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
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager
CHARLOTTE HYAMS
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 24th day of Iyar, 5726, the following scriptural selections will
be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion: Lev. 25;1.27:34; Prophetical portion: Jerem. 16:19-17:14.
Rosh Hodesh Sivan reading Friday, May 20: Num. 28:1-15.
Licht Benshen, Friday, May 13, 7:25 p.m.
VOL. XLIX. No. 12
Page 4
May 13, 1966
Poverty War and Apology for Affluence
Something very unique emerges in a
Jewish Telegraphic Agency report from Lon-
don. It brought the news of a letter that was
addressed to the Daily Telegraph by the
London Jewish Welfare Board correcting "an
impression" given in a story in that paper
that British Jewry was "an affluent society
with none of the problems of the communit3 ,
at large." The Telegraph story appeared in
a special supplement on British Jews and the
Welfare Board showed in its refutation that
it "alone," in 1965, handled more than 12,000 -
cases "affecting nearly 10 per cent of the
Jewish families in the Greater London area."
Most of the cases, the Welfare Board con-
tended, involved poor housing, illnesses, lack
of funds, many Jews having been helped by
the Jewish relief agency because they could
not manage on government grants or pen-
sions alone. The Welfare Board added: "In
this respect, Jewish people are in no way
better off than others in this country."
In an age in which we are encouraging
the war on poverty this is a unique develop-
ment in modern society. Perhaps the British
Jews were irked by the fear of a charge that
Jews are rich. This has been a charge
through the ages, even in the periods when
Jews lived in walled-in ghettoes, during the
many centuries when adequate food was
available for the Sabbath and when Jews
struggled the entire week just to assure
sufficient and proper food for the day of rest
and the sanctity of the one day in the week
when every Jew considered himself a king
in his own domain.
One would have to yield to the lowest
sort of s?,1f-ridicule during the centuries-old
periods of impoverishments to offer defense
against the rich-as-a-Jew charge. Yet it
emerges constantly. It was a hoary charge
and is an ever-new one.
Here we are, in an affluent American
society, in which Jews have emerged from
poverty, marking unprecedented gains in
professional, industrial and governmental
positions. Yet, in the midst of an economic-
ally secure status, we have need for social
and welfare services, we must care for many
Synagogue Mergers
Synagogue mergers are not new in Ameri-
can Jewish experiences, and the joining of
the two Young Israel groups in the Oak Park
area could well be considered a pattern
resulting from efforts to strengthen religious
activities and to assure the most effective way
of solidifying efforts in behalf of a religious
community.
The local merger nevertheless is espe-
cially important for several reasons. Such
combined efforts on the part of two groups
that functioned independently in the past
represent elimination of duplicity. It is more
economical to operate two similar groups
under a single leadership and the released
energies contribute towards greater religious
tasks.
Of special value in such a merger is the
emphasis that can thus be given to the educa-
tional projects of both groups. Only one lead-
ership, such cultural tasks can be productive
of greater good to all concerned. The Young
Israel combined efforts undertaken by two
functioning groups therefore represent a step
in a practical direction for the welfare of the
entire community.
hundreds—speaking of Detroit alone—with
mo'os hitim assistance for Passover.
Perhaps the uniqueness of the London
report lies in the very fact that the link of
affluence with Jews should suddenly call for
an explanation that Jews "are in no way bet-
ter off than others." Hasn't it been said of
late, about the fully emancipated Jews, that
"they are like all others among their neigh-
bors—only a bit more so!"
The issue over affluence brings back
re c ollections of another incident, when a
well-informed Yeshiva University team,
competing in the College Bowl quiz, was
taunted as consisting of "smart Jews" who
were "showing off." At that time, we found
it necessary to write an editorial—in our
issue of June 14, 1963, on the subject "Shall
Oxford University Press (417 5th, NY16) has issued the fourth
We Make Fools of Our Children?" We then number
in the series of volumes on "Middle Eastern Affairs" published
stated:
as St. Anthony Papers by St. Anthony's College of London. In the
Opposition to Jewish Palestinian
Settlement Traced to Turks' Rule
When the Yeshiva University undergraduate
team won its first victory in the College Bowl
quiz, there were approximately 50 letters of
comments. Less than half of them commended
the team; the others rebuked Yeshiva for pos-
sessing "smart Jews" for the "showing off" of
superiority. Stop displaying your knowledge, some
of the deluded bigots advised.
While such manifestations of envy might be
interpreted as anti-Semitism— and they certainly
did not denote philo-Semitism---they were re-
minders of what was believed to be a forgotten
age during which, we were told, there was such
jealousy of Jewish accomplishments scholasti-
cally, industrially and in other fashions that it
accounted for hatred of our people.
It has been believed that Jews were hated
because they were successful; some called it
"being smart." The editor is reminded of an oc-
casion when, during such evaluations of our
people's struggle for the abandonment of preju-
dices and hatreds, one bit of advice that was
given us was: "To defeat anti-Semitism, make
fools of your children."
Of course, the People of the Book never
heeded such advice. Nor is there any intention
of our ever abandoning the craving for knowl-
edge, the training of our children to be steeped
in learning, to uphold the principle that Torah
is die beste sekhora—that Torah is the greatest
possession. -
With all this in view, the attitude of some
anti-Semites is worth taking into account again
in order that those who fight prejudice should
be prepared to meet the challenges that rever-
berate. Perhaps, in this area of the most effective
communications opportunities ever attained by
man, it will be possible to convince the envious
that Jews are not necessarily the smartest peo-
ple in the world, but that if our share in the
ranks of wisdom is great we should not be re-
buked but commended.
Especially vital, however, is for all peoples,
and certainly for Jews everywhere to understand
that hatred and envy must not be a deterrent
to learning. It must be encouraged even if it
arouses prejudice.
If the advice "make fools of your children"
was unacceptable two generations ago, when the
quest for emancipation was so rampant, it
emerges so much more ridiculous today! But
if anti-Semites do not recognize that truth even
now, it only proves what a great need there
still is for their emancipation.
new volume, edited by Albert Hourani, a number of important papers
are included.
It commences with an essay by Fayez Sayegh, "The Theoretical
Structure of Nasser's Arab Socialism." Allan Cunningham discusses
"The Wrong Horse?—A Study of Anglo-Turkish Relations Before the
First World War." There are essays by Roger Owen on "The Influence
of Lord Cromer's Indian Experience on British Policy in Egypt 18&3-
1907" and Majid Khadduri on "Ariz 'Ali A17Misri and the Arab Nation-
alist Movement." Then there is a revealing statement by Neville Mandel
of "Turks, Arabs and Jewish Immigration Into Palestine, 1882-1914."
Each of these essays is. important. The combined effort adds greatly
to an understanding of the Middle East situation. The one dealing with
immigration to Palestine is of major significance to our readers.
Mandel's study shows that restrictions on the settlement of
Jews in Palestine date back to the Turkish regime. It also shows
that the earlier contention that "all was well between Arab and
Jew in Palestine" before World War I "prevails because as yet no
systematic examination utilizing primary source material has been
made into the Arab response to the first three decades of modern
Jewish immigration and settlement in Palestine between 1882
and 1914."
Because "Jews were too few and the Arabs too inarticulate for
discord to have manifested itself," there was only "rudimentary opposi-
tion to Jewish settlement in the country," and it is indicated that gen-
eral harmony was broken with the British promises to both Arabs
and Jews.
Mandel's research points to the difficulties that were placed in
the path of Jewish settlers by Turkish rulers. There were periods when
strict rules hindered - Jewish settlements, except when the assigned.
Ottoman governors were the bribe-takers.
Jewish migrations began to mount after the Russian pogroms of
1881. The several changes in governorships accounted for the varying
numbers --of settlers, but those fleeing from Czarist Russia made way
into Palestine, began to establish colonies, lived well with the city
Arabs who benefited from the high prices they exacted from Jews who
purchased their land at any cost, experienced conflicts with Arab fella-
heen, many of whom often were removed from their farms by the
effendis when they sold the land to Jewish settlers. These are some
of the struggles that date back to earliest times and that are linked\
with the uncertainties under Turkish rule and the struggles with Arabs
because of the conflicting standards when Jews who turned to farming
introduced modern machinery in their farming pioneering efforts.
The role that was played by Abdulhamid, as indicated in
this essay, is important. Mandel points out that in June 1896
Abdulhamid indirectly informed Theodor Herd that "the Turkish
Empire belongs not to me, but to the Turkish people. I cannot give
away any part of it. Let the Jews save their billions. When my
empire is partitioned, they may get Palestine for nothing. But only
our corpse will be divided. I will not agree to vivisection."
The impression later was given that Abdulhamid had relented, but,
states Mandel, although he received Herzl in 1901 and summoned him
again to Constantinople in 1902, "there is no evidence that Abdulhamid
treated Herzl save as a convenient foil to more serious groups of
financiers who were, like Herzl, submitting projects for the consolida-
tion of the Ottoman debt."
Certain Zionist negotiations with Arabs are reported, including an
entente proposed in 1913 which was shelved. There are reports on
studies of Arab-Zionist relations that were conducted by Nahum Soko-
low but most of the occurrences point to "Arab antipathy, for Zion-
ism" which was "incipient before 1914." Thus "the trend of subsequent
developments in Palestine was already set" even before the Balfour
Declaration.
For a full understanding of the conflict in the Middle East, Man-
del's research is of great importance.
The author of this essay, Neville Mandel, after receiving a degree
in Hebrew and philosophy from the University of Glasgow, studied at
Dropsie College, Philadelphia, where he received his MA in Middle
Eastern studies. He is now a Carnegie scholar at St. Andrew's College.
His essay on Jewish immigration to Palestine is part of his doctoral
Now we have a combination of items to
deal with it: affluence and knowledge—and
in both instances the primary concern should
be that Jews should not fall prey to stupidi-
ties. It is because Jews had succeeded in cer-
tain areas that they were hated. Jealousy is a
contributing factor to anti-Semitism. And
because anti-Semitism persists, so also will
the taunts about smartness, about the rich-
-as-the-one-who-is-hated. The answer to these
puzzles? One would really have to be a fool
thesis.
not to succeed in life.
,