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 Mile Road, Detroit, Mich. 48235. VE 8.9364. Subscription $6 a year. Foreign S7. 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 26th day of Tevet, 5728, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues: Pentateuchal portion, Exodus 6:2-9:35. Prophetical portion, Ezekiel 28:25-29:21. Rosh Hodesh Shevat scriptural reading, Wednesday: Numbers 28:1-15. Candle lighting, Friday, Jan. 26, 5:20 p.m. VOL. LII. No, 19 Page Four January 26, 1968 Prophets of Doom in a Panic-Stricken Society Even before the advent of the current calendar year, political leaders, columnists and news broadcasters had begun to predict a hot racial summer, impending riots and an inevitable avalanche of troubles for our coun- try. While they spoke of dangers threatening the large cities, such predictions can be ac- cepted as assurances that the suburbs, the smaller cities, rural as well as urban com- munities, will not be immune from outbursts of passion in what so many believe to be an approaching revolt. Practical reasoning regarding current con- ditions, analyses of what we may look forward to in the months ahead, have indicated long ago that the major issue that is certain to affect the controversies in the Presidential political campaign will not be Vietnam but the race issue. And because this is such an accepted fact we must view the threatening situation rationally, without passion, in the hope that riots can be averted, that we are effective and efficient enough to resolidify the American electorate so that we can have a peaceful dialogue on the chief problem affecting us. If riots are to be averted, if the arson and looting and threats to life, limb and property such as were experienced here last summer are to be prevented, our politicians and sociol- ogists owe it to the vast American constitu- ency to strive for understanding rather than resort to the role of prophets of doom. For many months now we have been a panic-stricken America. Yielding to fears and to threats from demagogues, we have not produced a sufficiently strong analytical group of social scientists who should be able to guide us toward paths of fearlessness, on to a road of rational thinking, so that we should be able to trek our ways bi-racially to- ward amity among all Americans. Especially disturbing are warnings like the one that was made by the Governor of Michi- gan that the summer will bring into our high- ways and byways conditions hotter than those in Vietnam. We are warned of a new civil war, of internal strife approaching as if it were inevitable, uncontrollable, unavoidable. We would have liked to reject such admoni- tions of doom and to brand them as uncalled for, unjustified, unwise. We do feel fully justified in declaring that instead of spreading panic our social scien- tists, the trained as well as those who adopt such roles for political or divisive reasons, should begin to resort to reasoning which is the basic ideal of American thinking and practice. There is a deep-rooted American principle Christian's View of RaMbaM called fair play. Resort to just actions and to peaceful means of solving our internal prob- lems demand that we plan for adherence to lawful pursuits. The basic need is to rule out lawlessness and not to throw our people into a state of panic, into fright that is the worst psychological condition a people can be sub- mitted to. In many instances of "protest" there have been demonstrations of disrespect, as in the one-woman outburst at a White House lunch- eon at which the disrespect toward the First Lady of our land must have caused anguish in the hearts of many Americans who believe that abuse of a hostess by a guest is not the high type of American self-respect. It is not too late to plan, to rationalize, to organize our democratic system in defense of lawful and peaceful living. This is a duty de- volving upon politicians as well as news ana- lysts. It is an obligation which all of us share because all of us are involved in whatever conditions may emerge from the forthcoming dialogues regarding the race issue. If the trend of emphasizing doom should continue, we may well be placed in a position of helplessness. In a spirit of hope, based on proper planning, we can look forward to pleasant summers and amicable neighbor- hoods. Pope Paul Creates Dilemma Over Jerusalem Israel's religious affairs ministry, as well as all other departments of the Israel govern- ment, including the governors of all areas which have been reunited with Israel, have been and are so adamant in their determina- tion to assure freedom of observance for all faiths that the most recent explanation of the Vatican's position on the Jerusalem Holy Places creates a new quandary. It is now reported by the Religious News Service correspondent, Father Robert A. Graham. S.J., from Vatican City, that in order that his declaration of Dec. 22, which was in- terpreted as an abandonment by the Vatican of the idea of Jerusalem's internationaliza- tion, should not be misunderstood, the Pope now wishes it to be known that, as Father Graham states it, the Holy See advocates a form of internationalization by which individ- ual spots identified with the life of Christ would be protected by formal agreements guaranteed by some international authority." Pope Paul VI, we are now informed, de- scribes as "essential and indispensable" his insistence that there should be respect for religious and other rights of the non-Jewish communities. A new dilemma thus is created, even if the explanation of the principle of "extrateri- ritoriality" is to be taken seriously. By "extra- territoriality" it is indicated that in Rome many ecclesiastical institutions enjoy it al- though they are on Italian soil. But Pope Paul's great concern, it is indicated, is "re- spect for, the preservation and access to the Holy Places themselves, protected by special immunities through a statute of their own guaranteed by an institution of international character. . . ." The RNS correspondent fur- ther states that this rules out, so far as the Vatican is concerned, "unilateral Israeli con- trol of the Holy Places, no matter how per- missive a policy Israel might choose to adopt." It is this latter statement that magnifies the dilemma created by the new explanation offered of the Pope's position which, it is stated, might have been overlooked because of the Pope's lengthy declaration on Vietnam and the impending visit to the Vatican of President Johnson. Israel has gone to extremes to assure reli- gious freedom for all and there is not a reli- gious leader of any faith, the Catholic included, who had found it necessary to com- plain of mistreatment or of curtailment of "respect for or access to the Holy Places" by any one acting in Israel's behalf. What might have been a closer approach to interfaith relations, especially between Israel and the Vatican, has vanished. If we were to feel insult we believe we would be justified in saying that it has been added to injury because Pope Paul VI not once in his statement referred to Israel but kept on speaking of Palestine. Thus he indi- cated that he had yielded to Moslem pres- sures, as was the case at Vatican II whose statement on the Jews was watered down be- cause Eastern Catholic prelates—the spokes- men for the Arab Catholics — out of hatred for Zionism threatened the Ecumenical Coun- cil against declarations of amity for the Jew- ish people. Apparently we have not gone far enough in applying ecumenism to practice rather than lip service. Prof. Bratton's Biographical Sketch of 'Medieval Modernist' Maimonides, the great scholar of the 12th Century, known in Hebrew as the RaMbaM, continues to be the subject of many studies. The reappearance in a new edition, with an excellent translation into English of his "Mishneh Torah" by Dr. Philip Birnbaum, issued by Hebrew Publishing Co., and several other works which have appeared over a period of years, indicate the indelibility of the marks left upon scholarship by the great rabbi, physician, commentator. But when a biographical study of Maimonides is written by an eminent Christian scholar, the subject becomes even more interesting and vastly more appealing. Dr. Fred Gladstone Bratton, who retired in 1962 after 30 years as professor of the history and literature of religion at Springfield College, is the author of a serious study, "Maimonides—Medieval Modernist," published by Beacon Press. Dr. Bratton's is more than biography. It is an analysis of Maimonides' talmudic and biblical criticisms; it is a Christian's evaluation of the "Guide to the Perplexed" and the "Mishneh Torah" and his expression of belief that the latter is even more authoritative as a guide for the faithful. Maimonides is presented in this study by the Christian theologian as "the product of that radiant interlude in history, the Golden Age of Moorish Spain, a period which can be understood only as we go back to the early 6th Century when Justinian, fearing the con- tamination of Christian theology by Greek thought, closed the philo- sophical schools of Athens. This fanatical edict of the emperor proved to be a blessing in disguise. It became the source of a new vitality as the Greek spirit found a new home in Arabia, Persia, Syria and Egypt. Later the Moslem conquest carried this seed to Spain, where Arab and Jewish scholars with their new knowledge of Hellenism influenced the course of medieval and modern intellectual history." Of special interest is Dr. Bratton's indication that Maimonides' teachings resurrected Aristotelian thought, that before Averroes (Dm Roshd, 1126-1198, Arab Aristotelian who influenced pod- Maimonidean philosophy and was widely studied by Jewish scholars) and Maimonides, "little was known about the philosophy of Artistotle." He comments that "it was an irony of history that the ideas from which Justinian tried to protect Christianity in the 6th Century became in the 12th Century, through the medium of Arab and Jewish scholars, the most potent force in medieval Christian thought." Maimonides' wanderings, his teachings, his Thirteen Articles of Faith among them, the principles he set forth are among the elements in the life of the medieval scholar thoroughly reviewed in a volume of less than 160 pages. He points out that Maimonides' Commentary was first accepted in Europe rather than in Egypt and that it later was universally accepted as part of talmudic literature. The famous letter to the Yemenite Jews is reviewed and explained. Maimonides' services as physician under Saladdin, his conciliatory policy toward the Karaites, the equating of medicine with morality— these are among the many aspects of Maimonidean thinking and living that form the Bratton book. The Christian scholar is effective in his analyses of the influence of Maimonides upon modern thinkers, upon later philosophers. Spinoza, who has been interpreted as a critic of Maimonides, is described here as having depended on Maimonides. Dr. Bretton states that divergence in their views is seen in "Spinoza's extention of Maimonides' principles." Dr. Bratton emphasizes the "Eternal Relevance" of Maimonides who had gained fame as "the second Moses" in the famous Jewish saying: "from Moses to Moses (Mendelssohn) there arose no such man as Moses (Maimonides)." He pays him the added tribute: "His brilliance of mind and great- ness of soul enabled him to transcend time and history. Maimonides the universal man speaks to the 20th Century no less distinctly than to the 13th, bringing insight into the problems of both Judaism and Christianity today. It is for Christians and Jews today to be concerned with the spirit of his writings, not the letter; his ethics, not his theology; his life rather than his logic." Thus from a Christian point of view Maimonides emerges uni- versally important, lending great significance to the Christian theologian's biography of the great Jewish scholar. . .