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 Association. Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17100 West Seven Mlle Road, Detroit, Mich. 48235. VE 8-9364. Subscription ;6 a year. Foreign V. 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 25th day of Mal, 5727, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues: Pentateuchal portion: Deut. 29:9-31:30. Prophetical portion: Isaiah 61:10-63:9. Candle lighting, Friday, Sept. 29, 7 pan. VOL. LH. No. 2. Page Four September 29, 1967 Re-Cementing Good Negro-Jewish Relations Two related stories came over the wires on the same morning. One told of the attack on Zionism as an ally of the United States made in Damascus, Syria, by Stokely Car- michael. The other, from Tel Aviv, quoted the New York Republican leader, Bernard Katzen, making it known that Dr. Martin Luther King will visit Israel shortly to study the situation in relation to recent develop- ments which involved Negro attacks on the Jewish State. The anti-Jewish position taken by Car- michael's group — the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee — and the position accredited to Dr. King denote a division of opinion in Negro ranks. The anti-Zionist at- titudes which were definitely anti-Jewish as well have suddenly taken hold and there has been disappointment over the weakness with which Dr. King and his associates treated the damaging declarations that came from the Negro left. The recent action of the National Conven- tion on New Politics held in Chicago, the SNCC effort to incite hatred by publishing unsavory attacks on Jews and by reprinting offensive photographs that are reminiscent of Streicher and Goebbels, have divided rather than united the previously friendly forces of Jews and Negroes who had worked together in the civil rights movement. It has come to such a pass that the leftist Negroes have even told their former Jewish associates that they no longer need them or their cooperation. Such attitudes are, of course, rejected by the rational factor in the civil rights ranks, and the bigotry of a minority of Negroes will not deter Jews from laboring in behalf of every effort to improve the status of the Neg- roes and to assure for them the best condi- tions economically, in health, housing and ed- ucation. The road, however, has been strewn with obstacles. A study of the "Negro and Jew" published by Macmillan, in which noted lead- ers in both ranks participate, is entitled "an encounter in America," and the mere desig- nation of the emerging conditions as "an en- counter" at once indicates that there is a dis- tressing measure of trouble afoot in the realm of good neighborliness in this country. The published symposium "Negro and Jew" makes the significant declaration that it has been accepted as incontrovertible that "there exists a pronounced anti-Jewish senti- ment among the Negro masses in this coun- try, despite the active participation of many Viewing Manifold Problems idealistic young Jews in the Negro struggle for equal rights and the moral support given the civil rights movement by Jewish groups, and that Jews are reacting to this sentiment with an emotional backlash." If the latter is as true as the former, then Is the Jew who basks in Miami Beach sun, playing gin rummy on the situation is all the more deplorable, in Rabbi Kertzer Analyzes Many Issues in 'Today's American Jew' spite of the undeniable fact that if there is a backlash, the reasons ascribable to it are the same for Jews as for non-Jews. But even if Negroes expect more from Jews in their battle for justice than from non-Jews, the fact is that such a response is forthcoming and the Jewish adherence to the just cause of equality for all has not dimin- ished. It is the Jewish protest against the at- titudes of the SNCC and its leaders that has grown because of the viciousness with which Negro anti-Semites have adopted the Strei- cher-Goebbels line and have swallowed with- out rhyme or reason the Arab propaganda that is being spread against Israel, Zionism and the entire Jewish people. Recognizing these existing facts, we can and should hope for a speedy amelioration of the tensions. The tradition in the ranks of both Negroes and Jews is for amity and co- operation and these must continue and should be restored if they have been interrupted. Negro leaders can go a long way in re-cement- ing these good relations. Facts versus Sensati onalism in the News In spite of the ganging up on Israel by the Communist and Arab blocs and by some of the Afro-Asian states, the truth must come out. The reports that were submitted last week to the United Nations General Assembly by Secretary General U Thant and Mr. Thant's personal representative in the Middle East, Nils-Goran Gussing, indicated bluntly that charges of atrocities against Israel were un- true and that at the root of the problem in that area is the refusal of the Arab states to recognize Israel. Regrettably, the reports rejecting accusa- tions against Israel are generally ignored in the press while only the sensational gets at- tention. When the Arabs charge Israel with looting—it has been repudiated by Mr. Gus- sing in his report to the UN—it is played up as an expose of Israeli criminality. When Israel employs many of its meager resources to aid the Arab refugees and the Arab resi- dents in areas now occupied by Israel, it is shelved as unimportant. And in the international arena it hasn't become a bit easier to defend Israel's posi- tion. The prejudices subsist and they have in- filtrated into our nation's capital. Abba Eban put it well when he said that if a resolution against Israel were accompanied by a clause declaring that the world is flat, it would re- ceige.4 least 40 votes in the UN. It is under such circumstances that the struggle continues to protect Israel's status. his hotel porch, representative of American Jewry? Can it be said assuredly that the American Jew is primarily eon- cerned with fund raising? Are Jews primarily academicians and profes- sionals? What is the impact of American Jews one on another? Rabbi Morris N. Kertzer of Larchmont, N. Y., probes the various questions in his study of the Jew's roles in "Today's American Jew" published by McGraw Hill. He warns in his preface: "A gen- eralization . . . is a conclusion reached by some- one else." And he seeks to avoid generalizing.while reviewing the scene and portraying the American Rabbi Kertzer Jew as lie has observed him in the course of years of study. He covers vast areas, in relation to economic positions, cul- ture values, language, the synagogue, association with Christian neighbors, Israel and the longing for Zion, and there is a not of pessimism in this assertion: "American Jews, try as they may, find difficulty in feeling the peoplehood of Israel, the mystical bond that unites them with their coreligionists outside the United States. They cry for them wfrOn they are hurt, and are quick to reach out a helping hand; but they sense no kinship with those not in distress. The boundaries of America are the limits of their creative Jewish concerns." • • Nevertheless he utters a concluding optimistic sentiment when he states: "In the spirit of the prophets, as long as Jews continue to 'seek justice and love mercy' the tradition of Judaism will survive.; Will the pursuit of justice, the need for compassion and the matchless con- cern for the world of ideas that have been the special hallmark of the Judaic tradition long endure without a clear and uniquely distinctive community of Jews in the United States?" He ends with this question, so that the issue as he faces it is not resolved. In searching for an answer to the question as to the chances for Jewish survival in the United States, Rabbi Kertzer quotes Dr. Abraham Heschel whose concern is not about survival but "rather how to keep our people from vanishing in the abyss of drabness and vulgarity, how to resist being committed to the nationwide prisons of triviality." The best proof of indifference to basic facts that are inherent in the struggle for peace and in a situation that could well de- velop into a world war unless the pressures from destructive forces are checked is the manner in which the appeal in behalf of Is- rael by 80 of America's most distinguished leaders was ignored. There were, among the signatories to that appeal to the President of the United States, urging him and our gov- ernment to strive for direct negotiations for peace between Israel and the antagonistic Arab states, 16 Nobel Prize winners. But • • • very few were even aware that such an ap- In view of such uncertainty, the analyses of the manifold peal had been issued. The signatories to that problems in Rabbi Kertzer's searching volume, are significant statement were motivated by concern over the admonitions for those who seek a way out of the morass, and grave situation in the Middle East. But their perhaps they will serve as a guide to avoid the distractions, the words fell on deaf ears—and on a press that emphases on the shallow and on the material. Dr. Hertzer is frank in his approaches. He exposes the crudeness of fund-raising tactics in the main completely ignored the appeal. and the unreality of many ways of reaching the American Jew, The near-miraculous events during the especially the youth. Six-Day War so completely astonished the en- Discussing American Jewry's relationship with the Church, Rabbi tire world that there was near-unanimous expresses the view that "America may provide a crucial admiration for Israel. Then began a period of Kertzer testing ground for the novel hypothesis that all men are God's chil- slander and malevolence; and truth was dis- dren." He states in evaluating the interfaith prospects that: "No longer , torted in relation to the Israeli control of areas hitherto held by the Arabs. Anything sensational gains attention in advance of the truth. Therefore we have reached a new stage —of striving for a hearing for the truth in repudiation of the libels that are emanating from sources so impressive as the United Nations. The task is far from easy, and the duty in the interest of truth devolves upon all of us. is Judaism to be studied only through the filter of Catholic editor- ship. Across the border, in Canada, the Paulist Fathers have published a basic textbook on Judaism in Catholic parochial schools, written at their request by Rabbi Stuart Rosenberg of Toronto." He believes that "a historic and profound evolution has taken place." There is an interesting chapter dealing with the role of New York as a place of creativity by Jewry. Interesting comments are made on the role of Jews in Florida, on the West Coast and in Zion. In its totality, Rabbi Kertzer's is a most intriguing and thought' and discussion-provoking work.