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
SIDNEY SHMARAK
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Advertising Manager
Business Manager
Editor and Publisher
CHARLOTTE HYAMS
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 20th day of Shevat, 5725, the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Isaiah 6:1-7:6; 9:5, 6.
Pentateuchal portion: Exod. 18:1-20:23; prophetical portion:
Lirhht lrenshen, Friday, Jan. 22, 5:16 p.m.
Page 4
VOL. XLVI, No. 22
January 22, 1965
World Zionism and the Diaspora
For a number of years, concerned over
the attitude of youth towards the Jewish
communities whence they stem, anxious to
assure an increase in Jewish loyalties and in
the assumption of greater responsibility to
Jewish causes by Jewish communities every-
where, there have been discussions on the
question whether Jews and Judaism can sur-
vive under freedom.
Although there is evident an increase in
assimilation, a growth in the rate of inter-.
marriage, a decline" ininterest, especially by
young Jews, in Jewish matters, we have held
to the view that Israel is imperishable, that
e may lose some but cannot lose all of
Jewry. One does not wipe off any segment
of our people, regardless of its status, and
there must be confidence in the ultimate sur-
vival of our people and the ideals and tradi-
tions we have inherited.
It is interesting, therefore, that the 26th
World Zionist Congress, whose sessions con-
cluded in Jerusalem last week, took as its
slogan "With the Face to the Diaspora," ex-
pressing deep concern over the continued
existence of the Jewish people outside the
State of Israel.
In more than one sense. such an approach,
negative in every respect, may be judged as
unworthy of a great movement. In dealing
with Jewish issues. we must approach all
problems with confidence, adhering to faith
that the Jewish people cannot and will not
be destroyed even by indifference from its
own ranks, just as it could not be destroyed
by the forces of hatred. We lose adherents
and constituents, but we always retain suffi-
cient strength to carry on the tasks of a living
people that has a spiritual goal and there-
fore retains a physical strength to continue
its existence.
Dealing with the question of survivalism,
endorsing what he called the "classical Zion-
ist conclusion," Israel's Prime Minister, Levi
Eshkol, addressing the Zionist Congress,
which has become known as the Jewish peo-
ple's parliament, declared: "There is no
future for the people of Israel (the collective
term for the Jewish people) without the land
of Israel."
We must accept as truth that there is a
strong link between the People Israel and
the Land Israel, that the two are bound to-
gether imperishably. But it is equally as true
that Israel must view itself as being insepar-
able from the Golah, from the Diaspora. It is
only in such a partnership that both can
benefit; it is only in such a unity that Israel's
position can be protected. That is how it has
been prior to Israel's founding, during its
rebirth and for many years thereafter. Just
because Israel now is prosperous economic-
ally does not assure it the strength of being
able to survive on its own resources and its
own merits. One never knows what political
aid Israel may peed, and the Diaspora is
ready to be of aid to the people that has dis-
played such courage and such immense great-
ness in establishing statehood and in assur-
ing security.
*
*
*
While David Ben-Gurion had gone so far
as to assert that the only true Zionist is he
who settles in Israel—splitting seriously on
the issue with American Zionists who have
denied such definitions—Ben-Gurion, as a
result, having left the Zionist movement—
Prime Minister Eshkol does not go that far.
Nevertheless, he has quoted Cyrus the Great,
the Persian king who facilitated the rebuild-
ing of the Second Temple in Jerusalem 2,000
years ago, who, inviting Jews to return to the
Holy Land after the first Exile, said, as re-
corded in Chronicles in the Old Testament:
"Who is there who feels the responsibility for
the fate of his people—let him come up."
American Jewry's relationships with Esh-
kol are of the most cordial, and American
Jews cooperate in efforts to provide Israel
with a measure of economic security, enab-
ling the Jewish State also to absorb the tens
of thousands of immigrants who arrive yearly
from lands of oppression. On the question of
Zionist interpretation—whether the only real
Zionists are those who go to Israel—as Ben-
Gurion has said—or whether, in Eshkol's
words, the people Israel can only survive
through the Land Israel, there is certain to be
serious controversy between American and
Israeli Jews.
There is. however, a positive response
from the 120 American delegates to the Con-
gress—the second largest next to Israel's—
to this appeal by Prime Minister Eshkol:
"The basic instrument for the creation of
a Jewish consciousness and a Jewish way of
life is Hebrew education. We must begin
from the positive precepts incumbent upon
the individual Zionist. Zionists — learn He-
brew! Teach your sons and daughters Hebrew,
bring them direct contact with the Book of
Books and the history of Israel in its sources,
with our modern literature and the cultural
values that are being created in the Home-
land! Let every Zionist first of all give a na-
tional Jewish education, a Hebrew education,
to his own sons and daughters. Even in itself
and by itself, that will be a powerful lever
for the beginning of a transformation in the
character of the Jewish dispersion."
One would imagine that on this score, too,
new vistas have been discovered in Jeru-
salem. The fact is that the thinking of Eshkol
has been the hope of American Jewry, and
what he advocated two weeks ago has been
the plea of our communities for more than
a decade.
In our own community and in several
others, the Zionists spearheaded the estab-
lishment of Day School. They have encour-
aged private investments and are among the
top community leaders.
There is much more to be attained, a
great deal more to aspire to. But such aspira-
tions are not to be expected through con-
demnations, from sniping, from those who
predict doom for Jewish communities. And
American Jewry seems to have been chosen
for unjustified rebuke!
. On this score, too, we need understanding.
We need recognition of the sound thinking
of American Jewry which appreciates the
needs and strives to attain them.
Eisendrath's 'Can Faith Survive?'
a Challenging Query for Jews
Can Jews unite — and can they survive? Will success spoil the
synagogue?
These and many other questiOns are posed by Dr. Maurice N.
Eisendrath, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations,
in "Can Faith Survive?", published by McGraw-Hill (330 W. 42nd, NY
36).
As the questions indicate. Dr. Eisendrath has gone into a deep
study of many facets of Jewish life, not necessarily the religious
questions alone.
Can Jews unite? Under this heading Rabbi Eisendrath discusses
the many efforts that have been made to create a unified American
Jewish community, through the American Jewish Conference, the
National Community Relations Advisory Council and other undertak-
ings, and he expresses the belief that "a new day will yet dawn for
the entire Jewish community — a day in which the loyalty of each
Jew will not be consumed by his particular organizational segment
but will reach out with pride to an overarching expression of Jewish
interests, ideals and values . . . "
But he does not hesitate to excoriate those who stand in the way
of genuine unity, and he expresses this criticism:
"Since every Jewish organization is autonomous, each has
a right, if it chooses, to reject cooperation with other groups in
the pursuit of common causes. The American Jewish Committee
cannot be compelled to rejoin the NCRAC, for example. But
neither does the American Jewish community have an obligation
to subsidize and reward intransigence. If the American Jewish
Committee derived its funds from its own members, it could
thumb its nose at the larger Jewish community. But that is not the
case. It receives the bulk of its funds from community-wide
Jewish welfare efforts. from Jews of all segments of Jewish life.
The tragedy is not merely that one or another Jewish body re-
fuses every request for cooperation. It is that the entire Jewish
community has not yet had the courage to say: you choose to go it
alone financially as well! Until such courageous discipline is ex-
ercised, the total Jewish community is, in effect, rewarding
isolationism and penalizing those who cherish cooperation and
community."
This is one of the most outspoken and most courageous statements
uttered in some time.
Can faith survive? Dr. Eisendrath is "embattled" with orthodoxy,
he rejects false dogmas, he has a kind word for "Mordecai Kaplan's
iconoclasm," and warns: "Any religion which isolates itself from the
swiftly changing drama of human experience dooms itself to irrelevance
and decay."
He believes "our generation would respond to a religious faith
which, while never offending reason, affords each human being the
opportunity to fulfill the potential of his own personality by searching
constantly for the ultimate context in which he, as a child of God,
belongs, and which takes God as goad to the good and ethical life ...."
Dr. Eisendrath calls for greater emphasis on Jewish values
"of learning, piety, family relations and social justice."
The key to Jewish survival," he says, "is not the folk-ways of
the Jews but the faith of the Jew. Judaism, not Jewishness, is the
central pillar of Jewish continuity."
com-
He urges "a strengthening of the bonds between the Jewish
It is only through mutual understanding, munities of the United States and Israel, the two most dynamic Jewish
through recognition of the soundness of communities in the world. Such a strengthening will require a frank
American Jewry, that there can be a coopera- re-evaluation of the role of Zionism, which has already achieved itS
tive effort with world Jewry.
objectives. It will also require that nationalism must not become the
of archaic Orthodoxy in
But one must not place the emphasis on religion of Israel and that the stranglehold
be broken, permitting a free expression of diverse religious
disappearance. We strive for survival, but Israel
practices in the Holy Land."
we do not accept epitaphs at a time when
Of interest also is Dr. Eisendrath's suggestion for a "radical r9-
we are exerting all energies to strengthen evaluation of Jewish education in America which has thus far failed
our ranks.
to cope with the needs of Jewish survival." He urges the exposing of
"the blatant limitations of the one-day-a-week Sunday School, as well
Let there be realism in Jewish planning as the dangers involved in the trend toward Jewish day (or parochial)
and thinking. It is doubtful whether any
Thus he takes a stand against the newly-emerging group of
Jewish community will accept negativism, schools."
Reform rabbis who strongly favor the day school idea. He will no
even if it stems from the neighborhood of doubt meet with much opposition to his stand which calls instead for
Mount Zion. Indeed, "Out of Zion shall come "daring experimentation with summer camping, electronic teaching
forth the Law, and the Word of the Lord methods, improved teacher training and curricula materials."
While his views will not be acceptable, and he offers many ideas
from Jerusalem," but that Word and that
and
Law will have its strength only when all that will not be generally endorsed, his book inspires thinking search
Israel affirms and reaffirms it. The American
Jewish community reaffirms it.
discussion and as such it is of immense value in the current
for renewed strength for Jewish survival.