THE JEWISH NEWS Blue Sunday 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 Po st 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 Script ural Selections This Sabbath, the third day of Tammuz; 5721, the following Scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues: Licht Benshen, Friday, June 16. 7:51 p.m. VOL. XXXIX. No. 16 Page Four June 16, 1961 WSU's Honors for Levin and Albright Wayne State University will award distinguished Semitics authorities in the deserved honors to two distinguished world. His Bible . commentaries, his He- , leaders — Federal Judge Theodore Levin braic studies, his assistance in important and Prof. William F. Albright. archaeological undertakings, his encour- It was a wise decision to bestow hon- agement to students of Semitics, have orary doctorates upon these eminent men. placed him in the front ranks . among Judge Levin has earned wide recog- scholars who have devoted themselves nition as an able jurist and as a coura- to studies of the literatures and histories geous • interpreter of the law. He has of the lands in the Middle and Near East. often been faced with challenging issues, Dr. Albright has lived in Palestine, but he has worn his judicial robe with has visited Israel, has shown a deep inter- dignity, he has fearlesssly handed down est in Zionism and has encouraged efforts verdicts in accordance with his wisest to advance Jewish learning and to create judgment, and he has won the esteem an understanding of Jewish cultural of his fellow jurists for the manner in values among Christians. which he has helped to elevate the dig- He may well be considered the dean nity of the bench to high levels. among Sethitic scholars in the world. In the Jewish community, Judge Le- It is a real pleasure to have the oppor- vin has held many positions of trust. He tunity to congratulate Dr. Albright and is a worker iri humanitarian causes which Judge Levin on the honors accorded he has aided devotedly and tirelessly. them, and to commend Wayne for the Macmillan Co. (60 5th, N. Y. 11) has issued "Arrow in the Professor Albright is one of the most wisdom of making these choices. Blue," by Arthur Koestler, in a , paperback. It calls attention ■ 'Arrow in the Blue,' Noteworthy Arthur Koestler Autobiography Jewish Center's Saturday Programming When the decision first was reached - search for means to strengthen Jewish by the Jewish Community Center to open communal ties in accordance • with estab- its facilities on Saturdays, the resulting - lished traditions: It must inculcate in our protests prevented immediate implemen- youth the deepest respect for Jewish tation of the plan. A community study values, and -it must contribute towards committee was created, and it dissolved strengthening them. after thorough discussions that failed to The Jewish Center is; admittedly, ex- eliminate a .stalemate. In the meantime it had become estab- periencing a financial crisis. It is hardly lished that Jewish Centers are conduct- conceivable that the opening of the Cen- ing programs of varying natures in many ter's facilities. on Saturdays, and the communities throughout the land. In provision of health club services on the Cincinnati, Rabbi Eliezer Silver, who had Sabbath, should be intended as powers of previously been honored as the most attraction to draw in new members, venerable Orthodox leader, to whom his thereby assuring added income for the followers looked as the spokesman for. Center. It was to have been hoped that a Orthodox Jewry in America, gave his good community like ours would, as a mat- approval to programs in the Jewish Cen- ter of genuine need for the type of Cen- ter in his city. These developments mili- ter We operate, assure the continuation tated in defense of the position taken by of all the Center's functions. the overwhelming majority of the mem- At this point, it is the Center's leader- bers of the board of directors of the ship, its directorial staff and its program Detroit Jewish Center, and Saturday pro- planners, to whom the community must gramming now is becoming a fact. look for dignified implementation of the It is a fact that must be accepted as decision for Saturday afternoon programs. a reality, in the hope that the feared If it is to be a cultural curriculum, .in- "Sabbath desecration" will not materia- tended to provide a high spirit of the lize. We have so few defensive spiritual Sabbath for our youth, to instill in them, armors in modern Jewish life that any- during the Sabbath afternoon sessions, a thing adding to the obstacles to Jewish feeling of joy in the Sabbath, then the observances would be most regrettable. latest decision can be for the good of our The Jewish Center, as a vital instru- community. We hope for such a whole- ment for Jewish survival, has the duty to some decision on the part of the Center. Denazification Process Hasn't Ended A few days ago, there was made trial in Jerusalem". known in Bonn, the capital of West Ger- At the same time, the need continues many, the results of a public opinion poll to keep Jews themselves fully aware of on German reactions to a series of tele- the horrors that were perpetrated and the vision programs on the Hitler era. There dangers that continue to lurk on the hor- were 14 programs documentary in na- izon wherever ignorance and prejudices ture, describing the Hitler era up to its lead to barbarism and violence. collapse. It was intended for the • young The last two weeks of- Eichmann trial generation of Germans who were being hearings were especially heartrending. shown the frightful details of. his Jewish They indicated anew the extent of the victims and of those who opposed him. tragedy during the period of the Holo- They showed the wholesale shootings, caust. They exposed the perversion of the concentration camp executions, the the minds of human beings who resorted details of the atrocities. It was estimated to the most cruel types of sadism. It was that about 80 per cent of West German only in exceptional cases that an SS man and West Berlin adults either saw the TV would be moved by human considerations programs or had heard about them. An to ask for transfer from service in a con- Allensbach Public Opinion Institute poll centration camp because he could not said that two-thirds of the viewers found continue persecuting fellow-men. the programs to be "correct" but 20 per The' story of the Nazi cruelties has cent regarded them as "incorrect." been placed on the record. Now we must Here you have an indication of the pray that the horrors of 16 years ago will educational work yet to be done, of the never again be repeated—and people of continuing need to present the facts, of all faiths and all races must strive to- the necessity not to relax in efforts to tell gether to prevent such recurrence. That's the entire truth about the tragic era the chief lesson of the Eichmann trial. whose chief cast of characters is now on Let us hope that humanity has learned it. anew to a great classic and to the Zionist views of one of the world's most distinguished writers. It is an autobiography, and it could well be called a Zionist confessional. While, in two of his other works, Koestler was critical of Israel and his ideas were subjected to attacks in. Jewish circles, hiS account of his experiences in Palestine and later in Israel, as described in "Arrow in the Blue," merit attention. They are descriptive of the hard life of the halutzim and are well worth studying. "The Koestler Saga," his family background, his grand- father's adherence to kashrut which he nevertheless explained as being "brought up in prejudice"; the tracing of his mother's lineage to ."one of the old Jewish Jamilies of Prague, alleged to be descended from the High Rabbi Loeb—the scholar and kabbalist who, according to legend, created the Golem, a Frankenstein monster of clay, to defend the threatened inhabi- tants of the Prague ghetto," link the author to Jewish heritage. His Zionist interests developed when he joined a duelling Jewish group at Vienna University, when he became part of the Jewish self-defense organizations who challenged the anti-Semites at the university. He joined the Jabotinsky group, became a Revisionist Zionist, was active in the movement, remained an admirer of_ Vladimir Jabotinsky and befriended early leaders in the movement, including Wolfgang von Weisl, who aided him later, in days of need. At the age of 20, he embarked for Palestine and went to work on the land, at Kibbutz Heftsebah. He didn't last there. He did not pass the test, and the strain was too much fOr him. But the hardships that followed, the days of hunger in Haifa and Tel Aviv, were even more trying on him. — Through von Weisl, he managed to get a correspondent's job. He returned to Palestine, wrote extensively, managed to become self-supporting. But he decided to leave the Holy Land. Mean- while, his descriptions of kibbutz life and of conditions in Palestine before the establishment of Israel are of immense importance and interest. They add to an understanding of the developments that had taken place. As a correspondent he had met many important Jewish leaders, he conferred with Arab potentates. At the age of 23 he "could boast of the acquaintance of King Feisal of Iraq, the Emir .Abdullah of Transjordan, the Egyptian Prime Minis- ter, Nahas Pasha, the President of the Lebanese Republic, and so on. Only two of them made a lasting impression: the jovial, shrewd, irascible Abdullah and his brother King Feisal." • Koestler speaks of himself as a Zionist. He has retained his admiration for Jabotinsky and his affection for von Weisl. "In subsequent years," he wrote, upon leaving Palestine, "my interest in Zionism faded, and . became absorbed _iri the larger context of social problems. It was to be reawakened, with a vengeance, 13 years later, when Hitler's gas chambers and crematoria began to function." - He became associated with the sUllsteins. His description of the Jewish owners of the famous publishing house, and of the gradual Aryanization of the great firm by the Nazis, provide interesting data on the emergence of the Hitler menace and its brutal effects on Germany and the world. Koestler's description of his affiliation With the Communists, whose theories he later fought and now bitterly opposes, is of equal significance. "Active resistance against the Nazis," he wrote, "seemed only possible by throwing in one's lot either with the Socialists or the CoMmunists. A comparison of their past records, their vigor and determination eliminated the first, and favored the second. I was not alone to arrive at this con- clusion. The trend towards polarization between the two ex- tremist movements was evident; it bore all the signs of inexor- able fatality. The title of H. R. Knockerbocker's famous best- seller of that time, "Germany—Fascist or Soviet?" was an exact summing up of the situation. There was no 'thin' force' and no third choice. There were other former Cominunists who, with him, repudiated their earlier association with the Soviets. They included Louis Fischer, Anfre Gide, Ignazio Silone, Stephen Spender, Richard Wright. The repudiation is part of the Koestler story in "Arrow in the Blue," which deserves the rating of one of the best autobiographies written in this decade.