THE JEWISH NEWS --
the Detroit Jewish Chronicle comrnencing with issue of July 20, 1951
/11COrpOrating
b
Mem er 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.,
yE. 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
Editor and Publisher
SIDNEY SHMAIZAK
FRANK SIMONS
Advertising Manager
City Editor
Sabbath Scrintimil Selections
This„.,„cabliath, the seventeenth day of Shevat, 5717, the following Scriptural selections
be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Yithro, Ex. 18:1-20:23.. Prophetical portion, Is. 6:1-7:6; 9:5, 6.
Licht Benshen, Friday, Jan. 18, 5:11 p.m.
Page Four
VOL. XXX—No. 20
January 18, 1957
Israel's Hardships Are Mounting
In his stirring account of the Sinai Op-
eration, Brig. Gen. S. L. A. Marshall told
a Detroit audience last week that "Gaza is
the key to Israel's security" and that it
should not be evacuated by the Israelis.
This is the view being taken by the Israelis
and by impartial observers of the existing,
tense Middle East situation. But it is not
the policy of President Eisenhower or of
UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskj old
and the issue, which indeed, is the key to
Israel's security, is now the basis for new
difficulties for the embattled State of
.Israel.
Whether or not Israel Prime Minister
David Ben-Gurion will come to the UN
General Assembly to present Israel's
case is a matter of conjecture. It would
be valuable, in a situation in which it is
believed certain that another anti-Israel
resolution, sponsored by the Afro-Asian
bloc, could secure a two-thirds vote in
the UN General Assembly, that the great
Israeli leader should be here to argue for
his people. It is equally important that
he should be here, so that he miolit also
have an opportunity to meet with Pres-
ident Eisenhower who already has ar-
ranged a White House. reception for the
king of Saudi Arabia.
*
Meanwhile, however, there are several
new developments which spell additional
hardships for Israel.
The Jewish Telegraphic A aency reports
from Jerusalem that United Nations troops
entering the Sinai , Peninsula were given
orders for "no- fraternization" with the
Israeli soldiers. According to the report,
the Mizrachi newspaper, Hatzofeh insists
that such an order originated from the
Swedish contingents of the UN Emergency
Force, that signs have been posted at the
easternmost limits of UN-occupied Sinai
warning that entrance was forbidden and
that unauthorized persons would be fired
on. Hatzofeh insists that Yugoslav con-
tingents of UNEF and withdrawing Israeli
troops were friendly.
*
*
Another JTA report reveals that the
Communist member of the Israel Knesset,
Samuel Mikunis, returned from Moscow
with the ,news that Soviet Ambassador
Alexander Abramov will not return to
Israel until total evacuation of Israel forces
from Sinai has been completed.
Even more disturbing is the report
that Yugoslav authorities have prevent-
ed the flight of an El Al passenger plane
over Yugoslav territory. JTA reports
that this is the first such action by the
Tito regime against Israel air transit. It
was reported that the El Al Constella-
tion, which was due from London via
Vienna with new immigrants aboard
was forced to change course when Yugo-
slav authorities suddenly withdrew per-
mission for the flight through Yugoslav
airspace. The route was changed to Rome
and naturally delayed the plane's arrival
in Israel.
*
*
*
There a r e occasionally encouraging
manifestations. The position advocated by
Gen. Marshall provides hope that enough
Americans will press for just action in U.S.
and UN dealings with Israel. JTA reports
frofn Washington that Clark M. Eichel-
berger, executive director of the American
Association for United Nations, has ad-
vanced a proposal that the Eisenhower
Doctrine should not be limited to defend-
ing nations from Communist aggression
alone, but should include protection of na z
tions against all types of aggression, re-
gardless of ideology. Testifying before the
House Foreign Affairs Committee on the
President's Middle East plan, Mr. Eichel-
berger said he could imagine Israel the
victim of attack by Arab states and indi-
cated that Arab aggression—like any ad-
ctression—should be as abhorrent to the
U. S. as Communist aggression.
A point that has not been emphasized
sufficiently is- that if there is a single
state that is truly in danger from Com-
munist aggression, it is ''Israel, in the
fight against whom several of the Arab
states have been armed by Communist
countries, Yemen being the latest to ask
for Communist arms.
Our Government's policy vis-a-vis
Egypt and the Middle East is now subject
to another test. In the course of an address
delivered in the United States Senate by
Senator Pastore of Rhode Island, in which
he joined in protest against the persecu- `New York City Folklore'
tion by Egypt of her Jewish residents and
in which he declared "we must make sure
that Egypt does not become a house of
bondage, Senator Humphrey of Minnesota
"Legends, Tall Tales, AneCdotes, Stories, Sagas, Heroes and
interjected with the question:
Characters, Customs, Traditions, and Sayings," is the subtitle
"Is it not true that the parole provisions given to the exciting book by B. A. Botkin: "New York City
Legends Tall Tales Anecdotes
,
of the present immigration law, the so-called
McCarran-Walter Act, which the President
is now utilizing wisely in the instance of
Hungarian refugees, are also available to the
Jewish refugees from Egypt? In other words,
has not the President the authority to use
those parole provisions?"
Senator Pastore answered in the af-
firmative and expressed the hope that the
liberal provisions would be utilized in
behalf of the persecuted Egyptian Jews.
But there are thus far no indications that
such plans are being made in behalf of
an old Jewish community that is now be-
ing uprooted by Nasser.
Meanwhile, the international Red Cross
is making preparations for the evacuation
of more Jews from Egypt. The threat to
the lives of Egypt's Jews is too great to
permit that Jewish community of 45,000
to remain complacent to growing dangers.
There are dissenters. The Chief Rabbi
of Egypt was forced to issue a statement
condemning Zionism. An Egyptian Jewish
lawyer similarly has blamed Zionists for
his country's security measures and is
coming to the United States to explain
that Egyptian Jews live on a par with
Moslems. But there are enough eye-wit-
ness reports to the contrary to emphasize
the threats to Egyptian Jewry's existence.
A strong stand by our Government and
assurance of asylum to sufferers can go
a long way in ameliorating the situation.
*
* *
The withdrawal of Israel troops from
the Sinai Peninsula remains a basic prob-
lem. Maj. Gen. E. L. M. Burns, the UN
Emergency Force commander, has indi-
cated in Jerusalem this week that the Is-
raelis will remain in Sharm El-Sheikh, the
southern Sinai tip overlooking, the Gulf of
Aqaba, but are leaving El Arish and -St.
Catherine's Monastery.
These decisions are proof of two fac-
tors: Israel can not abandon a point
whence comes the greatest danger from
the Egyptiands, but is willing to abandon
other sectors. The sincerity of Israel's ef-
forts is evident in such moves.
The cause of justice is, truly at stake in
the present trying Middle Eastern situa-
tion. While it is true that the control of the
oil market by the Arabs, in whose ter-
ritories flow two-thirds of the world's oil
supply, is a major, factor in the situation,
we are convinced that an effort at fairness
could solve the problem. We are certain
that the Arabs will never sacrifice Ameri-
can dollars for Russian rubles and that the
oil problem has been aggravated not by the
Israel situation but by Nasser's arrogance.
In any event, Israel must not be made
the goat in a world crisis. Anthony Eden
already has been sacrificed. The position of
France has been endangered. But little
Israel. is the major target of an Asian-
African bloc whose member states are
threatening the v e r y existence of the
Israelis. To back up Israel's adversaries is
immoral—and our own Government and
the United Nations must not follow an im-
moral path along the Mediterranean.
Folklore," published by Random House.
This splendid collection, which is supplemented by equally
interesting photographs of New York — including scenes, char-
acters, cartoons and caricatures — makes fascinating reading.
Mr. Botkin, creator and editor of "A Treasury of American
Folklore" and many other books of folklore, knows the spirit
of New York. He knows its history, He understands its multi-
farious elements.
In his introduction, Mr. Botkin emphasizes that New York's
folklore "got off to a good start with the origin tale of the pur-
chase of Manhattan Island from the Indians by Peter Minuit
for trinkets worth 60 guilder or $24 — a bargain with as many
implications. for New Yorkers who are always trying to get
something for nothing as for New York folklore, which is rich
in tricks and treats."
Botkin points out also: "Like much of its population and
its resources, much of the city's folklore has come from outside.
In the broad sense, New York City folklore is all lore found
in the city, regardless of origin. But this book is, concerned with
the lore that is of as well as in New York, and a clue to what
New Yorkers think about and how they come to be that way."
Excellently illustrative in this entertaining book is the story,
"Harpo Marx and the Doorman," from Ben Hecht's "1001 After-
noons in New York." It is the famous incident in which Harpo
fooled the anti-Semitic doorman in front of a famous jewelry
store by tripping deliberately and causing a large collection of
fake jewels to be strewn all over the sidewalk. When the door-
man, in his excitement, believing them to be genuine emeralds,
rubies and diamonds, helped collect the paste jewels, Harpo
handed him the largest in the group. Then, turning to the cabman
upon whom the doorman earlier poured Nazi insults, said: "Drive
me to the synagogue .. . for afternoon prayers." The doorman
lost his job.
Another Jewish story, • "A Nickel a Shtickel," is from the
Commentary article "The Jewish Delicatessen" by Ruth Glazer.
"Pawnbroker on Eighth Avenue" by Donald Paneth is also from
Commentary, from which Botkin has taken an additional group
of fine stories by Ruth Glazer, "In the Bronx."
The Jewish angle also is in "The Honest Junkman," from
Meyer Berger's "The Eight Million."
"Suit-Hunting Avenue" from Max Winkler's "A Penny
from Heaven;" "East Side Pushkarts" by Olive F. Gunby and
"Knishes and Pasteles Calientes on Delancey Street" from
"Viva el Knish" by Murray Robinson form an excellent addi-
tional section in the book.
There are references to Yiddish and to Jewish immigrants
in "Ellis Island Adventures." "Beggar Dodges" contains shnorrer
stories.
Readers of "New York City Folklore" must not miss . reading
"Saved from Potter's Field," which relates how, by stuffing a
Yiddish newspaper in a dead man's pocket, burial was secured
for him in a JeWish cemetery.
There is endless amusement — and considerable enlighten-
ment — in this fine collection of stories. They are among the
best on the market today, and Botkin has certainly excelled in
the judgment he has exercised while making his selections.
Late Prof. Louis Wirth's 'The Ghetto'
Because it was reprinted again in 1956, as a fourth impression
after its first printing in 1928, "The Ghetto," by the late Louis
Wirth, of the University of Chicago, deserves new mention. His
book has been reissued by the University of Chicago Press.
There is a lot of interesting historical data in this volume,
and the late professor's comments on the Chicago Ghetto are
worth re-reading. But his views on Zionism, which were the
result of unwarranted prejudice 30 years ago, cause - the book to
remain of little value today.
The late Prof. Wirth wrote three decades ago that Zionism
"would merely result in making the ghetto international." When
he first uttered his prejudiced views, he was severely upbraided.
Today his assertion sounds laughable. If he were alive today, we
believe he would have said, with others who repented their anti-
Zionism, that their help to the Zionist cause might have resulted
in rescuing many of the millions of Jews who perished at the
hands of the Nazis; that the thousands who now are entering
Israel from Arab lands of oppression would not have had a haven
to look to.