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 Mile Road. Detroit, Mich. 49235,
VE 5-9394. Subscription $7 a year. Foreign $8.
Second Class Postage Paid at Detroit, Michigan
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
SIDNEY SHMARAK
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City Editor
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath. the eighth day of lyar. 5729, the following scriptural :elcctions
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentatenchal portion. Levit. 16:1-20:27. Prophetical portion. Amos 9.7-13
Candle lighting, Friday. April 25, 7:06 p.m.
VOL. LV . No. 6
April 25, 196:1
Page Four
Facts vs. Hate Utterances in Middle East
So much notoriety was given to the visit
of the Jordanian king in this country. the
clever monarch proves such a skilled propa-
gandist, that many people fell into the trap
of believing Nasser's partner in the crime
of continuing a state of war in the Middle
East.
Spokesmen for the present administration
and members of President Nixon's official
family suddenly emerged as admirers of
Hussein. Few saw through the trick of
espousing peace while affirming standing
agreements with Nasser on Arab policies.
It is important, therefore, that some of
the well established facts should be called
again to the attention of the people of this
country who may be drawn into a net of lies
besmirching Israel's character and intentions.
On numerous occasions, preceding the
Six-Day War, Nasser made these utterances:
"Egypt will be glad when her army and that of
Syria will meet on the ruins of this treacherous peo-
ple, the Zionist gangs."
(Speech in Cairo. 18 December 1955)
"We want a decisive battle to annihilate that
germ, Israel."
(Speech in Alexandria, 26 July 1959)
"We will launch a full-scale war when the right
(Radio Cairo, 18 May 1962)
moment arrives."
"Our aim is . . . the creation of a unified and
continuous Arab region. from which Israel will be
eliminated." (Message to Arab Students Convention,
London, 15 May i965)
"The national Arab goal is the eradication of
Israel." (Joint Communique with President of Iraq,
25 May 1965)
"We aim at the destruction of the State of Israel."
(Speech in Cairo, 18 November 1965)
"The Arab people want to fight . . . We have
been waiting for the right time, when we would be
completely ready • . . Now the war will be total:
its objective will be the annihilation of Israel."
(Speech to Pan-Arab Trade Unions, Cairo.
26 May 1967)
"Israel's very existence is aggression."
(Press Conference, Cairo, 28 May 1967)
In spite of the sanctimonious declarations
that had been made by both Nasser and Hus-
sein in interviews published in important
newspapers and magazines, Nasser, since the
June 1967 war, stuck to the role of a war-
monger threatening Israel's very existence
in these statements:
"No peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel,
no negotiations with Israel."
(At Arab Summit Conference. Khartoum,
1 September 1967)
"The war has not ended, it has only begun .. .
When the time comes, we will strike."
(Radio Cairo, 23 November 1967—one day after
UN Security Council Resolution calling for peace
settlement)
"The Arab nation has decided to embark on the
path of war . . . We will move on to the contain-
ment of Israel, and after that to . . . its eradica-
tion."
(Radio Cairo, 10 April 1968)
"No recognition of Israel, no negotiations with
Israel, no peace with Israel . . . We aim at the
destruction of the state of Israel."
(At Congress of Arab Socialist Union, Cairo,
23 July 1968)
"The Fatah . . . fulfil a vital task in sapping the
enemy's strength and draining his blood . . . The
UAR appreciates the attitude taken by the Pale-
stinian organization in rejecting the Security Coun-
cil Resolution of November 1967. . . This Resolu-
tion may serve the purpose of eliminating the con-
sequences of the aggression—and lead to total Israel
withdrawal . . . but it is inadequate for determining
the fate of Palestine . . . The UAR places all its
resources at the disposal of these organizations . .."
(Speech in Egyptian National Assembly,
20 January 1969)
"The Six-Day War was, in actual fact, the pre-
lude to a war which has not yet ended."
(Speech to Pan-Arab Trade Unions, Cairo,
29 January 1969)
.
of Israel or for negotiations with Israel or
for a desire to sit with Israelis and plan aban-
donment of strife as well as boundary revi-
sions.
They still resort to the refugee issue as
a weapon against Israel. It becomes neces-
sary, therefore. again to indicate that the
problem has not only been exaggerated but
has been distorted and the wrong facts have
been circulated. Furthermore. it is being for-
gotten that the Arabs themselves not only
are not assisting in solving that problem but
seek to perpetuate it.
In a statement to the New York Times.
Michel Pierre d'Orleans, who was a leader in
the French resistance against Nazism, pre-
sented these facts:
'Current Reform Responsa,'
Notable Collection by Dr. Freehof
"As one of the principal members of the French
resistance against the Nazis. I am shocked to hear
the Arabs compare our movement to their terrorist
acts against unarmed civilians—for example, the
Feb. 28 letter of Jordan's ambassador to the UN.
"First, France and the rest of the European
Dr. Solomon B. Freehof is an outstanding authority on Responsa,
countries invaded by Nazi Germany never intended and his numerous works dealing with responses to questions on Jewish
to liquidate Germany as the Arabs intend to liqui- observances contain major elaborations on tradi-
date Israel. We fought like men against the Ger- tions, laws and customs.
man army. We never murdered children and women-
His vast library on the subject has been en-
We never attacked planes carrying innocent passer'. riched by another volume, "Current Reform Re-
gers. Theirs is not a resistance movement. It is sponsa," which has been published by Hebrew
cowardice.
Union College and is distributed by Ktav Publish-
"The Arabs are always complaining about the ing House.
refugees. During the last twenty years 3,500,000
There are 60 items in this new volume, cov-
European people were forced out of the Arab
countries. Some 2,200,000 Italians left Libya and
Egypt. And 1,700,000 French left Algeria, Tunisia
and Morocco. Over 700,000 Jews left Iraq, Yemen,
Egypt, Libya and the other Arab countries. Four
and a half million Jews who had lived in these
countries for countless generations left everything
behind. The Arabs took everything. The people left
only with the clothes on their backs.
"The Arabs had an opportunity to place the
700,000 Arab refugees from Palestine in the homes
of the European people, who fled the Arab coun-
tries. Instead the refugees were put in camps that
have cost millions of dollars contributed by the
nations of the world- This was the most brutal
thing the Arabs did against their own people.
"Palestine was never an Arab country. It never
had an Arab government. Palestine has been occu-
pied, since the time of Caesar, by Greeks, Romans,
English and other nations. The only legal govern-
ment in Palestine was the Jewish government over ,
2.000 years ago.
"The Western world has never understood how
the Arab countries, with 85 per cent of their people
illiterate, millions without jobs, disease and sickness
rampant, could spend billions of dollars on ammtmi-;
tion to liquidate a little country like Israel, instead
of using the money to build schools, hospitals
homes and industry for their own people."
,
The trouble is that facts are ignored, that
terrorists and saboteurs are being glorified.
that truth has been either ignored or deli-
berately distorted.
As a result of such distortions Israel's
battle for life assumes more serious propor-
tions as time goes on, and those who seek
justice for a people whose existence is con-
stantly threatened must exert all efforts to
prevent the spread of more lies from the
Levant. The struggle for peace in the Middle
East has become a battle for justice and also
in repudiation of an endless propaganda
campaign that is steeped in lies with an aim
at re-introduction of genocide. This neither
Israel nor her kinsmen and friends will
ever permit.
Response to Telethon
Hundreds of potential contributors to
the Allied Jewish Campaign will be con-
tacted by telephone, in the annual Telethon
solicitations starting on Sunday.
This will provide an opportunity for many
more Detroiters to become partners in the
great humanitarian venture—in behalf of
ering extensive areas, including festivals, cir-
cumcision, conversion, adoptions, confessionals,
marriage, sports, homosexuality, burials, Kad-
dish customs.
Dr. Freehof
Because this volume is replete with the Reform Responsa, the in-
troduction assumes special significance because the eminent rabbi
considers seriously the earlier "expressions of regret that the strong
discipline of Orthodoxy is no longer ours, that Reform Judaism. strong
though it be in ethics, lacks the sense of Halakha, of the Divine man-
date which once covered every detail of daily Jewish life . . ." He
points to "new voices" which "express a strong feeling which grows
from many roots" and comments:
"Perhaps the facts of our own progress as a Reform • movement
have affected our relationship to the older legal literature. In the days
of reform we were fighting against an overmastering Jewish legal
authority. We could not attain our independence without denying and
defying that authority. But now we are strong and we can afford to be
much more tolerant of the authoritative past. We no longer need to fight
our historical parent for our independence. We are adult enough now
and independent enough to begin to appreciate him ..."
Thus, Dr. Freehof asserts that there are "two opposite leaden-
cies in our movement, one which leads as toward the law and one
which repels us from it. . . . It would seem to the present writer
that with regard to matters of conscience we will never yield or
even compromise ..."
Rabbi Freehof lists acomplishments by Reform Jews, such as the
liberation of the Jewish woman and he declares: "It is a social-psycho-
logical evolution which must take place. We will have to search our
hearts and minds and find out which of the many practices in Jewish
life we can believe or come to believe to be Divine commands. We have
long held that the ethical doctrines and ideas are a God-given mandate
and that we are bound to obey them. May we not come to believe that
the worship of God in the sanctuary is likewise a demand on our con-
science? That to worship regularly must not depend upon the attractive-
ness of the sermon or the choir but must rest upon a commandment
which we have accepted and which we will obey? It may be that due
to our increasing efforts Jewish adult education will grow to be a wide-
spread habit, and then perhaps it will come to be considered to be not
only an intellectual gain but also a spiritual blessing. Thus the habit of
regular home study might attain the stature of a duty, and we will have
discovered one of the noblest and most unique mitzvos of the Tora."
It is in this sense that the Responsa In this volume—the current
Reform answers to basic questions, are presented, and he describes
his principles underlying his answers thus: "The great legal Wen'
ture in its vast extent embodies the best *Ishii's sI the best minds
in Judaism on the problems and duties of Jewish life. Even though
we do not agree that all the matters whirl these thousands of
scholars discuss are truly mandated, nevertheless God's Will some.
how speaks through their earnest devotion and dedicated Wahl&
The Halakhic literature is the grandest repository of Jewish thinlo
ing and feeling, and what we may find In it as answer to the var-
ious questions which we ask may not, indeed, govern our lives bat
will at least serve us as a guide. Beyond this guidance in the vat
ions - problems which arose in our congregational life, may the
material here derived from the records of loyal and devoted Ink,
It is necessary, therefore, for responsible
ish intellectual experience help our movement in its Pr°gre 66
spokesmen for governments and for serious
towards increasing self-discipline and self-dedication."
minded agencies not to fall for the utterances Israel's educational, health and welfare
Thus, the Reform Reponsa is supplemented with an affirmation Of
of any of the Arab spokesmen who give the needs, and in support of the numerous local
impression that they desire amity while re- and national agencies supported in the cam- Reform Jewry's nneew debate, Tanhde
D
a r.Frmeeahyof has expressed will
doubt arouse new
lead to even greater
clarification
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