THE JEWISH NEWS
`Israel Is Bothering the •Poor Boy'
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.,
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
SIDNEY SHMARAK
FRANK SIMONS
Editor and Publisher
Advertising Manager
City Editor
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Sabbath Scriptural Selections •
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This Sabbath, the fifteenth• day of Shevat, Hamisha Asar 'b'Shevat, 5716, the following
Scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Ex. 18:1-20:26. Prophetical portion., Is. 6:1-7:6; 9:5; 6.,
Licht Benshen, Friday, Jan. 27, 522 p.m.
VOL. XXVIII. No. 21
Page Four
January 27, 1956
The Relief Effort Has Begun: Do Your Part
Detroit's major relief effort has be-
gun. Our Allied Jewish Campaign is off
to a good start—with more than $1,600,-
000 subscribed at the initial meeting of
Pre-campaign workers. Now the respon-
sibility rests upon all of us to assure the
fulfillment of an obligation that is vastly
greater today than it has ever been.
The 1956 drive is being compared
with the challenge of 1948. That was
the .year of Israel's rebirth, when record
sums were raised to assist in the settle-
ment of hundreds Of thousands of dis-
pOssessed Jews in the reborn State. This
year the need is even greater. Tens of
thousands of Jews, whose lives are en
dangered in hostile Moslem countries,
must be provided the havens of refuge
pledged to them. The funds 'must come
from this country, since Israel's finances
must be applied to the struggling nation's
defense needs.
We are asked this year to re-subscribe
not only the minimum sum of $4,200,000
but an _additional $1,230,000 towards the
special United Jewish Appeal fund. There-
fore, there is a need for increased giving.
The increases already recorded serve
as a good omen for the campaign. Now
it is important that the rest of the com-
munity should live up to the pattern of
increased giving.
The 'Can't You Die Decently?' Attitude
While Arab proPaga'xidists are shouting
"war," "death to the Jews,'', "we'll drive
the Israelis into the sea,." Israel continues
to plead for peace.- It is a tragic contrast,
in the light of impending dangers to
world peace. ' - .
The developments in the security
Council, the Russian infiltrations into the
Middle East, the sponsorship of anti-
Israel resolutions by Soviet spokesmen,
whose predecessors in the United Nations
were among the chief supporters of the
original.'proposals for the establishment
of the Tekvisli: State ; point' a 15f 616hged
controversy. Latest occurrences represent
serious challenges to world peace efforts.
In. the course of the bitter debates over
the Arab-Israel conflicts, irresponsible
propagandists often resort. to., low tactics
in their efforts to, gain assistance in their
chief aim of destroying Israel. We often
hear the charge, that Only the NeW York
press. backs Israel. It is a shocking way of
sayihg to; an unsuspecting world that ,"the
Jews of New York" are pressuring Amer-
ican public opinion: It is, of course, a
falsehood. .
In spite of the uncertainty of the Bri
tish position, there are newspapers in
England whose fairness helps to assure a
fair evaluation of the Middle East's prob-
lem. One of them, the Manchester Guar-
dian, is rendering especially valuable
service in the struggle for peace. In a re-
cent editorial, the Manchester Guardian
reviewed the Arabs' about-face demand
for adherence to the 1947 UN Partition
Resolution, which they had opposed when
it first was adopted by the world organ-
ization. That editorial stated:
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Since the 1947 Resolutions have been
brought to the fore, it is necessary to recall
their history. The Resolutions provided for
a partition of Palestine between a Jewish
and . Arab State, which were to be in some
2orni of economic union. The Jews accepted
the Resolutions; the Arabs denounced them,
to the point that the Arab States attacked
Israel at the moment of its birth. The' Arab
States lost the war with Israel, which had
enlarged itself during the fighting to its
present size. The Arabs desired to cancel out
what had happened by reverting from war
to diplomacy and gOing back- to -the Resolu-
tions which they had rejected. - (It is an in-
teresting example of "Heads I win, 'tails you
lose.") It is not clear whether the Arab States,
in saying now that they stand by the Resolu-
tions, mean that they would accept the Pales-
tinian Arab State envisaged in the Resolu-
tions. Large parts of the territory which
would have belonged to that State are now
incorporated in Jordan and Egypt. Are they
willing to disgorge? Israel itself includes no
territory- which belonged to any of the Arab
States..It is also not clear whether the Arabs,
in return for the 1947 boundaries, would
recognize Israel as a permanency.
These are 'truths that challenge those
Who are unrealistically attempting to turn
the clock back in the Middle East. The
Manchester Guardian 'supplemented this
statement with another vitally important
one When it asserted in its editorial:
Eyerybody outside the Communist
countries wants peace in the Middle
East. There is naturally a disposition to
. be pleased with any side which says that
it- will negotiate, and to blame any side
which objects to terms, even if it should
be clear that it would be death to that
side to accept them. The Egyptians will
exploit this for all - they are worth. They
believe themselves well placed, since
they have - itdilittl how to play off the
Great Powers against one another. They
know how ,anxiously their -friendship is
desired by -I3ritain. Having accepted one
deliVery of arms from Russia; they have
already succeeded in getting the 1947
Resolutions disinterred by the Iblitish
*Government and iri getting new com-
petitive tenders of aid from the West.
It would be natural if they now told
themselves that, by accepting a second
installment, they could get the West to
tilt itself further in their direction in
their combat with Israel. Probably the
Western countries will not be as gullible
as the• Egyptians think and there will be
no cynical surrender of Israel. Israel
may be over-anxious when it compares
itself with Czechoslovakia just before it
was sacrificed by the Powers. Yet its
fears_ are understandable. It is forgotten
that Israel has made all the peace offers,
has proposed a corridor for the Arabs
through the Negev, has invited Jordan
to use the port of Haifa, has agreed to
rationalize its 'frontier with Jordan, has
accepted plans for border security, has
agreed in principle to the Dulles plan,
subject to the lifting of the blockade.
There is surely too much disposition to
feel that all would be well if .only Israel
would . shrink and be less conspicuous.
It recalls the sentiment of Frederick the
Great towards -a writhing soldier on one
of his battlefields. "Can't you ' die de-
cently?"
The Frederick the Great story must be
directed at all those who close eyes and
ears when arms shipments are flown to
Egypt in _vast quantities. This applies to
the Methodists who, in a resolution recent
ly adopted in Detroit, demanded that our
Government should not send arms to Is-
real, but failed to take note of the large
arms shipments to the Arabs. Do these
blind men, the inconsistent humanitarians,
the unrealistic Christians, mean to say to
the Jews: "Can't you die decently?" If
they do, they should, by this time, know.
the answer. A people that has suffered
the miseries of purgatory reaffirms that
its only intention is to live decently and
to aspire for peace and Similar ; equal
treatment for its neighbors. To assure
world peace, general endorsement must
be given to such a policy.
Dr. Finkeistein's 'The Jews'
Dr. Dinur's Chapter on Israel
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When "The Jews: Their History, Culture and Religion," an
important two-yolume compilation, edited by Prof. Louis Finkel-
stein, first made its appearance, it was criticized for its omission
of material on the State of Israel. The ,
second edition of this- monumental
work, just released by Harper and
Brothers, makes amends for this
error by including in the new set a
valuable article by Prof. Ben-Zion
Dinur, Israel's Minister of Education
and Culture, on "The Historical Foun-
dations of 'the Birth Of rsrael."
This article is inserted between
pageg 454 and 457 as 'pages 454a and
454b in the first voldin.e. 2
Dr. Dinur's essay reviews the his-
tory of the Palestine Yishuv, the rise
in population, the immigration -waves
the rebirth of Hebrew; the politica'
tensions and Alle rise of Israel.
"The true; significance of the
Prof. Dinur
settlement," Prof. Dinur states, "was
that the attiuiition of the soil was intimately tied to a complete
renew
al of - soCial• and psychological experience." The settlers, he
states "regarded themselves "and their endeavors, their efforts
and their self-reneWal, as an expression of generations of yearn-
ing, of the collective will of the Jewish people revealed and
renewed in all its manifestations through the desire -to return to
Zion; they regarded themselves as the messengers of a people
returned to its homeland." •
Emphasizing that *the most significant factor in the rebirth
of Israel was the independent nature which characterized the new
settlement," Prof. Dinur relates that Rauf-al-Rauf, a high Turk-
ish official, expressed his opposition to the Jewish settlement as
follows: "The Jews enter the land, acquire properties, build settle-
ments, establish schools, all as though there were no Turkish
government, as though the land were already in their possession.
Is there really no need to ask us, to have us join their program?
Has the Land of Israel already been taken from us and given
to the Jews?"
"To sum up: The political rebirth of
Israel is the very essence of Jewish his-
tory," Dr. Dinur concludes. "She absorbed
into herself the experiences and activities
of generations, the covenant of generations.
She 'renewed the covenant with the Land
out of a longing,, through the creation of a
new community, to develop the covenant of
Man into a World CoVenant."
Many of the world's outstanding schol-
ars participated in tkre preparation of the
articles incorporated in "The Jews." Lead-
ing the first series, on "The History of
Judaism and the Jews," is an important
article on `The Biblical Period" by Prof.
Williarn Fo*well Albright. Dr; Cecil Roth,
Arieh Tartakower; Anita Libman Lebeson,
Dr. Finkelstein
Dr. Judah Goldin, Prof. Abraham S. Halkin, Rachel Wischnitzer,
Dr. Shalom Spiegel, Prof. Abraham J. Hesctel, and a score of
others are the authors of essays that deal with art, science, litera-
ture, poetry, architecture and other subjects, related to Jews and
to Judaism.
Dr. Finkelstein, president of the Jewish Theological Seminary
of America, in addition to editing the two volume's, has written
a prefatory letter, an introductory note and a foreword, and an
important article on "The Jewish Religion: Its Beliefs and PraC-
tices."
There are valuable illustrations and maps in the two volumes,
and the notes and bibliographies add ;to the Merit of . thip
cant work. "The Jews," with the additional chapter Onls,r0.el, at
last deserves the full recognition of the American Jewish
community.