THE JEWISH NEWS
htcorporating 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.,
YE 8-9364. Subscription $6 a year. Foreign $7.
Second Class Postage Paid at Detroit, Michigan
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Etlitor.and Publisher
SIDNEY SHMARAK
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
CHARLOTTE HYAMS
Advertising Manager
Business Manager
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 13th day of Adar, .5726, the following scriptural
selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuch.al portion: Exod. 27.- 20,30:10 and Deut. 25:17-19; •
-
Prophetical portion: I Samuel /5:2-34.
Purim Scriptural Selections
This Purim., the 14th day of Adar, 5726, the following scriptural
selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion: Exod. 17:8-16; Prophetical portion: Book of Esther.
Licht benshen, Friday, March 4, 6:07 p.m.
VOL. XLIX, No. 2
Page 4
March 4, 1966
Our Own Ludicrous Among the Rightists
We had the_ expose of numerous demon-
strations of irrationality in our ranks in
recent months. There was a Jewish member
of the American Nazi Party, and the revela-
tion of his activities resulted in his suicide.
We have been subjected to criticisms by
youth, and the ridiculous impression was that
they had spoken out of a revolt when, in
reality, it was out of ignorance. And now we
have a demonstration by a Jewish Birch
Society!
In truth, none of these demonstrations
calls for despair in our own ranks. When
there is irrationality, it is easily ascribable to
the state of mind of some members of our
generation who are to be found in the ranks
of all faiths.
We have heard, right here, in our commu-
nity, attacks on the Supreme Court and a
demand for the impeachment of the Chief
Justice whose record is above rebuke. There
have been attacks on government officials of
a rather crude nature. Criticism is in order,
but when it is rude and basted on irrational
sentiment, it becomes unworthy of considera-
tion.
' This is how • we should treat a Jewish
Birch Society. But its organizers offer their
own definitions of their attitude, and the
story was best told in a column that was
entitled "Bnai Birch." Written by Dick
Schaap, it reads: .
Some of the John Birch Society's best friends
got together the other day and announced the for-
mation of the Jewish Society of Americanists. The
JSA is -open to all John Birchers who also happen
to be Jewish, a vast population slice matched only
by the Episcopal membership of Hadassah.
The announcement was made at a meeting
arranged by the John Birch Society's Eastern
Regional Manager of Public Relations, Tom Davis.
Tom Davis is not now and never has been a mem-
ber of the Jewish faith. His office is in White
Plains, and his phone number is ROckwell 1-700.
Somebody with a sense of humor must have as-
signed his telephone exchange.
'The Moral Criminals'
At the trial in London of the anti-Semites
who were held for causing arson at syna-
gogues, the prosecutor, E. P. Cussen, reported
that Paul Dukes, one of the six who 'were
convicted, had told him:
"During one of the meetings I attended
at the headquarters of the movement (Na-
tional Socialist Movement of Great Britain),
Colin Jordan was present and said that it
was a good idea to burn Jewish synagogues,
but could not give any official support."
It became evident that, as Cussen indi-
cated, quoting another of the convicted, ColM
Rainburel: All the tactics were discussed at
headquarters of the movement and Colin
Jordan (leader of the movement) was informed
of our intentions."
Of special interest is the plea that was
made in defense of the accused by their
attorney, C. G. Du Cann, who told the judge:
"If the !legal criminals are before you, the
moral criminals are those who inspired these
young men to go out to indulge in these
activities."
In truth, there are legal criminals, but
there also are moral criminals — and regret-
tably many of the immoral escape punish-
ment. The moral criminals are those who are
spreading not only their own concocted
venom but also the poison they imbibed from
the criminals the past three decades — the
Hitlers, their cohOrts, the spreaders of the
false Protocols of the Elders of Zion which
continue to appear throughout the world. In
dealing with the legal criminals, let us never
forget also the aloiral-er4loinals.
Samuel L. Blumenfeld and Alan Stang did the
talking at the meeting. Both men were born and
raised in New York City, both were bar-mitzvahed,
both were educated at the City College of New
York, and both are active Birchers. Blumenfeld is
the vice-chairman of the JSA. Stang is on the
organizing committee. It's funny, but they don't
look reactionary.
The JSA sprang up primarily to counter recent
charges by the Anti-Defamation League of Bnai
Brith that the John Birch Society has distributed
anti-Semitic literature and has, at least, anti-Sem-
itic overtones. Blumenfeld and Stang pledge alle-
giance to Robert Welch and to the organization
for which he stands and strongly deny that there
is any anti-Semitism within the Birch movement.
Blumenfeld is the analysis editor for The Review
of the News, a weekly Birch publication. Stang
wrote a book called "It's Very Simple—The True
Story of Civil Rights," which links Martin Luther
King to the Communist conspiracy and was pub-
lished by Western Islands, a subsidiary of the
Birch Society.
I have never in my life encountered anti-Sem-
itism," said Stang. "Maybe it's because I don't
look very Jewish." I'm not exactly certain what
people who look Jewish look like, but if Stang
had been cast in the movie version of "Exodus,"
and he had played an Englishman, I wouldn't
have believed it.
Stang let Blumenfeld, who is, at 29, six years
older than he, do most of the formal talking at
the announcement meeting. But Stang often .con-
tributed clarifying statements. He spoke in very
precise tones, as though he felt each word were
important. Stang has a masters degree in English
from Columbia University, but he did use "infer"
when he meant "imply," and he slipped on his
syntax—I hope—when he said, "And the truth,
which I always append to my statement, is . . . "
The mistakes were understandable. Blumen-
feld and Stang were being pressed hard by the
journalists in attendance. Under pressure, they
both admitted that Dwight D. Eisenhower had, "in
his way," contributed to the Communist cause.
Blumenfeld and Stang also admitted that neither
of them belongs to a synagogue or attends
religious services or belongs to any other Jewish
group.
Both confessed they were ex-liberals. "I voted
for Adlai Stevenson for President twice," said
Blumenfeld. "Ha ha." -
"I used to think Martin Luther King was a
humanitarian," said Stang. "Ha ha."
Someone asked Stang why he and Blumenfeld
felt the need to form a separate Jewish Birch cell.
"Well," he said, "Mr. Blumenfeld couldn't easily
form a Protestant group. Ha ha."
But did he think Jews were a major dupe of
the Communist conspiracy?
"Oh, no, ha, ha," he said. "I don't want to
give the impression that Jews are dumber than
everyone else."
Each man should speak only for himself.
Nothing else need be said. What else
could be stated in comment on the ha-ha
boys?
The only advice to those who are upset by
them is: leave them alone; they are few and
far between, and the "ha-ha" exposes a re-
verberation that gives the proper stamp on
their entire movement. Once upon a time
they were the Know-Nothing party. Then they
were the White Christians (repudiated by
Christians), and now there are the rightists
who really are the racists, the anti-Semites,
the anti-Catholics, the anti-Negroes. Why
should Jews be among them? Indeed, why
should human beings be among them? And
the aberrations that recur among free men
often drag in even the sons of saints among
the haters of men.
Suffice it only to add, as an ADL analysis
of the Birch Society warned: "What is of con-
cern in 1966, and in the years ahead, is the
damage the Birch Society can do to the demo-
cratic climate and process before the good
sense and sober mederation of the American
people lay it to rest and render it a mere foot-
-note in the history books of the luture.''' '
.
Blau Optimistic About Jewish
Future in 'Modern Varieties'
Dr. Joseph L. Blau, professor of religion at Columbia University,
author of a number of important works and co-author with Dr. Salo
W. Baron of a three-volume documentary history of American Jewry,
believes that "Jewish attitudes are responsive to the attitudes prevalent
in the communities among which the Jews live."
On this thesis is based his newest impressive work, "Modern Vari-
eties of Judaism," published by Columbia University Press.
In a series of six essays, Prof. Blau evaluates Zionism and the
movement's present status, the emergence of modern Judaism in
the era of emancipation, the rise of Reform Judaism, the reformula-
tion of Orthodoxy under the leadership of Samson Raphael Hirsch
and his followers, Conservative Judaism's "complex phenomenon and
mid-20th-Century appraisals of emancipation.
In his critical analyses of the various Jewish religious entities,
he concludes that • "the breadth of the areas demonstrating the
inconsistencies of statement and practice in Conservative Judaism
makes clear that it is an adaptation peculiarly fitted for survival
in a pluralistic environment."
His contention is that "somewhere within the complex phenom-
enon of Conservative Judaism any person who wishes to identify him-
self with the Jewish people can find a position blending tradition
and innovation in precisely the proportion acceptable to him. Thus
Conservatism, with all its backings and fillings, its avoidance of dogma-
tic positions, its uneasy balance of lay and rabbinical elements, its
pragmatic character, may have supplied precisely the compromise posi-
tion, the broad middle of the road needed to offset the broad, middle-
of-the-road conditions faced by Judaism in 20th-Century America."
Zionism, he states, came nearest to creating unification in Jewish
life. He points to the weakening of the movement with the emergence
of Israel and declares: 'What will replace Zionism as a focus of
unification—indeed, whether another such focus will ever arise —
only the future can reveal."
There is a note of confidence in the future in Dr. Blau's
review of the Jewish position. He states that the very diversity
in Jewish life, under conditions of emancipation, "is an indica-
tion of strength, not of weakness. It is a sign of ferment, and
ferment is_the very stuff of life."
His sense of optimism also is emphasized in an evaluation of the
Jewish position in which he asserts:
"Judaism is the oldest of the major religions of the West. Even
though it has never been the religion of any major fragment of the
population of the world, its ancient history has been of great interest
to students of the history of religion because of its creativity and
innovative power. Because of this force within it, Judaism has been
the seedbed of other religions, Christianity and Islam in particular.
Yet the modern history of Judaism has been too little studied, on the
assumption, perhaps, that its creative phase lies in the past. If this
were true, Judaism would, indeed, be a vestigial religion, a survival
from a past in which it was viable into a present in which it has no
vital function. But it is not true. Judaism is still able to respond
creatively to the novel situations in which the Jews find themselves;
it is still a living faith."
There is a positive approach to the basic challenges and prob-
lems in "Modern Varieties of Judaism." Because of such an approach,
Dr. Blau's is a most effective work of our time.
Valuable Penguin Encyclopedia
Making no apologies for its being "small," Penguin Books never-
theless takes pride in issuing "The Penguin Encyclopedia," the newest
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In less than 650 pages, this one-volume encyclopedia contains the
most vital information on major subjects. It is not the completest work,
but it includes major and basic facts. It is illustrated and it especially
is commendable for the excellence of its cross references.
Thus, in describing the role of the Jews, it refers to Judaism,
Zionism, Hebrew. Similarly, there are important cross references to
Palestine and Jordan as well as Zionism in the item dealing with Israel
The note on Hebrew states in part: "Classical Hebrew had 23 signs,
which stood for consonants only. Most roots have three consonants;
most words have two syllables, with stress on the second; verbs have
aspects, not tenses. Apart from proper nouns, Hebrew has no com-
pounds."
A special item also is devoted to the Jewish Agency, tracing its
formation, its role under the British Mandate in Palestine and its pres-
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In the general fields, care is taken to be accurate and while this
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