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. Subheription $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 HYAMS
City Editor
--------
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath. the fourteenth day of Tevet, 5725. the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentatenchal portion: Gem 47:28-50:26: Prophetical portion: I Kings 2:1-12.
Licht benshen, Friday, December 18, 4:45 p.m.
VOL. XLVI. No. 17
Page 4
December 18, 1964
Greetings to Our Christian Neignoors
When Hanukah coincides with Christmas,
there is a feeling in the Jewish community
that the children have a "substitute" for the
spirited celebration of the current season. It
is on such occasions that Jews and Christians
have gotten together jointly to mark the sea-
son of the year during which the Maccabean
festival is observed simultaneously with the
most sacred Christian festival. It is not a most
desirable way of cementing good will—since
brotherhood must be a year-round practice
based on merit rather than through the in-
jection of religious ideas that are based on
marked differences.
This Year, however, the early occurrence of
Hanukah obviated such a fusion of spirit in
the community, and in some homes—and cer-
tainly in the public schools—the Christmas
spirit again may serve as a challenge to our
children as they witness the decorative spirit
of the holiday.
It is on such an occasion that Jews often
are told that Christmas has become a univer-
sal holiday, that the tree is in reality a pagan
symbol and should not be resented. Such
claims develop. in the long run. into tempta-
tions to Jews, and especially to the children
who are impressed by the glamour of the fes-
tival, to imitate their non-Jewish neighbors.
While there is a lessening of Jewish resort
to the introduction of the Christmas trees into
Jewish homes, the temptation to imitate ex-
ists, and it is well that the communities of
Jews should be prepared practically to face
the challenge they must meet to offset the
threats to Jewish individuality and loyalty to
our faith.
Jews everywhere greet their Christian
friends heartily on Christmas and exchange
civil. New Year areetings with them on• the
week following it. This is the good will of one
faith to another in a spirit of amity that must
dominate in the American setting.
But the adoption of Christian ceremonials
and the introduction of non-Jewish religious
symbols into our homes must be prevented.
else we will be permitting the injection into
the Jewish household of strange customs that
may eventually lead to the. abandonment of
JewiShness.
The claim in support of the Christmas tree
that it is of pagan origin cannot be tolerated.
We do not practice paganism, and this very
pagan idea has now become inseparably
linked with Christianity. Except for those
who are dedicated to the task of. proselytizing.
no sincere people would ask us to abandon
our customs for theirs. It is not expected
from us, just as we do not expect Christians
to abandon their trees for our menorahs. .
What we need in this season of the year
is self-respect that should lead to mutual un-
derstanding and respect one for another. This
is the principle involved in the cultural and
spiritual pluralism of America.
It is in the spirit of expecting our people
to remain faithful to their own practices and
their own heritage, while believing that those
of other faiths do likewise in their loyalty to
their own beliefs. that we wish the.Cbristian
community the Season's Greetings.
Danger of Return of Former Nazis
Lord Bertrand Russell's warning that, un-
less the statute of limitations on the prosecu-
tion of former Hitlerites is extended, Nazis
will return to political activity. came simul-
taneously with the urgent appeal to the Bonn
government by the World Jewish Congress,
strengthening the eminent British philosoph-
er's plea for action against the war criminals.
The American Jewish appeal, made in be-
half of 300,000 constituents of 13 organiza-
tions affiliated with the World Jewish Con-
gress, has the endorsement of nearly all other
Jewish movements which have become fully
cognizant of an impending danger lest the
statute of limitations should be enforced.
The West German government had re-
fused to extend the statute of limitations. In
its pleas for the rescinding of that decision.
the World Jewish Congress pleaded:
"It seems a tragic incongruity that, as
millions will memorialize the 20th anni-
versary of the liberation of the Nazi death
camps in the spring of 1965, simultaneous-
ly those Nazi criminals, who have so far
evaded their just punishment, will be able
to appear in public. scornful of the sur-
vivors and of a world still bearing the scars
inflicted by Hitlerism.
"Mindful of past efforts to bring to
justice all German nationals accused of
crimes against humanity, we urge the gov-
ernment of West Germany to take all
necessary legislative and administrative
measures, including extension of the sta-
tute of limitations, in good time to ensure
that justice shall not be evaded in the fu-
ture.
"The American Section of the World
Jewish Congress is also perturbed by the
assistance being rendered Nasser-Egypt
by German scientists in the development
of the deadly weapons avowedly designed
for the destruction of Israel, where hun-
dreds of thousands of Nazi victims have
found a new home and new hopes. No Ger-
man national should be permitted to co-
operate in building a deadly force which
is committed to the furtherance of Hitler's
diabolic anti-Jewish program. We urge the
German Federal Republic to take such ac-
tion as is necessary to bring to an immedi-
ate end this indefensible activity on the
part of some of its citizens."
Two major issues are involved here: the
danger of the return of former Nazis out of
their hiding into active political life, and the
aid that has been given Egypt in its destruc-
tive aims against Israel by German scientists.
Both are nefarious: both represent the conti-
nuation of the wickedness of a generation of
Germans. many of whom retain their poison-
ous attitudes towards Jewry.
Perhaps the appeals from men like Lord
Russell and from major Jewish movements
will bring results. But the issues at hand in-
volve much more than yielding to the ex-
pressed appeals: they are a test of the sincer-
ity of the West German government. If the
present Germany is sincere in its assertions
that it deplores Nazism and will not condone
its revival, then it must help uproot every
vestige of Hitlerism. Otherwise it will be
viewed as a mere perpetuation of the ghastly
era that marked the destruction of many mil-
lions of innocents in many lands.
JDC's Alumni
As has already been indicated editorially
in these columns. the Joint Distribution Corn-
mittee's 50th anniversary is a landmark in
world international efforts. Jewish relief
efforts, especially the generosity of American
Jewry. served as encouragement and inspira-
tion to other faiths to sponsor life-saving
activities among the world's dispossessed and
disfranchised.
JDC's observance of its 50th anniversary
at the annual United Jewish Appeal confer-
ence especially emphasized the role of the
"JDC Alumni"—the group of dedicated men
and women who had labored—some still are
laboring—in the humanitarian cause. It is to
this group that we now add an extra word
of commendation for a job well done.
Jewish-Arab Contacts Through
Ages Reviewed by Prof. Goitein
An impressive history of the relations between Arabs and Jews,
written by Prof. Shlomo D. Goitein, chairman of the School of Oriental
Studies in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem provides material for
a basic understanding of the cultural developments in the Middle
Fas t.
Dr. Goitein's "Jews and Arabs ---
Their Contacts Through the Ages," re-
issued as a paperback by Shocken Books
(67 Park, NY 16), contains the data
necessary for an understanding of the
relationship between the two peoples.
Especially now, in view of the Arab-
i
Israel conflict. this volume again attracts
attention and serves as a guide towards
better understanding between the two
related groups.
Dr. Goitein's work is an historical
analysis of the Jewish and Arab co-
operative efforts. Reviewing the history
of the Jews who lived in Arab countries,
it traces the legal position of the Jews
under Arabic Islam and describes the
economic transformations. It deals at
length also with the cultural development
of the Jews when they lived among
Dr. Goitein
the Moslems.
Then there is a review of the new confrontation—the conflicts that
arose since the emergence of Israel. Dr. Goitein points to two coinciding
revivals in cultural efforts among the two peoples. He states
"The Jewish people underwent a deep social and cultural rebirth,
before it achieved its political independence; to the Arab countries the
first half of the twentieth century brought nationhood and political
autonomy; however, their social integration has still to come. There is
little doubt that these future social changes — whether achieved by
planned reforms or by violent upheavals — will not fad to bring about
new ventures also in Arabic letters."
Thus we have an optimistic view of the future in a volume that
traces the great cultural attainments of both Jews and Arabs.
Cohen's 'Natural Supernatural
Jew' Available in Paperback
Arthur A. Cohen's The Natural and the Supernatural Jew," first
published in 1962 by Pantheon Books, has been issued as a paperback
by McGraw-Hill Book Co. (330 W. 32nd, NY 36).
Many of the issues raised in this work created controversies when
Cohen's work first appeared. The author maintains that the natural and
supernatural Jew are joined in every Jew." His contention is
"The supernatural Jew may occasionally forget that he is also flesh
and blood; he may detach himself from the world and disengage himself
from history that he may oursue a path of self-denial and private
illumination. Such a Jew is as much in error as is the natural Jew
who forgets what links him to eternity. The natural jew, enmeshed in
the historical, cannot help but despair; destiny disappears for him and
only the hard and implacable fatality of life remains. The despair of
the historical is but the consequence of fate obliterating destiny; while
the ecstasy of the mystic, no less an example of fate, is centered
exclusively upon the actuality of God, indifferent to his involvement in
the contingent and dangerous' war of history."
The World of Poetry
A Review by BORIS SMOLAR
A private edition of a book of poetry by Herbert J. Seligmann,
former Washington correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency,
appeared under the title In Memory of Lilias" . . . It contains selec-
tions from his previous three books plus a number of new poems—all
representing the spirit of a person highly sensitive to his surroundings
... The new book puts the reader in a mood of meditation and transfers
him into a world of beauty in, expression and in thinking . . . One
would never suspect that Seligmann the , poet is the same Seligrnann
who, as Washitigton correspondent, was preoccupied primarily with mat-
ters of political nature . . . The private edition of his book, printed in
200 copies only should actually be republished in a regular edition ...
Any American publishing firm would thereby do a service to lovers of
poetry, since the book would definitely attract their interest . . . The
volume is a dedication by Mr. Seligmann to his late wife, Lajas, who
died last August in New York.
.
I