THE JEWISH NEWS
Half Way Up
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. 98235.
VE 8.9369. S•tbscription $6 a year. Foreign 57.
Second Class Postage Paid at Detroit, Michigan
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager
CHARLOTTE HYAMS
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath . the to enty•serenth day of Actor 11, 5727, the following scriptural
selections will he read in our synagogues:
Pentateuch& portions, Ler. 12:1.13:59, Ex. 12:1-20. Prophetical portion, Ezek.
45:16-46-18.
Rosh Ilodesh Nisan Toro reading. Tuesday. Num. 28:1-1.5.
Candi , • lighting, Friday. April 7. 6:46 p.m.
VOL. LI . No. 3
Page Four
April 7, 1967
CIA's Role in Encouraging Anti-Israel Group
"AFME has also slandered a large segment of
Christians in the main have been and
the American people by attacking what it calls
remain friendly to Israel and to the Zionist
expansionist
Zionism and insisting that an Israel
cause. The American Christian Palestine
depending upon disproportionate financial and other
Committee was influential in the years pre-
support by outsiders" will continue to be a "source
ceding the emergence of the State of Israel
of instability" and "an obstruction to a peaceful
in its assistance to the cause of rebuilding
Middle East."
Zion as the Jewish National Home. Men like
AFME has been a major supporter of the Organ-
the late Senators Robert Taft, Arthur H.
ization of Arab Students, which abuses the hos-
Vandenberg, Robert Wagner and other Sena-
pitality of the United States by prosecuting a
torial leaders, as well as Vice President Alben
propaganda campaign against American support for
Barkley, were active in movements in sup-
Israel on more than one hundred campuses through-
out the country."
port of the Zionist idea. But there have been
instances of non-Jewish antagonisms which The protest against the CIA's support of
belied the American spirit of fair play. The a violently anti-Zionist group is accompanied
American Friends of the Middle East to this by a comment that the demands for an end
day renders a great disservice to the cause of ;to subsidies to the anti-Israelis is not to be A Classic With Vowel Points
justice
!interpreted as a criticism of the U.S. Central
The revelation that the AFME had re- Intelligence Agency. Nevertheless, criticism
ceived asistance from the Central Intelligence is justified in view of the encouragement that
Agency caused the American Israel Public financial assistance gives not only to the
Affairs Committee to register a protest with activities that are aimed at undermining
President Lyndon B. Johnson and Secretary Israel's security but they also encourage vile
of State Dean Rusk. In his complaint, as propaganda on our campuses among students
chairman of the American Israel Committee, whose minds are being poisoned by misrepre-
Rabbi Philip S. Bernstein emphasized that sentations.
Last year, the Jewish Publication Society of America issued a
AFME has a right to its views, "but it is
President Johnson's order for an end revised addition of "Mesillat Yesharim — The Path of the Upright,"
wrong for the government of the United
the
classic
by Moses Hayyim Luzzatto written in Hebrew and pub-
to subsidies to private groups by the CIA
States to underwrite this organization's high-
lished in the early part of the 18th Century.
may
have
been
partly
induced
by
the
Jew-
ly controversial and harmful propaganda."
The JPS volume was translated by Dr. Mordecai M. Kaplan, who
ish protest against the assistance given the
It is to be hoped. therefore, that American
AFME. There should be a general Ameri- also wrote the scholarly introductory essay. (That edition was reviewed
aid to a violently anti-Israel and anti-Zionist
in The Jewish News upon its appearance). -
can
outburst
of
condemnation
for
what-
group will not be repeated. Dr. Bernstein. in
ever aid is given to destructive elements
Now we have another edition of "Mesillat Yesharim," appe-iring
his letter of protest. exposed AFME for what
like this anti-Israeli faction. There is no under the same title but coming from a different publisher, in a
it is worth. Pointing to the "unwisdom" of
different
translation and with an introduction by another scholar.
need to apologize for it, either, since all
making grants to this group. Dr. Bernstein
that the AFME does is create hatred and
The differing edition has been published by Philipp Feldheim,
revealed the aims of the AFME and stated:
aspire to the destruction of an existing
Inc. (96 E. B'way, NY2), and it has one other major difference
"From the beginning, in 1951, that organization
autonomous state. No American with a
from the text of the JPS: the Hebrew version of "Mesillat Yes-
has disseminated anti-Israel and anti-Zionist views
harim" has the vowel points, the nekudot. It is the first time
sense of honor can possibly give encourage-
which are prejudicial to the State of Israel and
that this work has appeared with the vowel points.
ment to such a diabolical group.
which reflect adversely on American friends of
Israel.
Arab students have had a free hand in
Thus the great work by the eminent Hebraist and Italian-Jewish
"Leaders of AFME have opposed economic and
disseminating propaganda not only against scholar, a work that has survived the centuries and retains its price-
military aid to Israel, while supporting such assist.
Israel and Zionism but also against American lessness, is now in another new and most interesting edition in Hebrew
ance to the Arab states. Mr. Earl Bunting, Chair-
has become especially usable with the nekudot in prayer books
Jewry. All Jews have been lumped together that
man of AFME's board of directors, has called the
and in usage by Western Jewries.
in the spread of propaganda that receives a
establishment of Israel a 'tragic mistake.' In 1962,
Naturally, the two volumes differ — in the translations as well
AFME's late Middle East Director, Elmo Hutchison,
modicum of our government's endorsement
described Israel to the Arab press as "fascist,
when our tax dollars go to give undue cred- as the introductions. The Hebrew text, with the vowel points added,
is the same in the Feldheim volume as it is in the JPS edition, except
intolerant, defiant, aggressive, expansionist."
ence to aims to destroy a state that is on that Feldheim's also has a hatima — an epilogue — of one page at
"And he went on to say: Final settlement of
friendliest terms with America and Amer- the end of the Luzzatto Hebrew text.
the Palestine problem will not come easily, but
icans. That a minority element like AFME
justice and time are on the side of the Arabs. One
Shraga Silverstein, a Mesivta Chaim Berlin graduate, is the trans-
should have been given such assistance is
thing is certain—the Israel of Ben-Gurion, the
in the Feldheim edition. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate from
incredible. The protest of the American lator
belligerent arm of world Zionism, is not here to
Brooklyn College with BA and MA degrees, he and his family
Israel Public Affairs Committee was timely settled in Israel in 1963 and he is now a lecturer in English. He has
stay."
and fully justified. AFME's activities must translated other noted Hebrew works.
"Hutchison joined AFME because, he said,
AFME is fighting Zionism and I wanted in on
be exposed for what they are worth and
A foreword to the Feldheim volume by Rabbi Avigdor Miller, in
this fight."
should be totally discredited.
Hebrew and in English, comments on Luzzatto's work, stating about
Luzzatto's 'Mesillat Yesharim'
Edition With the Nekudot
Issued in New Bilingual
the author and his "Mesillat Yesharim":
State of Jewish Belief and the Campus Factor
What really is the state of Jewish belief
tions is the volunteer worker. It is not the
which is currently being debated, and how
contributor but the volunteer who matters
can we reach the college students whose
the most. Get good volunteers, and you also
ranks are increasing rapidly and whose
get better contributors. Therefore the most
future involvement in Jewish communal af-
pressing challenge of our time is to find a
fairs is of the utmost importance to American
way of restoring priority of interest to the
Jewry?
volunteer worker who can form the proper
larger force of interested people who will
The mounting interest in these questions.
devote themselves to community develop-
the concern that has been expressed for
ments.
Jewry's current internal status, the doubts
and the fears over a continuing decline in It stands to reason that in the long-range
Jewish affairs now represent the major sub- process it is especially necessary to reach
ject of discussion on our calendar. into the campus, to enroll the cooperation of
Hillel Foundations' directors have natu- college students and faculty members, so
rally turned to the subject, and the move- to expand the interested army of affiliated
ment's national director, Rabbi Benjamin Jews that it will have the proper community
Kahn, has warned that an "important poten- awareness not to be separated from klal
tial for creative support" of Jewish causes
Israel, from the community of their people.
is being lost because of the failure of the We have much to learn. Our planning
functioning communities to involve the Cam- can not be limited to a few weeks' fund-rais-
pus in its "plans, programs and leadership." ing period. It must extend through the years,
If there is any validity at all to this con- basing the programing and the planning
tention, it is applicable not only to the cam- on a full measure of knowledge of the func-
pus but to all elements in our communities, tions around us. Let there be understand-
and:more especially to the youth. ing on a year-round basis and campaigning
TIN .s,trongest factor in communal func- for funds will be easier.
"The author intended it as a guide to Perfection; but the
reader who studied it for its Tora content alone will find it as
deep and wide as any of the works of the great Akhronim (the
later authorities). For generations, many have been inspired to
greatness in service of God by this work; but no less has been
the intellectual influence of its rational and lucid ideology. It has
truly fulfilled its great author's intention of serving as a Pathway
to God."
In his translator's preface. Rabbi Silverstein declares: "To reap
the greatest benefit from 'Mesillat Yesharim,' it is not enough that it
be 'read.' It must be 'lived,' felt, experienced. One must sensitize him-
self to its every word. To summarize, to distil, to 'capture the spirit'
will not do. It is already distilled; it is already spirit."
The translator also admonishes his readers: "No greater error
could be made than to regard 'Mesillat Yesharim' as a 'book' in the
commonly accepted sense of the term. It is not a 'treatise,' not an
'exposition.' It does not even pretend to tell us more than we already
know. In this paradox, however, lies the very secret of its greatness,
the very brilliance and originality of its approach. For the key to
the paradox is the profound truth that it is not what one knows which
shapes his moral conduct, but how one knows it. And it is in teaching
us how to know, how to weave the truths of the Tora into the fabric
of our minds and souls, to make of them heart of our heart and flesh
of our flesh that 'Mesillat Yesharim' transcends the realm of 'moral
dissertion' and becomes part and parcel of our lives."
Studied together, the two texts provide masterful study of tradi-
tional Judaism for the modern reader whose knowledge will be
enriched by a great work presented in two fashions, in translations
that can be studied and contrasted — both with rewarding compen-
sations for learning enriched.