The Emergency Grows

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. 1942 at Post Office, Detroit, Mich. under act of Congress of March
3. 187:

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

SIDNEY SHMARAK

CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ

FRANK SIMONS

Editor and Publisher

Advertising Manager

Circulation Manager

City Editor

•

>af,..-

Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the thirteenth clay of Adar I, 5719, the following Scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateucha.1 portion, Tezaveh. Ex. 27:20- 30:10. Prophetical portion, Ezek. 43:10-27.

Licht Benshen. Friday. Feb.

VOL. XXXIV. No. 25

Page Four

20, 5:53 p.m

Febrt,ary 20, 1959

May We Be Strong Enough to Meet
the S9rious Emigration Challenges!

It is becoming increasingly clear that
Soviet Russia is concurring in the emigra-
tion of Jews from countries behind the
Iron Curtain into Israel.
Jewish leaders, among them Israel's
Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and Dr.
Nahum Goldmann, president of the World
Zionist Organization and chairman of the
Jewish Agency for Israel, have been pre-
dicting such an outcome for a long time.
Now it appears to be materializing.
The contention is that the Communist-
governed countries have trained enough
professional people no longer to be de-
pendent upon the able Jewish scientists
in their midst and they are now deter-
mined to be rid of the Jews and to replace
them in responsible positions with non-
Jews.
This is a great shock to the Jews in the
professions in Communist countries. It is
a shock to all Jewish "citizens" in Com-
munist-ruled areas. But the facts stare us
in the face, and the challenge is as much
to. every one of us in . the democratic
countries throughout the world as it is to
Israel, where the emigres—they should
be called expellees—must be integrated
into an economy already severely strained
by a large immigrant population.
While the new wave of immigration is
rightfully being considered a great op-
portunity for Israel, the tragic elements
accompanying it can not be denied. The
influx of Romanian Jews, with which the
newly permitted exodus from behind the
Iron Curtain is commericing, indicates the
severity of the new movement of settlers
who, in the main. must adapt themselves
to a new life with little if any preparation.
Tens of thousands of people must be
provided with housing, with medical care,
with jobs. Their children are to be in-
cluded in the public school systems of
the land. The women will have to become
acclimated to new conditions in the new
land. It may be easiest for the children;
it won't be so easy for the adults who

must—some of them being past the age
sss
of 40—fit into new occupations.
Is world Jewry prepared to meet this
challenge? Suppose Russia should, as is
being predicted, follow the Romanian
policy and start issuing visas to tens of
thousands of her citizens, most of whom
are totally unaware of the dangers that
may be facing them? Will Israel be pre-
pared to accept them, and will we, the ' 'To Bigotry No Sanction'
kinsmen of the Israelis, be ready to
Supply the means with which to provide
the transportation and- resettlement
needs, and the industrial integration for
Dr. Morris A. Gutstein, Chicago rabbi, had made a thor-
the sorely tried people?
The challenge is far greater than many ough study of the Newport. R. I., Jewish community, of the his-
Synagogue and of the Touro family traditions. His
of us even begin to acknowledge. It has toric Touro
book, "To Bigotry No Sanction," published by Bloch, is
been likened to the early years of Israel's latest
the story of the famous "Jewish Shrine in America." the Touro
statehood, when tens of thousands of Jews Synagogue in Newport on the occasion of the 300th anniversary
were arriving monthly from concentra- of its establishment in 1658.
tion camps and from the danger zones in
Illustrated with more than 30 photographs of the synagogue,
Moslem countries where for so many important documents and personalities, order of services and
Jews, death was the alternative to emi- scenes of important celebrations, - To Bigotry No Sanction" is
an interesting historical resume of an important chapter in
gration.
The great burdens that have been im- American Jewish history.
The title of the book is taken from George Washington's
posed upon Israel since the rebirth of the
to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport and is a
Jewish State possibly make the responsi- message
varied form of an earlier address from Newport Jewry to the
bilities even greater than those of a First
U. S. President. "To Bigotry no sanction and to persecu-
decade ago.
tion no assistance," Washington had written.
Are we prepared to meet them?
The famous Newport Touro Synagogue, to which Dr. Gut-
The Israelis are a brave lot. They tell stein's book is dedicated, was declared a national historic site
us that they are ready to welcome all who ' by the U. S. Department of Interior and is the first and only
knock at their doors. The knocking is be- such national Jewish site in America.
Dr. Gutstein appropriately describes the people who came to
cgming louder and more persistent, and it
is I to be hoped that the Israeli-attitude is Newport, quotes the historic statement of Roger Williams,
founder
of Providence, R. I., in 1636. who pleaded for religious
not one of overconfidence. If it is to prove
and shows how the Jewish community in Newport
realistic, we must stand back of our kins- freedom,
began to grow under the guidance of Portuguese Jewish
men.
settlers.
The United Jewish Appeal provides the
Dr. Gutstein's book relates the story of the
family—
major assistance to those who are clamor- of Jacob Touro and his manifold gifts to Jewry, Touro
of his parents
ing for admission into Israel. Detroit's and his brothers. all of whom had dedicated themselves to Amer-
Allied Jewish Campaign becomes the ican and to the Jewish spiritual and communal causes.
chief agency in our community for par-
Other distinguished leaders played their roles in American
ticipation in the great act of rescue in the history and in the establishment of the Colonial sanctuary in
Newport. and their contributions are evaluated in this book_
present hour of need.
We pray that there should be full reali- Rabbi Gutstein writes:
"The most climactic event associated with the Jews of
zation of the seriousness of the tasks Newport
is the visit of George Washington to the city, on Aug.
facing us. May we be strong enough to
1790. In the company of Moses Seixas and 'the gentlemen
meet the challenge of the hour!
of the party and the large number of gentlemen of Newport,'

-

Story of Newport Synagogue

Brotherhood and the Color Line

Dr. Ralph J. Bunche chose an ideal
time for frank speaking when he told
a public forum in Birmingham, Ala., last
week, that the authority of white men
in the world is declining rapidly.
On the eve of thd inauguration of
the annual observance of Brotherhood
Week, Dr. Bunche, who gained world-
wide fame for promoting the armistice
agreements after the Israel War of In-
dependence and was awarded the 1950
Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his
efforts, not only warned that this is no
longer "a white man's world," but re-
sorted to the facts to prove his point.
Of the 2.8 billion people in the world, he
said, 1.9 billion are non-white.
The important portion of Dr. Bunche's
address dealt with the attitudes of non-
whites, who, he said, unanimously oppose
racial prejudice and discrimination "and
are determined to bring all such practices
to an end." The American Negro, he said,
is better off than most non-whites, but
his problem is "our country's number
one domestic problem." He said he was
confident it was on the way to solution.

There is much food for thought in

what the eminent Negro leader said. The
question may well be posed whether all
non-whites are really aware of the in-
justice of discrimination and whether
they are practicing such ideals. We are
inclined to challenge his view. We are
convinced that there is as much prejudice
among non-whites as among whites and
that the principle taught by the Prophet
Malachi (2:10), "Have we not one father?
Has not one God created us?", needs to
be taught to all peoples alike.
It all began with Cain's fratricide,
when he defended himself by saying "Am
I my brother's keeper?" (Gen. 4:9). But
the ideal of justice and brotherly love
emerged time and again in our Scriptures
and rose to great heights in the warning
of King Solomon: "A brother offended
is harder to be won than a strong city."
(Proverbs 18:19). If both whites and non-
whites will take the latter into account.
then we may come nearer to realization
of the hope for amity among all peoples.

But the obligation is not one-sided. Let
that be the lesson of true Brotherhood.

the first President took a morning walk 'around the town and
the heights above it.' Washington also took a walk in the
afternoon. No doubt that it was during one of these walks that
Moses Seixas accompanied the President to view the beautiful
synagogue, which was the only building that retained its full
splendor through the hard times of the evacuation. It is said
the crowns of the tablets over the Ark caused the British to
spare the synagogue."
The complete texts of the letters exchanged between
Moses Seixas, Warden of the Synagogue, and George Washing-
ton are incorporated in the book.
Numerous historical details relating to the Newport syna-
gogue, Rhode Island Jewry, the integration of their religious
life within their local Americanism, and the declaring of the
Touro Synagogue as a national shrine and as a monument to
liberty are among the interesting elements in this book. It in-
cludes also a complete resume of the dedication of this monu-
ment as a shrine to religious liberty, which took place in New-
port on Aug. 20, 1939.
Valued historical importance attaches to the facts con-
tained in "To Bigotry No Sanction," making it a fine addition
to manuscripts relating to American Jewish history.

'

Israel: Land and People'

"Israel: Land and People," by David Benvenisti (English
version edited by Zvi Wineberg). published by the Jewish
National Fund and the Youth and Hechalutz Department of the
World Zionist Organization in Jerusalem, a 123-page brochure,
provides a great deal of information about Israel's people and
territory, the Jewish State's position in the world, the climate
of Israel and many other topics relating to Israel and the Israelis.
Well illustrated, and containing five important explanatory
maps, this pamphlet should serve a good purpose for use by
study groups and as a reference work regarding Israel and the
Middle East. Copies of it are available from the Detroit JNF
off ice.