2 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS — Friday, April 8, 19 60 -- Purely Commentary Passover has a multitude of assets. It is not only the libertarian banner- bearer for mankind: it has the merit of serving as a unifier of families, since no other festival draws •relatives together as closely, thanks to the beauty of the Seder ceremonies; it manifests mankind's hopes for peace, because it stems from an era of conflict during which our ancestors were striving for amity and security. ,• The festival's lessons are bitter ones. In spite of the repetitious cravings for liberty, there is a great lack of it throughout the universe. While we articulate about freedom, the color line is drawn in many areas of the world, and in a portion of it scores of black men Were killed in recent - rioting; and the religious differentiations have not yet been wiped out. While we speak of peace, there is no peace to boast about. There is an East-West struggle that often creates panic. Its immediate result is that the democratic nations spend much more of the taxable income for weapons and for defense than for education and for the protection of the health of the people. Failure to attain peace often borders on the appalling. A typical example of disillusionment was in evidence among the youth last week. An Israeli girl was one of the participants in the annual New York Herald Tribune Forum and the subject under discussion was "The World We Want." The Israeli, Tamar Liebes, replying to the question "How can we expect to be able to do something for the world if we doubt our own powers?", posed by a Philippine representative, deliverd this speech: "The hardest thing for me when I come home, I know now, will be a feeling of an opportunity lost. Although I know it could have been different. I met an Arab boy, and found out that we have the same aspirations, that we two want peace. After this, I have to come home where the situation has not changed, where a war can break out any day. Maybe if all of Israel and the U. A. R. had been Forum delegates, we could have come to an agreement. It seems absurd to think that during twelve years a million people sit in refugee camps, and nothing, absolutely nothing moves in the direction of solving their problem. "The neighboring countries continue to say that in order to achieve peace, Passover's Never-Slackening Aspirations for Peace and for Freedoms for All Mankind By Philip Slomovitz we have to take the refugees back. And we continue to say that our country of not even 2,000,000—already 10 per cent Arab—can't take in another million Arabs. "Now that I have seen the conflict in our ways of thinking in all its sharp- ness, I am much less hopeful than I was before. I never thought as much about the conflict as I have here. In fact, here I lost hope (which I had before I came, perhaps a childish one) that here will be peace my lifetime. Unless there is a very drastic change we will have to continue a life which is a constant tension, a constant preparation for war. But I see no hone of such a change, so how can I remain hopeful? I can look only to a future of getting more arms, putting most of our effort—which is needed for so many more important things—into military defense." It is this type of disenchantment with the realities of life that mars the faith we would like to instill in our fellow men. Regrettably, the chances for peace in the world have lessened, the conflicts among peoples have multiplied, and in the strivings for liberty we are daily starting from scratch. But instead of minimizing the significance of Passover, such existing condi- tions serve to multply the festival's values. If it is as difficult to attain freedom and peace today as it was 35 centuries ago, the validity of the battle for higher values in life has not diminished. If the struggle for peace is as serious today as it was in the days of the Pharaohs, at least we are better fortified with reasoning to oppose war and to strive for amity among individuals as well as among nations. The lesson of Passover remains challenging. The festival's aspirations and guiding principles continue to admonish us that the struggle for freedom never slackens, that human aspiration for justice is never-ending. * * * An Israeli teen-ager came to our land to find a hope for peace, but she ended up by saying that she "lost hope." That is a despairing development not merely for a young girl, but for all of us. A youngster came here to look for kinship with boys and girls of her own age from many lands. She found an Arab who shared her hopes for peace, but she began to realize that nothing has been done to solve the refugee problem, that while there is talk of peace they are mere words. The future she is confronted with is one of "getting more arms." Wherein lies the solution to this problem that borders on danger to all humanity? It was the Israeli who extended a hand offering peace. It remains an unaccepted gesture. It is even safe to say that among ourselves, when '7,600 Americans met at the White House Conference on Children and Youth last week, that so far even that activity ended in mere talk. We remain split on the question Perform this Ritual after the Third of the Four Ceremonial Cups, just before the of religious differences—the church-state issue and the injec- door is opened for the symbolic entrance of the Prophet Elijah. All rise, and the tion of religious issues in the political campaign are evidences of prevailing troubles; there is no unity on racial issues—North leader of Seder recites the following: and South still are at loggerheads over many problems; and there are other matters that divide us. English rendition of the Hebrew: It is normal to have differences; but it is abnormal that nr, 0, 74 t7,17; human beings should continually battle over elementary matters 1;1 nt: 10,177 15 ,17-p rT On this night of the Seder , V1?o we remember with reverence human rights; and it is such issues that cause wars— mvi-rkt n12ia; involving 140 y-iz-j ntvt 7.7, to.1 and love the six millions of internal ones among the citizens of a single nation, external our people of the European that lead to international tragedies. .T1 J19P tr.r)Vt4) ones And exile who perished at the so, on Passover, while we speak of freedom and hope . hands of a tyrant more for peace, we are beset by challenges that create a restlessness wicked than the Pharaoh 1;i1 ten 'ion D-rr.RD, lzt? :inTo ,r1, ?01? r1w7 -1;-1 nn that results from too little hope for a certain peace. who enslaved our fathers in n..Altr. Egypt. Come, said he to his ,9/01, trO4 o'CI:$ '0'1171;11 D'P'.??1? 1:17n 4 PVT11. Much of the difficulty comes from a lack of courage. If the minions, let us cut them off United Nations had possessed a measure of power to effect peace -)t?P?1 1'4471 .10rnio from being a people, that '40 n:P11 nkt 17t2r-14 19 07.1'171?12Q 326q in many areas of the world—including the Middle East—there the name of Israel may be might have been an end to arms races and to war panics, tr,94 13 .12. 761$ 131?* But remembered no more. And the UN neither displays such power nor utilizes it. In fact, they slew the blameless and ricpt21 its Secretary General returned empty-handed from his negotia- pure, men any' women and ,007tOrip 1 71.7 oVv Inon •1747;:rntry41 hititm tions with UAR President Abdel Gamal Nasser. Thus, "freedom little ones, with vapors of 10;17 o7p o,;-11 of the seas" has become a farcical term, "Peace" is burlesqued, Inoiprin o7; 117 ,9'1 onxii7 poison and burne'l them with and the suffereres, are the peoples of the Middle East: instead fire. But we abstain from inn al 71t ~~ 1 ito0 'In t? 111297 an teli2rFT 12';1 . 13't?tr,i of benefitting from proper planning for their health and educa- dwelling on the deeds of the tion, they are pawns in Nasser's strivings for power. evil ones lest we defame the '4P.P.7 71117r? trt.A7PY7 DV Similar tragedies exist in other parts of the globe. That is arr-r1; D'P' 1:7 47.11 13';:ftg, image of God in which man why mere talk of freedom is a sham, unless it can be accom- was created. D; 171.7 17tntr -rim; nty-174 N47 000;1 panied by an assurance of amity. Now, the remnants of our * * people who were left in the n-r0; o74 ritt 0,01-tp7 innv o ,ppl.ppol We boast of American freedom and democracy at a time ghettos and camps of annihi- when religion has become a major issue in this year's Presiden- lation rose up against the .rrtnr.? tial campaign. What some people view as a lack of confidence wicked ones for the sancti- in the influence of the Vatican is, in reality, a lack of self-con- fication of the Name, and All sing AN( MAAMIN ("I Believe"), fidence. With faith in the power of our American traditions, we slew many of them, before the song of the martyrs in the ghettos and liquidation camps: need never fear the injection of foreign influences into the they died. On the first day American political system. If we can live—as we do—in peace of Passover the remnants in and cooperation with our Catholic fellow-Americans, on local the Ghetto of Warsaw rose :70?Firtkr; 71912t MIRA.; 1'145 and statewide bases, there is no reason for fearing the loss of up ..gainst the adversary, 711' 7; DV 9tAl l'PLIQ '471 1 such mutual amity on a nationwide basis. The injection of a re- even as in the days of Judah ligious issue in the campaign is a most regrettable development, the Maccabee. They were and it should be eliminated with great speed. lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they If a Catholic issue can be injected into a political campaign, A-ni ma-a-min be-e-mu-no sh'le-mo were not divided, and they so can a Jewish one. Let us, therefore, take this into considera- brought redemption to the' B'vi-as ha-mo-shi-ah, v'af al pi tion: there are repeating campaigns of bigotry in the world, and name of Isrral through all anti-Semitism has been a menace in many lands. We do not be- She-yis-ma-mey-ha, im kol ze a-ni ma-a-min the world. lieve the savagery of Nazism will happen here for a single major And from the depths of reason; that anti-Semitism is threatening only when it is official their affliction the martyrs anti-Semitism. It is menacing in Russia because it borders on of- I believe with perfect faith ficial approval there. All sing ANI MAAMIN ("I lifted their voices in a song It was a world tragedy under Hitler because in the coming of the Mes- it was the approved German Believe"), of faith in the coming of policy. We have faith that it can not siah: the song of the nmertryrs the Messiah, when justice become official in this country. Therefore, we have faith in Amer- And though he tarry, none liquidation and in the ghettos and brotherhood will reign ican democracy. the less do I believe! camps: among men. Thus, if Catholicism can be made an official issue, so also can Judaism, and other faiths and movements; and it is the avidabite duty of liberty-loving people to oppose the injection of religion MIN BM Mt Nr.:a ■ musiemiumt milmmiesion mummilimmarrsompirmr • ...Imo wor mom= mums am 11111111111•111111111.11 MIMI NW .1W.1111111.1111•1•1111111r A- I NINI IMO MX mmr-ass into politics. owe mom am rimu Immo MEI 411•11•1111.1111' . • tam= am * * WU- ---- %co CI- Ni was-win a- till vstatl'IMIS a-. NI %gib( These are the issues of our time—and they stare at us bluntly as we sit ourselves at the Passover Sedorim. We are con-. MO =I MI 111111710111,11111/ AEI= 1111111111•111111TIF• strommai.. -17 . 1111E9111111•11.11111.41116 ft/WM IMIIINNIMI 1•11111 MIN I II fronted by hope for retention of our freedoms, but they are G 'CALI 0111•1Mira./U..116111.1111111•01•11=11111111=MV_A INN/111111111MIWANNOW—.11 MINIM 11111110411111WW - .411P! MI 111 ■ 11111111 MINIM MIMI MB 01111=111 =IV "al ANI threatened by delayed peace and the injection of bigotries into our daily experiences. MAAMIN It is the striving for peace on a par with freedom, the aspi- la mem. Wamiii ■ EILINVINIMIIIIii ration for unbiased political atmospheres, the hope for an end I :LAW AP' wriesimmormirs if "JE zoir AN NI tamissw "I Believe" Alm mom ■1/MP. imMIENNEhrIERI J•II•Ww. INGAAL ■ IONIINNINIIIM ■ E to racial and religious bigotries, that emphasize the goals of our V+• as pia- sfir crS, a- rti lima- 14i ix y'. liberty-aspiring Passover. It is in the hope of attaining these ideals some day—may our_ Nolisio MI MIMI NM 1•111111111111111111.1 ■ 11 they come true in our own time !—that we extend the hearty 1,, AllMisi g ■ Ll t i r... ■ MOIMMINI wishes for a Happy Passover to all our kinsmen, and to all man- a- Id --144aa- ► int kind with whom we desire to share such humanitarian attain- u Yti maa.14 ■ 47$14i ttata- — tixin ments. of Remembrance Issued by Seder Ritual Committee, 15 East 84th Street, New York 28, N. Y. Seder Ritual of Remembrance for Six Million Jews Who Perished at the Hands of the Nazis and the Heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising n0.0 - o - M 13 . Ritual