THE JEWISH NEWS

Vacation Time

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 • FRANK SIMONS

Circulation Manager

City Editor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the _sixteenth day of Sivan, 5717, the following Scriptural selections will be
• read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Shelah L'cha, Number 13:1-15:41. Prophetical portion's, Joshua 2:1-24.

Licht Benshen, Friday, June 14, 7:50 p.m.

VOL. XXXI. No. 15

Page Four

June 14, 1957

Abba Eban on Israel's Right to Exist

Upon the conclusion of his truly great
address. on "Israel and the Middle East,"
before the School of Foreign Service. at
Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.,
Israel's Ambassador Abba Eban was
. asked: "What is the legal. basis for Israel's
existence as a state? Was it morally
right to uproot one million Arabs from
their homes?" -
Ambassador Eban's answer is impor-
tant because this question is asked so
often. The Ambassador replied:

"I don't think we have to find a legal
basis for our statehood. I don't know how many
countries can. find a legal basis for their state-
hood-. I don't want to begin with charity at
home. States arise because they exist, and then
their existence becomes recognized by other
states and the community of nations is estab-
lished. There is one interesting thing about
this question.. It happens that _ nearly every
state . in the world was founded either by
successful military exploits or by an .act of
swift secession and rebellion, not respectable
at the time but ratified by subsequent history.
In fact, -most states were founded by an act
of inspired illegality.
"You should read the British coMmentaries
on your Declaration of Independence in the
- 18th
century. And as you will remember most .
of the conservative opinion in Europe con-
sidered that this was a terrible breach of
law, rebellion. against constituted authority,
and the founders of your Republic stated that
a decent respect: fOr the opinions of mankind .
compelled you to -set down the reasons why
your Founding Fathers behaved in that way
and •why they did what others thought was.
an act of rebellion. And, therefore, one
shouldn't ask a state to vindicate its statehood
in the first few years. With Israel, however,
there is one distinction in our favor. We were
the first state in the world which was sum-
moned into existence through the recommenda'-
Lion of the General Assembly preceding our
statehood. It was the first time in history that
the world community had said, let this State
. be established, in-stead of letting the state
establish itself by its own unilateral strength.
"We, therefore, are perhaps one of the few
states of the world with an international birth
certificate in a world of uneasy virtue; and
the present legal basis for our statehood is
our membership in _ the United Nations, and
any _member of the United Nations has iden-
tical statehood with any other member of the
United Nations. And all the 81 are members
of a society of which the basic .premise as
described in our Charter.. is the sovereign
quality of all Member States. That means that
in these terms of statehood Laos is the same
as the United -States . and Cambodia is the
same as the Soviet Union and Israel is the
same as France or Britain. That is the concept
of sovereign equality.
"With reference to the uprooting of Arabs
from their homes, it was not moral. The war
was immoral, the aggression against Israel was
immoral, and this uprooting is a part of the
immoral act of those who decided to overthrow
the State of Israel by armed force. Not merely
the havoc of that war of 1948, the defiance of
international authority, but the creation of this
plight of Arab refugees are all heavy burdens
on the moral responsibilitY of those countries
led by Egypt who decided upon that war. You
cannot decide for a war and then not be
responsible for its consequences."

Meanwhile, questions about the refugee •
problem crop up time and time. It is an
aggravated issue that surely calls for
solution. Israel is not unaware of its im-
plications. Mr. Eban also was asked about
this problem after his Georgetown Uni-
versity speech. For the sake of clarifying
a tragic issue, we draw upon the wisdom
of Israel's able Ambassador to quote the
following from his reply:
".1 want to suggest to you the heresy that

this is not the most important problem of the
Middle East; it is a subsidiary and secondary
problem; it is not a primary cause, it is a
result. It is a result of belligerency, it is a
a result of a refusal to make peace.
"Could there be anything, easier than for
Arab states which have 4,000,000 square miles
of territory and 50,000,000 people and 12
sovereignties and nine of the great rivers and

unlimited resources, to offer kinship and sanc-
tuary and shelter to men of their own nation,

of their own brotherhood, of their own people,
of their own kindred if the spirit of kinship
were to move them? If the tiny State of Israel
with 8,000 square miles and meager resources
could under the pressure of siege and of war
provide home and citizenship and work, the
dignity of labor, for 800,000 people, destitute
wanderers, 400,000 of them from Arab coun-
tries, how .much more easily could the vast
Arab world find home and work and citizen-
ship , and labor for an identical number of
people if only the will existed? The refugee
problem is perpetuated by an act of _will. It
is not difficult for the governments of the
Middle East to solve it. Just - to take down
the barbed wire, to allow the spontaneous
-merging of these ,people into the expanding
labor markets of the Arab world, to bring
surplus population to areas and countries which
suffer a dearth of population, to do all of
these would be trivial compared to some of the
great refugee problems.
"The Turco-Greek exchange, whereby a
million and a half Turks and Greeks were
,settled, each within the framework of his own
cultural, social, and ethnic loyalty, Israel's
vast effort in refugee resettlement, Korea,
India, everywhere else these problems have
been settled because the governments con-
cerned wished to settle them. EveryWhere
these problems have been settled not by a
return to the status quo but by integrating
refugees into those societies with which they
are akin in language and in loyalty and in
-sentiment. The refugee .prob/em would not sur-
vive six months of any purposeful willingness
by. the Arab governments to help a solution.
And, therefore, what we face is the attitude
which opposes a, solution.
"We sometimes pass eccentric - resolutions
in the United Nations, but to think that there
is anybody in his right mind and senses who
believes that the way to solve this problem
is to take 700,000 people who for eight years
have been taught to hate and despise Israel's
flag and Israel's statehood and to put them
back into the State which they have been
taught to hate and despise and to think that
is how you get peace, when there is the
alternative of settling these people in lands
with which they are akin, surely nobody
believes that."

-

One other question seems to disturb the
thinking of some people. Ambassador
Eban was asked what boundaries would
be acceptable to Israel. Since the Arab
politicians would; if they could, depriVe
Israel of all of her territory, this explana-
tion by Mr. Eban is worth recording:

"One thing we do not believe about Israel,
that Israel is too big. I don't know if anybody
here with his American concepts of space and
of security can imagine the sense of construc-
tion which a people has when it lives within
8,000 square miles of territory, half of it as yet
uninhabited. Now the partners in this terri-
torial discussion are on the one hand the Arab
States, 4,000,000 square miles and 12 sovereign-
ties. In other .words, the Arab States are 50. 0
times our size in area and 30 times our size
in population.
"This does not build up a strong ca-se for
the idea • that the Arab - empire cannot live
without a piece of the Israeli domain. It would
be rather like saying that unless the Soviet
Union has a piece of Luxembourg, justice is
not done, and that is precisely the ratio of our
territorial expanse. Therefore, our position is
that we have grown within the present from-
. tiers, they are not generous, they are not
altogether convenient, but we're not prepared
for any substantive change in the territorial
distribution between Israel on the one hand
and the Arab States on the other. And if the
Arab States are brought to. a position in which
they can bear to live with an Israel at all, they
will surely not find this particular Israel too

big."

tt

New Edition of Dr. Kaplan's Great Work

'Judaism as a Civilization'

More than 20 years have passed since the appearance o
the first edition of Dr. Mordecai M. Kaplan's "Judaism as a
Civilization," the powerful analysis of Jewish-ideals and move-
ments, which has since become. a guide for many "toward a
reconstruction of Jewish life." It has served as the textbook for
-Reconstructionism, which has since, also, become a vital move-
ment in American Jewish life.
This illuminating work now appears in a new edition, pub-
lished by Thomas Yoseloff (11.E. 36th,
N.Y. 16). Once again, it is certain to
revolutionize thinkircg in American
Jewry, to call the attention of larger
numbers of people to the Reconstruc-
tionist movement, and to arouse in-
terest in the idea of Judaism as a
civilization.
It is a large book carefully and
extensively annotated. It proves many
things: the values of traditions and
the necessity for adherence to them;
Dr. Kaplan
the importance of Zionism; the need -
for integrating into Jewish life all the constructive forces
within it.
Evaluating Judaism as a civilization, the eminent author,
who is recognized as one of the leading scholars and religious
interpreters of our time, • describing the essential factors in
an approach to Judaism, declares: "That interest can be
achieved only if Judaism is intensely related to one's own
personality. The Jew must so identify himself with every
facet of Jewish life that all aspects of it find their reflection
in him. The Jew cannot live 'Judaism as a civilization unless
the past of his people becomes his own past, unless his entire
being becomes a nerve that reaches out to the life of his -people,
and is aware of their every experience . . ."
There is a criticism of Neo-Orthodoxy. Asserting that -there
is• an unconscious deviation from traditional Judaism in Neo-
Orthodoxy, Dr. Kaplan states: "To Neo-Orthodoxy, Israel is
little more than a community of men and women banded to-
gether for the observance of the Torah, a role which it has in
serious and fundamental aspects largely surrendered. Neo-
Orthodoxy, like the Reformist movement, which it is combating,
regards all the institutions of national life as quite secondary in
importance, if not altogether superfluous. It substitutes for
Jewish nationhood a mission of its own, the messianic program
of propagating the teachings of the Torah, and it envisages the
ultimate realization of this program. It is obvidus, however, that
Neo-Orthodoxy does not take its messianism seriously, for char-
acteristically enough it refuses to press the point of Israel's
future. When messianism is a potent spiritual urge, it produces
messianic movements, as it once did in Israel_ But Neo-
Orthodoxy is too sophisticated to produce messiahs. It is clear
that Neo-Orthodoxy's baldness speaks louder in word than in
deeds, in protestations of belief than in any program of action."
There are serious criticisms also of Reform, and one must
ask whether all of them are justified, in• view of the changes
that have taken places in both Orthodoxy and Reform, especially
in relation to the emphasis on traditions and to the recognition
of national aspects in Judaism which had been negated a quarter
of a century ago.
In his evaluation of the nationhood of Israel, Dr. 'Kaplan
emphasizes that "the restoration- of the Jews to national status
will contribute to, rather than detract from, international-
mindedness."
Among the most interesting chapters in "Judaism as a
Civilization" are those in which Dr. Kaplan discusses Jewish
folkways, Zionism and Jewish education.
The eindnent author places emphasis on the importance of
the observance of the Sabbath and declares that "the Sabbath
must make itself felt in the home . . . During the Sabbath day,
the home should have a distinct Sabbath atmosphere. How to
spend the day outside the home should constitute the problem for
the synagogue, or neighborhood center, which should provide the
aci i es for- spending the day with physical and spiritual
advantage."
He offers a program for creative Judaism: 1. To rediscover
Judaism by learning to know its true - scope and character.
2. To redefine the national status and reorganize the communal
life of the Jew. 3. To revitalize traditions.
He declares that "the Jew will have to save Judaism before
Judaism will be in a position to save the Jew. The Jew is so
circumstanced -now that the only way he can achieve salvation
is by replenishing the 'wells of salvation' which have run dry.
He must rediscover, reinterpret and reconstruct the civilization
of his people. To do that he must be willing to live up to a
program that spells nothing less than a maximum of Jewishness."
Even those who differ with Dr. Kaplan will find a well of
inspiration in his impressive work, "Judaism as a Civilization"

We have quoted basic facts. We offer
them in the interest of truthful informa-
tion. • It is vital that the American people,
and more especially Israel's American
Jewish. kinsmen who have unselfishly
came to the assistance of the struggling
young state, should know the truth about
existing Middle Eastern problems. The
data we have just offered should go a
long way in removing misunderstandings
about vital problems and in creating bet-
ter attitudes toward Israel.
is worth reading—and re-reading.

