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, Mich. 48235.
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
CHARLOTTE HYAMS
Advertising Manager
Business Manager
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 3rd day of lyar, 5726, the following scriptural
selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion: Lev. 12:1-15:33; Prophetical portion: II Kings 7:3-20
Licht Benshen, Friday, April
VOL. XLIX, No. 9
Page 4
22, 7:03
p.m.
April 22, 1966
Israel's 18 Years of Progressivism
Israel's 18th anniversary—to be observed
here Sunday on the occasion of the Hai year
of the Jewish State's existence — assumes
special significance for Jewish communities
everywhere.
The Hai status in Jewish life as the symbol
for life—the meaning of this Hebrew word—
gives the current anniversary special im-
portance. Hai is the combination of the two
Hebrew letters of Heth and Yud and their
numerical total is 18. In Jewish life, Hai has
become most significant. When there are ex-
changes of toasts over a glass of wine, it is
part of le-hayim—to life. When courage was
being inspired in Jewish ranks during the
saddest periods in our history, songs were
based on. the declaration of am Israel hai-
the people Israel lives.
Now, on the Hai year in the life of the
State of Israel, there is cause for rejoicing
that the comparatively infant state has gained
strength, that it retains its major role as the
haven of refuge for the oppressed and the
expatriated, that its people are becoming
economically secure and their health is being
protected through advanced medical pro-
grams, and the education of the children is
assured from kindergarten through the uni-
versity level.
Israel's major problems are far from
solved. There is the perpetuated need to pro-
tect the country against its hostile neighbors,
to assure the people's security under threaten-
ing .circumstances.
Because so much of the nation's income
must be spent on defense, it is all the more
amazing that there has been an uninterrupted
influx of immigrants for whom provisions are
being made for their total integration. Close
to 290,000 newcomers have been accounted
for, and. while many areas where there is dis-
crimination against Jews already have been
completely evacuated, in some instances en-
tire communities having settled in Israel, the
flow continues and there still are many hun-
dreds of thousands of Jews in lands whence
they must be removed. Homes will be pro-
vided for them in Israel, and the country re-
tains its established goal of serving as the
haven of refuge for the dispossessed.
*
*
This role of being the recipient of the un-
wanted in many lands perpetuates the ties
between Israel and the Golah—the Jewish
State and the Diaspora—in the task of pro-
viding homes for the homeless.
A major role must be played by the United
Jewish Appeal—by Detroit's Allied Jewish
Campaign which provides the vitally needed
UJA funds—in this continuing rescue effort.
While Israel is overburdened with financial
responsibility to protect people and country,
the philanthropic dollars, none of which are
used in the defense effort, must be made
available to provide for the transportation of
the newcomers and for their first steps in
building new homes in their new homeland.
Thereafter, Israel carries on the task of in-
- tegration and of assuring health and educa-
tion for the settlers.
The status of Israel's health agencies is
well-known. Through Hadassah and the
Hebrew University, through Kupat Holim of
Histadrut, Israel assures medical care for its
growing population.
*
*
*
-
In the field of education, the Jewish State
has distinguished itself nobly. One of its first
acts was to enforce compulsory education for
its children in the primary schools, and there
is a serious effort to provide similar facilities
in secondary education.
A breakdown in Israel school population
figures shows that there are, in the various
educational categories, these enrollments:
Kindergartens, 90,000; primary schools, 465,-
000; post-primary departments, 105,000; uni-
versities, 20,000; miscellaneous schools,
40,000.
While there has been a measure of illiter-
acy, imported into Israel by newcomers from
backward countries, the Israelis' educational
and cultural standards are among the highest.
They assure the retention of the people's role
of elevating its spiritual values, of making its
cultural aims primary as a national goal.
In the meantime, the institutions of higher
learning, the universities and the research
institutes, are making such rapid progress —
they have gained such wide international
recognition — that Israel is justified in be-
lieving that the cultural, scientific and spir-
itual aims of the land are speedily being
realized.
*
"The Jews—Biography of a People" by Judd L. Teller, executive
In the higher educational institutions, in vice-chairman of the American Histadrut Cultural Exchange Institute,
the sciences, in research and in technology, published by Bantam Books (271 Madison, NY16), is a profile of the
Jewish personality, the story of the people's
Israel has become an unchallenged leader in
migrations, the record of the "interaction
the entire Middle East.
between the Jew and his environment." The
Sharing the cultural and economic suc-
eminent author emphasizes that it is not
cesses with their Jewish fellow-citizens,
history. Yet, as a supplement to .history it is
Israel's Arab population has benefited im-
a most valuable- study, a work that should
mensely from the progressive state. The
encourage deep study of the events reported
country's Arab and Druze population numbers
here and of the many occurrences that have
approximately 300,000-11.5 per' cent of the
made a romance of Jewish history.
Dr. Teller takes the student of history
country's total population. With minor ex-
back to ancient times, to the middle of the
ceptions in security areas, the Israeli Arabs
20th Century BCE, to the era of Abraham,
enjoy full equality under the law. They have
proceeding through the various eras
been provided the finest schools, they share
through Israel's statehood, the periods of
the benefits of an excellent health protection
the kings, the destructions of the Israeli
system, there is absolute religious equality.
;tate, the early Diaspora, the return, the
It is no wonder that, a year ago, the Arab
settlements in lands outside the Palestinian
mayor of Nazareth, Seif el-Din Zuabi, stated:
spheres.
Dr. Teller
"For our own sake, and for that of our chil-
His analyses of the Diaspora introduce the specific factors
of a critical profile not to be found in the average history. Trac-
dren and grandchildren, we wish to live in
ing the spread of anti-Semitism, he shows how malicious myths
peace and stability. We have had enough suf-
about Jews were circulated, from ancient times dating back to
fering and tribulation in the past and have no
Apion,
down to our 20th Century, describing the strategy that was
wish to see them repeated. We are against
devised by pamphleteers. He points to the charge of dual alle-
war and its evils. We are for peace and sta-
giance dating back to Egyptian times, quoting Philo: "The Jews,
bility."
dispersed in the Diaspora, see the Holy City in which the Temple
Nevertheless, there remains the danger
is located as their metropolis; but the countries in which they
of a Fifth Column, and Israel has the serious
have been bequeathed the right of residence by ancestors and
task of assuring the acquisition of peace and
great-ancestors they regard as their native lands." Dr. Teller coin•
ments that "Philo may have been addressing both the heathens
stability on a firm basis.
*
*
and the Jews, among whom some perhaps had hoped to still anti-
*
Semitism
by disavowing their bonds - to Judea, not realizing that
There are other problems. Israel is di-
the agitation was far more concerned with extirpating their
vided, about equally, as a nation of Orientals
vigorous presence in Egypt than removing the Jerusalem mote
and Occidentals, of Sephardim and Ashkena-
from the procurator's eye."
zim. The former are handicapped by the lower
Dr. Teller likens Alexandrian Jewry of 2,000 years ago to American
standards they had brought with them into a Jewry, calling it analogous "in every respect but the juridical." This is
Westernized country. Israel's efforts to create one of the portions of his book especially applicable to study of the
strong links between the two groups, to make current trends in our own midst. He states that in Alexandrian Jewry
one nation of both elements, is based on real- 2,000 years ago "the individual JeW ranked with the Greek citizen, a
ism, on an understanding of the existing prob- distinction denied Egyptians. . . . This substantially was the status of
lems, and its leaders are to be commended all Jewish communities in the Greco-Roman territories, an arrangemett:
to pre-Christian history. The legacy that Egyptian and Amer-
for taking proper steps to create understand- peculiar
ican Jewries share across the space of two millenia is religio-cultural
ing and fuse the two groups into one coopera- dualism and their responses to it. Few Alexandrian Jews understood
tive element.
Hebrew. They read their Bible and recited their prayers in Greek. They
On its 18th anniversary, Israel is able to mixed Greek and ancestral custom, and tried to bridge the essential
show great progress. It is able to defend itself. religious difference between Jew and Greek by claiming common roots
It provides effectively for its citizens. It for the two cultures. The Judeans, a majority in their own land, and
strives to retain wholesome relations with the illiterate about a minority's compulsions, may have treated these efforts
Diaspora and With the nations of the world. with disdain. Alexandrian Jews in turn may sometimes have wondered
Because of its progressivism, Israel has whether their brethren were not indeed stiff-necked as the heathen
kinsgpern:
pre-
that strong kinship with Jewish communities claimed, and whether Judea should not consider, before hi taking
so g gen-
action, its effect on the Diaspora communities
everywhere and retains the admiration of the cipitous
the Teriiple."
nations of the world for an aspiration to raise erously supported
There is much here that can stand scrutiny and comparison
its own people's standards and to contribute
and can serve as a lesson for American Jewry today.
towards the well-being of others. The aid
Relationships with Christians and Moslems are viewed in scholarly
Israel has given to Afro-Asian nations has fashion and the roles of many Jewish leaders are thoroughly analyzed.
been a factor in the admiration expressed for The Maimonidean ideas, the pietist opposition to him, the rejection of
extremism by Judah Ha-Levi and scores of other ideologies are outlined
it by the non-Jewish world.
The major obstacle to global peace is the for an understanding of Jewry's world- position.
The conflicts in medieval times, the changing conditions evolving
refusal of Arabs to meet with Israel for peace
talks. The attainment of such a goal is the from the Church, the status of Jews in Germany, Russia, France,
and elsewhere are under scrutiny.
major hope in Israel and by Israel's friends Poland
. Then there are the modern situations, the Zionist position, schisms
for that nation's 19th year. May it come soon, like those between Brandeis and Weizmann—all are reviewed with
and may the glory of Israel—netzakh Israel thoroughness and with scholarly skill.
—be unmarred by further conflicts.
And there are the many faces of freedom, the place of the Jew in .
With a hope for peace, and with apprecia- the arts, in the sciences, in the theater. Secularization, Israel's status,
tion of Israel's historic attainments, we greet new approaches by Jewry to the non-Jewish world—these are appraised
our kinsmen in Medinat Israel on the occasion in a fashion that elevates Teller's work to a place of considerable irri- -
portance.in _the study, of. Jewish life as it is, ernerging 41, -thellrept era.
of this Hai celebration.
'The Jews--Biography of a People'
Skilfully Analyzes Jewry's Status
-