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Purely Commentary

The Bias of a Self-Styled 'Progressive' Periodical

Ralph Waldo Emerson thus defined prejudice: "A system-
= grinder hates the truth."
National Guardian, calling itself "the progressive news-
.et weekly," assumes to be defining issues' relating to ,national and
world events. It rejects the charge of pro-Communist prejudice.
•
Pcs Yet, more often than not, its biased views are so obvious that
s. ., the term "progressive" in that weekly's title is irritating.
;T
The prejudice of one of its writers especially manifested
itself in relation to Israel.
In an article "A new Arab federation is in the making,"
David Wesley wrote:
▪
"There is no doubt that a gradually unifying Arab world
z
would create a whole new situation for Israel, which up to now
•
has thrived on Arab disunity. Whether an actual threat to its
survival would be entailed cannot be foretold, but Arab-unifica-
W tion would necessitate a serious new look at Israel's relations
with its Arab neighbors. In the last analysis the survival of the
F:11 Jewish state, should it be put in question, might lie only in
United Nation's protection."
g
E-1
There is a measure of arrogance in these assertions. The
$::1 author, assuming the role of a prophet, dares to speak in terms
w of Israel's survival. He anticipates UN action — as if anyone
but the Israelis themselves ever came to the state's physical aid.
•
E- Ignoring the fact that it is Israel's existence that has united
the Arabs on the only issue that unifies them — rather than the
misleading claim that Israel "has thrived on Arab disunity,"
David Wesley suggests trouble rather than deal with realities
of Israel's existence and propose peace and harmony in that area.
If ever an "analyst" of the news approached an issue in
negative terms, here it, is. Yet National Guardian desires to be
treated as an objective and a progressive periodical! It is con-
stantly losing its right to such a designation.

The Remaining Jews in Egypt

,In another article in National Guardian, "Nasser presses
toward 'socialism' by W. G. Burchett, appears this paragraph
under the subtitle "synagogue open:" •
"Despite the fact that Nasser never misses a chance to lash
out at the state of Israel, and despite the restrictions on Jewish
people visiting the UAR, the small Jewish community in Cairo
is left undisturbed. The synagogues are open, the Jews have the
own schools and a hospital, and the government even sends
congratulatory messages on Jewish holidays."
There is, of course, an inconsistency here: Jews who visit
the UAR face restrictions, but the remaining less than 3,00 0
Jews in Egypt purportedly have their synagogues, schools and
a hospital! Indeed, as long as a surviving minority remains in
Egypt, it must have its own schools and a hospital, if the Jews
there are to have health facilities — which are closed to them
elsewhere — and if their children are to have educational
facilities. But the Egyptian Jews, like our unfortunate kinsmen
in the Soviet Union, are cut off from association with other
Jewish communities and with Israel and even with their relatives,
so many of whom have had to escape death threats and have
migrated.
There were 100,000 Jews in Egypt before World War IL
That number declined to less than 85,000 in 1948, when Israel
became the target for massed Arab attacks. The World Jewish
population was reduced to about 45,000 at the time of the Suez
Campaign in 1956 and towards the end of 1957 it dropped to
15,000.
The present Jewish population in Egypt is estimated in
the WJC study at 3,000-4,000, and some figures estimate the
figure as being as low as 2,000 at the present time. There are
no Jews left in the Egyptian provinces and the handful remain-
ing there is concentrated in Cairo and Alexandria. To speak,
therefore, of an "undisturbed" Jewish community in Egypt is
to ignore facts and to abandon truth. Jewish property has
been "sequestered," as the WJC- reporter reveals. The WJC
expose states:
"Today there is still one Jewish school in Alexandria
which has to accept Moslems. In Cairo there is one Jewish
school, one orphanage (La Goutte de Lait) and one home for
the aged. As far as is known, most of the synagogues have
closed down for lack of attendance. One is still functioning in
Alexandria and two in Cairo. The. Councils of the Community
still function in these cities. No Jewish press exists."
A recent visitor in Cairo reported that "the synagogue there
has something of a ghost appearance about it with but a hand -F-
a Jews appearing to worship. It is more of a showpiece to bear
out such statements as 'the synagogues are open' in order to
mislead public opinion."
What else is to be expected in a land that lives under the
heels of a dictator?
Egyptian Jewry is isolated. Those who remain there must
contact relatives in other countries through "intermediaries." It
is like using the Red Cross as a medium of communication in
time of war. The only word that could possibly describe tr
status of the handful of surviving Jews in Egypt is enslavement
One wonders what a radical approach like that of the l‘T
tional Guardian hopes to achieve! All it has done so far is to
mislead!

Arnold Toynbee's Self Flavellations

-

In an essay "On Toynbee's Use of the Term 'Syriac' for One
of His Societies," appearing in the Macmillan-published volume,
"In Time of Harvest," issued in honor of the 70th birthday of Dr.
Abba Hillel Silver, Prof. Harry M. Orlinsky calls attention to
Arnold Toynbee's loosely used reference to "a Syriac society" and
points out that "Toynbee, first and above all, simply refused to
use any and all forms of any terms such as Hebrew or Israel or
Jew, contrary to every justification for it even on his own approach.
This same willingness is apparent in his refusal . . . even to make
mention of the significant things that the Jewish society did and
created durng the past 1,900 years in the Diaspora. . . ."
Dr. Orlinsky also calls attention to Toynbee's assertions in his
"Reconsiderations": "A second dim spot, of which I am aware, is
my neglect of Israel, Judah, the Jews, and Judaism. I have neglected
these out of proportion to their true importance. . . . I am ignorant
of the Rabbinical Jewish literature. . . . I know the Pharisees
. . . through the denunciations of them in the Gospels. . .. Worst
of all, I have never learnt even a smattering of Hebrew. Since
childhood, Hebrew has left me cold. whereas I have had a pas-

Ben-Zvi as Labor
Leader, Authority
on Moslem Jewries

By Philip Nuclear Warhead
Slornovitz

sionate desire to learn Arabic. This partially is evidently irrational.
. .. I cannot account for my acquiescence in this particular dim
spot, though I am none the less conscious of its being there."
Dr. Orlinsky adds at this point: "More recently, we may recall
Toynbee's hatred for Zionism and the State of Israel, his concern
for the Arabs who left Israel in 1948 in the hope of returning
shortly to a land without Jews, and the like."
Toynbee has gone to such extremes as to charge Jews with
using Nazi tactics against Arabs. He has been a spokesman for the
anti-Jewish Arabs and the anti-Israel Council for Judaism.
These things must be taken into consideration upon learning
that so charming an historian will soon be here to address women's
collegiate groups. His audience will be faced by a man who in-
sists on following the anti-Semitic line.

Itzhak Ben Zvi: Labor Leader and Scholar

-

In the death of Itzhak Ben-Zvi, Israel loses not only one of its`
most distinguished labor leaders but also an exceptionally dedi-
cated and warm-hearted man who loved the synagogue, who found
great satisfaction in studying the Talmud, who did much research
into the background and lives of Jews in Moslem countries.
Those who had the privilege of visiting with him and with his
wife, who was in her own right a noted labor leader and a pioneer
in Israel's upbuilding; all who knew him and the tourists who made
it a point to watch him as he sat in the front pew of the Jerusalem
synagogue whose services he attended religiously, are aware of
the deep-rooted dedication of the man who was elected for his
third term as President of Israel last September.
It was in the ranks of Histadrut, of the labor movement in
Israel, that Ben-Zvi was primarily known in the beginnings of his
public career. He had labored for the upbuilding of the Land of
Israel in the early years of the century, served in the Jewish
Legion when Palestine was liberated from the Turks by the British
forces and he never ceased carrying the message of Israel to his
people throughout the world.
He was a natural for the Presidency of Israel as Dr. Chaim
Weizmann's successor. He loved the Bible and the Talmud and he
also did much research historically, with the result that he emerged
as the outstanding world authority on the Jews in Moslem coun-
tries, as is evidenced in his "The Exiled and the Redeemed" that
has been published in two editions in a translation from the
Hebrew by the Jewish Publication Society of America.
A truly great personality has been taken from us, and about
Israel's President Itzhak Ben-Zvi it may well be said, traditionally:
Sar v'gadol nofal b'Israel a prince and a great man has fallen
in Israel.

—

In the Israeli daily news-
paper Davar, the artist Aryeh
Navon in this fashion por-
trayed the Nasser line. in col-
laboration with former Nazis
and West German scientists
to reintroduce the "perish
Judea" plan, swastika-adorned,
in his effort to destroy Israel.

Sharett Addresses
Buenos Aires Rally

BUENOS AIRES, (JTA)--Jews
should not fear Nasser's designs
against Israel but should, rather,
beware of their own indifference
to Israel when they fail to con-
tribute adequately to the United
Campaign, Moshe Sharett, chair:
man of the Jewish Agency execu,
tive, declared here Monday night.
He and General Joseph Avi-
dar, Israel's Ambassador to Ar-
gentina, were among the princi-
pal speakers at a rally at the
Metro Theater, where the Ar-
gentine Jewish c ommunit y
opened its United Campaign and,
simultaneously, began celebrat-
ing Israel's 15th anniversary.

1■1■0■ 111.11411 ■ 01111111W041 ■0■0,041■ 4111011.0.1 ■ 01III ■0■11 1.04 ■0■11111-0.=0■ 0•111 ■ 11 ■111.4 ■04111 •4146

Streicher Copied
by USSR Yiddish
HeimlamJournal

Boris Striolar's

'Between You

and Me'
• . (Copyright,
1963,

=

Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)

Israel's Anniversary

Israel is celebrating its 15th anniversary with a record of un-
precedented achievements by any country 15-years-old . . . At

the same time it enters a new year of existence under the gathering
of heavy clouds signalling great dangers. . . . Chief danger for
Israel is the shaky future of Jordan following the formation of
the federated United Arab Republic composed of Egypt, Syria and
Iraq. . . The Arab trinity as such, with its. pledge "to liberate
Palestine," would not constitute any immediate danger for Israel.
. . . However, this does not exclude the possibility of an early fall
of King Hussein's regime in Jordan and a takeover of the govern-
ment by elements willing to join the Arab tripartite union as a
fourth partner. . .. Should this happen—and it can happen very
soon—then Israel would be in a real danger because Israel's longest
border is with Jordan. . . . And a Jordan which is part of Egypt,
Syria and Iraq would be quite a different belligerent country than
an - independent Jordan . . . The danger is all the greater, since
Defenders of the Soviet the United States seems to look with favor on the Egypt-Syria-
policies towards the Jews will Iraq accord and will probably not do anything to protect the
have to do a lot of explain- present regime in Jordan . .. If the next anticipated step is the
overthrow of King Hussein by elements willing to make Jordan the
ing after the appearance of a fourth partner in the new United Arab Republic, it would mean
Streicher-type cartoon in the - the complete encirclement of Israel by a concentrated Arab
most recent issue of Sovietish military alliance instead of by separate Arab countries.
Israel will have to do something drastic, should any attempt
Heimland, the only Yiddish
be made in Jordan to draw in the country into Nasser's direct
journal permitted to be pub- or indirect military command . . . Despite the fact that Israel
lished in the Soviet Union. In has the longest frontier with Jordan, relative quiet has been
the cartoon reproduced here, maintained on this frontier for a long time . . . A change in the
which is typical of the type of Jordan regime may force Israel to take preventive measures
anti-semitic "art" that was perhaps by marching into Jordan to straighten out some strategic
published by the arch-Nazi positions necessary for the defense of Israel . . A change in
Julius Streicher, who was con- Jordan, strengthening Nasser, may encourage him to send feda-
demned to death at the
yeen raiders into Israel from Jordan since there is no United
Nuremberg trial, a "tzdoke- Nations force on the Israel-Jordan frontier and it may lead to
pushke"— a charity box—is renewed warfare between the Arab countries and Israel, the
shown being pilfered by a Arab countries being this time better organized and more united
caricatured Jew who holds against Israel than 15 years ago in the Israel War of Liberation.
up a sign reading "halt dem
ganef—"hold the thief." The Test for Washington
It is said that President Kennedy is seriously thinking of
cartoon accompanied an arti-
plans
to attempt to bring about Arab-Israeli talks . . . If he
cle in Heimland in which
synagogue scandals are is thinking in this direction, he will have to act quickly . . .
charged and accusations are Developments in the Middle East do not leave much time for
to
made of thefts and forgeries watchful waiting . . . Now is the time for the United States the
of burial receipts in Jewish test the Arab leaders on whether they are really allies of
West—as the State Department thinks—or whether they are
houses of worship.
simply fooling Washington .. . The best test would be to induce
the Arab leaders of the tripartite federation to sit with Israel
Cost-of-Living
and talk peace terms . . . This would put an end to the armaments
race between the Arab countries and Israel and would bring
Stable in Israel
stabilization and prosperity to all countries involved . . . Otherwise,
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The there will be many serious critical moments in the Arab-Israel
Central Bureau of Statistics re- conflict within the next months . . . Especially since Israel will
ported that the Israel cost-of-liv- soon complete its water development project which the Arabs
ing index had remained stable threaten to resist . . . Overnight American Jews may be called upon
for the third consecutive month to lend their maximum moral and financial support to the defense
of Israel and not merely to help the absorption of immigrants there.
this year.