15 Years After Hitler Era
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. Nationa
Editoriai 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 S6
Entered as second class matter Aug 6. 1942 at Post Offic, Detroit. Mich. under act of Congress of March
187:
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
FRANK SIMONS
Circulation Manager
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the eighteenth day of Kislev. 5720, the following Scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Vayishiakh., Gen. 32:4-36:43. Prophetical portion, Hosea 11:7-12:12.
Licht Renshen, Friday: Dec. 18, 4:45 p.m.
VOL. XXXVI. No. 16
Page Four
December 18, 1959
UN's New Resolution Invites Trouble
Four weeks of debates in the United means of prolonging a state of war which
Nations' General Assembly's Special Po- was of their • making when Israel's state-
litical Committee on the question of pro- hood first was proclaimed in 1948. It has
longing the life of the UN Relief and been conceded even by Arabs that any
Works Agency, in behalf of the Arab plan for a return of Arab refugees to
refugees, served the unholy purpose of Israel can be effected only in a limited
reviving an unending series of attacks on fashion, and Israel has consented to take
Israel, the Israelis and the Jewish people back a number of the refugees by reunit-
by Arab politicians who represent their ing a specified group of families. But the
governments in the international organi- intention of Israel's antagonists is not to
rescue the refugees but to prolong their
zation.
In spite of Israel's repeated offers to status as pariahs and outcasts, in order
compensate the Arabs, who fled from to destroy Israel.
It stands to reason that Israel will
Israel 12 years ago, for the land they
left behind, ignoring the Israeli offers not submit to such threats, that many of
to negotiate peace with their Arab an- the nations with whom Israel has friend-
tagonists, the UN's • special committee liest relations will-not condone such aspi-
not only decided to renew the UNRWA rations, and that the honor of the United
program for another three years, but Nations organization itself is at stake in
also to revive the Palestine Conciliation such a program of destructivism.
Therefore, it is apparent that the UN,
Commission which was first set up in 1948
by
its
actions last week, invited trouble,
for the purpose of forcing a return of
the Arab refugees into Israel. The latter and is prolonging antagonisms and ten-
act may cause an undue amount of sions. It has failed to bring the Middle
trouble, not only for Israel but for the East closer to peace and thereby has post-
entire Middle East. It may serve to aggra- poned the possibility of a more lasting
world.
vate the Israel-Arab conflict and to post- peace for the entire
*
*
*
pone the chances for peace for a number
The new conditions created by the
of years to come.
United Nations reflect the misunderstand-
*
*
The UN became a platform for a re- ings that exist vis-a-vis Israel in many
vival of hostility against Israel. A number quarters. In his most illuminating article
of the member nations of the United on Egypt's attitudes toward Israel, Walter
Nations recognized the dangers inherent Lippmann stated: "Indeed, I came away
in the renewal of the Palestine Concilia- convinced that there is a serious fear of
tion Commission on the basis of its im- military aggression by Israel." He adds,
practical status of 1948, and the injustices on the basis of what he had learned in
that can be perpetrated by attempts to Cairo, that the Egyptians are continuing
revive a resolution that has long ago their campaign of hatred against Israel
been recognized as dead and ineffective, because they are convinced that "Israel
and they abstained from voting on that is able to commit aggression and expand
its territory."
portion of the resolution.
These are the views of the Egyptians,
Now we are due for more disputes
as
they
were brought back to us by the
which could have been avoided had the
world's leading powers acted more realis- eminent foreign analyst. What a pity that
Walter Lippmann did not include Israel
tically on the issue.
What the United Nations needed to in his itinerary so that he might have
do was to declare its intentions to labor learned at first hand how unreliable the
for amity among the peoples in the Egyptian views are, and how much Israel
Middle East through a Palestine Peace craves for peace on the basis of her
Commission. Except for the endorse- present geographical status. Now we have
ment of Israel's appeals for peace by a view of only one side of the coin, and
several of the smaller nations within Israel must continue to defend herself
the UN, however, the peace plea appears against great odds.
to have fallen on deaf ears, and the fears * * *
Israel continues to plead for peace.
that have gripped the Big Powers pre-
dominated in their having yielded to What she needs is the endorsement to
Arab pressures rather than to a striving such appeals by the world's great powers.
Such cooperation has been missing. That
for good will.
We are back where we started, with is why the actions of the United Nations
the Arabs propagating every conceivable breed only trouble and remain ineffective.
Weizmann Institute's Scientific Achievements
It was only 25 years ago that the
foundations for the Weizmann Institute
of Science were laid in Rehovot, Israel,
by the establishment, in 1934, of the Sieff
Institute, which was the firs st unit in the
now immense scientific set-up established
by Israel's first President, Dr. Chaim
Weizmann.
It was only ten years ago that the
Weizmann Institute was dedicated, with
Dr. Weizmann as the principal speaker
at an event that received the recognition
of the academic leaders of the world.
On both occasions-25 years ago and
again ten years ago—the Weizmann
Institute program was still in the state of
a noble dream. Today, however, the
results of Dr. Weizmann's work are bear-
ing fruit, and the great institute of science
is making vast contributions to learning
cultural factors in Israel's development.
Known as "Yad Chaim Weizmann"-
the memorial to Dr. Weizmann—the
workshops, installations and libraries that
have been established at Rehovot also
are a tribute to the directions given the
scientific institute by Meyer Weisgal, who
is the chairman of the executive board of
the Weizmann Institute. Additional im-
petus is being given the institute's work
by its new president, Abba Eban.
Atomic research, activities in the
Institute of Nuclear Science and work in
a number of important additional spheres
are making the Weizmann Institute one
of the great centers of knowledge in the
world. It represents one of the great
accomplishments in Israel and it deserves
all the encouragement we can give it. We
extend to its scientists, directors and
leaders our heartiest congratulations on
'Mystery on Mountain Inspires
Interest in Moses, Revelation
Prof. Theodor Reik, a brilliant pupil of Sigmund Freud,
whom Freud described as "one of the few masters of applied
analysis," has written a challenging book on "the drama of
the Sinai Revelation," under the title "Mystery of the Mountain."
In this work, published by Harper, Dr. Reik differs with Prof.
Freud's ideas, especially those relating to Freud's claim that
Moses was an Egyptian.
Dr. Reik adheres to traditional: viewpoints that the source
of spiritual monotheism was Hebraic and not Egyptian.
The major thesis in "Mystery on the Mountain" is that there
is a similarity between the puberty rites in the Australian bush
and those described in the story of the Exodus.
Prof. Reik makes the point that there was a struggle of
ideas between Moses and Aaron, that the latter's view was
that "for the people seeing is believing" but that • Moses hoped
that his people, "listening to the message coming first from
outside and then from within, will believe in the imageless
God." Dr. Reik therefore maintains that "the great deed of
Moses is not the creation of pure monotheism, but that of
the invisible God."
Differing with the views expressed that Moses was an
Egyptian, Dr. Reik sets out to show that "Freud's hypotheses
have met vigorous contradiction." He especially belittles the
contention that the name Moses is Egyptian, meaning a child,
and states that it is "very likely that many Hebrew fathers
and mothers, dwelling in Egypt, gave their children Egyptian
names," just as "among the Austrian and German Jews of the
19th century it became fashionable to give the children
Teutonic names."
"It is amusing to imagine," Prof. Reik writes, "that a
historian, 3,000 years from now, might publish a hypothesis
according to which Freud would be identified as a pure repre-
sentative of Teutonic civilization because Sigmund is a name
whch goes back to earliest German sources, or that Einstein
might be cited as an exemplar of genuine Aryan culture because
Albert or Adalbert is an ancient name to be found in German
folklore and borne by many dukes and bishops. Theodor Herzl
would, if such arguments were conclusive, have been of
Greek descent."
An exceedingly interesting resume of the Exodus incidents
and the experiences of Moses is given in this book, and there
is a thorough accounting of the dramatic events leading up
to the Revelation on Sinai. But Dr. Reik challenges the claim
that the Decalogue is "the universal alphabet of religion for
all mankind." He writes that he "cannot refrain" from stating
that "The Ten Commandments present perhaps the alpha
of religion, but certainly not its omega. The evidence of world
history and especially of our time, proves that men have not
yet learned even the beginnings of that alphabet. The govern-
ments of the world order their people to commit mass murders
as though they had never heard of the Sixth Commandment ..."
His discussions of circumcision, puberty rites and their
initiation are of major importance in Dr. Reik's book. He denies
"the notion that circumcision was originally a tribal mark of
the Hebrew people" because "almost all Semitic nations .
performed circumcision on their males when they reached the
marriageable age." Among the Hebrews, however, it was a
covenant between Yahweh and His people, and among primitive
people it was part of a tribal initiation.
Dr. Reik enters into an extensive discussion of Israel's
Election as the Chosen People. He declares that "the emphasis
of the Hebrew belief in their election is not on the people, but
on Yahweh. The Israelites will be honored not for their own
sake, but because they are His people."
In his emphasis on tribal puberty rites and parallelisms
in circumcision rites, Dr. Reik states that "an accumulation
of reports about the puberty rites in Africa, Australia and
America would convince the student that instruction in the
history and mythology is an integral part of the primitive
tribal initiation."
His evaluation of the Sinai Revelation story is unique and
at the same time thought-provoking, sufficient to inspire further
study of historical data involving Moses, the Commandments,
the background of the Election theory and other aspects of
Taw '
hiclorv .