Watchina the Gathering Storm

THE JEWISH NEWS

incorporating the Detroit Jewish Chicmicle commencing with issue. of July 20, 1951

Member American Association of English—Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Associations, National
Editorial Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit 35,
&Deb., VE 8-9364. Subscription $6 a year. Foreign $7.
Second Class Postage Paid At Detroit, Michigan

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager
Business Manager
Editor and Publisher

+64:4
• 45 411 0444.

HARVEY ZUCKERBERG
City Editor

-

Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the sevententh day of lyar, the following Scriptural selections will be read
in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Lev. 21:1-24:23. Prophetical portion, Ezekiel 44:15-31. Lag ba-'Omer
will be observed Sunday.

Licht benshen, Friday, May 10, 7:22 p.m.

VOL. XLIII • No. 11

Page Four

May 10, 1963

'An Historic Event for Jewry'

Under the above heading, on Oct. 8,
1937, the writer of these editorial col-
umns, in a similar capacity as' editor of
the weekly that preceded The Jewish
News, authored the following editorial:

"The formation of the Jewish Community
Council of Detroit is an historic event for our
community, and the impressive assembly at
which the foundation was laid for this unify-
. ing instrument justified the expectations of
its founders.
"It was a great gathering, and the sin-
cerity with which spokesmen for a majority .
of Detroit Jewry assumed their responsibil-
ities under the new community set-up is a
tribute to our people. Even in their fondest
expectations, the organizers of the movement
did not dare imagine that anything as splen-
did and immense in community achievement
would be reached as a result of an unified
community movement.
"The devotion displayed in the formation
of the Council provides encouragement in
the further expectations that the pressing
community problems will be dealt with seri-
ously and unselfishly. There are issues which
affect us internally; there are Jewish needs
that have to be attended to; there are nu-
merous outburst of discrimination against
Jews in employment, in universities, on prac-
tically every front. It is a program that will
tax the energy of the most devoted group of
leaders. Heretofore this program has been
divided between numerous groups of indi-
viduals._The brunt of responsibility was car-
ried by the Detroit section of the American
Jewish Congress, by the Bnai Brith and by
a handful of individual men and women.
Through the Council, these efforts will have
to be coordinated. Being coordinated, it is
certain that better results will be achieved.

.

• "The formation of the Jewish Community
Council is the happiest occurrence in the
life of the Jewish community of Detroit. May
this new central organization continue to
gain in strength, in order that our people may
have the voice of an organized public opinion
that has not been heard effectively until now."

Next Monday evening, at the celebra-
tion of the 25th anniversary of the Jewish
Community Council, the record accumu-
lated during the quarter century of the
Council's existence will be evaluated and
our community will be able to judge
whether the predictions made in our edi-
torial of 25 years ago were justified.
*
*
*
One fact is certain: the need for a
"unifying instrument" for civic-protective
activities existed then and must be per-
petuated. There still are occasions .when
we have only semblances of unity and
when efforts to consolidate Jewish activi-
ties are frustrated. But in the main the
unifying procedure has been effective and
vital, and the Council's leadership is to
be congratulated on the earnestness with
which it pursues the tasks of making the
Jewish Community Council a vital instru-
ment for good for Jewry and for all citi-
zens of Detroit.
May this work go on unhindered, and
may the hands of the Council leaders be
strengthened in all tasks aimed at creat-
ing good will, at furthering Jewish cul-
tural activities and at assuring such good
understanding among all elements in our
population that will lead towards genuine
amity in Jewry and among all Americans.

Time for Realism in Middle East

The concerted action proposed in both
houses of our Congress to put an end to
Nasser's threats to Israel and to prevent
his aggressive activities in the Middle East
is an indication of a measure of courage
that is long past due.
While the legislators who have intro-
duced measures to ban further assistance
to the United Arab Republic if Nasser
continues to jeopardize the peace had
acted similarly on several occasions dur-
ing the past few years, the current firm
stand taken by U. S. Representatives and
Senators, under the leadership of Con-
gressman Seymour Halpern, Senator Jacob
K. Javits and a number of their associates
is• most heartening.
*
*
Special note should be made of the
warning by Senator Ernest Gruening of
Alaska that the time for "noble declara-
tions" has passed, that the Nasser "police
state" must be denied further aid and
that there should be an end to condoning
the work of former Nazis, many of them
criminals, who- are assisting the UAR in
its aim to destroy Israel.
Will these admonitions, appeals and
warnings be heeded? Until now they have
been ignored by the State Department.
Let us watch and hope for better devel-
opments as a result of the current Con-
gressional attempts to assure justice in
the Middle East.
While the new Nasser threais are
.recognized as being tantamount to "an-
other Munich," it is most fortunate that
some misguided analysts of the situation
look upon the latest action in Congress
as being based on domestic political fac-
tors. Judging 'by the attitude of the State
Department which opposes any restric-
tions on American aid to Nasser, this
could be considered a valid view. But
the issue involving interference with

Israel's right to existance has dragged
for a number of years, and legislation
similar to that introduced in Congress
by members of both parties, and by some
who represent districts with very few
Jewish voters, has been recognized as an
expression of protest against anti-Ameri-
can as well as anti-Jewish practices.
If a firm stand is not taken against
the anti-Israeli program of the UAR, it
may result, as Senator Dirksen has
warned, in a World War. On that basis,
those who would appease Nasser would
do well to take another view into the
existing situation before they act hastily
in rejecting the protestations expressed
in Congress against the .aggressive ac-
tions of the UAR. •

A Wise Decision

President Kennedy is to be com-
mended for having abstained from send-
ing what had been considered a tradi-
tional greeting to the American Council
for Judaism, whose convention, held last
week-end, again demonstrated the de-
structive character of this group of self-
hating Jews.
For a number of years, this anti-Israel
Council had been receiving messages of
greetings from our Presidents—including
Truman and Eisenhower. It was our pain-
ful duty on all such occasions to criticize
the White House staffs for having yielded
to pressures from a wealthy but self-
hating Jewish group that sought endorse-
ments from our Chief Executives. By
refraining from sending such a message,
our President has shown that there is
proper caution in the White House in
dealing with groups that seek to destroy
humanitarianism and decency in Ameri-
can society.

Definitions of Religious Reality

Dr. Kohn's Collected Lectures
In 'Evolution As Revelation"

A noteworthy collection of lectures, by one of the distinguished
leaders of the Conservative movement, Dr. Jacob Kohn, Rabbi
Emeritus of the Los Angeles Sinai Temple and now Dean of the
Graduate School of the West Coast branch of the Jewish Theo-
logical Seminary, has been published by Philosophical Library
(15 E. 40th, NY16), under the title "Evolution as Revelation."
In these essays, Rabbi Kohn pursues his task of showing that
"God is Being, not Process." He asserts that "if we equate the
cosmic process with God, it would be the process of the becoming
of God, as the growth of a tree is the process of the becoming
of a tree. So the evolution of life is not itself Life but the suc-
cessive changes of the physical universe through which Life comes
to be, to develop and to survive." He proceeds to show "how the
evolution of life reveals, in the human perspective, the nature
of God. He is its unchanging source, but all change insofar as
it has structure and direction and is therefore process and not
chaos, is of His creation. Change becomes the means by which
the Being of God communicates with the mind and understanding
of the creature man."
Commencing with a definition of reality, Dr. Kohn examines
physical dilemmas of the physical universe, describes "God as
the Whole," referring to instances in medieval and modern
thought, asserting that "every fact has its place in the being of
God, in the world of the actual, in the field of existence"; and
discusses rationalism and the intrusion of irrationality.
His essays deal with the cosmic, with the Levels of Being
and the higher level of man's freedom. He devotes an interesting
lecture topic to prayer. Stating that "it depends on how many
human beings join in the prayer and the commitment," he de
Glares that prayers, "with full commitment and devotion to the
ends envisaged, can themselves become the vehicle of their ful-
fillment."
Uttering the prayer that "we become the masters of evolu-
tion and not its slaves and dupes," he concludes: "The Kingdom
of God from the humanist and rationalist point of view is simply
the progressive and increasing rule by the human spirit over
the animal man . . . The opportunity (to become masters of
evolution) may be an act of God's grace—an answer to man's
deepest need. How we shall act in the fact of this opportunity
is now man's high and urgent •responsibility."

Pre-Herzlian Zionist Activities

Centenary of Kalischer, Hess
Evaluated in New Focus Issue

Focus, the Journal for youth leaders published in Jerusalem
by the Youth and Hechalutz Department of the World Zionist Or-
ganization, "is intended to provide background material on aspects
of life in Israel. for activists in youth movements."
Its latest issue again contains much valuable historical and
literary material that will be found of great merit not only by
youth leaders but by all who are active in Zionism and by those
who are interested in historical data relating to Israel.
Of special interest in this issue is the essay "The Centenary
of a Zionist Classic" by Israel Klausner, who reviews the historic
merits of the pre-Herzlian Zionist activities of Rabbi Zvi Hirsch
Kalischer, author of "Drishat Zion," and Moses Hess, author of
"Rome and Jerusalem."
The Hebrew texts of "Ein Gadi Poems," by Abraham Broides,
and their English translations by I. M. Lask, enhance this work.
Moshe Sharett's "The Meaning of the State of Israel," "The
Prehistory of the Halutz Movement" by Simon L. Kirschenbaum,
a story "Kumzitz" by Daniel Halevi and N. D. Gross' "Israel Youth
Movements and the Outside World" complete this valuable com-
pilation.