Mark of Trust
THE JEWISH NEWS
- 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 twenty-sixth day' of Sivan. 5721, the following Scriptural selections will be
•
read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Shelah Lelcha, NUM. 13:1-15:41. Prophetical portion, Joshua 2:1-24.
Licht Benshen, Friday, June 9, 7:48 a.m.
VOL. XXXIX.
No. 15
Page Four
June 9, 1961
Need for Continuing Zionist Hinterland
When Moshe Sharett, • Israel's former especially among the younger generation.
Prime Minister, accepted the chairman- The danaer of complete assimilation of a
ship of the Jewish Agency Executive,. at large part of this generation can only be
the recent meetings in Jerusalem, he ex- thwarted by a strengthening of its spir-
pressed the view that the "Zionist hinter- itual ties to Israel and the Zionist concept
land" will be needed throughout the of Jewish life centered about Israel.
world for many years to come. These dangers are increasing and make
But his successor to the Premiership the goals of the Zionist movement more
of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, still thinks and more imperative in the United States-
otherwise. Ben-Gurion continues to ridi- and in other countries."
Wherever one turns today,, there is
cule Zionism and the Zionists, and he has
created a situation that has proven embar- need for new .inspiration in Jewish life.
rassing to the Zionists and has aggravated Inspired messages have come in the past
from Zionist quarters, and depend anew
an unnecessary issue.
on these sources. To belittle Zionism,
The continual conflict over the status therefore, is to . abuse a great spiritual
of Zionism has once again brought Dr, force in Jewish life. What a pity that
Nahum Goldmann into the controversy, Ben-Gurion should be the instigator of
and the debate that has developed has such - misunderstandings. But a fuller
become an issue not only between Gold- realization of the actual needs in,Jewish
mann and Ben-Gurion, but also between life and of the vitality of the Zionist idea
Goldmann and his Zionist associates and —even if the Zionist .organization is less
some American Jewish leaders from the effective today — will disprove the . Ben.,
American Jewish Committee quarters. , Gurion snipings. A revived Zionist move-
While the challenge to Zionism is ment must redound to the benefit of
great, in view of the difficulties that have Jewish life wherever it has or seeks invig-
been created for the movement by inter- oration.
Dr. Goldmann's decision to settle in
nal strife, it is regrettable that the - divis-
ive thinking in Jewish ranks leads far Israel settles only a personal aspect of
afield from an understanding of the needs the issue. The major Zionist needs stanc'
for a strong Zionist movement. The fact above personality problems.
is that only through an effective . Zionism Attacks on Zionism by Dr. Arnold J.
will it be possible to build_anew a deep Toynbee, who emerges as an irrational
interest in Jewish life among our youth. anti-Semite, and his accomplices, - - the
As Dr. Goldmann indicated in - a recent Council for Judaism, should bring the
address, "the tasks of the Zionist move- counter-action of stronger Zionist efforts.
ment in relation to American Jewry have A serious task faces the Zionists and
become increasingly important becauSe it is to be hoped that they will face it
.
of the growing indifference to Israel, honorably.
Churchill Plan—Travesty on Justice
The entire dossier dealing with inter- es of the British, the State of Israel.
national maneuvers during the last war While Churchill is considered one of
is being opened for public inspection, and the best friends the Zionist movement
many shocking facts will become 'known. ever counted among the British leaders,
Already on the record is an account it is now becoming more and more evi-
of the plan that was suggested by Winston dent that he could not go against the
Churchill to settle displaced Jews in for- wishes of his own Foreign Office and of
mer Italian colonies. those who were determined to prevent
Official United States diplomatic the realization of the goal that was set in
papers relating to the Potsdam Confer- the Balfour Declaration.
The year of the Churchill-Stalin con-
ence, which were opened for inspection
in Washington, indicate that Churchill versation regarding the settlement of
had told the late Soviet Premier, Josef Jews in Italian colonies-1945—must be
Stalin, about his intentions, while they taken into consideration for a full under-
were at Potsdam. - standing of the implications of the inci-
It is now revealed that Churchill in- dent. It was then that the British were
formed Stalin that he had proposed his sending Jews to their doom by refusing to
plan to prominent Jewish leaders whom allow vessels with refugees to enter
he consulted on the matter and that he Palestine. And it was in that year that
found them disinterested in it. Churchill, the friend of Zionism, instead
The point that needs to be made on of adhering to the pledge of admitting
this issue is that the desire of the Jews Jews into their ancient homeland, pro-
who survived the concentration camps posed to send them to godforsaken terri-
and the Nazi gas chambers was to go to tories.
What travesties on justice were enact-
what was then Palestine and what was
destined to become, contrary to the wish- ed at that time!
Supreme Court Decision on 'Blue Laws'
While Chief Justice Earl Warren left of rest in accordance with their religious
the door open for further action in de- views.
Of course, there is involved here also
fense of the position of the Saturday
Sabbath observers, last week's Supreme the question of a state's right to. legislate.
Court decision on the "Blue Laws" in on religious matters. By giving pref-
Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and_ Mary- erence to Sunday as the day of rest, while
land came as quite a shock to all who there are citizens who observe other days
hope for the total separation of church as the Sabbath, such state actions negate
and state as one of the basic principles a major American ideal. By giving cred-
of Americanism. ence to such legislation, our Supreme
While a state should be granted the Court has dealt a severe blow to those
right to legislate regulations that affect who strive with difficulty to observe the
the social welfare of its citizens, in its Saturday - Sabbath. That is why it is ex-
striving to protect their health and wel- petted that some test cases should arise
fare, we would be reverting to the Middle very soon to renew the issue in the hope
Ages if such legislation were to deprive for a .reversal in the Supreme Court's
citizens of their right to choose their day action.
'Nachman Syrkin-Biographical
Memoir of Socialist Zionist'
Nachman Syrkin was one of the great leaders in Socialist
Zionism. He was one of the distinguished advocates of Jewish
statehood, and his public addresses, essays . and other published
works have enriched Zionist literature.
Dr. Syrkin, whose untimely death, at the age of 56, occurred
-
in New York, in 1924, emerges in all his_greatness as an inter-
preter of the Zionist dream in the new work by his daughter,
Marie Syrkin, who is a distinguished writer and labor Zionist
leader in her own rights.
In "Nachman Syrkin: Socialist Zionist," the biographical
memoir published by the Herzl Press (515 Park, N. Y. 22), Miss
Syrkin evaluates the dreams of her father, reviews his accom-
plishments, tells about his associations with other distinguished
Jewish leaders. Her valuable book also contains a number of
Syrkin's selected essays:
The Nachman Syrkin memoir commences with a descrip-
tion of the leader's re-burial at Kinnereth, in Israel. A girl
from the kibbutz was reading a selection from Syrkin's "The
Socialist Jewish State," written in 1898.: "The Jewish state
can come into being only if it is socialist; only by fusing with
socialism can Zionism become the ideal of the whole Jewish
people."
At this point, this dramatic incident occurred, as described
by Miss Syrkin: .
"At the close of the brief, austere service Ben-Gurion
stepped forward suddenly to the edge of the open grave and
said in Hebrew, "Syrkin, hazonkha yitkayem, your vision will
be fulfilled'; then he drew back into the shadows just as swiftly
as he had emerged. His presence at the ceremony was unex-
pected. It was a long, hot trip from Jerusalem to the shores of
Kinnereth in Galilee—too long for a harried Prime Minister
to. take. Besides, everyone in the country knew that Ben-Gurion
had no liking for re-burials: let the living -come to Israel, not
ash and bone. And this was the dusk of Sept. 3, 1951, 27 years
after Nachman Syrkin had died in New York in 1924. But Ben-
Gurion had come anyway to trudge up the wooded hillock near
the bleaming waters of Kinnereth together with his comrades."
Miss Syrkin's biographical study takes the reader into the
childhood arena of her father, to the home of pious parents, to
his boyhood in Russia.
He was a contemporary of Dr. Shmarya 'Levin, from
whose memoirs the daughter quotes a tribute to Dr. Syrkin as
the Jewish nationalist and socialist.
Dr. Syrkin's student days in Germany were replete with
activities. His literary career began at that time. There de-
veloped a "Syrkinism" that contained bits of Zionism and bits
of socialism.
Miss Syrkin likens her father's idea of a socialist Jewish
state to the views expressed earlier by Moses in his "Rome and
Jerusalem."
There is an account of Dr. Syrkin's activities in Russia,
his departure for America, his activities in behalf of the labor
Zionist movement in this country.
Although Syrkin fulminated against the bourgeoisie, he
did not oppose the entrance of • non-Zionists in the then (1923)
projected Jewish Agency. He said at the 13th World Zionist
Congress in Carlsbad in that year: "The Jewish magnates of
whom we are speaking have already lost their inner assurance
as is shown - by the fact that they contemplate entering the
Jewish Agency. They have capitulated before Zionism and not
the other way around."
Two days before his death, Syrkin composed a prayer in
Hebrew. Miss Syrkin has it in its original, written during her
father's dying days, in his last hours of suffering. The transla-
tion is included in her book. Also a part of the biography is a
poem written by daughter in her father's memory.
Miss Syrkin tells about the Liberty ship she launched in her
father's name in New Orleans, Dec. 23, 1944. She mentions
mementos acquired from her father of which she is greatly
proud. Her major pride, however, can well be the current book
—a biography of merit. The story of his life, his essays—
including those on "Moses Hess," "The Appearance of Christian-
ity," "Call to Jewish Youth"—enrich Zionist literature.