Laden with. Resolutions
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.
1942 at Post Offic,.. Detroit. Mich. under act of Congress of March
Entered as second class matter Aug.
;), 187::
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Circulation Manager
FRANK SIMONS
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the fourth day of Kislev, 5720, the following Scriptural selections will be
read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion. Toledot. Gen. 25:19-28:9. Prophetical portion, Malachi 1:2-7.
Li , ht Benshen; Friday, Dec. 4, 4:43 p.m.
VOL. XXXVI. No. 14
Page Four
December 4, 1959
Lack of Realism Stymies UN's Actions
Continuation of the United Nations
Relief and Works Agency program, in
behalf of the Arab refugees, presents an
increasingly serious pr oblem for the
democratic nations of the world and ag-
gravates rather than solves the painful
Middle Eastern problem.
It has been admitted that the quoted
number of a million Arab refugees has
been padded and that at least 150,000
included in that list for relief allocations
are names of dead people.
U. S. Senators Albert Gore of Ten-
nessee and Gale W. McGee of Wyoming
have called such a program "immoral,
dishonest and unfair," and have ac-
cused Jordan of major guilt in such
misuse of .international funds, 80 per
cent of which come from the United
States. Nevertheless, under pressure
from the Arab potentates, the United
Nations again yields into submission
by renewing a program of unrealistic
relief instead of striving to put many
refugees to work, thus making them
self-supporting.
A practical program of -reconstruc-
tion would call for the resettlement of
most of the refugees in neighboring
Arab countries. That would deprive the
Arabs of a major weapon against Israel.
The world organization must not give its
approval to a program that continues
a policy of despair, rather than introduce
efforts to end the pariah status of the
escapees from Israel and to provide them
with homes, jobs, security.
As a gesture to Senators Gore and
McGee, who had protested to the State
Department against the fraudulent prac-
. tices by Jordan in the administration of
the Arab refugee camps. Secretary of
State Christian Herter asked the U. S.
Embassy in Amman, Jordan, for a report
on the charges. Herter acknowledged that
the Senators' charge was in relation to
corruption and misappropriation of funds
used in American-financed projects in
Jordan, especially pertaining to food
cards distributed among Arab refugees.
Since this is a UN matter, Herter, from
all indications, will pursue an established
policy of passing on responsibility to the
world organization. He already has stated
that the UN is giving "serious considera-
tion" to the matter and that Jordan has
promised cooperation to the UN in cor-
recting the situation.
Thus, "passing the buck" is a con-
venient method of shifting responsibility
method of approach that is being
resorted to by all the democratic nations
when they are confronted with major
challenges involving many serious situa-
tions. It would have been better for the
entire world, and certainly for those
interned in refugee camps in Arab coun-
tries, if a firm stand were taken against
the perpetuation of degradation for those
who unwisely fled from Israel under
pressure from their leaders upon the
establishment of the State of Israel. The
sins of unrealistic diplomacy thus are
visited upon unfortunate victims of Arab
plots against Israel, and Israel conse.
quently suffers from a t r a g i c ally
perpetuated UN policy.
Meanwhile, the continuation of the
United Nations Emergency Force, which
is guarding the Gaza Strip between Egypt
and Israel, has been continued, and the
United States' share in its expense of
$20,000,000 will be $9,700,000.
Retention of the UNEF was accom-
panied by an indirect rebuke to King
Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia who threatened
to cut off Israeli traffic in the Gulf of
Aqaba. The boasting Arabian king
issued his threat in anticipation of the
removal of the UNEF from that area.
While it made the headlines in this
country, the people who would have been
directly affected by the effectuation of
Saud's threat, the Israelis, were least con-
cerned. They know that they could easily
repulse any Saudian -attacks, and that
they could repeat the Sinai Operation of
1956 with success. But such actions are
not desired either by Israel or her fellow-
members in the United Nations, and only
the saber-rattling Arabs continue to
threaten war even within the confines
of the UN -- in defiance of basic peace
principles of the world organization.
.Here, too, it is most regrettable that
large sums must be used for irrelevant
purposes, such as border patrolling, while
there is such great need 'to use the funds
to relieve want and to raise the standards
of the under-privileged nations who sur-
round Israel. If the UN were to dedicate
itself with determination to end- the state
of war in the Middle East, and if a more
serious effort were made to effect an
Arab-Israel peace, there would be no
need either for refugee relief funds or
for border patrols. A more realistic UN
purpose is yet to be attained, especially
in relation to the unfortunate Arab
antagonism against Israel.
BACK FROM CONVENTIONS
1-1*Y*M*A * N K*A *P*L*A*N'S
Return Poses Problem of
Propriety of Use of Mimicry
Twenty years ago, writing under the pseudonym of "Leonard
Q. Ross" (he was "afraid of what his professors might do if
they discovered that whilst he was living in Washington on an
honorific fellowship, he was spending his weekends in his
secret vice—writing fiction"), Leo Rosten produced the sensa-
tional story of Hyman Kaplan. It was the story of a classroom
in which some of his fellow-students called him Keplen, some
Kaplen, some Koplen, others Keplan. And Kaplan himself was
the ingenious immigrant who was signing his name on the
blackboard as
IPY*M*A*1•1 K*A*P*L*A*N
No one who has read that story could possibly forget it.
That is why its sequel, now available under the author's right
name. as "The Return of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N.," pub-
lished by Harper & Brothers (49 E. 33rd, N. Y. 16), is once again
such a howling success.
But its very success poses the problem of the propriety of the
use of mimicry and all-but-forgotten dialects.
The author's preface, "The Confessions of Mr. Parkhill"—
Parkhill, the teacher of Kaplan's class, is the patient saint who
is "Mr. Pockhill" to Kaplan—is an essay on humor.
Rosten had "wandered into the arctic reaches of soli-
tude" one day during the horrid summer of 1958, and in search
for "self-administered consolation . . . it was Mr. Kaplan who
appeared—his zest administered by the years, his spirit un-
vanquished."
As a result, we have this revised entertainment—the recon-
struction of the classroom ? with its collaborators—immigrants
from many lands.
At the very outset, Kaplan shows his skill, when he submits
his first essay on "My Life:"
Hyman Kaplan
by
IFY*NPA''N Ii*A*P*L*A*1 ■ 1
"The title plunged Mr. Parkhill into a kind of hypnotic daze.
How had Mr. Kaplan decided where to place the stars? In the
first 'Hyman Kaplan'? That would imply that it was the idea of
Mr. Kaplan, not the real Mr. Kaplan, that was all-important. In
both 'Hyman Kaplan's?' That would suggest a split personality.
But putting the stars only in the second 'Hyman Kaplan,' as
Mr. Kaplan had so masterfully decided—that seemed incontest-
able: for it emphasized Kaplan the man, not Kaplan the subject,
Kaplan the creator, not Kaplan the concept."
And so, in the beginnis grat of American Night Preparatory
Ten years ago, recognizing the need the needy, workshops for blind weavers, School for Adults, Mr. Kaplan is not so much a man who refuses
of the handicapped and aged immigrants activities for invalids, opportunities for to learn but does not conform—and the result is a series of
who were flocking to Israel from concen- artists to pursue their activities and for episodes that provide the laughs about a man and his fellow
tration camps, the Joint Distribution craftsmen to preserve their talents in adult students who are subjected to lessons in grammar, pro-
spelling, letter writing, etc.
Committee set up a new medical-social many spheres. As a medical as well as a nunciation,
When Fischel Pfeiffer is demoted to the beginnis' grat,
- agency in Israel under the name of Malben social agency, Malben has performed a Kaplan suddenly discovers that he pronounces his sh and s and
—taken from the Hebrew initials of the noble task in Israel.
Then comes an expose:
A typical example of Malben's con- vice versa.
words "Institution for the Care of Handi-
Litvak!' a clarion voice rang out. It was Mr. Kaplan,
"
tribution towards the rehabilitation of rejuvenated, 'Mein Gott, he's a Litvak'.' He wheeled toward
capped Immigrants."
During the decade that has elapsed, the handicapped is provided in Detroit Mr. Parkhill. 'Must be! Fromm Lit'uania! H_e pronounces `sh'
thousands of crippled newcomers to Israel at this time by the exhibition of the art like stimm commink of of a pipe."
So far, so good. The reader is entertained and there are
have been aided by this agency which works of a Malben artist, Moshe Shomogi,
received its support from the United who has overcome his handicaps at the many belly-laughs. But the student of history, he who knows
the changes that have taken place in this country since the
Jewish Appeal, the major beneficiary of Mahne Israel Malben hospital and is cre- curtailment
of immigration, must, ask himself: is "The Return of
Detroit's Allied Jewish Campaign. In the ating notable artistic works.
H*Y*1‘1*A*N 1(*.A*P'''L*AN" real? Do such characters exist
course of the 10 years of Malben's activi- Malben enters upon the second dec- today, or is this a continued banalization of an era that has long
ties, 52,000 people have been rehabili- ade of its services with an excellent been forgotten? Is this a revival of the "stage Jew" and the
tated, and the project has aided not only record of accomplishments and with plans burlesqued immigrant?
Fortunately, Rosten's new book is not as offensive as other
the East European survivors from Nazisi -n for an expanded program that aids many
but also thousands of North African thousands of handicapped and thereby similar caricatures have been. Yet, it. lacks reality, and it does
aids Israel with the works and the prod- pose the question whether it is wise to revive dialectal jargon
settlers who were in dire need of help.
The UJA has contributed $95,000,000 ucts produced in Malben institutions. This characters who are unknown to the present generation, thereby
false views of Jews, even if they are supposedly people
towards this program. It provided, in addi- agency lends great credit to JDC, UJA creating
stemming from the preparatory school days of the East Side.
Maiben's 10 Years of Service in Israel
tion to medical care and to housing for and to Israel.