Christian Century's Indefensible Anti-Zionism
By ROBERT E. SEGAL
(A Seven Arts Feature)
The Christian Century seems to
have decided to re-open wounds
inflicted on those who stood with
Israel in the summer of 1967 when
the Soviet-Arab threat was pulver-
ized by the beleaguered Israelis.
With Alan Geyer, a new editor,
at the helm, the influential Pro-
testant journal has welcomed to
its columns Alan R. Taylor of
American University's school of
international service. In the Sept.
16 issue of Century, Prof. Taylor
expounds his theme that Zionism,
"by elevating the material ove‘r
the spiritual," has practically fi*
ished off Judaism.
Were this theme — so dear to
detractors of Israel, both in ultra-
conservative Christian sectors and
in the American Council for Juda-
ism —all that Prof. Taylor's at-
tack amounted to, one might dis-
miss it as merely one more de-
layed and harmless time bomb
tossed against Israel and all who
believe in the little state. But Prof.
Taylor succeeds in moving from
his pretense to be one who sorrows
at the triumph of nationalism over
humanism to a position of indirect
but surefly effective spokesman
for Arab designs against a people
desperately in need of asylum
both 'from a demoniac Hitler and
a insensitive Christian world.
He sees Zionism exclusively as
a political movement, watered by
that which he brands the nihilism
and Socialism of late 19th century
Eastern European Jews. The
cruelty and excesses of the Czars
have escaped his historian's eye.
He conveniently forgets the influ-
ence of the Dreyfus Affair on
Theodor Herzl's determination to
win a haven for his people. He
sees the Jewish masses "manipu-
lated" by a Herzl-created elite and
thus gives further proof of hii in-
ability to grasp the meaning of
persecution and its corollary—the
irrepressible need for political
haven.
Prof. Taylor finds only a few
NANCY AND NEIL
"DON'T
MENTION IT"
CAMP TAMARACK
Jews engaged in self-examination.
In his judgment, Zionism is criti-
cized by "a handful of Western
authorities on Middle Eastern af-
fairs." Who are these authorities?
Prof. Taylor qualifies as one. So
must President Nasser, the men
who sit at the high tables in the
Kremlin, those Americans who
write slick pamphlets ranking our
oil interests over our humani-
tarian instincts, and, of course,
the scribbling hirelings of the
Radical Right who, by use of their
own kind of legerdemain, see both
the Israelis and the Russians as
star salesmen of Communism and
restless partners in an interna-
tional conspiracy against capital-
ism.
Other authorities include John
S. Badeau, the highly influential
director of Columbia University's
Middle East Institute and former
president of the American Univer-
sity in Cairo. In his new book,
"The American Approach to the
Arab World," Dr. Radeau reveals
clearly the indoctrination affecting
him as onetime S. ambassador
to Egypt, that kind of State De-
partment indoctrination seeing in
Israel not a democracy in a back-
ward area of the world, not a
David standing up to a Goliath
that is the USSR, not a life-giving
sovereignty with its own model
of a Marshall Plan for nearby
African and Arab nations, but a
pesky, oil-starved, bone-in-Uncle's-
throat sort of country—trouble-
some, noisy and expendable. "The
American connection with Israel
is a liability not an asset for the
vital interests of this country," Dr.
Badeau has declared.
Once again, the warning flags
are up. The Century's allotment of
space to Dr. Taylor and (back in
June) to 62 pastors and mission-
aries in Lebanon bewailing injus-
tice to the Arabs and saying not
a word about Arab cruelty to Jews
in Arab lands, suggest that an im-
portant segment of the Christian
world remain innocent of the true
meaning of the existence of the
state of Israel. The Century's
postscript to the Taylor article,
addressed cavalierly "To Zionists,
With Love," and the magazine's
repetition of the long exploded
charge that Israel scorns the UN,
with no accompanying rebuke for
Arab defiance of the UN for 20
years, is indefensible.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
16—Friday, November 8, 1968
New Body to', , -Help Remove Executive Suite Barriers
MILWAUKEE — The formation down historic barriers to the hi r-
of a National Joint Advisory Com- ing of Jews in such fields as bank-
mittee on the Executive Suite, to ing, insurance, public utilities, rail-
spur the employment of Jews and roads and steel. These programs
other minorities in corporate man- are being - planned for 10 major
agement posts, was announced communities in the U.S. by the
here by the American Jewish Com- American Jewish Committee and
mittee and the Jewish Occupation- local Jewish vocational services.
al Council.
The announcement followed a
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Community Confusion
By NATHAN ZIPRIN
Negro leaders may deny this,
but anyone who has examined the
climate in the areas of dispute
cannot help but carry off the im-
pression that black hatred against
Jews as such is more deeprooted
than it is against whites generally.
Jewish teachers in black school
areas, who would not speak in
public of the anti-Semitic humili-
ations to which the are often sub-
jected by young and old, are not
averse to speaking about their ex-
periences in confidence.
When I asked one of them—who
spent virtually all his teaching
career in Harlem — why he re-
fuses to speak out in public, he
said he would rather suffer per-
sonal indignities than contribute
to what he called "the already
critically dangerous polarization
between the two ethnic groups."
My informant has long been
an exponent of community control
of schools providing there were
sufficient safeguards against dic-
tatorship by parents who in many
or most instances are unfit to
formulate educational or teacher
policy. Because he dared express
those views, he told me, he was
denounced by a group of black
power teachers as a Jew whose
. . . how does The
Jewish News publish
up-to-the-minute news?
POST'S winning combination of Hot Type composi-
tion and Letter press Printing is the "time-proven"
"people have been bribed to play
the white game." When he de-
manded to know whether the com-
munity school group sought to in-
volve Jewish parents — and there
are some in the area — the ex-
tremists said "we'll never have
Jew cats because we don't trust
them since they are all stooges
of the white power structure, Is-
rael included."
What is tragic about the situa-
tion is the obvious lack of Negro
leadership in a moment of great
crisis for the black people in
America. It is possible our Negro
friends are victims of political
schemers who do not hesitate to
resort to the ugliest of means in
order to attain their objective. But
this does not answer the question
why Negro leadership, with few
exceptions, has been silent when
anti-Jewish bitterness emerged in
black communities.
There is need in this hour of
crisis for our community to bold
action to reach out in a meaning-
ful way to the black people of
America. Treating the problem as
if it did not exist, could prove de-
feating in the end. The fact is
that many Jews living in mixed
areas are living in a climate of
fear and that there is a distinct
danger that the militant orienta-
tion in the Negro communities
may lead to the economic displace-
ment of large working segments
in the Jewish population.
I am neither a social scientist
nor a welfare expert, but it seems
to me that if sanity and under-
standing are to be introduced into
the situation it will require a mas-
sive effort of an unprecedented
inter-racial level — an extraor-
dinary conclave of responsible and
responsive Jewish and Negro
leaders whose impact would seep
down to the masses in both camps.
There is a tremendous reservoir
of good will in both our communi-
ties. The sole problem is how to
reach it.
BETH YEHUDAH SCHOOLS
Yeshiva U. Gets Grant
to Update Science Studies
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NEW YORK — Yeshiva Uni-
versity has been awarded a $48,317
grant from the U. S. Office of Edu-
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graduate schools, Yeshiva College
and Stern College for Women, it
was announced by Dr. Samuel
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Under Title VI of the Higher
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Annual 21inner
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 17th
COBO HALL
Guest Artist
ALAN CHESTER
Recording Star
Ed Sullivan Show, Texaco Show
and Cavalcade of Stars in Miami
MAIN SPEAKER: RABBI DAVID LIEBERMAN
Dean-Beth Yehudah Schools
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