. THE JEWISH NEWS A Holiday for Pre'e . tabor ' omme g with issue of July 20, 1 . 95 1 Iticrpor ociting the Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing - • • ailember 'AmeriCan Association of EngliSh-Je •wish Newspapers; Michigan Press Association, National Editorial Asso- _ • Okation. • - . 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: . 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 - 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.