• . THE JEWISH NEWS Dual Loyalties A BERK AMERati *WO A6ETTSWEVi fiNAOUATVON rsost 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 tenth day of Tammuz, 5721, the following Scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues: Pentateuchal portion, Hukkat„ Num. 19:1-22:1. Prophetical portion, Judges 11:1-33. • se•r Licht Benshen, Friday, June 23, 7:52 p.m. VOL. XXXIX. No. 17 Page Four June 23, 1961 Trial's Lesson: Never Forget the Crime As the Eichmann trial progresses, there is an increasing amount of skepti- cism about the value of prolonged hear- ings and the gathering of testimony that is often interpreted as repetitive. Jews as well as non-Jews are begin- ning to question the value of stretched- out chronicling of events that occurred during the brutal Nazi regime. It becomes necessary again, therefore, to show why the trial of the arch criminal is such a vital necessity and why it is so important for mankind to make the rec- ord crystal clear for the present genera- tion and for future historians. * * * The world had begun to forget. As a matter of fact, too many of the very generation that experienced the unspeak- able Nazi crimes had become calloused to what had transpired. Many preferred not to be reminded of the past. Many still wish to forget. Some have been made overly sensitive by the tattooed numerals on their arms which made them not human beings but numbers in the concentration camps. Since Adolf Eichmann, who sits im- passively, seemingly unmoved by the testimony that is unfolding against him, is merely a symbol of the historic task that has been undertaken by the Israelis to expose the crime of his people, it is vital that the purpose of the trial should be understood. It is aimed at reminding the world of the threat that was hurled at all mankind by insane people who sought the destruction of every vestige of human decency and who had made the Jews their first victims. It is intended to keep alive the memory of the Mo- . caust, so that by knowing the facts there will be concerted efforts never again to permit the repetition of such crimes. The stories of the brutalities are heartrending. They are difficult to listen to and to examine. But they were so brutal in their making that rational human beings must learn to hear them, else no one ever will be prepared to oppose their like. * * * The shocking arrogance of a young Nazi, the son of Eichmann, who has abused American hospitality by spread- ing anti-Semitism in this country is one of the proofs of the need constantly to admonish people not to fall prey to the propaganda of bigots. The great Jewish historian, Simon Dubnow, the centenary of whose birth we observed last year, understood the need for the retention of historical facts, in order that the truth should be dissemi- nated unhindered and falsehoods proper- ly repudiated. The Jewish Publication Society and Meridian Books have just issued as a paperback Dubnow's "Na- tionalism and History." Dr. Koppel S. Pinson, who edited and introduced this important book, three years before his own untimely death early this year, wrote in his introductory essay to this book: "When the Nazis entered Riga they evicted Dubnow from his home and seized his entire library . . . After a short period of ghetto organization the Nazis liquidated the ghetto at the end of October 1941 and a month later they carried out their first 'action' against the Riga Jews. Dubnow was seriously ill, but friends managed to conceal him for a while. On the night of Dec. 7-8 the Nazis carried out their second `action.' All the old and sick as well as the women in advanced pregnancy were herded together in buses. Dubnow was also taken outside to be squeezed . • into one of these overloaded buses. He was in high fever at the time and was hardly able to move his feebled legs. A Latvian militiaman then advanced and fired a bullet in Dubnow's back and the sainted martyr fell dead on the spot. . . . A story went round that the last words Dubnow muttered as he was being led out to the bus were: `Brothers, don't forget! Recount what you hear and see! Brothers, make a record of it all!" This is what is being done in Jeru- salem: the record that has been accumu- lated is being recounted for all to hear, for the world to realize even at this late hour what an act of horror was perpe- trated against Jewry and mankind. * * * In Dubnow's "Nationalism and His- tory," the late Prof. Pinson incorporated, as a concluding chapter, under the title "What Should One Do in Haman's Times?", the letter Dubnow wrote to the editors of Oyfn Sheydweg in 1939. He had then seen the handwriting on the wall and he warned that Hitler's "system of extermination" is a replica of Haman's plan in the Biblical account. He began to call for action—for resistance, for orga- nization by Jews, for efforts to expose the crimes. Dubnow's letter should be read and studied. It should become a guide for libertarians. The entire -record of the Eichmann trial is a guide for all who strive for liberty. Its clarion call is: what has hap- pened must never recur again, and the guilty must stand before the bar of justice for all time to come. * * * If proof is needed to show that the Nazi-Fascist elements once again are striving to gain a foothold in many parts of the world, it was provided a few days ago in a report from Madrid. A Free Press correspondent stated, in his report from the Spanish capital, that "there they en- dure and flourish . . . They erupt into full view from time to time to embarrass and discourage those who would like to see Spain rehabilitated in the eyes of the free world. Recently, recurrent nostalgia for Nazism broke surface once again in the form of articles lamenting the Allies' win- ning of World War II and the passing of the Hitler-Mussolini era, and denouncing the Adolf Eichmann trial in Jerusalem as `ridiculous' and `nauseating'." So, the partners in the Hitler-Musso- lini crimes, whose nostrils became attuned to burning flesh of their victims in ex- termination camps, now are "nauseated" by the expose of their crimes! Now they tell us that the gas chambers were technical installations "to test sol- diers' gas masks!" They overlook the fact that the entire story of the Nazi crime, of the murder of millions in the Nazi gas chambers already has been placed on the record, that the chronicle of their barbarities fills 40 volumes of testimony compiled at the Nuremberg trial, and that former Nazis today testify to their crimes. As the evidence accumulates in Jeru- salem, there is an equally impressive ac- cumulation of indictments against those who still would hide the facts, who strive to hide the truth and to seek compassion for the arch murderers. All of which adds to the important need for the presentation of all available details against Nazism, no matter how long the proceedings may drag in Jeru- salem. It must be done so that the revela- tions will unify the determination of the free world never again to permit a recur- rence of the Nazi-Fascist crimes. G. ==',."41 'Weekday Prayer Book' Issued by U. S. Rabbinical Assembly Several editions of our Prayer Book have appeared" in recent years with new or revised translations. The newest, "Weekday Prayer Book," issued by the Rabbi- nical Assembly of America, (Broadway and 122nd, New York 27) is worthy of more than the ordinary interest that is usually shown in a prayer book. This one is perhaps the most useful for week-day use for synagogue or at-home services. Unlike other similar prayer books, this one contains the Torah readings for the Mondays and Thursdays during week days when there are Scriptural readings, the readings from the Torah for Hanukah, Hol Hamoed Pesach, Hol Hamoed Sukkot, Tisha b'Ab and other fast days. There are some variations in this prayer book and several important additions, including: A special prayer for Israel's Independence Day, Hanukah and Purim prayers and modifications in passages dealing with animal sacrifices. Some of the changes in translations are noteworthy. The commission that was in charge of the preparation of this prayer book, headed by Rabbi Gershon Hadas as dhairman and Rabbi Jules Harlow, secretary, explains that while many other editions of the Siddur have special signs marking off portions of the text to be chanted by the Hazzah, "this text is so printed that there is no need for such signs." The commission also states that "the adoption of the familiar second person in reference to the deity, revisions in the Hebrew text, and parallel changes in the translation were adopted in the effort to make our prayer book more readily accessible and more meaningful to the contemporary worshipper ... The English and the Hebrew texts have been so arranged and spaced as to make individual reading pleasurable, and to encourage responsive reading by congregations." M. Seasongood s Speeches Murray Seasongood, who was born in Cincinnati in 1878 and has lived there since—except for brief absences during the nearly 83 years of his active life—was Mayor of Cincinnati, 1926-30, for two terms. He was an active leader in Bnai Brith, was prominent in the Legal Aid movement and served as president of the Na- tional Municipal League. An able lawyer, he was a professor of law at the Cin- cinnati University. He was in the front ranks in defense of many important causes. His sister, the late Martha S. Stern of Cincinnati, estab- lished a trust fund for the publication of selections from his major addreSses. She commissioned Seasongood's wife, Agnes Seasongood, to publish the book. The task is now completed. In "Selections. from Speeches of Murray Seasongood, 1900-1959." are incorporated the eminent Cincinnatian's public utterances. Mrs. Seasongood has ably performed the task of editing the speeches, which are incorporated in his new book, published by Alfred A. Knopf (501 Madison, N. Y.).- In her foreword to the book, Mrs. Seasongood reviews her husband's interesting activities and points to the manifold interests he had not only in his own profession but also in the arts and sciences, in music, in movements in behalf of the blind, and other causes. The selected speeches commence with his "Ivy Oration" in June 1900, when he was selected Ivy orator at Harvard. That month he also spoke on "Commencement Past and Present" at Harvard, and that speech, too, is in the book. Then follow his address on Law in Shakespeare, Social Sciences and the Law, England Our Friend, Youth and the State—Clean Politics, tributes ,to friends, remarks as a toast- master, etc. There is a variety of subjects in the 46 quoted speeches. It echoes a lifetime of constructive activities. . •