THE JEWISH NEWS

Wrong Ingredients for Peace

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., Melt-, VE-
8-9364
Eubseription S4 a year, Foreign S5.
Entered as second class matter Aug. 6, 1942, at Post Office, Detroit, Mich., under Act of March 3, 1879

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher

SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager

VOL. XXVII, No. 7

FRANK SIMONS
City Editor

Page Four

April 22, 1955

Sabbath Rosh Hodesh Scriptural Selections

This Sabbath, Rosh Hodesh lyar, the following Scriptural selections Will be read in ot.ir synti-
gocues:
Pentateuchal portions, Lev. 12:1-15:33. Num. 28:9-15. Prophetical portion, /s. Sek.,

Licht Benshen, Friday, April 22, 7:011p.m.

Are Funds Available for Bibles?

Summer resorts that cater to Jewish va-
eationists place understandable emphasis on
entertainment. Without a good show, it
might have been difficult to create the
borscht belt.
Many hotels that seek Jewish clientele,
offer their guests kosher food and religious
services. Yet — and with this conditional
interjection lies a story—yet:
Read the following, which appeared in
the current JPS (Jewish Publication So-
ciety's) Bookmark, as a "sidelight on Jewish
life," under the heading: "A Discussion: Jew-
ish Bibles in Hotel Rooms":

The Gideons have done a remarkable job in
the United States. Entering a hotel room, you
know that yor_ win find at least two books: the
Bible and the telephone directory. Just how
many people use these Bibles is hard to tell.
But they are there, just in case.
The very resourceful Trude Weiss-Rosmarin,
journalist, lecturer and author, recently sug-
gested that the Jewish Publication Society's
translation of the Bible be put into every room
of the fairly numerous Jewish hotels in this
country. It struck us as a brilliant idea and
we acted upon it. One of the large and ap-
parently successful Jewish (kosher) hotels was
offered our Bible at no more than cost to the
• Society; but the owner of the hotel begged to
be excused from any such arrangement. He
argued that he would be glad to put a copy
of the Bible in each room if he received it free.

Unfortunately, the Jewish Publication Society
is not the Gideons Society. The latter draws
upon religious-minded Protestant groups who
make the distribution of the Christian Bible
(Old and New Testament) possible. There is
no similar Jewish group; and the Society itself,
cannot afford to distribute the Bible gratis.
We offer this news item as a sidelight on
American Jewish life. For all we know, there
may still be some Jews who would rather stay
indoors in a hotel room on some rainy after-
noon than arrange for a game in the card-
room, and so might be tempted to open a
Bible if it were at hand. The question remains:
upon whom does the obligation rest of making
such copies of the Bible available? Does it
rest upon the owner of the hotel, or upon
some Jewish group or combination of individ-
uals who consider the widespread distribution
of the Bible4among' Jews a matter of public
benefit?

What's the answer? Many of the "Jew-
ish hotels" are most cooperative in arrang-
ing appeals for important Jewish causes -
for the United Jewish Appeal and for Israel
bonds, for theological seminaries and yeshiv-
oth, for educational and health purposes, Is
it possible that an investment in Bibles is
less glamorous ? Perhaps the mere posing
of the question will force a positive answer
to an important need: to bring the Book
back to the People of the Book.

A Salute to Dr . Jonas E. Salk

The historic day on which the vaccine for
polio was declared to be safe as a preven-
tative for paralysis was a great day for
the entire world..
It was a day on which to salute the man
who perfected it—Dr. Jonas E. Salk.
Perhaps it should have served also as a
day for introspection, especially by those
who, if their ideas had persisted, would have
barred men like Dr. Salk from being among
us. His parents came here as immigrants.
Dr. Salk himself received a fine Jewish edu-
cation and is well versed in Yiddish and He-
brew. Had the immigration restrictions suc-
ceeded in shutting the doors of this country
to those who came in the days of the arrival
of Dr. Salk's parents, the polio paralysis
preventative might not have developed now.
While saluting the new genius, Dr. Jonas
E. Salk, we therefore also salute the liberal
Americans who are defending the great prin-
ciple of asylum to this country for hon-
orable men and women who wish to settle
here and to share in the blessings of this
country by making great contributions to
our democracy. We acclaim the efforts of a
courageous man like Edward J. Corsi who
would not be bullied into a policy of scuttling
even our minimum refugee immigration pro-
gram.
It is encouraging to know that proper

'The Glorious Crown of Judaism'

•

recognition is being given to Dr. • Salk by
our Federal and State Governments; by Al-
bert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva
University, which is giving him . the first Bela
Schick Award for outstanding contributions
to pediatrics; by the presentation to him of
the Jacoby Medallion of the associated
alumni of Mount Sinai Hospital, New York.
In Boston, Dr. Salk was acclaimed by
Dr. F. Enders, winner of the 1954 Nobel
Prize in Medicine, as a "genius."
While saluting this great scientist, we al-
so utter prayers of thanks for this blessed
occurrence which will reduce parents' an-
xieties and which will give assurances a
health to our children.

Dr. Albert Einstein

'Jewish Messianic . Faith
Is fhe Seed of Progress

—

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Dr. Joseph Klausner

"The Messianic idea is the most glistening jewel in the glow
rious crown of Judaism!", Dr. Joseph Klausner, professor emeritus
of Hebrew literature and Jewish history at the Hebrew University
in Jerusalem, asserts in his impressive study, "The Messianic Idea
in Israel," just published by Macmillan in an excellent translate
tion from the Hebrew by the eminent Christian scholar, Prot.
William F. Stinespring of the Duke University Divinity School.
One of the three parts of this highly scholarly work was first
published in 1902, another in 1907 and the third in .1921. This is
their first total translation into English and we are blessed by it,
It enriches our literature and it brings to the non-Hebrew reader,
to Jews and non-Jews alike, a very great work by a man of very
great learning. The splendid translation adds to the merits of
•
this great work.
At the very outset, Dr. Klausner asserts: "To the, three good
gifts which the people Israel have left as an inheritance to the
entire world: monotheism, refined morality, and the prophets of
truth and righteousness—a fourth gift must be added: belief

the Messiah."

While "no other nation in the world knew a belief like this,*
attempts have been made, Prof. • Klausner writes, "to rob Israel
its prior right to the belief in the Messiah, and to confer it
upon the Assyrians, the Egyptians, or the Persians." But even
those who make such claims "also see the great advantage of the
Jewish Messianic ideals."
Dr. Klausner turns to ancient Jewish history for an explana-
tion of "this wonderful phenomenon" of the development of the
Messianic idea in the midst of a unique people, Israel, to such a
degree that there is nothing like it in any other nation." Describ-
ing the "history of afflictions" suffered by Israel in its earliest
time, he declares:
"The people Israel did not have a glorioUs past, hence it was
forced to direct its gaze toward a glorious future. It longed for
one to ransom and deliver it from its afflictions and troubles. It
yearned for a redeemer and savior. And such a savior appeared in
the form of Moses."
"It was inevitable," Prof. Klausner writes, "that the stories
of oppression, as we find them in the first sections of the Book
of Exodus, should make a strong impression on the entire people
Israel. It was also inevitable that the people should feel com-
pelled to accord the very greatest glory and honor to the exalted
and grandiose personality of the first deliverer. This was the man
Moses, this the great deliverer, who not only ransomed Israel from
all its material troubles and from political servitude, but also re-
deemed it from its ignorance and its spiritual bondage. He was
not only a guide and leader of the Israelite people; he was also
a lawgiver and prophet. The exalted picture of Moses necessarily,
therefore, impressed itself upon the spirit of the nation and be .
came a symbol of the redeemer in general. Political salvation and
spiritual redemption of necessity were combined in the con-
sciousness of the nation to become one great work of redemption.
Thus: was born the redemptive dualism which necessarily put its
stamp upon the redeemer of the future, the expected Messiah."
In the process of the development of prophecy in Israel, "the
Messianic expectation received an almost entirely new form," and
Dr. Klausner points out that "the Messianic expectation is the
positive element in the message of the prophets." In his analysis
of the subject, the eminent scholar explains that "for the most
part the prophets thought of the redemption from personal evil
as a personal redemption. Thus the man- who will bring this re-
demption, the Messiah, had to be the embodiment of the highest
righteousness, which tolerates no evil."
The Jewish Messiah, Dr. Klausner states, is human in origin,
peaceful in his very name, who redeems Israel from exile and
servitude. He exemplifies "both physical and spiritual perfection,*
But Christianity "is wholly based on the personality of the Mes-
siah." What happened in Christianity to the Jewish conception
of the Messiah is that "the Christian Messiah ceased to be only
a man, and passed beyond the limitations of mortality."
Then again, the Jewish Messiah as the redeemer of his people
and of mankind "does not redeem them by his blood." Further-
more, the Jewish Messiah is only "a righteous man ruling in the
fear of God" and "the progress of humanity doesn't depend Oil
him but on humanity itself." Prof. Klausner concludes:

It will take generations—perhaps cen-
turies—to review the great accomplishments
of the world's greatest scientific genius, Prof.
Albert Einstein,
In the hour of the first shock that came
with the news of his passing, all we can
do is reverently repeat his name and pay
homage to a man who has done so much
for mankind, who was so ardently devoted to
the best interests of the Jewish people, who
contributed his untiring efforts towards the
development of the Jewish community in
Israel.
Dr. Einstein's discoveries were the be-
ginning of the development of our century's
Yeshivath Beth Yehudah will pay de- revolutionary scientific atomic discoveries.
And his passionate appeals for peace,
served honors on Sunday to a devoted com-
munity leader by naming the new school his defense of the rights of men of all
structure on Dexter and Cortland the "Dan faiths and racial origins, his great human
qualities, have elevated him to a position
Laven Building."
Mr, Laven has earned this honor by his that can be claimed by 'a single person per-
dedicated efforts in behalf of the Yeshivah, haps only once in a millennium to immor-
by his unflagging interest in all communal tality.
Blessed be the name of this great man.
affairs and his leadership in the Allied Jew-
Of him it can truly be said: zeher tzaddik
ish Campaign.
The Yeshivah, with new provisions for. Livraha—the memory of this righteous man
an enlarged student population, now enters will remain as a blessing.
upon an expanded program of activities. The
faith its leaderi have in the survival of the
neighborhood as a large center of Jewish
population adds to the strength of the school
We are making progress!
as a home for traditional Jewish studies.
The Michigan House of Representatives
This Sunday also will witness the dedica- has adopted a Fair Employment Practices
tion of the new gymnasium at the Davison bill. That same week, FEPC legislation was
Jewish Center. The two events—the official adopted by the Colorado Legislature and the
opening and the naming of the Yeshivah Minneapolis Legislature's appropriations
"Therefore, we can say, without being suspected of undue.
bias toward Judaism, that the Jewish Messianic faith is the
Building and the dedication of the Center committee.
seed of progress, which has been planted by Judaism through-
gymnasium — are indicative of progress
The Michigan FEPC law may' not go far
out the whole world."
made in our community through a building enough, but it is nevertheless a step in the
Dr. Klausner's "The Messianic Idea in Israel" is truly a great
program that provides us with facilities right direction.
work. It may well be placed at the head of all works dealing with
urgently needed for the continuation of our
These are encouraging elements in a the Messianic ideas and as the guide in 'the study of the value* ..--
wo w which is Act t altagether happy.
Xecreational actiYities.
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spired by the guest for a. redeemer.

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1, I ■■■■■....,

Dan Laven Building

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FEPC Legislation