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
'ssociatlon.
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
Advertising Manager
Business Manager
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the fourth day of Heshvan, 5729, the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Gen. 6:9-11:32. Prophetical portion, Isaiah 54:1 - 55:5.
Candle lighting, Friday. Oct. 25, 6:26 p.m.
VOL. LIV. No. 6
October 25, 1968
Page Four
General Rabin and the Bond Drive
The approaching visit in Detroit of Israel's
ambassador to the United Nations, Itzhak
Rabin. serves not only to pay due respect
to the military genius who guided his coun-
try to triumph over those who sought to de-
stroy it, but at the same time to review con-
ditions involved in the continuing duty to
protect Israel against mounting dangers.
As chief of staff of the Israel Army, Gen-
eral Rabin was the chief planner of tactics
that resulted in his warriors' success in the
Six-Day War lof June 1967. In the process
of inspiring his - army, he had injected the
devotion that was so vitally needed to assure
defensive methods to prevent the destruc-
tion of the Jewish State and the threatened
annihilation of its citizens.
The dangers have not ended, and the
obligation of world Jewry to assure Israel's
security remains as vital today as it was
16 months ago. That is why General Rabin's
appearance here in support of the Israel
Bond drive is so vitally significant.
In a matter of some weeks, American
Jewry will be confronted with the task of
commencing the planning for a renewed
Israel Emergency Fund through the United
Jewish Appeal. It is well that the realiza-
tion of the need to continue emergency ef-
forts in Israel's defense should be impressed
upon all American Jews. While giving rec-
ognition to the emergency on the philan-
thropic front, we shall also have to meet
other obligations involved in the necessity
to protect Israel's economy, and the Israel
Bond drive enters here as a need to be hon-
ored and as a task to be pursued as diligent-
ly as the efforts in the field of philanthropy.
For Detroiters who have admired the
communal labors and the devout spirit of
Cantor Jacob H. Sonenklar, the honor to be
accorded him at the dinner on Oct. 31 at
which General Rabin will be the guest speak-
er adds a delightful domestic note to an
important event in Israel's behalf.
In welcoming General Rabin to Detroit,
it is a joy at the same time to join in honor-
As "a source of the history of Spain," a highly scholarly work,
ing a distinguished cantor whose lifetime
"The `Responsa' " of Rabbi Solomon ben Adreth of Barcelona (1235-
Zionist affiliation has linked him with the 1310),
by Dr. Isidore Epstein, has been reissued by Ktav Publishing
undertakings for Jewish libertarian efforts House (120
E. B'way, NY 2).
during the four decades of his residence here.
Newly Re-Issued 'Response
Reflect Life of Sephardic Jewry
Is Hope for Peace Fading in M. E.?
"Arab leaders talk as though hope of a fusal to discuss peace with Israel. The ques-
peaceful settlement with Israel is fading fast," tion must therefore be posed: how can neigh-
John K. Cooley, considered one of the most bors live in peace if they won't be on speak-
authoritative reporters in Beirut, cabled to ing terms?
the Christian Science Monitor.
There are many good signs that the re-
Nevertheless, there is a growing feeling calcitrant will not predominate forever, that
elsewhere, in areas that are not altogether there is a measure of hope for peace. The
affected by Arab propaganda, that the peace appeal for an end to terrorism by the elders
offers by Abba Eban at the United Nations of Hebron is one of the indications that, pos-
must be considered in all sincerity and that sibly, we may soon see an end to warfare,
it provides a basis for proper negotiations. just as there is a growing hope for an end to
Unfortunately, Arabs adhere to their re- the war in Vietnem.
Truth vis-a-vis Negro-Jewish Relations
Spreading bias that has affected the many
"It would appear that many Negro store-
years of good relations between Jews and the owners, like their white counterparts, pre-
Negro community is cause for serious con-
fer to live away from Harlem. If more
cern, and an issue especially aggravating is blacks owned stores there, it does not seem
the charge that Jews are exploiters who
likely that they would 'keep their money in
own most of the stores in Negro neighbor-
the ghetto'."
hoods and are making exorbi6nt profits
It is urgent that the best relations should
from the black customers.
be assured between Jews and their Negro
Such charges have already been refuted
neighbors, and if the traditional friendship
in Detroit, where it has been established that is fading it must be renewed and strength-
most Jews have either gradually retired from
ened. But this can be achieved only on
their businesses in the Negro areas or have
the basis of truth and reality. The spread
been forced out of them. It has also been
of libels does not help. If there are exploit-
established that the few Jewish merchants
ers, they will be found in all ranks, and
who remain in such areas are either too certainly also among the Negroes themselves.
poor to make changes or are unable to Therefore every exposure of the actual con-
secure customers for their businesses which
ditions should be viewed as contributing
they would gladly dispose of.
towards the re-establishment of good com-
Similar situations are being exposed else- munity relations.
where, and especially revealing is the recent
survey of the New York Harlem area, made
public through the American Jewish Con-
gress by Prof. Naomi Levine of Long Island
Not only Detroit but the entire American
University, who specializes in race relations, Jewish community has lost a great leader in
in which she indicated:
the death of Dora Ehlich.
Of the 193 stores, 112 (or 58 per cent)
She has inspired an entire generation.
were owned by Negroes. Non-Negroes owned
Her noble deeds were the guides for thou-
81 (42 per cent) of the stores.
sands, indeed, tens of thousands, who learned
Of the 81 non-Negro owned, seven were
from the examples she set in her civic labors,
Chinese laundries, two were Puerto-Rican
in her devotion to Zionism and to Israel, to
owned and two were operated by a public cor-
poration (the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea
Jewish education and to the advancement of
Co.). The 70 remaining white-operated shops
culture in all spheres in Detroit.
comprised 36 per cent of the total of 193 stores
Her memory will live as a blessnig.
A Noble Woman
covered in the survey.
In her report to the American Jewish
Congress policy-making body, Prof. Levine
challenged "the assertion that if more blacks
owned businesses in Harlem, they would live
in the ghetto and spend their money there
—unlike whites who live elsewhere." She
said that only a little more than half-52
per cent of the Negro shopkeepers surveyed
—
lived in Harlem, and added:
*
Tributes are due now also to another
outstanding woman leader — to Anna Srere
who was an associate of Dora Ehrlich and
who labored in support of our major causes.
With her husband, the late Abraham Srere,
she gave unselfishly of herself and her means
and continued in her lifetime the activities
of her father, the late Izreal Katz, who was
one of our community's pioneer Zionists.
Jewish life in Spain is reflected in these "Responsa," and these
studies in the communal life of the Spanish-Jewish community serve
effectively as guides today.
Supplementing Rabbi Adreth's "Responsa," this volume also con-
tains another significant work serving as a source book on the history
of the Jews of North Africa, "The Responsa of Rabbi Simon ben
Zemah Duran," also edited by Rabbi Epstein.
Thus, we have two volumes of "Responsa" in a single work, and
its importance is amplified by a noteworthy prolegomenon by the out-
standing authority on "Responsa" in this country, Dr. Solomon B.
Freehof of Pittsburgh.
Rabbi Epstein, who was one of British Jewry's leading scholars,
wrote the introduction to the Adreth book in 1924, and his preface
to the Duran work was dated 1930.
Rabbi Freehof's essay indicates that there is "an inherent diffi-
culty in attempting to use the responsa literature as a source for the
social history of the times in which a particular book of responsa
was written." He states that Dr. Epstein
"was a legalist" and "was concerned pri-
marily with the legal problem that he had
to solve and not particularly with the back-
ground of the problem." Nevertheless, he
states, "sometimes by accident and some-
times because the details were germane to
the problem, the scholars did cite certain
facts which are of importance to our mod-
ern social interests."
Citing examples, relating to synagogue
art objects and decorations, Dr. Freehof
adds that "It takes more than a superficial
glance at a volume of responsa to find out
whether it contains any historical and so-
cial material." A chance remark, he indi-
cates, sometimes is valuable for the pur-
pose.
Dr. Freehof
Dr. Epstein's studies, Dr. Freehof
writes, "present congruent pictures of the inner life of Sephardic
Jewry." He points out that it has been stated that Rabbi Adreth wrote
6,000 responsa, that only 3,000 were printed and that these "are quite
sufficient to reflect clearly the inner life of Spanish Jewry in the
13th Century." He makes reference also to the activities of Rabbi
Duran who, 150 years later, was among the Spanish refugees who
were driven from their homes and who dealt with problems faced
by Marranos.
Rabbi Adreth's responsa dealt with taxes on Jews, tax exemp-
tions, matrimony, excommunications, communal ordinances such as
property alienation, bond of indebtedness and other matters.
In a summary to the Adreth text, Dr. Epstein had written that he
found a wealth of details on the basis of which he felt that in the
period under review "the need of mutual defense kept Jews closer
together," that in the experiences of Jews in Spain "the most con-
spicuous feature of Jewish life was not the infidelity of a few .
but the strong fidelity of the masses to the religious institutions which
preserved Jews through 'their checkered history as one people.'
The Duran book reviews the eminent rabbi's personal experi-
ences, his role as reformer and peacemaker, his view of Jewish
rights and disabilities.
Here, too, the responsa deal with matrimony, 'communal ordin-
ances, ritual, mitzvot.
Duran's voluminous correspondence is reviewed, and Dr. Epstein
ascribes much of the success of Spanish Jews in reconstruction wort
to the efforts of Rabbi Duran whom he calls "one of the most remark.
able figures in Israel's gallery of great rabbis throughout the ages."
The experiences of the Spanish -refugees, as they are reflected in this
work, give it much significance.