THE JEWISH NEWS
Call for 1966 Campaign
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 S6 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 2nd day of Tevet, the following scriptural selections will. be
read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion: Gen. 41:1-44:17, Num. 7:48-54: Prophetical portion: Zech.
2:14-4:7.
Licht benshen. Friday, Dec. 24, 4:48 p.m.
VOL. XLVIII, No. 18
Page 4
Dec. 24, 1965
On the Eve of the Great Christian Festival
Perennially, on the eve of Christmas, gardless of whether they are Christmas or
Jewish communities are faced with problems Hanukah, or Easter or Passover — and that
involving neighborly relations, observances of the basic American principle of church-state
religious ceremonials in schools and especi- separation should be strictly adhered to.
ally the manner in which our own festival There is no doubt that gift-giving will
of Hanukah is to be observed in the frame- be practiced by all elements in our popula-
work of a larger community.
tion, that Christian friends will remember
The problem is less when, as this year, Jewish children on Hanukah, that many of us
Hanukah occurs at the same time as Christ- will not forget our Christian friends on their
mas. In such a circumstance, the emphasis sacred day on their calendar. But that is a
on the Jewish festival is much easier as a private matter. Insofar as faiths are con-
counteraction to the influences that stem cerned, if there is to be genuine good will
from Christian ranks. The task becomes there must be mutual respect among all re-
much more difficult when Hanukah occurs ligious adherents, without an effort to in-
much earlier, as it will in 1966. In such a fluence a friend or a neighbor or in any way
circumstance, the responsibilities of the home to mar a fellow human being's devotions.
are greater and the duty then devolves upon We extend to the Christian community
parents to elevate the spirit of Hanukah and sincerest good wishes for a joyous festival.
then to treat Christmas with the greatest and we do it while, in our midst, we place
respect but as a holy day not for Jews but emphasis on the Festival of Lights. A spirit
for Christians. of joy can be more genuine when it is un-
It is in this spirit that the issue must marred by bias or arrogance or hatred. Let
be treated. We ask for respect for our .faith, each faith emerge in the glory of its teachings.
and our observances and we owe the same and let it be without hindrance by one to-
respect to the non-Jews. When we treat ward another. And to make this spirit even
Christmas observance as an alien festivity stronger, let the glory of our own faith
we do it as a natural right but with the emerge respectful and honored in our own
deepest respect. ranks. Honoring Hanukah with a traditional
It is in the same spirit that we endorse observance, we will be even better equipped
the actions of national Jewish organizations to share the respect of our non-Jewish
which have taken the stand that religious neighbors that is so vital to wholesome
observance should be banned in schools—re- American living.
Unrealistic UN Action on Arab Refugees
Israel cast the sole negative vote on ber 1,3000,000. This means that their rolls
the United Nations resolution dealing with have swelled.
the need to extend the mandate of the UN
Also, of the 1,300,000, more than half
Relief and Works Agency for Palestine
Refugees, the Jewish State's opposition having are under 18 years of age. This means that
been based solely on the inclusion in the most of the survivors have not the slightest
resolution of a clause that repeats the 1948 idea what the habitat of their parents or
General Assembly statement which er- grandparents looks like or how Israel func-
roneously interpreted by Arabs as grant- tions.
While it is true that the adopted UN
ing refugees the right to return to Israel.
As an expedient act, the decision of resolution calls for rectification of the rolls,
the United Nations, which was endorsed by due to their abnormal swelling, the fact is
Israel except for its delegate's opposition that what is desired is the resettlement of
to the 1948 Assembly reference, the over- the refugees and their training to become
whelming vote may have been practical. In self-sufficient rather than wards of the Unit-
the light of what has transpired, however, ed Nations, with funds provided in the main
it is most unrealistic. Originally, not more by the United States. In view of these facts.
than 600,000 Arabs left Palestine, contrary we consider the latest UN action most un-
to the Israelis' wishes. Now refugees num- realistic.
Bundestag Legislates Survivors' Hardship
West German Chancellor Ludwig Er-
hard now has it within his power to cor-
rect a grave error — the Bundestag's de-
cision to defer payments of indemnification
to victims of Nazism.
• The new ruling would reduce the 1966
and 1967 payments by $100,000,000 and
would create great hardships. As Dr. Nahum
Goldmann has indicated, the following points
are the basis for the complaint against the
West German action:
1. These victims of Nazism have already had
to wait 20 years or more to obtain compensation.
2. Most of the victims are old and cannot
Wait months, let alone years.
3. Compensation to victims of Nazism is a debt
of honor and not to be deferred. German leaders
have stated repeatedly that compensation to these
victims should receive the highest priority.
4. The "Final Indemnification Law" was passed
only a" very short time ago and declared twice
that compensation awards are due immediately.
5. The law itself did not fully satisfy the legiti-
mate demands of the victims of Nazism but was
reluctantly accepted by Jewish organizations on
the assumption that payments would be made
without delay.
6. The budget bill is contrary to Article Three
of the German Constitution which guarantees
property or acquired property rights. If passed,
the bill will, therefore, be contested before the
Constitutional `Court • as unconstitutional:
7. Similar cuts are not made in the draft bill
in 'respect to all groups in receipt of government
payments. Thus, former Nazi victims are made to
suffer, while former Nazi civil servants are not.
The new German position has been de-
scribed as "immoral." It appears to be part
of a pattern — to force forgiveness, to de-
mand forgetfulness, to overlook the past, to
deny a share in the responsibility for what
had happened under Hitler on the part of
the Germans of today.
While an agreement has been reached
between West Germany and Israel for the
exchange of diplomatic representations, that
natural sequence in international dealings
in no sense wipes out the past. In no sense
does the friendly relationship between two
governments represent the erasing of respon-
sibility for crimes. In no sense dc previous
compensations to the survivors mean that
the Germans have paid their debt. That debt
can never be paid, but whatever indemnifi-
cations are made are in truth repayments for
losses sustained, for injuries inflicted, for
properties stolen from Jews.
Should Erhard sign the bill passed by
the Bundestag, should the deferments stand
as ruled injudiciously and inhumanely by the
German parliament, then another bloody
will be added to the • German recOrd: •
Eisenberg's Two New Volumes:
Schechter Story, Archeology
Dr. Azriel Eisenberg, as successful director of the Jewish Educa-
tion Committee, has encouraged literary efforts and the widest distribu-
tion of reading matter to encourage
increased cultural interests by par-
ents as well as adults, and has
himself produced a number, of im-
portant books.
He has just authored two new
volumes, each of which deserves
widest circulation. Abelard-Schu-
man (6 W. 57th, NY 19) is the pub-
lisher of his "World Lost and
Found — Discoveries in Biblical
Acheology," which he has co-au-
thored with Dov Peretz Elkins, an
educator and archaeologist.
The United Synagogue Book
Service. (218 E. 70th, NY 21) has
published his "Fill a Blank Page
— A Biography of Solomon
Schechter." Dr. Eisenberg
The Schechter biography, a remarkably fine work for young peo-
ple, will please elder readers as well and will be welcomed by rabbis
and laymen as an informative work on the man who in the early
years of this century was the president of the Jewish Theological
Seminary of America. It was under his leadership that many of Amer-
ica's most distinguished rabbis received their training and were
ordained at the Seminary. He was the discoverer of the Genizah in
the Old Cairo Synagogue. He is the humane, kindly, scholarly gentle-
man and the inspirer of 'those who labored with him.
This volume, extensively illustrated, traces the background of the
Schechter family. Solomon early showed a love for learning. He was
born in Romania, his parents having left
Russian Poland to escape persecutions. He
studied for his rabbinical degree in Vienna.
He continued his studies in Berlin where he
earned his living as a tutor, and among his
pupils were Richard Gottheil, who, while pro-
fessor at Columbia University some years
later, became the first president of the Zion-
ist Federation of America; Claude Montefiore,
who became a leader in Liberal Jewish ranks
in England; and others who became prominent.
While in Germany, Solomon Schechter ex-
perienced the anti-Semitic outbursts of Adolph
Stoecker and wrote a reply._ He was criticized
Dr. Schechter
for writing it and he declared that Jews must
defend themselves even if controversies are aroused. All he even then
—in the 1870s—saw in Germany was injustice.
Major in this biography is the description of Schechter's dis-
covery of the Genizah, the ancient documents and fragmentary scrolls
which the great scholar took with him from Egypt to England. It was
then that he received the honorary degree from the University of
Cambridge.
He became president of the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1902.
Upon his arrival in this country he was asked about the future of the
Jews in America. He pointed to a blank page in a volume of the Talmud
and explained that American Jewry, some day, with the help of God,
will fill it. Dr. Eisenberg points to him as the greater scholar who
had begun to fill that page.
Dr. Eisenberg's biography describes the Zionist idealism of Dr.
Schechter. He relates stories about his kindness to and intimacy with
children. The burning bush was chosen by Schechter as the Seminary's
emblem, and Dr. Eisenberg calls it a fitting symbol. The biography in
its entirety pays deserving honors to one of the greatest men in Amer-
ican Jewish history.
"World Lost and Found" by Eisenberg and Elkins, illustrated by
Charles Pickard, covers a vast archaeological field.
It describes the Rosetta Stone, its founding, its transcription; the
romance of decipherment, the secret codes and the background of
ancient languages; the forgotten kingdom of the Hittites; the ancient
city of Nuzi, its peoples, its discovery in 1925 in northeastern Iraq;
the Mari Archives story, the legend of the man with the missing head;
and a number of other accounts with special Jewish interests.
There is the account of the diggings in biblical Gideon. the story
of the Aleppo Codex, the recent discovery of the Bar Kochba letters
in En-Gedi, an account of the military colony at Elephantine, Egypt,
and the biscuit boxes treasures that led to this discovery; the excava-
tions at Megiddo, Caesaria, Lake Tiberias and Beth Shan, and Dr. Nel-.
son Glueck's Negev rediscoveries.