THE JEWISH NEWS
1951
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, National Editorial
Member American Association of English—Jewish Newspapers. Michigan Press Association.
Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co.. 17100 West Seven Mile Road, Detroit,
VE 8-9364. Subscription 57 a year. Fceeign $8.
Second Class Postage Paid at Detroit, Michigan
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
.Mich. 48235.
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
SIDNEY SHMARAK
City Editor
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath. the 24th day of Nisan. 5729. the following .scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion. Lerit. 9:1 - 11:47. Prophetical portion. 1 Samuel 20:18 - 42.
Torn reading for Rosh Hodesli lyar, Friday. Num. 28:1 - 15.
Candle lighting Friday, April 11. 7:51 p.m.
VOL. LV. No. 4
April 11, 1969
Page Four
Big Powers and the UN in the Middle East
With the deliberations over Big Power
talks about peace in the Middle East continu-
ing to be in a state of uncertainty and of
diplomatic wrangling, it may well be that the
roots of many of the difficulties may lie in
the United Nation.5.
A recent editorial in the Detroit News
charged: "The record shows the United Na-
tions has some strange double standards on
how peace should be maintained. Nowhere is
this more obvious than in the treatment of
the warring factions in the Middle East."
Given this state of affairs. and the equally un-
comfortable truth that Israel's proposals for
head-to-head negotiations with Egypt and com-
pany are thus far totally rejected by the Arabs,
President Nixon's effort here is thus seen as
about the only option currently open to him.
Still, there are mighty realities which strongly
suggest, Israel's objections entirely aside, that
this program for having the United States, Rus-
sia, Britain and France lead the way here is a
tricky thing. The United States truthfully stresses
that it is not suggesting a forced settlement
under Big Four auspices; but the truth also is
that if it isn't to be one backed by massive Big
Four sanctions held ready in the closet it can
hardly work anyhow. Alternatively, if it is in fact
to be a settlement of Big Four sanctions in re-
serve, however primly disclaimed, then the
United States, for one, is going to buy a very big
commitment in the Middle East. It could be such
as one day to find a great many Americans cry-
ing out against "any more Vietnams."
For if a settlement is to be more or less com-
pelled, those nations involved in the act of com-
pulsion — most certainly including the United
States—really cannot then simply stand aside if
somebody later breaks the concord and starts '
shooting in a large way.
"The Israelis are stressing and factually so,
that theirs is one country that seeks no commit-
ment of "American boys." And while it is quite
true that these fellows are no fools and know a
good semantical appeal when they see one, the
ultimate actuality still is this: If they themselves
cannot bring off a peace in the Middle East by
one-by-one negotiation with their enemies it is
difficult to see how it can be done from above
without in truth risking at least the implied
commitment at some future time of "American
boys."
The New York Post charged editorially:
"Amid the crashing echoes of two more
bombs in Jerusalem, Israel is demanding—
in the words of one of her diplomats—that
the United Nations 'must exert its influence
on the Arabs to end their support of the
terrorists.' The plea is as just as it is urgent;
the blasts in Jerusalem may be new signals
of a devastating new explosion engulfing the
Middle East.
"It has become commonplace for some
analyst-apologists. lately to argue that Arab
leaders cannot fully control the fanatic fella-
been. When did they last make a serious
effort to do so?
"The Arab commando terrorism is not
only a violation of the UN-ordered cease-fire
but a violation of a particularly sinister and
inflammatory kind. All who yearn for peace
in the Middle East share that opinion. It is
the UN's obligation, so far undischarged, to
express it forcefully, in the name of man-
kind."
The most ChnlIcmcTincr ef ,ite.nlcint was by
It is, of course, cause for deep regret that
the eminent columnist, William S. White,
the situation should have assumed such an
who sees justification for Israel's "shyness"
aspect involving suspicion of the motives of
of the proposed Four Power settlement of the secretary general of the international
the .emerging Middle East issues. Mr. White
organization. But it is due to the submission
unhesitatingly accuses U Thant of giving aid
of U Thant to Gamal Abdel Nasser's de-
to Arab extremists. Mr. White's important
mands for the withdrawal of the United
column on the subject declares:
Nations Expeditionary Force from the Gaza
The more one looks squarely at the mare's
border, U Thant's failure to call for an in-
nest of the Middle East, the sounder appears
vestigation of the treatment of Jews in Arab
Israel's stubborn resistance to the kind of Big
countries while he was propagating the prob-
Four-monitored settlement with the hostile Arabs
ing of the status of Arabs in Israel-held ter-
which the Nixon administration is with the best
ritory, that have pointed to possible preju-
of motives trying so desperately to arrange.
dices on the part of the directing head of the
For the facts of the matter are themselves
UN. Unless his hesitancy stems from fear it
obstinate; and themselves support the case of the
is difficult to adopt a different attitude to-
Israelis. And this is quite apart from the not in-
ward him.
considerable circumstance that Israel, even if
one wishes to attribute to it a whole catalogue of
Taking these factors into consideration,
regional sins, still happens to be essentially a
there is added cause for strong support of
pro-Western and non-Communist bastion in the
Israel's
position with regard to the proposal
Middle East, whereas the Nasser-Egypt Arab
types are essentially pro-Soviet and Soviet-backed. that the great powers should be the peace-
makers. There really are, as Israel's Foreign
It is necessary to say at the outset that the
Minister Abba Eban said, only four legiti-
administration's approach here is all but re-
mate powers who should act jointly for
quired of it at this point, since there is not the
peace:
Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt.
slightest possibility that the United Nations could
fairly arbitrate in this wretched business. If for They are the ones involved, they should meet
no other reason it could not in light of the pro- together and effect a proper peace with rec-
found and obvious anti-Israel bias of Secretary
ognized boundaries. Any other step would be
General U Thant.
illogical and ridiculous.
Though it is somehow widely regarded as akin
to making rude noises in church to speak of
U Thant as though he were merely mortal man,
the plain truth is that for years he has had for
The remarkable progress already made by
Communist-backed Arab extremists precisely the
the Allied Jewish Campaign points to a signi-
sort of curious sympathy he has so repeatedly
ficant year in humanitarian efforts in Detroit.
shown for the Communist assailants of South
Vietnam. Of late for illustration, he has solemnly
There is one aspect not to be ignored. So
declined Israel's request that he use his good
offices to ask the Arab states to cease giving aid far, more than 15,000 have made their con-
and comfort to terrorist raids by a so-called tributions. At least as many more are yet to
Palestine Liberation Front -that is most markedly be reached. Some are difficult to reach. It is
similar to another so-called National Liberation
vital, therefore, that all prospective contribu-
Front in Vietnam — a splendidly "democratic"
tors should voluntarily respond to a great
group called the Viet-Cong.
drive that is the duty of every Jewish citizen
When, however, the Arabs associated with in our midst.
Nasser Egypt, the enemy of enemies in Israel's
This is a time of urgent need, and any
eyes, request U Thant's good offices on their side
delay in giving negates the compassion of a
of the fence, he is happy to oblige. Both sides
are theoretically equal in his eyes; but in prat- people in which each citizen is responsible
for the needs- of the hour.
tice -the Arabs are far- more equal, -indeed.
15 000 More Must Give
,
-
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Tina Levitan's 'Jews in American
Life From 1492 to Space Age'
Biographical sketches of eminent Jews always provide
excellent reading and serve to introduce the reader to the
various periods in history in which they figured prominently.
Such sketches serve a double purpose—to introduce the
heroes in history and to outline the events and the people
they influenced.
A work of note that serves this purpose is "Jews in Amer-
ican Life From 1492 to the Space Age," by Tina Levitan, a
Hebrew Publishing Co. product.
The 90 American Jews whose biographies appear in this
volume commence with Luis de Torres, who was the inter-
preter in the Christopher Columbus group and who was the
first newcomer to step on American soil; and concludes with
Arthur J. Goldberg.
Good judgment was displayed in selecting the personal-
ities for this volume.
*
Miss Levitan, in a four-page introduction to this large-sized
volume, points to the pioneering role of Jews who came to this
country. She makes this important point in defining the character of
the Jews who were among the builders of America: "Jewish settlers
proved the point that a minority adhering faithfully to a religion
abhorrent to the majority, yet discharging to the full all obligations
of good citizenship, caused no danger to the state in establishing
freedom of worship—a new enlarged liberal policy of religious
liberty for the first time in a modern state."
The contributions of these heroes to this country are recounted and
she points out that the pioneering spirit led to the democratization of
American society. She also credits to the newcomers the following:
"From their Yiddish-speaking ghettoes came piquant phrases, ex-
pressive words, ear-tickling exotic combinations of imagery which so
seized American imagination that before very long our language incor-
porated these as part of the everyday speech of the land. Words and
expressions like kibitzer, mazuma, kosher, blintzes, gelfilte fish, 'it's all
right by me,' I should worry' and innumerable others became the com-
mon currency of our language."
The personalities included represent such a variety of interests,
so many eras in American life, that reading about the men and
women the readers should be expected to become interested in the
periods during which they lived and to study American history to
the fullest.
Thus we meet the first Jewish settler in New Amsterdam, Jacob
Barsimson; the man who introduced Hebrew at Harvard, Judah Monis;
the patriot rabbi of the Revolution, Gershom Mendes Seixas; the Jewish
builder in Pennsylvania, Aaron Levy; and the bookdealer and publisher,
Benjamin Gomez.
What a glorious list of pioneers—for so many decades—who were
among the builders of this country! And so many are well known as
near-contemporaries! Arthur Goldberg, Senator Herbert H. Lehman,
Louis D. Brandeis, Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, Leonard Bernstein, Bernard
Baruch, Albert Einstein, Stephen S. Wise, Louis Marshall—these and
many others are in the list of those who are so close to the present
generation.
Labor leaders, statesmen, political leaders, actors, scientists, rabbis,
financiers—men and women active in all fields of endeavors—have been
chosen for inclusion in this volume.
Emma Lazarus, Lillian Wald and Henrietta Szold stand out among
the women selected for this honor roll.
A photograph of each of the persons included in this volume accom-
panies the biographical sketch.
Miss Levitan's volume supplements available encyclopedias and
the Jewish Who's WWI) with valuable and well compiled details about
the 90 prominent American Jews in this volume. She has produced a
highly,cornmendabie work: - •