Sabbath
of Concern to Focus on U.S. Policy in Mid East.
The Rabbinical
Commission of the Jewish Community Council of
Metropolitan Detroit has designated Jan. 23-24 as a "Sabbath of Concern"
as an expression of concern over recent U. S. proposals on the Middle East.
Rabbi Max Kapustin, co-chairman of the Rabbinical Commission,
joined by Lawrence Gubow, paNgident of the Community Council, in was
an-
nouncing plans for the observance in a letter to all rabbis in the Detroit
area.
The call for a Sabbath of Concern is intended as "an expression
of
solidarity and support for the National Emergency Conference on Middle
East Peace," which will convene in Washington Jan. 25, said Rabbi
Kapustin.
The conference has evolved out of the concern of Jewish commu-
nities throughout the country over an apparent change in U. S. policy
on the Middle East.
It was suggested in the Rabbinical Commission letter that rabbis devote
their Sabbath sermons to the current situation and point out the dangers
in the U. S. position. The commission is composed of rabbis from the three
branches of Judaism, with congregations throughout metropolitan Detroit,
as well as outstate.
Gubow will lead a delegation from Detroit to the Emergency Con-
ference. Still in formation, the delegation includes to date: Harry Kraft,
Hubert Sidlow, Lewis Grossman, Walter Klein, Harold Dubin, Dr. and Mrs.
Elmer Ellias, Benjamin Laikin, Mr. and Mrs. Isadore Shrodeck, Mrs. Mor-
ton Barnett, Mi. and Mrs. William Lieberson and Mrs. Allen Berlin. (Re-
lated story Page 36.)
THE JEWISH NEWS
The Wingates'
Role as Inspired
Christian
Defenders
of Zionist
Aspirations
Michigan Weekly
Commentary
Page 2
Review of Jewish News
Michigan's Only English-Jewish Newspaper — Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle
Vol. LVI, No. 18oge . 4.3 27
Keren Hayesod
Anniversary
Emphasizes
Israel's Rapid
Progress
Editorials
Page 4
17515 W. 9 Mile Rd., Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075 — 356-8400—January 16, 1970 $7.00 Per Year; This Issue 20c
French Calls for Peace Negated
by Deal to Sell Libya 50 Jets,
Same Number Kept From Israel
References to Israel Omitted
in Final Text of Vatican Paper
' NEW YORK (JTA)—A Jewish
group has charged that all references
to the state of Israel have been deleted from the final text of a Vatican
statement on Catholic-Jewish relations, the preliminary draft of which was
made public last month.
Jan.
The charge is contained in an editorial scheduled to appear in the
23 edition of the Reconstructionist, a biweekly magazine published by
the Jewish Reconstructionist
Foundation here. .
According to the editorial, passages that called on Catholics to recog-
nize and accept the extraordinary historical and spiritual relationship
between the Jewish people and the land of Israel were eliminated at a recent
synodical conference in Rome by bishops who "did not wish to appear to
be siding politically with Israel in her conflict with the Arab nations."
The
France was still licking her wounds over Israel's gunboat coup when it was
announced from Paris last weekend that the Pompidou government had concluded
a deal with Libya to sell her 50 supersonic Mirage jets.
Bitterness against France reached new heights among Israelis' who had been
celebrating the successful conclusion of the "Gunboat Affair," in which five boats
were spirited out of a Cherbourg shipbuilding yard in what the French consi-
dered a violation of their Middle East arms embargo.
Israel Foreign Minister Abba Eban has pledged that the gunboats will
not be armed. Declaring that the five gunboats would be used for civilian pur-
poses, guarding and supplying offshore oil prospecting rigs, Eban said on Radio
Luxembourg that "we must honor our pledges."
new Vatican document stemmed from the statement on the
Jews adopted at Vatican Council H which, among other things, absolved
the Jewish people of hereditary guilt for the Crucifixion. Its original
text was made public early in December by Lawrence Cardinal Shehan,
the archbishop of Baltimore, at a seminar on Jewish-Catholic relations
The Reconstructionist editorial criticized Jewish leaders who "joined
in one loud litany of praise" for the document without realizing that the
"politics of Vatican II taught us that many machinations occur between the
preparation of a document and its promulgation."
The Reconstructionist editorial acknowledged that the "study docu-
ment" offered three advances over the statement that had earlier been
adopted by Vatican Council II — in that it excludes proselytizing, ac-
knowledges the unique significance of the Jewish people and its perma-
nent election, and recognizes the gift of the land as part of God's
Covenantal relation to the Jewish people.
But, the editorial continues, "As long as the Vatican refuses to recog-
nize the state of Israel as a political fact, then Catholic theology concerning
people's covenantal relation to the land, remains only empty
"Honoring pledges" apparently had no bearing on France's decision to sell
arms to Libya, a decision attacked by an Israel Foreign Ministry spokesman
as having the effect of escalating the Middle East arms race and being respon-
sible for the rapidly deteriorating situation in that region. The spokesman said
France had virtually destroyed its moral position as a peace-making factor in
the Arab-Israel- conflict.
Israeli diplomatic circles said Franco-Israeli relations have reached
their lowest ebb since the Six-Day War because of the Libyan deal, and in Paris,
the French State radio said it could result in a break in diplomatic relations be-
tween the two countries.
Even leftist sources in France, normally unfriendly to Israel, lashed out at the
government of President Georges Pompidou. Other criticism came from newspapers
that generally support the government and from the pro-government independent
republican parties and the orthodox Gaullist UDT faction.
The feeling in French political circles was that the Pompidou regime has adopted
a clearly pro-Arab policy which is expected to become more evident in the coming
weeks.
On its part, government quarters tried to placate angered public opinion by
stressing that the first Mirages will not be delivered to Libya until 1971.
the Jewish
words."
Official circles also justified the arms deal by the importance of Libyan oil.
France imports 17 percent of its oil from Libya and from now on will pay for
(Continued on Page 18)
Israel's Spirit as High as Its Taxes ... Concern Greater Over American
Jewry's Retention of Cultural Values Than Over Its Own Security
By PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
JERUSALEM, Israel—The will to live is like a guar-
antee to survival. There is no better way to describe
Israel's sense of calm and stoic determination to accept
the inevitable while laboring in faith of an assured day
of
glory.
There is hardly a day without a battle, somewhere,
either with the forces of Nasser, against the Hussein
armies or in retaliation for attacks from Syria or Lebanon.
You wouldn't know any shooting or bombing had taken
place when you walk among the many Arabs in the Old
City of Jerusalem or anywhere in the land. You learn
about it in the newspapers, and then you forget about it:
there is too much to be concerned with, and the people
can't be bothered with the defensive actions: that's the
army's and government's business.
The people is anxious about brethren: those to be
Welcomed in large numbers as new immigrants, new
settlers from the free countries, the educational system
and the industrial complexes, all of which are thriving
and expanding and contributing towards a strong life
in a significant democracy.
These are elementary facts that can he expected from
any shalialdi, any emissary from
Israel to the Diaspora.
What is not sufficiently emphasized is that while Israelis
advancement of their cul-
are primarily concerned about
tural and economic status, they also think a lot and talk
a lot about their kinsmen. They are concerned about the
status of American Jewry, the conditions in Russia and
other Iron Curtain countries, the threats to Jewish spirit-
ual sustenance in European countries.
That's what the chairman of the Jewish Agency,
Aryeh Pincus, talks about when he meets with American
Jews. That's what other Zionist officials and Israel's
government leaders mention frequently when they speak
of the major needs in Jewish life. Otherwise. life is normal
—so normal that it is possible that many Americans who
come to Israel are embarrassed.
This is not to be interpreted that Israel is calloused
to conditions and is not concerned about what's happening
on her borders and in the occupied territories of the new
Greater Israel. But the concern spells less panic about
Israel's position than about the events transpiring in
Jewish communities in free countries.
The entire panorama of Israel's aspirations. hopes.
anxieties, concerns received a perfect and almost total re-
view in the sessions world Zionist and Israel government
leaders had with editors of 27 English-Jewish American
newspapers. Yigal Alon clarified his views vis-a-vis the
Arab threats. Pincus expressed his anxiety over the Jews
of America. Abba Eban noted the basic facts regarding
defense, war, survival,
peace.
Foreign Minister Eban, appearing on television
cameras, looked tense because he is under such pres-
sure—for time and decisions. But he had not lost his
sense of humor. He told the editors that they provided
for him the only chance to attain a suntan, under the
glaring lights.
Eban outlined the requests Israel addresses to the
United States: for the right to attain its security, for mili-
tary equipment to enable it to survive against the great
odds created by Russia, which has provided the Arabs
with more weapons than they had before the Six-flay War
arid to prevent crystallization of a policy that might lead
to an imposed peace.
Then came his admonition. and declaration of these
facts which ought to serve to eliminate any other effort
to impose a peace upon Israel: Ile declared: "We can
gain security without Arab consent. But peace depends
upon Arab consent."
lie made it quite clear: "We can win the war without
Arab consent. They have not yet decided to make peace.
If t hey don't want it. it approaches a final answer."
. It is quite clear that Israel has no intention to yield
to outside pressures for anything other than negotiations
between the jews and the Arabs: that Russia is not "an
(Continued on Page 5)