Israel—Land of Milk

THE JEWISH NEWS

Incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951

Member An-lei:lean 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 S5 a year. Foreign $6.
Entered as second class matter Aug. 6, 1942 at Post Offic,.. Detroit, Mich. under act of Congress of March
187:.

PH ILIP SLOMOVITZ

Editcr and Publisher

SIDNEY SHMARAK

Advertising Manager

CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ

Circulation Manager

FRANK SIMONS

City Editor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the sixth day of Heshvan, 5720, the following Scriptural selections will be
read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Noah. Gen. 6:9-11:32. Prophetical portion. Isaiah 54:1-55:5.

Licht Benshen, Friday, Nov. 6. 5:02 p.m.

VOL XXXVI. No. 10

Page Four

November 6, 1959

Center Symphony's Noteworthy Anniversary

Two remarkably noteworthy programs created opportunities for amateur musi-
stand out as truly significant accomplish- cians to pursue active musical careers.
ments in the Jewish Community Center. The Center Symphony Orchestra con-
The Center Symphony Orchestra con- certs, which have drawn overflow audi-
certs and the Annual Jewish Book Fairs ences for many years, have attracted the
have been conducted on such high cul- interest of music circles throughout the
tural and artistic levels that they have land. It was a source of amazement to
become models for other communities in many professional musicians that a task
their programming. hitherto considered impossible—that of
There will be occasion, toward the end transforming a volunteer organization
of November, when the eighth annual into a powerfully-functioning symphony
Book Fair will be conducted here, to re- —should have become the model non-
view the values of that important event. professional musical Organization in the
Of particular current interest is the land. Now the amazement has been trans-
commencement of 'the 20th year of un- formed into admiration.
Chajes is the directional genius
interrupted Center Symphony Orchestra
concerts, which were introduced upon the who has made this possible. He has won
assumption of the Center's musical direc- well-earned acclaim for his work, and he
has earned whatever tributes may be
tion by Julius Chajes, in 1940.
A distinguished composer and one of planned in his honor on his approaching
the best known pianists,- Chajes also 20th anniversary in Detroit. We join in
possesses remarkable organizational abil- expressing our admiration for his work
ity. Starting from scratch, he organized and our gratitude for his contributions to
his department as a service to -people of our community's cultural activities on the
all ages. He has encouraged young people occasion of the commencement of his
in their musical pursuits and by organ- 20th season as guide and leader of the
izing the Center Symphony Orchestra, he Center Symphony Orchestra.

Dachau Macabre Memorial to Inhumanity

Plans of the West German Govern-
ment to tear down 29 of the 34 prison
barracks at the Dachau Concentration
Camp and to preserve the other five intact
as a symbol of the inhumanity of the Nazis
are considered insufficient by the Rev.
Leonhard Roth, chaplain to 2,000 refugees
from communism at the camp.
Battling to preserve the entire
Dachau camp as a macabre memorial to
inhumanity, the Catholic priest declared:
"The people who come here don't want
to see monuments. They want to see the
way it really was, the guard towers, the
graves and . the.. crematory. They should
be able to convince themselves: 'That's
the way it was'."
"The way it was" must indicate how
tens of thousands of victims were reduced
to ashes, how many of the sufferers suf-
fered • agonizing death, the cold water
chambers they had to go through and
the other inhuman experiments that were
practiced by the German madmen.
It is reported that 3,000 people,
mostly non-Germans, visited the Dachau
crematory, which is located in a small

,

park apart from the main concentration
camp, this summer. The report states that
among the visitors are former inmates of
the camp and relatives of those who died
there. There is a sign over the crematory
that reads "NO Guided Tours", but it has
been affirmed that none is necessary. An
AP account states:

"The people who walk through the crema-
tory room with its four ovens, through the
shower room and the morgue, whisper when
they speak;
"Although signs everywhere say 'Don't
Write on Walls,' inscriptions of names and
bitter accusations are scratched into the walls
in many languages. There is a huge Star of
David with the words 'Lest We Forget.' "

The inhumanity of the criminal Nazi
period in history must never be forgotten;
and one of the ways of preserving the
macabre memory of it would be to keep
intact the horrible structures that were
the creations of the cruellest men in his-
tory. The civilized world is . greatly in-
debted to Rev. Roth, for his campaign to
retain the entire Dachau camp as a re-
minder of the horrors of Nazism.

Arab Tactics and Democracies' Indifference

For the forty-second time, since the
Balfour Declaration first was issued in
1917, Arabs marched in protest against
the acquisition of political autonomy by
their Jewish cousins. Last Monday, on the
Nov. 2 anniversary date, it was reported
that Arabs marched at Gaza t_o declare.
that Israel must be destroyed.
In spite of friendships that originally
existed between Jews and Arabs, Arab
leaders incited their people to antagonism
against the Jews. They begrudged home-
less Jews a minute spot on the globe,
although they had themselves emerged
into more than a dozen independent na-
tions since World War I.
Now, although they sit with Israel in
the United Nations, as members of the
international organization, they speak of
war in an atmosphere that was to have
been dedicated to peace. They insist on
sponsoring a campaign of bigotry, in de-
fiance of the World Charter, and act
childishly by speaking of the 82-member
United Nations as being composed of only
81 nations, to emphasize that Israel,
whose existence they acknowledge when
they sneak of destrovingher. ceases to

exist the moment there is mention of
amity and peace.
The Arabs at the UN saw fit to ex-
clude Israel from a reception in honor
of the president of Guinea. But a spokes-
man for Israel was more realistic when
he said: "Relations between Israel and
the newly independent African nations
are determined in Africa and not at cock-
tail parties in New York." By the same
token, the Arabs surely will learn that
Israel's independence was not decided by
them and can not be controlled by any-
thing other than Israel's will to live. What
our cousins, who seek to destroy our kins-
men in Israel, seem to have failed to
learn is that the indestructibility of Israel
can not be washed away by hatred. On
the contrary, hatred has cemented it.
The most appalling element in the
new Arab "crusade" against Israel, in the
United Nations, at Gaza and in the official
quarters of firms like Renault which are
yielding to the Arab boycott, is that the
democratic nations who sit in the UN
with Arabs and Israelis have failed to ex-
press natural revulsion over Arab tactics
that are contrary to UN rincinles.

47 Biographical Sketches in
Gersh's 'These Are My People

Harry Gersh, who has written many plays, short stories and
essays, whose scripts have been used for the "Eternal Light"
programs, has written a full-length book, just published by
Behrman House (1261 B'way, N. Y. 1), entitled "These Are My
People."
Incorporated in this volume are 47 sketches of prominent
Jews of all times. It is sub-titled "a treasury of biographies of
heroes of the Jewish spirit from Abraham to Leo Baeck," and
the diversity becomes apparent by scanning through the names
of the personalities described.
Gersh deals with such a variety of Jewish names as the
Berditchever Rebbe and Stephen S. Wise. He begins with the
patriarchs and concludes with men like the Socialist Baruch
Charney Vladeck.
There are, of course, many important omissions. But the
author has delved into many fields to round up important
personalities whom he describes in the brief sketches.
Moses, Deborah, David, Elijah, Jeremiah, Ezra and Nehemiah
share in glory with the Salanter Rebbe, Baal Shem Tov, Meir
of Rothenberg, Jochanan Ben Zakkai and Rabbi Akiba.
Mattathias, Hillel and Shammai, Philo Juaeus and Judah
Ben Babba are among the famous figures in ancient history
recorded in these biographical sketches.
Modern leaders included in the book are Chaim Nachman
Bialik, Waldemar Haffkine, Joseph Goldberger, Louis D. Brandeis,
Chaim Weizmann and Albert Einstein.
Others whose life stories are evaluated by Gersh are: Rab-
bana Ashi bar Simai, Samuel ibn Adiya, Rashi, Judah Halevi,
Maimonides, Rabbi Yoin Tov, Yechiel of Paris, Cresques Lo
Juheu, Josselman of Rosheim, Rabbi Aaron of Tulchin. Benjamin
Nones, Sir David Sololnons, Uriah P. Levy, Isaac Leib Peretz,
Abe Krotoshinsky, Alexander David Goode, Hannah Senesch,
Judah Leib Orlean, Louis Alexander Slotin and Noam Grossman.
History is mixed with drama—the dramatic lives of great
men and women—in this interesting book. It is not a classic,
and it certainly is not the finest literary product, but it definitely
is an interesting collection of biographies of distinguished people.
As such it will undoubtedly have a fine circulation.

American Jew's Backgrounds

"The American Jew: A Study in Backgrounds," by Dr.
Abraham J. Feldman, published by Bloch, is a small book of
only 52 pages. But it is informative and contains so much
valuable information about the early backgrounds of American
Jews that it assumes considerable importance as an evaluator
of a melting pot into which have poured millions from many
lands and out of which is emerging the American Jew.
Rabbi Feldman has included in the four essays in this book
portions of his lectures and classroom syllabi. His themes are
the Spanish-Portuguese, German and Russian-Polish Jews, and
he summarizes by presenting a picture of the American Jew.
He describes the Sephardic Jew as the first Jew to come
to America and incidentally relates the tragedy of Spanish
Jewry as well as the "glorious and cultural background" of the
first Jewish settlers.
In depicting the German Jew, Dr. Feldman shows that ''fit
was not until after the Emancipation that the Golden Age set
in," that there was persecution and pillage against German
Jews who rose to a high cultural plane, and that it was the
German Jew who brought the gifts of organization and energy
to this country.
Listing many of the great leaders who came from Russia
and Poland, Rabbi Feldman describes the cultural and spiritual
background of Russian-Polish Jews who form "the largest ingred-
ient" in the making of the "American Jew."
Then, picturing the American Jew, he describes him as "a
human being keenly patriotic, splendidly advancing, finely
contributing, nobly aggressive, culturally creative, socially-
minded and progressive; a composite personality, made up of
the best of the centuries of creative endeavor and spiritual
groping of world Jewry, striking his roots into the congenial
and blessed soil of America . . ."
Chronological tables giving vital dates and data about the
several groupings described in this book are appended to this
volume and add to its value.

