Don't Start Trouble to Middle East
THE JEWISH NEWS
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 U.
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
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Incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
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FRANK SIMONS
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the fourth day of Shvat, 5718, the following Scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentetauchel portion, Bo, Ex. 10:1-13:16. Propretical portion, Je•. 46:13-28.
Licht Benshen, Friday, Jan. 24, 4:56 p.m.
VOL. XXXII. No. 21
Page Four
January 24, 1958
An Anti-Israel 'Diplomat's' Anti-Zionist Cloak
A former member of our diplomatic
corps, Harold B. Minor, who held the
Ambassadorial post in Lebanon and now
is employed by the Arabian American
Oil Company, has let loose an attack on
Israel under the smokescreen of "inter-
national Zionism."
As is usual in such instances, our
former Ambassador to Lebanon also
waxes sanctimonious while subtly imply-
ing an anti-Israel threat.
Addressing the Southern Assembly
sponsored by Tulane University in Biloxi,
Miss., Mr. Minor, proposing a "realistic"
assessment of the Arab-Israeli conflict,
expressed the view that there is a dis-
tinction between an Israel as an inte-
grated Near Eastern nation and an Israel
as a goal of international Zionism. He
said: "The American stake in the Middle
East is in jeopardy, time is running out
on us and it is urgent that we find a
solution to this primary roadblock that is
not so much a question of Israel as of
international Zionism."
* * *
One would imagine, on the basis of-
this fantastic statement, that Mr. Minor.
was a warm friend of Israel, that he
recognizes Israel's right to existence, that
his sense of justice and fair play would
bring him to the defense of the Israelis
in the event of attack from Arab states.
But the moment he jumps on the bogey
of "international Zionism" he immediate-
ly becomes subject to suspicion.
What is international Zionism? Does
Mr. Minor understand its merits? Since
he fails to explain its demerits but merely
resorts to an appeal to passion, we are
compelled to go back to the alpha and the
beta of the movement and to explain it
briefly, in the hope that he might then
also understand its omega.
Zionism began as a dream and as a
hope. Since it was the dream and the
hope of a people dispersed throughout
the world, it became a world movement.
As such, it cannot be denied that it is an
international movement. But it is not
international in the sense that "inter-
national" movements often have been
interpreted as conspiracies or as threats
to "nationalisms." The internationalism
is tantamount in its humanitarianism to
world religious movements, to the efforts
of human beings to help their fellow-
humans.
*
It is apparent that those who have invented
the bogey of "international Zionism" and are
clinging to it as a weapon against the Jewish
people, the State of Israel and the Israelis
either never knew or do not care to know
what had brought the movement into existence.
There were eighteen million Jews in the
world before the last world war. Most of them
lived in lands of oppression. They and their
children had no hopes for a brighter future.
The, only hope they had was emigration. It is
for this reason that three million Jews found
havens of refuge in lands of freedom—in the
United States and in other English-speaking
countries. But for the rest there was no hope
whatsoever. Every avenue of escape from
tyranny was closed to them. A bigot in Russia
went so far as to say, in the days of the brutal
Czarist regime, that there would be a three-
fold way of solving the "Jewish problem": by
converting a third of Russia's Jews, who then
numbered more than six million, to Christian-
ity; by killing off another third and by com-
pelling the last third to emigrate.
Such was the spirit that dominated over
the oppressed Jewish people only four decades
Romania and Hungary, in Moslem countries
and in other backward lands. Is it any wonder
that Jews rebelled against such brutality, that
they sought means to attain self-emancipation,
that they responded with fervor to the Zionist
ideal?
There were Jews who were motivated in
their Zionism by the Prophetic visions — by
the predictions that Jewry's national existence
would one day be reconstructed, that there
would be a renewal of Jewish independence
in the ancient homeland. Prophecy was never
abandoned in Jewish history, and although it
is true that the overwhelming number of Jews
who settled in Palestine — more recently in
Israel — were driven to it by anti-Semitism
and by the cruelty of peoples, the basic
national dream played an important role in
Zionist ideology and activity.
4,
Now, then, we have spoken of "the Zionist
ideal," and we propose to define it a bit more.
Indeed, the beginnings for a re-established
Israel were in Zionism—"international" Zion-
ism, if the Minors choose to so label the world
movement of self-liberation. It was an inter-
national movement of decency and humani-
tarianism. It was one of the most liberatarian
of all undertakings in modern times.
After World War I, Lord Robert Cecil, the
eminent British leader, commented that the
only very great results of that war were the
founding of the League of Nations and the
issuance of the Balfour Declaration favoring
the re-establishment of the Jewish National
Home in Palestine. President Woodrow Wilson
concurred in this view. The most eminent
Christians in the world recognized the justice
of the Zionist idea.
Zionism, indeed, was recognized as one of
the world's great humanitarian causes. Nothing
at all has happened to change its status. On
the contrary, its fulfillment, the realization of
the Zionist dream, lends added significance to
this movement.
Mr. Minor stated in his address that the
"American stake in the Middle East is usually
seen as oil and military bases, but the greater
stake is really the friendship of the peoples."
We concur! And we must ask him to add that
Israel remains the friendliest of the democ-
racies, the most consistent pleader for peace
in that area, the only nation in the entire
Middle East that does not threaten any one
else with extinction.
By implying "sins"_ to a bogey "inter-
national Zionism," Mr. Minor encourages the
Arabs he represents in their demands for
Israel's destruction, in spite of his assertion in
his Biloxi address: "The question may be stated
as being not whether Israel will exist, but
what kind of Israel?" Thereupon followed the
meanest of his inferences—his accusation that
Israel seeks expansion and an expression of
doubt whether Israel is "devoted to the great
Judaic principle of love."
Indeed, what kind of Israel? The Jewish
answer is a secure Israel, an Israel that has
the right to defend herself. Mr. Minor fails
to offer the Jewish State this elementary right
to an honorable existence.
Mr. Minor has rendered a great disservice
to Israel, to the Jewish people and to lovers
of true liberty among all nations.
YIVO Social Science Annual
Essays on Yiddish Translations,
19th Century German Jews in N.Y.
A wealth of material is incorporated in Volume XI of the
YIVO Annual of Jewish Social Science, published by the YIVO
Institute for Jewish Research, 1048 5th Ave., N. Y. 28.
There are interesting notes by Willy Aron on the Jewish
contacts and ancestry of Sigmund Freud. Moses Kremer de-
scribes the Jewish artisans of 16th-19th century Poland and Dr.
Jacob Lestchinsky reviews the structure of Jews in Interbellum
Poland. "Nazi impacts on mother-child relations in Poland are
told by Renee Fodor.
There are valuable essays by Isaac Levitats, Abraham H.
Steinberg, Boris M. Levinson, Max Wiener, Bernhard Brilling
and Isaiah Trunk.
The two leading essays prove especially intriguing to this
reviewer.
Rudolf Glanz's "German Jews in New York City in the 19th
Century" is a revealing account of the activities of the early
German Jews in this country.
This essay tells about Jewish observances, the keen inter-
est taken by Jews in their cultural and charitable undertak-
ings and the respectful interest shown them by their non-
Jewish neighbors.
There were manifestations of anti-Semitism, but they were
overcome with dignity.
There even was an occasion for a boycott against a dis-
criminating store, and Stewart's retail store soon went - out of
business as a result.
To a description of a. "Merry Purim" celebration in 1882
is appended this note: "Evidently non-Jews also participated
in such occasions. Included in the list of guests of this party
was 'Mr. Theodore Roosevelt.' "
A great deal of research went into Rhoda S. Kachuck's
essay "Sholom Aleichem's Humor in English Translation." This
able young writer points out the errors committed in some trans-
lations. She shows that there was carelessness in some of
Nathan Ausubel's translations, although she commends him for
some of his efforts. She reaches these interesting conclusions
"The 'most untranslatable of writers', Sholom Aleichem,
can be rendered in English with a great deal of success by
earnest, competent translators . . "
She points out that "his language-humor of the illogical,
of garrulity, of double meaning, of imagery and description"
become "less invincible" after her analysis. Indeed, her study
should serve as an excellent guide for all txanslators from the
Yiddish.
Dr. Goldin's 'Living Talmud'
'The Wisdom of the Fathers'
"Pirke Abot" — "The Wisdom of the Fathers" — has had
many commentators and numerous translators. Non-Jews as well
as Jews have utilized these important commentaries for spe-
cialized studies.
Dr. Judah Goldin has added another
interpretative volume to the large "Pirke
Abot" library already in existence.
The University of Chicago Press
We hope that what he has truly ac- (5750 Ellis Ave., Chicago 37) has just
"The Living Talmud: The
complished is to give a shot in the arm published of his
the Fathers and Its Classical
to the great Zionist humanitarian move- Wisdom
Commentaries." Dr. Goldin has trans-
ment so that its supporters will refuse lated these commentaries and has writ-
to be maligned, so that Israel's defenders ten a fine interpretation of them.
will reject false diplomacy, and the non-
An introductory essay on the Tal-
Jewish world will revert once again to mud adds to the layman's understand-
an acknowledgment of the justice of a ing of the complicated Talmudic dis-
great cause whose creation was, in great courses. Dr. Goldin describes the schol-
and the jurists who dealt with the
measure, due to "international cruelty ars
Dr. Goldin
law,
devoted themselves to the
and sadism." Zionism sought to end such study who
of human needs and every day problems.
barbarism. Its triumph is in Israel whose
Dr. Goldin masterfully describes the importance of Halakah
rightful defense and insistence upon an —legalism and argumentation—in Talmudic study.
honorable existence is part of another
He goes into great details in his commentaries on the
international cause — the international numerous portions of "The Wisdom of the Fathers." For Tal-
obligations inherent in the United mudic students, his commentary on Pirke Abot assumes very
great value.
S.