THE JEWISH NEWS

Going Underground

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., 1 -7100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit 35, Mich„
RE. 8-9364. Subscription $5 a year. Foreign
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

Sabbath Scriptural Selections

FRANK SIMONS

City Editor

•

This Sabbath, the ninth day of Sivan, 5717, the following Scriptural selections will be read
in. our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Beh.aa.lot'cha„ Num. 5:1-12:16. Prophetical portion, Zechariah 2:14-4:7.

Licht Benshen, Friday, June 7, 7:47 p.m.

VOL. XXXI. No. 14

Page Four

June '7, 1957

Forgetting History is Dangerous to Liberty

One of the puzzles of our time is the
rapidity with which people forget the
events which marked a tragic period in
history, under the Nazis. Only 12 years
have passed since the end of the war. In
1945; the horroYs of the Hitlerite murders
were exposed in the facts revealed about
the • inhumanities that were practiced in.
concentration camps and in the Nazi gas
eh amb ers.
In the short time that has elapsed, these
events seem to have been forgotten. But
when we deplore the indifference to the
events of less than half a generation ago
among Jews, we are consoled with the
revelation of a general indifference among
all peoples. -An entire generation of
Christians as well as Jews seems to be
forgetting what had occurred to many mil-
lions of people. Six millions of Jews were
exterminated, and millions of Christians
lost their lives under the rule of the Nazis.
Proof of the universal forgetfulness
was provided last week when a Czech
refugee, Charles Burian, who had survived
the horrors of Nazi and Communist camps,
came to Lidice, Ill., to witness the "eternal
flame" he expected to see lit there in
memory of the Lidice martyrs. He found
an amateurishly patched monument whose
flame was extinguished when its gas pipe
had broken.
* *
*
Lidice's story is worth recalling. A
little more than 15 years ago, underground
rebels against Nazism, in Lidice, a small
community in Czechoslovakia, murdered
the Nazi, Reinhard Heydrich, who was
known as "The Hangman." In retaliation,
the Nazis burned all the Lidice homes,
imprisoned the women and the children,
lined up the 173 males and machine-
gunned them.
Lidice became a symbol of the liber-
tarianism of the free world. The small
Illinois community of Joliet, in tribute to
the martyrs of the Czechoslovakian city,
changed the name of their community to
Lidice. They erected a monument and its
dedication, with the pledge and rallying
call of "Lidice lives," attracted 55,000
people. The monument inscription read:
"In memory of the people of Lidice: De-
stroyed by barbarism but living forever
in the hearts of all who love freedom."
But today this monument serves as a
backstop for the former Joliet's sole base-
ball diamond. The residents of that com-
munity say they have many personal mat - 1
ters to worry about—the open sewer hole,
their children's need for a recreation field,,
their economic wants.
The survivor from Nazism, Charles
Burian, is heartsick. He would like to see
the monument rebuilt. He is a poor man,
but would like to plant flowers and ever-
greens because the spot "symbolizes all

WSU Honors Simons

Wayne State University's selection of
Leonard N. Simons for an honorary de-
gree represents recognition of the efforts
of a lay leader - to assist in the advance-
ment of our community's highest cultural
values. •
The awardee has labored in behalf of
universities, has assisted Brandeis Univer-
sity and the great school that has now
chosen to honor him; and he is currently
very active as chairman of a committee
that is collecting money for the United
Negro College Fund.
Simons gives untiringly of his time
and efforts to important community move-
ments. He is a civic-minded leader who
has earned the recognition accorded him.
We join his many friends in congratulat-
ing him on the great honor that is to be
given him by Wayne State University
next Thursday evening.

the men I knew who died because they
refused to change their beliefs."
*
*
*
Indeed, there are many Lidices that are
being forgotten. There are too many sym-
bols that are being discarded, their eternal
lights extinguished.
True,. all of us have our personal anxi-
eties. We all have our obligations to our
children, to our families. But there are
certain memories that inspire us to hold
on to our freedoms. That is why we have
just observed Decoration Day. That is why
we shall soon mark another Independence
Day.
That is why Jews celebrate the Pass-
over, remember Lag b'Omer, do not forget
Tisha b'Ab, honor Shevuot as the anni-
versary of Law-Giving on Sinai. The
moment we forget the past, we sacrifice
the human element in remembering the
good to perpetuate it and in keeping in
view the evil so that we may prevent its
recurrence.
The revelation about forgetfulness at
Lidice in Illinois should serve once again
to inspire knowledge about the events
which turned more than a decade of world
history into mass butcheries in Europe.
Forgetting history is dangerous to de-
mocracy and to liberty. Remembering
oppressions will strengthen our determin-
ation to prevent their repetition.
That is why we should deplore it so
much when youth—whether it is here or
in Israel or in England or anywhere else—
shuns links with the past and delcares its
concern only with the present and its own
needs for the immediate future.
We are admonished in Holy Scriptures
(Deut. 4:9) : "Only take heed to thyself,
and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou
forget the things which thine eyes saw,
and lest they depart from thy heart . . ."
If we forget too quickly, we forgive
too quickly. And when we forgive crimes
like the Nazis' we almost condone them.
Let us beware of that! For if we for-
get, we endanger our liberties and the
securities of generations to come.

JTA's 40th Anniversary

Editors and publishers of English-
Jewish newspapers in this country will
mark an important anniversary, at their
convention in New York, during the
June 13-17 week-end, when they will in-
augurate the worldwide celebration of the
40th anniversary of the Jewish Telegraphic
Agency.
Jewish newspapers everywhere would
be in great difficulty, in their efforts to
gather news about our people from all
parts of the globe, without the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency, whose three-lettered
symbol—JTA—has become internationally
known as the guarantee for accuracy in
providing the world with Jewish news.
The Jewish communities, however, are
the major beneficiaries from this vital
news-gathering agency. Without JTA, all
links between them would have been en-
dangered and some would have been
broken. It is the JTA that has kept our
people fully informed on what is happen-
ing in Jewish ranks—in Israel, in Europe,
Africa, Asia and the remotest corners of
the globe.
JTA keeps American Jewry advised,
through its able Washington correspon-
dent, Milton Friedman, on events in the
nations's capital. JTA's chain of corre-
spondents everywhere assist in watching
out for Jewry's interests.
Under the able editorship of Boris
Smolar and the efficient management of
Victor Bienstock, JTA serves our people
well. We congratulate JTA on its 40th
anniversary and wish it well in all its
future activities.

779

—JTA Cartoon by Oscar Liebman

An Inspired and Scholarly Work

'Hebrew: The Eternal Language

In MO, Prof. Shalom Spiegel wrote an inspiring- book,
"Hebrew Reborn." It was the first extensive volume dealing
with the subject of the revived sacred tongue of our people.
Now we are blessed with another very scholarly work,
"Hebrew: The Eternal Language," by Dr. William Chomsky. The
Jewish Publication Society deserves the warmest commendations
for having provided Dr. Chomsky with the opportunity to write
this valuable work.
-
This new book combines many • valuable 'elements. It is
highly technical in its explanations of how the language took
form, how the vowel system was evolved, the development ()t-
its grammar, the evolution of square and cursive Hebrew
scripts, etc.
But it also has the great merit of reviewing the history of
the language's development, the manner of its survival, its
present-day significance as the spoken and diplomatic tongue
of a new State, and its importance for American Jewry.

Dr. Chomsky, commenting on the general belief that the
rebirth of Hebrew is "one of the great miracles of our day,"
states that "few people realize that as a matter of fact Hebrew
had never died." The proof he offers to support his contention
is incorporated in a fascinating chapter in Ms book. "To be
sure, the modern revival of the Hebrew language is a signifi-
cant phenomenon," he writes, "but one must not lose sight
of the greater and more striking wonder of a language that
persisted as a functional argan and not as a museum exhibit for
a period of two thousand years under the most adverse condi-
tions, deprived of a geographical milieu and in the midst of
an all-prevailing majority culture. History can record- no
parallel case.'

He adds: "The fact of the matter is that Hebrew never diet
those instrumental in the modern revival of Hebrew did not
have to create a new language. They merely had to refurbish
and put to modern use some of the words, expressions and idioms -
•hat have lived for centuries in literary form, as well as in the
mental patterns of the Jewish people."

The noted scholar evaluates the Jews' as "the People at
the Book"—a title given us since the days of Mohammed. He
describes the dynamism of the Bible as "a living fountain, the
mainspring of Jewish civilization,- a book that has grown and
evolved in the creative imagination of the Jewish people and
has been brought near to our own times by the 'mouth' of
Jewish tradition and reinterpretation . . The Bible is also the
fountainhead of the Hebrew language. It has set the pattern
for Hebrew structure and grammar. Its vocabulary, idioms and
locutions still retain their pristine freshness and potency, and
modern Hebrew writers continue to turn to the Bible as the
main source and model for style and. diction . . . A large num-
ber of new words and expressions have been added to and
incorporated in the Hebrew language, but the biblical pattern
is still focal and predominant . . ."

Dr. Chomsky throws much light on the use of Aramaic by
Abraham and his kinsmen and its gradual displacement by
"Can.aanitic" Hebrew. Outlining the extent of the use of Aramaic,
he shows that "Abraham's descendants in Canaan already spoke
a pure Hebrew." He explains that the Hebrew people were in
close contact with Aramaic "both at the dawn of their history,
and toward the end of the biblical stage in their career, and
even beyond that stage," and points to Aramaic prayers—Kol
Nidre, Kaddish and others—and . Aramaic portions in some Biblical .
books and in Daniel.
Influences from Yiddish and other languages, the biblical
and mishnaic styles of great Jewish writers, and the manner in
which Hebrew has met the exigencies of modern life, are
admirably outlined in this book.

There is an interesting reference to Dr. Theodor Heres
choice of the name "Altneuland" for his novel about the ideal
Jewish State and the subsequent translation of the book into
Hebrew by Nahum Sokolaw under the title "Tel Aviv" which
was chosen "as the most appropriate equivalent of the German
title `Altneuland,', 'tel' (mound, ruin) indicating 'old,' while
cavil,' (spring) symbolizes the new. This name was accordingly
also selected by the builders of the new city."

The influence of Hebrew upon English, the progress made
in the teaching of Hebrew in this country, the development of
Hebrew periodicals and writers, are reviewed here. (This
reviewer regrets that Dr. Chomsky has failed to mention the
work of the Detroit scholar, Bernard Isaacs, whose Hebrew
stories have been published in this country and in Israel; and
his failure to include among the Hebrew publications in this
country the Detroit-sponsored periodical "Hed Hakvutzah," which
was inspired by Mr. Isaacs.)
Much more can be and should be said than is now incor-
porated in a comparatively brief review. More, therefore,

be said about it.

