THE JEWISH NEWS

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Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951

Member American Associati6n 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

Advertising Manager

Business Manager

CHARLOTTE HYAMS
City Editor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the third day of Shevat, 5727, the following Scriptural selections

will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuciwl portion, Ex. 10:1-13:16.\ Prophetical portion, Jer. 46:13-28.

Candle Lighting, Friday, Jan. 13 5:06 p.m.

VOL. L. No. 21

Page Four

January 13, 196'7

UN and the U.S. Middle East Embroilment

A recent column by John Chamberlain
in the Detroit News analyzes the current
Israeli situation most realistically. Basing his
thesis on the appeal that was addressed to
Secretary of State Dean Rusk by U. S. Senator
Vance Hartke of Indiana, urging that the
U. S. should strive to bring Israel and Jordan
together for peace talks, Chamberlain
emerges pessimistic. He is critical of the
United Nations and he states:

Nothing is likely to come of Hartke's mes-
sage to Rusk, for the United States has formed
an apparently unbreakable habit of letting the
UN make its foreign policy. Partly because of
the UN's defective structure and partly because
our own refusal to regard the glass house by
Manhattan's East River as a proper place for
asserting our own national interests, we never
get anything when we seek justice from the
"World Parliament." There's always a squeeze
play, and Dean Rusk is the one who gets
squeezed.
IT IS NO SECRET that, in any Middle East-
ern showdown, the United States would be on
the side of Israel. But, in the UN, we ostentati-
ously play it "neutral" as between the Israelis
and the Arabs. So we trap ourselves. When
Israel asks the UN to do something about armed
raids across her borders from Jordan or Syria,
the Soviet Union stops the works by refusing
to go along.

Unable to get justice at the UN, the self-
respecting Israeli government is forced to take
things into its own hands. It authorizes a strike
against the Jordan town of Es Samu. Where-
upon the Jordanians complain to the UN. The
UN Security Council forthwith censures Israel
for the attack. Unwilling to use its veto power,
the United States approves the censure—there-
by proving to the world that only the allies of
the Soviet Union can count on the support of
a big "protector" in the UN Security Council.

The fact that we are too gentlemanly to in-
voke a veto to insure that Israel will get even-
handed treatment at the UN could - lead to a
terrible misunderstanding. And the possibility
of such a misunderstanding is all the more dan-
gerous because of the dynamite that we our-
selves have been strewing about the Middle
East.

THE DYNAMITE comes in the form of the
military assistance that we have been giving
to both sides in the Middle East. It is impos-
sible to get accurate figures about military aid,
for the recipient governments don't want the
information publicized in detail.
But fighter planes have recently gone from
the United States to Jordan, ostensibly to keep
Arab nationalists from Syria or Egypt from
toppling Jordan's King Hussein, who is firmly
anti-Communist but shaky on his throne.
•

The State Department will not confirm the
shipments, but during his travels Senator Hartke
has watched the unloading of war material at
Middle Eastern docks. Even Middle Eastern na-
tions that don't directly benefit from U.S. mili-
tarily manage to get it surreptitiously. The
wheat we send to Nasser, which is supposed
to combat hunger among the peasantry, goes
to feed the Egyptian army.

There is much truth in what Chamber-
lain has said, yet it is not so certain that the
U.S. is ready to aid Israel to the neglect of
the Arab position. There has been so much
appeasing of Arabs—their bandits as well as
their statesmen—that there is justification in
expressing skepticism over the State Depart-
ment's role in the Middle East's boiling area.
Senator Hartke is justified in expressing
fear that, as in the case of Pakistan and India,
Israelis and Arabs will be using American
arms to. fight each other. And Chamberlain
is exceedingly friendly to the Israelis in his
assertion that: "Wouldn't it make more sense
to say that we are shipping arms to no one,
but if Israel is attacked we will go to her
aid within 24 hours?"
Regrettably, there is a lack of realism
here. In the first place, aid in 24 hours is
just what Israel fears: in 24 hours, under
current conditions of speed in military action,
a state can be demolished.
Israel has asked for a pact that would
end arming of all states in the Middle East
by mutual accord, but the Arabs rejected that
proposal. Thus the situation remains un-
resolved, with tensions mounting.
• - • Primarily the present troubles in that area
are the feuds among the Arabs themselves:
A headline over another article in the same
issue of the Detroit News which carried the
Chamberlain review of the existing conditions
was headed "Arabs Near War Among Them-
selves Over Israel." This is an exaggera-
tion. Israel unites the haters, and the strug-
gles among the Arabs themselves are for
power. If it were not for the common hatred
for Israel there might have been a conflagra-
tion unparalleled in that area. Israel, how-
ever, remains the common target of all Arabs
and even poor Jordan, and Lebanon as well,
which would have had peace with Israel, are
forced to keep on repeating that they hate
Israel. All of which adds to the insolubility
of the Middle Eastern mess resulting from
Arab refusal to accept the fact of Israel's
existence and their inability to live in peace
with themselves.

University of Michigan's Sesquicentennial

When the University of Michigan reaches
its 150th year, in March, it will have com-
pleted a great cycle marked by noteworthy
services to our state and to our nation.
The university's sesquicentennial observ-
ance is an occasion for genuine satisfaction
for all of our citizens. In the 150-year history
the University of Michigan has introduced
many forms of educational policies to pro-
vide a center of learning for the youth of
Michigan. Great teachers have come to our
state to teach at the U. of M. Much research
has been carried on in many fields, in the
scientific and the historical.
For many thousands in our community,
the U. of M. celebration is an occasion to
recall the happy college days. For many
those - days were periods of training 10 face

life. A large percentage of the students
acquired ability to overcome life's struggle
because they had begun at Ann Arbor where
so many had earned their way through
school.
A great school in 'a great state—that's
the role of the University of Michigan. Its
sesquicentennial is an event that will be
acclaimed by tens of thousands in other states
who had the privilege of studying in Ann
Arbor.
Now the U. of M. is among the very
large universities with overwhelming student
ced by our great
populations. A new era is la
university, in accord with the challenges of
our time. There is special satisfaction in
making the U. of M. sesquicentennial because
we are so certain that our alma mater will
be able to face these challenges.

Rabbi Judah's 'Sefer
In Rabbi Kramer's English Text

An old classic is made available, with all its fascinating aspects,
to the modern reader. It is the book by Rabbi Judah ben Samuel of
Ratisbon whose "The Sefer Hasidim"—"The Book of the Pious"-=-was
written in the 13th Century.
While it has been reprinted, in part or in full, in its original text,
and there have been evaluations of it in Yiddish and in German as well
as in Hebrew, this is perhaps the first time that it has been made
available in English — in the well compiled text by Dr. Simon G.
Kramer. It has been published by Bloch under the title "God and Man
in the Sefer Hasidim" and is the first in a series. The author plans
another portion of this work under the title "Man and Man in the
Sefer Hasidim."
Many of the subjects in "Sefer Hasidim" are covered in Rabbi
Kramer's work. He deals with sin and repentance, with relations
with one's Gentile neighbors, with duties to government, with self-
restraint, marriage, love, piety, prayer, education and study.
Dr. Krarner's introductory essay reviews the era during which the
"Sefer Hasidim" waS produced and explains the general character of
the book. It is pointed out that Rabbi Judah ben Samuel treated his
subjects "in the style of the preacher;" that in its approach to the
problems of observance the author "advises human beings to live their
lives in the fear and love of God, in humility and in purity and with
a sense of nearness to the divine."
Numerous stories and parables were used by Rabbi Judah to illus-
trate the ethical doctrines he dealt with, and Rabbi Kramer explains:
"The book mirrors the deep piety that in the Middle Ages pervaded
all classes of Jews, their great devotion to Judaism, their longing for
Tora and the sanctities of the religio-ethical life; and it also mirrors
the gross superstitions—the belief in weird supernatural powers—which
held all classes of the people in terror."
But "the moral value of the book remains unimpaired" and "the
'Sefer Hasidim' yields a great deal of material from which the Jewish
historian can reconstruct the history and :sociology of the period."
"Sefer Hasidim" teaches "humility within piety and opens the
doors of spiritual grace to all who humbly and respectfully serve
God." Pious Jews in Franco-Germany modeled their lives after
these teachings. The book teaches repentance, admonishes that man
can attain "a high state of divine grace," indicates, according to
Dr. Kramer; "progression from the interests of the individual to
the interests of the whole world." Its contents are interpreted as
applicable in great measure to our time.
Dr. Kramer is well qualified to present an interpretation of and
commentary on "Sefer Hasidim." Ordained in the Hebrew Theological
College, Skokie, Ill., he is now president of his alma mater. He has
several degrees including an honorary D.H.L. and has held important
national posts, also having aided the American Military Government in
Germany as Jewish laison officer.

'Jewish Holiday Party Book'
Links Child, Home, Traditions

A major, means of . emphasizing the importance of Jewish holiday
celebrations is by introducing them in the home. Linked with the
celebrations in schools, the festivals can, through proper observances
by parents with their children, or by children with the aid of their
parents' desires and abilities to •arrange such programs, gain sig-

nificance.

"Jewish Holiday Party Book" by Lillian S. Abramson and Lillian
T. Leiderman, published by Bloch, serves as a proper guide for such
holiday planning.
This book is properly illustrated, with symbols of the various
festivals for which programs are suggested. There are songs, poems,
and games as well as suggested forms for invitations.
Holidays for which parties are proposed are Rosh Hashana,
Sukkot, Simhat Tora, Hanuka, Tu b'Shevat, Purim, Passover,
Israel's Independence Day, Lag b'Omer and Shavuot, as well as
Sabbath and Rosh Hodesh celebrations.
Party hints, the making of party hats, listing of months when
parties are to be arranged, as well as a suitable glossary, are ele-
ments of merit in this book.
The two authors have skilfully compiled their ideas and have
rendered a good service with their party plans which should contribute
immensely towards home influence in holiday and Sabbath observ-
ances and in creating a deeper interest among the celebrants in
Jewish traditional celebrations.

