•

•

Jewish Music Month

THE JEWISH. NEWS

CONT R/807

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. 1942 at Post Offic,., Detroit, Mich. under act of Congress of March
187:

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Editor and Publisher

SIDNEY SHMARAK CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ

Advertising Manager

Circulation Manager

.

04.

//

FRANK SIMONS

City Editor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the fifteenth day of Shevat—Hamisha Asar b'Shevat—the following Scrip-
tural selections will be read in our synagogue s:
Pentateuchal portion, Beshalalt. Ex. 13:17-1 7:16. Prophetical portion. Judges 4:4-5:31.

Licht Benshen, Friday, Jan. 23, 5.18

VOL. XXXIV. No. 21

Page Four

January 23, 1959

They Persist in 'Celebrating the Vintage'

Benjamin Disraeli, in his admiration
of the "indomitable spirit" of the Jewish
people, paid it the following compliment:

"The vineyards of Israel have ceased
to exist, but the eternal law enjoins the
children of Israel stilt to celebrate the
vintage. A race that persists in cele-
brating their vintage. although they
have no fruits to gather, will regain
their vineyards. What sublime inexor-
ability in the law! But what indomitable
spirit in the people!"

Many decades have passed since this
was written. Meanwhile, there is a State
called Israel, it has a vintage and it has
fruits to gather.
Nevertheless, the truth expounded by
Disraeli remains one of the most exciting
elements in Jewish history — the persist-
ence "in celebrating the vintage." regard-
less of climes, in spite of persecutions,
contrary to all rules of conduct which
might have influenced them to abandon
certain practices and ceremonials that
dated back to agricultural interests in the
days when Israel was independent. The
Jewish people thus observed such festi-
vals as a traditional Arbor Day, even
though there was no harvest and they
were exiles from the land where they had
planted trees so long ago.
No one else has described the indes-
tructibility of Israel as well as Disraeli, in
the paragraph we have quoted. In our
time, Disraeli undoubtedly would have
written another "Tancred" to rejoice in
the fulfillment of Prophecy, in which he
shared, in his words of 90 years ago, that
Israel might as it should, be a nation again.

He would have gloried in the planting of
trees, in the gathering of new harvests,

in the ability of a down-trodden people to
raise its heead again and to straighten its
back, securing for itself redemption.
It is well to recall the interesting devel-
opments in Israel in our time, as well as
the tributes like Disraeli's, on the eve of
Hamisha Asar b'Shevat.
Israel needs defensive means to assure
her existence. The State constantly has
to think in terms of seeking security from
the threats of belligerent neighbors.
Nevertheless, the first thoughts of the
Israelis are first of the people and then

"We must plant hundreds of thousands of
trees covering an area of five million dunams,
one quarter of the surface of our country;
we must cover the mountains and the un-
cultivable lands, the hills and the sand dunes,
the barren plains of the Negev — all the land
of Edom and of the Arava, as far as Eilat.
"We would be unfaithful to one of the
two main tasks of our State — the revival of
the desert — if we were to carry out plans
which satisfy only our immediate needs. We
are an entirely new state which has to make
up for the neglect of generations, for sins
against our people as well as our country. We
shall have to mobilize all the skilled labor in
in this country so that, in the course of the
years, we may reach a point where we plant
half a million dunams of trees annually.
"The mountains of our country still
stand naked and pray for the hand of the
planter to restore their pristine woods and
forests . . . We are under no obligation to
accept the heritage of desolation from the
past, for it is within our power to afforest the
waste, to fertilize the sand dunes, to dig wells,
to exploit the hidden resources, to build and
to revive the dust of the earth, to redeem its
minerals and natural treasures — indeed,
this is the true conquest of the land; this,
indeed, is the great mission which the Jewish
National Fund is called upon to undertake
in our own day."

"The hidden resources" emerge as
great instruments for the advancement
of a reborn nation's new hopes. They are
especially exemplified in the afforestation
program of the Jewish National Fund.
which will be aided by Hamisha Asar tree-
planting. Tu b'Shevat is a minor holiday,
but from the sentimental viewpoint of the
revival of the desert, of abandonment of
neglect, of a return to creative efforts on
farms, marking a return of Jews to the
soil, it assumes great significance in our
day. Indeed. it symbolizes "the indomita-
ble spirit" of the Jewish people.

Is USSR Increasing Anti- Jewis h War?

Well-informed sources are indicating
that Soviet Russia's war on the Jewish
people, as has been evidenced in the
numerous anti-Jewish and , anti-Israel
broadcasts and newspaper articles over
Communist radio networks and in Com-
munist newspapers. will be intensified in
the months to come.
It is reported that Russia's Premier
Khrushchev will place on the agenda of
the Congress of the Russian Communist
Party, in Moscow, during the coming
week, not only the question of Soviet-
Israeli relations but will also discuss what
has been termed as "the problem" of the
"Jewish minority in the USSR."
If this is so, then the Jews in Russia
can expect nothing but trouble, and the
venom of Russian propaganda against
Israel, and incidentally therefore also
against the entire Jewish people. The fur-
ious attacks launched against Jewry by
Communists in recent months have not
spared any community. American Jews
were included in the abuse, and Israel
was a major target.
But if it is true that Soviet Russia is
beginning to view its Jewish citizens as a

.;-mtaKtpvginxiti-t ,,

of their homes and their farms—their
trees, the fruits of their labors on the
land. their agricultural products.
On Hamisha Asar b'Shevat, the hopes
are for peace, the aspirations are for more
trees, for the transformation of a land
that was turned into a desert by centuries
of neglect into a blossoming area. That is
why Israel's Prime Minister David Ben-
Gurion made this statement about trees
on the occasion of Hamisha Asar.

"minority" and it is considering treating
Russian Jewry as "a problem," then it
will be not only world Jewry that may
be the sufferer, but even the Russian
Jews who had hoped to become integ-
rated into the USSR scheme of things
will also be in a serious dilemma.
During his sensationalized visit in this
country, Soviet Deputy Premier. Anastas
Mikoyan denied that there were inten-
tions on Russia's part "to revive an old
Soviet scheme for resettling Jews from
the European Soviet Union in the Far
East province of Birobidjan," as was
charged recently by Dr. Judd Teller and
in statements by the American Jewish
Committee and other organizations.
Time will reveal Russia's true inten-
tions. In the meantime, the anti-Jewish
and anti-Israel . propaganda • from the
USSR grows in its venom. The present
Russian rulers have turned their land in-
to a prison for its vast population, and
their Jewish citizens are deprived of the
right to emigrate, to Israel or anywhere
else. Thus the problem remains very
grave and the threat to Russian Jewry
is frightening and disturbing.

goo/

-

74

.7r

'

..n3Ar•

-,•••

-1

-

Saul Kleiman's Tri-Lingual Book

'Of the Past and the Present'

"Of the Past and of the Present," by Saul Kleiman, is the
commendable work of a distinguished Kansas City Jewish
educator.
A short time ago, Kleiman was honored by the Kehilath
Israel Schools of Kansas City on the occasion of his completion
of 52 years of service in the field of Jewish education. For 46
years he was in the educational field in that city, and for 40
years served as principal of the Kehiiath Israel Schools. The
testimonial was an occasion for community-wide honors in which
national leaders participated.
Kleiman has written several other books. His newest has
two parts, in English and in Hebrew—with one Yiddish essay.
It is a collection of the author's articles and poems that have
appeared in a number of newspapers and magazines, including
The Detroit Jewish News.
There are three poems in the book that originally appeared
in the Jewish News: "'Zion's Convocations," Dec. 6, 1946; "The
Laden Tear," Feb. 21, 1947, and "An Appeal Dedicated to the
UJA Workers," May 9, 1947.
An authority on Hebrew literature, Kleiman has inserted in
this volume an important essay on Hayyim Nahman Bialik.
Richly annotated, this section of the book is of special value
for students of Hebrew literature.
An authority on Rashi. having published a Rashi anthology,
the author devotes a section of the book to Rashi's sayings and
maxims.
Other articles deal with Maimonides, the Vilna Gaon and
other subjects.
Kleiman's poems, which he has included in this book, are
very appealing. Each has an important message, and combined
they form an excellent collection of verses.
Among his especially interesting articles is "Michelan-
gelo's Moses."
His article "Why Hebrew?" fills an important need in our
time, providing a timely answer to the important challenges of
today's world.
His Hebrew essays and poems are similarly impressive. The
volume is informative and deals with topics that are of concern
to American Jewry.

Bible's Importance Viewed by
Eminent Christian Theologian

"I Believe in the Bible," by the well known clergyman, Dr.
cal work by an eminent Chris-
- Joseph R. Sizoo, is a christologi .
tian thinker. It deals with the Old and the New Testaments.
In the main, it is a volume of general interest to non-Jews.
But it is sufficient material relating to the Old Testament to

arouse keen interest among Jews, laymen as well as rabbis.
This volume, published by Abingdon Press, Nashville 2,

Tenn., is part of the "Know Your Faith Series." Dr. Sizoo
points to the book of Deuteronomy as the first of the published
Old Testament works accepted as sacred literature. He de-
scribes how the Bible came down to us, how archaeology has
proven the texts to be accurate, and he points out that the Old
Testament "was written throughout in the Hebrew language,
apart from a few chapters in the books of Ezra and Daniel
which were written in Aramaic, a kindred language to Hebrew."
Dr. Sizoo describes the Bible as "God's highway to
man," as "a book about God." He calls it not a book but a •
library.
The Bible is viewed as an unfolding drama that "speaks
to human life in all its many and varying aspects: in the home
and in the community, in the nation and in the world, in peace
and in war, in joy and in suffering, in youth and in age, in
victory and in defeat."

