THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS — Friday, November 18, 1960
Purely Commentary
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Sabbath Exams—Test of Observers' Status
The announcement made this week that Yeshivath Beth
Yehudah has been designated as a Test Center of the College -
Entrance Examination Board, to facilitate examinations in scholastic
aptitude and achievement tests for college entrance on Sundays, for
Sabbath observers, represents another challenge to Jewish students.
It is a test in itself of the prevailing attitude towards the Sabbath
by our young people.
Previous experiences, at Wayne State University and at colleges
in other cities, have been that students ignored the opportunities
offered to them to take tests on days other than the Sabbath or
Jewish festivals.
We had a similar experience when voters, on an election day
that occurred on Jewish festivals, did not take advantage of the
opportunity offered to them to cast absentee voters' ballots. In the
latter instance especially it was vital that there should be a demon-
stration of loyalty to religious faith to uphold the sentiments of
those who wish to observe the festival by applying for the absentee
ballots. The response to that opportunity was a meager one.
The opportunities for observance thus are often followed by
embarrassments. Even for the smallest number of observers, it is
essential that facilities should be made available for the observing
group to be examined on a day other than the Sabbath they keep
as holy. And if others of their co-religionists were to give them
encouragement by applying for substitutions from Saturdays to
Sundays — as in the instance of -advantages provided by the Ye-
shivath Beth Yehudah Test Center — it would be a proper and
glorious gesture of kinship and self-respect.
* •
Youth in the White House
There is an ancient Jewish legend about an elderly rabbi
who was seen squatting on the floor, hopping around horselike,
making animal-sounding noises. His colleagues who came to call
upon him immediately proclaimed him in his dotage, going
through a second childhood. Then they noticed that with him,
on the floor, was a very young child, his grandson. Whereupon
their verdict was altered. "It is the genius of a man with a warm
heart we are witnessing," they said—and they treated their
elder fellow-scholar with new respect.
.............
In the accompanying photograph we have a kindred story
in reverse. In it, our next President is shown during the tense
hours of vote-counting, in the early morning of Wednesday, Nov.
9. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who is retiring as United States
Senator from Massachusetts to assume the most important office
in the world, that of President of. the United States, --took his
2-year-old daughter, Caroline, for a piggy-back ride on the beach
of his Hyannis Port, Mass., home. It was youth playing with
youth, while awaiting the nation's Election Day decision.
One of the objections that were raised against the Demo-
cratic candidate for the Presidency was that he was too young.
The ever-young American nation ruled otherwise: its decision
was that youth is to govern us for the next four years. With
due respect for our youth, with unyielding hope that youth will
emerge prepared to and capable of meeting our country's chal-
lenges, we. again salute our next President with blessings for his
good health and for strength to carry on the sacred duties that
have been assigned to him by our electorate.
*
*
*
Mendes France
-
—
One of His Country's Strong Men
Pierre Mendes-France will be here on Sunday as guest of
Detroit's Brandeis University Associates. It will be an occasion
for this community tO reminisce about the historic role this
distinguished Jewish leader played in the battle against Nazi-
Fascist threats to mankind and in restoring honor to his coun-
try's diplomatic status in the world.
Two years ago, in an article entitled "Mendes-France Poised
in Shadows," in the Christian Science Monitor, Richard E. Neff
made an evaluation of Mendes-France and said that next to
Charles de Gaulle he "is, after all, the only other political figure
who has national stature above political parties."
That was only part of Neff's tribute to the distinguished dip-
lomat. He wrote about the Man who was - called by his country
to become its Premier, in 1954, in relation to the then emerging
Indochinese crisis:
"In this 'black hour' which rocked France, Mendes was
the strong man who strode to the rostrum of the National
Assembly and promised to end—with honor—the tragic war
in the Far East. For other long-standing and strife-ridden prob-
lems that had been avoided timidly by preceding Premiers Men-
des also promised decisions. 'Gouverner, c'est choisir,' he told
the Assembly. (`To govern is to choose.') And choose he did.
Never in the postwar- period had a French Premier moved with
such speed and apparent courage. Mendes did end the Indo-
chinese War, managing to save some -face for France. Then
he charged into another long-postponed question, Moroccan
Mendes-France to Be Guest of Brandeis
Associates at Detroit Dinner, Sunday
tinned his liberation efforts,
being rewarded with election
to the Premiership.
Mendes-France will be greeted
here by the family of Jacob
Chicorel of Detroit. Mendes-
France is m a r r- i.e d to Lilly .
Cicurel, a relative of the Detroit
Chicorels (Cicurels). -Mendes-
France's father-in-law, Salvatore
Cicurel, was the owner of the
famous Cicurel Department Store
in Cairo, which has since been
confiscated by Nasser. Jacob Chi-
corel's brother, Salvatore, who
now makes his home in Bis-
cayne, Fla., worked in the
Cicurel Store in Cairo for a
number of years.
The Cicurels, like the De-
troit branch of the family,
originally came from Turkey.
They also lived in Greece,
whence the Detroiters came to
this city. Jacob Chicorel and
his sons now own the Kenwood
Restaurant on Telegraph and
Fenkell. Jacob Chicorel is a
leader of the Sephardic corn,.
munity here and serves as its
cantor at High Holy Day
services.
Pierre Mendes-France, -former
Premier of France, one of the
w o r 1 d's most distinguished
diplomats, will be the guest of
the Detroit Chapter of Bran-
deis University Associates, at
a champagne dinner at 5 p.m.
Sunday, at the Sheraton-Cadillac
Hotel.
Dr. Abram L. Sachar, presi-
dent of Brandeis University,
will accompany M. Mendes-
France and will be the other
guest speaker at , the dinner.
Leonard N. Simons will in-
troduce, the distinguished
guest.
A. Alfred Taubman, presi-
dent of Detroit Chapter of
Brandeis Associates, states that
decorations will be in the
French motif, that there will
be a number of violinists to
entertain the guests during the
dinner and that the committee
in charge is ex -ting every
effort to provide for an im-
pressive and entertaining eve-
ning.
Only a few reservations still
are available for the dinner,
according to Taubman. They
may be made by calling Richard
Sloan, financial secretary of the
Detroit Brandeis Associates, or
other officers or members of
the Detroit group.
C. Allen Harlan, Nate S.
Shapero, Abraham Shiffman,
Leonard N. Simons and Tubie
Resnick, Fellows of Brandeis
University, will be among the
local leaders who will wel-
come Mendes-France and Dr.
Sachar at Sunday's event.
Mendes - France, who was
born in Paris in 1907, was a
member of the French Board
of Deputies before becoming
Premier. He completed his law
studies at the Sorbonne at the
age of 18, was admitted to the
bar of Paris and his disserta-
tions drew the attention of
French academicians, jurists,
economists and diplomats.
He later became one of
France's most eminent jurists.
He boldly faced tl-o issues that
then troubled France, he be-
came a critic of Poincare and
his slogans were adopted by
the leftists. He became the
authority on financial prob-
lems of the radical party.
When he was elected a
member of the Chambre des
Deputes in 1932, he was the
youngest French deputy and
had been the youngest law-
yer in Paris for many years.
In the summer of 1932, he
outlined an economic program
for the radical party which
adopted it at its congress at
Toulouse in the summer of
1932. He became a member of
the tax committee of the
Chambre, to which he was re-
elected in 1936.
He also became professor at
the Ecole des Hautes Etudes
Sociales.
.A leader in the resistance
movement against Nazism, he
advocated, the formation of
the Front populaire and be-
came a leader in it. After the
and Tunisian independence. Un-
der his leadership Morocco gained
independence and negotiations for
Tunisian sovereignty were be-
gun."
After de Gaulle, it is said that
the one man available for action
in France is Pierre Mendes-
France. Meanwhile he is assisting
Brandeis University and other
causes. He is known as a firm
defender of Israel's just position
in the Middle East.
He. has a link in Detroit—as a
distant relative . by marriage to
the Chicorels, why are second
cousins of Mine. Mendes-France,
the former Lilly Cicurel.
It is a privilege to welcome to
our community so distinguished a
world personality.
PIERRE MENDES-FRANCE
collapse of France in June
1940, he organized the op-
position to Petain's policy of
"collaboration" with G e r-
many and was one of the
leaders in the underground
anti•Nazi movement. He was
persecuted and arrested by
- Petain, served a prison sen-
tence but managed to escape
to England in 1941. He joined
the Free French movement
in England under General
Charles de Gaulle and con-
Don't offer advice to anyone
unless it is the kind you expect to
follow yourself.
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0 ■ 111.411 ■ 11.1• ■
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Boris Smolar's
'Between You
...and Me'
(Copyright, 1960.
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)
Atomic Impressions
A visit to the atomic reactor station in Israel leaves one
impressed by both the outside and inside appearances of the
facility . .. It is like entering a fortress built of concrete, with
no windows of daylight and sunshine .. . Warnings in Hebrew
against radiation are posted inside in the corridor leading to the
huge reactor room . . . Not only must the personnel wear special
clothing as protection against radiation, but everyone entering
the reactor must take his weight before entering and after
leaving . . . This is only one of the precautionary measures for
the workers . . . A layman understands, of course, very little when
told how the experiments are being conducted in this room . .
However, it is obvious from the explanations by young Prof.
David E. Bergmann, head of the station, that the experiments
are delicate and require a good deal of caution and concentra-
tion . . . "We cannot afford to make even the slightest mistake,"
he says smilingly, "because any such mistake may cost us _.a
tremendous fortune in cash" . . . Obviously very few mistakes,
or maybe even none at all, have been made so far in the experi-
ments . . . All indications are that, within a few years, Israel
will be the only country in the Middle East able to produce
atomic energy to be used as fuel for industry, for intensive
irrigation, and for other peaceful purposes.
*
*
*
Israeli Scientists
Israel is fortunate in its atomic energy experiments because
the country can develop its own "heavy water" needed as an
important element in producing atomic power, and it also
has a remarkable group of scientists . . . In its experiments, the
atomic reactor station benefits greatly from scientific research
conducted in the laboratories of the Weizmann Institute of
Science at Rehovot . . . It can look for aid from noted scientists
at the Hebrew University and the Haifa Technion .. . Another
institution of higher learning in Israel which I visited—Bar
Ilan University at Ramat Gan—is building up a cadre of young
scientists in its laboratories . . . The development of this insti-
tution is to no small extent due to American religious Jews,
and especially to Phillip Stollman, a Detroit philanthropist, who
made it his life's ambition to see the Bar-Ilan University growing
. . . Through the portals of this American-type co-educational
school of higher learning pass graduates of secondary schools
from all parts of the world . . . Some 25 percent of all the stu-
dents come from abroad . . . While adhering to traditional
Jewish religious practices, Bar-Ilan University follows in its
courses in secular subjects the programs in regular colleges in
the United States and Canada . . . Students from these countries
are enabled to transfer their academic credits to their home col-
leges if they wish to return from Israel to their native lands.
*
*
*
Eyes On The Future
Israel is the only country in the Middle East that can boast
of possessing an atomic reactor . . The closest countries to
Israel which have such a reactor are Iran and Turkey . .
Both are cooperating with Israel in exchange - of information on
their experiments . . . Israel's atomic reactor comes from the
United States, and U.S. scientists are especially interested in
experiments that are now being made there in the fields of
medicine and agriculture . . . Reports on these experiments
are being studied by scientists in other countries . . There is
the general feeling among nuclear experts in Israel that the
production of atomic energy will become less and less expensive
as time goes on . .. Israel hopes to be able to start producing
atomic energy for peaceful purposes by 1965 . . If this ambition
is fulfilled, the entire economic 0,:::-. - 077 -iment of Israel will
assume a different character.