No Mention of His Little Gremlin

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.

SIDNEY SHMARAK

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Advertising Manager

Editor and Publisher

CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ

Circulation Manager

FRANK SIMONS

City Editor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections

This Sabbath, Shabbat Nahamu. the thirteenth day of Ab, 5717, the following
Scriptural selections [Lill be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion. Vaethanan, Deuteronomy 3.23-7:11. Prophetical portion, Isaiah
40:1-26.

Licht Renshen. Friday. Aug. 9. 7:23 p.rn.

Page Four

VOL. XXXI. No. 23.

August. 9, 1957 );...

Vain Boasting as a Deterrent to Peace

The constant boasting reported from
the Kremlin and from Cairo is becoming
a bit too ludicrous. In the light of what
had transpired in Gaza and in Sinai only
nine months ago, the Russian double talk
and the speeches delivered by Nasser. as
a means of pacifying the Egyptian masses,
emerge as huge jokes.
Under the heading "'All Set Again," the
Detroit Free Press a few days ago pub-
lished this brief editorial:
"We noted an account of President
Nasser's big military review in Cairo
which led off with the statement that:
`Russia has fully restored President Nas-
ser's capacity for defending Egypt.' As
we recollect Nasser's capacity to defend
his country, the Israeli can get no far-
ther than the Suez Canal providing the
United States and the United Nations
are brisk about insisting that they quit
gobbling up Egyptian tanks, guns and
men, and go back to the starting 'point."
Is there any one to dispute this blunt
truth—unless it be Pravda or Nasser's
house organ?

*

*

*

Meanwhile there is renewed talk about
the Russian-Egyptian submarine deal.
Nasser is being photographed while exam-
ining one of the subs he received from the
Kremlin; and Moscow gloats that it has
"rescued" Syria from an Israeli attack?
Are there any gullible people left to
believe the avalanche of Kremlin-Damas-
cus-Cairo propaganda that is aimed at
inspiring hate and at deferring peace in
the Middle East?
* . *
*
Since there are renewed and repeated
reports about the alleged danger stem-
ming from the Russian-Egyptian subma-
rine deal, let us look into it. What are the
facts?
In an enlightening statement, "What
Can You Do With Three Submarines," the
Jewish Observer and Middle East Review,
of London, England. offered this analysis:

"On July 1, 1911, the Kaiser sent a German
gunboat with a crew of 125 men to the Moroc-
can port of Agadir. It was thought at the time
to be a brilliant move of activist diplomacy and
it threw the diplomats and politicians in Lon-
don and Paris into furious confusion. It seemed
to them that the Germans were about to get a
naval foothold in the Mediterranean. That night
Lloyd George went to the Mansion House and
indicated that the German action was an insult
which Britain 'would not endure.' The Fleet
was alerted to be ready as there were signs
that the Germans might launch an immediate
attack in response to Lloyd George's Mansion
House speech. It soon turned out, however, that
the Kaiser's jump into the Mediterranean was
not an act of brilliant initiative, but only one
of a series of blunders that were to lead to
Germany's—and the Kaiser's—downfall.
"The incident comes to mind when one
considers the action of the Soviet leaders-at this
stage after the despatch of the three submarines
to Egypt. Looked at coldly in the setting of
naval power in the Mediterranean, what does

it reveal? A Soviet demonstration of support
for President Nasser? But what kind of support
is this? What can the Egyptians do with them? ,
For any act of intervention against Israel ship-
ping would be considered an act of war which
would carry with it its own retribution; or
alternately, any act of interference with the
shipping of the free nations would bring the
U.S. Sixth Fleet on the scene; against this the
three submarines, whether manned by Egyp-
tians or Russians, would be quite helpless. So
what remains?
"Were they intended to boost Egyptian
morale, or to demonstrate to the Jordanians,
Lebanese and Saudi Arabians that Egypt has
powerful friends in the world? They might
serve this purpose to a limited extent, and for
a very short time. But what then? The Israelis
will make sure that they are covered, the
American Sixth Fleet will keep its weather-
eye on the subs, and that will be the end of the
morale boost. Or it might even happen that
the Arab leaders and public will make a simple
calculation which will show them that three
Russian submarines are not equal to the sixty
ships of the U.S. Fleet in the Mediterranean.
"In fact, it seems rather that the despatch
of the submarines, like the despatch of the
Panther to Agadir in 1911, was an act of des-
peration and, like most acts of desperation, a
first-class diplomatic blunder. It has been
known for some time that the Egyptian Gov-
ernment (more even than Colonel Nasser him-
self) have been pressing the Soviet Ambassa-
dor for some demonstrative act of support for
Egypt which would impress the Arab world
with the fact that Egypt was still the force that
had to be counted most in all Arab countries.
The Russians were clearly hesitant. They de-
layed doing anything until they were quite
certain that they would not get anything by
way of concession from the Western Powers.
And then they made their blunder.
"They made the one move that was bound
to consolidate Western naval interest in the
Middle East. Like the Kaiser at Agadir they
revealed their hand—and it was not a strong
hand. Far from it. It showed that compared
with a year ago, Soviet support for Egypt and
Syria has become more symbolic than real. In
place of arms and equipment—or of desperately
needed economic help—the Soviet Government
has supplied Egypt with three submarines;
submarines for what?
"The three submarines, which were meant
as a demonstration of Nasser's strength, now
appear rather as the publication of his surren-
der, and of the Soviet Union's inability to
match U.S. armed strength in the Middle East.
It looks like Bulganin's Agadir."
*
*

There is a Yiddish saying that "afile a
katz ken kalie machen"—even a cat can
cause damage." It is possible that three
submarines could be in position to cause
a great deal of damage. But from all indi-
cations the present submarine deal is a
mere exhibition of military vanity and of

boastfulness.
Its worst element is the fact that it

.

%PM

Translated From the Yiddish

Dramas in 'The Survivors'
Recalls Terrors Under Nazism

Six

Six deeply-moving one-act dramas, by Morris • Freed, have
just been published under the collective title "The Survivors"
by Sci-Art Publishers, Harvard Sq., Cambridge 38, Mass.
Translated from the Yiddish by A. D. Mankoff, these plays
depict the tragedy of Jews under the Nazis, in concentration
camps and under threat of extermination.
The publishers point out that the printing of this collectiop
of dramas is a departure from their regular sphere and thAt
they were moved to do it because, while readers may complain
"of the gruesomeness surrounding these plays," "we believe
that a dose ofrisuch gruesomeness is the best preventive medicitel
against the recurrence of the fiendish atrocities, whether
Germany or lsewhere."

"To forget what has happened so recently," the publishers
declare, "would only afford the wolves and jackals that are
still roaming this earth . . • the opportunity of renewing
their beastly activities."

Gruesomely enough. the first play is entitled "Soap" (a
macabre fant4sy), and in it the piece of soap in the play
reveals the tragedy of its having been made by the Nazis out
of the corpses of Jev;ish victims of the cruel German Hitlerite
regime.
"The Mad (?) Khanah Bashke" is a monologue, the tragic
heroine speaking to an imaginary child of which she was robbed
by the Nazi beasts. While it is permeated with terror, this play,
too, is a reminder of the Nazi crimes.
In "An Unanswered Prayer" there also is only one
character, Benedict, a former rabbinical student, a DP in his
early twenties who talks to himself of reveng against Fritz,
who comments to himself that he acted like a coward in not
fighting back, but whose final words in the a t are:

"I am aft all not a Nazi murderer. I am 4t as accursed

after all—a Jew!"
German_ I
There is a love story in "Coupled by Fate," the one acct
play about a couple of DPs.
The danger to the lives of Jews under the Nazis also is
revealed in the one-act wedding story, "Sparks."
The concluding dramatic poem, "The Seven Who Were
Hanged," is the longest in the book. It exposes all the horrors
in the ghetto streets, the feelings of the innocently condemned,
the protests of raped girls, the passionate appe ls for justice
and for the end to tyranny.

-

Irwin Shaw's Splendid Stories

continues to act as a deterrent to peace—
Irwin Shaw is one of America's most delightful story-tellers.
that it is another unholy deal between the
magazines have provided enter-
Kremlin and the Nasser-Syrian combine to His short stories in national
reading for Americans for more than two decades.
keep the Middle East divided and to cause taining
Similarly, his several books of short stories already have
trouble for Israel.
filled great needs for good narratives. -
The fact that he played varsity football or Brooklyn College

Educators' 'Call to Jewish Parents'

The practice of observing an Annual
Education Month, originally established by
the United Hebrew Schools of Detroit
more than 30 years ago, now is being con-
tinued as part of our nationwide educa-
tional program. -
This year's Jewish Education Month,
set by the American Association for Jew-
ish Education for Sept. 6 to Oct. 6, is
linked with the effort to cope with the
:hortage of personnel in Jewish schools-
The major appeal is directed to the
American Jewish parent who is called
upon, in an annual "Call to Jewish Par-
ents," "to become conscious of your duty
towards your children by enrolling them
in a school of your choice and by seeing
to it that the experience of Jewish school-

5/€' 4510

•

ing continues beyond The elementary
years."
Our educators recognize the difficulties
in the path of enrolling more children
in our schools. A major difficulty is the
shortage of competent teachers. The at-
tempts that have been made to train teach-
ers in specially-created Jewish seminaries
have not been too successful. But the
awareness of the problem may lead to-
wards its solution.
Meanwhile it is urgent that parents
should plan to send their children to Jew-
ish schools. The existence of a large stu-
dent body must, of itself, arouse greater
interest in our schools and their needs

has helped him in creating interesting characters in the sports
field. But he has so keen an understanding of people, and his
knowledge of many countries including our own is so exten.

sive, tnat he writes with humor, with sharp insight.

A native New Yorker, he knows the city of his birth and
its people.
His background has made him a master of the art
story-telling.
This is in evidence again in his newest work, "Pip On a
Dead Jockey," just published by Random House (457 Madison,
N. Y. 22).
ere his knowledge of European countries comes
This is
veral of this ten stories in this fine book deal
into play.
with America in Europe. It is the fact that he knows Americans
as well as ope that emerges from these tales.
The initi title story, with its love angle, its racing elements,
its French en ironment and American cast, is an excellent intro-
ductory story in a volume that is full of action narratives. "In
the French S,1, le" is similarly exciting, as are also: "A Wicked
Story," "Age of Reason," "Peter Two," -The Kiss at Croton
Falls," "Then We Were Three," "The Sunny Banks of the River
and may eventually lead to a solution Lethe," "The Wedding of a Friend" and "Voyage Out, Voyage
Home." Ind- ,•, it is a splendid collection of fine stories.
of the difficulties confronting them.

of

