THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronic/e commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Member Nmerican Association of English—Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial
Associ.-tion.
Published eieri. Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co. 17100 West Seven Mlle Road, Detroit, Mich. 48235.
CE 8-9364. Subscription $7 a year. Foreign $5.
Second Class Postage Paid at Detroit, Michigan
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Advertising Manager
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 16th day of Adar. 5728. the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion. Exodus 30:11-34:35. Prophetical portion, I Kings 18:1 - 39.
Candle lighting, Friday, March 15, 6:20 p.m.
VOL. LII. No. 26
Page Four
March 15, 1%8
Jewry's Response to Those Who Menace Israel
Gamal Abdel Nasser is back in harness.
In his speech to the workers in the Helwan
industrial center near Cairo he again let
loose with threats on Israel, swearing to
liberate the Holy Land from Israel "inch by
inch."
While Dr. Gunnar Jarring was searching
for means of getting Arabs and Israelis to
begin peace discussions, the Egyptian dicta-
tor's reply was in, the form of renewed threats.
Thus, the suspected is fact: the road to
peace is strewn with obstacles, and the dif-
ficulties in securing a face-to-face confronta-
tion are so great that all prospects in the
Middle East are for a continued state of war.
Syrians do not even wish to respond to
any of Dr. Jarring's appeals. and Hussein
goes the Nasser way in an antagonism that
makes the Middle East's battleground suf-
fused with dangers, threats and with so much
terrorism that peace-loving people live in
a state of horror.
These are facts well known to Israel. they
are becoming more evident daily to all who
wish for an end to conflicts, and for Jews
everywhere the existing conditions represent
an unending challenge not to be too com-
placent and to be prepared for many even-
tualities in the issues affecting Israel's
future.
It may well be that the June war was
only a beginning, that other military con-
flicts may develop at almost any time and
that Israel may be in greater need of sup-
port now than ever before. It may well be
that Israel. faced with the necessity of pre-
paring the nation's defense, may be com-
pelled to reduce its educational and health
programs, that the settlement of newcomers
may entail greater difficulties than ever and
that the country's progressive forces may be
styled in their activities in building a demo-
cratic highly advanced state.
This is where Israel's kinsmen come in.
Unless American and other Jewries provide
the means of retaining Israel's economic and
cultural projects, there will be great trouble
ahead. Israel may not be able to continue
both the defensive obligations as well as the
constructive tasks of nation-building.
It is well that this should be remembered
as we approach the formal opening of the
current Allied Jewish Campaign which has
been linked with another appeal for the Is-
rael Emergency Fund. The former provides
for many Israeli needs and for the upkeep
of all local agencies as well as support for
a number of national causes. The emergency
fund is an extra gift to assure the continua-
tion of Israel's normal functions. Without
that extra fund. difficulties will mount, anfl
unless we give as generously as we responded
last June we will be contributing to Israel's
difficulties.
In the interest of peace, in order to as-
su•e that all threats to Israel's existence will
be defied with courage and dignity, the cur-
rent drive must match the success of last
year. That's our current collective communal
Dr. Sheldon Blank's 'Prophetic
Faith in Isaiah' in Paperback
Prof. Sheldon H. Blank of Ilebrew Union College-Jewish Institute
of Religion has set out to find meaning in Isaiah. His "Prophetic
Faith in Isaiah," published by Harper in 1958, emerged as one of the
classics dealing with interpretive literature on the Bible:The reprinting
of this volume by Wayne State University Press as a paperback enriches
popular book shelves and makes available an important work anew, now
procurable by a larger reading public.
Dr. Blank explains Isaiah the Prophet and the Book. the First
obligation.
The Allied Jewish Campaigns represent Isaiah and the Isaiah of legend. The first Isaiah is depicted as the
this community's chief objective in the part- unforgettable. as the prophet of doom, who knew nothing of a chosen
nership with our Israeli kinsmen for the people. It was the later Isaiah who "called Israel God's chosen servant,"
whd spoke of salvation and renewal of hopes.
upbuilding and defense of their embattled
Looking at the two Isaiahs together, after study of Chapter 7
state. But this is not the only obligation
in the drive. Upon its success hinges the
retention of all of our local educational.
social service and recreational movements
and numerous national causes.
Therefore the duty that devolves upon
us to make the drive we are about to ini-
tiate is immense and can not be shirked.
It calls for total involvement of our com-
munity and all of us must act in response
to it with the greatest generosity. Anything
and related portions, Dr. Blank wrote: "It was the function of the
historical Isaiah to instill in king and people fear, to create unease,
to disturb the complacent. It was the function of the Isaiah of legend
to relieve the troubled mind, to allay fear, to inspire confidence.
The meaning of hope, the evolvement out of the teachings of
Isaiah of religion of hope, the messianic ideal and the mission of
Israel are among the factors in Isaiah evaluated in this reprinted
volume.
Regarding Israel's mission. Prof. Blank states that "the glowing
core of the idea is the thought of the Second Isaiah that Israel is
God's chosen people of prophets, destined to serve as a light to the
nations, that his salvation may reach to the ends of the earth."
less than total participation in the campaign
Then there is the Trito - Isaiah who "reflected the exuberance of
will be a cruel disregard of the most humane the Second Isaiah together with the earlier prophet's understanding of
needs of our time.
this sort of faith. He, too, linked faith and salvation: 'He who puts his
faith in me will possess the land and inherit my holy mountain.' And,
to the Isaiah of the apocalypse, the faith which is a leaning on God
was especially dear."
There is this added explanation by Dr. Blank: "Trito-Isaiah' is
issues. Highly qualified students of the is- only a convenient way of referring to chapters 56 to 66 of -Isaiah.
sues — Dr. Raphael Patai, Dr. Nasrollah S. Probably no single prophet composed them, and if one man did his
Fatemi, Dr. Emil Lengyel and Joel Car- name was certainly not Trito-Isaiah. The name is an invention and the
michael — will review and evaluate them implication of single authorship misleading. And yet the compositions
and will share their knowledge with the which make up these 11 chapters do to some extent justify the desig-
nation. They have some things in common and share a certain mood.
participants in the 1968 discussion series.
And one thing that they have in common is that they clearly show the
The Midrasha discussions have already influence of the Second Isaiah."
Vital Role of M idrasha Institute
When the Midrasha Institute was in-
troduced here 12 years ago by the United
Hebrew Schools, sponsor of the Midrasha
College of Jewish Studies. Israel was in
danger and world Jewry faced the task of
defending the Jewish State's very right to
existence.
On the American front especially, there
was an urgent need to explain historical
facts, to prepare the Jews in our community
with an awareness of what was transpiring• in
order that whatever libels might be leveled
at Jews should be counteracted knowledge-
ably.
Today we are confronted with a similar
situation. There are rash statements about
Zionism, and the ugly charge of double al-
legiance again is heard in many quarters.
Jewry's right to settlement in the Holy Land
is challenged. Many of those who were ad-
mirers of Israel while the struggle was in
progress against the Nasser-Hussein Clique
last May now have become antagonists.
Besides, there are claims of Moslem rights
to all of Palestine, including the Jewish settle-
ments for which Jews have paid with ex-
orbitant sums and which they have held at
the cost of much blood, and the uninformed
easily fall prey to the contention that Jews
should be branded the strangers in their
own homeland.
It is vitally important. therefore, that the
facts should become known, that those who
can be mobilized in whatever campaign may
necessarily have to be formed in Israel's
defense should be acquainted with the role
of the Arabs. the nationalistic conflicts in
the Middle East. the possibility of establish-
ing amity between Israel and the Arab states.
The current Midrasha Institute which will
com mence next 'Thursday, will- deal witlf
created a precedent for frank reviews of
Jewish issues. The approaching series is es-
pecially vital in our time. We can look to
it to provide enlightenment on problems
that have become part of a great crisis in
an important area in the world. A wider
understanding of the facts related to
these issues can avert a Middle East war
that could easily develop into a world con-
flict. What we do here to reach understand-
ing might well spread elsewhere in the in-
terest of peace.
Prof. Blank asserts that "the Isaiahs move between these
poles: surrender and effort, receiving and giving, supine expec-
tancy and earned repose." Reviewing the historical Isaiah's ad-
monition to his people: "Give the weary rest; this is the security
for you," he explains the three poles: "Near the one pole is the
Isaiah of legend who 'believes.' He is the Isaiah to reassure an
Ahaz or a Hezekiah: Jerusalem is safe beneath the sheltering
wings, and trusting God is virtue. Near, too, stands Isaiah the
messianist, whose savior king is divinely given and endowed. In
Trito-Isaiah, in passages where Israel plays a passive role in the
unfolding of God's purpose, that role, too, involves only a sitting,
a resting, a waiting."
Dr. Blank declares that it is the first, the historical Isaiah, who
sums up in the meaningful verse, the 15th of chapter 30:
"Although he lays great store by 'quietness and confidence,'
in first place he puts a man's 'return:'
Dr. William Haber retires from the dean-
By returning and rest you can be saved,
ship of the University of Michigan College
In quietness and confidence lies your strength.
Haber's Retirement
of Literature, Science and the Arts after
many years of services to the university
and the State of Michigan that are of such
great value that they can not be measured
in mere words.
As dean he guided his department Tinto
unchallenged leadership among American
universities. As head of the department of
economics he became the advisers of Presi-
dents and governors in planning the pro-
gressive new trends in government services.
The Jewish community is fortunate that
"Man makes the first step."
While "Prophetic Faith in Isaiah" is a valuable work for Prof.
Blank's student and for theological experts, its style is popular and
the volume is as appealing for laymen as it is for advanced scholars.
Spero's 'God in All Seasons'
Rabbi Shibert Spero of Cleveland has compiled an impressive series
of sermons on the Jewish festivals in a book appropriately titled "God
in All Seasons."
Published by Shengold (45 W. 45th NY36), the 20 essays in this
volume describe extensively, with historical references and numerous
talmudic and other background material, the holy days and feasts of
Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Hanuka, Purim, Pesah and
his retirement will provide him with extra Shavuot.
time to continue his labors for ORT, in
Making it an up-to-date work, two of the essays are devoted to
support of Israel and for the advancement Israel's Yom Ha-Atzmaut
of Jewry's cultural projects. Whatever he ,.
With emphasis on the traditional and on the rich Jewish heritage,
may do, he carries with him the blessings Rabbi Spero's evaluations serve effectively in explaining the festiyals
- to make it fully understandable by( young and old.
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these • •ettan • appreeietive• TOMS snnfity.