Friday, September 1, 1967-31
`Between Hammer and Sickle' Reveals How THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Paul Robeson Has Inspired USSR's Jewry Women in Iirael A re Praised by Uris
Continued from Page 1)
States the Jews have great cul-
tural institutions, s e m i n a r i e s,
teachers, schools, academies of
literature, poetry, drama and Jew-
ish song." As he continued in this
vein, with the crowd applauding
every sentence, I saw that the in-
terpreter was virtually choking
over her translation and that Pole-
voi was shooting furious looks at
the unfortunate woman and at
Robeson.
When Robeson finished his
complimentary remarks about
Jewish culture, he concluded:
"Fine, now I will sing some songs
in Yiddish, a language I love."
In his deep and wonderful voice,
he opened with some folk-songs
— "Suntig bulbes," and others
— and the audience, spellbound,
enjoyed every minute of it and
responded with peals of laughter
and applause. Then Robeson
raised his hand and said: "I
shall now go from folk-songs
and cheerful tunes to a special
kind of song, sad but wonderful,
which I heard from Jewish par-
tisans when I visited the ruins
of the
all Ghetto . . . As
you all know, the Jewish heroes
of • the ghetto fought a battle
which was probably the most
desperate and courageous of all
peoples' wars for independence
and honor. I learned this parti-
san song from the survivors who
sang it on the barricades and in
the bunkers as they fought their
people's war. I'll sing it for you:
"The Song of the Jewish Parti-
sans'!" As the words were trans-
lated, I felt an electric cur-
rent coursing through the audi-
ence. The people froze in their
seats, stunned. Jewish fighting
songs, Jewish partisans fighting
for their people — these were
concepts every Jew in the Soviet
Union carried deep in his heart;
but they were never to be men-
tioned aloud, because they did
not exist in the eyes of the
authorities. And here, one of
the greatest singers in the world,
a man who was loved by the
Soviet people, was talking about
it openly and with such pride!
In a spellbound hall, Robeson
sang in Yiddish: "Never say this
is the final path I tread." I shall
never forget those moments, nor
will the thousands who were pres-
ent. It seemed as though Robeson
sensed the significance of the un-
usual tension in the hall and that
he utterly surpassed himself in
the power of the feeling he poured
into this superb war song.
When he finished, there was a
long moment of silence. The audi-
ence was too deeply moved. Then,
all of a sudden, like an approach-
ing storm, there arose a thunder-
ous wave of applause, and it went
on and on, and it would not end,
it seemed as if it would never
end. All their suffering, pain and
humiliation, all their yearnings
and longings, were put into their
clapping hands; and in the rhythm.
ic pounding of thousands of hands,
the audience let everyone know
what they bore in their hearts and
minds.
Robeson repeated the last bar
of the song again and again until
the crowd grew calm.
He was the last to appear that
evening. But since it was impos-
sible to conclude on such a note,
Boris Polevoi, pale with fury, got
up and, turning to the Negro singer,
asked him, demanded of him:
"Will you please now sing a Rus-
sian folksong, and may I request
that you sing one which we love
so much, 'Broad and Wide is My
Homeland." Robeson obliged and
sang the beautiful Russian patri-
otic song, which' ends, "For like
ours, there is no ,other where man
draws his. breath so proud and
free." And when Robeson con-
eluded the last stanza, Polevoi
rose again and repated it with em-
phasis. He directed his hand at
the people, and, pointing a finger
which was almost threatening,
said: "For like ours, there is no
other where man draws his breath
so proud and free." The Jews un-
derstood the inference.
I don't know whether anyone
conveyed to Paul Robeson what
he had done that wonderful night,
what chords he had touched, what
springs he had opened, if only for
a few minutes, in the hearts of
his Jewish audience.
Why did Khrushchev and those
who followed him retain the waste-
land policy they had inherited
from Stalin? What are the motives
that caused him and his successors
to perpetuate that policy to this
day, though without resorting to
Stalin's threats of physical terror?
Young women in Israel, most of
whom serve in. the Israeli army,
are total strangers to anything
"beet" or "hip, " writes Leon Uris
in an article in September Ladies'
Home Journal.
"Few Israeli youngsters drink or
smoke. 'Pot' is unheard of. Ju-
venile delinquency is a minor prob-
lem," the article reports. With few
exceptions, young Israelis must
serve for 20 months in the army
Of Israel after completion of high ,
school. Most of them want to go to
college after military service.
.
The training of women and chil-
dren took on grim importance in
the recent Arab-Israeli conflict
when Israeli soldiers discovered
the bodies of Egyptians carrying
orders to "slaughter every woman
and child." Women in Israel are
aware of the price of national
In order to answer this we must survival and their training is
leave aside for the moment the tough, Uris says in The Journal.
national aspect, the millions of
The Women's Army Corps trains
solitary Jews who are registered every young woman to handle fire-
as Jews despite the fact that they arms though she is not called upon
have no real basis for their na- to fight in the field. In the war
tionality — Judaism as a reli- Israeli women carried on "every
gion in the Soviet Union.
conceivable military work to back
(The next installment will re- up the men and allow them to
veal the Soviet attitude on cir- concentrate on combat." T h e
cumcision, Bnai Mitzva and gen- women served in communications,
eral Jewish religious practices.)
transportation, secretarial a n d
quartermaster units. Col. Stella
Levy, the Israeli Women's Army
Corps commander, p ays the corps
"is a continuation of the women's
duty to stand beside her man and
build with him."
`Stuffed Bear Must Go!'
KC Jewish Center Says
(Direct JTA Teletype wire
to The Jewish News)
KANSAS CITY — A stuffed
Alaska brown bear that was to
have stood permanently within
the main entrance of the Jewish
Community Center here, will be
removed because of sharp pro.
tests that killing animals for the
sake of sport violates Jewish
law and custom.
The bear was shot by local
attorney George S. Lewis, Sr.
during a hunting trip to Alaska.
After having it stuffed he offered
the animal trophy to the Jewish
community center, which ac-
cepted it. A ceremony was slated
for its presentation to the center.
A special meeting of the center's
board of Directors, however, was
called in response to opposition
to the presentation. The board
then rescinded acceptance of the
bear—for which another location
will be sought.
Vocational Agencies Told flow to Bring
Service to Nearby Communities
NEW YORK (JTA) — A list of
guidelines for possible extension
of the work of Jewish vocational
services from large cities to near-
by communities where no such ser-
vices currently exist was distribut-
ed this week to communities
throughout the country. The guide-
lines were prepared jointly by the
Council of Jewish Federations and
Welfare Funds and the Jewish Oc-
cupational Council.
The proposal listed, in order of
priority, the following services that
are needed in the vocational field:
1) career counseling for young
persons, not only those who are in
high school but also some who are
in college; 2) special placement
problems for the aged, mentally
and physically handicapped, emi-
gres, marginal workers who need
Tripoli Business Hurt
by Emigration of Jews
LONDON — The business com-
munity of Tripoli, Libya, has "not
recovered from the sudden loss
of several thousand Jews and
Italians, many of whom were in
control of import-export business,
banks and ships," reported Clare
llollingworth in an article from
Tripoli for the Guardian of London.
She reported that only a third
of those who left off for Italy
are expected to return.
The article states: "The frus-
trated young Libyans who listened
to Cairo Radio on June 5 sought
an outlet in totally unjustifiable
local violence and lawlessness
directed against the Jews. Twenty
people were killed in Tripoli — all
Jews except one, a Maltese who
was mistaken for a Jew — and the
ruins and burnt-out shops es-
pecially in the old Turkish quarter
illustrate the madness of the mob
which rioted while members of
the government of Hussein Maziq
melted quietly away to their own
tribal -areas."
special handling and some who re-
quire rehabilitation counseling; 3)
adults between the ages of 25 and
35 who present problems of inade-
quate preparation for today's labor
market.
The joint memorandum noted
that there are 23 Jewish voca-
tional !.service agencies in the
United' States, most of them in
cities with a fairly substantial Jew-
ish population. Most of these
agencies were established during
the depression era of the 1930s.
In addition, other services in the
vocational service area were listed,
including the Bnai Brith Voca-
tional Service, school guidance and
counseling services and public em-
ployment services.
UN Bodies Urged
to Pass Measures
Against Race Bias
UNITED NATIONS, N.Y. (JTA)
— The next General Assembly, to
open here, Sept. 19, was called
upon to 'take measures against
racial intolerance and to condemn
"any ideology, including Nazism,
which is based on racial intol-
erance and terror."
The requests were made by the
Commission on Human Rights and
one of its principal subsidiaries,
the Subcommission on Prevention
of Discrimination and Protection
of Minorities. The two groups also
asked the assembly to call on all
states "to take immediate and ef-
fective measures against any such
manifestations as Nazism and rac-
ial intolerance."
In a review of recent develop-
ments in its field of concern, the
commission reported that, as of
May 11, 1967, 58 governments had
signed, and 12 states had ratified
the International Convention on the
Elimination of all Forms of Racial
Intolerance.
Jews visiting the Soviet Union
hear this anguished questicin again
and again from their Soviet
coreligionists.
BETWEEN HAMMER AND SICKLE tells
why. It tells why Stalin turned
savagely against Soviet Jewry after
World War II. Why the State of
Israel is vital to Soviet diplomacy.
Why devout Jews are persecuted
and at the same time secular Jews
are not allowed to assimilate. The
author, an Israeli born in Russia,
has traveled extensively there and
obtained his story firsthand. He
offers a specific and sensible plan
to help alleviate one of the
tragedies of our time—the slow
dying of Soviet Jewry. A best seller
in Israel, BETWEEN HAMMER AND SICKLE
is available at your bookseller or
The Jewish Publication Society of
America, 222 N. Fifteenth St.,
Phila., Pa. 19102. Price, $6.00