Friday, June 29, 1956—THE DETROIT JEWIS H NEWS-4
Tradition With Indepehdence
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. 3-9364. 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
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the twenty-first day of Tammuz, 5716, the following Scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
P entateuchal portion, Pinhas, Num-. 25 :10-30 :1. Prophetical portion, I Kings 18:46-19:21.
Licht Benshen, Friday, July 29: 7:53 p.m.
VOL. XXIX. No. 17
June 29, 1956'
Page Four
A Decade of Constructive ORT Activities
A 10-year account of the ORT over-
seas reconstruction activities reveals a
dramatic record of accomplishment. Dr.
William Haber, president of the American
ORT Federation, properly indicates, in
an explanatory foreword to the impres-
sive report of the ORT's decade of achieve-
ments, that "the methods and practices
pursued by ORT in its occupational train-
ing and reconstruction activities are
rooted in the sociology of the Jewish
people and the developments of modern
technology." He emphasizes that "both
facets blend to make ORT an effective
instrument for strengthening the econo-
mic functioning of Jewish communities."
The facts and figures made public by ORT
corroborate these views.
Of special interest are the facts that
in the past 10 years—an era described by
Dr. Haber as being divided into the Years
of Rescue *(1945-49) and the period of re-
construction since 1949 in Israel, North
Africa and in Europe-200,000 were taught
trades by - ORT in 28 countries: 80,000 of
them having enrolled in ORT programs in
DP camps after the war and 30,000 of the
trainees having reached Israel, thus com-
prising a sizable portion of the country's
skilled labor force.
It is pointed out that three-quarters of
the ORT students are teen-agers. Sixty
different trades are taught in 392 ORT
high schools, adult work shops and agri-
cultural stations. In addition, college-level
institutions have been established in
France and Switzerland for the training of
teachers.
Assignment of "a high priority to vo-
cational education" is the conclusion,
pointed out by Prof. Haber, to be derived
from ORT's experiences. .A study of the
10-year report substantiates this view. In
Israel alone, the ORT trade schools have
an enrollment of nearly 5,000, the largest
group being in Jaffa. The next largest
groups are in Italy and in France, with
Morocco, the newest trouble spot in
Jewry, ranking fourth as a beneficiary
from ORT planning.
ORT accomplishments are made pos-
sible by allocations of $12,000,000 for over-
seas work made by the Joint Distribution
Welcome, Bnai Brith
The more than 15,000 members who
are enrolled in 41 Bnai Brith lodges and
chapters in Detroit will have an oppor-
tunity, during the coming few days, to
hear important reports on the activities
of their great movement and on the
growth of the Bnai Brith ideas during
more than 100 years of the order's exis-
tence.
The convention of District Grand Lodge
No. 6 will review Bnai Brith's objectives
and will evaluate the accomplishments of
the past year.
Under the presidency of the able De-
troit Bnai Brith leader, Sidney Karbel,
_Bnai Brith's District No. 6 has witnessed
an expansion in membership and increased
interest in the order's varied activities—
including the Hillel Foundations and the
Anti-Defamation League. Mr. Karbel has
visited nearly every city in the district in
which there is a Bnai Brith lodge, and
whatever recognition will be accorded his
tireless efforts will be duly deserved.
Detroit has always been among the
leading cities in District 6 — in point of
membership numbers and contributions, in
money and in service. One of the coun-
try's oldest Bnai Brith lodges — Pisgah
Lodge of Detroit — has been among the
most vital factors in District 6.
We welcome the Bnai Brith delegates
to Detroit and we wish them success in
their convention deliberations.
Committee out of United Jewish Appeal
funds. Thus, Detroit -Jewry can feel justly
proud that its gifts to the Allied Jewish
Campaign, in which the United Jewish
Appeal is the major beneficiary, are assist-
ing in the continuation of the important
ORT vocational training program in 20
countries.
Another Israel Crisis
Internal difficulties, coupled with re-
newed threats to Israel's existence from
an alliance of Soviet Russia with the
Arabs, is adding to the uneasiness that
exists in Jewish ranks over the future
security of the Middle East.
From all indications, Russia will be in
the front ranks in the battle to reduce
Israel's territory. But while the Arabs
have raised another hue and cry, in which
Communist Russia apparently is partici-
pating, for adherence to the United Na-
tions Partition Plan of 1947, realistic peo-
ple now concur in the belief that no mat-
ter how deep the cut into Israel territory
by UN or any other decisions, it will not
bring the Arabs to the peace table.
It stands to reason that Israel cannot
and will not submit to any sort of amputa-
tion. But the indisputable fact that must
be recognized is that what the Arabs are
aiming at is to reduce Israel to a nonentity
the quicker to be able to dispose of her.
Therefore, destructive aspirations must be
exposed for all their evil intents. If there
are to be concessions one way or another,
they must be made at a peace table. If
the Arabs should continue to refuse to
meet with Israelis for amicable adjust-
ment of their differences, they must sub-
mit to being labeled war-mongers who are
interfering with the peace of the entire
Middle East.
The issue has become seriously ag-
gravated by virtue of the Cabinet crisis in
Israel. The Jewish State's enemies were
quick to interpret the resignation of Moshe
Sharett and his succession by Golda Myer-
son as an indication of the elimination of
moderates from Israel's government and
the padding of the Cabinet with "activ-
ists." This may be far from the truth, al-
though Mrs. Myerson is known to be more
firm than her predecessor. Israel's friends
hope, under any circumstances, that a
Cabinet change will not mean a weaken-
ing of the government: Israel is too easy a
target for her enemies, and the press of
this country, by joining in the cry that
the internal situation in Israel points to
gains by those who could welcome a war
with the Arabs, has rendered Israel a
grave injustice. We prefer to accept the
word of Israel's Premier David Ben-
Gurion who continues to condemn war
aims and passionately pleads for peace
with his country's neighbors.
NEA and the Arabs
By submitting to Arab demands to bar
American Jews from participation in tours
which include Arab countries, the National
Education Association has shown a weak-
ness which does it little credit.
Such submission by the NEA lends
endorsement to travel restrictions and to
religious prejudices, both of which are un-
American.
It would have been wiser and more
akin to our Americanism for the NEA to
reject such tours entirely, as a rebuke to
Arabs who seek to inject bigotry in this
country. NEA, however, has failed to fol-
low the American way. Its liberty-loving
members have a fight on their hands to
counteract un-American policies of an ad-
ministration that gives comfort to enemies
of justice. .
Juicy Yiddish Idioms
Charles Angoff's Short Stories
Unlike many Jewish novelists and short story writers,
Charles Angoff always selects the most dignified themes for
his books or magazine articles. He strives to raise the standards
of English-Jewish literature. He aspires to emphasize the noblest
ideas in Jewish life, rather than the vulgar. Too many young
Jewish writers sought popularity through the latter; that is why
Angoff's search for the former has earned for him the greater
respect of his people.
His newest book, "Something About My Father, And Other
People," is proof of the point just made. This fine collection of
stories (published by Thomas Yoseloff, 1 E. 36th, NY 6), bristles
with Jewish experiences. It is a charming collection of narra-
tives—some very serious, some purely anecdotal, all replete with
Jewish idioms, with Jewish aspirations, with love for family
and heritage.
The initial story, about Father, tells of the affection the
hero of the story had for the cat he called Shakespeare. After
feeding Shakespeare, Father is quoted as saying to the narrator,
at the conclusion of the story:
"David, you noticed that I fed the cat before I sat down to
eat myself. A great rabbi once said that a good Jew first feeds
his dumb animals before he feeds himself. It is God's will that
we be kind, not only to human beings, but also, and especially,
to those of His creatures who cannot so well take care of them-
selves, and who are dependent upon human beings."
And the narrator comments: "I have never forgotten this
observation of my father's. It reveals a. great deal about him,
and explains why so many people were drawn to him and liked
to spend time with him."
Simple, isn't it? Yet, it is the very simplicity of his stories
that elevate Mr. Angoff's position in Jewish literary ranks.
Altogether, there are 35 stories in this exceptionally fine
book. He tells a good tale about Phyllis, the girl who, having
started as a Zionist, turned leftist, beckrie assimilated, was
antagonistic to Jewish ideas. Then she retraced her steps. It was
too late, but she returned to Jewish ranks, to her people, to
Jewish studies. Like the other stories, it is told with remarkable
simplicity.
When he italicizes "a shikker iz a goy" he does it without
malice, and the non-Jew will enjoy his stories as well as Jews.
When he applies terms like prost, (common), nashing and others,
some translatable and others that cannot possibly attain the
juiciness of Yiddishism in translation, to his characters, to the
situations created in his stories, he does it with a naturalness
and a love for the language.
Thus, Charles Angoff is the able interpreter of the fine
feelings of the generation of American Jews that is in-between
the new arrival (the immigrant) and the thoroughly assimilated
Jew in this country. He creates themes that apply to characters
all of us know. He makes us feel akin to his stories. That's
his success.
A Handbook for Jewish Parents
'When Your Child. Asks'
What's in the Bible . . . What is the TaNaKH? . . . Who can
lead a religious service? . . . What's in the Bible? . . . What
is the most important prayer in the Jewish prayer book? . . .
Are the Ten Commandments important only for Jews? . . . Are
the Jews called a nation? . If I can't see God, how do I know
he exists? . . .
These and scores more of important questions relating to
our faith are incorporated in Rabbi Simon Glustrom's "When
Your Child Asks," an important handbook for parents, pub-
lished by Bloch.
In 170 pages, this book suggests questions, provides the
answers, fortifies parents in facing religious problems posed by .
their children.
The book's sections deal with the Jewish view of God,
descriptions of the Bible and answers to questions relating to
it, evaluations of Jewish holidays, explanations of Jewish re-
ligious duties, answers to questions on anti-Semitism. There is
a list of recommended books for additional reading.
Parents will be grateful for this book. It will make a good
textbook and is suitable for general reading to acquire informa-
tion on Jewish religious practices.