46.000, 1104010.41/01Mailikopetr..:"

THE JEWISH NEWS

Shevuot

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.,
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

SIDNEY SHMARAK

CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ

Editor and Publisher

Advertising Manager

Circulation Manager

FRANK SIMONS

City Editor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the second day of Sivan, 5717, the following ,Scriptural selections will be
read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Naso, Num. 4:21-7:89. Prophetical portion, Judges 13:2-25.
Shevuot Scriptural Selections
On Shevuot, Wednesday and Thursday, th e following Scriptural selections will be read:
Pentateuchal portions: Wednesday, Ex. 19:1-20:23, •Num. 28:26-31; Thursday, Deut. 15:19-16:17,
Mon. 28:26-31.
Prophetical portions: Wednesday, Ezekiel 1:1-28, 3:12; Thursday, Habakkuk 3:1-19.

Licht Benshen, Friday, May 31, 7:42 p.m.

VOL.

Page Four

XXXI—No. 13

Shevuot Festival

May 31, 1957

'Eternal, Like Hope'

NM MI

Shevuot, the season of the Giving of
the Law, is symbolized by. the Torah, by
the Tablets of the Law, by the highest
moral principles of Ten Commandments.
This Feast of Weeks, this Festival of
the Law, is marked in our time by num-
erous other functions: by graduations, by
consecrations and confirmations. But the
symbols of the Law still predominate as
the major ideals of this important fes-
tival.
It was for the Torah that Jews made
their greatest sacrifices: The present
generation may be less aware of the
martyrdom that was demanded in the
defense of the Torah. But history records
the acts of martyrs thousands of times
The famous historian, Heinrich Graetz,
more than a century ago, thus described
the devotion to Torah: •

.

"What has prevented this constantly
migrating people, this veritable Wandering
Jew, from degenerating into brutalized vaga-
bonds, into vagrant hordes of gypsies? The
answer is at hand. In its journey through
the desert of life, for 18 centuries the Jewish
people carried along the Ark of the Cove-
nant, which breathed into its heart ideal
aspirations, and even illumined the badge of
disgrace • affixed to its garment with an
apostolic glory. The proscribed,, outlawed,
universally persecuted Jew felt a sublime3
noble pride in being singled out to perpetuate
and to suffer for a religion which reflects
eternity, by which the nations of the earth
were gradually educated to a knowledge of
God • and morality, and from which is to

spring the salvation and redemption of the
warld.
"Such a people, which disdains its
present but has the eye steadily fixed on its
future, which lives as it were on hope, is on
that very account eternal, like hope."

Shevuot originally was a harvest
festival, but it lost that aspect with the
fall of Judea. Then, reasoning that the
Hebrews arrived at Mount Sinai at this
time, the rabbis established Shevuot as
the anniversary of the Ten Command-
ments; so that today the festival is the
Zman Matan Toratenu, the festival of the
giving of the Law to Israel.
Another anniversary that marks the
Shevuot festival is the birthday of King
David, whose death also is said to have
occurred on Shevuot. The Book of Ruth
is • read on Shevuot because David was a
descendant of Ruth, the Moabitess who
forsook the gods of her own people to
avow devotion and loyalty to the God of
Israel.
Once again, we welcome the spirit-
uality and the beauty of Shevuot. The
festival is an occasion for congratulations
to the confirmands, consecrants and
graduates of our synagogues and schools.
It is a time to inspire our youth to carry
on their studies and to aspire to high
attainments in .their professions. Pri-
marily, it is the occasion for rededication
to our faith and for renewed devotion to
the Torah and its guiding principles in-
corporated in the Ten Commandments.

Intensifying Detroit's Israel Bond. Drive

The final days of Allied Jewish Cam-
paign activities traditionally forecast the
resumption of Israel Bond efforts in our
community.
While fully a quarter of a million
dollars yet is to be attained to complete
the $6,000,000 goal for the 1957 Allied
Jewish Campaign, it is believed that this
sum is available from prospects yet to be
reached and from increases among those
who already have made their contribu-
tions.
It is proper, therefore, that the Bond
Drive should commence at once, in view
of Israel's serious needs for economic de-
velopment in these trying times.
The selection of a new set of officers,
under the chairmanship of Abe Kasle, the
readiness that is being shown by respon-
sible Detroit Jews to undertake a quota
of $2,000,000 in Israel Bond sales for the
current year, augur well for the efforts
now being undertaken.
Detroit Jewry's responsiveness to all

major Jewish needs and to appeals in
Israel's behalf encourages us in the belief
that the goals set for 1957 by the Israel
Bond Organization will be attained.
Nationally, the board of governors of
the Israel Bond Organization last . week
launched a renewed intensified campaign,
responding especially to the Israel gdvern-
ment's request for support of a $90,000,000
housing project to build 30,000 homes for
new immigrants.
The heartening increase of Bond sales
which, according to Dr. Joseph J. Schwartz,
made 1956 the best year in the history of
Israel Bond sales, augurs well for the
current year.
Income from Bond sales plays a deci-
sive role in Israel's economy, and it is
urgent that American Jewry's investment
activities, ,which supplement the United
Jewish Appeal's philanthropic work,
should increase. We hope for another good
year for Bonds—so that 1957 should be
even better than 1956.

Germans as 'Good Fellows. in Family of Nations'

On the occasion of the visit in Detroit
of three important German officials, who
came to this 'country to explain the
methods pursued by their government to
make indemnification and restitution pay-
ments, the German Consul here, Dr. Fer-
dinand R. H. Friedensburg, Jr., made it
clear that his government is "not trying to
spend money to ask that everything be for-
gotten," but rather to try to help those who
suffered under the Nazis.
It is this approach that enables the
tens of thousands of people who have suf-
fered under the Nazis to deal amicably
with a people that seeks reconciliation
with its own conscience.
The fact that German officials came
here to diScuss the problems of the suffer-
ers from Nazism with the survivors them-
selves and their kinsmen is in itself an in-
dication of good faith.

A basic principle involved in these dis-
cussions was touched upon by Dr. Max
Kapustin, the director of the Wayne State
University Hillel Foundation, a former
German citizen, who, in his benediction
prayed that people may "work together,
think together, as human beings . • . for
the greatest principle of justice and right-
eousness." It strengthened Dr. Friedens-
bfarg's assertion that the Germans are "try-
ing to be good fellows in the family of
nations."
The dead can not be brought back to
life. The wrongs done can never be atoned
for. But the descendants of the Nazis at
least can given guarantees to their pledges
that what has happened will never recur
again, and that those who have suffered
will at least be materially compensated so
that their present hardships, brought about
by the Hitler atrocities, may be reduced.

`Between the Star and the Cross'

Story of an American Who
Served in Israel's Air Force

William Lichtman, a veteran of the RAF, USAF and the
Israel Air Force, is without doubt an expert on flying and on air
conditions. He understands combat, knows the hazards of aerial
warfare and is able to describe his experiences in the air in all
details.

- He- proves his expertness in his novel, "Between the Star and
the Cross," published by Citadel Press (222 4th, NY 3), in which
he tells the story of an American who flew and fought for Israel.
Claiming historical truth for this narrative is an explanatory
note, opening the novel: "To say that this book is' entirely fiction,
and that all of the characters and all of -the events are merely.
products of the author's imagination, would be a slander against
the dead."
On this basis, we must accept as truth his descriptions of oc-
casional chaos which marked the beginnings of recruiting of
American fliers and • the securing of aircraft in the battle for
Israel's defense against the Arab attacks in 1948.

Some of the grim details of behind-the-scenes arguments, of
the scheming for power, of mercenary aims of some of the volun-
teer fighters for Israel, will shock the reader. Some may even
question the extent to which the flier-novelist goes in his resent-
ment against the existence of anti-Semitism in the United States.
But his detailed experiences with airlines which refused to employ
him because of his Jewishness may justify his attitude.
There is a love story. The hero, Leon Baker, falls deeply in
love with one of the leaders in the Israel defense army, Mildred
Davis. She draws him to Israel and he finally returns to the land
to assist in the battles that face the Jewish State under Nasser's
threats.
It is when he describes Israel itself that the novelist falls
short of expectations. He is too concerned apparently with describ-
ing the internal struggles. There are many complimentary refer-
ences to the people of Israel, to the children, to their needs and
aspirations. But when he speaks of the Altalena incident and the
destruction of the Irgunists' ship, he merely indicates Israel's need
to live up to the obligations to the - United Nations.
There was a more vital aspect in the Altalena incident. The
Ben-Gurion government, perhaps the very existence of Israel,
was at stake. The existing government could not permit a dissi-
dent group to attain power by possessing weapons for an in-
ternal battle. Having mentioned the Altalena, the author should
have gone more deeply into the roots of the trouble that neces-
sitated the sinking by Jews of a Jewish ship carrying weapons.

*

*

*

The title of his novel is based on his reactions against anti-
Semitism. The heroine, Mildred Davis, tries to set Leon straight
by expressing the view that, "once end warfare, then you also
ring an end to anti-Semitism. There will be no reason for its
existence then." The exchange of view on the subject hardly
provides a desired solution, but it adds new angles on the subject.
"Torn apart between the Cross and the Star, between the
United Nations and the factions of Judaism that raged in the
land," Leon finally finds himself as having "stepped. outside . of
the shadow of the Star and Cross." He soon admits that the "Star
and the Cross seemed to be moving together." It is a good ending
for a confused attitude that finds compensation in a labor of love
for Israel, in a devotion to the woman who drew him close to her
and to her land.
There are a number of interesting side factors that add inter-
est to this story. The rejection of dialect jokes is a heartening
element. There is an interesting description of Leon's lecture
tours for Israel — he calls it "the knife and fork circuit," based
on the series of dinners for Jewish groups. It is one of the au-
thor's more realistic descriptions of Jewish communal life.
Lichtman's !Tetween the Star and the Cross" adds to the
interest that exists in the roles played by Americans in the
battles for Israel's security.

