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. * * 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. * * * 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.