Undercover
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
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
CHARLOTTE HYAMS
SIDNEY SHMARAK
City Editor
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the twelfth clay of Sivon, 5724, the following Scriptural selections will be read in
our synagogues.
Pentateuchal portion: Num. 4:21-7:89. Prophetical portion: Judges 13:2 25.
-
Licht Benshen, Friday, May 22, 7:34 p.m.
VOL. XLV. No. 13
Page Four
May 22, 1964
World's Fair Management's Great Blunder
Whatever the result of the distressing
situation that has been created by the inva-
sion of an anti-Jewish sentiment into the
World's Fair displays, it is evident that the
management was careless and that the blun-
der is ascribable to the president of the Fair,
Robert Moses, and his associates.
The rules of the World's Fair Corporation
contain the following Article XVI:
"The Fair Corporation will not permit
the operation of a concession or an exhibit
which reflects discredit upon any nation
or state or which bears a misleading geo-
graphic appellation."
Even if such a rule had not been inserted
in the corporation's statutes, it should stand
to reason that an abuse against another peo-
ple should not have been permitted by a
nation that seeks to make capital against a
neighboring country.
There is no doubt about the seriousness
of the controversy that was aroused by Arab
intransigence. Unless the mural in the Jor-
danian pavilion that appeals to hatred against
Israel and Jewry is removed, irreparable
harm will continue to emanate from the
World's Fair and will negate the slogan of
the Fair, "Peace Through Understanding."
It is equally evident that the Arabs will not
yield too readily to the demands for the
obliteration of the slur against Jews in its
pavilion. The Fair's management, through an
inexcusable oversight, has rendered a great
disservice in an area that was intended to
create good will.
Humanitarian Appeal
Yeshiva U. — National Tasks, Local Function
Yeshiva University, already having
emerged as one of the great institutions of
higher learning in this country, has em-
barked upon a program of expansion that is
assuring it the desired facilities for the in-
clusion of new projects that have become vital
in university planning.
As part of the $30,000,000 development
program in its "Blueprint for the Sixties,"
Yeshiva University is soon to erect a 15-story
science building, to include facilities for ad-
vanced physics studies, a computer center
and chemistry and biophysics laboratories.
It will be used for the higher studies in
mathematics, a field in which Yeshiva Univer-
sity has emerged among the world's leaders.
Under the leadership of Dr. Samuel Bel-
kin, the Jewish university, which has emerged
from the Yeshivath Yitzhak Elchanan, the
orthodox theological seminary which remains
an affiliate of Yeshiva University and con-
tinues to ordain orthodox rabbis, has risen
to great heights. A group of dedicated Detroit
Jews, who are annually inspired to provide
assistance to this university by the leaders
of the group, who include David Goldberg,
Tom and Al Borman, and many associates,
assists in the great project. It is a mark of
great pride that former President Harry S.
Truman, whOm we acclaim on his 80th birth-
day, should have accepted the honorary chair-
manship of the committee which this year is
sponsoring a Yeshiva University dinner here,
on June 2, in honor of Benjamin Levinson.
There is no doubt that Detroit again will
respond generously in support of Yeshiva
University.
Becker Amendment and U.S. Common Sense
For a time, it looked as if a real danger
threatened an established American tradition
of the separation of church and state.
The organized campaign in support of the
Becker Amendment gave the impression that
if taken to a vote the proposed amendment
would carry overwhelmingly. That's what
happens when a God-issue is created, when
those who insist upon adherence to the First
Amendment to our Constitution are called
godless because they favor the 8-1 decision
of the United States Supreme Court against
the reading of prayers in our public schools.
There was injected the fear that the issue
might arouse a new wave of anti-Semitism,
simply because Jews are supporting the stand
taken by the Supreme Court. But we must
have faith in the common sense of Americans,
and we do believe that the sense of fair play
among the people of this land would not stand
for an emergence of bigotry resulting from
differences of opinion on a major American
issue.
The issue revolving around the Becker
Amendment and its attempt to negate the
Supreme Court's ruling inspired an editorial
in the New York Times in which the following
views were given:
Much of the testimony has been more emo-
tional than enlightening, but the hearings are
performing a valuable function. They are demon-
strating the extreme difficulty of marking out the
proper boundaries between church and state, and
they only serve to emphasize the danger of Con-
gressional interference with the existing status.
The Supreme Court was not declaring itself
against prayer or religion when it found the prac-
tice of leading schoolchildren in devotions to be
in violation of the First Amendment. The Court
was simply saying that, under the principle of
separation, it is not up to state officials to say
which prayers shall be read, if any. That is up
to the individual.
It was easy for many outraged persons, in
Congress, the pulpits and elsewhere, to denounce
the Court. But the problems the Court actually
had to consider in the school prayer cases do not
permit simplistic answers.
For example, can praying in the classroom
really be termed "voluntary" when most children
will naturally conform to the teacher's wish?
How is a community to decide which religion's
prayer will be read—by majority vote of the
community, or in each school? Or should there
be a "nondenominational" prayer, and if so, who
is to write it? Just to state such questions is to
indicate the divisiveness that would result from
allowing local school authorities to enter the
realm of religious devotion.
The hearings have also brought out that
much of the quite genuine resentment against the
Supreme Court's decision stems from misunder-
standing. The Court did not foreclose singing
of the national anthem, or continued use of the
motto "In God We Trust," or any of a dozen
other imagined horrors that have been evoked
at the hearings. Neither the Constitution nor
the Supreme Court has outlawed God, the Bible,
the Lord's Prayer or anyone's religion.
If the testimony proves nothing else, it
proves how unwise it would be to begin now to
tamper with the First Amendment. No one can be
sure what the effect of some of the proposed
amendments would be. Even Bishop Fulton J.
Sheen, who was most critical of the Supreme
Court decisions, counseled the Judiciary Commit-
tee not to endanger our tradition of religious
liberty by amending the Constitution. And leaders
of the major Protestant denominations expressed
opposition to "jeopardizing our long-cherished
freedom to worship God as conscience dictates
by tampering with the First Amendment." We
agree.
Of course, all who view the situation ration-
ally agree. But the danger from a pressure group
that has enlisted overwhelming support for action
to nullify the First Amendment must be met with
equal force, and those who are concerned that the
separation principle should be upheld must let
themselves be heard. Our members of Congress
should know how we stand on this issue. Although
we believe that the hearings on the proposed
Becker Amendment will prove the proposal's fal-
lacies, we still urge that there should be an ex-
pression of opinion against it.
UNICEF'S Dramatic Story Told
in Each and Every Child'
UNICEF—The United Nations Children's Fund—now chaired
by Mrs. Zena Harman, a member of the Israel delegation to the UN—
directs its appeal to the humanitarianism of the nations of the world
in behalf of needy children everywhere.
A photographic exhibition by UNICEF is incorporated in the
large-sized paper-covered brochure. "Each and Every Child," published
for UNICEF by World Publishing Co.
It is a deeply moving story. It depicts the wants of many chil-
dren, it portrays the hunger that afflicts many of them and the HI-
nessses that must be cured with UN aid.
In a preface to this pictorial account, Maurice Pate, UNICEF
executive director, emphasizes civilized people must "be moved by
the sight, or even the thought of a sick or hungry child," and he
declares:
"It is sometimes hard for the reason of Man to grasp the urgent
necessity of helping such a child . . . in fact, 800 million such chil-
dren throughout the world . . . each differing from the others in
his special problems, but all sharing the same basic needs.
"UNICEF, during its 17 years of service to humanity, has helped
light a candle of hope in the dark of the world's needs. There are
many ways to help the children of the developing countries. Some
millions of people are already participating, including many who
will see this pictorial report. Still more are needed. We hope that
the picture in this book will remind you that every child is a challenge
to every parent who wishes the world to be better for his child than
it was for him."
"Each and Every Child" is, indeed, a most touching story which
must move all peoples to respond to UNICEF and to aid the effort to
provide a better life for the indigents portrayed in this pamphlet.
An 18th Century Moralist
David Hume 'On Religion'
David Hume, 18th Century moral philosopher and epistomo16 46 ._
authored essays on religion and their impact on that age. The paper-
back, "Hume on Religion," issued by World Publishing Co. (2231 W.
110th, Cleveland 2) as a Meridian Book, contains his essays "The
Natural History of Religion," "Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion"
and "My Own Life."
Edited by Richard Wollheim, this paperback also contains Hume's
statements on suicide, on superstition and enthusiasm, on immortality
of the soul.
In his introduction, Wollheim credits Hume with modesty and
anti-materialism and with acceptance, explaining the latter: "The posi-
tive content of 'true religion' for Hume was the acceptance of life as it
it
is, for what it is. And this in turn meant the rejection of any attempt
to go beyond or behind it and to explain it, whether this be by ref-
erence to the transcendental entities of metaphysics or by reference
to the deities of religion. Both kinds of explanation are ultimately
as harmful as they are presumptuous: with this further qualification, • <
that the explanations of religion, because of all that is associated with
them in the way of belief and injunction, are by far the more serious
menace to the more reasonable conduct of life. As Hume expressed it
in the 'Treatise': 'Generally speaking, the errors of religions are dan-
gerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.' "
Hume, while not rude in his observations, nevertheless, in his
description of the origin of theism, wrote: "Thus, the deity, Jacob,
became their Jehovah and Creator of the world."
Making a comparison of religions, Hume contended that there was
a resemblance between the Jewish and Egyptian faiths. "It is very
remarkable," he wrote, "that both Tacitus and Suetonius, when they
mention that decree of the Senate, under Tiberius, by which the
Egyptian and Jewish proselytes were banished from Rome, expressly
treat these religions as the same; and it appears, that even the decree
itself was founded on that superstition." But there was no further
attempt to prove such likeness.