THE JEWISH NEWS
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.
Published every Friday • by The Jewish News Publishing Co.,. 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit, Mich. 48235,
VE 8-9364. Subscription $7 a year. Foreign $8.
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 24th day of Tamu, 5728, the following scriptural selections
•• will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal 'portion, Num. 25:10-30:11 Prophetical portion, Jeremiah 1:1 2:3.
Rosh Hodesh Av Tora reading, Friday, July 26, Num. 28:1 15.
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Candle lighting, Friday, July 19, 8:45 p.m.
VOL. LIII. No, 18
Page Four
July 19, 1968
Support for Israel Must Be Bipartisan
Approaching days of judgment in the
selection of Presidential candidates and sub-
sequently the election of a President to suc-
ceed' President Johnson now threatens once
again to stimulate controversies over the
Middle East situation.
If the role of Israel is to emerge as a party
squabble, it will be a sad period in American
political developments,. and it is of the ut-
most urgency that the dynamite-laden issue
involving Israel and the Arab • states should
be restored to a status of non-partisanship.
There is an established tradition which, for-
tunately, points to so strong a friendship be-
tween Israel and the United States that it
should not be necessary for political parties
to compete for the honor of protecting
Israel's position while threats to demolish
the reborn Jewish State continue endlessly
in the enemy countries bordering on Israel.
Regrettably, however, the State Depart-
ment's "neutrality" is often in question. and
friends of Israel have utilized many occasions
to launch attacks on both the State Depart-
ment and the administration in power in the
course of demands that Israel should not be
sacrificed on the altar of favoritism which
has marked a pro-Arab attitude among re-
sponsible American diplomats.
That is why Congressmen William Broom-
field and Gerald Ford, Senator Robert Griffin
and others have taken to the public platform
to demand that pledges to Israel should be
adhered to. that offers of Phantoms for . the
country's defense should be made available.
But there are also Democrats who have
battled in Israel's defense, notably Senators
Ernest Gruening, Wayne Morse and others.
Therefore it stands to reason that a
friendly attitude based on justice and on a
determination to prevent the annihilation of
an entire people must be bipartisan. It is
urgent that the party platforms to be adopted
by Republicans and Democrats must stand
for assurances that the Israel-United States
friendship will not be abused by prejudices,
and their firmness must be akin in spirit.
If party partisanship can be avoided in
the approaching Presidential contest, it will
benefit the electorate in that confusing issues
will not be fanned into flames of either pre-
judice or suspicion.
Meanwhile, we are faced with delusions.
Israel gets a U.S. offer of anti-aircraft mis-
siles, thereby delaying and possibly abandon-
ing the pledged supply of Phantom jets which
are vital to Israel's defense.
A similar deception emanates from Paris.
The French—and that means Charles de
Gaulle—also said: Israel can have Fouga
Magister training planes but not the Mirage
jets for which the Jewish State already had
paid heavily more than a year ago.
Thus a game of power politics is being
enacted, and the Middle East is kept in a
state of a boiling couldron. If ever the world
powers get together to end the arms race,
there could be hope for peace. But such an
agreement would involve both the United
States and Soviet Russia, and its development
still appears too remote to provide even a
hope for an end to conflicts among nations.
The USS Liberty Error Must Be Corrected
Few incidents that occurred immediately
after the Six-Day War were as harmful to
Israel as the damaging attack on the U.S.S.
Liberty. The lives that were lost, the many
injured, the damage to the American - "com-
munications" vessel, the subsequent payment
of $3,323,500 by Israel as compensation for
damages—these all added to an accumulated
feeling of resentment against Israel.
Now it develops that the unfortunate war
incident was a result of American blunders.
It had been hinted at the outset that there
were mix-ups in communications. This is now
being established, and there is justified con-
demnation of blunders that place blame for
a tragedy on an innocent people.
No one needs to be taught the simple
lesson of Israel's sincere desire to retain the
best relations with the United States. Such
a relationship stems from deep-rooted friend-
ship between the two nations and their
peoples. That this amity should have been
affected by a • war incident which impelled
Israel to attack a vessel it believed to have
been Egyptian is tragic in itself, and it is
especially shocking because of the blunders
in the U.S. communications procedures.
That is why there now is a demand for
a refund to Israel of the $3,323,500 payment
for damages. But it is much more important
that there should be an apology to Israel. The
strong friendship between Israel and the
United States must be retained and strength-
ened and it can be further enhanced by an
apology for an error as a result of which
Israel was innocently held in contempt until
now.
Iron Curtain Jewries' Survival Hopes
Encouraging messages were brought by
spokesmen for the Jewish communities of
Bohernia, Moravia, Slovakia, Yugoslavia and
Romania to the session of the World Jewish
Congress governing council, held in Geneva
last week.
Representatives of these communities in-
dicated that not all is lost, that they have
hopes for expanding educational efforts and
that they retain faith that Jewish life will
thrive in those centers.
Their reports were the most encouraging
yet to come from behind the Iron Curtain.
While there is a continuation of menacing
situations in Soviet Russia and Communist
Poland, there is new hope for a return to
freedom in Czechoslovakia as well as the cen-
ters that were represented at the Geneva
sessions.
These reports seem to, strengthen the
views Of Dr. Nahum Goldmann that there are
hopes for better relations also with the USSR..
Perhaps these accumulating good tidings
augur well for the coming of a better future
for Jews in Communist lands.
A basic fact always to be remembered is
that the Jewish people did not and does not
seek a war with the Iron Curtain countries,
neither with Russia, nor with Poland or their
satellites. The numerous appeals to the Soviet
Union in recent months have been to abandon
the restrictions upon its Jewish citizens, to
assure them the same liberties that are en-
joyed by those of other faiths.
Russian propagandists and politicians have
denied that there is such bias. But all proof
from the USSR negates the refutations.
There is little if any reason for the Com-
munist antagonisms to Jews and Judaism. If
policies apparently in evidence in the lands
whence came the positive reports at the
World Jewish Congress sessions can be emu-
lated in the USSR, the cause for p r of e s t s
could_ vanish over .night.
An Israeli Village Builder:
Abraham Harzfeld's Biography
In the story of Zionism and of the early pioneers in Palestine, the
name of Abraham Harzfeld looms big. He was among the great pio-
neers in the efforts for agricultural settlement in Eretz Israel. He was
one of the chief advocates of the cause represented by the Jewish Na-
tional Fund. He was among the creators of the State of Israel as a
founder of foundations for Jewish settlements.
The dramatic story of the life of Harzfeld is told in The Village
Builder" by Simon Kushnir, published by Herzl Press.
Born in the Ukraine, in the 1880s, Harzfeld studied in the Yeshiva
of Berditchev and was to have been ordained a rabbi. He soon began
to travel, went to Telz, then to Vilna, was among those who were asso-
ciated with Shmarya Levin and later with other pioneer Zionist leaders,
and upon his settlement in Palestine was among the first to begin to
establish agricultural settlements.
He had been exiled to Siberia—he was a participant in revolu-
tionary activities—but he escaped 'and after a short stay in Vilna
went to Germany and Italy and then on to the Holy Land, arriving
in Jaffa in 1914 and remaining in Palestine from then on
In the course of the years, his major labors were for the JNF, and
his appeals brought adherents to the movements and helped create the
solid foundation for the eventual Jewish state. For 40 years he was
among the great advocates of the land redemption movement, and in
an introduction to "The Village Builder" the late Abraham Granott,
who was the JNF's managing director in Jerusalem, referred to him as
a "Tzadik," emphasizing the righteousness of the noted pioneer's
character.
It was as successor to Berl Katznelson, who passed away in 1944,
that Harzfeld was elected to the directorate of the JNF and continued
his active role in the movement, assuring the establishment of new set-
tlements which served as the beginning of statehood for Jewry.
Many pioneering efforts are credited to Harzfeld — the
establishment of the "Settlement of the Thousands," the creation of
the "Operation Stockade and Tower" and other significant achieve-
ments. As inspirer of the masses of Jews in many lands, including
the U. S., he emerged among the great Zionists.
That is why President Zalman Shazar, in his tribute, reproduced in
"The Village Builder," paid high honor to Harzfeld's deeds, and David
Ben-Gurion, extending honors to Harzfeld, addressed him as "Beloved
Man" and declared that "the people of Israel have only one Harzfeld."
This volume describes the establishment of Hanita as one of the
I most important "Stockade-and-Tower" settlements. It relates how the
Jewish settlers had fought for their defense, how Orde Wingate had
come to Hanita to assist in the Jewish settlement's struggle for
survival.
"The Village Builder" is part of the history of Israel and of the
Zionist movement. In the course of elaborating on the life of Abraham
Harzfeld, this volume also describes how Jews defended their posses-
sions and lives against Arab banditry and also how the settlements
struggled against the British antagonists. It gives an account of the
bravery in welcoming the so-called "illegal" immigrants who broke
through British cordons to settle in Palestine and thereby establish
Israel's foundation.
"Between 1936 and 1938 a total of 36 `Stockade-and-Tower'
settlements were set up, covering, over 21,000 acres of land and
housing more than. 1,200 families," the author of this biography
points out, and he quotes a lengthy account of the successful labors
inspired by Harzfeld as told by one of the veteran settlers.
In "The Village Builder" Harzfeld is evaluated by friends and asso-
ciates and by the historic record that is so well told in Simon Kushnir's
biography.
'New World' Hebrew Series
•
In the second part of "In the New World," the series of Hebrew
booklets portraying the history of Jews in early America, Tina
Levitan commences with the story of a Sukkot observance at Valley
Forge.
This excellent set of Hebrew brochures, with an explanatory
glossary in English, tells about a Jewish youngster, Shlomo Russell,
who related to General Washington the story of the Festival of Booths.
This Hebrew pamphlet proceeds to relate incidents in the lives
of Judah Touro, Rebecca Gratz, Mordecai Manuel Noah and his plan
for a Jewish state on Mount Ararat near Buffalo.
Then there is an account of Abraham Lincoln, Jews in the Civil
War period, the liberation of the Negroes. Emma Lazarus and Jacob
Schiff are the other personalities depicted here.
It is an excellently written book for young readers, and it is
additionally enhanced by the splendid illustrations by Siegmund
Forst, The • series "BeOlam Halladash" is .published by the JeWish
Education committee, Press, 426 W. 58th, ,New, York.,