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 • , • Incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951 Pc - • - t. • 4 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.