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
ftrrociation.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit, Mich. 43233
vE 3-9364. Subscription 86 a year. Foreign 37.
Second Class Postage Paid at Detroit. Michigan
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
SIDNEY SHMARAK
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Advertising Manager
Business Manager
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 13th of Ar. 5727. the following scriptural selections will
read in our synagogues
Pentatetichal porion. Dent. 3.237.11. Prophetical portion. Isaiah 40:126.
be
Candle lighting. Friday. August 13. 8:10 p.m.
VOL. LI . No. 22
Page Four
August IS, 1967
'Pogroms' and 'Protocols' Unexhausted
For several generations, Jewry's major
tragedies stemmed from Czarism and from
Russian brutalities. Pogroms were perpetrat-
ed under royal decrees and the massacres had
the encouragement of the ruling classes in
Russia. The vilest fabrications that acquired
worldwide infamy under the name "The
Protocols of the Elders of Zion" originated in
Czarist Russia where a monk, Nilus, copied
from French anti-Semitic writing lies that
have been proven to be libelous but which
have nevertheless retained international
status as means of spreading the accusations
that Jews seek domination over the entire
world.
They have been the most amazing fabri-
cations. While Jews were massacred they also
were charged with dominating over world af-
fairs. While Hitler was exterminating our
people, he was making use of the Russian fab-
rications in his insane charges that Jews were
the root of all troubles. Jews thus were the
victims of both when the search by bigots was
for capitalist or socialist scapegoats. •
These tactics are being repeated. Russia—
now in the cloak of communism—again is
leading the world's bigots in the attacks on
world Jewry. Again there is instigation to
pogroms. Again the vile "Protocols" are of-
fered as a bible for the lunatic fringes
throughout the world.
Soviet Russia — officially as well as
through its controlled press—is instigating
the Arab world to a renewal of warfare and is
commanding the Soviet Bloc, the Iron Cur-
tain countries, to mobilize for war against
Israel and Jewry. Suddenly little Israel and
the numerically small Jewish people again is
being portrayed as a menace to mankind. A
military victory by one of the smallest na-
tions in the world over the major interna-
tional combine of Moslems and atheists. both
sacred to Judaism and Christianity.
Even under the domination of the Krem-
lin, there are many of the Communist intel-
lectuals and some of the governmental of-
ficials who see through the scheme of trans-
lating Israel's self-defensive actions as ag-
gression. That is why there is a revolt
against the Soviet tactics in Poland. That is
why most of the Russian intellectuals and
authors refused to sign the statements con-
demning Israel.
That is why in Romania and in Hungary
there were revolts against the Russian pol-
icies and why Romanians instead of joining
in attacks on Israel are ready to fufill obli-
gations under trade agreements.
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$
One group of Communists has definitely
aligned itself with the extremest of the Rus-
sian-Arab combine of bigots. In East Ger-
many, where barely 800 Jews are now making
their homes under Communist domination.
there have been vile attacks on Israel. Just as
the East Germans have on previous occasions
linked Jews with pro-Nazis, similar attacks
are being launched now on all undertakings
that may have West German approval.
In the current Middle East crisis there is
an almost unanimous feeling in West -Ger-
many that Israel deserves worldwide encour-
agement in its struggle for security and free-
dom. Strong friendship for Israel has been
evidenced in all West German quarters. That,
like any other act of the non-Communist part
of Germany, roils the East Germans. The
result is a series of charges that Jews gen-
erally are seeking domination, that they are
"making common cause" with Nazis. The
Kremlin line is to be detected in every East
German move and the attempt to undermine
Israel's security is evident in every move of
the East Germans as well as their cohorts in
other Communist countries.
The East German position is worth con-
sidering because it is based on another pat-
tern—that of East Germany's refusal to com-
pensate sufferers from Nazism for their suf-
ferings and losses during the Hitler regime.
While West Germany has been prosecuting
Nazi criminals, East Germany has refused to
put on trial those living in that zone. It has
been tantamount to protecting the criminals
while fomenting trouble by charging West
Germans with coddling ex-Nazis. There is no
doubt about the guilt ascribable to the East
Germans.
A report from Germany charges that the
most revolting of the East German documents
is a so-called "Statement by the Jewish Cit-
izens of the GDR" (German Democratic Re-
public) and the validity of it is being ques-
tioned. It is doubted whether the Jews in that
area, although they are under great pressure,
could or would have signed such a statement.
The reported document resorts to the
established tricks of accusing Great Britain
and the United States, now also linking West
Germany with these charges, of having aided
Israel in the war and of having been partners
in the defeat of the combined Arab countries
in the June War. The manner in which these
distortions are being spread as pro-Arab Com-
munist propaganda is shown in the series of
ordinances circulated in the Communist-ruled
portion of Germany — the Soviet-controlled
German Zone referred to as SBZ — which
stated:
Jewry's Noted Authors
'Modern Hebrew Poetry' Has
Rich Collection of Israelis' Works
A growing interest in Israelis' literary activities and in the Zionist
inspirations that resulted in masterful poetic works is evidenced in
the several works that have already appeared and now is indicated
in the bilingual anthology, "Modern Hebrew Poetry," edited and trans-
lated by Ruth Finer Mintz and published by University of California
Press in Berkeley, Calif.
It was to have been expected that the talented translator and
editor of this volume would begin her anthology with the poems of
Hayyim Nahman Bialik and Saul Tchernichovsky. She proceeded with
what she termed the generation of poets who were their contemporaries
and with the modernist and she included the writings of "the younger
poets" — and here the reader is introduced to masterful works by a
group of the younger of the Israeli creative writers.
Having earned her university degrees in this country, Mrs.
Mintz pursued her studies in Jerusalem at the Hebrew University.
She
became acquainted with the younger poets and her illuminat-
The journalists of the SBZ have to dispatch
ing introduction becomes an important commentary on the work
telegrams of solidarity to the ministry of infor-
she had undertaken in "Modern Hebrew Poetry."
mation of the CAR and to the Egyptian Press
There are 115 poems by 28 noted authors in this volume, in Hebrew
Syndicate.
and
in the English translations by Mrs. Mintz, on facing pages, and
Protest should be made "from all circles of
the people" about the "massive consignments of the list of contents also is bilingual in similar form. Mrs. Mintz limited
weapons from the Federal Republic of Germany herself to the poetry of Israelis and she explains in her preface that
she did not include the Hebrew poetry written in the United States
to the Israeli aggressors."
The Afro-Asian Committee as the SBZ's special because she believes "this poetry merits its own separate consideration."
•
4
a
solidarity organization is to utilize every opportu-
The Haskala period and Zionist influences which marked the Hebrew
nity to emphasize the unlimited identification of
the SBZ with the "anti-imperialist struggle of the renaissance and the poetic urge among the inspired Jewish writers
receive special attention in Mrs. Mintz' scholarly introduction. In this
Arab people."
In the large concerns, solidarity rallies are ' essay, Mrs. Mintz presents a thorough review of Jewish poetic works
to be held and the employees are to take sides from earliest times, analyzing the songs of the Bible, indicating their
effects on modern writers, comparing them with the poetic works of
unequivocally with the Arabs.
The Red Cross of the "GDR" is to render our time.
immediate and generous medical aid for the
Folk sources are alluded to. the able editor describes the Piyyut
"victims of Israeli aggression."
as the earliest post-biblical form of lyric poetry and she describes the
All sanatoria used for the accommodation of secular poetry which began to develop in the 10th Century CE.
foreigners are to make available immediately beds
Hasidism and Cabbalistic influence on the poetry of the
for wounded Arab soldiers and civilians in need
Middles Ages and the period of Enlightenment are examined as
of convalescence. It shall be publically announced
part of the interesting study.
that if necessary during this campaign German
A major portion of the introduction is devoted to biographical data
patients should terminate their recuperation in
sanatoria and the like, if their beds are needed about the poets selected for inclusion in this volume and the methods
they
pursued as well as the events and the philosophies that influenced
for the "victims of Israeli aggression."
In the National Peoples Army in this Com- their works.
Herself an able poet. Mrs. Mintz has not only made excellent
munist sphere, many problems arose for the
leading officers. The g Is were not in a selections from the works of the 28 poets but has ably translated the
position to issue guidelines on the way the choices sbe had made.
•
•
Israeli victory was to be interpreted. The order
In the Bialik group of five poems are included the long one, "The
was thus issued that no discussions on the victory
of the Israelis were to be permitted in the army Pool," and a very short one, "Prophet, Go, Fleel," based on a selection
from Amos. There are four poems by Tchernichovsky.
units.
In the generation of these two poets are very eminent names whose
The pack of lies is too apparent to need
works
are part of this poetic anthology—Zalman Schneour, Yakov
further clarification. The Soviet-Arab meth-
Yehuda
ods of spreading the "Protocols" lies, the in- Fichman, David Shimoni, Yakov Cohen, Italie! Bluwstein,
and Avigdor Hameiri.
stigations to hatred which could result in a Karni
"The Modernists" represent an interesting group of poets whose
new series of pogroms if Israel had not works already are among the famed poetic expressions. Shimon
emerged victorious in a war of defense, are Halkin, Yitzhak Lamdan, S. Shalom, Avraham Shlonsky, Uri Tzvi
too evident to need further study into the Greenberg, Yocheved Bat-Miriam, Natan Alterman, and Leah Goldberg
aims of destructive factors on the world scene. are represented by selections from their works that have won wide
It is vital that the democratic elements acclaim.
Students of the modern Hebrew poetic creations will be
everywhere should be made aware of what is
delighted with the choices made from the works of Hayyim Guri,
transpiring. There is a menacing combine of
Amir Gilboa, Einyamin Geri, Dabid lokeah, Yehuda Amihai,
forces that is determined to harm Israel. In
Avraham Hum, T. Cared, Yebiel Mar, Avner Trainin, Amer Hillel
the present setting it would mean great harm
and Tuvia Rivnes
to the peace of the world. If peace is to be
A set of notes on the poems appended to her volume adds signifi-
attained there must be thorough unity to cance to the editorial effort of Mrs. Mintz.
overcome the dangers from the Communist
Additionally, Mrs. Mintz has provided her readers with a list of
quarters and to be on guard against further notes on the poets, whose biographical sketches include the major
combines that link the bigots in two spheres works of the poets chosen for inclusion in this volume. And there are
whose main aim, as a means of securing dorni-1 suggestions for selected readings which also supplement the volume
nation over the entire -Middle-East, - is to With - practical lists of works to - enrich the many who are devoting
- themselves to the study of Hebrew literature and poetry.
destroy Israel.