Purely Commentary
Dr. William Haber's Gigantic Role
Prof. William Haber has emerged on the academic scene as
one of the great architects of modern approaches to learning and to
community planning. As a professor of economics, then as head of
the economics department of the University of Michigan and in the
past few years as dean of the University of Michigan College of
Literature, Science and the Arts, he has guided thousands and has
been an inspiration to faculty.
While dedicating himself to his academic duties, Dr. Haber tire-
lessly labored for civic, social and humanitarian causes. It was not
unusual for G. Mennen Williams, as governor of Michigan, to call
him at midnight, drive in from Lansing to Ann Arbor in the wee
hours of the morning and plan with him how to approach the state's
serious economic problems.
Publishers were eager through the years to acquire his documents
for important economic theses.
Social service leaders competed to secure his cooperation for
major causes.
With his wife. Fannie, who in her own right assumed an important
role as chairman of the United Jewish Appeal campaigns in Ann
Arbor—one of the few women in the land to rise to such a high
community position—he has worked in defense of Israel and in
behalf of Israel's security.
As world head of ORT he has written his name indelibly in
Jewish history. Making the matter of rehabilitation of Jews in lands
of oppression his major objective, he has elevated the movement to
a high status in world Jewish planning. The ORT program has
advanced under his leadership, and support for it has mounted to
such heights that it is now possible for ORT schools to function
among the major educational efforts endorsed by the government
of Israel.
He has been an inspiration to Hillel Foundations and he has
helped immensely in the advancement of the Hebrew University, in
support of United Jewish Appeal drives and other causes.
His retirement from the U-M deanship fortunately will give him
more time for the numerous causes with which he has become
linked. With deep regret, the university community sees him leave his
post. America and its Jewish citizens rejoice that he will carry on
his tasks in behalf of the sacred movements with which he has
become inseparably linked. We pray that he should have the good
health to pursue these tasks. • •
•
St. Patrick's Day and Stephen Wise
St. Patrick's Day has been an occasion for wonderful fraternization
between Jews and the Irish—so much so that years ago there even was
a movement to prove St. Patrick was of Jewish lineage. Roger Peyre-
fitte, in his controversial volume "The Jews" (published by Bobbs-Mer-
rill Co.—to be reviewed in a subsequent issue) could have made much
use of this as one of his major fantasies.
A factor that always made St. Patrick's Day of interest to Jews was
the practice pursued by the late Dr. Stephen S. Wise. He was born on
St. Patrick's Day and he always used green ink!
For Wise, use of green ink was a symbol: for us it was always a
reminder, when green-inked messages would arrive, always to remem-
ber the great Jewish leader and n ever to forget his birthday.
•
•
•
Kennedy on 'God of Old Testament'
David S. Levi surely expressed the views not only of Jews but of
many Christians in his protest to Robert Kennedy over the N.Y. Sen-
ator's "thoughtless profaning of the name of God" when he compared
President Johnson's imperfections to "the God of the Old Testament."
The Kennedy approach is a new one! He is not a Robert Ingersoll
and as a man of faith it was hardly to be expected that as the repre-
sentative of the Empire State in the U. S. Senate he would suddenly
turn theologian!
Apparently Kennedy needs a few more sermons in his own Church
to learn that all Christian churches accept the Old Testament as in-
separable from the Bible as the religious guide for two of the world's
major faiths.
But when a Senator speaks (especially a Kennedy!) he may emerge
as authority on anything—and everything! That's how "profaning"
becomes respectable.
Dr. Haber's Distinguished Role
at U-M, ORT and in Other
Major Jewish Causes.
;13
By Ph ilip
SIOMOVitZ
I was kosher then. The gentiles had put their sign of approval
Shazar Nominated
to 2nd Term as
Israel's President
on me and I was kosher.
And when he was asked whether "the Jews here changed their JERITALEM (JTA)—President
Zalman Shazar was officially nom-
opinion of you," he replied:
Yes, now they have a proprietary interest in me. "Sure minted for a second term in, office.
I know Harry Golden, he's a friend of mine." The Jews His nomination was carried by
were the biggest trouble I had here. The proprietary Jews 35 members of the Knesset (Par-
who were worried lest I disturb them with the schvarzes. liament) representing all parties
Remember what they used to say in Shanghai: "damned clever except the New Communists and
these Chinese." Damned clever this self-made man—except that he
might not have succeeded if Jcws had not read his books and if
they had not invited this cynic to speak in their synagogues and to
participate in their symposia.
And how far would he have gone if Jews had not been among the
first to finance civil rights movements, to assist Negroes in their
battle for justice, to uplift them in the best interests of America and
of humanity.
So the Jews were after him! We don't know too much about Jews
in Charlotte, but we are acquainted with many Southern Jews who
risked their business and professional careers in their affiliation with
civil rights movements. Apparently Harry Golden wishes to forget what
a Middle Westerner, Julius Rosenwald, did to start the national
movement of aid to the Negroes. But Harry comes first! The pro-
Negro tasks were his initial efforts!
Damned clever this former "Jewish newspaper" publisher of
Charlotte, N.C., and quite a hutzpanik, too!
*
*
'Prominent Americans': Henry Ford and Philately
ZALMAN SHAZAR
An interesting announcement comes from the U.S. Post Office
information service. The name of Henry Ford is to be added to the the one-man Haolam Hazeh fac-
list of "Prominent Americans" who will be honored with a U.S. tion. The Gahal (Herut-Liberal
stamp. It will be a 12-cent stamp, time of issuance to be announced. alignment) decided to support s
This announcement causes us to recall that on Aug. 10, 1962, second term after some hesitation
because of an effort then to issue a stamp in the late Henry Ford's over what they said was the ques-
honor, we posed the question: "On What Basis Should a U.S. Stamp tion of making the Israeli pres-
idency a political office.
Be Issued?" The query was based on this challenging complaint:
A Michigan Congressman has taken directly to President Kennedy
his proposal that a special stamp be issued in this country next
summer to mark the centennial of the birth of Henry Ford. Since the
Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee of the U.S. Post Office Depart-
ment has refused to act on the proposal, the Congressman has
undertaken to take the matter in anger to the President himself.
The question arises: What is the fundamental principle guiding
the selection of a person for so great an honor as the issuance of a
stamp with his photograph and his name?
' This Commentator had a sad experience. When he was the
state's chairman during the American Jewish Tercentenary celebra-
tion, his proposal to the Post Office Department that a Jewish
Tercentenary stamp should be issued during 1954 was rejected. If
so significant an event was not honored, why select Henry Ford
for the honor?
Since the outrageous forgeries called "The Protocols of the Elders
of Zion" still crop up from time to time In Eastern European and
Latin American countries, as translations from documents that were
distributed in the early 1920s by Henry Ford, and since the Ford
influence was felt in anti-Semitic ranks for many years, with the
imprint of Dearborn Independent articles of the 1920s hardly oblit-
erated, that element of the Ford memory can hardly be forgotten.
True: Henry Ford apologized.
Even more true: his son went a long way to wipe out the sins
of anti-Semitism, and the grandsons are among the finest leaders in
industry and among the noblest figures in American civic affairs.
There is no bias in the Ford family today, and the Fords are a
great credit to our country.
But: the proposal is not to honor a son or a grandson, but the
man who figured so ignominiously in the sad plight of the Jewish
people! And the request to honor that name has gone to a nation
that has affirmed the principle that anti-Semitism is mankind's
gravest sin!
Conditions have not changed in the least. We have the greatest
respect for the Ford progeny. It can not be denied that the elder
Ford was among the most prominent Americans. But the bigotry in
his record should rule out an honor such as is being planned by the
U.S. Post Office.
Harry Golden's 'Clever' Dilettantism
Harry Golden is clever. He is a good writer, a splendid public
relations man, especially in promoting his own books, and he is
certainly smart to have abandoned his "newspaper."
If he has lost $65.000 in publishing what many people began to
LONDON (JTA)—Prime Minis-
believe to be a "newspaper," he acted in the nick of time or he
would have had to shell out lots more from his book royalties and ter Harold Wilson told the House
of
Commons that he did not "think
lecture incomes.
When his "Only in America" appeared, we tried to set his many there would be any advantage in
admirers straight in indicating that what he called a newspaper was making further representations at
a personal exhumation of steam about his experiences on New present" to Soviet Premier Alexei
York's East Side in a circular that then was issued hardly more than Kosygin on the treatment of Jews
three times a year and recently began to appear again perhaps four, in Russia." The Prime Minister
President Shazar greeted Israeli
Moslem dignitaries here at a re-
reception marking the Id Eladha
sacrificial feast, a Moslem festival
that was celebrated March 2. Pres-
ident Shazar took the occasion to
extend his own and the state's
best wishes to Moslems in the
Gaza Strip, the West Bank and
Sinai.
British Producer to Do
Documentary on B-G
(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish News)
GENEVA—A British movie pro.
ducer, just returned from Israel,
reported Tuesday that he had
signed an agreement with former
Prime Minister David Ben-Gurfon
authorizing him to produce a docu-
mentary film on the Israeli leader's
life.
According to Melville Mark, of
Manchester, England, the agree-
ment was signed at Ben-Gurion's
Negev home at Sde Boker. Mark's
company, Covenant Communica-
tions Ltd., headquartered in Gen-
eva, will film a series of inter-
views with Ben-Gurion, to which
the latter has agreed. he said. Clin-
ton Bailey, a professor of Middle
Eastern studies in Buffalo, N.Y.,
will serve as consultant on the film.
USSR Backer Concedes Bias Is .'Shocking'
no more than five, times yearly. If this were to serve as a newspaper,
Heaven would be burdened with greater responsibilities to protect
the Jewish community whence Harry stems! His readers would be
well advised on Delancey and Canal and Huston streets but certainly
not about the serious events affecting Jewry here and abroad.
Indeed, Harry Golden is quite a dilettante. Listen to him, and you
begin to believe he is saving Jewry, Israel, the United States and
the American Negro. Indeed, he is smart. He cleverly portrays the
past as he lived it in a Yiddish, Socialist-developing environment. But
be also has lots of hutzpa, as he proved so well in an interview he
gave the New York Times when he stopped publishing his "paper" in
Charlotte, N.C.
Portrayed as vaguely resembling "a Jewish Buddha," he was asked
by the NY Times correspondent whether he "had any problems as
a Jew in the South," and his reply was:
Yes, my initial problems were with the Jews who were
scared to death I was going to kill them with the Nego
question.
The Jews boycotted me. They were after me. They
organized a committee to get rid of me because I was talking
about the Negroes, changing the Southern way of life.
But then Dr. Frank Graham, the former president of
the University of North Carolina invited me to the school
and I had a picture taken with him.
When it appeared in the Ciarlotte News, the Jews figured
2—Friday, March 15, 1968
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
spoke in reply to a question by
Laborite MP Arnold Shaw, who
asked what further representations
were to be made following Mr.
Wilson's discussions with the So-
viet leader in January. )Mr. Wilson
noted that his discussions on the
subject of the treatment of Soviet
Jews were informal.
On Feb. 4, the Prime Minister
made public his correspondence
with Sir Barnett Janner on the
subject of his talks with Kosygin.
The letters indicated that the So-
viet leaders remain adamant in
their refusal to permit Jews to
emigrate.
A member of the British Com-
munist Party who tried to defend
the Soviet Union against charges
of anti-Semitism, was forced to
admit at a meeting here that ex-
cerpts from the official Soviet press
read to him were indeed "shock-
ing anti-Semitism" reminiscent of
"the Protocols of the Elders of
Zion." The meeting was a "teach
in" on the plight of Soviet Jewry
sponsored by the London Region of
the Inter-University Jewish Fed-
eration and the youth section of the
Jewish National Fund. An audience
of more than 500, mostly students
and including a number of Com-
munists, was addressed by Prof.
Leonard Schapiro, Dr. Solomon
Gaon, Chief Rabbi of the Associ-
ated Sephardic Congregations of
Britain, Sir John Lawrence and
Gordon Hausmann, of the London
University's committee for Soviet
Jewry and Bert Ramelson of the
British Communist Party.
Prof. Schapiro said that his re-
search on the situation of Jews in
the USSR demonstrated that they
were a "culturally deprived" group
in contradiction to the general So-
viet policy toward ethnic minori-
ties. Dr. Gaon appealed for the
rights of Soviet Jews to remain
Jews and preserve their Jewish
traditions just as other minority
groups in Russia. Hausmann said
that he and his committee had
been careful about applying the
term "anti'Semitic" to the Soviet
Union but since last June's Arab-
Israel war ,"there is no doubt that
an anti-Semitic campaign has been
unleashed in the Soviet press and
other media."
Ramelson took exception, de-
claring that a distinction must be
made between anti-Semitism and
anti-Israel sentiments. He con-
tended that there was little or no
anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union
today. He averred that to demand
the right of Jews to emigrate in
order to re-unite with their fami-
lies abroad was to ask for "special
privileges" for Soviet Jewry. A
member of the audience confronted
Ramelson with a number of anti-
Semitic excerpts from the Soviet
press but did not tell him their
source. When Ramelson admitted
that these were "shocking anti-
Semitism," he was informed of
where they originated.
Private Building Spurt
Needed to Avert Critical
Israel Housing Shortage
JERUSALEM (JTA)—There will
be a critical housing shortage in
Israel next year unless private
building is accelerated, Mordechai
Ben - Tow, the minister of housing
warned the Knesset. He said the
country required 27,000 new flats
yearly, otherwise Israel would face
a shortage of 10,000 apartments
minimum by mid 1969.