Time for Firm Action

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
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

Editor and Publisher

SIDNEY SHMARAK

Advertising Manager

• FRANK SIMONS
City Editor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections

This Sabbath-;—Shabbat Hagadol—the twelfth day. of Nissan., 5716, the following Scriptural
selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Tzav, Lev. 6:1-8:36. Prophetical portion, -Malachi 3:4-24.

Monday will be observed as the Fast of the First-Born
Passover Scriptural Selections

Pentateuchal portionS: Tuesday, Ex. 12:21-51, NUT11. 28:16-25; Wednesday, Lev. 22:26-23:44,
- Num. 28:16-25.
Prophetical' portions: Tuesday, Joshua 3:5-7, 5:2-6:1, 6:27; Wednesday, II Kings 23:1-9,
21-25.

Licht Benshen, Friday, March 23, 6:29 p.m.

VOL. XXIX — No. 3

Page Four

March 23, 1956

Passover: Egypt and the Modern Plagues

This Passover, more than any other in the memory of the Jewish people since the
Dispersion, the Seder ceremony will be an occasion not only to the events that
led to the exodus of Israel from Egypt but also to compare them to the conditions in
our
own
time.
•
They are not analogous. Three thousand years ago, Israel was in slavery in Egypt.
The Exodus was the Great Revolt against slavery. It was the first great historic effort
at self-emancipation by a people that was under the domination of ruthless masters.
Today, these masters, neighboring on an Israel that is both a People and State, seek
not alone to enslave but even to destroy its smaller neighbor. Now it is no longer a mat-
ter of self-liberation; it is an issue involving the safety, the very lives of the defenders.
Tracing the historical events of Passover,
we may well take heart and feel confident
that the aggressors will not destroy Israel, -
that He who has kept our people will once
again sustain our kinsmen in an hour of
serious danger.

In his "Kuzari," the famous religious phi-
losopher and poet of the 12th century, Rabbi
Yehudah Halevi wrote:

"Let him- who despairs think of the liberation
from Egypt and all that is ?mentioned in the
paragraph 'God has bestowed many favors on
us' (from Sifre Deuteronomy, 337). He will find
no difficulty in picturing how we may recover
our greatness, even if only one of us should

remain."

In Israel, it is not a question of recover-
. ing greatness, but of retaining life. It is a
matter of self-defense.
Many questions will be asked of us at our
Sedorim. Our children may be as disturbed
as we are over the inanities of the statesmen
of the world who have permitted the crisis
in the Middle East to reach such saddening
_ proportions. To them, and to ourselves, we
must offer the answer contained in the 12th
. chapter of Exodus:

"And it shall come to pass, when your
children shall say. unto you, What mean ye by
this service? that ye shall say, It is the Passover
(Pesach) sacrifice unto the Lord, who passed
over (pasach) the houses of the children of Israel
in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and
delivered our houses . .
"This is the night when the Lord kept vigil,
to bring them out of the land of Egypt; This,
then, shall be a night of vigil for the Lord unto
all the children of Israel throughout their
generations."

This, also, Is to be a night of consolation—
of comfort and of inspiration; a night to give
us strength to believe that He who has made
Israel indestructible will watch over his chil-
dren and will give our kinsmen strength to
overcome the dangers to their lives, to their
property, to their borders.
*
*
Because it is a Festival of Freedom, Pass-
over also is a Festival of Faith. It is a major
occasion on our calendar for the re-acquisi-
tion of confidence that right must conquer
might; that just causes must succeed, as long
as their defenders will not yield to tyranny.
Once again, Israel is threatened. Once
again, Egypt is the adversary. Once again,
the choice is between slavery and freedom.
Once again, stubborn Israel refuses to sub-
mit to destruction and insists on a life in
freedom, without hindrance from oppressors.
Once again, faith in the indestructibility
of man's highest spiritual values sustains
Israel and will cause this Passover, like the
Passover of old, to be a festival of true lib-
eration. •
Passover has enough_ lessons to teach us
how to meet the challenge. We shall meet it.
And sensing the need for action, we in the
Diaspora must stand by our fellow-men,
shoulder-to-shoulder, in defense of human
dignity. In the spirit of such unity we ex-
, tend best wishes for a Happy Passover, to all
our people, everywhere.

•

Our Vital Campaign

The time has 'come for a firm stand by every Jewish
community in defense of Israel. -
We can't bear arms for the small state of 1,700,000 peo-
ple that is surrounded by 45,000,000 saber-rattling enemies.
But we can do a great deal to provide the embattled
Israelis with the • necessities of life, with their vital needs
to sustain them in their hours of need.
The .Israelis are stockpiling food. They are building air
raid shelters. They are supporting newcomers who, despite
the dangers of war, are flocking to that little land because
their position is. so precarious in Moslem countries.
They have no one to turn to expect us. -
them through our Allied
And we are in position to
Jewish Campaign—by means of generous gifts to the
drive's major beneficiary, the United Jewish Appeal.
Now is the time to act in the great humanitarian
effort in Israel's defense.
A secure Israel undoubtedly also will mean .a more
certain peace for that 'area, and therefore also • for the
entire world.
The security of Israel is dependent also upon the
dignity and the progress of Jewish communities every-
where. This is why the provisions for local educational,
health and recreational agencies, in our Allied Jewish
Campaigns, are such vital factors in assuring a wholesome
Jewish existence. .
.In defense of a people whose very existence is en-.
dangered, in behalf of peace, we must give to the Allied
Jewish Campaign more generously today than ever before.
This should be our major aim this Passover.

.u4

