THE JEWISH NEWS
A Fair Exchange
Incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Member American Association of English—Jewish Newspaper, Michigan Press Association, National Edi-
torial 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 CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ HARVEY ZUCKERBERG
Advertising Manager
Business Manager
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the twentieth .day of bar, 5721, the following Scriptural selections will be
read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Emor, Lev. 21:1-24:23. Prophetical portion, Ezekiel 44:15-31.
Licht Benshen, Friday, May 5, .7:17 p.m. .
VOL. XXXIX. No. 10
Page Four
May 5, 1961
Xenophobia -- The Root of Anti-Semitism
JERUSALEM, Israel
It has been the view of sociologists and historians, of students of anti-
Semitism, that the cause of the widespread hatred of Jews is Xenophobia — the
dislike of the unlike.
In his classic statement to the court that is trying Adolf Eichmann, the eminent
Jewish scholar, Prof. Salo Baron, was asked specifically by Presiding Judge Moshe
Landau: "What were the motives for anti-Semitism?" Dr. Baron replied:
"Dislike of, the unlike. Of course, there were special reasons in various
countries, there was economic jealousy, people who did not like their competitors
among the Jewish people in trade and arts and commerce . . ."
At this point, Dr. Baron emphasized that while there has been anti-Semitism,
throughout the ages, it was never marked by bloodshed, except in the few pogrom`
in Russia, until the advent of Nazism. Dr. Baron stated:
"Your Honors, there are many theories with regard to the force of anti-Semitism and its
development. The most striking thing is thought was the hatred of the Jewish religion. Judaism
was differentiated from the other religions and they were therefore hated because they were re-
garded as non-believers in the faith which was the faith of the majority, Christian faith or any
other faith. But in a more recent period there was a certain change particularly in the times before
the wars between the Catholics and the Protestants in the Thirty Years War. There was a theory
that the majority faith could compel a minority faith to accept the faith of the majoriy. As a
result of that later on the right to have one's religion became a cardinal creed and principle in
the constitutions of the western world.
"Then there is the theory that there was just the hatred of the person who is not the same
as oneself. The dislike of the unlike. There were also intellectual interpretations as to the force of
anti-Semitism. For example that the Jews are too powerful in economic affairs, or that they were
money lenders who lent out money at interest, or that they controlled cultural life. All types and
manner of justifications which came because this difference between the majority and the minority
had to be justified by one argument or another. There was also another difference. Sometimes this
hatred is found and finds expression by the shedding of blood. It is true - that during the new period
this did not happen. In Eastern Europe they still attacked Jews, in the Ukraine, in White Russia.
It could have been said that this period is already past and the difference between the Jews and
the Christians or the Christian and another religion will remain and will continue. There may be
strife but there will be no bloodshed. I may say as a historian that the small pogroms were very
rare, the pogroms in Russia and the world saw that for about a hundred years bloodshed did not
take place for the hate of the Jewish people and it was possible to believe that this was a thing
of the past.
"The things which happened in the 1940's never happened before, the extermination was so
radical and thorough.
"Although there was anti-Semitism and the hatred of the Jewish people during all genera-
tions, in the Greek world, in the Persian world, according to the Book of Esther, and during the
Middle Ages with the Christian and Moslems, one must bear in mind something basic and radical
that there was no bloodshed; not under the Persian rule, not during the Greek rule, there were
small pogroms in Alexandria, very small incidents, there were progroms under the Moslem
rule for thirteen hundred years."
Prof Baron's statement must arouse new thinking and considerable discus-
sion on the question of anti-Semitism. We had accepted for a long time that the
cause of anti-Semitism is Xenophobia. But times have changed. Jews are not only
like their neighbors, but even more so, and it has been punned that the reasons for
Jews having become exactly like their neighbors is because they are "even more so."
Does this mean the end of anti-Semitism and its tragic aftereffects?
There have been no bloody incidents in anti-Semitic manifestations, but now
they have commenced. The Arabs in Palestine did not hesitate to massacre an entire
Jewish theological seminary—in Hebron, in 1936. Arabs, who are our fellow Semites,
unhesitatingly advocate the renewal of the Nazi type of Jew-hatred in their editorial
comments in the Arab press on the Eichmann case.
And—were the Russian pogroms really "small" and so "very rare?"
Eichmann's lawyer, Dr. Robert, Servatius, posed a number of questions on the
historicity of anti-Semitism, and one exchange of views is especially worth quoting.
The following is from the official court r - cord:
Dr. Servatius: It is known, I believe, to the witness, that Hitler would very frequently
base on- what he called "historical destiny" but if the leader of the people cannot influence, directly,
what is going on—individual out of the mass when he wants to wield influence. Does this Mean
that he is an isolated case?
Witness Baron: It's not a historical question. It's a legal question: as far as one individual
who is not a leader is also responsible. Historically, there is no doubt that sometimes small people,
insignificant people, influence history more than their very importance in the State. Someone said
we do not know what would have been the history of Europe if on the day of the Waterloo Na-
poleon would have had a headache.
One cruel individual not only can influence histciry, but often, as in the case
of Hitler, and in the Jerusalem court case in the person of Eichmann, is responsible
for wholesale massacres.
Dr. Baron spoke of the immensity of the holocaust, when he said to the
Jerusalem court:
"The size of the catastrophe is enormous. The question of importance is: What remained,
what are the results of the holocaust, in the universal sense and in the Jewish sense. In the Jewish
sense, about a third of the nation is missing: instead of nineteen to twenty million, there remain
only twelve million; and the most productive countries which came out of the catastrophe are
deprived now of a center of Jewish culture. Of course, there are spiritual, religious, basic things
—the influence of the Jewish people cannot be lost easily.
"The Nazis brought into the world a very dangerous theory, dangerous to the whole world:
if any .nation has the right to declare that another nation, whatever that nation be, is beneath
the standard of a human being, is subhuman and may be wiped out, then there is no end to this.
Any nation, having enough arms, can conquer the weaker nation and declare this weak nation to
be subhuman, and then have the right to do what it pleases."
This marked the reaching of a climax in important testimony—the exposure
of the crime of genocide, the revealing to the world of a scheme by one nation to
destroy another.
This is the crime that is being unveiled to mankind. This is the inhuman idea
that must be fought relentlessly. Its exposure must be accompanied by a demand
for the speedy adoption of the United Nations Genocide Convention. Efforts must
be exerted to induce the United States Senate to give its endorsement to the Geno-
cide Convention and to defy the opposition of the American Bar Association. If
this is not done, then genocide may again threaten the world. But in Jerusalem, at
least, .it is being brought to the entire world's attention during the Eichmann trial.
That's the major significance of the trial.
P. S.
'A Guide for Jewish Parents'
'Living With Your Teenager'
In "Living With Your Teenager—A Guide for Jewish Par-
ents," the author, Rabbi Simon Glustrom, faces many issues
frankly. He fearlessly poses the many questions that may perplex
youth, and he offers answers in a fashion that will educate
both the teenager and the parent.
This well-organized book, published by Bloch, serves an
excellent purpose in enlightening parents who need information
on how to direct their children's thinking when the matter of
Jewish affiliation begins to disturb them.
The author, who is rabbi of the Jewish Center of Fair
Lawn, N. J., is realistic. He shows at the very outset that
the teenagers' problems is not new, that 2,000 years ago Soc-
rates said: "Children now love luxury, they have no manners.
They show contempt for authority, are disrespectful to their
elders and love to chatter instead of exercise . . . They contra-
dict their parents, misbehave before company, gobble up
dainties at the table, cross their legs and tyrannize their
teachers." History and human experiences thus repeat them-
selves.
In the light of experience, Rabbi Glustrom maintains that
professional counselors can not take the place of parents, that
"parents are capable of undertaking the major responsibility
-
of guiding their own adolescent children and dealing construc-
tively with their problems. Just as parents should continue to
develop wholesome attitudes in their children's grooming and
eating habits through the period of adolescence, so must they
help build positive attitudes toward religious, ethical, and
social problems."
He faces the issue by first seeking an understanding of
the adolescent's attitudes and feelings,. In his evaluation of the
teenager's reaction to religion, Rabbi Glustrom also seeks the
facts about the youths' attitude towards parents. He reaches
the conclusion that "if the father has been a strict disciplinarian,
unyielding to the needs of the child, then it is altogetlier pos-
sible that the adolescent, nursing the wounds of resentment and
animosity, will adopt a negative conception of God."
The manner in which Jewish youth react to their heritage,
the frequent negative responses, the self-criticism, the for-
midable challenges—these and many other problems "tax the
resources of even the most gifted Jewish youngster." However,
the author states that "Jewish values instilled in childhood
are not lost or forgotten in the adolescent years, and parents
should draw great encouragement from this as they make the
conscious and often difficult _effort to indoctrinate their chil-
dren during the formative years."
"Resorting to punishment" in dealing with teenagers is
called "self-defeating." The advice given is that "the adolescent
needs to feel that his parents respect him primarily as a person
and do not regard him merely as a child to be loved."
The chapter "Jewish Ethics for the Teenager" offers sound
guidance. The Bar or Bat Mitzvah is called an effort worth while
"if added incentive can be provided to continue one's never-
ending and fascinating spiritual and cultural development."
Rabbi Glustrom renders a real service to parents and teen-
agers in his interesting chapter "Sex Awareness Among Teen-
agers." His able analysis of the sex problems as faced by youth
includes frank discussion of dating and inter-dating. Tact is
advised in facing the problem of intermarriage. Proper training
in childhood is urged as means of guiding the youth to retain
their heritage and their Jewish loyalties.
Meeting prejudices and abandoning internal prejudices is
part of the problem faced by the author in dealing with the
teenagers' needs. Rabbi Glustrom writes that "a wholesome
training in the home can most effectively help the child with-
stand anti-Semitic attacks . . We should first convince our-
selves and our young that Judaism has something to offer us
before we can convince our neighbors that Jews have some-
thing to offer them."
In the second portion of the book, "What They Are Asking
About Religion," the author poses and gives answers to 38
potent questions that are frequently raised about Jews and
Christianity, the Zionist question, the Sabbath, the Chosen
People idea, prayers and other matters. This question-answer
section of 65 pages adds to the impressiveness of the volume,
making "Living With Your Teenager" a truly valuable book.