Purely Commentary
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Martin Buber, Humanism and Capital Punishment
Dr. Martin Buber believes that "humanism" may be re-
tarded as a result of the hanging of Adolf Eichmann. His
sentiment stems from his overconfidence in the possible rise
of a new spirit of humaneness among people, including the
Germans.
His approach is rather weak. If it is humanism that is
involved, what had happened to the human spirit during the
decades of destruction, and in the years that followed Hitlerism?
What has Germany done--aside from paying a minor portion
of its due debt to the sufferers from Nazism—to eradicate the
Nazi evil? Why are so many former Nazis stil ruling over the
German people? Why is there so much hatred everywhere?
Is that humanism?
Dr. Buber's philosophical tangent does not impress us. He
has been entirely too tolerant to his former countrymen, the
Germans. He has been unrealistic in his attitudes on the Arab-
Jewish problem. He has failed to recognize the valid right to
a people's self-defense. We abhor war, but we object even more
strenuously to interference with the rights of human beings to
defend themselves against attacks by brutal forces.
Nevertheless, this Commentator feels that capital punish-
ment is wrong wherever and whenever it may be resorted to.
The death penalty does not cure anything. Its abandonment in
many lands, leading to an eventual universal banning of capital
punishment, is proof of the international recognition of the un-
wisdom and the immorality of imposing death even upon those
who exacted death.
We are truly saddened that Israel's history will have to
record that there was a punishment by hanging imposed by the
Eternal People. Nothing is gained by capital punishment, but
the history of our people will now contain another chapter of
the imposition of a death penalty upon a criminal. It would
have been better had our kinsmen risen above it.
U.TAL Reports Collection of `1Vear Record'
*36,240,000 in Cash for 1st Half of '62
NEW YORK, (JTA) — The
sum of $36,240,000 has been
collected thus far by the United
Jewish Appeal against 1962 cam-
paign pledges, it was reported
here Monday by Joseph Meyer-
hoff, UJA general chairman, at
a one-day UJA National Cash
Meeting in the Savoy Hilton
which was attended by 150 top
Jewish community leaders from
all parts of the country.
The sum is almost 10 per cent
higher than the total collected
last year at this time and is one
enormous pressure of rising immigration to France, and
other crises, are affecting the
programs of the Joint Distribu-
tion Committee, another UJA
beneficiary, in Europe and
First-hand reports on Is- North Afrida.
rael's current massive immi-
Calling on the assembled
gration and its attendant ab- leaders to sustain the cash mo-
sorption problems were made mentum during the rest of the
by Ambassador Michael Co- year, Meyerhoff declared that
may, Permanent Representa-
Israel's immigration for the
tive of Israel to the United first five months of the year
Nations, and Dr. Isadore Lu- was far heavier than for any
bin, consultant on programs comparable period in recent
in Israel for the Jewish Agen- years.
of the highest midyear cash
cy for Israel, Inc., a UJA
Reporting on "halfway meas-
totals achieved by the UJA in
beneficiary agency, which
ures" adopted by the Jewish
the past d e c a d e. Meyerhoff helps resettle Israel's immi- Agency for Israel in the present
called the near-record sum "a
grants.
situation, Dr. Lubin told of
great midway victory in the ef-
Executive vice chairman Her- "partially completed houses in
fort to keep our overseas pro- bert A. Friedman told the which newcomers have been
grams going in the face of the gathering how increased Jewish moving, many without doors,
window s, paint, electricity,
sometimes even without floors.
And even these half-finished
units are rapidly being used up,
while Agency personnel are
working around-the-clock, try-
ing to cope with this and other
absorption problems." The suc-
Special to The Jewish News
cess of the Agency's plan to
For the first time in four years, a border incident build 18,000 immigrant housing
units this year, he indicated,
occurred in Jerusalem Wednesday.
One Israeli was killed and several wounded when depends on a continuous flow
Jordanians fired at an Israeli patrol in the Holy City, in of funds.
Jewish immigration abroad." Is-
rael D. Fink of Minneapolis
served as national chairman of
the cash drive.
Israeli Killed in First Jerusalem
Battle in Four Years; Jordanians
Fired at Israeli Patrol on Border
the Musrara section.
Israeli troops rushed to the scene and removed the
dead body and the wounded and order was restored.
Ben-Gurion—the Propagandist and the Visionary
A protest has been filed with the United Nations by
David Ben-Gurion has said he is no longer a Zionist, and he
has upbraided the Zionist movement. in behalf of which he had Israel against Jordan.
•
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*
•
labored all his life. because its leaders are not imposing upon
themselves and the movement's members the obligation of
personal immigration to Israel.
In our amazement over his fretfulness, we thought of the
past. Before Israel's rebirth. when many of us labored in behalf
of a Jewish Palestine, Ben-Gurion was one of the leading Zionist
JERUSALEM, ( JTA) — Five
emissaries. Nothing was too difficult for him. Ile did not make
excessive demands. It happened often that he had to speak to American tourists, none of them
small groups of people. He represented the Peale Zion and its Jewish, arrived here Monday
numbers were small. He asked them, in the difficult days for after they and five others were
re-
Zionism, for moral support. for membership enrollment, for a arrested, released then
arrested, and otherwise harassed
few dollars to permit the movement to function.
by
authorities
in
Jordan.
lie did not demand, in those difficult times. that every
The story was told by the
chaver, every affiliate with the movement, should go to Israel
leader of the group, the Rev.
if he chose to call himself a Zionist.
How times have changed! Now Ben-Gurion differentiates R. E. Dawkins, of the Gospel
between Zionists and Jews! His latest declaration, made to the Tabernacle, Kansas City, Mo.
Actions CoMmittee of the World Zionist Organization when it He said that his group of 10
met in Jerusalem: "As the Zionist Organization members and Americans was detained as soon
leadership declare that Zionism does not impose the duty of as the plane in which they had
personal immigration, I cannot consider myself a Zionist . . . traveled touched at a Jordanian
Because I do not believe that an organization which does not airport. The Americans were
obligate its own members to emigration to Israel can influence told. he said, that five of them
were on a Jordanian blacklist.
youth abroad to emigrate to Israel."
All were jailed for three
This is not the language he spoke when he was the Zionist
propagandist 20 or more years ago. There were no demands then
Jordan Harasses U.S. Tourists;
Cleric Charges Mistreatment in Jail
upon Zionists to go to Palestine. The need -then was to rescue
persecuted Jews, not to encourage a mass emigration of Zionists
from the United States. Jews needed to be rescued from Russia.
Poland. Romania. just as, today. it is necessary to save Jews
from Moslem countries and from areas behind the Iron Curtain.
But in those days David Ben-Gurion could not assure a
mass emigration of .Jews from lands of oppression. As soon as
there was a ray of light on the Romanian horizon (after the Jassy
pogrom), or in Poland (after massacres), or in Russia (the mo-
ment the purges subsided), Jews who might have been induced
to go to Palestine began to believe that "better days are coming."
If that was the situation in an era of trial and tribulation,
what does Ben-Gurion expect now, from American Jewry, which
has been assured that Zionism does not demand that all Jews
should settle in the Land of Israel—although it is necessary. in
the interest of great divergence and as a contributory factor
toward constructive efforts by people with know-how, that
American Jews should share in the reconstruction of Israel!
But even this is not the major concern in relation to the
Ben-Gurion impetuousness. The Prime Minister of Israel has
himself said that he dies not expect all Jews to settle in Israel.
But he is rather peevish in his approach to the issue by insisting
that there can be Jews who will remain in the Diaspora while
those who call themselves Zionists must go to Israel. But by
making the differentiation, by acknowledging the Diaspora, Ben-
Gurion seems, even if indirectly, to be conceding also that the
Diaspora will survive. If there will be such a survival—and we
certainly believe that there isn't a power on earth that can
possibly negate this certainty—and if, at the same time, Israelis
will come to us and plead with us that we should strengthen the
brotherly kinship between Israel and Diaspora Jewries, then
Ben-Gurion is not helping Israel's cause but is, on the contrary,
harming it.
Either we admit that there still is a need for a Zionist move-
ment, as a force to inspire the kinship for which Ben-Gurion's
emissaries are pleading, or we deny it. Ben-Gurion is splitting
hairs when he says to Zionists "call yourselves Jews." Nothing
can compel the abandonment of the Jewish name by all Jews,
unless it is conversion, and proselytization has failed. But a
person who desires to make Zionism a goal in life—and it is a
commendable goal—has a right to the Zionist name. He thereby
pursues a goal that was advocated by Ben-Gurion during his
career as a propagandist.
There are other matters involved in the Ben-Gurion quarrel
with Zionism. Israelis should and must govern themselves and
we have no right to dictate to them, or to mould their policies;
just as the Israelis cannot govern our Diaspora communities.
But there is the need for kinship, and Zionists seek a kinship
Report Shooting
on Israel-Syria Border
(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish News)
TEL AVIV — United Nations
observers began an investigation
Wednesday into a new Syrian
shooting incident in the Huleh
area of the Syrian - Israeli
border.
A long period of border tran-
quillity in the area was broken
Tuesday night when a Syrian
•machinegunner opened fire on
an Israeli tractor. The vehicle
was hit repeatedly but the
driver escaped injury.
Synagogues Guarded
SAO PAULO — Synagogues,
Jewish clubs and the Israeli
Consulate here have been
placed under special police
guard since the execution of
Adolf Eichmann in Israel.
based on a contribution they
had made to Israel: it was they
who established the foundation
for Israel and they choose still
to call themselves Zionists. The
Ben-Gurion impetuousness and
stubbornness can't stop it.
Ben-Gurion is the great sym-.
bol of the emergence of Israel's
sovereignty. As such his name
is imperishable in Jewish his-
tory. His name also lives in
Zionist history. That role also
will be remembered with love
and affection. It is in the in-
terest of this high regard for
him that his rash demand upon
Zionists and Zionism stands re-
jected. Even Ben-Gurion can be
wrong in a matter in which he
has permitted h i s anger to
'overrule his statesmanship.
days, wives being separated
from their husbands. The five
on the blacklist were put on a
plane for Beirut, Lebanon. The
remaining five, including the
minister, were told they could
proceed to Israel, when they
were re-arrested and, according
to the clergymen, they were
mistreated. Finally, they were
allowed to go on to Israel
through the Mandelbaum Gate.
Rev. Dawkins said the only
guess he had for his harassment
is because he edits a religious
weekly called "B'nei Shalom."
He said his paper is pro-Israel
but not pro-Zionist, and is not
anti-Arab.
Ambassador Comay stressed
the continuing determination
of Israel's people to take in
and productively absorb all
Jews who can and wish to
enter the Jewish state, de-
spite the hardships this might
spell.
The heavy increase in Jewish
immigration is not confined to
Israel, but is taking place in
France, as well, and has put
"tremendous pressures" on the
programs of the Joint Distribu-
tion Committee, Rabbi Fried-
man told the Jewish leaders.
"At least 30,000 new Jewish
arrivals have poured into
France in the first five months
of the year," the UJA executive
head declared. "Added to the
heavy Jewish refugee immigra-
tion into France of 1961, they
have brought the total to at
least 50,000 new refugees.
The French government has
been liberal in its assistance,
and the French Jewish commu-
nity has stepped up its aid ef-
forts, Rabbi Friedman told the
conference.
Boris Smolor's
'Between You
... and Me'
I(Copyright, 1962,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)
Graduation Season
Thousands of Jewish students are graduating this month
from universities and colleges throughout the country . . . What
experience did they have, as Jews, during the years of their
study? . . . Most of the graduates a gr ee that anti-Jewish discrimi-
nation—as practiced several years ago in certain medical and
other colleges--has almost disappeared . . . So has the discrimi-
nation against Jews in most of the fraternities and sororities ...
On the contrary, one can hear today complaints that Jewish
students on the campus are not sufficiently joining the fraterni-
ties and sororities that once practiced discrimination. . A
liberal social climate prevails today in nearly all colleges and
normal personal friendship between Jewish and non-Jewish stu-
dents is reported to be existing and developing ... No distinction
is also being made by students between Jewish and non-Jewish
professors and lecturers . , And there are today thousands of
Jewish teachers in the American universities and colleges . .
As to the religious composition of the student bodies of medical
schools where anti-Jewish discrimination had been practiced for
years, 26 such schools in the South and South-West have reported
that nine per cent of their students admitted in 1959 were Jewish
. . . Nine Far Western medical schools have reported that 12
per cent of the admitted students were Jewish, and 20 Midwest-
ern medical schools indicated that more than 16 per cent were
Jews . . . In 19 North Atlantic medical schools the percentage
of admitting Jews rose to 36 per cent, while in five New England
medical colleges the percentage was 29 . . On the whole, the
nation's 79 medical schools can now claim an average of 20
per cent Jews in the entering class of last year . . . The largest
proportion of Jewish doctors-to-be are found in the New York
University and in the State University at New York City . . .
Both of these institutions consistently have maintained non-
discrimination policies for decades ... Over the years they have
accepted increasing numbers of Jewish applicants .. . This ex-
plains why the New York statewide enrollment of Jews is almost
50 per cent . . . Two-thirds of all Jewish youth of college age
are now enrolled in various school of higher education.