Urgently Needed
Protection Urgently
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
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
This Sabbath, the twenty-sixth day of Tebet, 5717, the following Scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Vaera, Ex. 6:2 - 9:35. Prophetical portion, Ezekiel 28:25-29:21.
Rosh Hodesh Shevat occurs on Wednesday.
xx.114V-12MV7-444
41.4e82,
Licht Benshen, Friday, Jan. 17, 4:48 p.m.
VOL. XXXII. No. 20
Page Four
January 17, 1958
President Eisenhower's Strongest Message
In his impressive address to Con-
gress — the best address he has yet
delivered on the state of the Nation and
our needs for future action — President
Eisenhower laid stress on a very signifi-
cant point. While urging "greater use of
repayable loans, through the Develop-
ment Loan Fund, through funds gener-
ated by sale of surplus farm products,
and through the Export-Import Bank," he
also appealed for the reconstruction of
impoverished areas in the world as the
best means of attaining peace.
The President's appeal, addressed to
the Soviet Union, whom he challenged to
cooperate with us in fighting poverty and
disease in backward countries. is a con-
structive approach. It parallels the plead-
ings of Israeli leaders who have pointed
out that what is needed in the Middle
East is not to accentuate militarism but
rather to improve the lot of oppressed
and disease-ridden people, to establish
schools and hospitals instead of building
up military machines, to fight poverty
instead of perpetuating it.
*
*
It is our natural hope that the Pres-
ident's declaration that we "must con-
tinue to strengthen" the mutual security
efforts of our nation includes also Israel.
The Jewish State is inseparable from this
country's undertakings to improve the
lot of struggling small nations.
What we hope for especially is that
the President's emphasis on the improve-
ment of the health of peoples in countries
affected by the present world crisis will
not fall on deaf ears. It is easy to arouse
passions and to create discontent. It will
be much easier to attain peace when the
major stress is laid upon educating
people, upon restoring health to the ail-
ing, upon eradicating diseases, upon
fighting cancer.
*
*
*
It is possible that the need for
stronger defense measures, in view of Itzhak Ben-Zvi's Book in English
the unfortunate race that has engulfed
mankind, was responsible for the Pres-
ident's silence on the continuing immigra-
tion problem. But the assertions of Sen-
ators Jacob K. Javits and Irving M. Ives
Itzhak Ben-Zvi, the President of Israel, is known as one of
that they will strive for an overhauling Jewry's most distinguished scholars. He is especially qualified to
of existing immigration laws offers prom- speak as an authority about the Jewries in Moslem countries.
He had written an important volume, "Nidhe YisFael."
ise that the subject will not be pigeon-
Now we are privileged to have it in.
holed, that it will be revived and that
an English translation. The Jewish
Publication Society of America has
some relief measures may be adopted.
just issued the translation into Eng-
In the meantime, all Americans hope
lish, by Isaac A. Abbady, under the
title "The Exiled and the Redeemed."
for the advancement of our defense plans,
The accumulated interesting facts
so that we may retain the scientific and
abOut the dispersed and regathered
technological leadership that is needed
communities, in this volume, are es-
for our security. All of us naturally hope
pecially valuable at this time, when
so many Jews from Moslem countries
that the President's Program for firm ac-
are pouring into Israel.
tion for America's defense will bring the
The product of continuous research
into the fields he has explored, Ben-
desired results.
'The Exiled and the Redeemed'
Is a Highly Scholarly Work
Premier Ben-Gurion's Struggle for Peace
Israel Prime Minister David Ben-
Gurion's return to leadership of his
country does not offer very strong secu-
rity for his reconstituted Cabinet. While
Aid for 3 Colleges
Detroit Jewry this month is evidenc-
ing a special interest in higher educa-
tional institutions.
Supplementing the contributions our
community makes to our elementary
schools, to the Hebrew University and
the Technion in Israel, with Allied Jewish
campaign funds, a commendable interest
has been shown, at special events spon-
sored this month, in the Technion's build-
ing program and in the work of Bar-Ilan
University:
Additionally, Detroit Jews will be
aiding substantially the Yeshiva Univer-
sity in New York and its Albert Einstein
Medical School, by establishing the John
E. Lurie Scholarship Fund in these
schools.
Especially noteworthy is the latter
effort, which honors a distinguished De-
troit Jewish citizen and at the same time
assists in the work of a recognized school
that is rendering great service with its
secular as well as specifically Jewish
educational activities.
Our community's interest in educa-
tional institutions deserves commenda-
tion. We are about to commence a great
fund-raising effort, for the annual Allied
Jewish Campaign. There is no doubt that
the response again will be heartening,
that the contributions will be generous
and that Detroit Jews will not desert
either the local and national agencies or
Israel and the overseas causes that are
supported in our annual campaign. The
assistance given the schools of higher
learning must surely be viewed as sup-
plementary, thus indicating that there is
no limit to our generosity.
there was an agreement that security
decisions are not to be publicized, the
protests that are being heard against the
extension of censorship is certain to
plague the Prime Minister and his asso-
ciates.
One major fact must be taken into
consideration: that the crisis that was
weathered by Prime Minister Ben-Gurion
was the result of his insistence upon ad-
hering to a policy of close cooperation
with the West. Those, however, who, be-
cause of their friendly leanings towards
Soviet Russia,, are advocating a policy of
"neutralism," do not relish his program.
Israel's Premier undoubtedly has in
view eventual peace for his country and
the entire area. He has a difficult task
ahead of him. The Western powers,
whose friendship he is wooing, are not
responding to him as Israel would hope
they would. And the Eastern bloc remains
antagonistic to the Jewish State. It is
a sad state of affairs. It could easily be
remedied by stronger friendship on the
part of this country and our allies. Per-
haps the coming months and the strength-
ening of NATO will bring a better atti-
tude for Israel.
However, the obstacles in Israel's
path have not diminished. In fact, efforts
to secure the necessary aid from this
country are meeting with obstructions,
due primarily to the increased need for
defense funds on the one hand and the
cry for budgetary cuts on the other.
Therefore the struggle for aid to Israel
goes on.
The struggle in Israel is not limited
to that nation or that area. It is part of
the vaster international conflict, and the
Ben-Gurion Cabinet crisis also is part of
the West-East controversy.
Freedom - and peace - loving peoples
hope for a speedy solution to the prob-
lem. For Israel, such hopes are linked
with that country's superhuman efforts
for survival.
Zvi's essays describe the positions of
the numerous communities under
study and their integration into Is-
rael's life and activities. It is as a re-
suit of his studies that "The Ben-Zvi
Itzhak Ben-Zvi
Institute" was established at the Hebrew University in order
to study conditions of Jewish communities in the Orient and
round the Mediterranean basin.
Ben-Zvi shows how these communities were motivated by
"an _ eagerness for a return to Zion and for a speedy end to
their life of degradation under Moslem rule." Only dim echoes
were heard by Jews in Moslem countries about Zionism. They
were geographically removed from European centers and they
kept aloof from Zionism.
Only Central and East European Jews at first settled in
Palestine. Then came the Arab war on Israel. Entire Jewish
communities began to transplant themselves into Israel with the
establishment of the Jewish State. Bulgarian Jewry was the
first. Then came all the Jews from Yemen, and Jews from
other Moslem countries started to pour into Israel.
Ben-Zvi evaluates the positions of the various oriental Jew-
ries and presents facts and figures about the new settlers in
Israel. He makes this touching appeal in behalf of these Jewries:
"It is to be regretted that oriental Jewry did not obtain
at the hands of the Jewish people that considerate treatment
which was once accorded to Polish Jews, and did not have the
benefit of national guidance and training for their settlement
in Israel.
"The time has now come to make good this defect. Much
work remains to be done, both in their countries of origin, be-
fore they come to Israel, and in their camps of transition in.
Israel. Any educative process must, however, proceed along
humane lines of sympathy and understanding which will em-
phasize the uniting rather than the separating elements. This
can be done, not by creating educational 'trends,' where they
do not exist, but by a uniform state education system. We
must train them to become free citizens of the state, using
one language, and adapting themselves to creative effort. 'We
must also train them to leadership. We must bring to the fore
their hidden and latent cultural potential, on which we may
all draw to enrich the common treasure of our people as a
whole. When this has been done, there is reason to hope that
this Jewry will take its responsible share in the reconstruction
of our state. To this end special research institutes for the
study of oriental Jewry must undoubtedly be encouraged ..
The day is not far off when they will rise to the national re-
sponsibility alongside the rest of Israel's tribes. Neglect in
this field is unpardonable, and any labor now involved in
regaining our lost brethren for the common cause of our
people will reward us immeasurably in the enhancement of our
national good."
Ben-Zvi's essays deal with the Jews in Yemen, the Cau-
casus, Georgia, Bukhara, Persia, Khaibar, Khazaria, Surinam,
Egypt, Mesopotamia, Himyar, Ethiopia and other centers of
Moslem influence. He discusses the Samaritans, Karaites and
Sabbateans. It is an enlightening story and his book should be
made "must reading" wherever Jewish history is studied.