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 PHILIP SLOMOVITZ Editor and Publisher SIDNEY SHMARAK CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ Advertising Manager Business Manager CHARLOTTE HYAMS City Editor Sabbath Scriptural Selections This Sabbath, the 5th day of Nissan, .5726, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues: Pentateuchal. portion: Levit. 1:1-5:26. Licht benshen, Friday, March 25. 6:31 p.m. VOL. XLIX, No. 5 March 25, 1966 Page 4 WarsawGhetto sTriumphOverSupermen If we were merely to limit ourselves to the plight of the children who were subjected to indescribable sufferings during the rule of the Nazis, it would be sufficient to break our hearts, to cause us to weep uninterruptedly over the terror that was invented by insane minds for torturing human beings. When this community marks the 23rd anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943, here will be occasion to look at the record, to witness the creations of children who were not only under fire but who were destined for the gas chambers that had been prepared for them by the German savages. The display of the drawings and poems by the children in the Theresienstadt concentra- tion camp will serve as a reminder of a type of resistance: the children's answer to bar- barism in the form of art and literature and expressions of human kindness. * * * We now have another documentary — a remarkable expose of the devilish way in which the Nazis used hunger as a weapon to destroy the Jews in their ca'mps and ghettos and the courageous manner in which children joined with adults in resisting this devilish scheme. An impressive document, "The Uses of Adversity," by Dr. Leonard Tushnet, con- taining "Studies of Starvation in the Warsaw Ghetto," published by Yoseloff, describes the plight of the Jews who were condemned to death by the Germans, the anguish and the sufferings, and pays tribute to the heroic doctors who labored to study the problems, to find a solution to the pains of starvation and to provide whatever relief they could possibly offer. They were themselves among the victims, and they were martyrs in the cause of healing. But the chief miracle in that resistance effort was the task of the smuggler — the illegal actor who became a hero because he was bringing in food under the barbed wires, in devious ways, to provide sustenance for the thousands who were con- demned to die of hunger. It was like declaring legalized murder to be not only inhuman but illegal and inhuman. And in battling against such horrors the children played an historic role. They were very young — some • of them only 5! — and they learned to join the battle for existence. * * * In his deeply moving account of the starvation in the Warsaw Ghetto, Dr. Tushnet thus describes the role of the children: "No matter how much food the smug- glers brought in, it was quickly snapped up by the Ghetto population, at least by those who could afford the high prices. But there was another even more wide- spread special group of smugglers, not engaged in business, often the sole sup- port of their entire families. These were the little children from five to ten years of age. They travelled alone or in gangs. The smallest and emaciated of them wrapped burlap bags around their bony little bodies and crawled through the barbed wire or were hoisted over the walls; the bigger ones acted as look-outs. Hiding in alleyways on the "Aryan" side, they made their way to more outlying districts, begging, buying or stealing food. Death on discovery awaited them no less than for the adults, but more humane policemen contented themselves with merely giving the children severe beatings. Dr. Ludwik Herszfeld tells of two in- stances he saw: A German guard took aim and deliberately shot a child in the legs, and remarked, "One smuggler less"; an- other turned a • child around and calmly shot him between the shoulders. To be shot to death was a chance that had to be taken; the choice was between that and starving to death. The little nameless heroes of the Ghetto went on with the only way open to them. They brought in bread, flour and potatoes to sustain their families a little while longer. Their deeds were celebrated in a poem by Henrika Lazowert, one that became widely popular in the Ghetto: Through walls, through holes, and through ruins, Through barbed wire I make my way. Hungry, thirsty, and barefoot, I slide through like a snake, At noon, at night, and at dawn, In the heat and hard summer rains. Envy me not my poor bundle— My life itself' is at stake. * * * The plight of the children was only part of the Warsaw Ghetto tragedy. But the chil- dren, too, had their role in the resistance, in the historic uprising that refuted the Nazis' claim to being supermen. Little children, starving men and women, a helpless horde of people who were unprepared for battle fought against a Nazi army. They were destroyed, but their spirit survived and in the long run they and not the Germans were the victors. This is what we shall pay tribute to when we mark the 23rd anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Self-Hatred as Ev i l as Bigotry It it were not so tragic, an occurrence in New York last week would indeed serve as material for a great comedy. A group posing as backers of humane slaughtering staged a little riot against kashrut. They don't like shehitah — the Jewish traditional way of animal slaughtering — and they demonstrated against it by displaying a distorted picture of shehitah, through misrepresentations and abuses. Governmental studies have indicated that shehitah is far from cruel, that the traditional Jewish method is humane. But the Council for Judaism needed a platform. Perhaps Fannie Hurst, who previously joined the ranks of the anti-Zionists but later appeared to have returned to the pro-Israel fold, also needed a platform. So—they shouted against kashrut. The problem of shehitah has come up again and again in many lands. Invariably, those who have aimed to prevent cruelty to animals have conceded to the humaneness of the Jewish practice. In many instances, efforts to curb shehitah stemmed from anti-Semitic courses. Seldom, however, have Jews joined ac- tively in a movement to interfere with an established Jewish religious practice. The joining of Jews with antagonistic anti-Jewish forces in New York is a shocking demonstra- tion of a lack of understanding about shehitah by Jews, and this is deplorable. What a spectacle these self-hating Jews provided! No one forces them to eat kosher food. It would be useless to indicate to them that the pure food laws of our land stem from the kashrut teachings. But there is no argu- ing with bigots, and there is less of a chance to win an argument when the haters are self- haters. This is the only way to describe the demonstrating haters of kashrut who pose as humane in the treatment of animals but who did not hesitate to resort to blows at those who want kosher food. That's how it has been in history: Nazis protected their dogs whom they sicked for attacks on Jews. The pogrom- ists in Russia first went to church to recite our Psalms and then went to destroy the ghetto. Jews who attack their fellow-men for adhering to a religious tradition, while preach- ing humaneness to animals, are akin to such inconsistencies. They can be described by only one word: self-hatred. The Perennial Tribute WSU Publishes Franklin Talks Under Wattenberg's Editorship Under the editorship of Dr. William H. Wattenberg, who held the Leo M. Franklin Memorial Lectureship in Human Relations at Wayne State University for 1963-64, WSU Press has issued Volume XIV of the Frank memorial lectures publications under the title "AU Men are Created Equal." Distinguished participants in this lecture series, whose papers are part of this volume, included Prof. John P. Roche of Brandeis Univer- sity, Supreme Court Justice William 0. Douglas, former Assistant Sec- retary of State and Ambassador to Brazil Adolf A. Berle, in additioli to Dr. Wattenberg and the following participants in a symposium on "Psychological Issues With Respect to Race Relations:" Lloyd Allen Cook, Juanita Collier, George Henderson, Ross Stagner and Henry Watts. Dr. Wattenberg's lecture was on "The Problem of Self-Imposed Inequalities." In it he made the point: "We have tended to accept too readily the motion that efficiency must produce leisure. There is another way of looking at the situation. This is to say our efficiency has given us an oversupply of human service. This service is every bit as perishable a good as would be an oversupply of vegetables. Perhaps we must take the position that the human service must be utilized and our problem is to find ways of using it." Roche spoke on "Equality in America." Douglas' topic was "Equality and Diversity." "Economic Equality and Government Action" was Berle's topic. The Arabs and Israel Jay Walz's 'The Middle East' Reviews Many Conflicting Issues Jay Walz, N. Y. Times foreign correspondent, in "Middle East," a Times Byline Book published by Atheneum, expresses the view that Israelis and Arabs will not become good neighbors "in the time of the present rulers," since they all participated in the hostilities, but he believes that "time will remove these veterans from the scene, and their successors will focus their telescope not so much on the frontiers of Israel as on the great region before and beyond." • Showing that there is an exchange of brainpower between the various countries, maintaining that Palestinians are the ablest of the Arabs and that "probably those who have had opportunities for advancement would not be content to go back to the basically unviable strip of land Israel occupies," he adds: "Similarly, young Israelis are growing up who do not understand fully their parents' attachment to the Jewish homeland. Their brains too are being exported—on technical aid programs in developing Africa, for instance. This indifference may in time match that of the young Palestinians. Broader nerspectives, a broader outlook, broader opportunities may lead a future generation to a land and a life that are really promising." Walz advocates patience and he goes along with the State Depart- ment in supporting continued aid for Nasser. "Regardless of Nasser's discourtesies, it is paramount that young Egyptians and Arabs every- where keep looking toward the West," he states. His book commences with a review of historical events, including Zionist developments. He points out that "the Arabs have never appreciated what Israel meant to Jews." Regarding the Arab League, he writes that it is "virtually impotent without the intermittent infusion of Nasser's dynamic per- sonality." But he adds that "however much Nasser's dynamism may alarm the West, it sometimes frightens the Middle East more and certainly has not yet united it." And the "unwanted" state of Israel is, as he indicated, "used to drive Arabs together." U. S. interest in Israel, the Jordan water plans and other aspects of the Middle East situation are thoroughly reviewed in this well- formulated paperback.