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 twenty-ninth day of Adar, I, 5727, the following scriptural selec- tions will be read in our synagoues: Pentateuchal portion, Ex. 38:21-40:38, 30:11-16. Prophetical portion, Kings 12:1-17. Rosh Hodesh Adar II ,Tora readings, Sunday and Monday, Num. 28:1-15. Candle lighting, Friday, March 10, 6:14 p.m. VOL. L. No. 29 Page Four March 10, 1967 Community s Duties in the Major Campaign In less than two weeks, the entire Detroit Jewish community will again be put to the test to prove whether our claims to dedication to basic responsibilities is very real or is mere lip service. With the Allied Jewish Campaign set to commence the annual solicitations, to be con- ducted over a six-week period for what is hoped to develop into a $6,000,000 income, the current appeal has greater significance than many previous drives. While there already is an assurance of success for the 1967 solicitations, with the drive opening with pledges that already total $3,000,000, the challenge this year is far greater than any previous one because of the mounting obligations and especially because we have assumed a position of leader- ship among American Jewish communities and must retain it. When we speak of the position of leadership it is not a form of boasting. It is an affirm- ation of our having recognized our responsibilities and having fulfilled them. But the bur- dens have increased, the demands for expanded service are growing, and the duties are more pressing. That is why it is fair to say that in an appeal for funds to carry on our services and to maintain the activities in behalf of the less fortunate overseas we must recognize that giving is not static, that it must be increased, just as personal incomes have increased, and that the duties we speak of call for a demonstration of interest and loyalty to disprove that there is even the remotest possibility of mere lip service in confronting the issues involved in a great fund-raising campaign. The overseas aspect of the current drive is well known and generally understood. There are many thousands of Jews who live in lands of oppression and for whom homes must be established in security. Israel is the only haven available for them and the open door to the Jewish State must be retained. Besides, every possible evidence must be dem- onstrated to indicate to Israel that American Jewry will not let its kinsmen down and that the injustices that have been in evidence at the United Nations in dealing with the Syrian- Israel and other disputes will not deter us from giving aid to the embattled small Jewish State. There are other elements in the current drive that are vital. We have done a lot of evaluating and we have expressed pride in the aid we give to local agencies, to the social welfare, recreational and health projects. We have especially boasted — and rightfully — that we are leading in the uphill efforts to strengthen our educational system. If these services are to continue, if they are to remain creative and productive, they must be given all the added assistance they require in the years to come. This applies to national agencies we aid with our campaign dollars as well as to the overseas and local needs. The current campaign truly puts us to the test: either we are boastful about a note worthy status we have attained as a leader among the Jewish communities in America, or we will retain that status by solidifying our forces and by assuring progress for the causes we aid with our gifts. That is why it is of the utmost importance that those who can give more than in past years should do so and that those who have not given should enlist their services in the campaign and should not be counted out as non-participants in the move- ments that are vital to our existence as an organized community. No one who is able to contribute should count himself or herself out from a share in the glory of belonging to Detroit Jewry. The Vandals and the Tragic Trend of Our Time Those who have wondered how human beings could have turned into beasts during the Nazi era, how people who were created in the image of the higher forces as portrayed in Scriptures, and how they could possibly have destroyed property and threatened lives and burned houses- of worship, might under- stand it better having heard the report of what happened in Trenton, Mich., last week. The police describe it as the work of van- dals. Of course, that is what it was: they were undoubtedly delinquents who caused the damage. But they could not have been sane youths: they must have been demented. That is what the Hitlerites were and that is what those who molest people and destroy sacred objects are. How else are we to describe the sacrilege of mutilating Sifre Tora, of using Sidurim to ignite the fire, .,of desecrating a house of worship? Of course, it is hoped that the vandals will be apprehended. Of course, the over- whelming majority of the people are horri- fied by what had happened and Christians are joining in condemning the disgraceful act in Trenton. But what had happened last week was not a new occurrence. There has been swastika smearing and synagogue desecration in De- troit for some years, but the incidents were on a smaller scale than the one in Trenton and they were written off as mere vandalism in order not to frighten people unduly. With an increase in incidents involving desecrations, it 'becomes necessary to become more seriously concerned about new trends which are repetitions of old practices. There have been murders that stem from dementia. There was a shooting in a Chicago nurses' home, wholesale murder from the rooftop of a university building in Texas, the gun on a Bima. They are all part of a trend that points to a decline in human responsibilities and to the need to re-evaluate our approach to youth training, to relationships among men, to the duties that devolve upon citizens who must respect their fellow men. It is the trend that matches Nazism that we must be aware of and must guard against. It is the horror that stems from the inhu- manity of man to man that should guide us in our human relations and should direct leadership towards proper approaches to law observance. We pray for a solution to such destructive manifestations and for a return to sanity in our ranks, especially among youth that has been misled and needs new guid- ance towards responsible partnership in wholesome communities. The demented are a very small minority in our midst, yet we could not possibly have enough insane asylums for all of them. The rational, the human elements among us, over- whelm the bigots. In Trenton and ,else- where the Christians among them are even more deeply hurt by what had happened in the Michigan community than are the Jews whose sanctuary has been desecrated. It is thanks to this reality that we can rest more easily, that we have a right to feel that the tragedies inflicted by the insane represent a passing phase in our troubled time. 'Journey Through Haunted Land' Depicts German Situation Today Amos Elon, Israeli foreign correspondent, having toured and studied the Germany of today, interviewing the present rulers of the land, getting the views of the German youth as well as elders, has written an important book in which he presents the developing progressive tendencies and remaining symptoms of old poisons. In "Journey Through a Haunted Land—The New Germany," published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston (383 Madison, NY17), Elon reports on his visit to Auschwitz—it was during the 1965 trials when judges took culprits to the scene of their crimes—and on the reactions of Germans to the past. The spirit of universities is reviewed. He thus confronts problems involving youth: "The older generation which helped put Hitler into _ power, cheered him on, waged his wars, watched while the synagogues were burning and their Jewish neighbors were _led away—this generation still holds on. In cultural life it has little influence; press, radio and television are mostly in the hands of the young. But economically and politically this older generation still controls the new West German Republic. Adolf Hitler's generals, officials and industrialists are respected citizens today. They are found among the mighty in Bonn: in leading positions as members of parliament, as secretaries of state, lawyers and commanders of an army wholly integrated into NATO. Some two-thirds of all West German judges practiced 'justice' during the Third Reich. Sixty-four per cent of all army officers once belonged to the Nazi Wehrmacht. Half of all federal officials served the Nazi administration. When one considers that more than twenty years have passed since the end of the war, these are astonishingly high figures. The age group of senior executives (those between forty and sixty today) was severely decimated by the war. One would consequently expect to find younger men advancing more quickly. Rather than former Nazi judges handing down the law, or former Nazi generals planning Germany's defenses against Russia, one would expect to see younger judges, generals or ambassadors. But in Germany forty or forty-five is still considered too young for such a job." There is a comment on the press of Germany that deserves special attention. The recent disputes, the role of the Spiegel, the new attitudes of German newspapers, their critical approaches—these are vital to the discussion. In the course of these analyses, Elon states: "The Pressehaus in Hamburg is a large dark building occupying an entire block. It houses the editorial offices of the Zeit, the Spiegel and the Stern as well as two daily newspapers. Familiarly, the building is known as the 'Hamburg Hangout.' The imposing brick building looks almost like a fortress (and for a time it was when the police occupied the Spiegel offices in 1962). Its top floor looks out on beautifully reconstructed Hamburg. After the great fire of 1842 Heinrich Heine wrote: Rebuild your houses And drain your puddles Equip yourselves with better laws And better fire engines. "After a more recent catastrophe the Germans seem to have taken Heine's advice. They have rebuilt their houses and obtained better laws. Their newspapers have no real power; but they are fire engines. They are certainly better in this respect than those of the Weimar Republic. The best newspapers in West Germany act as watchdogs . . . with energy, fantasy and without fear. It is the best thing to say about the press of any country." There is realism in Elon's approach to the German problems: "Today even those who admit that millions of Jews were murdered often pretend that Germans murdered only Jews. The Soviet Union, not counting ten million dead soldiers, lost thirteen million people in occupied territories, including four million prisoners of war shot, gassed, worked or starved to death. The Soviet Union, says Alexander Werth in 'Russia at War,' did not have just one Lidice, not only one Oradour, but hundreds. Lesczynski estimates the number of dead Polish civilians at two and a half million people. At least one million Poles died in extermination camps. "It has become common to compare—even equate—the extermi- nation camps of Auschwitz and Treblinka with the destruction of Dresden by Allied bombers a few weeks before the end of the war, or with the expulsion of the German population from East Prussia, Silesia or Czechoslovakia in 1945. Some people demand trials against Allied war criminals. Prominent politicians, led by former Minister of Defense Franz Josef-,,Strgws,. render lip service to this demand. It is politically useful." In an able translation by Michael Roloff, this journey through pot-Nazi Gemany is a - good commentary on existing conditions;