Disregard of the Law

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.. 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 SHMARAK

Advertising Manager

CARMI - M. SLOMOVITZ

Circulation Manager

+..

FRANK SIMONS

City Editor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the third day of Iyar, 5717, the following Scriptural selections will be read
in' our synagogues:
Pen.tateuchal portion, Ent r, Lev. 21:1-24:23. Prophetical portion, Ezekiel 44:15-31.

Licht Benshen, Friday, May 3, 7.15 p.m.

VOL. XXXI. No. 9

Page Four

May 3, 1957

Israel Anniversary: Wrought in Miracles

A statement by Israel's Prime Min-
ister David Ben-Gurion deserves top
priority on the eve of the ninth anniver-
sary of the.Jewish State. He said:
"In Israel, the only realists are those

who believe in miracles."

This may not be applicable anywhere
else; and nowhere else would people dare
link miracles with reality. But in Israel
such faith conquers all obstacles. Such
confidence in the eternal strength of the
people to survive all difficulties seems
certain to carry the embattled people
through its many crises to success.
*
* *
Let's look at the record.
By the end of this year, Israel expects
to speak of the first million who have
settled in Israel since the proclamation of
the State's independence on the fifth day
of Iyar in the year 5708—May 14, 1948.
More than half of this number will have
come from Middle Eastern states. Many
of them escaped Iron Curtain tyrannies.
Others acquired Israeli citizenship out of
preference for a life amidst Israeli en-
vironments where they are able to recap-
ture the glories of an ancient heritage.

In a sense, the Ingathering of the
Exiles already has taken place, and the
State of Israel is fulfilling the pledge
contained in its Proclamation of Inde-
pendence that it "will be open to the
immigration of Jews from all countries
of their dispersion."
* * *

Already acknowledged as being the
oasis in the Middle Eastern desert, Israel
takes pride in having been able to fulfill
the other pledges of its Independence Pro-
clamation that it "will promote the de-
velopment of the country for the benefit
of all its inhabitants; will be based on the
principles of liberty, justice and peace as
conceived by the Prophets of Israel; will
uphold the full social and political equal-
ity of all its citizens, without distinction
of religion, race or sex; will guarantee
freedom of religion, conscience, education
and culture; will safeguard the Holy
Places of all religions; and will loyally
.uphold the principles of the United Na-
tions Charter."
There were and there still are many
obstructions in Israel's path to full free-
dom and progress. But the State is win-
ning its battles on many fronts.
*
*
*
<
Less than two per cent of the immi-
grants who came to Israel after 1948
possessed any agricultural training or
knowledge, but today 15.3 per cent of the
Israelis are engaged in agricultural pur-
suits, as compared with 12.6 per cent in
1947. This is progress.
The irrigated area of Israel has in-
creased to 250,000 acres—a 300 per cent
gain in eight years. This; too, is progress.
Since 1948, 170,000 housing units have
been constructed, 80 per cent of them
being occupied by the new settlers. This
is fulfillment of a pledge to integrate the
ingathered people into Israel's economy.
*
*
*
Israel's genius has developed a strong
democracy. Nearly a million voters cast
their ballots in the last election, a rise
from 440,000 in 1949. Arabs possess equal
franchise and have eight representatives
in the Knesset.
The country's elementary school sys-
tem has grown from a student population
of 86,587 in 1948 to the present. 359,000,
and the number of teachers has more than
doubled—from 4.153 to 8,374. The Arab
school population has increased in that
period from 10,092 to 29,127, and the num-
ber of teachers in these schools has grown
from 243 to 835.
The health and social services simi-
larly have shown an impressive develop-
ment. The 63 hospitals in 1949 increased

to 102 in 1956. Infant mortality in this
period has dropped from 51.7 per thousand
births to 32.3.
*
*
*
We could go on ad infinitum to show
the great advances made by a small coun-.
try under adverse circumstances. An in-
teresting fact to remember is that the
Israeli accomplishments were attained in
spite of the continued Arab aggressions.
From 1949 until last October there. were
11,873 incidents of Arab marauding and
sabotage, with only 12 Israel defense ac-
tions. In these operations, there were 1,335
Israel and 621 Arab casualties.
But the work went on, and Israel's
creative efforts became models for the
entire world.
And in spite of the losses suffered by
Israel and the dangers to which the State
has been subjected, the Arab community
within Israel has grown and has shown
remarkable progress on a par with the
general Israeli community.
*
*
*
An official Israeli analysis of the prog-
ress made by the Arab community in
Israel points to the full equality enjoyed
by the Arabs and to these strides made in
the promotion of their standards of living:

"Since the great majority of Israel's
Arabs live in rural areas, special attention
has been given to the modernization of their
agriculture through irrigration, land con-
servation, mechanical equipment and diversi-
fication of production. The government has
extended loans to Arab farmers to enable
them to change over to modern methods of
cultivation. More than 50 tractors are owned
privately by Arab farmers; there was none
in 1948. Mobile units of mechanized agri-
cultural equipment are available to the Arab
farmers for a nominal fee.
"The outstanding fact about the Arab
rural community in Israel is the high per-
centage of individual proprietorship. More
than 80% of the Arab farmers work their
own land. This is in striking contrast to the
conditions prevailing in other Middle Eastern
countries, where most of the peasants work
as sharecroppers.
"Today, 90% of the boys and 60% of the
girls of the Arab school age population are
enrolled in public schools. Their numerical
attendance is steadily increasing, especially
among the girls.
"Significant progress is being made in
improving general health conditions. Infec-
tious diseases, like malaria and tuberculosis,
once so rampant among the Arab people,
are being rapidly eradicated. Special clinics
operate in Arab population centers, and
mobile clinics service rural regions in the
Negev and Galilee. Infant mortality has
fallen 50% in the ten year period, 1944-54
(from 121 per thousand to 61.2).
"33,000 Arab refugees constituting about
a quarter of the total Arab population of
the country were permitted to return and
acquired full citizenship. The United Na-
tions Relief and Works Agency, which cares
for some 900,000 refugees in Arab coun-
tries, was relieved of the responsibility for
nearly 50,000 Arab refugees within the
borders of Israel. With government assist-
ance they have been permanently resettled
and integrated into the economy of the coun-
try. Israel was the only Middle Eastern
country to do so."
*
*
*

.

Israel has failed in only one aspira-
tion: for peace. With that accomplished,
all of her neighbors would be blessed with
the same benefits which their Arab kins-
men now enjoy in Israel.
Peace is Israel's chief objective on her
ninth anniversary, to be observed on Mon-
day. It is the basic hope of all amity-
loving people who know that peace for
Israel will mean security and an end to
war-threats for the entire Middle East. In
acclaiming Israel's anniversary, and in
saluting that brave people for its heroic
deeds and many cultural and economic
accomplishments, we pray that this chief
hope—for peace—shall also be attained
speedily.

This Minuscule Israel

(On its Ninth Independence Day)

BY MAURICE M. SHUDOFSKY
This minuscule Israel, land of the transfiguring vision,
This flecked but unflawed jewel hallowed with the blood
Of millenia and blood yet spilled this selfsame moment,
This perduring little Israel, phoenix of the nations,
This quintessence of Cosmos, bestriding Time, Space, Power,
Heaven-haunted Israel: Unbreached bastion of Divine Spirit,
God-intoxicated Israel, heady with hope of Redemption,
This ever-embattled Israel thirsting for universal peace,
Resplendent Israel: Trimmer of the lamp of Man's soul,
Keeper of his conscience, Azazel scapegoat for his
0 Father of the Universe, in Thy infinite goodness,
Nurse and succor this old-new Israel that loves Thee,
Do Thou once again cause Thy law to issue out of Zion
And the thunderous Word out of Jerusalem. Thy shrine.
Prevail upon. Ishmael and Jacob, proud seed of Abraham,
To dwell in brotherly Love and break the bread of peace.

Inquiry in Jewish Nationalism:
'Maccabees, Zealots, Josephus'

Dr. William Reuben Farmer, of the faculty of Drew Univer-
sity, in "Maccabees, Zealots, and Josephus: An Inquiry into
Jewish Nationalism in the Greco-Roman Period," published by
Columbia University Press, pursues the idea that "there is a
positive relationship between the Maccabees and the Zealots."
"In the course of looking up information on the use of palm
branches in the ancient world," he states, "I noted that . they
were used in the triumphal procession into the temple by Judas
and Simon Maccabeus." He draws a parallel between them and
the "triumphal entry of Jesus" and adds that he was "struck
mrith the Maccabees' concern for cleansing the temple as a loose
but significant parallel to Jesus cleansing the temple."
Prof. Farmer concludes that "the Maccabees were the
nearest historical counterparts to the Jewish nationalists of
the Roman period." He states that "the Maccabees were re-
membered by the Jews in Palestine during the first century
A.D." and that if they were- historical counterparts and were
remembered, "they were conscious prototypes of the later
nationalists."
The suggestion is advanced that "the way is now open for
a rewriting of Jewish history during the Roman period in
which full justice may be done to the continuity between the
Jewish nationalism of the Roman period with that of the Mac-
cabean period;" that "the way is open for a more serious study
of the Maccabean uprising with a view to discovering how the
continuing influence of the example and teaching of the Mac-
cabees may have affected the life and thought of the Jews
during the New Testament period."
Dr. Farmer draws extensively upon the Dead Sea Scrolls
in his evaluations and conclusions and suggests that the history
and literature of the Qumran community and the events relating
to them "will all find their proper setting against the back-
ground of that midstream of Jewish Nationalism" which he had
undertaken to illumine in his book.
He draws a great deal upon Josephus whose histories he
considers "the main source for our understanding of the Jewish
nationalism of the first century."
There is a parallelism in Dr. Farmer's description of the
burning of - Torah scrolls, as described in Maccabees I, with
the experiences of our own geheration in Germany. Dr. Farmer
also describes the resentment of the Jews of that era against
enforced eating of pork, and their strict observance of the
Sabbath. There is emphasis, in relation to these and other
happenings on the willingness of the Jews to suffer and to
die for the Torah.
As in many similar. works now being published that are
partly under the influence of the Dead Sea Scrolls' contents,
this work describes the ideologies of the Pharisees, Sadducees
and Essenes. It outlines the background of Jesus in relation to
this period in history.
Prof. Farmer has written a very interesting book, introducing
angles which may cause controversy over his interpretations.
But his historical analyses are most valuable.'