THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Member American Association of English—Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial
Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit 48235 Mich.,
VE 8-9364. Subscription $6 a year. Foreign $7.
Second Class Postage Paid at Detroit, Michigan
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
SIDNEY SHMARAK
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Advertising Manager
Business Manager
CHARLOTTE H.YAMS
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the sixth day of lyar, 5724, the following Scriptural selections will be read in our
synagogues.
Pentateuchal portion: Levit. 12-1-15:33. Prophetical portion: II Kings 7:3-20.
Licht Benshen, Friday, April 17, 6:57 p.m.
VOL. XLV. No. 8
Page Four
April 17, 1964
Israel's Sixteenth Anniversary
Today is Israel's 16th anniversary on
the Hebrew calendar. The event, marked
by ceremonies in Israel yesterday, to be
honored at celebrations by Jewish com-
munities throughout the world during
the coming few days, once again calls
for a re-evaluation of Israel's achieve-
ments, for a study of the Jewish State's
status as a member of the family of na-
tions, for an accounting of that nation's
relationships with the Jews of the Dias-
pora, primarily with the American Jew-
ish communities.
The achievements recorded by Israel
are among the most amazing ever cred-
ited to any people. A desert has been
transformed into a veritable garden—
wherever Jews had the opportunity to
strike their roots in the ancient home-
land. Vast industries have been estab-
lished there. Hordes of new settlers have
been brought to the land and have been
rescued from lands of oppression, and
tens of thousands more continue to pour
into Israel yearly. The assurance of a
haven for the dispossessed and the perse-
cuted remains as an offer by Israel to
the 500,000 more Jews in numerous lands
who need to be replanted in the environ-
ment of freedom in Israel, and much
larger numbers than that are yet to be
provided for in Israel when the Iron
Curtains are lifted and opportunities are
offered for departure by Jews from
Communist countries.
* * *
Large-scale settlement of m i g r ants
from countries where they are being
humiliated for their Jewishness remains
a major activity in Israel that calls for
worldwide Jewish cooperation. In this
sphere of action, American Jewry remains
a vital factor, without whom activity can
be stilled, whose financial assistance is a
most necessary element in building
homes for the newcomers, in providing
jobs for them, in assuring an education
for their children and medical care and
security for all of them. Israelis provide
for the country's defense from their tax
funds, but the welcome sign for the im-
migrants must be installed by us. This
is where the United Jewish Appeal enters
and where our responsibility becomes
apparent in the Allied Jewish Campaign.
It stands to reason that investments
in Israel are as vital as the philanthropic
dollars. Without our participation in
establishing industrial enterprises in Is-
rael, without our aid in the Israel Bond
drives which have elicited so much enthu-
siasm in many ranks, Israel's economy
would be weakened.
Of course, these activities continue
without interruption. Yet, the leaders of
world as well as Israeli Jewries have
reiterated in recent months that Ameri-
can Jewry is not fulfilling its duty in the
measure of our communities' ability to
provide for the minimal requirements
of bringing new settlers to Israel. While
investments have grown, the philan-
thropic dollars have diminished. This is
a development to be viewed seriously,
and if we are, indeed, to provide for an-
other half million new settlers in the
coming decade, there must be a proper
re-evaluation of the shortcomings in our
cooperative efforts with Israel.
* * *
On this score, it would be well to take
into account the failure to assure a per-
fect understanding between Israeli and
American youth. It was assumed earlier
in the history of Israel as a new nation
that there were strong links between
Israeli and American Jews. But it has
become apparent that there is a lack of
understanding, that there are often in
evidence suspicions that should be avoid-
ed and must in time be eliminated. In
the interest of Jewish creativity, of posi-
tive action and cooperation, the two Jew-
ries must learn to understand each other.
It is not enough to shout jubilations and
to sing Hatikvah on Israel's anniversary.
The feeling of mutual good will must be
cemented by feelings of genuine kinship
that takes into accounts achievements as
well as shortcomings, that tries to im-
prove upon the former and diminish the
latter.
* * *
The celebration of Israel's anniversary
must take into account the dangers that
confront our fellow Jews in that small
and embattled country. Enemies still sur-
round Israel and the neighboring coun-
tries are in the constant process of saber-
rattling. Israel is a minority and must
devote most of her energies in strength-
ening her defenses, while her neighbors
are receiving vast amounts of military
supplies from the Soviet Union.
As we join in marking Israel's 16th
year of national autonomy, we must take
this factor into consideration, and we
must resolve to be of aid to Israel, should
it become necessary at any time to plead
that nation's cause with our own Govern-
ment and with those who, with Israel,
form a nation of nations within the
United Nations.
When we convene in our community,
this Sunday evening, to mark Israel's
anniversary, let us take into account all
the areas in which we can be of help.
By lending our financial assistance, by
investing in Israel, by providing aid for
the new settlers, by encouraging good
will among brethren, we can best share
in the joy of acknowledging the great
achievements of the People and the State
of Israel.
Always on Guard -- Against Barbarians
During the Eichmann trial, the most
hardened among the observers of the
proceedings in the Jerusalem courtroom
were moved to tears when witnesses de-
scribed the cruelties that were practiced
by the Nazi beasts upon innocent children
who were torn from the hands of their
mothers and were led to their destruction.
It is no wonder that such a sense of
horror was expressed in Frankfurt last
week when the brutalities against chil-
dren were depicted in the testimony
against one of the accused at the Nazi
trial.
Yet, we still hear people—Jews among
them — who complain, because they do
not possess enough strength of character
to bear the truth, that too much is being
published about the trial.
By the same token, only the panicky
are worried over the results of protests
against Soviet anti-Semitism.
But those who read history aright
know: unless the truth is told and retold,
we may always be in danger of seeing a
recrudescence of the Nazi crimes. But
upon all of us devolves the duty always
to expose the crimes, always to be vigi-
lant against their recurrence.
Dr. Rosenberg's 'America Is
Different' Predicts for Jewry
Emerging Increased Vitality
Dr. Stuart E. Rosenberg, rabbi of Toronto's Beth Tzedec Syn-
agogue, author of several popularly-acclaimed books and con-
tributor of a column to a number of newspapers, is an optimist.
Evaluating conditions in American Jewry, describing the develop-
ment of many movements in this country, in his new book,
"America Is Different," published by m.F.
Thomas Nelson and Sons (18 E. 41st St., '""'
N.Y. 17), Rabbi Rosenberg approaches .,
his subject in a positive mood.
In his foreword to this volume, which
is subtitled "The Search for Jewish
Identity," Prof. Salo Baron welcomed
Dr. Rosenberg's "attempt to discuss dis-
passionately but nevertheless search-
ingly, the relative position of Jewish
secularism and Jewish religious thought
in the evolving communities of this con-
tinent." There are affirmations of Rabbi
Rosenberg's views of these additional
statements by Prof. Baron: Rabbi Rosenberg
"Not only has the synagogue in its organized form begun to
reassert its leadership over the traditional secularist organs pri-
marily dedicated to philanthropies and defense, but the entire
coloring of Jewish life has assumed an increasingly religious
tinge . . . He (Dr. Rosenberg) brings to bear on this study the
equipment of a well-trained historian and that of a student of
religion who for several years has taught comparative religion
to a host of university students. This combination enables him
to examine, in a more penetrating fashion than has hitherto been
the case, the innovations that American seculariSm had brought
into Jewish life after the settlement of the European Jewish
masses in the United States and Canada and why this phase of
American-Jewish history is now drawing to a close."
Throughout this thesis, Dr. Rosenberg emphasizes that "Amer-
ica IS Different," and he reaches the conclusion that "for Jews
it can yet be magnificently different." His optimism is in evi-
dence when he quotes, towards the end of his study, the famous
statement made in 1907 by the late Prof. Israel Friedlaender who
predicted a future American Israel "deeply rooted in the soil of
Judaism . . . a sharply marked community . . . trusted for its
loyalty, respected for its dignity, esteemed for its traditions,
valued for its aspirations . . ."
Dr. Rosenberg sees American Jewry becoming less an ethnic
and more a religious group.' He maintains that all American
ethnic elements "have been increasingly absorbed by the religious
content," and he adds:
"This development has helped to make the Christian
church of today stronger religiously, not weaker; each year,
new church units are bridging the religious splits once caused
by ethnic differences of language and national custom. But if
not for Jews, for Judaism there is the danger that in such an
America it may become estranged from its own historical
nature. For, unlike Christianity, Judaism is the religion of a
specific people: the Jewish people. Much of its religious cus-
tom, culture, and tradition is interwoven with the national
history of the Jews. Judaism is thus not a church with a body
of doctrine and a system of theology: it is, in effect, the
national, religious civilization of the Jewish people."
Thereupon he makes this important statement: The American
Jew "does not want to be different from the others, because in
his life-style he is an American—and does not feel different.
Clearly, whatever he will receive from his tradition will be as
American as it is Jewish, for both Jews and Judaism have under-
gone profound changes in response to the unique American expe-
rience. And yet, not despite but because of these truths the
special ethnic character of Judaism poses what sometimes can
be an embarrassing question: can Judaism, in an America that is
different, retain its own unique character and serve as a spiritual
influence in the lives of Jews who do not feel different? Can
Judaism help them to remember? Thus far, with some lapses,
it has . . ."
He pursues the problem from this point on, touches upon
the intermarriage issues, discusses the synagogue's status,
kashrut, Zionist Jewishness and other factors in Jewish life,
and, in the main, while taking into account the negative and
threatening elements, he believes that the Jew of this country:
"Alive to his dilemma as an American Jew, and seeking to define
himself in more spiritual terms, he may yet, consciously and
wittingly, pour new and enriching ethnic content into his
Judaism, and thus find new and vital spiritual meanings in his
Jewishness."