THE JEWISH NEWS

Incorporating the Detrkit 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 °Mc,. Detroit, Mich under act of Congress of March
1871

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

SIDNEY SHMARAK

Editor and Publisher

Advertising Manager

CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ

Cam

FRANK SIMONS

City Editor

Circulation Manager

:4 • .

Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath. the twentieth day of Adar I, 5719, the following Scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Ki Tissa. Ex. 30:11-34:35. Prophetical portion, I Kings 18:1-39.

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441111r

Licht Benshen, Friday, Feb. 27, 6:01 p.m.

VOL. XXXIV. No. 26

February 27, 1959

Page Four

Again World Jewry is Challenged to Be
Eternally Vigilant Against Vile Bigotry

Israel's serious difficulties are not
limited to hurdling the obstacles created
by large scale immigration and by econ-
omic handicaps. Accompanying the rou-
tine problems are the pressures from the
outside, the anti-Israeli movements that
stem both from Moslem and from Com-
munist quarters. Not infrequently, these
pressures assume anti-Semitic propor-
tions and affect world Jewry as well as
the Israelis.
The latest propaganda activities stem
from Cairo and East Berlin, from Bagh-
dad and from Amman. They are directed
at two important aspects of Israeli activi-
ties—the mass emigration _of Jews from
Romania and the German indemnifica-
tions.

* * *

These are in no sense new movements
on the part of the allied Arab-Communist
elements. Their radio propagandists have
been leveling their darts at West Ger-
many for the past three years, and Arab
•countries never ceased their campaign
against the immigration of persecuted
Jews to Israel.
With the expansion of the emigration
of Jews from East European countries,

HIAS: Aged 75

For several decades, a single four-
lettered word — HIAS — has represented
a shining ray of hope for hundreds of
thousands of Jews who were compelled
to seek haven of refuge in this country.
Beginning with the last decade and a
half of the preceding century, hordes of
Jews, who had the good fortune to escape
from the indignities of persecutions in
European countries, felt a sense of secur-
ity upon their arrival at Ellis Island where
representatives of the Hebrew Sheltering
and Immigrant Aid Society awaited them
—to provide shelter for them, to feed
them, to unite them with relatives, often
to find jobs and homes for them.
That is why the very word HIAS was
a symbol of a very great humanitarian
effort. Just as the word JOINT — the
abbreviated reference to the American
Jewish Joint Distribution Committee —
was a signal of hope for the despairing
masses of Jews in Europe, so HIAS stood
for aid to the immigrant.
In recent yeari, HIAS joined forces
with United Services for New Americans
and with other agencies that provide aid to
refugees and immigrants, and its activities
have been extended to Jews in other
lands, who are assisted in their wander-
ings by the new movement that now car-
ries the name United Hias. The new move-
ment assists immigrants in many ports
and in a score of countries where Jews
make their stop-over in the course of
their wanderings either to Israel or to
this country.
In Israel, too, United Hias plays a
vital role, and its place remains among
the most honorable in immigrant assist-
ance efforts.
This year marks the 75th anniversary
•of HIAS. It is an occasion that calls for
encomia to the founders of the movement
and to those who carry on its traditions
so well to this day. HIAS, at 75, remains
a great movement in Jewish life. This
four-lettered word is among the most
honorable in American Jewish history.

the Arabs have made Washington and
Moscow their targets. They charge that
the new settlers in Israel represent an
anti-Arab movement and they are now
advocating that the new migration move-
ment should be halted.

.20 1••■■••

.dhitiMe4h"4111"

"

Thus, a new struggle begins in defense
of the expatriates who must find new
homes the moment they are given exit
visas from Romania.
It has been assumed that the East
European migration flow to Israel had
the tacit approval of Soviet Russia. When
Jews were leaving Poland and Hungary.
the assumption was that the USSR had
endorsed it. It was believed. in fact, that
Soviet Russia would have begun an ex-
patriation movement of her own Jews if
it were not for her fears that such "ex-
pulsions"—this is how the new migra-
tions are being viewed in some quarters
—might be interpreted as anti-Arab in
intent.
* * *
Romania, having hesitated to issue
large numbers of exit visas for a few
days last month, suddenly commenced a
large-scale release of permits for emi-
gration, and it was viewed as a rejection
of Arab protests. How will our own State
Department act, now that the Arabs are
protesting against what was believed to
be an American-approved resettlement
tack in behalf of East European Jews?
What will be Khrushchev's reply to the
Arab protests?
Germany already had rejected all Arab
protests against fullfillment of indemni-
fication obligations, and the Bonn Gov-
ernment appears to be firm in its ignoring
any protests against compensation agree-
ments. As a matter of fact, the nomina-
tion by the German Social Democratic
Party of a strong opponent of resurgent
neo-Naxism, Prof. Carlo Schmidt, for the
Presidency of the Federal Republic of
Germany, to succeed Dr. TheodoreHeuss.
who also is a staunch opponent of Nazi
ideologies, is an indication that Com-
munist-Arab propaganda will fall on deaf
ears.

*

* *

Nevertheless, the battle for justice in
support of Israel and in behalf of the new
emigration movement emerges anew
under a revived campaign of villification.
In addition to the struggle to raise un-
precedented sums of money in behalf of
expatriated Jews. Jewish communities in
democratic countries will have to battle
anew on two fronts—in behalf of philan-
thropic efforts and on the political arena
against vile propagandists who seek to
-destroy Israel.
Two obligations thus rest upon us: to
raise the funds necessary to rescue Jews
who are endangered by threats of state-
lessness and total impoverishment, and
whose only hope is to take their places
in the homes offered to them by the
Israelis; and to strike at all evidences
of bigotry, whether they come from East
Berlin or Moscow or Cairo or Baghdad.
It is our obligation to see to it that the
destructive propaganda does not find root
in Washington and in New York and in
Detroit—and wherever there are free- -
dom-loving Jews.
Again we are challenged to be eter-
nally vigilant.

RECEPTION

commtnEE

'The King of Flesh and Blood'

Powerful Moshe Shamir Novel
About Tyrannical King Yannai

One of the very important eras in Jewish History. the
Hasmonean period. is the subject of a very powerful novel. "The
King of Flesh and Blood," by Moshe Shamir, published by Van-
guard Press (424 Madison, N. Y. 17).
Translated from the Hebrew. in which it was awarded
Israel's major literary award. the Bialik Prize. this novel's chief
character is Alexander Jannaeus. from 103 to 76 B.C.E. the King
and High . Priest of Israel.
Jannaeus was the grandson of Mattathias. the founding
father of the Hasmoneans. His reign lasted until 13 years before
Roman rule began over Judaea. He was known as King Yannai
and he ruled during a violent period in Jewish history. He
sought by means of conquest to extend Judaea's territory to
include its previous areas. The Kingdom, which was mainly
agricultural, was burdened with heavy taxes.
It was during this period that the Sadducees and the
Pharisees were in conflict. There were enforced recruitments
in the enlistment of forces for Yannai's armies. The burdensome
taxation created discontent and the nation faced many serious
trials.
Shamir, in his long novel. describes the power-seeking king's
aspirations and his craving for territorial expansion. A strong
royal-religious aristocracy ruled over a people that showed signs
of restlessness.
The rumblings took on threatening proportions. but Yannai,
who dreamed of world power, ruled with an iron hand. ignored
complaints, imposed taxes, exacted all he could out of his sub-
jects to strengthen his hold on his land and his people.
He not only seized the throne from his brother but also took
as his wife his brother's widow, Salome. He acquired the priest-
! hood. He denied his people's minutest pleadings.
But he was no fool: he was merely a tyrant. At the end,
as he mows down the rebels and as the dead are counted,
Antipas reports to him on the 6,000 casualties strewn on the
streets—"Jerusalem lay silent as a graveyard?' Antipas could
not account for the leaders of the rebellion, but he told
Yannai:
"The rebellion is over. sire. The kingdom lies at your feet."
At this point. the novelist writes:
"For a fraction of a second Yannai's gaze swept across
the earth now almost wrapped in darkness. as though searching
for the kingdom which lay conquered at his feet. But next
moment he had fixed his eyes on Antipas once more.
*Fool,' he said in a faltering voice,' the rebellion is not
over. It has only just begun.' "
The translator of the novel, David Patterson, Cowley Lectur-
er in Pdst-Biblical Hebrew at the University of Oxford-, states
in his foreward that:
"It was in this period of the Second Temple that the Judaism
which was destined to survive long exile was largely fashioned.
Beneath the hammer blows of war and civil strife the Law was
forged into a tough, impenetrable shield, strong enough to fortify
the national ideals against many centuries of savage buffeting.
It is not unnatural, therefore, that a young Israeli writer, who has
himself experienced the resurgence of Jewish nationhood should
have turned for inspiration to such a vital epoch in the nation's
history. Certainly 'The King of Flesh and Blood' may fairly
claim . to be the most significant historical novel in modern
Hebrew literature."
The translator also adds that this first novel of the young
Israeli, Moshe Shamir, "is written in a style which consciously
evokes the language of the period, while remaining strangely
modern. As English possesses no equivalent stratum, it has not
proved possible to catch the atmosphere which breathes out
of the language of the original. Otherwise the translation fol-
lows the Hebrew closely, deviating only in accordance with
the demand of English idiom. This version is presented to the
English-reading public with the sincere hope that it may foster,
in some measure at least, an appreciation of the quality of
modern Hebrew writing."
Although a bit too long—it could have been edited down
considerably—"The King of Flesh and Blood" nevertheless is -
an outstanding novel. It does, indeed, draw added attention to
the writings that come to us from Israel.

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