A Proud American

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.,. V& 8-9384
Subscription $4 a year, Foreign $5.
Entered as second class matter Aug. 6, 1942. at Post Office, Detroit, Mich., under Act of March 3, 1879

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher

FRANK SIMONS
Cffy Editor

SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager

IN&

Sabbath Scriptural Selections
. .
This Sabbo.th, the nineteenth day of Tammuz-, 5715, the following Scriptural selections will be
read in. our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portions, Num. 25:10-30:1 Prophetical portion, Jer. 1:1-2:3,

Licht Benshen, Friday, July 8, 7:51 p.m.

VOL. XXVII, No. 18

July 8, 1955

Page Four

A Time for Proper Communal Programming

There is a common saying that "God in haste and do not even have the time to
takes a vacation immediately after June." repent when errors are made in program-
This skeptical statement must be put to the ming. Such faults can be eliminated by ad-
test because it implies not only a lessening vance planning.
of congregational activities, but also a dim-
inution in efforts for communal planning.
During the past year we had the good
The cynical quotation is ascribable to the
fortune of being guided along paths of ele-
facts that rabbis limit their sermons during vated standards in programs at public func-
the summer months; that spiritual leaders
tions, by virtue of the stimulation that was
and educators take time out for vacations provided by the celebration of the American
--as they should; that organizational activi- Jewish Tercentenary. This celebration has
ties are interrupted. But the entire summer ended, we now are beginning the fourth
can not be sacrificed at a time when serious
century of organized American Jewish ac-
planning is essential for the life of our or-
tivities, and the ideals that inspired many
ganized community. Therefore the skeptic-
groups during the Tercentenary year must
ism alluded to must be challenged.
be carried into future years. But we can
not achieve the best results by sacrificing an
entire summer's period and by jumping into
The "total vacation" accusation is not
altogether justified. Many of our educators a new year's activities without proper pre-
paration.
devote a considerable part of the summer
Dr. Ludwig Lewisohn, the master stylist, proves a point hit
to arranging curricula, to planning the next
The leaders in all areas of Jewish com- his latest novel, "In a Summer Season," which has just been
year's work, to formulating methods of
munity work—in education, in social service, published by Farrar, Straus and Co. (101 Fifth, NY3) : it is that
achieving best results in our schools.
as well as in philanthropy—will do well to
in spite of his 72 years he can still write
a sex story and can create tense moments
Laymen, too, must recognize that they start their activities now to overcome all
in his narratives.
can not wait for the summer's end to plan previous serious handicaps. We urge that
This reviewer is convinced that when
their communal programs. We often act they seek to avoid errors in advance.

Dr. Lewisohn's Newest Novel

Urgent Need for Unify in Zionist Ranks

Israel is in a better economic position to- Israel's enemies, and the split should be
day than she has experienced since the re- healed as quickly as Possible. ,
Many well known names are involved in
birth of the state. But many other aspects
the controversy. The elder statesmen in the
of her existence still are troublesome and ranks of the Zionist Organization of America
call for a great measure of unity in the ranks are a fighting minority that is demanding
of her defenders, if she is to be protected certain rights and representation at the
fully.
forthcoming World Zionist Congress. The
would
do the
well dissenters—men
to come to an under-
This certainly is not a propitious moment ZOA
standing
with
of the
for inner strife among Israel's friends. The stature of Louis Lipsky, Judge Louis Levin-
controversy in Zionist circles is not condueive thal, Ezra Shapiro, • Dewey Stone and others.
to unified effort when Jews are called upon If we are to dissipate our energies in internal
controversies, only Israel will, in the long run,
to act in Israel's behalf. We deplore it.
be
the sufferer.
The resignation of Prime Minister Shar-
ett's cabinet also has sad implications. It is
difficult to understand why the present cabi-
net should have found it necessary to resign
Included in the group of nine Israeli Boy
less than four weeks before a general elec-
tion—unless political capital is to be made Scouts, who arrived in this country prior to
out of the issue. With only a month to be _their participation in the Scout Jamboree in
spanned before a new government is set up, Canada, were two non-Jews—a Moslem and
after the July 26 elections, even the unfortu- a Catholic. This is proof of the possibility of
nate Gruenwald-Kastner case, over which true fellowship in Israel among all faiths,
the cabinet crisis purportedly arose, is in- and of the genuine effort that is being made
sufficient reason for the swapping of horses to fuse the Israeli Arabs into the social, cul-
in mid-stream. tural and economic life of the Jewish state.
Last week we related a story about an
-If-the split between the so-called progres-
sives and the administration in power in the Israeli Arab who is studying in this country
Zionist_ Organization of America has any re- and who has been lecturing in explanation
cation at all to the latest cabinet crisis in of Israel's activities before many groups.
Israel, because of Premier Sharett's corn- Now we have additional proof of the co-
plaint that the General Zionists, his partners operative efforts that are being pursued in
in the coalition government, are failing to Israel in behalf of Arabs as well as Jews.
support Shim, then there is more to the con-
In this country, the American Zionist
flict' than mere American internal matters.
Council is supervising a tour • of the visiting
Israeli Boy Scouts in a number Of cities.
One thing, however, is clear: that the We are confident that their appearances be-
American audiences and within various
American Zionist split has all the earmarks fore
American
especially among Boy
of former personality squabbles, and that is Scouts, will -circles,
help considerably in spreading
most deplorable. It can only lend comfort to
the message of good will and in cementing
the friendship between Israel and the United
States.

True Fellowship

.

A Good Beginning

Three Anniversaries

Dr. Joseph J. Schwartz has begun his
activities as executive vice-president of the
Development Corporation for Israel with
Three important anniversaries occur this
encouraging Israel bond sales.
month—the yahrzeits of Dr. Theodor Herzl,
In Cleveland, he was honored at a dinner on July 10; that of Chaim Nachman Bialik,
with the sale of $436,000 in bonds. More on July 11, and Vladimir (Zeev) Jabotin-
than $250,000 in bonds were purchased in his sky, on July 19.
honor at a reception in New York.
Dr. Herzl was the founder Of the political
He has already conferred With bond lead- Zionist movement. Bialik was the great poet
ers in Detroit, and there are auguries of a laureate of the Jewish people. Jabotinsky
good response to, the Israel bond appeals in inspired a fighting mood in a people that was
our city, which previously had distinguished downtrodden and subjected to humiliation.
itself as one of the best Israel bond-selling
Each, in his day, performed great services
communities in the land.
for Jewry. Even when we differed with the
third of the trio- we have listed, we recog-
The
beginnings
are
good
for
the
important
nized
his pioneering efforts for Zionism.
investment project in Israel. The inspiration
Blessed be
Jewry.
Drf Schwartz brings, to this effort As-
their ineMbries.:
s /it:Veit. Webniiiiuedsticc'ess.

"In a Summer Season" goes into the paper-
backed. 25-cent edition this point will be
proved by the large sales of the popular-
priced issue.
Dr. Lewisohn's story rotates around a
35-year-old manager of a concert bureau
whose wife snubs him, later sues him for
divorce, gets a big slice of his inheritance.
In the meantime, the sex-starved hero
has many affairs. Our author, who has
written many narratives. with sex angles
Dr. Lewisohn that matched the works of writers half his
age, and whose essays and works of research have placed him
on the top of the rung as a literary critic—and as a translator—.
can say to his publishers that he has lots of punch left in hirn.
Interestingly enough, this thinker, this brilliant essayist whe
only a month previously had produced and edited the very
scholarly compilation "The.oclor Herzl, A Portrait for This Age,'"
published by World Publishing Co.; and who simultaneously had
a share in the publication of Soma Morgenstern's powerful "The
Third Pillar" (also a Farrar book) which he had translated from
the German—utilizes his splendidly written story for discussion
of important problems. He philosophizes about marriage anti
divorce, about immigration, about fascism and communism.
He injects into the story an Americanized version of an old
Jewish joke about the hero, Felix Thorne's wife, Eugenia: "She
was a little furtive even when there was nothing to hide. She
twisted facts for the sake of the twisting or in order to be free of
obiervation even when nobody had any reason to observe her.
Had he asked: 'Are you going to Pelham?' she would have said:
'No, to Larchmont.' Then she would have gone to Larchmont on
the principle that, all men being liars, he would have looked for
her in Pelham."
The only Jewish character in the story, the young attorney,
leads our hero away from his disillusion into the realm of belief
—to faith and to religious thinking.
And his associate in his office, who also directs him to a path
of faith, admonishes him that if people had only tried to obey
only a few of the Ten Commandments "there would have been DO
concentration camps, no death camps, no slave camps and . e .
Just think the difference that would have been made by even the
most fragmentary obedience to fragments of God's Law. Just
think!"
The attorney Jerome Goodman proudly speaks of his Zionist
and other Jewish affiliations and he makes a point. "Belief? A
man believes what he can. Judaism consists in doing—in certain
acts which sanctify life, which make life human and worthy of
a creature made in God's image."
The moral of the story, disregarding what may be considered
the oversexed portions of this novel, is that it restores a man's
faith: that it leads him to believe in a Greater Being, that A
directs him to religion. Dr. Lewisohn succeeds in this.

Rabbi Weitz's 'Year Without Fear

"Year Without Fear" by Rabbi Martin M. Weitz, published by :
Bloch, is a book that explains and evaluates the Jewish festivals,
and includeS many essays evaluating Jewish principles, as they
were incorporated in the author's sermons.
The book is dedicated to Abraham Rosenthal, who lived be-
yond 90 years and who showed a deep interest in the Betty
Bacharach Home for Afflicted Children at Longport, N. J.
An appreciation of this work is contained in a preface by Dr.
David B. Allman, medical director of this home. There also
commendatory introduction by Dr. Jacob R..Marcus.
The author has included in his volume a number of his poe.oul
on Jewish themes.
Of special interest is his chapter on " 'Chassidim' in Colorado,"
in which he reveals that there was a Chassidic settlement in that
area in the early '80s.
.• Education,..religion,.. the struggle for human right8 _also., are

among the it;:ity. 'initfoitant kthjects dealt with in this

