Israel—A Tourises Paradise
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.,
8-9364. Subscription $5 a year Foreign $6.
YE. 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 twenty-third day of Sivan, 5716, the following Scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Shelah L'cha, Num. 13:1-15:41. Prophetical portion, Josh. 2:1-24.
Licht bensheni, Friday, June 1, 7:43 p.m.
VOL. XXIX. No. 13
June 1, 1956
Page Four
Herbert Hoover's Arab Refugee Solution
There is endless talk about the Arab
refugee problem. Since the peace of the
Middle East depends in a large measure
upon the manner in which this problem
will either be aggravated or solved, we
must return to it, time and time again,
in search for a realistic solution.
Former President Herbert Hoover once
offered a solution. He was asked for his
views, by the New York World Telegram,
and on Nov. 19, 1945, he proposed an ap-
proach to the problem. At that time he
stated in part:
There is a possible plan of settling
". .
the Palestine question and providing ample
Jewish refuge:"
": . . In ancient times the irrigation of the
Tigris and Euphrates valleys supported prob-
. ably ten million people in the kingdom of
Babylon and Ninevah. The deterioration and
destruction of their irrigation works by the
Mongol invasion, centuries ago, and their
neglect for ages are responsible for the shrink-
age of the population to about three and a half
million people in modern Iraq.,
"Some 30 years ago Sir William Willcocks,
an eminent British engineer completed a study
of the restoration of the old irrigation system..
He estimated that about 2,800,000 acres of
most fertile /and in the world could be
recovered . at the cost of under 150 million
dollars.
(C. . . My own suggestion is that Iraq might
be financed to complete this great land
development on the consideration that it be
made the scene of resettlement of the Arabs
from Palestine.
"This would clear Palestine completely for
a large Jewish emigration and colonization.
A suggestion of transfer of the Arab people
_ ritish
Labor party in
was made by the B
December, 1944, but no adequate plan was
proposed as to where or how they are to go.
". . There is room for many more Arabs
in such a development in Iraq than the total
of Arabs in Palestine. The soil is more fertile.
They would be among their. own race, which.
is Arab-speaking and Mohammedan.
"The Arab population of Palestine would
be the gainer from better lands in exchange
for their present holdings. Iraq would be the
gainer, for it badly needs agricultural popu-
lation.
. I realize that the plan offers a
".
challenge both to the statesmanship of the
Great Powers as well as to the goodwill of
the parties concerned. However, I submit it,
and it does offer a method of settlement with
both honor and wisdom."
When Mr. Hoover made his proposal,
the Arabs were still in''Palestine, en masse.
It was a more revolutionary plan than it
is in our own aggravated era when the
former residents of the Holy Land are
refugees in crowded camps in Arab lands
neighboring on Israel. The problem begs
for solution more urgently today. As time
goes on it becomes increasingly more dif-
ficult to resettle those who had fled their
homes in a land that would now be totally
strange to them—in the manner of life, in
language and primarily in nationalist sen-
timent.
Israel cannot take them back and
thereby endanger her existence by the
introduction of a "fifth column," and the
Arabs will be unhappy in a strange en-
vironment if they did come back. There-
fore the Hoover Plan emerges as the most
practical and most humane proposed thus
far.
We say, therefore, to the parties in-
volved, especially to the world powers
who must join in solving the issue: why
not use this as a basis for solution and
for effecting peace in the Middle East?
.
There is a vast literary storehouse filled
with treasures; the key, the Hebrew language,
- ie in our guardianship; have we a right to
.throw the key into the ocean of oblivion, and
deprive the world of the enjoyment of those
treasures? More than that; when we have
'ceased to be the efficient guardians of our
'treasures, of what use are we in the world?
As there is but one God, so there is but
• 'one Judaism, and that Judaism has but one
language—the Hebrew.
The poet says that we read "the mystic
volume of the world"' "with reverted .look,"
"spelling it backward like a Hebrew book."
Our whole . literature proves him true; to• this
day it is one vast commentary upon the Bible.
But the accusation need not startle us. Let
us continue to make it true. In this practical
age with its watchword or catchword "prog-
ress,' they • who look forward and keep our
.awkward bodies from stumbling are many.
Let us •but continue to spell backward, and
we shall learn, and mayhap teach others, how
to go triumphantly forward on the path of
righteousness, beauty, and truth—even the
path of .Judaism.
'Racquet, The Jewess of Toledo
Lion FeuchtWanger, famous for his "Power" (the "Jew
Suss" story), "The Ugly Duchess," a trilogy on Josephus and
many other important books—some that attained the "best seller"
status—is in the literary limelight again with a historical novel,
"Raquel, The Jewess of Toledo," published by Julian Messner
(8 W. 40th, NY 18). ""
Past 70, Mr. Feuchtwanger
nevertheless retains the power
for which he became wo r 1 d
famous as a novelist.
In "Raquel" he has another
great subject for his skill as
historical narrator. He deals
with the 17-year-old "Jewess of
Toledo," daughter of Yehuda I•n
Esra who willingly permits his
offspring to become the concu-
bine of Alfonso VIII, King of
_Castile.
Dona Raquel's -father, who
became a Moslem, openly re-
turned to the faith of his fath-
Feuehtwanger
ers. Yehuda is portrayed as a
brilliant statesman who knows how to reconvert the neglected
land of Castile into a prosperous country. As Alfonso's finance
minister, Yehuda advises that the king, who craves for war,
should pursue peace. The monarch's infatuation with Raquel is
These are sentiments deserving of note the influencing factor. Thus, •bloodshed is postponed, but when
today. Her ideas are as valid today as they it comes it brings tragedy to Alfonso.
The resentment of Alfonso's wronged wife, the perilous
were 60 years ago. It is a tribute to this
great woman that she had the vision, at position of the Jews, the struggle for power and the conflict
between monarchs are interwoven with the love story involving
that time, as a young woman, to recognize Raquel, and Mr. Feuchtwanger's skill comes into great play in
the importance of Hebrew. It is equally a
tribute to those who follow in her foot- this fine novel.
* * *
steps today and strive for the spread of
A number of interesting letters to his publisher explain Mr.
Hebrew knowledge among Jews every- Feuchtwanger's interest in Raquel, the 12th century Jewess who
where.
became the heroine of his new novel.
To Julian Messner, his publisher, Mr. Feuchtwanger wrote:
"For many years I have been interested in the story of
Hadassa, that woman whom the Persian King elevated by making
Audacity is described as effrontery or her his queen and who, under the name of Esther, saved her
insolence in the best dictionaries. In Heb- own people, the Jews, from certain doom. 'The Book of Esther,'
rew it would be called hutzpah. A state- a short novel as one might call it, is one of the most moving and
ment issued by the American Council for at the same time one of the most popular books in the Bible. To
give the ancient author's tale a new and meaningful setting in
Judaism suggests another synonym for the
context of attested history, struck me as an alluring task.
audacity: Bergerism!
"It now appeared that the old story had a serious fault. It's
The statement of Elmer Berger, who heroine
is simply not there. Esther is a puppet in her guardian's
still uses the title rabbi, charges, in com- hands; she is manipulated, moved solely by external means. . . .
ment upon the denunciation of his Coun- Inevitably, in all those years when I was preoccupied. with the
cil, which is being described in Jewish story of Esther, my imagination was besieged by the figures. of
ranks as un-American and anti-Jewish, other Jewish women who played a notable part in the history of
by 1,300 rabbis, that: "There are an esti- their people, and one of them is the very woman of whoni you
mated total bf 3,300 Orthodox, Conserva- will read in this book—Raquel, LaFermosa, King Alfonso's
tive and Reform rabbis in this country. It Beloved.
"I came upon her story for the first time by way of Grill-
is significant that more than 2,000 of them
seem to have refused to sign this state- parzer's drama, 'Jewess of Toledo,' which was modelid on Lope
de Vega's draina 'La Judia de Toledo;' the latter is an exceedingly
ment."
vigorous, colorful, wildly patriotic play, and I can understand
What audacity!
what attracted Grillparzer to it.
We'll agree on only one point: that
"I read the chronicle that had been Lope's source. It is the
2,000 rabbis could not be reached for their same .chronicle from which I have chosen a few lines as an
signatures, and the Zionist Council would epigraph to each part of my novel. It was written by another
of Castile, the tenth of his name, a great-grandson of our
not append names to a statement without Alfonso
Alfonso, born seven years after the latter's death. He tells the
permission. But we challange "rabbi" Ber- love-story of his great-grandfather and the Jewess with obvious
ger to prove that any rabbis who were sympathy—and indeed it is a story that has haunted the Spanish
approached had refused to sign the Zionist imagination from the beginning and all through the centuries.
Council's statement.
"Raquel feels tli"at disaster is bound to come from Alfonso's
We challenge "rabbi" Berger to prove dare-devil nature, and yet she loves him. The very thing that
that as many as a dozen—let alone 2,000 attracts her, in spite of her better understanding, was intended
—rabbis would sign any statement spon- to be a symbol of that seductive, dazzling aura which is about
all that is warlike and adventurous, , sarnetimes . blinding ,even -
sored by him or his council
those who have the truth at heart".
What. Bergerism!
Hebrew Language as 'Guardian of Judaism'
The movement for the revitalization of
Hebrew and for the spread of the knowl-
edge of the language that has been re-
..vived for official use by the reborn Jew-
ish State, is gaining momentum. It may
`not have grown as fast as expected. It
does not match the fantastic manner in
which the ancient tongue Of the Bible is
acquiring new terms and is now an effec-
tive modern language. But the importance
of spreading Hebrew knowledge is gen-
erally acknowledged.
An interesting argument in support
of li,ebrew, which she called the "Guardian
.of Judaisin," was offered in 1896 by one
of America's most distinguished personal-
ities, the late Henrietta Szold, founder of
Hadassah. In an article in "A Century of
:Jewish Thought," written in her home
'town of Baltimore, Miss Szold stated:
Feuchtwanger's Historical Novel
Audacity!
.