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. 48235,
YE 8-9364. 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
Advertising Manager
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath. the 20th day of Ileshean, 5730, the following scriptural selections
will he rend in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion. Gen. IS:122::74. Prophetical portion. II Kings 4:1-37.
Candle lighting. Friday, Oct. 31, 3:09 p.m.
VOL. 1.V1. No.
7
Page Four
October
31. 1969
An Election With Serious Implications
Like its sister cities with populations in
excess of a million, throughout the nation,
Detroit faces serious aftereffects of an elec-
tion in which the race issue is not totally
hidden.
It is true that in the mayoralty contest
the divisive factors have been kept at a mini-
mum and there is a commendable restraint
as well as resort to mutual respect on the
`part of both candidates. But the issue invol‘-
ing divisiveness is not totally removed from
the balloting, as was indicated in the sec-
tional surveys that were conducted after the
primary Sept. 9.
There is caution in a statement that has
been issued by the Detroit Interfaith Action
Council in which it was shown that voters in
a district populated by blacks voted for both
black and white candidates, while in a district
that is predominantly white the preferences
were given to white candidates. In the latter
district's test, it was shown that not a single
Negro candidate was among the first nine
nominated.
A spokesman for the Interfaith Action
Council posed a very important question. He
asked:
"If white voters persist in their un-
willingness to support black candidates,
how long can Detroit's black community
be expected to maintain its faith in elec-
tions as one means toward achieving a
voice in government decision-making and
thus toward self-determination?"
This spokesman added another question
to the queries he addressed to Detroiters. He
inquired:
"Can white Detroiters be persuaded to
judge candidates solely upon the basis of
qualifications for the office being sought?"
Both the surveys and the appeals for ra-
tional thinking and for wiser action at the
polls on Tuesday are vital aspects of condi-
tions that have emerged in an era of tension.
The uncertainties will grow rather than di- 1 'A History of
minish if the community is to think in terms
of elements that are divided into blacks and
whites. Only when all voters go to the polls
Six experts combined their skills and their expert knowledge on the
as fellow Americans will there be a sound
of the Middle East to create a noteworthy work on Israel, Its
hope for unity among Americans and for history
neighbors, its invaders. In "A History of the Holy Land," edited by
security in our cities. If we vote as citizens Michael Avi-Yonah, published by Macmillan, there is remarkable eon-
we can hope to live together as citizens.
tinuity in providing a history of the area that was embattled, that faced
Tuesday's election tests the willingness of many invading forces, that was denuded before the Jewish settlements
Detroiters to share in a unifying role. It is commenced to replace the haluka Jewish period of settlers who came
sincerely to be hoped that balloting will not to pray and to die in the land. (Haluka was the method of distributing
be marked by prejudice and that the admoni- funds for needy Jews in Palestine).
Dr. Avi-Yonah, the editor of this volume, is professor of history and
tions of the Interfaith Action Council will be
respected and the proffered advice adhered archaeology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The volume,
printed
in Israel, was co-published by the Jerusalem Publishing House
to.
Ltd. A large volume, splendidly illustrated, it was designed by Eva
Sivan. The photography is by David Harris. The translators of the book
the Holy Land'
Study by Six Eminent Scholars
Security Council Gains a Bandit Member
from the Hebrew are Charles Weiss and Pamela Fitton.
There are more than 230 pictures in this book, 39 of them in FUR
abuses of human rights by the Syrians that
it would be impossible to chronicle all of
them. Suffice it to list these few:
of the various periods under review.
Dr. Avi-Yonah, the volume's editor, contributed one of the import-
Much more than in the era after World
War I, when so many hopes were placed in
the League of Nations that was doomed to
disappearance by indifference and national
jealousies, the faith of the world has been
pinned on the United Nations as a symbol
of good will, as the one means available to
avoid wars, to reduce hatreds, to bring peo-
ples together.
As time progress. the United Nations re-
gresses. As the need for common decency
among peoples. especially among neighbors,
grows, the UN takes steps backwards. Instead
of assuring peace, it is displaying impotence.
There are constant warnings that the UN
is in danger of financial bankruptcy because
member nations are not fulfilling their finan-
cial duties to the world organization. The fact
is that it is the moral bankruptcy of the UN
that is most disturbing.
Proof of the backwardness of the world
organization, of the shocking bias that domi-
nates the actions of the majority, was pro-
vided when Syria was elected to membership,
for two years, on the Security Council. A
bcrly already besmirched with indignities
acid discriminations and vile attitudes to-
wards a major of victim in the assault of
the Moslem-Communist blocs—Israel—now
acquires another mark of disrespect, another
shameful role that can not possibly lend
dignity to a council that should be the most
powerful peace-making factor in the world.
The admission of Syria to a seat on the
Security Council spells banditry. How could
member nations of the UN, realizing that
Syria condones kidnaping. mass murders,
continuation of a war against a fellow mem-
ber in the UN. possibly vote in support of
a country whose actions would shame even
the most cruel in the Middle Ages?
Syria's record of cruelty, inhumanity,
medievalism must be exposed. The detention
of the two Israelis who have been imprisoned
since the hijacking of the TWA plane in late
August is one of the examples of barbarism
by a nation now honored at the UN. Why
has the world remained silent for two months
over such a shocking defiance of hunian de-
cency? Why is the United States silent,-Why
haven't the pilots acted in protection of their
own rights?
There is such a long record of notorious
The Syrian Arab Republic defied the United
Nations in 1948 by launching an unprovoked
war of aggression against a neighboring state.
The Israeli villages captured were razed to the
ground and when the Syrian army withdrew in
1949 it left behind a wasteland of destruction.
Syria has declared ever since that it will
persist in waging war against Israel despite
the Charter of the United Nations and despite
its own international obligations.
The Syrian Arab Republic renounced its
armistice agreement with Israel and repeatedly
exploited the strategic Golan Heights to shell
and launch terror raids against vulnerable farm
villages in Israel's northern lowlands.
Syria was the first to organize terror bands
against Israel. El Fatah was originally or-
ganized in Syria as an arm of the Syrian army's I
Deuxieme Bureau. Israel brought complaints
to the Security Council on Syria's role in initiat-
ing warfare by terror as far back as 1965 and
color. The numerous maps contribute toward a
full understanding
ant sections on the subject "The Second Temple (332 BCE-CE70)--Jews,
Romans and Byzantines (70-640)." The periods covered in this chapter
are especially significant because they lead closer toward an under-
standing of current relationships between the peoples in the Holy Land
and in the entire Mediterranean.
Alexander's wars, the influences of Hellenism, the Maccabaean
victories, the results of the Bar Kokhba wars and the related develop-
ments as well as the subsequent events which created a worldwide
interest in that area—these are covered by the editor in an informative
fashion. enriching the scholarly aspect of this book. He points out in his
description the tendencies created by Roman Emperor Constantine
when he and his mother Helena adopted Christianity and became im-
mersed in it.
"The adoption of Christianity as the dominant religion of the em-
pire changed the status of Palestine radically. No longer just a tiny
province, it became the Holy Land, on which emperors and believers
lavished untold wealth; the former claimants to it, the Jews, were
powerless to establish their right and were quickly relegated to second-
class citizenship."
As part of the struggle for redeemed statehood, this aspect of
historical developments needs to be known and understood, and the
editor of this important work provides the basis for such an under-
standing.
"A History of the Holy Land" commences with the essay on 'The
1966. Syria has since been implicated in or-
ganizing terror warfare against Ethiopia.
Prehistory of the Holy Land (until 3200 BCE) by Dr. Emmanuel Anati,
Syria rejected the UN Security Council senior lecturer in prehistory at the Hebrew University and at Tel Aviv
Resolution of Nov. 22, 1967, and has refused University and the director of the Centra Camuno di studi Prehistorlel
even to receive the special representative of in Italy. Early cultures are evaluated here. The influences that pene-
the UN secretary general, Dr. Jarring.
trated the Holy Land are reviewed, and the introductory story to a rich
The Syrian Arab Republic has throughout history serves to provide a vast history of the area that assumes major
conducted a campaign of persecution against importance in the interest directed toward it by the entire world.
its Jewish community, subjecting the Jews to ' In his analysis of "The Canaanite and Israelite Periods (3200-332
arbitrary imprisonment, loss of civil rights, con- BCE)," proceeding the essay by Dr. Avi-Yonah, Dr. Hanoch Reviv,
fiscation of property and curfew. To compound lecturer in the department of Jewish history dealing with the biblical
the felony, Jews are not permitted to leave period at the Hebrew University, explains the tribal society, outlines
Syria. Christians in Syria have been the victims the history of the split between the kingdoms of Judah and Israel,
of discriminatory measures, their schools closed reviews the stories of several dynasties in this period in history,
and their freedom of worship inhibited.
describes the revolt of Jehu, tells about the political struggles, the
Syria sent raiders to kidnap Israeli farmers Periods of Ezra—and his campaign against mixed marriages—and
and fishermen from Israeli territory, incar- Nehemiah, and other important factors that were involved in this time
cerating them in the prisons of Damascus and in Jewish history.
Palmyra where they were subjected to the most
Major in the significance of this work because of its medal
inhuman physical and mental torture. For years,
relationship to the present-day struggle, are the three subsequent
while they were lingering in these jails, the
chapters —"The History of Palestine From the Arab Conquest
Damascus authorities denied even that they
Until the Crusades (633.1099)" by Prof. Moshe Sharon, lecturer In
were being held in Syria. No appeals, no in-
the history of Islam and the Middle Ages at the Hebrew University;
terventions from the United Nations, from the
"Palestine During the Crusades (1099-1291)" by Dr. Emmanuel
International Red Cross, from the Vatican, from
Sivan, Hebrew University lecturer in medieval history; and "Pale*.
third governments helped. When, after more
tine Under the Mameluks and the Ottoman Empire (1291-1918),"
than 12 years, Syria finally admitted to
also by Prof. Sharon.
holding these persons and agreed to return
An appropriate concluding chapter, "The Birth of Israel—Epilogue
them, those who came, back to Israel alive were (1918-1968)" was written by Arthur Lourie, deputy director general of
wrecks of human beings, all but one of whom the Israel Ministry for Foreign Affairs, former Israel ambassador to the
had to be confined in mental hospitals.
Court of St. James and a former secretary to Dr. Chaim Weizmann in
This is only part of the bloody record of a his early years of Zionist activities. Lourie is one of the best informed
bloody regime that will soon assume a seat men on Zionist and world history, and it was appropriate to select
of honor at the United, Nations!
him to write the epilogue to a most significant work.