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. - - 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.,