. THE JEWISH NEWS
A Holiday for Pre'e . tabor
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omme g with issue of July 20, 1 . 95 1
Iticrpor
ociting the Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing
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ailember 'AmeriCan Association of EngliSh-Je •wish Newspapers; Michigan Press Association, National Editorial Asso-
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Okation. •
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. Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit 35, Mich., VE.
1-9364. Subscription $4 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
StbNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager
FRANK SIMONS
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the sixteenth day of Elia, 5715 -, the following Scriptural selections will
be read in our synagogits:
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Pentateuchal portion: Deist. 26:1-29:8.: Prophetical, portion, Is. 60.
Licht Benshen, - .Friday, Sept, 2,' 6:43 p.m.
VOL. XXVII. — No. 26
September 2, 1955
Page Four
On the Eve of Another School Year
Our children's dresses and suits are being
pressed, the barber and beauty shops have
a few -busy days, alarm clocks are being
checked — in preparation for another school
term. •Traffic safety boys will soon adjust
their belts to assist in assuring safer cross-
ings for. our boys and girls on their way to
school. The air will be full of the youngsters'
voices.
This is a thrilling season. It is an echo
of life and a call to all the people, of all ages,
to .match the laughter and the joy of the
young people.
As part of . the Better Schools Campaian,
the Advertising Council has just issued a
number of enlightening statements to in-
dicate the need for closer study of, the
schools' problems, in order that our children
may be assured "the quality of education
they deserve." An offer is Made to all who
are interested to secure copies of the free
booklet, " How Can Citizens Help Their
Schools," from Better Schools (2 W. 45th St.,
N.Y. 36). The information provided by. Better
Schools is especially valuable in view of the
predfction that increases in our schools' pop-
ulation will be so vast in the coming decade_
that planning- is necessary to assure -.seat
for .every new child to be enrolled.
Tkie problem is not limited to the public
schools: 'It affects_ also : the_ private schools,
the pa,rochial school system and,. also,- our
Hebrew Schools' system in every American
JO,Wish community.
attention is called, wisely and real-
is,ically, the fact that our children's
fi \are .and through them the future, of our
counttY..
take Shape in the
classroom.. This, too,
is true of the re-
ligious school, of
the congregational
-: classes, of the insti-
tutions of learning
in which American
boys and girls are
provided • • spiritual
training. T h S. is
where our -Hebrew
Schools, the classes
sponsored - by • our
synagogues and the
studiet offered by
private communal
agencies fit in
The commencement of another school
h e Peace . Challenge
. The- Arab fomenters . of war against
Israel Were quick to , adopt the most damag-
ing libel that has been concocted .against the
Jewish people -- the "30-pieces-of-silver"
legend—in opposition to the proposals ad-
vanced .by Secretary of State Dulles for
peace ,between =Jews and the Arabs.
The American plan for peace, offefed
in behalf of President Eisenhower and sup-
poried by Great Britain, comes a bit late,
but sh,ould be welcomed nevertheless with
a determined will to press - for amity in one
of the world's most troubled areas. It is not
a faultless plan. It will have to be revised.
It can' not be accepted as offered. The very
mention of the idea of resettling Arab's 'in
Israel and elsewhere" raises doubts — be-
cause a plan for peace must take into con-
sideratiOn Israel's security, and mass repa-
triation of refugees in Israel must be rejected
because it would mean the destruction of
Israel. Secretary Dulles' reference to Jer-
usalem is the other objectionable feature of
his plan.
In its major aspects, Mr. Dulles' pro-
posals are valuable steps in the direction of
peace. They must be accepted as a beginning.
to an approach to a solution to a very serious
problem. The Arabs, by their hasty action
against any form of peace, are proving the
danger of the hand they are playing in the
ipolitical games room. It is a hand to be
patched, lest it brandish a dagger not only
Egainst Israel but also against the western
powers to whose kindness and libertarian
ideals seven Arabs states owe their inde-
pendence.
year is a. time for planning proper school
programs. It is -the season of the year for
taking stock of our physical facilities as well
as the necessity for training teachers to care
for the children who may be overcrowding
our school buildings.
A major problem in education is the
increased need for teachers as well as for
classroom desks. This, indeed is, as the Better
Schools Campaign of the Advertising Coun-
cil admonishes us, America's most important
desk job. The time to plan solutions to this
recognized problem is now. Let us fit it into
the thinking that accompanies the return of
our children to their school rooms—to the
public- as well as to the communal, religious
and Hebrew Schools.
•
Negro Anti-Semitism
Jews are in the forefront in all move-
ments for the betterment of the lot of the
downtrodden. From our ranks leaders have
been drawn in efforts to abandon segrega-
tion, to lessen prejudice . and to discourage
discrimination.
_ But Jews also are landlords. Jews • also
sell merchandise . to the very people whom
we seek to help. Therefore, there are fre-
quent charges of "Negro anti-Semitism."
Fortunately, the better-informed Ne-
groes know how to treat the subject ration-
ally. In an article in the Negro (Pittsburgh)
Courier Magazine Section on "Anti-Semitism
and the Negro," Dr. Marguerite Cartwright
stated:
Some time ago, an anonymous letter ap-
A Review of Masaryk's Book
Russian Echoes Defense of Jews
By BORIS SMOLAR
Editor, Jewish Telegraphic Agency
(Copyright, 1955, Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
The fight which Vladimir Soloviev, leading Russian philosopher,
conducted on behalf of the Jewish religion during the Czarist
regime, is revealed in "The Spirit of Russia," a two-volume study
by Thomas G. Masaryk, late President of democratic Cechoslo-
vakia . . . The study, written by the scholar-statesman years before
Czechoslovakia was crushed by the Nazis and Communism, has now
been published in this country by Macmillan . . .• It discloses that
upon his deathbed, Soloviev begged his friends to keep him awake
so that he could pray for the Jews . . . To the Russian philosopher,
the Jewish problem was a Christian problem . . He maintained
that it was not the Jews, but the Christians, who created the cult
of the golden calf . .. He argued that true Jewish principles lead
to Christianity, and that true Christian principles lead to Judaism
. ... He advocated a union of churches in which the Jews should
find their place . . . He considered Russian Jews the best section
of world Jewry, since they have maintained their religious princi-
ples in "greater purity" than the Jews in the Western European
countries ... The son of, a liberal historian who was a professor at
Moscow University, Soloviev considered Spinoza as the greatest
philosopher the world ever produced . . He had a large fellowship
among those in Russia who supported the theory of a "free
theocracy" . . . And one of his basic interests was his concern with
the Jewish question; which he considered one of the most momen-
tous among the complex of Russian problems . . . The importance
of this question for Russia depended, in his view -, upon the fact
that there were about 6,000,000 Jews in the country, equal to the
total population of Belgium . As early as 1882 in lectures at
St. Petersburg University, he discussed the universal and historical
significance of Judaism . -. Later he frequently lectured on this
question in Moscow.
'1,e44d in a :Letters to the Editor column com-
plaining: that Negroes in Harlem are exploited
by Jewish landlords and merchants; that Jewish
businessmen were purchasing slum property,
then proceeding "to gouge their tenants, while
giving them little or no service." The letter con-
tinued:•`The average business establishment in
Harlem is owned by Jews, many overcharge for
inferior products . . . Jews employ Negroes at
lower wages than the whites . . . The Negro is
vulnerable to all types of trickery and chicanery
of unscrupulous merchants . . . Harlem is a veri-
table Jewish bonanza ... "
Somehow, the tone of this letter suggested
that. the writer suffered more from misinforma-
tion and anti-Semitic propaganda than from mal-
ice. Also, - most of us have heard these absurd
accusations expressed from . time to time.
One of the worst things that can happen to
a minority group is to let its mind become poi-
soned against another minority group. This kind
of divide-and-conquer strategy is familiar to the
evil propagandists of all kinds of dictatorships—
Nazi, Fascist and Communist.
Almost every anti-Negro movement has also From The Jewish Viewpoint
been anti-Jewish, and the same is true of the
reverse. The KKK, while threatening -Negro
_rights, simultaneously defiles the institutions of
the Jewish community. Hitler, while assigning
Jews to concentration camps, banished Negroes
as "sub-human," to be treated as animals.
A Review by Dr. SOLOMON B. FREEHOF
When Jewish real estate owners are blamed
A new generation must now make its adjustment to Judaism.
_for housing problems, there is more than the
falsity of the claim. By concealing the real cause Thus it is repeating the task of every preceding generation. It was
of the problem, the remedy is delayed or ob- said in ancient times that Judaism is not given to us as an in-
heritance; that is to say, it is there, but it is not ours automatically.
scured.
- Before, going into teaching, I was employed We can, of course, take possession of it, but that requires effort.
for over six years by New York City's Welfare Each generation must consciously rediscover the faith of the fatherS.
Department. Once we made a spot check, and
No one can rediscover Judaism without first coming to terms
discovered that the greatest proportion of 'sub- with the Bible. All of Jewish literature, and most of Jewish thought,
standard housing in Harlem was owned by Ne- is the Bible, once or twice removed. What do you think of the Bible?
groes, themselves. Recently, further seeking out
What is the Bible to you? These are the crucial questions, especially
the facts, a quick survey showed that the per-
difficult in modern times. A few generations ago, the Bible was ac-
centage of Jewish property owriership in Harlem
cepted by almost everybody as an absolute revelation. Then a gen-
is no greater than anywhere in New York City.
eration ago, the Bible' was again no problem, because it was quickly
Of course there are good and bad landlords
brushed aside. It was a mere hodge-podge of dubious documents. .
to be found in all groups—some white owners
are "good" and some are "bad." Most landlords Tday, we are less pious than our great-grandparents, and less im-
the
in sub-standard areas pay little attention to mak- pious than the last generation. We cannot completely accept
ing improvements. But the solution is to improve Bible as inspired, nor can we completely reject it as folklore. What
over-all housing conditions, and enforce the law, then does the Bible mean to you? This question requires an original
and not to change the color or religion of the and positive approach in the present generation.
landlord.
Such an approach has been the path Of Bernard Bamberger in
A Modern Approach to Bible
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Dr. Cartwright made an excellent point
in her expose when she stated that often
people are exploited more inhumanly by
kinsmen -than they are by strangers. This
ought to -explain to those who feel they are
' mistreated that it is wrong to generalize,
that one must never blame an entire group
for a few faults inherent in some members
of that group.
By calling attention to "the real cause
of the problem," Dr. Cartwright has rendered
a great service to the movement to eradicate
all figments of prejudice including anti-
Semitism among Negroes.
his fine booklet, "The Bible: A Western Jewish Approach'," just
published by the Bnai Brith Hillel Foundations. He is fully at home
in the methodologies of modern biblical criticism and quite aware
of the new, general currents of thought , in the disturbed scene of
modern life. He understands, too, the mood of present-day youth, -
whose future is unpredictable, and which seeks a safe anchorage,
without sacrificing its liberty.
" Dr. Bamberger is both scholar and active rabbi and, therefore,
knows both the heritage of the paSt and -the problems of the present.
All this he brings to play on the problem of the Bible for present-
day young Jews. He has produced a book which is scientific, yet _
not negative, which handles the Bible selectively, yet not wilfully.
"The Bible: -A Modern Jewish Approach" helps make it possible
for • a serious reader to rediscover the foundations upon which to
build the structure of a creative Jewish life.