THE JEWISH NEWS
Back in the Driver's Seat
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
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager
CHARLOTTE KYAMS
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 25th day of Heshvan, 5726, the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuclzal portion: Gen. 23:1-25:18; Prophetical portion: I Kings, 1:1-31.
Licht benshen, Friday, Nov. 19, 4:50 p.m.
VOL. XLVIII, No. 13
Page 4
November 19, 1965
When Generalizing Inspires Prejudices
What may appear as a minor error can
often grow into a major cause of harm in
human relations.
An analysis of Negro-Jewish relations by
a man erroneously introduced as an au-
thority has produced a shocking result and
may prove very harmful in the effort to
remove prejudices in our midst.
Writing in Dedalus magazine on the
subject "The Negro Businessman in Search
of a Tradition," Assistant Secretary of Com-
merce Eugene P. Foley, a former admin-
istrator of the U. S. Small Business Ad-
ministration generalized by asserting that
"Jewish merchants abound in most sec-
tions of any city," thus giving emphasis to
his view that Jews not only predominate in
Negro neighborhoods as the small mer-
chant but in all other areas. He wrote about
the Jewish merchants that: "As an ethnic
group, they are three times as heavily rep-
resented in American commerce as any
other group; and, of course, are located al-
most entirely in metropolitan areas. Of all
European immigrant groups, the Jews are
the only people with a trading background."
The errors are self-evident in this para-
graph alone. In the first place, he refers
to Jews as a "European immigrant group."
The fact is that the overwhelming majority
of Jews in this country are native born, and
Jews can no longer be referred to as an
immigrant group. Then there is the lack of
knowledge displayed by Foley regarding the.
role of Jews in the mercantile business.
In his article he maintained that:
"In their native countries, most Jews were
engaged in trading, manufacturing, or mechanical
pursuits. For example, the first Russian census
of 1897 showed that one third of the Russian Jews
were tradesmen, another third were engaged in
manufacturing and mechanical pursuit s, one
fourth were unskilled laborers and five per cent
were professionals. The Jews, therefore, had an
advantage over other immigrants in America's
business culture. Despite this advantage and the
advantage of native whites, there have been many
outstanding business successes from each ethnic
group, but very few Negroes, and no Negro
business successes to match the degree of success
of the other ethnic groups ... The strong feelings
about the Jews do not explain either the lack
of Negro merchants in non-Negro sections of the
city or the failure of Negro merchants to exploit
their obvious advantage in the Negro ghettos."
The U. S. official drew upon past history
to apply a condition into which Jews were
forced by their persecutors to current con-
ditions. But the fact is that Jews have been
driven out of middle-class mercantile ac-
tivities by big business, that many business
firms that were established by Jews who
had come to this country in the first three
decades of this century are closing shop
because their children are not following in
parents' footsteps; that young Jews today
are entering the professions—pursuing the
sciences, specializing in physics and math-
ematics, entering government services.
Our Washington correspondent, Milton
Friedman, has provided us with a thorough
expose of the Foley fallacies.
The manner in which Foley generalized
is indicated in his quotation from a state-
ment that was made in 1947 by Fred A.
Jones, president of the St. Louis Business
League, that "a Negro can hardly rent a
store for business in his own neighborhood
because the Jew h a s thought ahead of
him." That was in 1947—and if there has
been a predominance of such Jewish
acumen in Brooklyn, Harlem, Philadelphia
and elsewhere it was a continuing inherit-
ance of burdens which oppressed rather
than made Jews the rulers in their domains
among Negroes. It was because they were
unable to dispose of their properties and
their businesses, in areas where they were
always endangered under tragic circum-
stances, that they held on to what in many
instances were their last possessions.
When, therefore, an important member
of our official government circle writes
such tripe as Jews moving "into the middle
class at a surprising large and fast rate";
when he states that "the depth of Negro
feeling on this subject can be explained
by the proximity of Jews to Negroes which
causes the latter to maifest their anti-white
feeling in the form of anti-Semitism," he
fans rather than removes the causes of
hatred.
- That's how the wrong image is created —
and that's how prejudices begin.
It is not the generalization alone that is
responsible for the errors in the Foley ap-
proach: it is also a lack of knowledge about
current conditions that rules his views out
as inconsistent and as untrue to the facts,
which are: Jews are no longer in the middle
class, the predominance of Jews as mer-
chants in Negro areas is an exaggeration, and
while there is anti-Semitism among Negroes
the causes are not those described by Foley:
it is because the Jews also are whites and are
more readily available for hatred among
those who choose to hate the whites.
Detroiters' Pioneering Roles in Bar-Ilan
When groups of Americans joined with
Israelis, in ceremonies in Tel Aviv, to mark
the tenth anniversary of Bar-Ilan University,
the important roles played by Detroiters in
the establishment of the university became
apparent. The contributions of the Stollman
family were especially recognized, and their
leadership in their uninterrupted labors in
support of the growing university, Was noted
with great respect.
At the ceremonies in Israel, Phillip Stoll-
man, the chairman of the American Commit-
tee for Bar-Ilan University, made the impor-
tant observation that a religiously oriented
university assumes a major role in "maintain-
ing our great spiritual heritage." He was
pragmatic in his observation that practical
and scientific. studies are needed to supple-
ment Yeshivot studies by those who share in
state-building.
Bar-Ilan's role in higher educational
efforts in Israel will be evaluated here at the
annual dinner of the Detroit Friends of Bar-
Ilan University, on Nov. 30. At that time,
this community will show its appreciation for
Detroit's leadership in the establishment and
maintenance of the university.
The award of a Bar-Ilan Fellowship to
Governor George Romney will come as an
especially fitting supplement to the honor
that was extended to Michigan's chief execu-
tive on Tuesday by the National Conference
of Christians and Jews.
Thus, the annual Bar-Ilan dinner gains in
significance by virtue of the cause to be
aided and the people to be honored.
Thanks for Abundance
In giving thanks for the abundance we
enjoy as Americans, we will be expressing
gratitude for the material advantages of living
in this great land.
But there are more vital privileges. There
are the incomparable freedoms which make
America great, which enhance our citizenship.
Even in the midst of crises, we are blessed
with the right to speak out, with the recourse
of criticism.
It is this type of abundance that causes
the major gratitude for which we express
appreciation on Thanksgiving Day.
tl
'Contract With God' Emphasizes
'Continuity With Biblical Man'
Walter E. Reed and Fay Sand Reed, in a most interesting joint
effort to inspire faith in Judaism, have produced a thought-provoking
volume, entitled "Contract With God," published by Taplinger Pub-
lishing, Co. (119 W. 57th, N.Y. 19) as a Four Seasons Volume.
Their combined task is to prove the power inherent in biblical
teachings, to emphasize the spiritual values in Judaism, and they
advocate that Jews as Bible readers can derive the richest rewards,
asserting:
"The Hebrew Bible is the composite record of a small God-
focused group who rose from obscurity to live and record God's
story. Jews lived it, Jews write it, and an unbroken chain of de-
voted Jews have always tried to understand it the way it was
once lived."
Relevant portions of the Torah, quotations from the Prophets and
other important references are alluded to in the authors' emphasis
that "Jews, by standing up to be counted as Jews, reaffirm that the
biblical convenant is still in force. What makes - Jewish living Jewish
is the action taken in conforming with the obligations to a contract
that goes back to biblical times."
Describing "the contract with God to which every Jew is entitled
to consider himself a partner," the authors quote from Deuteronomy
(26:17-19): "And the Lord has affirmed this day that you are, as He
promised you, His treasured people, a holy people to the Lord your
God," and they declare:
"We believe that God directed our survival so that we, as
His people, may continue to attest to His purpose.
"To ask, as many moderns do, whether Israel chose God or
whether God chose Israel is to manufacture a difficulty. If, after
2,000 years of 'marriage,' the people, Israel, continue to consider
themselves 'married,' then 2,000 years of post-biblical Jewish
living are eloquent enough testimony that a choice was made. Israel
came to be God's choice. As such, they took their obligations seri-
ously and wrote a book about God and His requirements. It is out
of this book that our own understanding' of God comes.
We confess much pride in knowing we are entitled
say that God chose Israel as His instrument through which
purpose for the world would be realized. . . ."
The Hebrew Bible is described as "God's story . . . the story of
how God asked the people of Israel to enter into a covenant with Him,
how they did so, how it shaped their lives.
"By reading your Hebrew Bible," the authors admonish their
readers, "you know what is said; with the aid of commentaries and mod-
ern biblical scholarship you can begin to discover what is meant; and
finally, by sensing the purpose of the biblical authors you are learning
to form your own relationship with God. It is this union with the
biblical authors, this continuity with biblical man, that is your birth-
right as a Jew. It permits you to read the Hebrew Bible as an insider,
and it opens up for your benefit the values inherent in your contract
with God."
A list of valuable lessons taught Jewish children in the traditional
manner of living up to such a contract is listed toward the end of
this book — as a means of assuring the inspiration intended by their
appeal -- and they declare:
"If you will let your understanding of yourself as the party of the
second part guide your efforts in applying to your life the performance
clauses of God's contract, then you too will stand to benefit as has
every Jew who ever lived up to his CONTRACT WITH GOD.
"
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`Who Knows Tent—Mrs. Cone's
Stories About Commandments
Mrs.. Molly Cone, of Tacoma, Wash., who has authored 12 books
for children, is the author of a volume of tales related to the Ten
Commandments. Under the title "Who Knows Ten," this 'children's
book has just been issued by the Union of American Hebrew Con-
gregations.
Each of the stories illustrates a Commandment. Written for
children 8 to 11, the tales are well illustrated by Uri Shulevitz.
Narrated in a form easily understandable by young children,
"Who Knows Ten" is a constructive effort.
The book gains in value with the appended section listing the
Ten Commandments.