THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Press Association. National Editorial Association
Member American Association of English...Jewish Newspapers,
Michigan
Publishing Co..
17100 \Vest Seven Mile Road. Detroit, Mich. 48235,
Published every Friday by The Jewish News
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PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
Michigan
SIDNEY SHMARAK
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Advertising Manager
Business Manager
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
. 5729. the following scriptural selections will
This Sabbath, the i011•th day of .41 -
be read in our synagogiws: Deur. 1:1-3:22. Prophetical portion. Isaiah 1:1-22.
Pentateuchal portion.
Tisha b'Av Scriptural Selections. July 24
ay•rnorm. Erod. 32:11-14, 34:1-10.
Pentateuch& portions: Morning. Dent. 4:25-40:
23: alterroon. Isaiah 5.5:6-56:8. Lamen-
Prophetical portions: Morning. Jeremiah 5:13 9 -
the
night
before.
tations is read
It p.m.
Candle lightine. Friday. July
VOL. Lt. No. 18
Page Four
1g.
July 18.190
Lebanon 's Role in Troubled Middle East
In the troubled Middle East, Lebanon
alone emerges as the non-belligerent. There
are several hundred terrorists in that coun-
try neighboring on Israel who would like to
contribute towards Israel's destruction. But
their activities are controlled. and it is inter-
esting to note that the other Arab states
seem to understand the causes for Lebanon's
determination to prevent its territory from
becoming a nest for guerrillas.
A cabled report in the Christian Science
Monitor from John K. Cooley, its correspon-
dent in Beirut. the Lebanese capital, stated
that Major General Ben Jamil, described by
Cooley as being "known in Jordanian circles
as 'Shariff Nasser.' as the second most pow-
erful man in the kingdom," and "disclosed
that the Arab governments had agreed at
the Khartoum Arab summit conference in
August 1967, to support commando activity
against Israel from Egypt, Syria and Jordan
but not from Lebanon, because of its special
status in the Arab world."
Coming from the area of fantasy this bit
of realism is most revealing. Yet. it, does not
offer to much hope that out of Lebanon
may emanate an encouragement for peace.
It is an established fact, as some prominent
Lebanese have said. that they would be "the
second to recognize Israel." Isn't this what
Habib Bourguiba told Robert St. John? And
wasn't that the hope appended to the rela-
tionships between Israel and Jordan? The
moderate in the Middle East fear to make
peace: that's why they would all be the sec-
ond to engage in peaceful relations with
Israel.
Insofar as Lebanon is concerned, there
were non-Lebanese Christians. mostly Ameri-
cans. who created an atmosphere of an-
tagonism to Zionism and to Israel. The
American University there turned into a
training ground for anti-Zionism. Now the
proposal for the establishment of an Ameri-
can-patterned secondary school in Beirut
causes added concern that not only on higher
but also on lower levels there will be a
spread of anti-Jewish feeling along with
Works of contemporary Jewish writers are included in the collec-
tion of "great stories of the Jew in America," a volume titled "Tales of
hatred for Israel.
It is from the Lebanese school that Ameri- Our People."
can educators have drawn their bitterness
Edited by Jerry D. Lewis, a Pacific Palisades, Calif., writer, with
towards the Jewish state. They took it with an introduction by Harry Golden. published by Bernard Geis Asso-
them to theological schools in this country. ciates, this volume, as the editor asserts, tries "to reflect the many
to Princeton. Yale and other schools. They faces and moods of the American Jew, and to reveal what makes him,
have spread their venom and there is so little a Jew, uniquely American."
One wonders whether this type of narrative actually portrays the
that can be done about it.
This, for us. is the tragedy inherent in American Jew• whether the Jew in this country as portrayed in fiction
really
is the Jew in action, in feeling, in response to American and
the Lebanese situation. There should be ac-
cord between the two countries, but fear and Jewish needs.
hatred stand in the way of peace.
In many respects it is so. as some of the selected stories indi-
Nazi Immorality and a Church's Favor
Munich's Auxiliary Bishop, the Most Rev.
Matthias Defregger, admits that he had or-
dered the execution of 17 unarmed Italian
villagers during the Nazi occupation of Italy
in World War II.
His defense? He followed orders!
His superior, Julius Cardinal Doepfner.
the Munich Archbishop, has come to his de-
fense. The reason? His Auxiliary Bishop fol-
lowed orders and "according to law applying
to war, no culpable deed was committed."
The man who followed orders and gave
orders to kill 17 unarmed, innocent victims
of Nazism is certain to escape punishment.
That's the new procedural method in Ger-
Many: to condone the crimes when it is
claimed and/or proven that the accused fol-
lowed orders.
All of which revives the challenge that
has emerged from the Hitlerite era regarding
the moral law, the serious issue revolving
around man's duties to himself and to society
in time of peace as well as war. when the
issue c-f conscience. of human duties is in-
volved.
The Church already stands indicted for its
failure to oppose Nazism in the years of mass
murders. Now the Munich Cardinal becomes
an accomplice to the crime-condoning in his
glorification of his Auxiliary Bishop whose
Works of Contemporary Writers
in Lewis'Tales of Our People'
deeds he has not rejected or repudiated and
whom he has, instead. praised for having al-
legedly rendered kindness to women and
children in Italy. It is like the Nazi who. while
ordering mass murders. was being palsy with
his dog!
Not all Germans are blind to the realities
of life and to the moral law. Der Spiegel
points to obligations under international law
and demands that Bishop Defregger should be
charged with murder.
Yet. the German press minimizes the
case. The duties demanded by humanitarian
principles are being ignored because of the
overwhelming demand for forgetfulness in
Germany and because of the trend to condone
the murders under the excuse of following
orders!
Are we back where we started? Will it be
possible for other tyrants and beasts in hu-
man attire to give orders to kill with the ap-
proval of the law courts?
The time has arrived for an overhauling
of machinery that makes it possible for man-
kind to be ridden over roughshod by dictator-
ial rulers who have not only gained control
over their people but who invoke the name of
God and get the Church's approval for crimes.
Taking orders and following them blindly?
Consciencelessly? Is this the rule of God and
Man or of Hitler and Nazism?
East Germany Adds to Middle East Fuel
Much of the propaganda against Israel Unfortunately. Ahlers' admonition that the
stems from East Germany. The link with new East German-Cairo alliance "would have
Communism. like the unholy alliance be- the effect of sharpening the Middle Eastern
tween the New Left and the Soviet anti-Israel conflict by pushing the Egyptians into closer
hate instigators, has contributed detrimental- relations with the Russians" points to the
ly to the prejudices steeped in libels and in menacing new development as adding fuel
ignorance, directed at world Jewry and at to the fires on the Arab-Israeli borders.
Israel.
The conditions that are developing do
Establishment of diplomatic relations be- not inspire hope for an early accord. Russia
tween East Germany and Egypt has created continues to be the major power that en-
concern in West Germany and a Bonn gov- courages the conflict and the Western coun-
ernme: t spokesman, Conrad Ahlers has ex- tries appear hopeless. Israel's hopes also
pressed the hope that "the terrible adven-
have not risen: they are declining. The caul-
ture the Arab_ countries.have. embarked on
against Israel will be solved peacefully." dr- oh - boils -more iritehSely than ever before.
-
cate. But there is also the scholar, not merely the merchant and the
professional and the schemer, as the case may be. There is the
rabbi who creates, the man of research, the commentator on scrip-
tures, the talmudist. The title "Tales of Our People" is correct as
a collection of stories- by those wio stem from our communities:
they are tales about Jews, in their available contemporary ap-
proach.
We have here Meyer Levin's "After All I Did for Israel•" and also
Philip Roth's "The Conversion of the Jews." Does the latter portray the
Jew as a cross-sectional type of American of the Jewish faith?
Actually, Jewish experiences might be a better term for this type
of book. as indicated in implied protest against Nazism in "Address
Unknown" by Kressman Taylor.
More adequate to the title as an American Jewish episode is Leo
Rosten's "Christopher KAPLAN."
Irwin Shaw's dramatic "Act of Faith," "The Happy Ending" by
Sylvia Grossman, Isaac Bashevis Singer's "The Son" ar / among the
noteworthy pieces in this book.
Then there is Jerome Weidman's "I Thought About This Girl" and
"Monte Sant' Angelo" by Arthur Miller deserves special notice.
Authors whose works are included in "Tales of Our People" are
Stephen Vincent N'enet ("Jacob and the Indians"), Edna Ferber with her
popular "The Fast," Ethel Rosenberg, Julius Horowitz, Ambrose Flack,
Geoffrey Household. Joanne Greenberg, Nancy Huddlestone Packer,
Stanley Ellin, Norma Rosen. Jerome Cha'ryn, Abraham l Rotheberg,
Emmanuel Winters, Grace Paley, James A. Maxwell and Miriam Rugel.
Dinur's ' Israel and the Diaspora'
In the newest volume of the Jewish Publication Society of America,
"Israel and the Diaspora," Prof. Ben Zion Dinur reviews notable Jew•
ish historical works and deals with the creations of eminent historians—
Heinrich Graetz. Simon Dubnow, Abraham Geiger and others.
He has covered Israel and the Diaspora, the
modern period and the rebirth of Israel, and from
the outline it is evident at the outset that he has
chronicled a total portrayal. A brief work, it
nevertheless is devoted to Jewish history and his-
torians from the period of the writers who pro-
duced in Russian and Yiddish to the present time.
For students of history this is a splendid guide
because it encourages further study and inspires
continued reading of the works of the eminent
men whose works assured outlines of events that
make Jewish history study important for the seek-
ers of knowledge about Jews through the ages,
into the new role of Israel as successor to the
Diaspora analyses.
An introductory essay by Itzhak Baer, the
Jerusalem scholar, serves to present and pay
tribute to "Ben Zion Dinur (Dinaburg)—The Jew-
Prof. Maur
ish Historian" while evaluating his work.
I
Prof. Dinur, formerly of the faculty of the Hebrew University, has
just turned 85. He is presently head of the Israel Historical Society and
the World Union for Jewish Studies.