`You Can Only Pay at MY Terms'

THE JEWISH NEWS

commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle
.Al Editorial

Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, Nation
Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 West Seven Mile Road. Detroit 35. Mich..
VE. Entered
8-9364. as
Subscription
$5 matter
a year Foreign
second class
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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
T ammuz, 5716, the following Scriptural selections
This Sabbath, the twenty-eighth, day of
synagogues:
will be read in our
Num. 30:2-32:42, 33:1-36:13. Prophetical portion,
Pentateuchal portions, Mattoth, Maze,
Jer. 2:4-28; 3:4.
, Monday, Num. 28:1-15.
Rosh Hodesh Ab Reading of the Torah-

Licht Benshen, Friday, July

VOL. XXIX. No. 18

6,

7:52 p.m.

Page Four

July 6, 1956

Disappearance of Intellectual Reservoir

An account of the status of the Jewish lation became Jew-conscious through the
communities of Europe, published under Nazi persecution, the problem of Jewish
the title "European Jewry Ten Years property, which had passed into the hands
After the War" by the Institute of Jewish of the non-Jews, represented a serious
Affairs of the World Jewish Congress, stumbling to a return to 'normalcy.'
Therefore, "the attractive power of Pal-
under the editorship of Dr. Nehemiah
Robinson, focuses attention not only upon estine . . . became much stronger through
decimated Jewry in Europe but also poses these new developments . . In conse-
important questions for the great Jewish quence a large part of the survivors began
community of America. to leave their countries." But the restric-
Various articles in this important vol- tions on emigration ended the hopes of
those who sought to continue a traditional
ume, written by well-informed leaders,
life.
outline the development of Jewish con-
A summary of the studies of conditions
ditions, leading up to the present day, in
the Iron Curtain communities (Poland, of European Jewry shows that—
Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and zec -
"The Nazis and Fascists succeeded not
only in annihilating the vast majority
slovakia) ; in Germany, • Austria, Greece
of European Jewry, but also in sapping
and Yugoslavia—communities that are de-
scribed as being "with almost total loss
its national roots far beyond the numer-
ical decline. The foremost victims were
of pre-war numbers"; Italy and Denmark,
children and young people. As a conse-
the communities with smallest losses, and
quence, practically a whole generation
the communities with a great loss of pre-
was lost: children survived for the most
war numbers—Norway, France, Belgium,
part only if they succeeded in finding a
Holland and Luxembourg.
hiding place, and this involved small
In the main, it is not a happy picture.
numbers only. The Nazis also put at the
The aftermath of pogroms, the result of
top of their annihilation program the
wholesale murders, the disappearance of
Jewish leaders and intellectuals. Conse-
communities where there previously func-
quently, in the whole of Europe there
tioned wholesome communities, leaves us
is today a dearth of Jewish intellectual
numb. There are few survivors and only
and organizational leadership. The acute
the Western communities, and Israel, now
lack of spiritual leaders and teachers
provide the bulk of Jewry.
makes it impossible to educate the small
Each account in the World Jewish Con-
number of youth in Jewishness and to
gress study offers food for thought. Every
instill in them a consciousness of and
country in the study has suffered and con-
attachment to Judaism. There is also
tinues to suffer from the _decimation. The
little creative Jewish work owing to the
return to "normalcy" after the war be-
disappearance of the bearers of this
came an additionally aggravating prob-
work, either by death or emigration. The
- km. The survivors who attempted to re-
two great forces in Jewish life of Eu-
build their lives in Eastern Europe in their
rope before 1933—the traditional Jewry
former homelands found the receptions
of Eastern Europe and the progressive
"anything but _friendly." "In the West,"
Jewry of Central Europe—are no more.
we learn from the study, "where the pope:

In Israel's Defense

A Catholic newspaper saw fit to malign
Israel with misrepresentations and by
stating, as if it were a fact, that Arabs
were forcibly driven out of Israel and
were deprived of their possessions by force
of arms. This newspaper's editor has dis-
played remarkable forgetfulness: he has
- overlooked the well known facts that Jews
in Israel had no arms, that all the weapons
left by the British went to Arabs, that the
Israeli victory over the overwhelming
Arab forces was a direct result of . Jews
fighting with backs to the sea and refus-
ing to abandon the last fortress of free-
dom. That was the miracle of the Israelis'
triumph.
This was one incident among many
pointing to another ganging up of deluded
people upon isolated Israel—a young state
that would be helpless if it were not for
its determination to live.
Into the press of the entire country,
Arab propagandists are pouring poison-
ous untruths, in an effort to undermine
Israel's position.
In Jordan, the new Premier stated em-
phatically last week that his country will
never make peace with Israel.
Yet Israel is expected by deluded peo-
ple—we say they are deluded in order to
absolve them of outright bias—humbly to
abandon arms and to give up the right to
self-defense.
And in Jewish ranks, there are so few
who understand the situation, who know
the facts, that the maligners of Israel are
having a heyday.
Therefore, we return to a plea we have
repeated time and again: let us set up
seminars, study groups and community
classes, to teach our people the truth, so
that they may know the facts and, so that
they may face the spreaders of poison with
truth—in Israel's defense.

`Men of the High Calling'

The Heroes:- Religious Leaders

In the 14 stories ably selected for inclusion in "Men of the
High Calling," a splendid volume edited by Charles Neider, the
heroes are ministers, priests and rabbis.
Abingdon Press, of Nashville, which has become widely
known for a major work, "The Interpreter's Bible," has pub-
lished this unusual anthology in which are included 13 famous
authors. Only one, S. R. Crockett, is represented by two stories.
The following have one each: Sholom Aleichem, Franz Werfel,
Leo Tolstoy, J. M. Barrie, Stephen Vincent Benet, John W.
Thomason, Jr., Jan Maclaren, Henry Cuyler Bunner, G. K. Ches-
terton, Lloyd C. Douglas, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Katherine
Lyon.
« * *

Excellent taste was exercised in the selections. In its total-
ity, this group of stories presents the "men of the high calling"

as interesting characters, as challengers of humanity's highest
spirits and humanitarian outlooks on life.
Franz Werfel's "The Third Commandment" is the story of
a priest and a rabbi, during the Nazi conquest of Austria. The
two men of differing ideals became good friends. The rabbi,
Dr. Aladar Fuerst, had an interesting approach to Christianity
which he viewed as part of an entity with Judaism. "I am con-
vinced," he told Father Ottokar Felix, "that Israel will survive
as long as the Church survives, but also that the Church is
bound to fall if Israel falls."
*
The story, as related to Werfel by Felix, is of "a Jew who
These developments, coupled with the_
smallness of the communities, lead prac- did not want to take the name of the Lord in vain . the true
tically everywhere in the West to a ris- story of the profaned and reconsecrated cross." It happened in
ing tide of assimilation."
the - Parndarf community in Austria, where the Nazis took hold
and began to expel the Jew. In protest, Father Felix went with
is
are
assured
that
the
picture
We
"brighter in the economic field. Never- the expelled. He reached the Hungarian border with the un-
group of dispossessed Jews. The Hungarians refused
theless, "vocational readjustment meets fortunate
to admit them. When the Nazis demanded that Rabbi Fuerst
with serious difficulties and poverty among kiss the swastika, he took hold of it and slowly tore it apart.
the Jews is still rampant." Also, Jews
was a signal for an attack, and the Rabbi was the martyr. But
no longer play "a role even approximating It
it brought a counter-attack from the Hungarians, who thereupon
that of the pre-war days." Dr. Robinson's welcomed the refugees and drove off the Nazis. Thus, "by his
conclusion is: "The present situation is death Aladar Fuerst saved his congregation."
not too promising. However, with certain
"The- Third Commandment" is one of Franz Werfel's very
positive forces at work, in some of the great stories, and it helps to make "Men of the High Calling"
countries at least, we need not necessarily an outstanding anthology.
* * •
despair of the future."
The mildly encouraging note is not
It is most interesting that the editor of the book, Charles
backed too strongly. The facts militate Neider, should have chosen a Sholom Aleichem story about a
against too much hope for a sudden de- Rabbi. He selected a humorous K
~
velopment of effective intellectual forces. tale—and a very charming one.
The strongest Jewish community, our own, In "Tit for Tat," Shalom Alei-
is in a position to help them only with. chem relates about the Rabbi-
money; and we, too, in the United States, ner — the Government Rabbi —
are hampered by the decimation in that who is asked to mediate be-
we have lost what was, in pre-war days, tween four partners with griev-
an intellectual reservoir for American ances. His verdict called for
each man to deposit with him
Jewry.
rubles before rendering a
That is why the challenge is so great. 25
decision—and his decision was
That is why the conditions as they exist against all of them, the money
in the destroyed Jewish communities of being allocated to the struggling
Europe affect all of us.
Talmud Torah.
Perhaps the challenge will bring the
Thereupon, the shrewd one
desired results. If we cannot count on in the quartet related a story
Europe and Israel to give us the teachers about a rabbi who emerges as
we need for our children, perhaps it will far from scrupulous; and the
e •
encourage us to produce our own men of Rabbiner, in turn, related a
learning. If the element of hope contained story to prove how irrespon- go:4:40#
in the assertion that "we need not neces- sible laymen can be when put
sholom Aleichem
sarily despair of the future" is directed at to the test.
us and if the distinguished scholars who
This too simple an explanation of a very charming story,
"Tit
for Tat" is typically Sholom Aleichem: humorous, brilliant-
recognize the existing • shortcoming can
visualize a brighter future in this country, ly told, with a moral. It must be read for enjoyment, and it is
the Jewries of the world may yet be res- of such excellent stuff that the marvelous Abingdon Press "Men
of the High Calling" is made. This anthology of stories about
cued from total assimilation. From all in- clergymen is indispensable for rabbis, ministers and priests—
dications, however, there is not too much whose counterparts are the book's heroes—and equally as ex-
hope for a renaissance among European citing for laymen.

„,

Jews.

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