A Heavy Volume

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.
Entered as second class matter Aug. 6, 1942 at Post Office, Detroit, Mich. under act of Congress of March
8, 1879.

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Editor and Publisher

SIDNEY SHMARAK

Advertising Manager

CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ

Circulation Manager

Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath. the eighteenth day of Elul, 5720, the following Scriptural selections will be
read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal. portion, Ki Tavo, Dent. 26:1-29:8. Prophetical portion, Is. 60:1-22.

Licht Benshen. Friday, Sept. 6, 6:34 p.m.

VOL. XXXVIII, No. 2

Page Four

September 9, 1960

Must Prevent 'World Offensive Against Israel'

Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, one of the
ablest interpreters of the Zionist idea,
in an address before the annual conven-
tion of the Zionist Organization of Amer-
ica, refuted criticisms of the American
Zionist movement by declaring that
"Zionism was the architectural design,
the material out of which the State of
Israel was built, and the will that built
it," and declared: "Zionism will remain
Israel's sure and main support in the
days to come. It would be folly to break
the cask, and still hope that the wine will
be retained . . . nor is there any other
cask available into which the wine can
be poured and conserved."
Another distinguished Zionist leader,
Dr. Emanuel Neumann, in an address at
the ZOA convention, added the following
in an evaluation of Zionism's role in Jew-
ish life:_ "The Zionist movement has cre-•
ated the State of Israel and sponsored the
Great Return. It will continue to rally
moral and material support for . . .
Israel and help to consolidate her posi-
tion and defend her rights and legitimate
interests against all adversaries. But Zion-
ism is not a philanthropy—and vastly
more than an aid-to-Israel movement. It
has another aspect and dimension of
deepest significance to Jewish life in
America and the world over. As con-
ceived by Herzl, Zionism _signifies a re-
turn to Judaism and a Jewish spiritual
renascence."
While there are differing views on
the subject, and some Jewish leaders, in-
cluding Israelis, notably David Ben-
Gurion, are inclined to minimize the posi-
tion of the Zionist movement in Israel's
role of statehood, it is to be hoped that
the views of the two quoted leaders will
prevail, in view of recurrent dangers to
Israel and to all Jewry from antagonistic
forces, some of them anti-Semitic.
*
*
Related to the discussion of the cur-
rent position of Zionism is the movement
that was urgently advocated at the ZOA
convention, for the creation of a unified
Jewish voice, an American Jewish Assem-
bly, that should speak for American
Jewry on all .issues relating to Jewry.
The two matters—the strengthening
of the Zionist movement and the evolve-
ment of a unified Jewish force are
closely associated. It Would, indeed, be
folly to sacrifice Zionism on an altar of
overconfidence, simply because Israel
now is an established fact. At the same
time it would be suicidal to remain com-
placent in viewing the position of Jews.
throughout the world. Arab antagonisms
often inspire anti-Semitic tendencies, in
this country and abroad. We are far re-
moved from a panacea of non-prejudice.
There always are situations that call for
unified Jewish action. Zionist leaders
therefore acted realistically both in their
resolve to strengthen their movement
and in undertaking to encourage the for-
mation of an assembly that should be
prepared to act in times of crises.
,,
*
*
New dangers face Israel and there-
fore present challenges to the Zionists.
The Jewish Observer and Middle East
Review of London recently warned of a
"world offensive against Israel," with
"London as center for a new campaign."
The London Spectator has been conduct-
ing an anti-Zionist offensive that reads
like a combined Kremlin-Munich anti-
Semitic tirade. A number of recently-
published books with anti-Israel attitudes
are based on propaganda supplied by the
Council for Judaism.
It would be unwise to treat the new
outburst of prejudice as either a passing

phase in an era of Israel's reality or as
unworthy of consideration. Out of minor
rumor-mongering often develop holo-
causts, and out of subtle propaganda can
come real danger to a people, to its aspira-
tions, to a small state that is fighting an
uphill battle for existence.
*
*
*
Here is a typical example of the mean-
est type of prejudice. In a review of the
new book by Jon and David Kimche, in
which the two Anglo-Jewish correspond-
ents 'describe the background of the Is-
raeli war of independence, the reviewer
Editor's Note: A collection of law works showing the contribu-
goes so far as to suggest that Zionists tions Jews made to American law opened at the Bnai Brith building
engineered the calamities under Hitler as in Washington last week.
a weapon for statehood. Referring to
the Kimches' "conventional triangular An Expose of Hitlerism
approach to the war—the British, the
Arab, the Jewish sides of the hill," the
reviewer had the audacity to write that
"what they thus suppress is one of the
most massively important features of the
entire Palestine struggle—namely that
Zionism deliberately arranged that the
Elie Wiesel was 15 when he and his family were isolated in
plight of the wretched survivors of Hitler- a ghetto
in Sighet, the Transylvanian small town, with his family.
ism should be 'a moral argument' which They felt secure there for a time. Then the Nazis began to move
the West had to accept."
them into concentration camps. His mother and sisters were re-
This is a shocking accusation. The moved, never to be heard from again. With his father he went
death of six million Jews at the hands of through the infernos of Birkenau, Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Buna.
Nazi-ruled Germany indeed emerged as He witnessed his father's death shortly before he was liberated, as
A moral argument in support of an open the American troops began to move in at Buchenwald.
door policy for the admission of Jews
His deeply moving story is told in an impressive account pub-
into the then British-ruled Palestine. But lished under the title "Night" by Hill and Wang (104 5th, N.Y.).
it was the immorality of British perfidy It is another valuable record to be added to the books written by
of that time that created a moral issue. the survivors from Nazism. It is additional evidence against the
London Spectator's editor and his horrors of Hitlerism.
*
*
*
book reviewer also saw fit to charge that
Francois
Mauriac,
in
a
foreword
to "Night," pays tribute to
there was a rescue plan in behalf of
refugees from Hitlerism, one of them the young author and recalls the scenes he had seen of children
supposedly proposed by the late Presi- who were herded together as sufferers under Nazism. "I was one
dent Franklin D. Roosevelt. This charge of them," Wiesel told him. Mauriac's consoling words are:
"Zion has risen up again from the crematories and the
also is a myth. If it is true, proofs should
be provided. It would vindicate the late charnel houses. The Jewish nation has been resurrected from
President Roosevelt, whose administra- among its thousands of dead. It is through them that it lives
tion fell far short of its responsibilities again. We do not know the worth of one single drop of blood,
one single tear. All is grace. If the Eternal is the Eternal, the
by failure to save more Jews. It was dur- last
word for each one of us belongs to Him. This is what I
ing the administration of President Harry should
have told this Jewish child. But I could only embrace
S. Truman that a demand was made upon him, weeping."
the Attlee-Bevin government to admit
100,000 Jews—and even that never was
The reader will weep numerous times as he reads Wiesel's
fulfilled. It was only the emergence of "Night." The Sighet Jews lived a normal life, until the ghetto was
the State of Israel that made possible the created for them. Then, on the seventh day of Passover, in 1944,
mass immigration of Jews into Israel.
"the curtain rose," and "the Germans arrested the leaders of the
These writers overlook the fact that Jewish community. From that moment, everything happened very
all avenues of escape were closed to Jew- quickly. The race toward death had begun."
ish victims of the world's worst curse.
For the first time, he saw his father weep. As the Wiesel family
Yet, a writer for a responsible periodical was being separated, the females from the males, the Hungarian
has the audacity to accuse Jews of police arrived to help the Nazis. "Get on with you, lazy swine,"
they yelled, and the young author of "Night" declares: "It was from
arranging moral claims!
*
*
*
that moment that I began to hate them, and my hate is still the
only
link between us today." As the "race toward death" began,
There are misrepresentations in a
number of books. In his "Kings and during the final hours in the ghetto, Wiesel recalled:
"Night! No one prayed, so that the night would pass quickly.
Camels," Grant C. Butler has swallowed The stars
were only sparks of the fire which devoured us. Should
—hook, line and sinker—the Berger- that fire die
out one day, there would be nothing left in the sky
Council of Judaism line. It is true that but dead stars, dead eyes."
he concludes his book on an optimistic
*
*
*
•
note—that peace is possible, that Jews
the sufferers, as described
"Gnawed
by
fear,"
the
tragedy
of
and Arabs can get together. But his
Wiesel, began at Birkenau. They watched the flames that came
solution is based on information gath- by
from the chimneys of the crematoria: "Never shall I forget those
ered from Israel's vilest enemies.
flames which consumed by faith forever."
There are scores of similar evidences
Then came Auschwitz and Elie became number A-7713, in
of a campaign aimed at harming Israel. Auschwitz, which was followed by Buna and later by Buchenwald.
That calls for renewal of activities to He recalls the activities of Dr. Joseph Mengele, the notorious Nazi
clarify the issues, to present Israel's case butcher whose punishment now is demanded, and the dastardly
factually, frankly and realistically and to work of doctors whose job was "to finish off the sick."
*
*
*
strive to put an end to propaganda aimed
at destroying an entire people. The cam-
It was towards the end that "the camp resistance organization
paign against Israel is genocidal, the had decided not to abandon the Jews and was going -to prevent
Arabs use the term "exterminate," and their being liquidated." It was as the American tanks stood at the
Jews must resort to defense so that there gates of Buchenwald that "the SS had fled and the resistance
should be no more comfort given to those had taken charge of running of the camp."
who advocate gas chambers for Jews.
Elie Wiesel had the first chance, after satiating his hunger, in
It is evident that a strong Zionist move- the hour of liberation, to look at himself: "from the depths of the
ment is needed to assure justice for Is- mirror, a corpse gazed back at me."
rael, and that a unified assembly is
His "Night" is powerful. It is a story to be shared with all
urgent to prevent injustice to Jewry. liberty-loving people, so that the tragedy of Nazism should never
Views at the ZOA convention therefore be forgotten, so that the Hitlerite brutalities may never again be
were timely, practical and most necessary. repeated.

Wiese! Gives Youth's Account
of Nazi Terrorism in 'Night'