his difficulties with the other
Gerald Green, already famed
boys, his father's miserable prac-
for "The Last Angry Man" which
tice, the status of a Jewish gen-
depicts the idealism of a dedicated
eration that commences to inter-
physician in the slum area of New
York, provides us with another , mingle, eventually to transfer
residence.
major sociological study involving
Brownsville of the time of the 1
In a sense "To Brooklyn With
depression, the youth of a pre- Love" brings to mind Dr. Chaim
vious generation, the changing Potok's best seller, "The Chosen,"
neighborhood, in a splendid new which also commences with a base-
narrative, "To Brooklyn With ball game. Green's has Jewish
Love," published by Trident Press, characters but is not necessarily a
a division of Simon and Schuster.' Jewish story — because Potok's
It is a story of a doctor and his sketches the Jewish ideological de-
son — as much of one as of the. bates between his two major char-
other — and the craving for play- acters whereas in Green's it is
time, as well as the urge for study. strictly the sociological and neigh-
and the search for friendships and ' borhood experiences of boys who
intermingled with the experiences', happen to be Jewish and whose
of a struggling physician whose! associates are Polish and Italian
patients, because of the poverty ! and some with whom they battle
extant, contribute to difficluties ' are Negroes.
to attain a livelihood as well as
Green's story doesn't have Po-
to achieve the satisfaction from a tok's theological discussion but
creative professional life.
it carries the sociological message
Primarily this is the story of much farther.
Albert Abrams and the boys, Jews
From the point of view of the
and non-Jews and the incoming Ne-
game, Green's story is superior to
groes, who play ball on the avail- 1
Potok's because it is more exten-
able playground — the street —
sive. It goes into greater details
and who form gangs — they were
and involves more serious conflicts
more like cliques — to compete
than Potok's limited antagonism
in games.
between two Jewish boys. Green's
Albert, aged 12 in the story, draws
into the contest the Negro
nearsighted, unable to meet the boys who
molest Albert, who steal
challenges of fighting gangs who ball and glove
and turn the game
finally gains courage and enga- into a battle for
the tools of the
ges is a fist fight — after many game and for eventual
triumph for
humiliations suffered at t h e the whites, then in a majority
on
hands of the boys on the street the block.
— is now the adult whose desire
And
Green's
also
emerges
as
to see the old neighborhood
causes him to bring his two more interesting from the point of
children with him to the old view of the sports because the
Brownsville neighborhood. The narrator also tells about the punch-
area has changed — it is now ball game, dramatizing it to the
a Negro neighborhood. The tree fullest. And he relates about the
in front of the house is gone. Ringalevio game, in the midst of
They are all new faces they en- which Albert once more is molest-
counter. Albert commences to ed by two Negroes.
reminisce and the book is the
recollection of his 12th year,
This dramatic tale is not
limited to Albert. His father, as
a struggling physician, as a mas-
ter of invective, the embittered
sufferer from the poverty of the
age and the area, is a remark-
able character. He is expertly
delineated by Green who does
not overlook the Jewish influ-
ences of the neighborhood, the
relationships of Jews with the
politicians, the religious urge
and the family attachments. Dr.
Abrams himself is attracted nos-
talgically to the synagogue and
the Tora procession, even though
he is a pork-eater.
(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish News)
TEL AVIV — Cairo Radio an-
nounced Tuesday night that Egypt
has suspended all operations to
clear 15 merchant ships stranded
in the southern portion of the Suez
Canal and blamed Israel for the
Suspension.
A military spokesman said here
that there was no sign of activity
Wednesday along the Egyptian-
held west bank of the canal. The
quiet followed a two-hour ex-
change of fire between Egyptian
and Israeli units across the canal
Tuesday when the Egyptians, at-
tempted to send survey boats into
the canal's northern sector. Israeli
units fired warning shots at the
craft. The Egyptians responded by
shelling Israeli positions at Kan-
tara and Dar Sueir.
Israel held that Egypt was vio-
lating the cease-fire agreement of
last June when it sent boats into
the northern sector of the canal
without Israel's prior assent. The
agreement provided that neither
side navigate or use the canal in
any way without agreement by
the other. Israel had agreed last
week to Egyptian operations to
clear the southern end of the canal
to free the stranded merchant
ships. Israel contended that Egypt's;
attempt to enter the northern end
of the canal Tuesday constituted al
violation of that agreement as well. 1
(Egypt's attempt to start clear-1
ing operations in the northern sec-1
for was probably undertaken at
the urging of Russia, the Financial
Times reported Wednesday in a
dispatch from its correspondent in
Tel Aviv.
(The Russians want the entire
canal cleared for use and want to
blame Israel for preventing it, the
dispatch said. This would turn
world opinion against Israel and
would divert attention from Egypt's
refusal to meet Israel at the ne-
ed and one Israeli and two Egyp-
tion tanks were destroyed in the
exchange of fire that erupted noon
Tuesday along the Suez Canal.
The clash occurred when Israeli
forces fired warning shots at the
Egyptian launch attempting to en-
ter the northern sector of the canal
from Lake Timsah to carry out
what the Israelis said was an "il-
legal survey."
United Nations observers in the
Suez Canal area arranged a cease
fire to go into effect at 12:30 p.m.
local time, but Egyptian batteries
(lid not desist from firing until
1:15 p.m., a military spokesman
reported.
Apparently the Egyptians
were bent on testing Israel's res-
ponse to their announced intention
of starting clearing operations in
the northern portion of the canal.
Israel had earlier warned Egypt
in writing, through Lt. Gen. Odd
Bull, chief of the UN cease-fire
observers corps, that she would
not permit unilateral operations
in the northern sector.
Foreign ministry sources said
meanwhile that UN Ambassador
Gunnar Jarring's visit here Thurs-
day was previously scheduled and
did not arise from Tuesday's Suez
clash. His visit to Israel will be
his seventh since he began his
peace-seeking mission in the Mid-
dle East.
Jarring's mission has reached
an impasse at the end of its
first phase during which the
diplomat solved a number of
marginal problems, according to
Haaretz, the Israeli newspaper.
Quoting "political sources." the
newspaper said that the UN envoy
had brought about an Israeli ag-
reement with Egypt on clearing
the blocked Suez Canal and the
agreement under which all prison-
ers of war were exchanged last
week between the two countries.
However, on the basic issue of
peace in the region, there has
gotiating table.).
been
no progress, Haaretz assert-
Five Israeli soldiers were wound-
Does U.S. Want Out From M.E?
ed. Jarring has conferred repeated-
ly with Israeli and Arab officials.
except those of Syria, which re-
fuse to talk to him.
' The Arab states were under-
stood to have rejected Israel's posi-
tion that direct talks must pre-
cede all other matters, and Israel,
in turn, has rejected the Arab de-
mand that Israeli forces must be
withdrawn from occupied areas be-
fore other matters can be con-
sidered.
The envoy was reported to have
agreed to Israel's stand that the
UN Security Council resolution
authorizing his mission did not
call for unconditional withdrawal
by Israel.
The Haaretz report was in ef-
fect confirmed by the semi-official
Egyptian newspaper, Al Ahram,
whose editor, Hasseinen Haikal, is
known to be close to President
Nasser. Haikal wrote that Jarring's
mission had reached a deadlock
and that the Arab states had re-
jected Israel's offer to discuss
new borders, freedom of shipping,
the refugee problem and cancella-
tion of Arab anti-Israel boycott.
Haikal added that since the
envoy apparently had brought no
other proposals for negotiation, a
settlement of the Arab-Israel
conflict by political means was
ruled out and that a new war
was perhaps to be expected, a
theme the Egyptian editor has
expounded previously during
Jarring's visits to the Arab
capitals.
Abba Eban, Israel's foreign
minister, told the cabinet Sunday
that the Swedish envoy was ex-
pected to come here for another
visit at the end of the week. The
foreign minister also reviewed the
talks with Jarring leading to the
Israeli agreement to allow Egypt
to proceed with clearing opera-
tions at the southern end of the
Suez Canal.
(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish News)
WASHINGTON — The United
States government, preoccupied
with problems in Korea and Viet-
nam, is seeking to quietly disen-
gage from involvement in the
Arab-Israel issue and is looking
to the United Nations to resolve
matters like the most recent vio-
lence on the Suez Canal, highly
placed officials said Tuesday.
Authorities said the United
States fully supports the efforts
of
the
United Nations team headed
I
by Gen. Odd Bull and feels that
sides should heed UN deci-
sions.
; Officials here said that the
United States does not want to be
, emboiled "at every twist and turn"
in Israel-Arab frictions and would
look increasingly to the United
Nations in that region because
policymakers regard developments
in Korea and Vietnam more vital
to U.S. security interests.
The State Department holds
This is where Yussel Melnick,
one of his patients, steps in. Yussel
is in his nineties. But when the
Tora procession commences he is
right there and he drags the doctor
into it .
Then came the tragedy: the
synagogue fire. Melnick is there,
passes out — suffocates! And when
the doctor arrives he finds that
Yussel the mystic had spent his
time carving — recreating the city
of Jerusalem as a dream, as a life's
ambition.
At this point there is inspiration
for the doctor, and the son, Albert,
m
also is in a more elated mood
be-
cause he had just triumphed in a
fist fight.
The story ends, and Albert,
readying to take the children back
to their home after showing them
his residential origin, thinks about
his old friends, wonders what had
happened to them, sees a name i
akin to the Negro, Lee Roy, who
molested him, and wonders whe-
ther the man listed as subway
platform superintendent is really
the same person. Now he forgives
him — and in that act of kindness
is reflected the entire spirit of a
splendid novel aptly entitled, by
the man who returned to his old
neighborhood to show it to his
youngsters, as "To Brooklyn With
Love."
UAR Halts. Operations to Clear Suez Canal
of Stranded Ships After Shots Exchanged
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
40—Friday, February 2, 1968
`To Brooklyn With Love'—Green's Masterful Novel
Nostalgically Recalling Brownsville Depression Era
the position that "despite press
reports to the contrary, we have
no evidence of any kind that the
USER has installed any such
(ground-to-ground) missiles in
Arab countries up to the present
time, or that such installation
is imminent." The denial was
made by Assistant Secretary of
State William B. Macomber Jr.
in a letter to Rep. J. Herbert
Burke, Fla. Rep.
Macomber conceded that "some
Arab countries have received cer-
tain other types of tactical mis-
siles." He said that "there has
been no evidence of a large new
influx of Soviet military personnel
into Syria, Egypt, Algeria or other
Arab countries." Government esti-
mates on the numbers of Soviet
personnel in these countries, he
said, were "classified" informa-
tion but "I am able to say that
they are substantially below the
* *
figures cited in recent press re-
ports."
The State Department official
also minimized the danger of
Soviet airpower operating from
Egypt. He said that the Soviet
TU-I6 bombers had been in Egypt
on a temporary mission but had
returned to the USSR. The Rus-
sians, he added, had not sent any
of their best long-range and med-
ium-range bombers to the Middle
East.
Although he minimned the ex-
tent of Soviet military personnel
placement in the Middle East,
Macomber revealed that "increas-
ed Soviet military activities in the
Mediterranean area" have been
discussed by the United States
"with our NATO allies." He said
that "instability and disputes in
the Middle East have provided a
basis for increasing Soviet pres-
sure and influence." He also noted
that "the Soviet resupply of losses
in military equipment suffered by
some of the radical Arab states in
the June 1967 war has given Mos-
cow a chance to make up for the
psychological loss it suffered in
the Arab military defeat."
Outlining the aims of American
policy in the Middle East as "to
promote our important political
and commercial interests." Ma-
comber said that "we believe it
essential to maintain a collabora-
tive relationship with the moder-
ate elements in the area with
which we have had long and
friendly ties. We hope that our
ties can be restored, in time, with
those states in the area which
broke diplomatic relations with us
last year during the Arab-Israeli
war; but we insist that relations
can be resumed only on the basis
of mutual respect and dignity, and
under conditions which will speci-
fically compensate us for damages
suffered."
state Department's and Rostow's
Roles in Appeasing the Egyptians
By MILTON FRIEDMAN
(Copyright 1968, JTA Inc.)
WASHINGTON — The adminis-
tration appears to be resuming
arms gifts to Jordan while per-
mitting Egypt to earn millions of
dollars by selling cotton in the
United States despite the serious
balance of payments problem.
Important members of Congress
are infuriated. Rep. Edward J.
Gurney, Florida Rep., said he
would oppose the shipment of even
a single bullet to Jordan as long
as the Jordanians refuse to talk
peace with Israel and maintain
ties with the Cairo Unified Arab
Command which is so strongly in-
fluenced by the Soviet Union.
Rep. Gurney said that "at the
very same time that the North
Korean Communists seized the
U.S.S. Pueblo, the Amman radio
broadcast attacks on the United
States and defense of the Com-
munists. In an obviously official
broadcast the Jordanian radio said
"the primary and only purpose of
the Soviet fleet's presence in Arab
waters is to assist the Arabs in
confronting Israeli ambitions."
The State Department is con-
templating replacing the military
equipment lost by Jordan during
the Six-Day War. The explanation
given is that Washington wants to
retain influence with Amman by
keeping the Jordanians dependent
on U.S. military supplies and spare
parts. Officials dismiss the con-
tention of some Israelis that this
leads to an arms race in which
America supplies Jordan while the
Russians supply Egypt and Syria.
retary of State for Political Af-
fairs, has asked a Senate agri-
culture subcommittee to kill a bill
passed in the House by a vote of
274 to 64. The legislation would
ban the import of Egyptian cot-
ton. Rostow maintained that the
bill might delay restoration of
American relations with Egypt
and "widen the breach between
the United States and the Arab
w o r 1 d." The administration
spokesman held that concessions
to the Nasser regime would con-
tribute toward regional peace.
Senator Joseph M. Montoya, New
Mexico Dem., is the sponsor of the
Senate version of the House bill.
He emphasized that Egypt was
earning dollars "at the expense of
honest Americans" unable to sell
American - grown cotton. He
charged that Nasser "has influence
here out of proportion to what he
deserves. He seems to have power-
ful friends in Washington who put
Egypt's benefit ahead of America's
national and domestic interest."
Since last June, the State De-
partment has allowed Egypt to
dump cotton here and take out
over $3,000,000 in cash.
State Department officials
charged members of Congress with
"protectionism" in that they would
ban Egyptian cotton. Sen. Montoya
replied that "there is a world of
difference between protectionisM
and proper action against a sworn
and obvious enemy of our country.
There is no conceivable benefit t9
our national interest by coddling
this man and his goVernment."
The senator said "I do not be-
Following the severance of
American - Egyptian diplomatic lieve one American in 10,000 would
relations, the administration — be unhappy if we remove Egypt's
without informing Congress — quota and place it in the hands of
quietly authorized the import of American cotton raisers who have
cotton from Egypt. India rep- watched their market shrink year
resented Egypt in such trans- after year."
Administration officials are work-
actions. The State Department
has extended authority to Egypt ing quietly on Capitol Hill to pre-
to sell additional cotton here until vent the Senate from voting final
approval for the House WM
April 1.
Eugene V. Rostow, Undersec-
(Related story Page 7)