THE JEWISH NEWS
A LESSON. im 1.04i0
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Member American Association of English=Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial
A.ssoclation.
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
SIDNEY SHMARAK
Business Manager
Advertising Manager
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 21st day of Elul, 5728, the following scriptural selections will
be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Dent. 26:1 29:8. Prophetical portion, Isaiah 60:1-22.
-
Candle lighting, Friday, Sept. 13, 7:15 p.m.
VOL. Lm. No. 26
Page Four
September 13, 1968
Recalling October 1943: With Gratitude
Not only world Jewry but the libertarian
forces representing all mankind will recall
with gratitude the events of October 1943
when the Scandinavian countries defied the
Hitlerian rules and rescued an entire com-
munity from destruction.
The 7,000 Jews of Denmark were in peril.
The-Nazis were in power in the temporarily_
subjugated Denmark and they had begun to
plan the round-up and deportation of all Dan-
ish Jewry for deportation to concentration
and eventually to death camps. It was to
have taken. place on Rosh Hashana of that
year.
Horrified by the plans, rejecting any ef-
fort to destroy an entire community, the
people of Denmark, the Christian fellow-cit-
izens of the Danish Jews, effected plans that
resulted in the mass rescue of the threatened
Jews.
They fled to Sweden, and the role of the
Swedes in the rescue efforts will be remem-
bered on a par with the heroic humanitarian-
ism of the Danes.
In the reconstruction of the events that
marked the chapter of glory for Denmark,
and its people, occasioning a sense of deep
gratitude' from Jews everywhere, history will
record the part that was played by King
Christian X of Denmark. He rejected Ger-
man demands to implement anti-Jewish de-
crees. Prior of the threat of extermination
the Danish Jews were forCed to wear the
Yellow Badge which was to become "a badge
of shame.' Proud Jews transformed the
symbol into a Badge of Honor and King
Christian was among the Christians—the
first in their midst—also to don that badge.
This became one of the most courageous acts
by great men in mankind's history.
'It has been recorded that 475 Danish
Jews were caught by the Germans and many
of them perished, but 6,200-92 per cent—
acquired refuge in Sweden with the aid of
their non-Jewish neighbors.
Now, a Thanks to Scandinavia fund, under
the direction of a committee that is headed
by Victor Borge and Richard Netter, serves
as a tax-exempt scholarship fund to provide
educational opportunities for Scandinavian
youths in this country, as a mark of apprecia-
tion by American donors for what had tran-
pired in October 1943 during the perilous
rescue efforts.
It is no wonder that Dr. Albert Einstein,
speaking of those event's, should have said:
"The assistance of the Swedish and
Danish peoples to my Jewish brethren in
. Denmark was given in a spirit of true hu-
maneness, and will never be forgotten. It
was a bright ray in this period of decline
5EFftorto
—sato.
in humane feelings and human solidarity.
It gave new faith to all_ who believe in a
better future."
The Danish rescue operation was called
"the little Dunkirk" by an eminent Danish
writer, Aage Bertelsen, who, in his book
In May, 1965, Dr. William Foxwell Albright delivered the Jordan
"October '43" graphically described how a Lectures
at the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University
sympathetic German official revealed his of London.
These lectures were established as a provision in the will of
superiors' plans for the plot to raid Jewish the late Rev. Louis H. Jordan who left the greater part of his estate to
homes and to transport the Jews to death the School of Oriental and African Studies
camps; how the Jews were told of the plot for the furtherance of studies in compara-
at the Rosh Hashana service, Sept. 29, 1943; tive religion.
Prof. Albright's lectures have been com-
how the rescue work was conducted, Oct. 1
and 2 of that year. Bertelsen referred to piled into a single volume published under
title "Yahweh and the Gods of Cnaan
"the dark night of the 1st and 2nd of Octo- the
—A Historical Analysis of Two Contrasting
ber . . . a personal "dawn" by describing the Faiths,"
just published by Doubleday.
popular reaction:
In his outlines of the Canaanite reli-
gious structures and their ethnic back-
"From now on there was no doubt or
grounds, and the Hebraic lore and poetry
uncertainty possible . . . Action was the
and the traditions of the Jewish faith, Dr.
word. Even -under serious or desperate
Albright utilized data provided in recent
conditions it is often a happy feeling to be
archaelogical findings and developed the
able to devote oneself to a cause that one
contrasts in "the religious cultures of
feels convinced is both unconditionally
Israel and Phoenicia" as they were af-
just and absolutely binding. The situation
fected by periodic tensions. His study
in Denmark at that time was precisely
delves deeply into the prophetic move-
that simple. No honest man could possibly
ments in Israel as well as the higher
refrain from action after this raid, when
Phoenician culture.
the persecuted cried for help."
Showing how establishment of close
Prof. Albright
Thus the great operation was inaugurated, relations between the contending civiliza-
tions
became
difficult,
Dr.
Albright
asserts
at one point that parallels
giving credence to the truth of an ancient
and that "Hebrew tenacity in maintaining ancient traditions
admonition by Solon, the famous teacher of abound
becoines easy to understand."
Socrates. He was asked, "When does the
Drawing "sharp distinctions between the Patriarchal Hebrew heri-
ideal community exist?", and his reply was: tage, the unique contribution of Moses and the movement which he
"The ideal community exists when those who founded, and the influence of contemporary Canaanite culture on the
have not been injured are as indignant as Israelites who were exposed to it," Dr. Albright adds: "The latter is an
exceptionally complex problem, since the early Hebrews were influ-
those who have."
-
Responsible Programing and Planning
A year of reckoning, about to be wel-
And there is also the internal need. When
comed by world Jewry, will reintroduce us we speak of knowledge and communication
to many challenges, to problems that affect between. Jewish communities, we must take
us as citizens and as members of the spiritual- into account also the need for an understand-
ing of the values we seek to enforce and
cultural community. We will be called upon of the purposes of our communal structures
to react to many issues as citizens of this in assuring an appreciation of the tasks that
great nation and as communicants in the re- lie ahead and that we must tackle to assure
wholesome approaches to all the factors that
ligious sphere..
make up a Jewish entity.
There will be need for guidance and
On this score, once again, there is an
also for self-discipline, and in the course of obligation so to conduct our programming,
our planning as a community we will be our cultural activities, that they are on a
called upon to act in defense of our kins- high plane, devoid of the shallow and self-
men everywhere, in support of the needy degrading. In every organized group there
and also in protecting our own cultural posi- is need for so dignified an approach to our
tion.,
cultural planning that it should not be de-
The Jewish community is well mobilized graded by low type entertainment. We have
to face the calls to action philanthropically. risen above the burlesque and the comic
Thanks to splendid organizational forces in stagings. We must adhere to it.
the Jewish Welfare Federation and its fund-
If Jewish content should be either elimi-
raising arms, specifically the Allied Jewish nated or reduced to a minimum in communal
Campaign, we should feel fairly well pro- planning, it will serve to perpetuate both
tected on that score—except that there is ignorance and misinformation. The chief
always the need to keep the constituents obligation is to elevate the Jewish aspect to
well informed and properly to meet all con- the plane of importance it merits in Jewish
tigencies. All indications are that we shall life.
have to strengthen our forces because of
The high standards in program planning
the increasing needs, and that our people should be demanded, and the planners should
will have to be more generous in their re- be aware of the need to emphasize the ideals
sponses because the overseas needs are inherent in our heritage. Let there be
mounting, the dangers are not reducing and dignity in programing and then we shall
the local obligations, especially in the edu- surely rise to new heights, worthy of tradi-
cational areas, are far greater.
tions that glorify our existence
..
...........
Albright Analyzes Contrasting
'Yahweh, Canaanite Gods' Faith
enced by their Canaanite neighbors, there were beliefs and practices
common to both, and there were later borrowings and adaptations from
Canaanite culture during the period of the Judges as well as of the sub-
sequent monarchy."
Summarizing his findings, Pro'. Albright states:
"The contrast between Canaanite and Phoenicial paganism, OH
the one hand, and the faith and practice of Israel, on the other, was
relatively just, as great as that between Graeco-Roman paganism
and Judaeo-Christian monotheism in the time of the rabbis and
church fathers. Israel learned the arts of civilization, including
music and belles lettres, from Canaanite-Phoenician neighbors, just
•
as later Jews and Christians learned how to reason
• .
from the Greeks. In the process of acculturation he
There were syncretistic cults and movements at every known4ute
of the development of Yahwism. Gnosticism had its fore r
-=
among Israelites and Samaritans, even though we can only see
dimly at present. But significant pagan influences always came
from the older and richer cultures, not from the nomads and send-
nomads of Sinai and North Arabia, as romantically imagined by
many biblical scholars. It is high time that we turn from such
imaginative fantasies to the real world of antiquity, which has so
much to tell our own world of today."
According to Dr. Albright, while there was literary influence
upon Israel from Phoenicia, there was some in the opposite direction.
Among the details elaborated upon by Dr. Albright are the author-
ship and dating of biblical works. His scholarly thesis is richly an-
notated.
Israel Arabs: Facts on File
,
There is excellent reportorial and factual accumulation of de-
tails about the events in the Middle East in June of 1967 in the
"Interim History" issue of the "facts on file" publication entitled "Is-
rael and the Arabs: The June 1967 War."
Published by Facts on File (119 W. 57th, NY19); this paper
back, edited by Hal Kosut, has the value of having included in a
compact 216-page booklet all the details relating to the Six-Day War.
It is not a book of 'opinions but a selection of the ,basic events in
the Middle East, on the Israel and Arab fronts-, at the United Na-
tions and wherever there were developments affecting the situation.
The reader has access to the voting -record of each UN member
nation, to the time and place of , occurrences, the Nasser, assertions
and the decisions that led to that historic occurrence. ",