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. * * $ 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.