THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
COCKTAILTIKE...
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,
VF. 8-9364. Subscription $7 a year. Foreign SS.
Second Class Postage Paid at Detroit, Michigan
SIDNEY SHMARAK
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Advertising Manager
Business Manager
Editor and Publisher
K
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath. the sixth day of lyar, 5728, the following scriptural selections will
be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Levit. 12:1-15:13. Prophetical portion, II Kings 7:3-20
Candle lighting, Friday, May 3, 7:15 p.m.
Page Four
VOL. LIII. No. 7
May 3, 1968
Telethon Campaign and Our Generosity
Between now and May 8, if the several
thousand men and women yet to be con-
tacted will respond to the urgent appeal of
the current Aillied Jewish Campaign-Israel
Emergency Fund, the hoped-for $10,000,000
total can be fully ,accounted for.
Many thousands of our fellow citizens al-
ready are enrolled as participants in the great
philanthropic effort. Several thousand are
Yet to be reached. The success of the drive
depends upon the generosity of the many
prospective contributors whose gifts must be
accounted for in the few days that remain
between now and the closing campaign date.
An emergency effort will be made during
the ensuing few days, by means of the Tele-
thon solicitations, to attain the urgently need-
ed funds for the protection of Israel's econ-
omic and cultural status, and to assure the
upkeep of the local and national agencies.
Detroit's response may prove an inspiration
for the rest of the country in assuring con-
tinued devotional links between Israel and
American Jewry. And a successful Detroit
drive will retain for this community its com-
mendable record of generosity and of concern
for the people and causes that are dependent
upon our gifts. Let there be another out-
pouring of generosity during the few remain-
ing days of the current drive.
Sad Status of Jews Behind Iron Curtain
By means of photos that are reminiscent of
the perversity of the arch-Nazi Julius Streic 7
her, and in numerous articles in the Russian
press, the Communist campaign against Israel
and world Jewry continues unabated. It is
not in Poland alone that the Zionists have
been chosen for scapegoatism. The hatred
stems from Russian quarters and it has been
planted in fertile Polish soil where the anti-
Semitic venom has had a long history of
bigotry.
A periodical survey of events affecting
Jews in Eastern Europe. compiled in London,
shows the extent of the hatred that is being
fomented in the Soviet Union by a number of
publications. The propaganda campaign is
not limited to attacks on Israel and Zionism.
They include Judaism. In articles in Kom-
somolskaya Pravda, for example, Judaism is
called "a haven for racism."
The attacks link Israel with world imperial-
and in Nauka i Religia, Zionists are
called "agents of imperialism." In a Ukrain-
ian journal, Liudina i Svit, appeared a charge
that David Ben-Gurion was a "militant cleri-
calist" who utilized the Bible for his party
programs and for the creation of "a dictator-
ship of the synagogue in Israel."
Many of the charges — like the one in
Nauka i Religia that accused Israeli children
of approving genocide—are so fantastic that
they lead to the puzzling query how rational
People can retort to so much nonsense in an
effort to malign a people, a state, a religion.
While most of the venom sterns from non-
Jewish Communist sources it is especially de-
plorable that some of the propaganda is
engineered by Jews who had inherited an
anti-religious and anti-Zionist ideology from
the days when the Yevsektzia was an influ-
ence in Russia. While Jewish writers are not
necessarily vile in their approaches to the
issue affecting Jews they often give comfort
to those who are battling Jews and Judaism.
This certainly was the case in the alliance
that was created between the Council for
Judaism and the Moscow chief rabbinate.
*
*
A typical example of negation of Jewish
kinships and of the urgent need for Jewish
identification is provided in a Soviet Novosti
Press Agency release issued by the USSR
Embassy, an article entitled "Judaism in the
USSR" by Yuri Rosenbaum, research asso-
ciate at the State and Law Institute of the
USSR Academy of Sciences, who opened his
statement with the assertion: "Some western
newspapers and magazines, and the Jewish
press in particular, when writing about Juda-
ism, frequently identify Judaism, the religion
of the Jews, with the whole Jewish nation. We
hold this identification to be in principle
wrong." Proceeding with a review of the
status of Jews under the Czars, recalling how
Communism had fought religion on all fronts,
Rosenbaum concluded: "Judaism at present
is_ .exercising, ,no_, xpark,ed, .influence , on
/
/pIta
le
'The Quotable American Rabbis'
Includes a Detroiters' Sayings
Rabbi Samuel M. Silver of Stamford. Conn.. displays great skill
in , compiling the sayings of religious teachers. In "The Quotable
American Rabbis," which he edited together with the staff of "Quote,"
he has included quotes from more than 1,000 rabbis whose views are
listed under more than 900 headings.
The list of men quoted probably could form a veritable Who'S
Who in the rabbinate representing every faction in American Jewry.
And the headings over the vast number of sections include every factor
in life and in history, and in social experiences. from AbrahaM. to
Zionism.
Rabbi Silver seems to have been so thorough in his search
Jewish people in the Soviet Union. It is fund-
amentally incorrect to equate the two."
What the Soviet Jewish writer, and those
who, like him, follow the atheistic approach,
fail to indicate is that while all other national-
ity groups in Russia have the freedom of pub-
lishing newspapers and conducting theaters,
in addition to worshiping in their churches,
there has been a consistent restriction of
for the quoted wisdoms that he has included in his list of rabbis
Jewish rights in all these areas which would
eight Detroiters—two of whom no longer are among the living.
have led to an identification of Jews with
The latter are Rabbi Morris Adler and Rabbi Abraham M. Hersh-
their heritage, even if religion were on the
man, both of whom served Congregation Shaarey Zedek. Rabbi
decline. Even secularists are restricted in
Hershman is quoted on the subject of "the measure of life."
Russia, a single monthly Yiddish magazine I
Rabbi Adler is quoted eight times on a variety of subjects.
being the exception to the "privilege"
The other rabbis in the local area who are included among the
granted to Jews. And this exception, by being
spiritual
leaders quoted in this volume are Rabbis Leon Frain, M.
granted as a "privilege," is in itself an em- Robert Syme,
Richard C. Hertz, Hayim Donin, Samuel Stollman and
phasis on the persistent prejudices against Milton Rosenbaum.
everything Jewish.
Defining the purpose of his anthological effort. Rabbi Silver
There is no doubt that anti-Jewish practices
not only have not diminished but are growing points out in the introduction to these collected sayings that the
his
in the USSR. While claiming to have out- American rabbi "does not specialize," that he is "influenced by has
colleagues and by his contemporary milieu and today
lawed anti-Semitism, every description of Christian
become a pastor. a chaplain, an organization executive, a civie
Jews is equated, as in Poland, with anti-Zion- leader
. . .", and in seeking to "etymologize the word (rabbi) itself"
status
of
Jews
behind
the
Iron
ism; and the
. . . he states that "we discover that it means 'teacher.' And a teacher
Curtain, except in Romania, and now hope- the rabbi was—and whatever else he does. continues to be"
fully in Czechoslovakia, is precarious.
Thus, it is as instruction, utilizing the rabbi as an educator, that
* * *
quotations are presented in Rabbi Silver's interesting book.
A disturbing development in the Soviet these
"The Quotable American Rabbis" is the result of a serious effort.
Union is an apparent pressure upon indi-
The book was published by Drake House of Anderson, S.C., and
vidual Jews to join in attacks on Israel and
to help create the phantom represented by is being distributed by Grosset and Dunlap (51 Madison, NY).
the image Communists are giving the Zion-
ist idea. The Novosti Press Agency has
utilized two letters. by Jews that appeared I
in Pravda, both purportedly written by Jews,
A great classic by one of the most eminent authorities on Jewish
both resorting to the Federenko - Kosygin line music has been issued as a paperback by Schocken Books.
of charging Israel with "aggression."
"Jewish Music in Its Historical Development" by I. Z. Idelsohn is
If Novosti ever intended to expose its in- the most authorative work on the subject.
tentions and its party line approaches, it cer-
Giving "a description and an analysis of the elements and
tainly did so in this release which corres- characteristics of Jewish music. in their historical development, from
ponds:; with a revelation by New York Times the earliest times of its appearance as a Semitic-Oriental song,
correspondent Jonathan Randal who cabled throughout the ages and customs," this work is the result of a lifetime(
from Moscow that there was pressure upon of research. With emphasis on synagogue music and on folksongs of
a woman director of the United Workers Oriental and European Jewish communities, this work is thorough and
Party in Lodz to join the anti-Zionist witch- serves well as an enlightening reader for laymen and could be used
hunt. Randal stated in his cable: "Although excellently as a textbook.
Offering a constructive form of transliteration, containing
Jewish institutions such as the Yiddish
many hymnal facsimiles and other musical illustrations, the
theater and the Cultural Association have
Idelsohn volume is replete with references to musical developments
been asked to condemn publicly what was
through the ages.
termed the Zionist-led 'slander campaign
The notes used for Bible readings are thoroughly explained and
against Poland,' the case of Perla Goldys in-
contrasts and evaluations of Hebrew music as well -as
dicated that individual Jewish party mem- there are
Arabic and other meters. .
bers were now also being pressed to do the
A comparative table of accent motives for the intoning of the
same thing."
Pentateuch will prove especially illuminating and helpful to Tora
The cards are on the table. The merged readers and students of Jewish music.
campaign of hatred, reasons for which are
The synagogue song of the Ashkenazim, the Reform influences and
•
inexplicable, is embracing the blind followers Hazanut generally are well delineated here.
of the Communist line. Zionism is the bogey
Modernity emerges from the descriptions of the variety of
and serves as a scapegoat for haters who
folk songs. Dr. Idelsohn covers fully all the aspects of the Oriental
may be seeking to avoid their own destruc-
folksong, of Hasidic music, the Badhonim and Klezmorin.
tion, the warnings already imminent, as in
A special section is devoted to Jews in general in the world of
Czechoslovakia. Since those whom the gods music, making this a thorough account of Jewish music and musicians.
Dr. Idelsohn's is a materful outline of his subject and
would destroy must first turn mad, perhaps
these are .the symptoms we should recognize, enrichment of a vitally important one, providing information for all who
•
are interested in the development of,the musicalarto•
in
„
. .
.
Z. Idelsohn's 'Jewish Music'