All Divisions Geared for High Marks
In Allied Campaign, Opening April 4

Israel Consul Reuven Dafni
Slated as the Guest Speaker

When Reuven. Dafni, Consul
of Israel in New York, mounts
the rostrum at Temple Israel,
• Wednesday evening, April 4, to
formally open:theAllied Jewish
Campaign, all campaign divi-
sions hope to . report . that

REUVEN DAFNI
through pre-campaign activity,
they_ have reached last year's
totals and are shooting for De-
troit's additional $1,230,000
share of the $25,000,000 -UJA
emergency Fund.
The divisions have been work-
ing in what is called the pre-
campaign phase of Detroit's an-
nual drive since the first of the
year, with the hope that by the
formal campaign opening they
could deliver a progress report
that would be a national inspi-
ration.
Dafni, whose subject will
be "A Message to the Jews
of Detroit," is director of the
Israel Office of Information
in the United States, in addi-
tion to his consular post.
Bern in Yugoslavia and edu-
cated in Vienna, he emigrated
to Palestine in 1935, and was
one of the co-founders of the
first Jewish settlement on the
eastern side 'of Lake Galilee.
In 1940, Dafni began five
years of service in the British
army which took him to the
Western Desert, Greece, Crete,
Syria and to his native Yugo-
s1 a vi a. Dafni, a lieutenant,
dropped behind enemy lines in
Yugoslavia in charge of a group
of Jewish paratroopers whose
mission was to rescue Allied
pilots and prisoners of war, as
well as Jews wherever they
might be found.
Upon discharge from the Brit-
ish Army, Dafni became one of
the four members of the first
Haganah mission to the United

States. He later served as Israel
Consul for seven western states
and as the Israel Foreign Of-
fice's representative on the
Mixed Israel-Arab Armistice
Commission.
Doors will open at the cam-
paign's formal opening at 7:45
p.m. There will be no admis-
sion charge.
Workers Mobilized From
Ranks. of the Bnai Brith
Mrs. Samuel Gold and Harry
Moss, co-chairmen of the Bnai
Brith section of the Allied
Jewish Campaign's Metropoli-
tan Division, report that there
are 32.0 Bnai Brith - members
registered 'as campaign workers.
Ronald Rothstein is liaison
chairman between the. Bnai
Brith and Allied Jewish Cam-
paign headquarters. Milton Lu-
cow is Metropolitan Division
chairman.
Ten days after receiving
Workers' kits, one third of the
Bnai Brith workers had re-.
ported on their solicitation ef-
forts. Four hundred prospects
had been contacted- and their
cards showed a 40-per cent in-
crease _over last year's giving.
Hal Lehrman Calls for
ACtion to Aid African Jews
Veteran foreign -correspon
dent Hal Lehrman called upon
Detroit Jews to relieve Israel of
the burden of financing Jewish
immigration from North Africa
to Israel at -a Food Service
Council dinner meeting in be-
half of the Allied Jewish Cam-
paign, March 12, at the Statler
Hotel.
Israel must be ready to meet
Arab aggression before the
Arabs learn to operate and serv-
ice the military equipment they
have purchased from the Com-
munists, said Lehrman. By re-
lieving her of the burden of
financing immigration we leave
her free to turn all her energies
and resources toward protect-
ing her borders, Lehrman con-
tinued. He also urged that our
government provide Israel with
defensive weapons which he
said would deter aggression.
Dinner chairman, Hugo Slot-
kin, and co-chairman, Julius
Mehler, report that, spurred by
Lehrman's talk, the 110 dinner
guests pledged $405,340 to the
Allied Jewish Campaign to
meet this year's emergency
needs. -%
Merwin K. Grosberg, chair-
man of the Food ServiCe Coun-
cil, and Louis J. Cohen, co-
ch air ma n, noted that the
amount raised to date in pre-
campaigning is almost equal to
what the Food Division raised
in all of the 1955 Campaign.

i re
(Statements by Allied Jewish Campaign leaders Isid o
Sobeloff, John K Lurie and Max M. Fisher on Page 24.

BobinsonFurnitureEmployes
Set High Allied Drive Record

First returns from Robinson Furniture Employees show a
400 percent increase in their giving to the Allied Jewish
Campaign, Harold Robinson (second from left) tells mercantile
leaders (left to right) Harold Kaplan, Max Osnos, Alex' Sklar;
and Meyer Zolkower. "But all the credit for the wonderful
increase belongs to Bernard Moray, one of the best workers
in the furniture section," Robinson hastened to add. Zolkower,
vice-chairman of the mercantile division, accounted for t xcel-
lent coverage of slips and fine increases reported in his sections.

2—Detroit Jewish News

Friday, March 23, 1956

Purely Commentary

The Multiplying Passover Questions
The routine Passover Four Questions now
are multiplying. Once again, Israel is involved
in a struggle with Egypt. But this time it is not
Egypt alone that is creating obstacles in the
struggle for a New Freedom—for the New Dig-
nity of Man. The entire civilized world is in
the fight.
This- time it is Israel against Egypt, Israel
against oil, Israel against munitions-makers
and munitions-sellers.
This time, it is a small people against a vast
area of nations who are out to destroy the com-
parative handful of Israelis.
And this time we can ask many questions:
about international duplicity, about double talk,
about stupid accusations against Israel that it
is the "aggressor," that it _seeks to dominate the
Middle East, (the anti-Semites used to say we
are out to dominate the world); that this small
nation dares to threaten action in self-defense!
What a crime!
Stupid Is a mild word to use. when dealing
with the anti-Israelis in the present crisis. Sure-
ly, there must be _enough non-Jews who can
see through the farce of accusing Israel of ag-
gression: the farce of- charging that less than
2,000,000 Jews are endangering the position of
more than 45,000,000 Arabs; that a small people
living in, - an area. of 8,000 square miles is a
threat to seven nations occupying 3,000,000
square miles of land!
And, who are the allies of the contending
forCes in this war? The Soviet countries are
on the side of Egypt and the other Arab nations.
The "statesmen" of the democratic nations,
yielding to blackmail from the oihsoaked Arab
countries, seemed to have smacked their lips
every time they had a chance to pounce on little
Israel. (What right has Israel to defend her-
self? Restrain •yoUrselves, Israelis! How dare
you remind yourselves of the Maccabees of
old?)
Yes, the questions are multiplying. They
are endless. They- are disturbing the minds of
the qUestioners and the thinking of those ad-
dressed to. (How dare you, Israelis, disturb the
democracies from their slumbers? Didn't the
democracies suffer enough from the awaken-
ing Of Hitler days? Can't you leave more ap-
peasing umbrella-carriers sleep in peace?)
* - *
Oh, there also are our own American fellow-
countrymen who are ••annoyed! We are asking
too many questions at Passover time. There
are the chaps who pose as foreign correspon-
dents, as analysts of world news, who are be-
ginning to challenge anew the justice of the
Zionist cause. Now the cat is out of the bag.! It
is the question of Zionist justice that is in-
volved! And so, they seek to arouse doubts in
Jewish minds: will Jews still dare call them-
selves Zionists? That's the crime! Jews dared to
think in terms of freedom, of the liberation of
the oppressed, of creating a home for the home-
less, of restoring the natural birthright of Zion
to Zionists. The heartless raise a treacherous
issue, and the Zionists are confronted with a
new Passover question: Will they, too, yield
to blackmail and fail to accept with pride a
label that must go down in history as one of
the most glorious of all times: that they (we
are speaking of the Zionists) had helped to lib-
erate a people? We believe we know the an-
swer: Jews will add a new label of dignity to
the Zionist term, as an answer to those who
seek to disqualify libertarians from the right
to continue-the fight for justice.
While we are in the process of asking ques-
tions, let us ask another:
Christians had joined Jewry in acclaiming
the historic occurrence of Israel's rebirth, in
1948. Are they going back on their natural, in-
stincts, now that Israel is in danger? There
were times, in backward countries, in Russia
of the Czars, in Romania, in Germany, in many
more lands of the Middle Ages, when Christians
solemnly recited our Psalms on Sunday and
threatened our kinsmen's lives with pogroms
on Monday. We had begun to believe that the
era of such medievalism had ended. Are there
many Christians who will, today, condone an
endorsement of a large-scale pogrom upon Is-
raelis by 'fellow-Christians, in collaboration
with Moslems?
Indeed, the questions are multiplying. We'd
Tike to know: will our Government continue
to tolerate discriminations against Americans
of the Jewish faith in Moslem countries, or
will relations with such countries be broken,
in repudiation of prejudices imposed on Jewish
Americans?

*

*

Is there a reduction in the American sense
:of fair play? We'd like' always. 'to be able to
deny this.. ,

By Philip
Slomovitz

But there are so many more related ques-
tions. For instance: a question to the press of
this country: what makes John Bagot Glubb
such a hero in an' hour of his having been be-
trayed by the very people whom -he tried to
lead in a massacre of Jewish libertarians? He
is now Sir John: his Queen has knighted him.
But his Queen's people seem to forget that
dear Glubb Pasha was a betrayer of - his own
government; that -he has consistently accused
Great Britain of either having broken pledges
to the Arabs or of having made unnecessary
ones to Jews. Now, in the special series of
articles by dear Sir John, we have a reverbera-
tion of -his hatred for Zionism, his displeasure
with the Balfour Declaration, his annoyance
with Israel. It is Israel that has driven out the
refugees, writes this charming British-Moham-
medan! And our newspapers are giving this
man a platform! Before having done so,- why
didn't they present the truth, that this holier-
than-thou militarist was the man who was the
firSt to order the shelling of a porition of the
Holy City of Jerusalem? But: it was the Jewish
portion, therefore it was kosher to his Moslem
mind! Also: why isn't some mention made of
the fact that Glubb Pasha had failed to oust
the Jewish defenders of the Holy City from
the New City of Jerusalem?"Sir John must still
be cringing from the passion of hatred stem-
ming from his failure to destroy Israel and
Israelis (they are Jews!) in 1948. .

.

In the interests of decency, the best human
relations and world peace, let's continue the
questions:
Glubb Pasha is neither martyr nor genius.
He is the symbol of a decaying British im-
perialism. Yet he dared, in his widely-acclaimed
"own story" to assert, as if they were estab-
lished facts: "All Arab countries profess hos-
tility to Israel, but Jordan alone is Seriously
threatened -by Israel , • Jordan's policy is
almost entirely dominated by the threat from
Israel." Will there be many gullible people
to believe such nonsense, to be misled by such
appeals to hatred?
*
We have a serious question for our radio
and television stations and broadcasters: aren't
you shocked, isn't your American sense of fair
play outraged, by the "partition" that was set
up two weeks ago on orders from a' Syrian
foreign agent in this country, during a TV
program, between him and the Israeli' am-
bassador? Will you permit such medieval tac-
tics to be repeated?
If the Arabs and their anti-Semitic- col-
laborators in this -country have an idea that
they will introduce anything like a yellow
badge in this country, they have another guess
coming. This is neither Russia, nor. Nazi Ger-
many, nor. medieval Spain of the era of the
Inquistion. This still is free America whose
ideals were inspired by our Scriptures.

Indeed, these are only a few of the questions.
We must address at least one to Jews them-
selves: in an hour of need, when our kinsmen
are in trouble, when the enemies of Israel also
are aiming their poisoned darts at the Jews
of America, will you sit back complacently
without doing anything about the situation?
Will you just recline—because the Hagadah
says so, and fail to protest against the duplicity
of our State Department (and the ignorance
stemming from the "little learning" acquired
by our Secretary of State - about 'Mohammed
and the Jews); against the injustices that are
evident in a world's ganging up on little Israel;
against the attempt to exterminate Israel?
Will American Jewry speak up as a unit,
rejecting divisive influences, or will it fail to
demand justice for Israel?_ Will our people be
niggardly in their response to Israel's needs
in this hour of crisis?
An emergency United Jewish Appeal is in
progress. (Detroit's Allied Jewish Campaign
provides for it). It will be followed by another
Israel Bond drive. Through the. UJA is the way
to answer the latter question. The answer must
be a signal for action, a demonstration of unity,
proof that we won't let the embattled Israelis
down.
We have posed many questions. The answers
are A hand. They must comply with the prin-
ciples of the free world. There must be no pull-
ing of punches.
Perhaps the mysticism of our life-still calls
for a belief in miracle SornehOw, we feel that
the miracles will recur, that Israel will be
saved, that the innumerable obstacles in
Jewry's paths will be _overcome, that justice
vigil prevail. This, after all, is - the message of
Passover. .

