Purely Commentary
George Brown's Puzzled Postion s
No one wishes to be called an anti-Semite. Not too many, even
though they say they are pro-Arab, would want to be branded anti-
Israel. And one one wishes to be denied the right to speak out against
those they disagree with, and Jews are no exception in their book.
British Labor Leader George Brown, his country's former foreign
secretary who prides himself on having authored the Nov. 22, 1967,
United Nations resolution which calls for Israel's withdrawal from
occupied territories, including Jerusalem, although it gestures towards
recognition of Israel by the Arabs, is reported to have made some un-
gracious remarks to Israel Prime Minister Golda Meir. He is said to
have had an argument with Gen. Haim Herzog.
There is something crude about this labor leader. He is said to have
greeted Mrs. Meir, upon his arrival in Israel after meeting with Arabs
in their lands: "Hello, sister, I've brought greetings from your frineds."
Only the British ambassador to Israel, John Barnes, who was in
the very middle when all the fracas occurred, could possibly throw
light on the entire incident. But it does serve to remind us of the
actions of another British labor leader, Ernest Bevin, who, during the
tragic years when Britain denied entrance to Palestine to Jews who
were escaping from the Nazi terror, was abusive, insulting Jews on all
fronts, speaking of them as trying to "get ahead of the queue" and
especially throwing asperations at "the Jews of New York."
That's the George Brown story in relation to an earlier experience
which has some relation to the thinking of some Americans. We have
been hearing recently about "the Eastern Establishment" that was
being written off by the present administration, and whenever anyone
speaks about such an establishment there is always the suspicion that
Jews are meant. Which is stupid, since Jews are in such a minority in
all states.
And we can't ignore the comments by a leading lady in Washington
who is close to the President's Cabinet about the "fat Jews." Which we
can laugh off, as we do Britisher Brown, because hatemongers are so
close to the lunatic fringe.
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Brown Plants a Tree: Satire or Galgenhumor?
There are always two' sides to every question, and in Jewish mat-
ters there is sometimes a third aspect. In addition to fleishig and mil-
hig we also have pareve. How are we to judge this release from Jew-
ish National Fund (Keren Kayemet) headquarters in Jerusalem about
a tree planted by George Brown?
Jekyll-Hyde Role of British
Labor Leader ... Abrogation
of Apologetic Polish Jews
By Philip
Slomovitz
Very interesting! That Katz-Suchy, whose long record of service to
Poland, having followed the Communist line without reservations,
should treat his exile so nonchalantly, is more than amazing: it puzzles
and one wonder how self-deluding one can be in minimizing the anti-
Semitism of the Polish regime.
Poor Katz-Suchy! He has no hope at all—unless there is a political
miracle—of ever getting back into the Polish political harness. yet he
plays down the anti-Semitic angle. He does not have to be taught about
the 3,000,000 Polish Jews who perished at the hand of the Nazis, who
had very little comfort from their Polish fellow citizens, whose number
was reduced from 3,500,000 to 25,000 two years ago and then to the
present 8,000—yet he is blind to reality, and understandably; he never
had any Jewish feelings or loyalties as the UN record of his service
will indicate, and there was little more to expect from him.
Could Katz-Suchy mislead people into believing that there is hope
for a spark of humanity from political beats, or will his assertions be
treated with the contempt they have earned?
Laborite Brown
Denies Israel Row
LONDON (JTA)—George Brown,
deputy leader of the British Labor
Party, denied on television that
he had created a row at a dinner
party given in his honor at the
home of Israel's foreign minister,
Abba Eban, in Jerusalem last
week.
But several British newspapers
have demanded that the .former
foreign secretary retire from
politics and an Israeli newspaper
has accused him of personally
insulting Premier Golda Meir.
Brown, appearing on BBC's
"Twenty-Four Hours" said reports
of his dinner party invectives were
"ridiculous." He conceded that
Tragically, Katz-Suchy is not alone in his delusion and his cam- there had been some "tough talk"
paign of deluding the public. There are other leftists, pro-Communists at the gathering the night before
and Communists who will go to any length to follow a line of hatred and he ended his recent five-day visit
self-hatred, of antagonism to Israel and to Zionism while attempting to to Israel.
But he explained it by saying
pose as Jews.
that he and the Israelis present
A typical example—even more typical than Katz-Suchy's—is a
were
"deep and close personal
statement published in the Guardian, quoting Antoni Gronowicz as
friends" and that in the "family
follows, in reply to a book reviewer on the subject "Pogoms in Poland":
atmosphere" of the party, "one
Allow me to make a brief comment on the book review, "Pogroms In
Poland" (Dec. 27). A few months ago I returned from Europe, including
does have a latitude for expres-
Poland, where I had been for two months to investigate anti-Semitism. In
sion which you will never use
the Polish government, the first deputy prime minister, Eugeniusz Szyr, is a
Jew. The minister of railroads is also a Jew. The other ministries of foreign
in public."
affairs, domestic trade, foreign trade and education are staffed with Jews
Brown denied that he had told
in high posts. The only government-supported Jewish theater in the entire
world exists in Warsaw. A weekly newspaper in Yiddish is also supported. one Israeli guest to "wipe that
There is the Jewish Historical Institute and cultural clubs throughout the
silly grin off your face" or that
country. They are also supported by the government. At Grzybowskl Place
in Warsaw, you can see a beautiful new building of the Jewish Cultural he had told Brithish Ambassador
Society of Poland.
I travelled the length and breadth of the country and talked to many John Barnes to "shut up" and then
Jewish friends in various positions. They denied any kind of anti-Jewish
admonished him for not supporting
movement or feeling among the Christian population. There is a stiff Polish
"everything I say."
law directed against anti-Semites. No one has been convicted under this
statute in the past five years. After the Six-Day War between Israel and the
The Israeli newspaper Maariv
Arab countries, some of the Jews in sensitive government positions expressed
pro-Israeli feelings. They were asked to leave their posts for less important claimed that Brown "walked out"
ones. Some of them decided to leave the country. They did not have any of the Eban party after telling
difficulty obtaining passports. There is anti-Israeli feeling in Poland because Premier Meir, "You are only a
of the June war, but it is not directed against Polish Jews who are staying
and working side by side with other Poles in building a better country.
Russian Jewess who came to Israel
In view of the acknowledged facts that Jews as Jews were ousted via the United States."
from Poland, that it took much Jewish money to rescue many Jews
Brown said, "Some of the stories
from the clutches of Polish anti-Semitism, that while Zionist was the I have seen reported are just too
bogey term, it was Jews and Juadism who were hounded and continue ridiculous to be worthy of a denial."
to be hounded in Poland. Your commentator was eye-witness to the fact The Evening Sun said editorially
that while Poland, like the USSR, boasted that anti-Semitism was pro- that "The latest escapade in the
scribed, there was so much bigotry and hatred and anti-Semitism in Brown circus deserves to be billed
that country that it gave credence to the belief that Polish comfort to politically as positively his final
Nazism aided in the death of the millions of Polish Jews who perished. appearance."
The "Guardian" from which we quoted the Gronowicz apology for
Brown visited several Arab capi-
anti-Semitism subtitles itself "independent radical newsweekly." Is it tals before he arrived in Israel.
more than that, and does that account for the sort of truth distortion He said his Mid East tour had
we have just quoted?
encouraged his hope that a peace-
The Guardian from which we quoted the Gronowicz apology for ful settlement could be achieved.
George Brown, deputy leader of the British Labor Party and
former Foreign Secretary, planted a sapling in the Jerusalem
Peace Forest in memory of his father-in-law, and Mrs. Brown
planted one in memory of her sister while in Israel as part of a
fact-finding mission to the Middle East.
At the conclusion of the short ceremony, Mr. Brown said that
his father-in-law, a socialist and trade union leader who believed
in people living together in peace, would have appreciated his
planting a tree on this particular site, since here a forest park for
the enjoyment of Jew and Arab is coming into being on what had
been a mine field dividing them.
The Browns were welcomed at the site by Mr. Theodore Htatal-
gui of the Executive of the Jewish National Fund which initiated
the Peace Forest after the Six-Day War in former no-man's land Youth Learn Their Traditions on Indian Reservations
on the slopes of the hill of the former high commissioner's resi-
By BEN GALLOB
teen when faced with the Indian, risked expulsion from school by
dence.
(Copyright 1970, JTA, Inc.)
for somewhere he recalls, how- opposing "unjust regulations gov-
Maybe George Brown is just argumentative. Yet we do not know
The Indian Summer Service pro- ever vaguely, the systematic at- erning hair length." An all-night
whether what we offer as an addendum to an unpleasant incident is ject, sponsored by the 92nd Street tempt of the Christian world to discussion ensued. Among the is-
satire (it certainly is not humor) or whether it is sheer galgenhumor- YM-YWHA of New York, sends 24 deprive the Jewish people also of sues debated was whether they
the bitter humor on the gallows. At any rate, life is real, earnest—and teenagers, age 151/2 to 18, to an their land, religion, peoplehood should risk the effectiveness of
interesting in the details relating to the Middle East, Zionism, its Indian reservation each summer and lives."
the project in the hope of showing
friends and antagonists.
to develop recreational and tutor-
Prospective parti cip ants are the tribe that "people with long
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ial programs for members of the screened in intensive interviews, hair can be good people" and
Lebanon's Unsavory Role in the Middle East
Indian community, Nathan Kolod- raising such issues as the sincerity whether they had come "to edu-
There was a time when it was believed that Jordan would gladly ney, Y educational director, re- of the applicant's desire to serve cate Indians about hair length or
make peace with Israel, but assassination threats to the rulers of that ported.
the underprivileged, which he is to set up recreational and tutor-
country that was created by Winston Churchill out of the traditional
Kolodney indicated that the told can be done just as easily in ial programs." The outcome was
area that was always considered as part of the greater Eretz Israel "ultimate aim" of the project was his neighborhood, rather than 2,000 a decision to cut the hair. In mak-
prevented any possible move towards an end to hostilities. Now, with that of "training indigenous lead- miles away; and whether the moti- ing that decision, the teen-agers
El Fatah cradled near Amman, that's an out-of-the-question possibility. ership to take over the programs" vation is partly one of merely get- "had to confront a major life
But Lebanon has always been closer to peace possibilities than any and operate them independently. ting away from home for a while. theme—the setting of priorities in
other country in that area—primarily because Christians constitute half He described the project in a re- Another question raised is the con- values and in what one wishes to
of the Lebanese population. And in Lebanon, too, the slogan is that it port in the fall issue of the Jewish nection for the applicant of the pro- achieve and the effect such priori-
would be the second to make peace with Israel: no one dares to be the Social Work Forum, published by ject with Jewishness.
ties have on personal freedom."
first.
What the project demands of the The "gut" issue also involved fac-
the Alumni Association of the
These matters are relevant to the explosion that took place in a Wurzweiler School of Social Work teen-ager, Kolodney reported, is a ing the question of "What does
Jewish school at Beirut. The government condemned it, and in order to of Yeshiva University. He told the translation of his desire to serve long hair mean to me and why?"
continue to make distinctions between Jews and Zionists even the El Jewish Telegraphic Agency that into "concrete approaches and pro-
The situation also demanded
Fatah issued a statement deploring the incident.
some 200 teen-age boys and girls grams which require a tremendous that the teen-ager face the ques-
Ironically, Lebanon's Interior Minister Kamal Jumblatt told Beirut's have participated in the project amount of self-education into In- tion of his own cultural identity.
Chief Rabbi Shahoul Shelim that by expressing his "dismay over the and that another program was dian history and present culture, "However each teen defined him-
attack on the Jewish school" he also was showing "that we differentiate planned for the coming summer an ability to create activities where self, the Indians defined him im-
between a Jew and a Zionist."
under Svi Givoli, who succeeded none before existed and to make mediately as a 'Jew' or 'Hebrew'
This type of apology may sound good in Lebanon, where the remain_ him as project director.
them relevant to a unique place doing this quite naturally." The
ing 3,500 Jews ar-' in constant threat of their very lives—all assurances
Kolodney explained that his and time, an overcoming of per- fact that the project followed Jew-
to the contrary notwithstanding. But the very resort to such an argu- report was based on a "distil- sonal, cultural and psychological ish dietary law observance, had
ment in self-defense indicates the frustrations of the Lebanese.
lation" of the events of the four inhibitions and prejudices of which Friday night services and took
The Jew-Zionist differentiation hardly works anywhere any more, service programs be directed at one has been largely ignorant, and part in other specifically Jewish
except in Russia and the Moslem countries. If and when our Arab the Pueblo reservation in Santa a sense of self-discipline in all activities gave further impetus to
cousins will sit at a peace table with Israelis, Zionists will be among
Clara, N.M., and the White areas of one's life in the project." that quest.
the chief deliberators and consultants. But it won't do to attempt to Mountain Apache reservation in
What Kolodney called "an ex-
Out of such confrontations, Kol-
reason with those who seek Israel's destruction. All they need is hate, Arizona and other reservations.
treme case" of the testing of the odney reported, many of the teens
and there is plenty of it when the Jew becomes available cloaked in
He reported that the project
teen-agers' commitments devel- found "a reawakening of the desire
any garb.
members live in the Indian com-
oped over the length of hair some to experience Jewish traditions. It
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munities where they serve in
boys wore and the Indians' "ne- was not dramatic in the theatrical
whatever facilities are available
Katz Suchy Still a Pole ...
gative reaction" to such long sense. No teen suddenly became
hair. A significant drop in at- 'religious' or 'observant.' But it
The late Philip Raskin, the popular poet and Zionist, spoke in De- which meet the teen-agers' mini-
mum
needs.
tendance at a project "day was dramatic in the very intimate
troit many years ago before a very large audience in Arena Gardens,
For the teen-agers, he declared, camp" led to the discovery that and personal sense. The teens be-
and he expressed anger over the designation of many distinguished
the American Indian "is a living the "old people" among the In- came active in Friday night serv-
artists as Russians. In many instances they were self-designations.
"They are Russians, these Jews, because Russia makes pogroms symbol" of the "defects in our dians, who have high status in ices, participating in the tradi-
society," and they see, in what the tribe, were exerting pres- tional prayers, and then adding
upon them," he declared.
One wonders today about men like Julius Katz-Suchy, who was has happened to the Indian, "a sures against attendance because to it from their own immediate
Poland's representative at the United Nations for 15 years, and who is microcosm of the processes which of the long hair of some of the experience: a reading of Woody
now in exile in Copenhagen. "I'm still a Pole and Poland will always be they have identified in our rela- Jewish teen-agers.
Guthrie poetry, a 'sermon' deliver-
The teen-agers were very upset. ed by a member on why we as
my country," the Jewish "expert on international politics" stated in an tions with the Blacks in the United
States
and
people
of
other
coun-
In microcosm, they had run into Jews were on the reservation, or
interview.
tries." In addition, "a special un- "the very issue they were battling a production of Millay's Aria De-
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS easiness stirs within the Jewish at home," for which some had Capo."
2—Friday, January 30, 1970
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