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.
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CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
Editor and Publisher
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 11th day of Shevat, 5728, the following scriptural selections will
be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Exodus 13:17-17:16. Prophetical portion, Judges 4:4-5:31.
Hamisha Asar b'Shevat occurs on Wednesday, Feb. 14
1
Candle lighting, Friday, Feb. 9, 5:38 p.m.
Page Four
VOL. LII. No. 21
February 9, 1968
Jordanian Obstacles to the Peaceful Roads
There is such an evident attempt on the
part of the Jordanian authorities to belittle
Israel's efforts to create amiable relations
between Israelis and Arabs that the-stubborn
desire to postpone peace and to prevent direct
negotiations between the contending forces
in the Middle East becomes more evident
as time progresses.
While an "international bridge" has been
created by Israel; making it possible for Arab
merchants to peddle their goods unmolested
between Israel and the Arab states, the
Jordanian Foreign Ministry saw fit to spread
the word that commercial exchanges are "un-
official" and that they stem from the ability
of Jordanian drivers to "bribe" Israeli guards
at Jordan River crossings. So — as a deter-
rent to peace we now have a new charge
leveled at Israel: bribery!
It is no wonder that General Moshe Davan
saw fit to state last week that he'd rather
make peace with Egypt than with Jordan!
The diminutive king, whose very existence
is the result of Israeli strength, which pre-
vented Nasser from taking over his kingdom,
is sanctimonious when he misleads Ameri-
can politicians but seems determined to play
the role of a mud-slinger and trouble-maker
when it comes to amicability with his neigh-
bor who triumphed over his armies.
*
*
*
What are the facts relating to the com-
mercial bridge that is being aided and en-
couraged by Israel?
The full account of an honorable exchange
is given in a cabled report to the New York
Times from Jericho by James Feron. It is
such a completely revealing story of a con-
queror's treatment of the vanquished with
such utter compassion and cooperation that
it is worth quoting in full. Feron cabled:
JERICHO, Israeli-Occupied Jordan, Jan. 14—
From sunup to sundown, the planks of the new
Allenby Bridge rumble under the steady stream
of passenger and commercial traffic. It is a trade
between nations still at war, and the trade is in-
creasing.
The crossing point is a sturdy bridge erected
a few months ago by the Jordanians to replace
the original Allenby Bridge 100 yards down-
stream wrecked by the Israelis in the Six-Day
War last June.
The refugees who left Israeli-held territory
soon after the war have been replaced by an
organized exchange of people and goods across
the new structure.
An Israeli colonel leaned against the bridge
railing today and watched a truck loaded with
citrus fruit cross from the Israeli-controlled West
Bank to the Jordanian East Bank.
The colonel nodded at the Arab driver, who
nodded back. The driver's papers had been check-
ed in a makeshift customs area in a grove of
trees on the Israeli side. Once across, he stopped
to remove the Israeli license plates and replace
them with Jordanian tags.
Most Will Return
"We have about 100 or 150 trucks crossing
every day," the colonel said. "There must be
another 500 or 600 persons walking across, both
ways, he added. Taxis on either side carry them
away, in opposite directions.
"Most of the people crossing will be return-
ing," the colonel said. "They will be staying with
relatives in the West Bank. If they are coming
this way, or in Amman if they are going the other
way, they will be conducting business, but they
won't stay," he said.
Soon, the truckers, too, will be carrying pro-
duce in both directions. Israeli officials decided
this week, for the first time since the war, to
permit West Bank merchants to import goods from
Jordan.
The Allenby Bridge, thus, has become a more
active and more diversified crossing point than
the Mandelbaum Gate in Jerusalem had ever been
in the nearly 20 years it served as the sole con-
nection between Jordan and Israel.
The present exchange serves both sides well.
Israel is interested in maintaining a trouble-free
occupation without jeopardy to any arrangements
that might emerge from peace talks.
Jordan has found it politically and economi-
cally worthwhile to maintain contact with its West
Bank population.
*
*
*
00
f..9~0FirAMETZle ■ ww:
•■ %
Buber's 'On Judaism' Addresses
Republished in Schocken Volume
With obstructions, Jordan now becomes
a major obstacle to peace and any "leaks"
to the contrary notwithstanding — whether
they come from Washington, London or
Cairo — should not be permitted to mislead
Judaism as defined by Martin Buber, the eminent philosopher's
anyone into believing that Hussein is ready
theological discussions, the basis on which the noted teacher's ideas
or willing to make peace with Israel.
have become accepted as authoritative and noteworthy by all faiths, are
As a matter of fact, eight El Fatah groups
have just organized to conduct guerrilla war-
fare against Israel within the Jewish State's
borders and the spokesman for the com-
bined terrorist force is quoted as saying
that the aim is "liquidation of the Zionist
state" and rejection of any attempts for a
peaceful settlement of the issue. And while
this was being uttered, the Jordanian King
Hussein and Lebanon's President Charles
Helou, while visiting together in a refugee
camp in Jordan, were listening to demands
for 'revenge" and weapons to fight Israel.
This is a type of battle cry that is resorted
to in an effort to pull the shades over a vision
of truth, but the incitement to war neverthe-
less exists.
*
* *
There is something very ludicrous about
Hussein's role in the urgent need for a
speedy peace. Less than a month ago he
was reported to have met with King Faisal
in Saudi Arabia and then went on to
meet again with Nasser—ostensibly to
seek means for direct Israel-Jordan con-
ferences. However, according to News-
week, "after the meeting Jordan's Premier
Bahjat Talhouni pointedly announced that
never 'under any circumstances' would his
country undertake bilateral negotiations
with Israel. Nasser, apparently, had
turned thumbs down."
*
* *
Such is the condition dominating the
Arab world today. There are many Arabs
who crave for peace. There is the urgently
felt need to provide opportunities for prog-
ress in the Arab world, akin to the provisions
which have assured commercial freedom
across warring borders. But the powers in
Cairo will not permit it, and there are many
indications that Amman is far from sincere
in its aims.
Will the mission of the Swedish diplo-
mat, Gunnar Jarring, who holds a special
assignment from the United Nations to seek
means for an end to the Arab-Israel war and
for a lasting peace, meet witb a measure of
success? Dr. Jarring already has met num-
erous times with Israeli and Arab leaders.
His mission is a serious one. He could ef-
fect peace if given an opportunity to bring
both contending forces together, but this is
the obstacle that prevents solution.
Anyone, therefore, who envisions an early
peace is entertaining a dream the realization
of which remains remote..
It is far better that the facts should be
known so that there may be proper shelter
and full preparation for whatever' may hap-
pen in the threatening atmosphere for Israel.
At least there will be no delusions regarding
anything approaching peace from the kingly
palace in Amman.
incorporated in a collection of his addresses
published by Schocken under the title "On
Judaism." Edited by Prof. Nahum N. Glat-
zer, this volume is replete with /tuber's
ideas on Jewish religiosity, youth and re-
ligion, the spirit of Judaism, "The Dialogue
Between Heaven and Earth."
The first eight of the essays in this volume
are addresses he, delivered from 1909 to
1918; the last four he delivered from 1939
to 1951. Thus, almost in its entirety, this
is a collection of his early thinking. In
these lectures he envisions Jewry as a eon-
.
tinuing historical element. He distinguishes
Dr. Buber religiosity from religion. By the term "God"
a
philosophical
or moral idea, "nor anything at all
he does not mean
created by, or developed within, man." He explains his view:
"I do mean God, whom man, however, possesses only in ideas
and images; but these ideas and images are not the work of free
creation; they are products of divine-human encounters, of man's
attempts to grasp the inexplicable as and when it happens to him.
They are the traces of the mystery • .."
Speaking of "Judaism and the Jews," Prof. Buber emphasizes
that "self-affirmation of the Jew has its tragic aspects as well as its
grandeur," and that "to live as a Jew means to absorb this tragic aspect
as well as the grandeur of self-affirmation."
The Jewish question is transformed into "a human question," Dr.
Buber stated in the essay "Judaism and Mankind," emphasizing a striv-
ing for unity "that makes Judaism a phenomenon of mankind."
Tendencies leading to The advancement of prophetic Judaism are
enumerated in his plea for the "Renewal of Judaism," the realization
of which in personal lives he listed as depending upon: "the tendency
toward unity, by moulding our soul into a single entity, in order to
enable it to conceive unity; the tendency toward the deed, by filling
our soul with unconditionality . . 4 the tendency toward the future ..•
to enable it to serve the future.'"
"The Spirit of the Orient and the Future" point to the "time-
less passageway between Orient and Occident" and the deepening of
Palestine's importance for the world, with Jerusalem "as the gateway
of the nations . .
Discussing "Jewish Religiosity" he points out that "ever since the de•
struction of the Temple, tradition has been at the center of Judaism's religious
life." Be declared in that lecture, delivered half a century ago: "The com-
munity of men is as yet only a projected opus that is waiting for us. a chaos
we must put in order, a Diaspora we must gather in, a conflict to which we
must bring reconciliation. But this we can accomplish only if, in the natursd
context of a life shared with others, every one of us, each in his own place.
will perform the just, the unifying, the in-forming deed.
"For God does not want to be believed in„
,
to be debated and defended
us, but simply to be realized through us."
Myths in Judaism, Hasidic lore and traditions, are thoroughly
evaluated. He places importance on "the special character of Jude.
ism" as residing "in neither the religious nor the ethical realm but
in the unity of both realms." He states: "Their unity, not their Jana
tion of the two realms are but two aspects of the same basic state. To
do the good deed is to fill the world with God; to serve God in truth
is to draw Ilim,into Life. In genuine Judaism ethics and faith are no
separate spheres: its ideal, holiness, is true community with God and
true community with human beings, both in one. The distorted images
of a divided state of mind—holiness-through-works and holiness-b5"
grace—are alien to it."
Among his strongest appeals were for youth to build an inner religions are,
thus overcoming "the loneliness of its intellectualism.. Jews as "the keeper' of
the roots" are among
spirituality.
his
major concerns as he probes the process of Jewish
There is deep realism as well as spirituality in Dr. Bober%
analysis of the spiritual and the earthly. In the concluding essay In
this volume, his address on "Dialogue Between Heaven and Earth,"
delivered after the Holocaust, he even posed the question of man%
challenge to God vis-a-vis Auschwitz and other trials and tribulations.
and he asserted: "We donot put up with earthly being; we struggle for
its redemption, and struggling we appeal to the help of our Lord, who
is again and still a hiding one. In such a state we await His voice.
whether it comes out of the storm or out of a stillness that follows
It. Though His coming appearance resemble no earlier one, we shall
recognize again our cruel and merciful Lord."
The great teachings inherent in Buberism are offered again in these
republished essays which serve anew as guides to spirituality.