THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Nasser's Magic Gates
Merbber 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
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Business Manager
Advertising Manager
CHARLOTTE HYAMS
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City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the eighteenth day of Heshvan, 5725, the following scriptural selec-
tions will be read in our synogogues:
Pentateuchal portion: Gen. 18:1-22:24; Prophetical portion: II Kings 4:1-37.
Licht benshen, Friday, October 23, 5:20 p.m.
VOL. XLVI, No. 9
Page 4
October 23, 1964
Damaging 'Mission' of Arab Student Propogandists
Arab propaganda against Israel has be- evidence in a brazen letter to the New York
come so extensive, the attempts to mobilize Times which evoked the following comment,
the Afro-Asian nations in plans to undermine written to the Times by Edward S. Vance,
Israel's role in the world have recently been Jr., of Cambridge, Mass., published on Oct. 8:
attempted so brazenly, that those who seek
I read with great interest the letter of Adly
peace in the Middle East—thereby aiming
M. Derhally in your Sept. 30 issue.
to avert a conflagration that could spread
He stated that the mission of the Arab stu-
dents in the United States is to "give a sincere
worldwide—have cause for increasing con-
and undistorted presentation of the Palestine
cern over the war threats and the saber-
question to American students." I doubt that this
rattling that stems from Cairo.
was the motive stated in their visa applications.
New *nit
Aggravating the situation and adding to
Would it be too much to ask the Arab students to
r ask ftlr US. make suns
men
the tensions are the attitudes of some Mos-
concentrate on what, presumably, they came here
i5=e does* misuse our hdpi
for—their studies?
lem countries toward all Jews, as indicated
We all appreciate, I am sure, their wish to
in the report of the frightening situation in
enlighten us with the undistorted truth about
which Jews who are serving in the U.S. Air
■ 1115t
Palestine. But I, for one, intend to consult more
Force find themselves at the Wheelus Base
objective sources.
in Tripoli, Libya.
This letter appropriately appeared under Noted Scholar's Classic
The question may well be asked again
heading " 'Mission' of Arab Students." It
why our government sanctions such discrim- the
deserves much more serious study than its
ination. Under similar conditions Jews were 'brevity
and politeness dictates. The fact is Klausner's 'Jesus': Timely Again
kept from service in Saudi Arabia, in order that Arab
not only have
to prevent discriminatory practices. The anti- harmed the propagandists
Jewish
position
but
have under- During Debates on Deicide Issue
Jewish acts in Saudi-Arabia were extreme, but taken to divide the American community
on
in Libya they reached a stage in which basic issues. They have stepped into the
Current ecumenical discussions of problems created over the
children of Jewish servicemen are being political campaign with innuendos and with d'eicide issue revive interest in one of the most important books about
humiliated, and such conditions must not be arrogant accusations against Jews. They dared Jesus by one of Jewry's most distinguished scholars of this century.
tolerated.
Beacon Press has just reissued as a paperback "Jesus of Nazareth—
to inject into the current political discussions
One of the serious development in the the so-called "Jewish vote" issue which would His Life, Times and Teaching." by Prof. Joseph Klausner.
The late professor of the Hebrew University had this book pub-
Arab propaganda campaign is the apparent be relevant for discussion by Jews and their
use of the hundreds of Arab students in non-Jewish fellow-citizens but not by inter- lished by Macmillan in 1925. The translator from the Hebrew was
another eminent scholar, Great Britain's Christian theologian Dean
American colleges as a prnpaganda force loping propagandists from abroad.
Danby who had lived in pre-Israel Palestine for a number of years.
against Israel and the Jewish people. Some
A lifetime of study went into this work, the first introduction to
Part of the trouble evidenced by this
of the tactics of the Arab students have been "mission"
which is dated Eve of Sukkot, 1907—Jerusalem.
of
Arab
students
is
due
to
the
ex-
most damaging. It was knowin that members trKme lenity with which they are being
Professor of Divinity James Luther Adams of Harvard University
of that student body had instigated the Negro
wrote about this great work: "Here is a classic of scholarship and
treated
here.
It
also
is
due
to
the
complacen-
looting of Jewish stores in Brooklyn. Their cy about them in university circles. in gov- insight, and also a controversial book of high order. Written a genera-
tnethods of hate-spreading in the universities ernment, among churchmen who are so easily tion ago by an eminent Jewish scholar in Jerusalem, it makes impres-
sive use of Jewish literature to expose the milieu in which Jesus lived
have been so brazen that the intentions of
by crocodile tears, especially when and thought.
The interpretation has aroused strong opposition from
those who had come here to study now are misled
these
students
speak
about
refugees
whom
exposed as having an outright aim of harm- they help the least. It is the type of pro- other Jewish scholars. For the Christian scholar, the book poses radical
ing Israel and of spreading anti-Jewish paganda on American soil against Americans questions regarding the extremism, the lopsidedness, the impracticality
of Jesus' ethics. The Christian will not easily dispose of these questions,
venom.
that does not contribute towards good will if, indeed, he' can do so at all."
A sample of the Arabs' intentions was in and amity among students of all nations.
The late Dr. Klausner had undertaken to "give Hebrew readers a
A Russian Jew's Plea to His Government
If The Jewish News editor had not seen
the original of the appeal that was brought
here by a prominent Jewish woman from
Kiev, with the deeply moving rebuke to
the Russian government for its failure to
permit the emigration of Jews from Russia
and for the antagonistic Communist attitude
toward Israel. he might have been skeptical
about its origin.
BLit he did see the Russian-typed state-
ment; he knows the Detroit woman who was
asked to bring the appeal to American Jewry,
and the pleadings that will be found in this
issue must be viewed as one of the most
effective bits of evidence both about Russian
antagonism to Jews and the desire of Jews
to settle in Israel and to escape from the
humiliations that are a heritage in Russia
from Czarist times.
The statement we are publishing is an
indication that not all in Russia have fallen
prey to the false propaganda spread by the
Soviet government. It proves that there is a
desire on the part of Jews to retain their
Jewish identity. that there is a kinship with
Israel, that many would emigrate if they
could get out of the unfriendly environment
that has been perpetuated even under com-
munism.
It was by mere chance that this statement
came to us. It took courage on the part of
the pleader to approach an American Jewish
woman and to ask her to make it public. She
has brought it to her community's newspaper
and we offer it as evidence of existing condi-
tions in Russia and as part of the urgent ap-
peals all of us join in addressing to the
Soviet regime to change its antagonistic anti-
Jewish and anti-Israel policies.
Dr. King's Selection for Nobel Peace Prize
As the new Nobel Peace Laureate, Dr.
Martin Luther King adds greatly to the gains
that have been made for human rights every-
where and especially in support of the civil
rights movement in this country.
The judges who selected the Rev. Dr.
King did not have to make a single comment
to explain their selectee for the Nobel Peace
Prize. Dr. King has become a symbol for
decency and justice in this country. While
fighting for the rights of his people, while
joining in the demonstrations for equality for
the Negroes, he has nevertheless remained
among the major proponents of non-violence.
By selecting him for the award, the Nobel
Committee has expressed the hopes of the
peace-loving and justice-seeking peoples ev-
erywhere that there will be an end to racial
intolerance, that human beings will not be
judged by the color of their skins—just as
they must not be judged by their religious
beliefs—but will be accepted on their merits,
as law-abiding, peace-loving, non-aggressive
elements.
The selection of Dr. King for the coveted
Nobel Peace Prize should serve as a warning
to bigots that their prejudices are not toler-
ated. It should be a signal to all mankind
to end discriminations and to accept fellow-
humans as part of the great American credo
that "all men are created equal."
truer idea of the historic Jesus," and he emphasized in his introduction
that the sole object of his book was to show "simply how Judaism
differs and remains distinct from Christianity or Christianity from
Judaism."
Dr. Klausner pointed to inconsistencies between Luke and Mark
or Matthew in their descriptions of the trial of Jesus, and be points
to the "impossible supposition that the Sanhedrin examined Jesus
during the night of a festival or (according to Luke) on the first day
of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.".
The Hebrew scholar asserted that "the words 'Son of God' from
the mouth of a Jewish high priest, and particularly from a Sadducee,
are inconceivable." He stated that "Jesus was convinced of his mes-
siahship," but he showed throughout that Jesus was a Jew and lived
and practiced as such. On the question of guilt, he made this assertions
"Through fear of the Roman tyrant, those who were then the chief
men among the Jews delivered up Jesus to this tyrant. Na Jews took
any further part in the actual trial and crucifixion: Pilate, the 'man
of blood,' was responsible for the rest. The Jews, as a nation, we're less
guilty of the death of Jesus than the Greeks, as a nation, were guilty
of the death of Socrates; but who now would think of avenging the
blood of Socrates the Greek upon his countrymen, the present Greek
race? Yet these 1900 years past the world has gone on avenging the
blood of Jesus the Jew upon his countrymen, the Jews, who have
already paid the penalty, and still go on paying the' penalty in rivers
and torrents of blood."
Prof. Klausner devoted a chapter to the description of the cruci-
fixion, "a penalty characteristic of the Romans." He proceeded to show
that the Romans crucified Jesus, that Romans frequently crucified
Jews, that this terrible and cruel method of exacting death was imposed
on "many Jewish captives and fugitives during the siege of Jerusalem,"
and he added: "To say that the Jews crucified Jesus or that they were
even responsible for his death by crucifixion, is grossly untrue."
Dr. Klausner reviewed at great length the Jewishness and the
ethical teachings of Jesus. He emphasized that: "To the Jewish nation
he can be neither God nor the Son of God, in the sense conveyed by
belief in the Trinity. Either conception is to the Jew not only impious
and blasphemous, but incomprehensible." But he accepted Jesus as "a
great teacher of morality and an artist in parable", as "the moralist
for whom, in the religious life, morality counts as — everything," and
he concluded:
"In his ethical code there is a sliblimity, distinctiveness and or-
iginality in form unparalleled in any other Hebrew ethical code; neither
is there any parallel to the remarkable art of his parables. The
shrewdness and sharpness of his proverbs and his forceful epigrams
serve, in an exceptional degree, to make ethical ideas a popular pos-
session. If ever the' day should come and this ethical code be stripped
of its wrappings of miracles and mysticism, the Book of Ethics of
Jesus will be one of the choicest treasures in the literature of Israel
for all time."