Business for the New Congress
THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Member American Association of English—Jewisb Newspapers, Michigan Press Associations, National
Editorial 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
Advertising Manager
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ HARVEY ZUCKFRBERG
Business Manager
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the eighth of Shevat, 5722, the following Scriptural selections will be read
in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Bo„ Exod. 10:1-13: 16. Prophetical portion, Jeremiah 46:13-28.
Licht Benchen, Friday, Jan. 12, 5:04 p.m.
Vol. XL, No. 20
Page Four
January 12, 1962
A Truly American Reply to Bigots
A representative of the Hilton Inter-
national Corporation spoke in truly hu-
man and American terms when, in reply
to the threat of a boycott by Arabs in
retaliation for the hotel firm's plans to
establish a hotel in Tel Aviv, stated:
"As Americans, we consider Arabs
and Jews our friends and hope that ulti-
mately we can all live in peace. There
was no threat from Israel when we
opened our Cairo hotel. Does your com-
mittee also propose to boycott the United
States Government because it maintains
diplomatic relations with Israel?"
The Hilton spokesman could not have
spoken in more direct terms. The threat
to Conrad Hilton, president of the hotel
corporation, came from a Jew, Alfred
M. Lilienthal, secretary-counsel of the
American-Arab Association for Commerce
and Industry, which issued the threat.
Let it be said to the credit even of the
destructive and o b n o x i o us American
Counsel for Judaism that Lilienthal was
even too extreme for that anti-Zionist,
anti-Israel and therefore in many respects
anti-Jewish group of Jewish self-hating
defeatists.
Lilienthal, a former officer of the
Council for Judaism, had the audacity to
inform Mr. Hilton that he had just re-
turned from another of his periodic trips
to Arab countries and that he had at-
tended a meeting of the Arab boycott
committee in Damascus, and he warned
Mr. Hilton that if he proceeded with his
Tel Aviv hotel plans "it means the loss
of Hilton holdings in Cairo and the end
of any plans you might have in Tunis,
Baghdad, Jerusalem (meaning, we pre-
sume the Jordan-held part of the Holy
City) or any Arab country." The Jewish
spokesman for the Arab boycott team
had the audacity to add that Arabs and
those servicing Arab states "will not stop
at your hotels in America or any part of
the world."
We wonder what would happen to any
one in an Arab country who would dare
make such threats to an Arab industry!
A Lilienthal would probably meet in
Arabia the same fate that faced an anti-
Nazi under Hitler or an anti-communist
in the USSR; it would mean a speedy
purge. But we live in a democracy, and
any man has a right even to threaten
fellow-Americans. Is it any wonder that,
as a result of the advantages derived
from our democracy, so self-hating a man
should also happen to be a Jew?
Civil Rights and Anti-Semitic Disease
From the Jewish Labor Committee
and the Anti-Defamation League came
encouraging analyses showing that "dra-
matic gains" had been made in 1961 in
attaining civil rights in this, country.
While the JLC maintained that em-
ployment discrimination remains "one of
the b i g g es t blots on the American
economy," it expressed satisfaction over
"the marked concern" shown by the
Federal Government for citizens' rights.
ADL, praising the imaginative vigor
of President Kennedy, expressed "keen
disappointment" over his decision not to
press further for civil rights legislation.
While these are, in the main, the
conclusions reached by two of the major
civic-protective' movements in this coun-
try, it is interesting to .note further that
the JLC statement pointed to the contin-
ued "widespread practices of deep-rooted
prejudices" in college fraternities, civic
groups, athletic, business and professional
societies.
Since this statement, deploring the
perpetuation of bigotry, must refer to
Jews as well as to Negroes—there has
been a mistaken view that attitudes on
civil rights take into account only the
Negroes—it is proper to delve deeper
into the issue and to ask whether anti-
Semitism, too, is on the decline, whether
real progress has been made in efforts
to eradicate this deep-rooted disease and
whether we • have really educated many
people against the scourge of bigotry.
There are many indications that anti-
Semitism still is rampant in many quar-
ters, that the sickness of religious preju-
dice continues to afflict many people and
that we have a long road ahead to end
the dangerous affliction.
The year 1962 may hold many chal-
lenges for us. The Rockwells remain in
our midst. Anti-Semitic literature con-
stantly pours into American mail pouches.
Hatreds have not vanished.
Fortunately, economic conditions have
not been accessories to the crime of anti-
Semitism in recent years. That should
enable us to make the best use of the
advantages in the lull of appeals to
bigotry on a much vaster scale.
. The challenge to the defenders of
decencies remains great. It is to be hoped
that those who are charged with the re-
sponsibilities of battling against preju-
dices and racial and religious hatreds will
not be so complacent and that the issues,
as they arise, will be faced with courage
as well as with dignity.
Histradut Role in Kibbutzim and Kupat Holim
Detroit's supporters of the Histadrut
Israel Jewish Labor Federation campaign
this week are marking an interesting an-
niversary — the completion of 50 years
of Kibbutz movement in Israel and of
Kupat Holim, the sick fund of the Labor
Zionist movement. It is an occasion for
taking into account the emergence of
courageous efforts on the part of un-
trained and unskilled immigrants into
Palestine from Eastern Europe which de-
veloped into a chain of cooperative and
collective colonies that served as the
foundation for the Jewish State.
Simultaneous with that self-help ac-
tivity on the part of pioneers who were
determined, upon leaving areas of per-
secution, to become self-sustaining and
to provide also for the health and edu-
cation of departees from b a c k war d
countries where they were subjected to
the status of total disfranchisement. With
the kibbutz movement, in which Hista-
drut played a glorious role, there also
developed the labor' movement's Kupat
Holim sick fund which continues to this
day to serve the needs of large masses
of enrolled labor union members.
When the Detroit Histadrut campaign
sets into motion here next Tuesday, its
supporters, cognizant of the kibbutz and
Kuppat Holim roles in Israel's develop-
ment, will have good cause to feel amply
compensated for the support they gave
to an important Israeli cause.
Ewen's 'Leonard Bernstein:
Splendid Biography for Youth
David Ewen is one of the outstanding authoritative writers on
musicians and musical subjects. He has written many biographies
of composers and musical geniuses. His latest is a book for young
people and it deserves a rating among the best of his works. It is
the biography of Leonard Bernstein, published by Chilton Company,
Philadelphia 39.
In this biographical sketch, Ewen depicts Bernstein in every
mood. He traces his youth, his father's opposition to his studying
music (he had an aversion to the klezmer of the Old World), his
excellence as a student, his passionate desire to play the piano
and later to compose. -
The chapter titles are most interesting as revelations of the
varying moods: "I Knew with Finality I Would Be a Musician"
points to his early desire for a life's work,—a sentiment implement-
ed by the chapter that follows, entitled "It Was as Though I
Didn't Exist Without Music." Then there is the chapter "It Seemed
the Most Natural Thing in the World for Me to be Conducting."
In a similar vein run a number of the other chapters, each
describing a phase in the great musician's life. It is replete with
accomplishments. "He was outstanding in his religious studies at
Temple Mishkan Tefila (Boston), where for his confirmation he
wrote his own speech, a brilliant one in the Hebrew tongue." He
mastered Yiddish, in addition to knowing some Hebrew, and he
also speaks French, Spanish and Italian and knows Latin.
It was "after Lenny had become -world-famous" that his
father explained his position in opposing his son's studying music:
"From the early 16th century, my family never made a livelihood
in art, and I didn't want to break this tradition. I also felt Lenny
could make a better living in business. Remember there was no
Leonard Bernstein then. There might not be another Leonard
Bernstein for . a thousand years. I'm very proud of Lenny, but the
Talmud teaches us, 'Don't expect miracles.' Because God blessed
the world with a Leonard Bernstein, it doesn't mean his parents
should expect it. You don't EXPECT your child to be -a Moses,
a Maimonides, a Leonard Bernstein. If I had to do it all over
again, I'd do the same thing."
The pride of parenthood is evident in this statement: the
father accepts the great gift that came to the Bernstein family.
The composing of Bernstein's "Jeremiah. Symphony" is de-
scribed in interesting detail by Ewen. He tells how Bernstein, in
1944, commenced this work "in a romantic, rhapsodic style, rich in
emotional content . . . The three movements were respectively
entitled 'Prophecy,"Profanation' and 'Lamentation' — the last
utilizing a verbal text from the Book of Lamentations sung by a
mezzo-soprano. Though this symphony was pervaded throughout
with intense racial feeling, Bernstein rarely used actual Hebrew
melodies. There were two exceptions. The first theme of the second
movement a phrase was lifted from a traditional synagogual chant
for the Sabbath sung during the reading of the Haftorah. And the
opening phrase of the vocal part of the finale was derived from a
liturgical cadence heard on Tisha b'Ab . . . 'Other resemblances
to Hebrew liturgical music are a matter of emotional quality rather
than of the notes themselves,' Bernstein has explained. 'The first
movement aims only to parallel in feeling the intensity of the
Prophet Jeremiah's plea with his people; and the Scherzo, to give
the general sense of destruction and chaos brought up by the
pagan corruption within the prieSthood and the people . . . It is the
cry of Jeremiah as he mourns his beloved Jerusalem, ruined, pil-
laged, and dishonored after his desperate efforts to save it.' "
Ewen describes Bernstein's deep interest in the Israel Phil-
harmonic Orchestra and his appearances in Israel, especially at
the concert that marked the opening of the Mann Auditorium in
Tel Aviv on Oct. 2, 195'7.
Ewen's "Leonard Bernstein" is a remarkable biography, and
while it is intended for young readers, people of all ages will
benefit from it. It concluded with this interesting nate: "Prophecy
is a thankless, often futile, always dangerous, task. Nevertheless,
from what we already know of Bernstein, both as a man and as
an artist, we can hardly resist the temptation of foreseeing for him
an ever richer, more rewarding and more productive career—and
in every conceivable facet of musicmaking. He would not be Leonard
Bernstein if he had done otherwise in the past. He would not be
Leonard Bernstein if he were to do otherwise in the future."