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

SIDNEY SHMARAK

Business Manager

Advertising Manager

CHARLOTTE HYAMS

City Editor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections

This Sabbath, the 14th day of

5726, the following scriptural selection will be
read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Num. 22:2 - 25:9; Prophetical portion, Micah 5:6-6:8.
Licht Benshen, Friday, July 1, 7:53 p.m.

VOL. XLIX NO. 19

T(17127)1US,

Page 4

July 1, 1966

Tragic Middle East's Variety of Agitators

_Reappearance of Haj Amin Husseini in
Amman, Jordan, should serve as an added
warnina of the brewing troubles in the Mid-
b and of the importance of being on
dle East
guard against the repetition of the type of
violence for which the former Grand Mufti
of Jerusalem was personally responsible.
The former Mufti, Haj Amin Husseini,
was the inspirer of the massacre of the Ye-
shiva students in Hebron. He was the arch
instigator of the riots in 1929 and 1936 and in
the intervening years, and later labored from
Berlin with the Nazis in planning the extermi-
nation of Jews everywhere.
No one should be misled, therefore, by the
announcement that Husseini seeks to split
the Palestine refugees and to win them away
from Ahmed Shukairy who is negotiating
with the Chinese Communists to have his
"Palestine Liberation Army" fight against
the United States forces in Vietnam. What
the former Mufti seeks to do is to re-establish
his anti-Jewish and anti-Israel "Arab Higher
Committee," whose hateful role is marked by
one of the bloodiest chapters in Arab-Jewish
relations.
It is difficult to know who can be trusted
in the Middle East. Even King Hussein, whose
security depends on Israel's autonomy—else
he would have been wiped out by now by his
major antagonist, Abdel Gamal Nasser—can
not be trusted, in view of his constant resort
to hatred for Israel in his appeals for the af-
fections of his people and his desire to prove
to other Arab spokesmen that he hates Israel
as much as they do.
The Mufti's role must not be forgotten.

His evil activities against the Jewish people
—often under the guise of fighting Zionism
but always aimed at the destruction of Jewry
—began in Jerusalem, were continued in
Arab capitals, then functioned in Berlin and
were traced to other capitals. Under date of
Jan. 14, 1944, for example, a cabled story
from Ankara stated: "German newspapers
received here report that an Arab Legion,
recruited by the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj
Amin el Husseini, is now stationed .in Greece.
The Arab Legionnaires wear German uni-
forms with Arab insignia. Their officers are
Germans who lived in Palestine for many
years."
There is a long history of Mufti crimes.
His cruelties are a matter of record. This is
the agitator who now reportedly functions
from Amman. Does Hussein have an explana-
tion for it?
Now we have a renewed form of Arab
agitation in the form of propagandists in this
country, emanating from the insults of the
so-called "Action Committee on American-
Arab Relations," the abuses by Faisal, the
appeasements in Washington to such non-
sense as calling New York "the Tel Aviv of
the Atlantic."
Naturally, the threats and the abusive
references to Zionism when all Jews are
meant; the misinterpretation of Faisal's re-
marks as having been directed at Israel when
he actually said "the Jews" — thus waging
war on the entire Jewish people — compels
reconsideration of all issues related to the
Middle East. Pea-ce remains the major objec-
tive.

Shifting Populations and Property Losses

Those in our own midst who are seriously
concerned about the population changes and
the property losses that are incurred by pub-
lic institutions as well as by individuals must
have taken note of the situation in Montreal.
One of that Jewish community's finest
structures, housing one of the finest libraries
on this continent, has been sold to the Prov-
ince of Quebec. The sale was made because
of the rapid change in Montreal's Jewish
population areas, and the library is being
relocated.
When a publicly-owned building is sold to
a city, state, federal or, in the Canadian in-
stance, to a provincial government or a gov-
ernment agency, the loss is reduced, the trans-
fer of property. is to an agency that can con-
tinue the services that had been rendered
by the Jewish institution. But when the sale
is to an individual the loss can be tremend-
ous.
Thus, in many instances, large invest-
ments in public institutions often are wiped
out because the population shifts, because
neighborhoods change.
But it is not the financial loss alone that
matters. There is also the human element, the
flight that is often experienced when differ-
ing groups move into certain areas. These

causes provide tensions that are hard to deal
with, and to solve them becomes a major re-
sponsibility in many communities.
While the human factor, often involving
racial issues, is the issue for major consider-
ation, our communities must think seriously
in terms of the vast sums that are invested in
public buildings. Since population changes
are inevitable, greater consideration should
be given to economy in planning new struc-
tures. Whether it is a synagogue or a Hebrew
school or a center or any other structure, the
planning should be along modest lines in or-
der that communities should not be overtaxed.
There is a serious duty to consider the prob-
lem involved in extending our educational
services. These require tremendous sums. If
we are to succeed in enrolling better teach-
ers, we must pay them well. If our children
are to be steeped in Jewish knowledge, they
must be provided with the properly planned
curricula supervised by able pedagogs.
The elevation of our cultural values comes
first, the erection of luxuriously fitted struc-
tures should be a secondary consideration. It
is time we learned from the lessons of the
past three decades that a gaudy building does
not last, that good minds alone matter in a
community that boasts of its ancient cultures
but cannot provide a modern counterpart.

Mordecai M Kaplan's 85th Birthday

Mordecai M. Kaplan has become a sym-
bol of cultural leadership in American Jewry.
Creator of a revolutionary movement in our
religious ranks, he nevertheless has risen far
above partisanship in his role as scholar and
interpreter of Jewish values.
He is, of course, especially revered as the
founder of Reconstructionism. Yet, his writ-
ings, his support of the Zionist idea, his spe-
cial gifts as. a teacher and therefore as a
great interpreter of Jewish educational values
and needs, place him in top ranks of Jewish
leadership.

Rabbi Kaplan has been and continues to be
a forceful backer of major Jewish causes, and
in his lifetime has assisted in the fund-raising
projects that are so vital for the support of
Jewish institutions and of relief and recon-
struction movements. But unlike so many
other personalities in Jewish life his tasks
have not been in philanthropy but rather in
the cultural areas, in education, in inter-
pretive Jewish spheres. It is because of the
great gifts he has made in these areas that his
85th birthday is being celebrated in all Jewish
ranks, all of us joining in wishing him the
best of health for decades to come.

Christian Theologian Points
to Old Testament Influence as
Religious Guide for All Faiths

Prof. Jacob M. Myers of the Lutheran Theological Seminary,
Gettysburg, Pa., already has to his credit important published works
on the Old Testament. He is the author of the Doubleday Anchor Bible
books on Chronicles I and II, and of 58 essays which appeared in
"Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible," all of which have already
been reviewed in The Jewish News, and has been chosen to write
the commentaries for Ezra and Nehemiah in the Anchor series.
His inspired works now are supplemented by a noteworthy volume,
"Invitation to the Old Testament—A Layman's Guide to Its Major
Religious Messages," also published by Doubleday.
While it is primarily addressed to Christians, since the work is by
a Christian scholar and is written from a Christian's point of view, it
nevertheless adds a challenge to all faiths who are told at the outset
that "this little book (it is not so little, since it contains more than 250
pages) is intended to whet the appetite of the reader to explore for
himself the immense treasures deposited in the Old Testament."
Writing for "the ordinary layman," Prof. Myers' intention is
to reach those "who may be desirous of knowing what this often
neglected portion of our Bible has to say for itself and to discover
what relevance it may have for this or any other age, and what
it may have to offer by way of guidance and direction in dealing
with the plethora of personal, religious and social problems pre-
valent today."
The Old Testament, Dr. Myers emphasizes, "remains Holy Scripture
for Christianity and Judaism, and is of importance also to Islam.
"The Talmud, which is commentary, interpretation and direction
for Jewish living, has but one aim—to apply the Torah, in its widest
sense, to the resolution of the problems of life in every contingency
and thus bring the community into obedience to the commandments
of God. Whether Muhammad's knowledge of the Bible came from Jew-
ish communities in Arabia or from contact with Christians, the impact
of the Old Testament upon the Qumran is unmistakable. . .
"For the Christian, the Old Testament is more than promise, or
prediction of the coming Redeemer. It is Word of God itself. It is not
simply background material for the New Testament or the repository
of historical incidents transmitted to satisfy the curiosity of later
generations. Indeed, there is a sense in which the Old Testament is.
Word of God par excellence."
Continuing thus Christologically to treat his subject, he asserts tha
"the Old Testament was the Holy Scripture for Jesus and the apostles.'
To prove the latter point, he points to parallelisms in both the
Old and the New Testaments. For example: he traces "man does
not live by bread alone," which appears in Matthew 4:4, to Deuter-
onomy 8:3; "you must not tempt the Lord your God" of Matt. 4:7
to Deut. 6:16, and numerous other similar groundings of the
apostles' sayings which had their foundation in the Old Testament.
Thus he points out that "the New Testament cannot stand alone,"
that "it requires the weight of the more than 1,500 years of Hebrew
religio-historical experience to prevent its evaporation in speculative
theology or erosion of the incarnational aspects of God's revelation by
a subtile gnostic attitude toward history."
To emphasize his point, in 28 evaluative essays, Prof. Myers has
written commentaries on selected material from Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Amos, Hosea,
Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Haggai, Zecha-
riah, Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, Psalms, Canticles (Song of Songs),
Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and Daniel.
He draws upon many noted authorities—in Ecclesiastes, for
example, upon the scholarly work of Dr. Robert Gordis—and the
lessons he presents include some of the most impressive portions
of the Old Testament.
His conclusion is as interesting as the entire work. Supplementing
the historical data that accompanies his numerous studies, he empha-
sizes that "it is apparent that the Old Testament is a veritable library
of books having to do with man in all his thoughts, relationships and
aspirations." He emphasizes that "Yahweh was the God of history,
which is another way of saying that he was present in every phase of
life and experience from the beginning of creation until the moment
when the message and observations of the biblical writers were set
down in writing." He concludes by quoting in full the long Psalm 78:
"Listen, my people, to my instruction,
Incline your ear to the words of my mouth ! .. . "
It is a most appropriate way of inspiring the readers with a work
that is a result of a lifetime of dedication to scriptural scholarship.
Assamommomowsioneomminumik_

