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.