THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Member American Associaton of Englsh-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial Association
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co-, 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield. Mich. 48075.
Phone 356-8400
Subscription $7 a year. Foreign $8.
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 26th day of Nisan. 5730, the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Levit. 16:1-18:30. Prophetical portion, Amos 9:7-15.
Rosh Hodesh lyar Torah readings, Wednesday and Thursday, Num. 28:1-15.
Candle lighting, Friday, May 1, 7:12 p.m.
VOL. LVII. No. 7
Page Four
May 1, 1970
A Drive for\ Unity in Jewry's Defense
With less than a week left to conclude an new settlers from many lands. It is in order
important task for the current year, the to ease that burden that the Jewries of the
Allied Jewish Campaign and the interlinked world, primarily American Jewry, must as-
Israel Emergency Fund are confronted with sist in providing funds for resettlement, edu-
the need to reach some 4,000 more potential cation, health, welfare and social and eco-
contributors in order to attain the goal of nomic advancement.
$12,000,000.
New records are being set in the current
The needs are so pressing, the duty to campaign. The sums already subscribed rep-
assure continuity for the functioning Jewish resent the largest ever raised here. Neverthe-
agencies is so urgent, that the volunteer army less the higher goal of $12,000,000 hoped for
of workers in the drive is charged with an in this drive could well mark the difference
unprecedented obligation. The gifts secured between fulfilling the obligations to our kins-
will serve as an encouragement to the em- men abroad or falling short of filling a most
battled people of Israel whose hands must be serious need in a most critical period in our
strengthened economically in the battle for history.
survival; and the retention of strengthifor the
The thousands yet to be reached by our
local and the national agencies will surely
serve to uphold the dignity of American Jew- volunteer solicitors can be helpful by calling
in
their
gifts and saving manpower for the
ry in its links with kinsmen everywhere.
Let it be remembered that Israel's mili- exploration of new areas which have not yet
tary needs are cared for by the tax dollars of been covered in enlisting additional contribu-
the Israelis themselves. Their burdens are tors. There are thousands who can not be
great and they must have the aid that is so reached and for total enrollment it is to be
vital in welcoming many thousands of new- hoped that those who have not been con-
comers who look to Israel as their panacea tacted will voluntarily enlist themselves and
from the evils under which they live in lands their families in the great effort that is so
of oppression. Although Israelis are burdened essential for the unified effort to prevent
with taxes that are vital to the defense needs, whatever dangers may lurk on the horizon
thy do not shirk responsibilities involved in for any portion of our people, anywhere on
the integration and absorption of the many earth.
New Goals for American Zionists
Mobilization of public opinion in support be a hearty response, that individuals as
well as groups will join the renewed effort
of Israel necessitates revaluation of the
in support of the Zionist ideal.
Zionist idea and reactivation of devotees of
the movement in behalf of the historic as-
The new federation will be confronted by
pirations of Jewry and the great libertarian
responsibilities that will be akin to those that
movement that has made possible the re-
faced the Zionists in the decades preceding
Israel's statehood. The young reborn state
birth of Israel.
Formation of the American Zionist Fed- has many enemies. In addition to the forces
eration, which is expected to take shape at a that confound it on its borders it has the task
national assembly to be held in Philadelphia of gathering the facts regarding the realities
towards the end of May, is one of the signi- of events in the Middle East. It must refute
ficant steps in American Jewish organiza- unfounded charges that stems from the ru-
tional life. It is important as a unifying force mor mills and from the lie-manufacturing
and it should be noted that while it leads quarters. Much of the anti-Israel propaganda
towards more cooperative efforts it does not has turned into anti-Semitic libels and the
sacrifice the uniqueness of any of the indi- dangers that stem from such hate-producing
vidual branches of the Zionist movement. activities affect all of Jewry.
What is aimed is not uniformity but coopera-
The new federation thus becomes not
tiveness.
only a pro-Israel instrument but also a seri-
More than that: the new American Zionist ous means of counteracting the spread of
Federation has as its main objective the en- hatred.
rollment of national organizations that are
Primarily it will need to solidify Jewish
not now among the 13 recognized Zionist
ranks by re-creating the basis for a strong
groups. Its aim is the enrollment of congre-
Zionist movement. Its tasks for Israel will
gations, landsmanshaften, men's and women's
be measured by its ability to unify Jewish
organizations that are presently unaligned
ranks, to refute untruths, to disseminate
with the efforts in support of Israel.
facts ,to gather around it forces of good will
and seekers of justice. The new movement
A special effort will be made to enroll
deserves the hearty support of all American
youth groups as participants in this federated
Jews.
effort, and all indications are that there will
Correspondents Who Refuse to Succumb to Panic
Israel, and he returned obviously filled with ad-
There is much to hearten those who hope
miration.
for a sense of justice in news reports about
Israel.
Marvin Scott, New York Bueau chief of the
An occasional comment sounds unfriend-
Mutual Broadcasting System, said: "A foreign
visitor to Israel is impressed by the spirit of the
ly. Yet there is evidence of admiration for
people and their deLermination to meet a life
Israel and respect for Israel's refusal to yield
or death challenge to stand up to the Arab
to pressures that could well mean the state's
Goliath wishing to throw them into the sea. In
destruction.
the large cities, however, there were few indi.
There was a forum on Israel's position at
cations that the country is at war.
the Overseas Press Club in New York under
It is encouraging to know that those who
auspices of the Edward Murrow Memorial
Fund, and the resume of the speeches written go to Israel recognize the spirit of freedom
that dominates the land and its people. It is
for the OPC Bulletin included the following:
Angus Deming, a general editor at News-
week, said that it was difficult for any of the
returning correspondents not to be pro-Israel.
He called the Israeli Army "Spartans" and the
Air Force an "elite of elites". The citizens listen
attentively, he commented, as the names of the
dead and wounded are given on the newscasts
every hour on the hour. It was his first trip to
Dr. Halkin's 'Modern Hebrew
Literature to Israel's Birth'
Dr. Simon Halkin, professor emeritus of Hebrew literature at the
Hebrew University in. Jerusalem, regards modern Hebrew literature
"as the most faithful and comprehensive record of Jewish life."
"Therefore his "Modern Hebrew Litera-
ture: From the Englightenment to the Birth
of the State of Israel: Trends and Values"
assumes a most important role in the study
of the creative efforts of Jewish writers.
Republished by Schocken Books as a
paperback—the volume first was issued in
1950—this important work deals with the
many factors that have influenced Jewish
life, the progressive and the disintegrating.
The upheavals of the last 60 years, the
destruction of a third of the Jewish peo-
ple, the emergence of Israel into statehood
—these are reflected in the Hebrew litera-
ture under scrutiny here.
Dr. Halkin shows how "Hebrew
literature has been aware of the his-
Dr. Halkin
torical significance of these decades"
and that "it has recorded their throes almost seismographically."
are outlined here
200
years
Literary efforts over a period of
and Dr. Halkin shows how "the emerging modern Jew in the various
stages of his evolition" has been depicted in the Hebrew literature in
Italy, Germany, Holland, Palestine and the United States.
It is also pointed out by Dr. Halkin that "Hebrew literature
alone, in its entire sweep, has persisted in its view of the modern-
ization of Jewish life as an experience affecting Jewry as a whole
rather than one given Jewish community confronted at some specific
time with the problems involved in its own local emancipation."
The effects of econornic expansion of Jewish life and the broad-
ening of the Jew's intellectual cravings are studied in relation to the
work of Moses Mendelssohn who is described as "the protagonist of
that intellectual hunger which overtook the Jewish spiritual ghetto in
the early 18th century, greatly antedating Jewish political enfranchise-
ment."
It is as "a quest for a new life" that Dr. Halkin reviews the
work of Heinrich Graetz the historian, of the giants of the Haskala
movement, of the Hasidic folklore.
The dilemmas of the Haskala period find interesting echoes in
Dr. Halkin's resumes and he makes this interesting observation:
"The contradiction between the ideal Jew of Haskala poetry and
the real Jew of Haskala prose fundamentally meant that the litera-
ture of the period never asked itself seriously enough the one question
which Hebrew letters have been asking for the last 70 years: "How
can the Jew survive as a Jew, distinct and distinctive, once he comes
to share fully the cultural non-Jewish environment of the country in
which he lives?' This question which has haunted Hebrew literature
since 1880 -was sensed but vaguely by Haskala letters."
Many of the factors related to the subject dealt with by Dr.
Halkin are covered most interestingly and a valuable chapter is
devoted to "Halutziut in Palestinian Literature."
Palestinian literature generally and works devoted to the war
and issues revolving around the liberation received special attention.
Hebrew literature's religious motifs and "The Quest for Faith
in Palestinian Literature" provide valuable comments on significant
matters relating to the subject.
Dr. Halkin points out in regard to Israel literature that "the most
popular literature in the new state is that produced by a new flock
of young men, all of them 'natives,' all of them the hardened veterans
of the war of liberation, and all of them concerned with the war and
the liberation of the country as 'local' patriots, whose point of view
is not at all the 'messianic redemption' or the fate of the Jew outside
of Israel."
The author concludes with this important assertion: "Hebrew
literature, which has heroically resolved the dilemma of humanism
versus Jewish self-continuation in modern history, may soon find itself
between the horns of a new dilemma: the vision of the redemption
realized in Israeli civilization versus the existence of a world Jewry
good to know that correspondents do not suc-
cumb to panic and that they appreciate the
merits of a libertarian struggle amidst terror
and threats of a holocaust. Out of such senti-
ments emerge also new hopes for peace in an
area that has so many holy sites and yet is
drenched in blood.
not included within the scope of that vision."