Purely Commentary
Senator Kennedy: His Humor, His ME Views
When a United States Senator comes to a community to assist
in a humanitarian cause, he renders a service and it should be ap-
preciated, as it always is. A Senator, or any other guest, need not
flatter. It is preferable that he should be factual: only through the
basic elements in any given situation are we able to arrive at truth,
at proper solutions. This is the basis for action, and one who expresses
views as a responsible member of our government should be so
guided.
Senator Edward Kennedy made a good impression here. He' is
young, handsome—as all the Kennedys are—and congenial. He has a
smile that charms. But he had a text that needed altering in order to
assure adherence to actualities. His speech writers please take note:
It is easy to gather up a hodge-podge of ideas which have been
expressed during the years of turmoil in the Middle East and to
present them as a platform for action. But when a young Senator
promulgates an idea it should at least sound as if it could be work-
able. What he proposed here last week was not only old, rehashed,
vague—it has been shown to be unworkable in the form in which it
was uttered.
The young Senator could have won admiration if he had
found a way and suggested it of getting Arabs and Jews to-
gether at a peace table. Instead he muddled the whole business
of the Mixed Armistice Commission involved in the Israel-Syrian
dispute by suggesting that Israel contributed to "an opportunity
lost." Without indicating the reasons for Israel's boycotting the
commission for several years, Senator Kennedy rendered an in-
justice. Also: when he spoke of Israel threatening to break off
the current meetings of the Israel-Syrian Mixed Armistice Com-
mission convened by the United Nations, he failed again—this
time to point out that the adjournments of the commission's ses-
sions were due to Syrian intransigence.
The visiting Senator commented on the peaceful status of the
Israel-Lebanese border. It was an encouraging comment but even
that one needed explaining. Both Jordan and Lebanon might be seek-
ing peace with Israel, but the fear injected by Syria and Egypt are
stumbling blocks. Besides, Syria has sent infiltrators into Israel also
via the Lebanese border. These things should be known. Perhaps
Senator Kennedy will welcome the information we now give him.
It is easy to suggest, as Kennedy did here, that the UN
border patrol force should be strengthened and its personnel
increased "five-fold." But why make suggestions in a matter
that already meets with great difficulty—the tendency in the
UN being to reduce rather than increase the border patrol—due
to lack of funds and Russia's failure to cooperate in implement-
ing such efforts? At least, the facts as they are should be
generally known.
There was another postponement of the Syrian-Israel Mixed
Armistice ,Commission sessions the day after Senator Kennedy
spoke here. It was not forced by Israel but by the Syrians. While
this was developing, Syrian President Dr. Nour E. Atassi said at
a meeting in Damascus that the Jewish problem (like Eichmann
and his cohorts he, too, spoke of a Jewish problem) can be solved
"only by war." Senator Kennedy should give this some thought
lest he be misguided again into reading for the record a speech
full of flaws. And the Jewish audience should understand that it
was presented with cliches that aren't worth a tinker's damn.
And if the handsome Senator will give the issue some thought
he may even revise his personal definition of humor. Some jokes
just don't stick well at times.
The reporter who suggested that a speech like Senator Edward
Kennedy's in Detroit might cost the Kennedys 100,000 Jewish votes
could well revise the judgment. Either it could cost the Kennedys
and their image a million votes ar none at all. But if it will cost them
votes, they should be the votes of Americans of all faiths who in the
course of human events demand factual and pragmatic interpretations
of world events. If the Senator was faulty in his interpretation of the
Middle East situation — and he certainly was! — then the affront was
to the entire people and not to those of the Jewish faith alone.
He told some stories at the dinner here. One was about Brother
Bob who has had a haircut and now won't need one "until April-
1968!" Three cheers for a well groomed Senate!
But there was another story: about a speech by Israel Ambassa-
dor Avraham Harman that preceded his at some public function.
According to the Senator, the audience was moved to tears and jumped
up to sing Hatikva. (sic!) Then he got up and advised the audience:
"Let's look at the Middle East situation dispassionately." What a
flattering thing to say to a Jewish audience after it is moved to tears
and (in the Senator's imagination) jumps up to sing Hatikva ! Teddy
has much to learn on this score!
There was another story told by Senator Edward Kennedy: that
"the country has a new portrait of our President, and the President
has a new portrait painted." Let the White House protest that one.
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Henry Morgenthau's Colorful Career
Henry Morgenthau Jr. played a vital role in the history of this
land during the crucial years of the Second World War. He was one
of President Roosevelt's chief advisers and one of the group who
survived Cabinet membership the longest. He was a frequent partner
in FDR's card games but he was much more than that on a fraternal
basis: he was the late President's good neighbor, long a friend of the
family, one who shared Roosevelt's numerous interests. He aspired
to be Secretary of Agriculture but he became Secretary of the
Treasury and he performed his duties well.
In recognition of his labors, it should not be forgotten that as
national chairman of the United Jewish Appeal he was an effective
campaigner for the great Jewish humanitarian cause in the most
trying years for Jewry in this century.
The New York Times had some kind things to say about him
editorially, asserting that historians owe him a special debt for the
facts he related in his published diary. The Times pointed out that
"while Mr. Morgenthau hardly ranked with Hamilton and Gallatin,
no one faced a harder job or worked at it with more vigor and
honesty at the Treasury." That editorial pointed out:
"Henry Morgenthau Jr. served Franklin D. Roosevelt and the
nation well. A gentleman farmer, philanthropist and Democrat, he
had hoped to be appointed Secretary of Agriculture. But he accepted
the much more onerous task of presiding over the Treasury Depart-
ment, a position he held during the extraordinarily trying years
of recovery from the Great Depression and the equally challenging
years of the Second World War.
"Mr. Morgenthau was a controversial figure during his long
'
2—Friday, February 17, 1967
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
The Kennedy Image Dulled:
A Young Senator Who Needs
Much More Factual Advice
By Philip
Slomovitz
years in office. He was criticized by both radical New Dealers and
conservatives in the banking community for his handling of the
Treasury. It is true that he had little aptitude for finance. Yet he
succeeded in his vital objectives of strengthening the dollar and
financing the war.
"He was less successful in his ventures into foreign fields,
particularly in his plan for turning Germany into an agrarian
nation. But his spirited advocacy of the Morgenthau Plan for
Germany and his earnest promotion of the Bretton Woods confer-
ence that led to the creation of the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund destroyed the fiction that he was a mere figurehead
for President Roosevelt. In reality, he ran his own show at the
Treasury and re-established its traditional role as the strong right
arm of the executive branch."
Mr. Morgenthau left an indelible mark in the story of America
in the 1930s and 1940s. He contributed ably towards the alleviation
of Jews who suffered from the Nazi persecutions. He will be
remembered with great respect.
*
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Alexander Sanders' Legacy
Alexander Sanders belonged to a remarkable generation, and he
has handed down to his progeny an imperishable legacy.
He was typical of a generation that came here empty-handed and
labored to learn the American way of life, to study and to devote
themselves to special pursuits, at the same time adhering to the
principles that motivated the spiritual and culural life of he people
they stemmed from.
Dr. Sanders learned quickly, taught Hebrew school here as a
teen-ager and earned his way through high school—at the same time
supporting the parents he left behind in Russia—and working while
studying, he acquired his MD. Through the years, he held fast to his
Jewish heritage. He was as proficient in Hebrew as he was in surgery.
He loved America and he loved Israel. He loved the culture he
acquired and he was steeped in Jewish learning, through the support
and encouragement he gave to both Yiddish and Hebrew. The tribute
to his memory, in the form of a scholarship fund at Hillel Day School,
is a natural reaction of family and friends.
A lover of good literature and music, an avid reader, Dr. Sanders
also enjoyed a golf game and was an excellent chess player.
The legacy he has left in the spiritual ideology that motivated
his life is an inspiration to family and friends who shared it in his
lifetime and respects it, in memorializing him, now that the com-
munity has been impoverished by his death.
Making a Myth Out of a Delusion
The New Republic is one of the very great liberal American
magazines. Which creates the puzzle why it gave five solid pages
of space to an article on "The Last Madness of Ruby" (by Ronnie
Dugger). All the silly stuff about Ruby's delusions, his visions of an
Israel destroyed, his imaginations that there were pogroms all around
him, are packed into an article that hardly adds a thing to the
confusion created by a madness that caused a man to act irrationally.
"Ruby was sick or he was faking" is one of the puzzles presented
by the article. The entire text, a rehash of many rumors, quotations,
psychiatric opinions, hardly adds an iota of merit to the discussion
about Ruby and the crime he committed. He acted tragically, died
tragically and now the speculators are making mountains out of
molehills. That's what the New Republic article does.
Spain and Its Future Relations with Israel
It must have been because he was flirting with Arab politicians,
while he was in Beirut, Lebanon, that the Spanish Minister of
Information and Tourism Fraga Iribarne said that Spain would
never recognize Israel. While emphasizing Spanish friendship with
the Arab countries, Iribarne uttered diplomatic nonsense.
"Never" is a rather elastic word, and in Spain perhaps more than
anywhere else one does not trifle with it. After all, there is a revolt
in progress there, as indicated in an editorial in the New York Times
only a few days ago when it was pointed out under the heading
"Assault on the Franco Regime":
"The greatest fact of Spanish life is that a new generation has
'come along which doesn't give a hoot for the Spanish Civil War,
which wants to live in 1967, not 1937, which is fed up with obscurantist
old statesmen, old bishops and cardinals, old Falangists, old professors,
and an old, crumbling system of government that has continued
beyond its time in Spanish history.
"General Franco cannot indefinitely hold back the tide of
modernity which has been pressing upon him so forcefully. He has
given ground in economic and fiscal affairs. The church hierarchy
has been under steady pressure since Pope John XXIII called for an
aggiornamento—a bringing up to date. A new press law tried to loosen
the censorship just a little, only to prove that there had to be real
freedom or none."
Vastly more important is the editorial in the Jan. 19 issue of
the leading Spanish Catholic newspaper, Ya, which declared:
After referring to the interview accorded recently in Jerusalem to the
paper's special correspondent by Foreign Minister Abba Eban, on the subject
of the possibility of establishing diplomatic relations between Spain and
Israel, the editorialist remarks that in "politics, anything that is not real
and realistic is sterile" and goes on to write: "We must meditate this
anomaly: on the eighteenth year of Israel's existence, SPAIN IS THE ONLY
WEST-EUROPEAN NATION WHICH HAS NOT RECOGNIZED THIS STATE.
This fact is dosconcerting to the Sephardic Community which, in Israel,
numbers some three hundred thousand members and which is bound to our
culture and our history by so many common roots.
Furthermore we think that our attitude is hurting the possibility of a
mutually beneficial cooperation between our two countries, situated as
they are, at each corner of the Mediterranean Sea. This cooperation pertains
to the field of the Common Market and also to the field of a common policy
of the countries in the Mediterranean basin which is bound to become in
the near future a center of dynamic activities as an international crossroads
between Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
We believe, however, that THE TIME HAS COME TO REVISE OUR
NEGATIVE ATTITUDE TOWARDS ISRAEL. Our friendship with the Arabs
based no doubt in the past on factors of close relations must be compatible
with our not less well-founded friendship with the Jews. There is the case
of. Persia and Turkey, both Moslem countries which have full relations with
Israel. Ethiopia, in spite of important Moslem minorities in its Eritrean and
Somali territories, follows the same course. Why should we find incompati-
bility between our Avirroes and our Maimonides, between our Jbn Hazm
and our Halevi? The Star of David and the half moon can and must fit
both into our sky.
In the free and ample consideration of all the aspects of this problem,
surely Spain cannot allow any one to put pressure on her. We must act and
weigh carefully what is just and suitable.
We have in the Shepardis of Israel "three hundred thousand spontaneous
Ambassadors of Spain.' Are we going to continue to ignore them or to
turn a deaf ear to their eager desire for full and fraternal relations—to
the point of deprecating the favourable reaction which a recognition of
Israel by Spain would create in the vast sphere of moral intellectual and
economic interests created by the Jewish people all over the World? False
situations—even when accepted for circums sntial motives—should be aban-
doned before they create irremediable effe
stated as a state, to pretend
When a country is born and bt7zr- Nc
'ems, is in our opinion an
to ignore it and not to deal with
t. We are not confronted
unwise policy. This is the case of Spai,
'vont of a contemporary
with a problem of sympathy or of anti-p,
"ecognition "de jure"
political reality. We must accept this rf
Pennsylvania Governor
Supported by Faiths on
Sabbath Exemption Bill
PHILADELPHIA (J T A) —
The 15 agencies comprising the
Pennsylvania Jewish Commun-
ity Relations Conference hailed
Gov. Raymond P. Shafer for
including in his legislative pro-
gram a Sabbatarian Exemption
Bill, which enables Jews and
other religious groups to bypass
the State's Sunday closing law
if they observe Saturday as
their Sabbath.
The governor listed the bill
as a measure for which he
would seek passage in the
State Legislature, during his re-
cent State of the Commonwealth
address. It was originally pass-
ed in the State Legislature's
lower house last year, but died
in the Senate Judiciary Gen-
eral Committee.
In addition to the support of
Orthodox, Conservative and
secular Jewish groups, the bill
was endorsed by the Greater
Philadelphia Council of
Churches.
House Committee Report
Says Nazi Party Not Worth
Investigating as Threat
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The
House Un-American Activities
Committee will not hold investi-
gation of the American Nazi Party
because Nazism is of so little sig-
nificance as a threat to American
security, a committee report said.
The report said George Lincoln
Rockwell, the American Nazi
"fuehrer," wanted to have hear-
ings held in order to be able to
exploit them for publicity pur-
poses. Chairman Edwin Willig,
Louisiana Democrat, said in the
report that hearings on the Amer-
ican Nazis would only be "to dig-
nify , Rockwell far more than his
importance."
The report was the outcome of a
preliminary investigation of neo-
Nazi activities that began in 1965,
following requests from many
groups concerned over Rockwell's
racist activities. Chairman Willis
minimized the importance of the
Nazi movement in the United
States.
He said the so-called American
Nazi Party at present had less
than 50 members, and that it was
doubtful that its membership had
ever exceeded 100.
(In Appleton, Wis., about 500
persons walked out on Rockwell
as he spoke to about 1,000 students
and faculty members at Lawrence
University last week. The audience
laughed at parts of Rockwell's
speech, especially when h.i blamed
the huge eastern blackout in 1965
on Negroes and Communists.)
of a new country could be post-
poned, if at all, for a certain lapse
of time as a precaution until it is
proved that such a country behaves
according to the rules common in
the civilized world. However, once
this condition has been fulfilled by
the new state, its recognition can-
not be postponed. To act otherwise
would AMOUNT TO PROMOTING
DISCRIMINATION, AS A PRINCI-
PLE IN DIPLOMACY. For, in diplo-
macy, the rule is mutual recogni-
tion of states, nonrecognition being
the exception.
As for Israel, no one can deny it
the characteristic of a State in fact
or in law. In actual fact Israel is
more solid and has a more juridical
character than many other states
with which we maintain relations.
Israel is furthermore attached to
the Spanish people by deep bonds,
cultural and even ethnic, which we
cannot retract; what are we wait-
ing for, then?"
It is clear that what the Spanish
minister said in Beirut was sheer
nonsense. History never confirms
such declarations.
Perhaps there is a job ahead for
the Sephardic Jewish communities
everywhere, especially in the
United States, to repudiate Iribar-
ne's statement. If there is sincerity
in Spanish claims that Spain is
amending the prejudices of the
past and seeks to atone for the anti-
Jewish discriminations, then the
political boastfulness uttered in
Beirut should be repudiated. The
Catholic newspaper just quoted al-
ready has done so. Now it should
be done officially.