Cementing Real Friendship

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

Editor and Publisher

SIDNEY SHMARAK

Advertising Manager

CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ

Circulation Manager

FRANK SIMONS

City Editor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections
day of Ty ar, 5717, the following Scripture selections will
seventeenth
This Sabbath, the
be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Behukkotai, Lev. 26:3-27:34. Prophetical portion, Jer. 16:19 17:14.
Lag .b'Om.er occurs on Sunday.

-

Licht Benshen, Friday, May 17, 7:29 p.m.

VOL. XXXI—No. 11

Page Four

May 17, 1957

New Challenges to Jewish Loyalties

Only a dozen years have passed since
the defeat of Nazism and the destruction
of devilish powers that threatened to un-
dermine civilization. Only 12 years ago,
many Jews still languished in displaced
persons camps and the memory of the
horrors of Hitlerism, which was respon-
sible for the murder of a third of the
Jewish people and nearly all of the Jews
of Eastern and Central Europe, was fresh
in the minds of all. But these memories
are vanishing. The youth especially are
showing unconcern over the past. They
are interested only in the present and,
it is to be hoped, also the future.
This . is a disturbing situation. In Jew-
ish life, the links with the past have been
vital to our future visions and to our
present loyalties. _Yet, the youth of -Amer-
ica are totally unaffected by events in the
Old World—by the memories of the de-
stroyed communities. Even if they do not
say it, they would dislike being reminded
by tragedies and prefer to think of a
glorious present and a promising future.

Interestingly enough, Israel's youth
evidences similar sentiments. There are
reports of similar reactions there and
of little concern over the past. Their
thoughts are of the present and for the
future and they seek to obliterate the
tragic past.
Perhaps it is a natural reaction to
world affairs which are in themselves
most disturbing.- In an article which was
aptly titled "These Writers Couldn't Care
Less—Self, Not Society, marks the Work
of a New Group of English Novelists," in
the New York Times, V. S. Pritchett, of

London, literary critic of the New States-
man and Nation, stated:
"In the past four years a new, young
group of English novelists has appeared.
They have put forward a new kind of
hero and they have a distinctly new attir
tude to life. It would be wrong to say that
there is a self-conscious or organized move-
ment here; but the novels of Kingsley
Amis, John Wain, Thomas Hinde, Peter
Towry and a newcomer, John Braine—the
author of 'Room at the Top'—are very
different from their predecessors. We can
say that they bring a special accent to the
English novel. They break sharply with
the war and pre-war decades. They are
unromantic, or at any rate they are not
romantic in the manner of, the Thirties.
As people these novelists are products of
the social revolution of 1940. What has an-
noyed their seniors is that, on the whole,
this younger generation does not care a
damn about the things their fathers fought
for."
It is not altogether a "don't give a
damn" attitude that is responsible for the
new outlook on life. It is the disturbance
of life itself that causes the 'indifference
to the past and the urge to build a future
divorced- from the influences of the past.

In the instance of the Jewish youth,
it will be necessary to instill new loyalties
to make up for the old, to assure the re-
tention of devotions which bind the youth
of our time to our past and retain their
interest in a better future. This is one of
the obligations which face our educators
who must battle with many obstacles in
an effort to keep our people well informed
and therefore devoted to Jewry and to
Judaism.

Israel s Capacity 'to Flourish in Any Case'

11

The concessions that have been made
to Nasser by our Government and our
democratic allies and the continued threats
hurled at Israel by the Arab nations are
multiplying the concerns for Israel's se-
curity among her friends.
Only France reiterates opposition to
the Nasser scherxies in the Middle East and
in issues involving the Suez Canal:
Israel's leaders recognize the dangers
they must face in the battle for survival.
In his address at the national convention
of the Women's Division of the American
Jewish Congress, in Washington, last
week, Israel's Ambassador Abba Eban
said, deploring the hostility of the Arabs:
"Arab hostility is the primary cause-
of Israel's crisis; her other difficulties are
secondary results. There are no peoples,
and few governments, whose spontaneous
attitude to Israel would not be trustful
and benevolent, were it not for the com-
petitive bombardment of an Arab rancor
which establishes hostility to Israel as the
price of Arab friendship. No government
of conscience can fully pay this price; but
the very disposition to strike a bargain in
this invidious market corrupts the true
relations of Israel with her neighbors and
with the world. Being unable to mitigate
the Arab assault, Israel has at least con-
trived to resist it."
But the problem of the future must
be posed. In the absence of hopes for
peace, how can Israel face the future, and
what are the Jewish State's friends
prepared for in the struggle for justice for
the embattled nation? On this score,
Ambassador Eban told the Congress Wo-
men's Division:
"The shape of Israel to come emerges
only dimly along the road of the future.
Much depends on whether our neighbors
cease to surround us with malice and ran-

cor. Since 1948 the area of Arab sover-
eignty has grown in a massive expansion
which makes nonsense of this perpetual,
avaricious envy directed against Israel's
meager portion. But there is no sign that
the tempest will abate. It is better, of
course, that Israel should flourish in peace
with her neighbors; but nobody should un-
derestimate her capacity to flourish in any
case."
This is a courageous sentiment, in-
spired by "the will to live." Without such
a will, Israel might have perished long
ago. With it, we can have confidence that
the young State, entering its tenth year
of existence, will survive all difficulties
and may, before very long, convince her
neighbors of the value of peace for them
and for her and for the entire world.

Michigan Week

Annual Michigan Week, to be observed
May 19-25, is marked by an emblem
showing a proud robin- chirping "It's
Great to Live in Michigan."
Merely to state that "it's great to live"
evidences the joy Americans can take in
the privilege of sharing the benefits of life
in this great land. For Michiganders, life
in this progressive state adds reality to
the motto chosen for the -fourth annual
celebration of Michigan Week.
This observance is much more than a
"promotional" effort for our state. It is
an occasion for re-evaluation of the free-
doms we enjoy, of the benefits provided
us by the state's many educational and
cultural institutions, of the industrial
progress we have attained.
Indeed, "It's Great to Live in Michi-
gan" and to acknowledge it during the
current- celebration.

'A Treasury of the Sabbath
Throughout the Centuries'

Dr. Samuel M. Segal, New York rabbi, has compiled a great
deal of valuable information about the Jewish Sabbath and has
incorporated it into an informative volume, "The Sabbath Book,"
which has just been published by Thomas Yoseloff (11 E. 36th,
N. Y. 16).
Laws, customs and ceremonies are outlined in detail, and
the author has appended to the text all the important Hebrew
prayers and many of the Sabbath hymns and zemiroth.
The Sabbath traditions are related here,. both for the Fri-
day night observances, for the entire Sabbath and for the Sat-
urday night Sabbath's end ceremonies.
All the prayers and hymns and the laws and traditions are
included in the first portion of the book. Book Two is devoted
to an'interesting collection of Sabbath legends. The third portion
explains "The Sabbath in Jewish Theology." The concluding
section deals with the Sabbath in Cabala and among primitive
peoples.
Much research has gone into this work, and by incorporating
into it the prayers, in Hebrew; Hebrew hymns and translations
of zemiroth, the author has rendered a real service.
This reviewer is puzzled, however, by the author's very first
statement that: "The Sabbath—the most vital force in Jewish
life and theology—has never before, as far as is known, been
comprehensively presented to English readers." This is not
correct. Is it possible that Dr. Segal was unaware of the ap-
pearance, in 1944, of "Sabbath—The Day of Delight," by Abra-
ham S. Milgrom, published by the Jewish Publication Society
of America?
While Rabbi Segal's new volume adds considerably to the
Sabbath subject, Rabbi Milgrom's remains an outstanding work
on the subject of the traditional Jewish day of rest, and Rabbi
Segal would have benefited from it in the preparation of his
own material. Complementary to each other, the two books on
the Sabbath will be cherished possessions in all Jewish homes
that show the wisdom of adding them to their-bookshelves.

Focus New Israel English Magazine
Faces Country's Issues Realistically

`

"Focus: A Journal for Youth Leaders," published by the
Youth and Hechalutz Department of the Zionist Organization, in
Jerusalem, under the editorship of I. Halevy-Levin, makes its
appearance with Volume 1, Number 1. The first issue augurs well
for the future as a periodical that strives to clarify existing issues
in Israel and approaches them with clarity and candor.
If the essay "Integration of Immigrants" by Uriel Simon is
to be judged as a sample of what may be expected from this
scholarly magazine, we are prepared to encourage its circulation
in this country as source material on important problems affect-
ing the young State as well as that entire area. We assume that in
Israel it will have the wide circulation it deserves. Published in
English, it should have an important place among the Jewries in
English-speaking countries.
Simon's article on immigrant integration describes the dif-
ficulties involved in creating a homogeneous community in Is-
rael—the resistance among some of the settlers from Moslem
countries, the trials and tribulations involved in getting them to
adopt a work program.
But the Yemenites again emerge as a very wholesome group
whose members were and are more amenable to fitting into
Israel's conditions. With patience, Israel conquers resistance.

Equally interesting is the article by Y. Yizraeli, "The Kib-
butz Faces the Future." Here, too, the author tackles a problem
realistically. The author shows how "collective democracy"
faces a challenge, because of "the sad fact" that "most of our
members have gradually become remote from the actual deci-
sions of the settlements."

Yizraeli points out that the number of Kibbutz members who
assert themselves, is becoming smaller. He suggests that smaller
social units would solve the problem by enabling crystallization
of points of view, and advocates that "the basic values and found-
ing principles of the kvutza must be kept intact." The solution he
suggests is: "to build one large collective economy which will en-
compass many members, and create several social focal points
within this larger collective unit."
Other essays in the first issue of "Focus" deal with the Jews
of Yemen, modern Hebrew literature, land settlement, Israel's
frontiers and a splendid article by Joseph Heinemann, "Labor and
the Laborer in the Mishnah."