THE JEWISH NEWS

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

Association of English—Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial

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Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 West Seven Mlle Road, Detroit, Mich. 48233.

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PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Editor and Publisher

SIDNEY SHMARAK

CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ

Advertising Manager

Business Manager

CHARLOTTE DUBIN

City Editor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections

This Sabbath, the twenty-third day of Sivan, 5727, the following Scriptural
selections will be read in our synagogues:
1 Samuel 11:14-12:22.
Pentateuchal portion, Num. 16:1.18:32, Prophetical portion,

Candle lighting, Friday, June 30, 1.53 pm.

VOL. LI. No. 15

Page 4

June 30, 1967

Is It Rome versus Jerusalem Again?

First reactions to the occurrences at the
United Nations represent a mingling of dis-
gust and confusion, and there often creeps
in an element of despair over the failure of
most efforts at rapprochement that could lead
to a genuine peace in that part of the world
where Jews are established as a nation among
several war-threatening nations. In spite of
the lessons of two decades during which a
struggling people faced the constant threat
that it will be exterminated, the nations of
the world have acted, and continued to act,
as if little David were the monster and the
defeated Goliath is a poorly maligned saint.
Apparently the world can not forgive
little Israel its successes against superhuman
odds, and a calloused international tribunal
refuses to condone the determination of a
very small group, judged by the immense
proportions of the neighboring states, to
fall prey to genocide. This, indeed, is Israel's
great sin: it does not consent to extermination,
it has made it known that there will never
again be another Auschwitz or Dachau or
Treblinka without resistance. Added to that
sin is the embattled people's determination
to protect its future status by the elimination
of those pockets in territory, or mountainous
terrains, or waterways, whence destruction
can be threatened anew.
Of course, Israel also aims to avoid repe-
tition of menacing situations involved in
"divided cities." Jerusalem must remain
united, and the guarantees provided by Israel
for the religious freedoms of all denomina-
tions are assurances that the church and
mosque will have as much freedom as the
synagogue under Israeli rule.
*
*
Insofar as the Kotel Maaravi — the Wes-
tern Wall of the Temple—is concerned, there
is no disputing the fact that the oldest of
Jewish shrines will not be abandoned and
that it will remain as a sacred spot in an un-
divided Holy City.
the armistice negotiations in 1948 assurances
had been given that Jews would have free ac-
cess to the Wailing Wall—a term now being
abandoned for resort anew to the Kotel
The fact to be remembered is that during
Maaravi designation for the Western Wall.
There was to be an unhampered access to Mt.
Scopus and the old Hebrew University and
Hadassah Hospital buildings, and to the Mount
of Olives on which there is an old Jewish
cemetary where relatives of many Americans
are buried and approach to which had been
forbidden. Had these pledges been adhered
to. had there been freedom of the seas and the
right of passage of Israeli ships through
Sharm el-Sheikh and the Suez Canal, the June
1967 war surely would have been avoided.
These are the established facts reiterated
in the simplest terms. But the well-known
details of what had happened before June 5,
the record of Israel's quick movements to
triumph and the serious attempt to establish
order in the conquered areas, seem to have
been totally ignored in the United Nations.
Except for the serious and factual declara-
tion by the permanent delegate of the United
States, Israel has stood alone in defense of
the little state's position amidst fist-shaking,
saber-rattling, oratorical pleaders for a neigh-
bor's destruction and several states' resort
to billions of dollars' worth of munitions sup-
plied them by their Communist friends.
Without a word of solace over the position
Israel has held for many years, following
lines of indifference during the past 19 years
in which they could have come to Israel's
defense and prevented the threatened geno-
cide, the Western powers must be held re-

sponsible for encouraging a state of war, for
having contributed towards the massing of
troops which caused the new war.
It has been estimated that the Russian
munitions captured in this month's war by
Israel may amount to two billion dollars, that
another billion dollars' worth of tanks, planes
and other equipment have been destroyed.
In view of the massing of large numbers of
troops on her borders, fortified by Russian
munitions, should Israel have sat back com-
placently? It is because Israel was forced into
a similar vast military build-up that the small
nation suffered from an economic recession.
By the same token, instead of raising the
standards of the masses of the Arabic peoples,
Egypt, Syria and Jordan were building for
war. Now Russia again is reportedly aiding
Egypt with new weapons — at a time when
Egyptians are starving, are in need of medi-
cation and food. If Russia should continue
on such a policy, with the Arabs condoning
new military escalations, instead of thinking
of the plight of the masses of impoverished
people, we can expect nothing but trouble.
* *
In view of the situation thus outlined, we
are compelled to wonder, in terms of the
dangers facing Israel, whether this is not
a repetition of Rome versus Jerusalem, of
antagonistic world once again resorting to
religious hatred aimed at undermining the
very existence of the Jewish people.
Nevertheless, in spite of the abhorrent
developments at the UN, contrary to the
revulsion one must feel upon hearing the
utterances of men who speak glibly and who
emit hatreds in a world tribunal, all hope
is not gone. The world's chief correspondents
on the scene of the war have indicated an
understanding of Israel's position. At least
one Arab nation, Lebanon, has apparently
refused to lend its army for participation in
a war against Israed, even though its leaders
meet with Arabs in their "summit" confer-
ences to plot Israel's destruction.
* * *
There is a great internal Jewish sense of
satisfaction over what has occurred. The
venom has unified Jewry, the hatreds have
not borne fruit. On the contrary, they have
rallied many, many Christians, together with
their Jewish fellow-men, in a brotherhood to
protect Israel's position as a sovereign demo-

.

cratic state.
Jewish communal unity is most heart-
ening. the response to Israel's needs is most
generous and must continue.

Confidence is being restored in the atti-
tudes of our youth. There is reason to believe
that there has been less estrangement from
Jewish loyalties than was feared.
A major need to be taken into consideration
now is the future threat to Israel not only
from its enemies but also its friends. There
is the danger of a lessening of interest in
Israel's position, of a waning of enthusiasm
over the triumph that has really called the
bluff of the dictators who had been menacing
not only little Israel but the Western Powers
as well.
It is important that there should be vig-
ilance, that the rearming of the Arab powers
should not permitted, that all efforts should
be humanitarian-wise—towards raising the
lowered standard of an already low human
status among the masses in Arabic coun-
tries. There must be unity in Israel's defense
in the councils of the nations of the world.
Unless these efforts can be continued, phil-
anthropically and politically, it will be not
Israel alone who will be threatened but the
entire civilized world. •

AM.

agiV

vie We
agen,

Arbeau's 'Orchesography'
Refers to Biblical Sources

Would you like to learn to dance the pavan? the courante? the
branle? These dances were as popular 500 years ago as the watusi
and monkey are today. And there were reformers even then who
objected to the latest dances on moral grounds!
Thoinot Arbeau (1520-1595), one of the foremost dancing masters
of his day, gives us a first-hand account of contemporary dances in
"Orchesography: 15th and 16th Century Dances," originally published
in 1589. Written in the form of a dramatic dialogue between the
teacher, Arbeau, and his student Capriol (named after the "capriole,"
a dance step), "Orchesography" was intended as an instruction
manual for the contemporary young man of fashion. Arbeau begins
by justifying the dance to its critics, quoting from biblical and classical
sources.
References are made to Jewish aspects in the dance as an ancient
tradition. Arbeau wrote: "The holy prophet, King David, danced
before the Ark of the Lord and the holy prophet Moses was not
angered to see dancing, but grieved that it should take place around
a Golden Calf and become an act of idolatry."
Later he wrote: "I do not know whether the Children of Israel
made use of a drum with one parchment only, . . . but the 15th
chapter of Exodus tells us that Mary (he meant Miriam), sister of
Moses and Aaron, played the drum exceedingly well."
Dover (180 Varick, NY 14), has issued the Arbeau book in a
translation by Mary Stewart Evans, with an introduction and notes
by Julia Sutton and a new labanotation section by Mireille Backer
and Miss Sutton.

'Sinai Campaign' in Paperback

Maj.-Gen. Moshe Dayan, having directed the Israeli forces in the
1956 battles with the Egyptians, is the authority on what had transpired
then, the events that preceded the Israeli attack, the relationship with
Britain and France, the war itself and its aftermath.
"The Sinai Campaign" by the distin-
guished Israeli leader, first published two -
years ago, by Harper & Row, therefore re- P .
mains a major document reviewing the
historic events, and the republication of the
book as a paperback by Schocken Books
makes the significant story available to a
larger audience.
This explanatory book, which contains
the basic data relating to the Sinai battles,
and to the history surrounding them, gains
special significance at this time in the
summary of the events provided by Gen.
Dayan. He declares in his epilogue:
"The• main change in the situation
achieved by Israel, however, was mani-
fested among her Arab neighbors. Is-
rael's readiness to take to the sword to
secure her rights at sea and her safety
on land, and the capacity of her army
to defeat the Egyptian forces, deterred
'Maj.-Gen. Dayan
the Arab rulers in the years that fol-
lowed from renewing their acts of hostility. The Sinai Campaign
was not intended as a preventive war. It was not meant to fore-
stall a sickness but to cure a situation already sick—to breach
an existing blockade of Israel's southern waters, and to put an
end to rampant terrorism and sabotage. But in fact it did have
the effect of checking Arab ambitions to do harm to Israel. It is
not by chance that the President of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser,
bids the Arab States to refrain from attacking Israel as long as
they have not strengthened their forces. He makes this plea not
because he has stopped seeking Israel's destruction but because
he has learned to respect the power of her army."
"The Sinai Campaign" retains its vast interest in the paperback.
in
It remains a valuable guide to an understanding of Israel's position
the Arab world and its determination to defend land and people
against all odds.
a Bible for journalists
(Dayan's "Sinai Campaign" became sort of
as well as military men. During the weeks preceding the outbreak of
war on June 5, war correspondents who converged upon Tel Aviv were
seen carrying Dayan's book, studying it for inferences to the plans for
the latest conflict between Israel and the Arab states).

