A Sightseeing Tour
THE JEWISH NEWS
20, 1951
Incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July
Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National
Editorial
Association
Published
every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 %Vest Seven Mile Road, Detroit 35,
Subscription $5 a year Foreign $6.
Mich.,
VE
8-9364.
Entered
as second class matter Aug. 6, 1942 at Post Offic-, Detroit. Mich. under act of Congress of March
1871
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Edittr and Publisher
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Circulation Manager
FRANK SIMONS
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath. the ninth day of Elul, 5719, the following Scriptural selections will be read
in our synagogues:
Is. 54:1-10.
Pentateuchal portion, Ki Tetze, Dent. 21:10-25:19. Prophetical portion,
Licht Benshen, Friday. Sept. 11, 6:30 p.m.
VOL. XXXVI.
No.' 2
Page Four
September 11, 1959
Toynbee Makes Impossible Proposal
In a communication to an Israeli Toynbee makes the magnanimous offer
periodical, Arnold Toynbee, the world that they must "make the painful con-
renowned philosopher who on several cession of accepting Israel's permanent
occasions had expressed pro-Arab and existence in their midst."
Even the bitterest Arab foes have not
anti-Israel sentiments, practically reiter-
ated his position by making several fan- worded their prejudiced views in such
arrogantly brutal fashion. The Toynbee
tastic proposals for peace.
Remaining blind to the fact that the plan virtually calls for acceptance of a
Arabs had started a war in order to de- suicide pact—of abandonment of an area
stroy Israel, and that Arabs had fled from that had been redeemed by the sweat
Israel at the instigation of their leaders and blood of pioneers and to extend an
who told them they would be brought invitation to a fifth column to come in
back to acquire all that the Jews had and to help destroy Israel.
Is it possible that a man of Toynbee's
created in the neglected Palestine, Toyn-
bee suggests that Israel contract her stature really believes in the justice of
territory to the area of the Partition Plan such a fantasy? We are compelled to the
and that the refugees should be welcomed view that his plan is motivated by an Introduction by Prof. Hadas
back in full force. anti-Jewish prejudice he is unable to
What are the Arabs to do in exchange? abandon.
Detroit Dormitory at Hebrew University
Plans for the construction of a Detroit the medical, dental, and other depart-
Dormitory on the new campus of the ments. The funds Hadassah hopes to raise
Hebrew University in Jerusalem are part for the Hadassah-Hebrew University
of the current undertaking by a group Medical Center will, at best, merely
of prominent Detroiters to enlist this supplement the funds needed for the
community's interest in the most impor- medical departments. Meanwhile there is
tant Israeli university. such a vast shortage of means with which
There are several high ranking uni- to complete the buildings under construc-
versities in Israel, including the Technion ton ; that the current Detroit drive is of
which has succeeded in - enlisting the aid the utmost importance in the Hebrew
of Jews who are active in technical en- University's program of activities.
deavors; the Bar-Ilan University, for On the Hebrew University, the Weiz-
whom our religious groups have enlisted mann Institute and Technion campuses,
deserving support here, and institutes of there are buildings the erection of which
research, primarily the Weizmann Insti- were made possible by the gifts of entire
tute in Rehovot. While the Technion, the American communities whose names are
Weizmann Institute and the Hebrew Uni- perpetuated there or by individuals. With
versity are benefiting from our Allied a single exception at the Technion, the
Jewish Campaign, these incomes are in- name of Detroit or Detroiters is missing
sufficient to assure cooperation in the on these campuses. Now, in the course
construction programs for the university of the present campaign, there is hope
that the name of our community will be
campuses.
The Hebrew University, whose many linked directly with the Hebrew Uni-
departments have earned for it the status versity, on the projected Dormitory
of one of the leading schools of higher building. It is a project of the utmost
learning in the world, must have support importance and deserving the whole-
in the construction of new buildings for hearted support of our entire community.
Prof.Goodspeeds'Apocrypha'
Translation in a Paperback
Thanks to the scholarship of a great Christian theologian
and Bible authority, Dr. Edgar J. Goodspeed, "an American
translation" of "The Apocrypha" now is available in a single
paperback.
Issued as a popularly-priced Modern Library paperback by
Random House, "The Apocrypha," the books which appeared in
the Septuagint—the Greek version of the Jewish Bible—but
which are not incorporated in the canonical version of our Bible,
thus is available in a single volume that will be treasured by
Bible students.
Because of the omission of these books—Esdras, Tobit,
Judith, Baruch, Susanna, the Maccabees, Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom
of Sirach, Wisdom of Solomon and others—from the Hebrew
Bible, the collected works are called "Apocrypha" or the hidden
or secret books. They are, however, not secret, and certainly are
no longer unavailable now that the Modern Library paperback
is procurable.
The initial paragraphs from Prof. Goodspeed's preface should
be known. They read:
"The Apocrypha formed an integral part of the King
James Version of 1611, as they had of all the preceding English
versions from their beginning in 1382. But they are seldom
printed as part of it any longer, still more seldom as part of
the English Revised Version, and were not included in the
American Revision.
"This is partly because the Puritans disapproved of them;
they had already begun to drop them from printings of their
Geneva Bible by 1660, and began to demand copies of the
King James Version omitting them, as early as 1629. And it is
partly because we moderns discredit them because they did
not form part of the Hebrew Bible, and most of them have
After an internal conflict among ment, must call for much clearer answers. never been found in any Hebrew forms at all.
spokesmen for Jewish organizations in Russia's present rulers have yet to
"But they were part of the Bible of the early Church, for
this country, it now appears as if the indicate why, since Jews are viewed as it used the Greek version of the Jewish Bible, which we call
planned conference of our leaders with a nationality group in Russia and must the Septuagint, and these books were all in that version. They
leled as "Jews" on their passports, passed from it into Latin and the great Latin Bible edited by
Soviet Russia's Premier Nikita Khrush- be ab
chev may not materialize after all. there nevertheless are restrictions on St. Jerome about A.D. 400, the Vulgate, which became the
Authorized Bible of western Europe and England and remained
This may or may not be internreted Jewish cultural activities.
so for a thousand years. But Jerome found that they were not
The
leaders
of
the
Russian
govern-
as a blow to the prestige of Jewish lead-
ership in this country. The fact that there ment, if they are at all moved by humani- in the Hebrew Bible, and so he called them the Apocrypha,
is always a lack of unanimity in actions tarian considerations, should explain why the hidden or secret books."
The entire preface is a highly scholarly commentary on the
involving relations with foreign govern- there are so many incitements against
values of the Apocrypha. Supplementing Prof. Goodspeed's
ments may account for some of our fail- Israel by Radio Moscow broadcasts analysis, the Modern Library Paperback contains an important
ures in pressing for justice for our kins- directed at the Arabs.
to "The Apocrypha" by one of American Jewry's
The propaganda against Jews and introduction
most learned scholars, Dr. Moses Hadas, associate professor of
men in foreign lands.
The problem is a far more complicated Judaism, which has taken on gigantic Greek and Latin at Columbia University. Prof. Hadas has written
one involving Russia. The antagonism with proportions in the Russian press, assum- an interesting review of the backgrounds and significance of
which Russian spokesmen have dealt with ing an anti-Semitic character, calls for all of the books in the Apocrypha. He states that defects in
Jewry accounts for the major controver- explanations. If it is not government in- the King James Version and the carelessness of the translators
sies with respect to efforts to secure spired, why do the Soviet rulers, while of that time have been remedied by Prof. Goodspeed in his
translation." Dr. Hadas states: "The freshness and
justice for Jews in the Soviet Union. boasting of having outlawed anti-Semi- "American
directness
of
Goodspeed's version and its closer approach
It is to be hoped, nevertheless, that tism, permit the spread of bias and mis- to a dignified Prof.
vernacular make it more desirable for the general
some one who is concerned with the status representation against the Jews?
These and a score of other questions reader, and it has therefore been chosen for presentation in
of Russian Jewry will have an opportunity
volume."
to pose some questions to Khrushchev. can rightfully be directed at the Russians the present
The popularity of paperbacks is enhanced by the publica-
While it is anticipated that Khrush- and have a place in the consultative tion of several other new titles in the Modern Library series
chev will have stock answers to all ques- counselling with Khrushchev.
of Random House, including: "The Elizabethan World Pic-
If, as has been claimed, the Russians ture," by E. M. W. Tillyard, a study of the idea of order in the
tions posed to him — reiterating his
contentions that Russian Jews are not are sensitive to criticism and are especial- age of Shakespeare, Donne and Milton; "The Copernican Revo-
interested in Israel, that they have no ly anxious not to be branded anti-Semites, lution," planetary astronomy in the development of western
thought, by Thomas S. Kuhn, with a foreword by James B.
desire to emigrate, that the reason there then there always is hope of amelioration
texts of
are no Yiddish newspapers is because the of the sad conditions affecting Jews now Conant; "Three Plays" by Eugene O'Neil—complete
"Desire Under the Elms," "Strange Interlude" and "Mourning
Jews in Russia are Russified and have no in existence in Soviet Russia. Perhaps the
Electra"; "Space Handbook," astronautics and its
interest in Judaism — there nevertheless presentation of these facts anew to Becomes
are some basic facts which, when pre- Khrushchev will lead towards the restora- applications, by Robert W. Buchheim and the staff of the Rand
RIIRsian govern- tion of elementary rights to Russian Jewry. Corporation,
Khrushchev and the Status of USSR Jewry
-4-,,,a