilant, never to yield to
tyranny, to fight for the liberties of all peo-
ples, for a threat to one is a threat to all.
The tradition of exchanging gifts on
Purim has been converted also into the com-
mendable practice of making contributions
to worthy causes. The Jewish National
Fund benefits from such practice during
synagogue services on Purim, and on a
larger scale our communities have an op-
portunity to utilize Purim for renewed serv-
ices to the Allied Jewish Campaign and its
major beneficiary—the United Jewish Ap-
peal—by making increased contributions and
enrolling as workers in the forthcoming
drive.
May the Purim spirit never be weakened!'
A happy Purim to all.

Genocide and the U.S.

One of the most important steps taken
by the United Nations for the protection of
oppressed peoples was the adoption of the
Genocide, Convention for the outlawing of
mass destruction of racial and religious
groups. But this Convention can not be-
come a reality unless it is backed by the
great nations of the world.
Although 48 nations already have rati-
fied it, the United States Senate has refUsed
to act. Let the New York. Times tell the
story, as it is related in its editorial, "The
Senate and Genocide":

More than four years ago a sub-committee
of the Senate. Foreign Relations Committee
reported favorably on the Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
Genocide — the U.N. treaty popularly known
as the genocide convention. But since that -
time, although distinguished leaders of indus-
try, labor, civil liberties, church and legal
groups have testified to its worth and moral
necessity, the treaty has languished in the
Senate. It has not been allowed to get to the
floor for full debate and the vote.
Forty-eight nations have ratified or ac-
ceded to the treaty. Forty-eight nations have
said in effect—and this includes Russia, whose
state document, for what is worth, has been
boldly on view at the U.N.—that genocide is
criminal; that they adhere to this great prin-
ciple which outlaws the destruction of na-
tional, racial or religious groups; that such
acts are punishable.
That the United States and Britain still
drag their feet on this treaty, whose principles
they live by, is lamentable. What should cer-
tainly be clear, at least to our own law-mak-
ers, is that such an international law as this
is both moral inspiration and deterrent —
telling this atomic-minded generation that
. moral force is vital in a materialistic world;
staying the ambitions of the wicked and the
ruthless.
After leading the fight for this treaty in
Paris back in 1946 shall we now allow our lead-
dership to go by default to. the Soviet Union?
Is the crime of genocide less evil than war
itself?
Let's get on with the job. Let's get on with
ratification.

The story of the U.S. Senate's record of
delay in acting upon the important Genocide
Convention borders on tragedy. Instead of
taking the lead in support of this important
effort to outlaw wholesale murders, the
Senate has yielded to the untenable and in-
defensible position of the American Bar As-
sociation in opposition to the UN Conven-
tion. It is high time for the abandonment of
such procrastination. We join with the New
York Times in demanding: "Let's get en
with ratification."

Symbols from Jewish Cult
Viewed by Prof. Goodenough

The fourth volume, "Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman
Period," by Dr. Erwin R. Goodenough, professor at Jonathan Ed-
wards College, Yale University, deals with "The Problems of
Method: Symbols from Jewish Cult." It continues the highly in-
teresting and very scholarly work of research into the field of
symbolism as practiced by the early Jews.
Published by Bollingen Series (140 E. 62nd, NY21) and dis-
tributed by Pantheon Books (333 6th. NY14), this book traces
methodology with a thoroughness and meticulousness that al-
ready has distinguished Prof. Goodenough's efforts. The "consid-
erable literary tradition within Judaism in regard to cult ob-
jects" serves to assist him in his work. -
Again we learn that "Jewish art is drenched with pagan im-
portations: indeed, Jews used pagan symbols long before they had
distinctly Jewish ones . . ."

Among the interesting facts revealed by this Christian scholar
is that the seven-branched 'candlestick was prohibited: "Me-
norahs could be made with five, six, or eight branches (Abaye,
a Babylonian amora, said) but not with seven, and this is the
rule still observed by the orthodox, who avoid having menorahs
of seven branches. Yet we know that it was precisely in Abaye's
day (279-338) that the popular use of the seven-branched me-
norah as the 'hallmark of Judaism' was at its height, in Palestine
as well as elsewhere. Abaye's protest won out, but it was a •
protest against a very widespread custom of his own time."
The reason for this ruling is the aim to avoid the idolatrous

in Jewish practices.
An added item of interest in connection with idols and idolatry
informs us that "Rabbi Akiba is reputed to have prohibited to
Jews all idols made by idolators, but to have allowed an idol made
by an Israelite if it had not been used for worship. Rabbi Ishmael
exactly reversed this, so that one suspects that the whole matter
was purely theological, and that idols of either pagans or Is-
raelites would, at any stage, have had short shrift in orthodox
Jewish hands." ,
Symbols, Dr. Goodenough indicates, must have been accepted
in Rome and North Africa where ceilings of Jewish burial places
are covered with them. Pointing to the existence of a menorah
made of a single block stone in the synagogue at Hammath, he
poses the question whether cast-metal menorahs were used in
synagogues.

In spite of the fact that rabbis forbade use of the seven-
branched candlestick, we are told that "we have literary al-
legories of the menorah which show that at least from the time
of Philo on, if not from the time of Zerubbabel and Zechariah,
the menorah was significant for Jewish piety in a great variety
of senses, but especially as a mystic symbol of Light and Life—
God present and manifest in the world—through which the
Jew hopes for immortality."

The lulav and ethrog appear prominently with other Jewish
emblems in Jewish funerary art of the Greco-Roman period, Prof.
Goodenough shows, and he concludes that "there can be no doubt
that they represent specifically the Jewish ritual objects. Also
mentioned among symbols appearing in Jewish remains is the
Shofar.
Dr. Goodenough's fourth volume, like its predecessors, is richly
illustrated with the objects referred to in his book, whose scholarly
value make it vastly important in the study of symbolisms and
cults in Jewish history and Jewish religious practices.

Charles Laughton Honored by Jewry

The State of Israel has honored Charles Laughton, Hollywood'
actor, producer, Broadway director and the world's outstanding
Bible reader, by presenting one of the oldest Bibles found in Israel.
According to Kurt Singer's new 308-page biography, "The Charles
Laughton Story," the actor accepted the Israel gift with great
humbleness and declared:
"Now that I'm 55, my only great ambition left is to portray
the role of David. David stood alone against the world as I
believe many a Jew did in the past." Kurt Singer covers a lot of
ground in exploring the life of Charles Laughton:
- "The Laughton Story" describes also in dramatic detail the
birth of Herman Wouk's "Caine Mutiny Court Martial" play. It
reveals Laughton's fondnesS for author Herman Wouk, who is,
really, a Jewish scholar and the pattern for Barney Greenwald in

the Wouk's play.
"Greenwald has the long wisdom of the Jew in him," said

Laughton. "He has the depth, the age of the race in him."
In "The Laughton Story," Kurt Singer quotes Charles Laugh-
ton : "In the "Caine Mutiny Court Martial," Greenwald is a Jew
who has come to respect authority deeply, who has grown up to
know there may be a time for rebellious youth but the time is
over now. As a Jew, Greenwald pays tribute to Queeg, for Queeg
helped keep Greenwald's mother—and other Jews—from being
melted down for soap by Herman Goering. Herman Wouk is a
very strict Jew. He is teaching at the Yeshiva university, and I
had an awful time getting him away. from his classes to work on

the play."

