`That's the Prize We Want Most' 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, 1952, 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 fourth day of Tebeth, 5717, the following Scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues: Pentateuchal portion, Vayiggash, Gem 44:18-47:27. Prophetical portion, Ezekiel 37:15-28. Licht Benshen, Friday, Dec. 7, 4:43 p.m. Page Four Vol. XXX. No. 14 Veterans' Program for All national Jewish organizations have reaffirmed their positions in defense of Israel in a crisis which could have threat- ened the Jewish State's very existence. We do not count, of course, the small group of less than 15,000 Jews who have banded together to destroy Israel. When we speak of humanitarian Jews, we refer to those who would help their fellow-men to survive, rather than to organize for their destruction. In fact, we are con- vinced. that the vast majority of those who are now listed as members of the self- hating Jewish organizations would have quit the movement long ago, had they known how they are being misled by de- structive leaders. To the credit of all our Jewish move- Bar-Ilan Tribute America's spiritual links with Israel was emphasized most eloquently in an ad- dress delivered recently, in Tel Aviv, by the U. S. Ambassador to Israel, Edward B. Lawson. Ambassador L a w s o n, acknowledging the conferring upon him of an honorary fellowship in Bar-Ilan University of Tel Aviv, which is sponsored by the Mizrachi Orthodox Zionist movement, had this to say: "The distinction conferred upon me today I shall always cherish as one of the principal links that for all time binds me to Israel and to the rich religious and cultural traditions by which this land and its people have been formed and shaped. I shall ever find it a source of a deep satisfaction that as a Fellow of Bar-Ilan University, I am one of a company comprising an academic institution with a sound and integrated philosophy of education. I am proud to be associated with a university that sees no incompatibility between sacred and secular learning and gives just emphasis to both; which acts toward its students as a spiritual no less than as a purely intellectual mentor; and which embodies the ideals of American higher education in another land. "I must regard its significance as far broader than that of a merely personal award. In conferring this Fellowship upon me, the University is primarily and deservedly not unaware of the political philosophy and the democratic spirit of the country which I have the honor to represent. Thus there is recogni- tion of those national qualities—equal justice before the law; freedom of speech and assembly; religious liberty; the concern for education and the individual citizen's constantly increasing opportunities to use it for the benefit of himself and of society; and my country's full realization, insofar as legislation can achieve it, that education is for all people to the limit that their capacities allow. "All the ideals, so essential to the full development of a genuine university, have formed the intellectual climate which has so influenced the founders and staff of Bar Man University. The most eloquent tribute to the value of these principles is their perpetuation through American academic concepts here in Israel; "To the pride with which I accept the Fellowship conferred upon me today there must be added also humility, for, as I have implied, my honor is essentially accorded to the United States of America, its founders and its people. I am the holder of this accolade of merit that can never be wholly mine; in a larger sense I am rather the custodian of a trust. I accept both the honor and the responsibility with a lively sense of their significance, and with the resolute hope that of all they represent I may ever be found worthy." - - The ideas evaluated by Ambassador Lawson represent the highest principles in the Judea-Christian traditions, in whole- some international relations, in the friend- ship which has cemented American-Israel relations. Ambassador Lawson's views should serve as a guide for future cooperation. They are ideas to be welcomed and ac- claimed in both democratic countries—the United States and Israel. December 7, 1956 Middle East Action ments, which represent at least 95 per cent of the 5,000,000 American Jews, it should be said that they have come forth with strong appeals for peace in the Middle East. The American Jewish Congress, the American Jewish Com- mittee, our religious representatives and women's groups, have spoken with dignity on the subject. The American Jewish Committee, in a statement addressed to Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, has asked for UN action to assure "direct negotiations for a just and durable peace" and for guarantees of such treaties by the world's powers. The Jewish War Veterans of the United States, whose leaders have taken a deep interest in Middle East problems, are among the groups that have aligned them- Great JPS Literary Creation selves with the democratic elements in Israel's defense. In a statement of policy, in which the entiA issue affecting Israel is thoroughly reviewed, the veterans state that "the big questions in our minds at present are: Ginzberg's 'Bible Legends,' a One-Volume Anthology "Will the developments in the Middle East increase or decrease the Soviet Union's influence in that area? "What will be the United States' fu- ture foreign policy in relation to the Arab world and Israel? "Will democracy, as represented by Israel, lose or gain ground? "Will Nasser, whose prestige has already fallen, continue to survive as Egypt's dictator? "Will the United Nations gain in power and prestige by its swift Middle East actions?" The Jewish War Veterans' leaders then proceed to outline their position as follows: "JWV stands with the United States and the United Nations in the efforts to bring about a real peace to the Middle East. "JWV stands by Israel in its efforts to negotiate a real and lasting peace with its neighbors and in the meanwhile protect its citizens and. property with every re- source at its command. "JWV deplores the closing of the Suez Canal to any ships of any nation. "JWV stands with Britain and France in its efforts to have Egypt live up to its treaty obligations with respect to the Suez Canal. "JWV stands for the position that Egypt must be prevented from inspiring other Arab countries to wage war, prac- tice economic discrimination and foment discord and trouble for the Western de- mocracies in their dominion. "JWV urges the Egyptian people to make every effort to remove Dictator Nasser from power and to unshackle itself from communist domination, which has brought them only war and hunger. "JWV urges all so-called neutralist nations to witness the Soviet Union's `Freedom - loving policies' in Hungary, Poland and other satellite states as a lesson to be noted for the future. "JWV stands, as it has always stood, four-square against the menace of com- munist imperialism which has already wreaked misery and havoc in many countries of the world and obliterated freedom wherever its evil boots have trod." We commend this statement as a realis- tic approach to a grave issue affecting not Israel alone, but the entire world. It is necessary to repeat, again and again, that the peace of the world hinges upon the solution of the Middle East prob- lem. The great powers have blundered in the past, but it is not too late to mend the errors and to take a firm stand for peace, for international cooperation, for amity based on direct Israel-Arab peace talks. Let's have action—without delay! Prof. Shalom Spiegel Late Dr. Ginzberg One of the great accomplishments of American Jewry's major publishing venture—the Jewish Publication Society—is its having made available to Jews and Christian everywhere the monumental seven-volume "Legends of the Jews" by Prof. Louis Ginzberg. This great creative effort, together with the publication of Henrietta Szold's translation of the "History of the Jews" by Heinrich Graetz and the popularization by the Society Of the works of Israel Zangwill, had elevated the status of the Jewish Publication Society to a very high rank. JPS has, of course, unin- terruptedly, for more than 60 years, produced some of the best Jewish classics. To this day, it makes available to Jewry the finest efforts of Jewish writers. * * • Now it calls attention again to one of its best products, "The Legends of the Jews," which has just been reprinted in a single shorter and simplified form—in a 650-page book under the title "Legends of the Bible." Even in its shorter form, the late Dr. Ginzberg's work still surpasses any other similar work in its clarity, in the immensity of the field it embraces, in the wise selections made from the seven-volume encyclopedia collection to the present one-volume work. Dr. Shalom Spiegel, professor of medieval Hebrew literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, has written a scholarly introduction to this one-volume collection of legends. In it, Dr. Spiegel evaluates the work of Prof. Ginzberg (1873- 1953). This introductory essay is a scholarly evaluation of the canonization of the Bible. It presents the historic background of legends to his dissertation "Haggadah of the Church Fathers" published in 1899-1900. • • • Dr. Spiegel calls attention to the "universal knowledge of rabbinics" of Prof. Ginzberg as having given him an edge over other scholars in the preparation of his work. Dr. Spiegel states: "Ginzberg illumined and explored many unknown or little- known bypaths of the Hebraic bookland, adventuring res- olutely into the remotest regions of Egypt and Baylon, Persia and India, Hellas and Rome, medieval Europe and Islam, and tracing the footprints of the Jews as 'the great disseminators of folklore, who on their long wanderings from the East to the West, and back from the West to the East, brought the products of oriental fancies to the occidental nations, and the creations of occidental imagination to the oriental peoples' " The Legends included in the new JPS book are from the Creation and Adam to Esther. They include legends about Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Job, Moses, Joshua, Judges, David, Solomon, Judah and Israel, Elijah, Elisha and Jonah, Later Kings of Judah, Exile, and Return of Captivity-Daniel and Ezra. "The Legends of the Bible" represent an unusual treat for Jewish Publication Society members who have an opportunity to enrich their bookshelves with this outstanding work.