A Tree Grows in the U.S.A.

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 Offic,. Detroit. Mich. under act of Congress of March
;.), 1871

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Edit.- and Publisher

SIDNEY SHMARAK

Advertising Manager

CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ

Circulation Manager

FRANK SIMONS

City Editor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the twelfth day of Tammuz, 5719, the following Scriptural selections will be
read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion. Hukkat-Balak, Num. 19:1-25:9. Prophetical portion, Micah .5:6-6:8.
Fas of Shivah Asar b'Taminuz Next Thursday.

Licht Benshen, Friday, July 17, 7:47 p. m.

VOL. XXXV. No. 20

Page Four

July 17, 1959

USSR's Threats to Jewry and the World

Is Russia deliberately pulling the of 223,893 scientific workers in Russia
wool over the eyes of the world outside in 1955. But this year there is no mention
the Iron Curtain? The visit in this country of Jews at all in "The Achievements of
of the Russian First Deputy Premier, the Soviet Regime—Division of Scientific
Frol R. Kozlov, who is believed to be in Workers, According to Nationality."
line for the Premiership, as successor to Indeed, the 10 per cent among the sci-
Khrushchev, once again raises the quest- entific workers who were considered Jews
tion as to how far the Communist leaders in 1955 had not disappeared. But Russia
desire to go to suppress the actual facts finds it necessary to omit any mention of
regarding conditions in their own country Jews in its statistical records. This can be
and their planned attitudes toward the viewed only as a determined effort to
West.
supress Jews and Judaism.
Kozlov followed an old established In the official Russian record of "Dif-
line—of claiming that the Jews in Russia ferent Languages of the Soviet Peoples,"
live under paradisiacal conditions. In a there is listed so small an item as the
second breath they imply that Jews have Tat language which has a single news-
no desire to live as Jews and therefore any paper with a circulation of 1,000. But the
question regarding the status of Hebrew Jewish group of 2,500.000 in Russia and
or Yiddish in Russia, or the right of Jews the language of many of them—Yiddish-
to worship freely, is irrelevant. is viewed as non-existent. It is useless to
There is an appalling inconsistency in refer to Hebrew, which has been on the
the Russian position affecting Jewry. In suppressed list since the days of Lenin.
its records, listing publications in the It is no wonder, therefore, that freedom
land, the Soviet Union included the ac- of religion is reserved only for exhibition
complishments of various nationality purposes, to impress tourists.
groups within the USSR, all elements in In connection with the Kozlov visit it
the population from the largest down is difficult to overlook the fact that he
the line to numerically most insignificant played a prominent role in the "Doctors'
groups. But neither the word "Jew" nor Plot," when it was charged that physicians
had murdered a number of Soviet leaders.
"Jewish" appears anywhere.
Since 1948, not a single Jewish book This so-called plot, which later was re-
has been publicised in Russia, and the only pudiated, was utilized as an excuse to
recognition given to a Jewish writer was purge Jews.
The Russian influence in world affairs
in the form of the most recent book of
selections from Sholem Aleichem. Even is tragic. The USSR attitude towards
this volume, however, is out of reach and Jewry is horrifying. Every time another of
the USSR visitors comes here, we hear
is difficult to acquire.
In 1955, the official Russian periodical, more double talk. We seem to be getting
Voprosi Filosofii (Problems of Philos- farther away from the solution of the
ophy), listed 24,620 Jews within the total East-West problems.

Interesting Aspects of Israel 'Crisis'

David Ben-Gurion, while resigning agreement was made. Then there is the
from the Premiership of his country, matter of a mutual exchange of certain
nevertheless made it known that he is types of goods between Israel and Ger-
holding on to the Defense and Foreign many.
Ministry portfolios.
It is doubtful whether the flareup
This approach to what was declared would have occurred if it were a case of
to be a major government crisis proved Israel selling citrus fruits to Germany,
in clearest fashion that the issue is pri- and here, too, the issue may be exagger-
marily political, that the battle is between ated, since the weapons are very small
Mapai and the leftist groups, and that and may have no bearing on a country's
Ben-Gurion is determined to rid himself rearming.
of the leftist in the formation of a future
The fact that the leftists in the dis-
government cabinet.
banded Israeli cabinet had resorted to
In reality, it is doubtful whether the public debate in a matter that involves
bitterness that was displayed over the certain aspects of security is what had
sale of small arms to Germany left serious
angered Ben-Gurion. The leftists had
marks on Israel's political controversies.
gotten under his skin in the past. He is
The (country is divided between those out for a showdown, and the approaching
who Would sell its products to West Ger- elections in Israel will have an interesting
many, at the same time that it accepts
bearing on the current controversy.
German machinery as part of the repara-
tions, and those who would not do busi-
ness with Germany under any conditions.
Into the issue has been drawn the
The Jewish Community Council's re-
question of the morality of business deal-
ings by Jews with the country whose war port on the extent of the past year's
cultural activities, which included the
leaders were responsible for the murder
of six million Jews. Many of the tragic impressive series of radio and television
aspects of the Nazi holocaust already are programs, indicates that the devoted
being forgotten, and there is no doubt efforts of the sponsors of the programs
about the justified concern over the cal- are receiving a fine community response.
loused attitudes of many Jews in rela-
The Council's TV programs have been
tion to dealings with Germany.
especially inspiring. They brought to
But there are other aspects to be the attention of the community the major
taken into consideration in the matter
events on the Jewish calendar; they
of arms sales to Germany by Israel. In interpreted our holidays, and they
was
competitive
the first place, there
evaluated the cultural needs of Jewry.

Fine Council Project

bidding in which many countries were in-
Our sincere congratulations go forth
volved, and the granting of the contract
to Israel must have been considered a to the Council for ijts splendid attain-
legitimate act at the time the purchase ments in the cultural: areas.

'A Treasury of Ben Hecht

In "A Treasury of Ben Heelit," Published by Crown, (419
4th, N.Y. 16), the reader is treated to 20 of his best stories
and to his full length play "Winkelberg" L- about a Jewish "poet
laureate of Klein's basement" — which opened in New York in
January 1958.
Some of Hecht's best stories are in-
corporated in this volume — in spite
f the author's assertion in his preface
that as a bright young man he was
"also so pompous and nitwitted at the
same time." He goes on to state that
"there were always a surprising num-
ber of me's in operation," that in his
,3youth he was "likely to write a story
full of contradictory moods, such as
..compassion and cynicism": that ''my
.pity had ridicule in it and my finest
outbursts of love were often prickly
with sneers."
His faults, he writes about himself,
were not those of a bad writer, but
of an overexuberant one." In "some
introductory thoughts," reprinted from
Ben Hecht
a 1945 edition, he states that he writes "to cheer myself up. I
know the world well and it fills me with an ugly mood. The
stupidity of humans and their horrid incompetence toward life
is a theme with which I have wrestled in many of my books."
And so, in many of his stories there is "a point of view."
Thus, "try as I may to cheer myself up with spanking tales and
a jolly point of view, a moan lurks in the corners of many of
my tales."
There is more than a moan, however, in "The Little Candle."
He wrote here about "we Jews" who woke up to read the news-
paper reports about the Hitler atrocities, reports that "had been
staring at us out of our morning newspapers for a number of
years and insulting us with a tirelessness that, however boring
it may have grown to other readers, kept us Jews constantly
grimacing as if we had a stomach ache."
He described the "smoke of the Dark Ages," the great
"International Pogrom" which "had taken place under the aus-
pices of the four Nazi-Fascist governments and was the flower
of a long and careful series of conferences among the thinkers
of the countries involved. The need to purge these lands of the
contaminating Jew — finally and forever — had become so
urgent that to delay any longer would have been to endanger the
racial welfare of all Germans, Romanians, Italians and Poles.
So the mad face with the comelian's moustache, called the
Fuehrer, informed us."
Hecht's story is about the East Side New York synagogue
where the rabbi and congregation prayed for help. The congre-
gation adjourned after lighting the seven-branched Menorah.
But when the worshippers returned the next morning, six of the
candles had burnt out overnight but "the seventh candle in the
center stood as fresh as it had been when it was lit." The 50
old men stared and proclaimed it a miracle. Hecht thereupon
uttered a proclamation of faith:

The Jew was such a light, feeble and powerless. but never to
be extinguished. God had placed him in a world of cruelty and
darkness and had hidden him to keep His image glowing. And the
meaning of this miracle was that. when all the rages of man had
spent themselves, and the world lay in an unholly chaos, gutted by
hatred and. greed and vain glory. out of the unconsumed soul of the
Jew God's light would rise again."

- "The Mystery of 'the Fabulous Laundryman", about Meyer
who supposedly was the disguised Czar Nicholas, is a funny
tale.
"Fanny" is a very brief story, but thoroughly entertaining.
"Sergt. Kuzick and the Reporter" is delightful.
Much of the delight in the other stories is often mixed
with _ cynicism. The concluding item in the book, "My Literary
Harem", contains a TV transcript of the Ben Hecht Show of
Nova 11, 1958. In the discussion of books occurs this dialogue:

"Missy: Next you list Graetz"History of the Jews.'
"Myself: There's an even bloodier and more hair-raising work
than Prescott's. It is the 2,000-year-old story of the Jew who has
not Vet got down off the Cross.
"Missy: We have a rather serious omission that just occurs to
me. Why haven't you included the Bible?
"Myself: "Because it is a book I have never been able to read.
In the first volume I read about Job and also some spicy pages
called 'The Song of Songs.' Due to my respect for my parents, I
never got around to reading the companion volume. So I omit
what I do not know."

At least, he admits he doesn't know what he doesn't know.
In all other respects, his "Treasury" is a most delightful book.