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 Asso-
ciation
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit 35, Mich., VE.
8-9364, Subscription $5 a year, Foreign $6.
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
SIDNEY SHMARAK
City Editor
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath ; the sixteenth day of Tebet, 5716, the following Scriptural selections will be read
in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Gen. 47:28-50:26. Prophetical portion, I Kings 2:1-21.
Licht Benshen; Friday, Dec. 30, 4:52 p.m.
VOL. XXVIII. No. 17.
Page Four
December 30, 1955
Call to Action for UJA Emergency Fund
should ask himself whether he already had
In the week-end that remains before the
given adequately, in due proportion to its
beginning of the New Year, our community
worth, to the United Jewish Appeal..
has the great opportunity and the solemn
Detroit's Allied Jewish Campaign has
duty to perform an historic service.
undertaken a serious task of raising our
Our Government encourages us to make
community's quota of $1,230,000 towards the
generous gifts to philanthropic causes by
national goal of $25,000,000 in the special
permitting the deduction of charitable con-
emergency UJA drive. A number of very
tributions, up to 20 per cent, from our taxes.
generous gifts already have been made to
That is why we place emphasis on the week-
this fund. If the emergency 'effort is to be
end in this urgent appeal for prompt pay-
registered as a total success, it must be
ment by Detroit Jews on their pledges to
A Christian's Interesting Appeal:
shared by the entire community.
the Allied Jewish Campaign and for addi-
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tional gifts to the special United Jewish
The importance of this fund cannot be
Appeal e m e r g e n c y fund of $25,000,000,
Teach
over-emphasized. It must be linked with the
toward which we are obligated to raise our
"Teach
Yourself Hebrew," by Prof. R. K. Harrison, published
trials
and
tribulations
that
face
Israel
today.
share of $1,230,000.
The young state, surrounded by seven war- by the English Universities Press in London, and in this country
It is sincerely td be hoped that the cur-
threatening nations, constantly battling to by David McKay Co. (232 W. 18th, NY 11) is described as "an
rent week-end will account for very large
defend its positions, frequently taunted and introductory manual designed to encourage all is students to master
gifts to the UJA and for prompt fulfillment
`the eternal mother tongue of all true religion."'
shot at by hostile neighbors, needs words of
of our obligations to the fund that has as-
Additionally, the inside covers of this self-teaching-Hebrew
encouragement. American Jewry, having book carries the message from Proverbs 9:9: "Give instruction to a
sumed the obligation of rescuing Jews from
shared admirably in the establishment of wise man, and he will be yet wiser."
Moslem countries and of strengthening Is-
the Jewish State, must act equally as gal-
While the task may sound difficult, the author sets out to
rael in the present hours of need. But when
encourage students to master Hebrew. In his introduction, Prof.
lantly in that nation's defense.
the New Year begins, the duties involved
No greater crime can possibly be en- Harrison quotes a certain professor at an English university who
in upholding the hands of the Israelis will
visioned than the harm that may come to is said "always to commence his initial lecture on the Hebrew
continue and our honor and self-respect will
a people that has won its independence, that language with the words, 'Gentlemen, this is the language that
challenge us to rise to the occasion uninter-
"
has emancipated itself from the dangers that God spoke.'
ruptedly by being _helpful to an embattled
Prof. Harrison continues to state: "Since substantial portions
threatened it in scores of countries that were of the Divine revelation were given through the medium of this
people.
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—some still are—dominated by bigotry. This language, it is disconcerting to encounter such a marked resistance
The emergency fund of $25,000,000 now self-liberated people insists upon standing amongst Christian students to the diligent study of Hebrew."
erect, upon refusing to be pushed into the
Thus, it is the Christian who addresses himself to Christians,
being gathered by the United Jewish Appeal,
sea, upon determinedly fighting to uphold urging them to study Hebrew. And he adds significantly: "Since
ear-marked specifically for work in Israel,
and for the rescue of another quarter of a its honor and defending the lives of its Hebrew is now the official language of the State of Erael, it his
gained in importance during recent years, and this fact makes its
citizens.
million Jews, whose lives are endangered in
What we do in the emergency UJA cam- study a matter of more than purely antiquarian or theological
the countries where they now reside, is the
interest."
paign will mean upholding the hands of the
most urgent undertaking in Israel's behalf
These sentiments are mpving, and convincing, enough not to
brave fighters for justice and self-respect. require further elaboration. -
since the establishment of the Jewish State.
Israel has shared admirably in all obliga- The Israelis will not fail in their task. Let
Starting with an explanation of the alphabet, Prof. Harrison
us make sure that we, too, succeed in retain- explains vocalization; teaches syllables, marks and accents; outlines
tions for the settlement of new immigrants,
but the present burden, of welcoming the ing the dignity that is involved in a people's conjunctions, verbs, nouns, suffixes, declensions; has an interesting
lesson on degrees of comparison in numerals.
self-defense.
North African Jews, is too great for Israel
There are two good vocabulary sections in this book—
to carry the major burden, and the funds
—
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•
English to Hebrew and Hebrew to English. -
that are being gathered are vitally needed
"Teach Yourself Hebrew" is a splendid textbook and will
to assure the success of the rescue activities.
be found valuable as a supplementary -work to the numerous
Establishment by ORT of a new voca- Hebrew-teaching books already in use in schools where the
New monies now being collected have
tional school in Oran, second largest Al- language of the State of Israel and of the. Bible- already is being
greater value than the mere provisions for
transportation, food and shelter for new gerian city, creates new interest in the vo- taught.
cational program that is being expanded in
immigrants. They serve as inspired messages
to the Israelis that we are prepared to back North Africa.
There are 30,000 Jews in Oran, in a total
them up in their struggle for freedom and
that we. shall not let them down in their population of 130,000. In all of Algeria, there
"Andersonville," by MacKinlay Kantor, is rising to the top of
are 140,000 Jews who live in that country's the best-seller list by sheer force of merit. This is one time when a
hdur of need.
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name alone does not account for the success of a powerful novel.
three largest cities.
With approximately 20 per cent of the The strength of the work itself is giving it its status.
There are so many splinter campaigns
"Andersonville," 110,000. copies of which already have been
Jewish labor force in Oran chronically un-
now in progress in our community, and so
employed, it is understandable that the Joint produced by World Publishing Co. (2231 W. 110th, Cleveland 2),
many more that are undertaken periodically
has the merit of exposing brutality, even though our own fellow-
by the various elements in our community, Distribution Committee must come to their Americans were responsible for it. It is the story of the Confederate
aid, and the income JD• derives from the Andersonville Prison, at Anderson, Georgia, where 12,462 of the
that it becomes vitally necessary to remind
United Jewish Appeal also aids the ORT 49,485 Yankee prisoners had perished, where human beings fought
our people of the primacy of the United
program. in North Africa.
Jewish Appeal. Without this fund, the entire
for a bit of food, where there was trading for every imaginable
Pre-apprenticeship schooling provided by object, proceeds of which could be used either to secure food or
program of settling persecuted Jews in Is-
ORT to the Jewish children in Oran marks protection for one's body.
rael •would collapse. Therefore, whenever a
For years to come, this novel will be included among back-
a modest scale beginning of a preparatory
person displays generosity towards other
program to train Algerian Jews for produc- ground material for all students of the Civil War period, There
causes—no matter how worthy they may be,
tive pursuits. Eventually, they may, there- will be objections, as there already are now, against the selection
and we recognize the worthiness of every
recognized movement in Jewish life — he fore hope for employment in their present of a Confederate horror-prison to be exposed to light of day, when
homes and those who plan to settle in Israel there also were inhuman northern prisons. But the"fact of Anderson-
ville cannot be erased from history, and Kantor has recaptured the
will be better suited to fit into the economy story in great style.
of the Jewish State.
There are many very interesting characters in the book. One
Dr. Abba Hillel Silver's acceptance of the
who emerges fascinatingly-depicted is the Jewish prisoner, Nathan
chairmanship of the board of the Israel Bond
Dreyfoos. Son of a wealthy family, he enlisted after getting into "a
brawl with two Yankee officers who slurred his Jewishness. They
Organization augurs the beginning of in-
From two differing sources, for varying were both licked by this tall Jewish lad, a warm friendship de-
creased interest in the great investment ef-
purposes, came most noteworthy gifts this veloped, and an army comradeship. The two officers were killed,
fort in Israel's behalf.
Dreyfoos was caught prisoner; in Andersonville, he also created
One of world Jewry's most dynamic lead- month.
The Ford Foundation's half billion dollar a following; he lost his life because a young Southern enlistee
ers, this country's most distinguished Zion-
contribution to universities and hospitals not wanted a life of a Yankee to his credit.
ist, Dr. Silver was one of the architects of
There are so many remarkable descriptions in this book that
only was the largest philanthropic gift on it would be unfair to say that any one of them stands out above the.
the new State. of Israel. His presentation of
record,
but
was
an
unusual
step
in
the
di-
the Jewish case before the United Nations,
others. In its totality, "Andersonville" is a very great work.
rection of raising the standards of the uni-
during the debates of the Palestine Partition
It ends so well! For instance, the friendship that arose between
versity teaching profession and of giving aid a Yank and a Secesh, both of whom fought at Gettysburg, the for-
plan, _was one of the most effective evalua-
to the country's important hospitals.
mer having lost his left arm and the latter his left leg. The Yank
tions of Jewry's needs and was primarily
The other great contribution was the (Nazareth Stricker) escaped from Andersonville prison and the
responsible for the UN . decision of Nov. 29,
$1,100,000 gift of the International Ladies Southern boy (Coral Tebbs) found him in the woods. But the
1947.
By assuming responsibility in the Israel Garment Workers Union for a trade school, prisoner was not turned over_ to the authorities. The friendship
a hospital and a stadium in Israel. The developed, the Yank was hidden, he helped Coral make a peg-leg.
Bond drive, Dr. Silver lends his name to one
Then there is Ira Claffey, owner of the plantation next to the
union's
president, David Dubinsky, undoubt-
of the major needs in Israel's building: the
prison, who lost all his sons in the war, whose wife died in remorse.
edly was correct in stating that it was the But Ira returns to his work after his side had lost the war, after
encouragement of investments which are so
largest gift ever made by a union for philan- his former slaves had come to him with demands for compensation,
vitally needed for the advancement of the
thropic purposes.
Jewish State's economic status. A strong
with a joy, with a reference to "our government."
Such remarkable gifts help raise human
The story ends well—but a good ending alone would be in-
economy also will assure greater physical
security for Israel, and Dr. Silver can be standards and serve to establish the best sufficient without the excellence of the entire theme's development.
"Andersonville," by MacKinlay Kantor is a very excellent
relations between management, labor and
counted upon to make another great con-
book. The author's 25 years of labor at it are justified by the results.
the people at large.
tribution to Israel in his new post.
'
Yourself Hebrew'
The Oran ORT School
Kantor's Powerful `Andersonville ,
The New Bond Leader
Noteworthy. Gifts