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 Mlle Road, Detroit, Mich. 48235.
VE 8.9364. Subscription 57 a year. Foreign
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 27th day of Slzevat, 5729, the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuclzal portion, Er. 21:1-24:18, 30:11-16. Prophetical portion, 11 Kings 12:1-17.
Roth Hodesh Adar Tora readings, Tuesday and Wednesday, Num, 28:1-15.
Candle lighting, Friday, Feb. 14. 5:44 p.m.
VOL. LIV. No. 22
Page Four
February 14, 1969
,
Brotherhood on High Spiritual Plane
This may well be an historic year for the
for brethren to dwell together in unity."
American people.
— Psalms 133:1.
In an era of many crises, in the midst of
These are basic principles that continue to
agonizing racial tensions, in a time of student serve as the cement so vital to the obligation
revolts and tragic conflicts between faculties to fuse our people together, to assure amity
and students, while experiencing challenges in our ranks, to guarantee cooperation and
to the sanctity of our homes — we have not respect one for another.
It is in this spirit that we are about to in-
been spared antagonisms between parents and
children—in spite of these difficulties we do augurate another Brotherhood 'Week, in the
hope that the sentiments centered in a seven-
not abandon hope for amity in our ranks.
Our hopes are eternal that the Brother- day period will be honored with so much
hood of Man will remain a sacred source of dignity and responsibility that it will continue
strength for the retention of our American endlessly, through the year, extending to the
way of life. While we are aware of an ancient years ahead, in a perpetual hope that all the
disruptive experience that caused one char- tensions that have marred our days will van-
ish, giving an assurance that neighbors will
acter in the Bible (Gen. 4:9) to ask: "Am I
my brother's keeper?", there are more power- unite in a citizenship of brotherhood and good
ful Scriptural sources that admonish us to will unmatched by time.
serve mankind, our nation, our neighbors,
Let us unite to assure for ourselves, our
with dignity, and we reiterate:
community, our nation and mankind, the
blessings inherent in the brotherhood and
"Have we not one father? Has not one good will that will serve as clarion calls on
God created us?"—Malachi 2:10
the Brotherhood Week of 1969 to commence
"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is on Feb. 16.
Yevtushenko's 'Babi Yar' Major
Feature in 'Street Corner Poets
Mounting interest in Russia, its cultural as well as political affairs,
lends special credence to a most interesting analyis of USSR poets, in
"Poets on Street Corners—Portraits of 15 Russian Poets" ("Russkaya
Poezia") by Olga Carlisle, published by Random House.
Especially well qualified to deal with the subject of Russian poetp5r,
the author, member of a well-known Russian literary family, is the
granddaughter of Leonid Andreyev. Her father is the poet Vadim. Her
husband is the author Henry Carlisle.
Mrs. Carlisle knew some of the poets dealt with personally. "Poets
on Street Corners" deals with the lives and works of Alexander Mesas
liberation of the whole country and not the eradi- drovich Blok, Anna Andreyevna Akhmatova, Boris Leonidovich Pas-
cation of the results of the aggression."
ternak, Osip Emilievich Mandelstam, Marina Ivanovna Tsvetayess,
And this policy persists, the terrorism in- Validimir Vladimirovich Mayakobsky, Sergei Alexandrovich Yeseitin,
stigated by Arabs is aimed against acquiring Nikolai Alexeevich Zabolotsky, Boris Yulianovich Poplaysky, Yevgeny
a co-existence between Israelis and Arabs, Alexandrovich Yevtushenko, Andrei Andreyevich Voznesensky, the
and the state of terror is aimed not only at Barachni poets Igor Holin and Henri Sabgir, Bella Akhatovna Akhina.
acquiring the lost territories but at the de- dulina and Joseph Brodsky.
The selected works appearing in this volume are presented Be
struction of all of Israel.
their original Russian, with the English translations on 'opposite
The difficult times that create so many
pages.
challenges also demand that there should be
Adaptations of the quoted works are by Alexander Andreyev, Henry
joint efforts by men of vision and of knowl- Carlisle, Barbara Guest, Samuel Hazo, John Hollander, Stanley Kunitz,
edge, by people in responsible positions— Denise Levertov, Robert Lowell, W. S. Merwin, Stanley Noyes, Adrienne
writers, academicians, historians—to come Rich, James Schevill, Frederick Seidel, 'William Jay Smith, ROSE
forth and to strive unitedly to defend the Styron, Jean Valentine, Theodore Weiss and Richard Wilbur.
truth and to make the spread of prejudice
The author's comments on the poets "are most revealing. In the
and ignorance a bit more difficult than it is instance of Mandelstam, for example, We learn about his having be-
come
thoroughly assimilated. Nevertheless he is viewed as possessing a
today. The bigots have invaded the press and
our universities. Let the seekers of truth Jewish heritage. Mrs. Carlisle states:
"Mandelstam's attitude towards hiS Jewish background is an im-
gain some ground for the sake of good will. I portant
key to his sensibility. Judaism as he was acquainted with ft
through his relatives was a frightening ancient religion, an unknOval
language, a mercantile tradition. Russia, embodied by St. Petersburg,
seemed to him by contrast to represent order and enlightenment. Elan-
Thousands in our midst have demon- delstam's rejection of the `chaos of Judaism,' as it is expressed In lb
strated their sense of agony over what is brief autobiography, 'The Noise of Time,' (1923), throws light OR
happening to oppressed Jews who are kept middle-class Russian attitudes towards Jews in those years, and to some
in virtual captivity in medieval countries, and extent these attitudes are still to be found in the USSR. Although Jews
have protested against indignities and threats were mistreated in Russia, they were able to join the intellectual elite
of the day, the intelligentsia, adopting its ideology and its language.
to the security of kinsmen in distant lands.
Demonstrations alone are not sufficient. This group, drawing on all classes of 19th-Century Russian society, was
embattled, as a whole it was poor and had little political power. But ft
What is needed is action, provision for rescue, had
a sense of solidarity and of its own worth; it considered itsell the
means of relieving sufferings.
elite of Russia. Mandelstam was a Russian intellectual and a Com-
Our community now is facing the test— pletely Russian writer. Only his humor, which has a certain whimsy
whether those who are able to mobilize akin to Kafa's and differs from Russian humor, marks him as Jewish. •
forces to express their sense of outrage over
We are not offered much of an evaluation of Mandelstam's Jewish,
barbarism also are willing to assist in secur- ness or his background, but it is clear that he was assimilated and was
ing the means for succor, the wherewithal to entirely imbued with the Russian spirit.
There is little reference to the Jewishness of other Jews fu the
carry on the life-saving activities.
group dealt with, except that Brodsky is spoken of as a Jew. There
And what is needed, of course, is much
are frequent comments on Ilya Ehrenberg and others.
more than rescue and life saving: the task
The Pasternak story is interesting, and his poems, as well as those
ahead is to assure security for survivors from dedicated to him, provide
interesting insight into Russia and the ecoUlr
persecutions and indignities, in Moslem coun- try's conditions.
tries, behind the Iron Curtain, for escapees
Of special interest is the section dealing with Yevtushenko. The Mb
from outrages 'in Poland, Iraq, the many of the courageous poet, his attitudes, his creative efforts, these are
lands in which Jewish lives are menaced.
viewed with keen interest by Mrs. Carlisle, who states: "No one has Yet
What will be the mass response to the replaced Yevtushenko on the literary scene in terms of sheer PoPula*
current Allied Jewish Campaign-Israel Em- Hy." She adds in this connection: "In the uncertain atmosphere noir
ergency Fund, the major instrument for res- prevailing in Moscow, there seemed on the part of the public AtzeireP
urge for truth, and on the part- d! the functionaries Ste
cue efforts? Will it be at least in propor- increasing
control literary matters, the same old fear of it."
tion to the demonstrating forces that are
"Babi
Yar"
is presented here in full,
an adaptation by EVA
_
holding vigils and protesting the horrors that
Styron. The poem deals with the massacre of 'Jews at Babi Yas by
shock the consciences of civilized men?
Germans, traces anti-Semitic trends whiCh‘ -are . cendemned here, =MD
The time has arrived to test the attitudes famous work closes with:
of a larger community. A fraction of our
Let the Internationale
citizenry is evidencing such generosity that
Be sung
new records are being set philanthropisally.
When the last reviler of the Jews Is dead'
To implement it there is need for a large force
No Jewish blood is mixed in mine, but let me be a Jew
For all anti-Semites to hate, to spit upon.
of workers to enroll contributors. Let the next
Only
then can I call myself Russian.
step be a response that will strengthen the
Poets, students of Russian affairs, those desiring an insight IMO
hands of those who seek succor for the humili-
Russia's cultural life, will find Mrs. Carlisle's work of very great iloe
.ated .and..appressed
Need for a PR Program to Advance Truth
We live in a very troubled world, and the
Jewish people have become tragically involv-
ed in the sicknesses of a society that suffers
from prejudices, misunderstandings, incite-
ments to hatred. The duties to alleviate the
agonies of our time are understood in our
nation's capital, in the White House, in our
cities. How are we to correct the ills of a
suffering mankind, and how are we to arrive
at means of removing the dangers that face
Jewry in areas of confusions wherein facts
and truths are distorted?
There is need for a revised program of
public relations to assure an understanding
of the facts of life and to eliminiate the mis-
conceptions that have clouded the thinking
of many people. This is not a time for propa-
ganda: it is an era to seek truth.
Race issues have been dragged into many
of the conflicts among men, and the Middle
East issue has become so muddled that those
who seek the truth must be guided away
from the fallacies that distort thinking.
In a wholesome society there is room for
differences of opinion. Arabs have a right
to present their case, and if the issues could
be discussed dispassionately we could hope
for amity in our communities and for an
eventual peace between the Israeli and Arab
peoples. But by the same token there has to
be a recognition of Israel's rights, there
should be an end to the spread of rumors
about atrocities committed by Israel.
What are the facts? A responsible observ-
er, analyzed thte conditions that exist in ter-
ritories administered by Israel as follows:
"One of the most significant outcomes of the
Six-Day War is that, for the first time in two
decades, Jews and Arabs are free to intermingle.
With the removal of the military barriers, trade
relations have developed, social contacts have
sprung up, and past enmities have begun to be
replaced by a degree of mutual exchange and
some understanding. In the past year; 10,000
farmers in the West Bank-have received guidance
and training in improved cultivation methods.
Many thousands, of Arabs make daily visits to
Israel, and an equal number of Israelis travel
through the West Bank and the Giza Strip. Israeli
markets are -open to Arab labor at' equal wages
and social rights. This new-found relationship,
though still inhibited by the uncertainties of the
Middle East conflict, is nevertheless real."
But on Oct. 19, 1968, the El Fatah poli-
cies, presented over the Cairo Radio, declared:
"All peace solutions produced in the forum of
the UN, the resolution of the Security Council,
and Jarring's mission, are but bargaining for the
rights of the Palestine people. We reject and
oppose them with all our might since they con-
stitute an attempt at peaceful coexistence with
tht, Zionist- Rsistenso A. ..The,. problem .the
Protests ... and Succor
-
portance.
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