EDITORIAL
Israel at 22...the Covenant...a People's Faith and Prayer for Peace
At 22. Israel is mature, creative, the redeemed homeland of millions
who are privileged to live in an era of fulfillment of Prophecy. In a
critical period for all mankind, with social revolutions threatening many
nations, including our own, Israel conducts a battle for justice. pursuing
the sacred ideals inherent in the codes that have been developed by our
sages.
In spite of threats to the : state's very existence. Israel pursues
tasks for the advancement of Cultural programs. in research to contribute
toward improvement of the health of people, in science and in literature.
These aims to benefit not Israelis alone but all mankind, and towards
that .end. as Israel enters upon another year in its developing history.
the hopes and prayers are for peace to link all mankind in a partnership
for the advancement of the highest ideals in human endeavor.
The 22nd •anniversary of Israel marks a historic continuity. It
emphasizes the Covenant expressed in Genesis: "Unto thy .seed have I
given this land . . ."
It is a continuity that echoes in the auguries of the Prophets.
with these emphases in Amos 9:14-15:
And / will turn the captivity of My people Israel.
And they shall build the waste cities. and inhabit them:
And they shall plant vineyards, and drink the WM( thereof:
They shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
And i will plant them upon their land.
And they shall no more be plucked up
Out of their land which I have given them.
Sault the Lord thy God.
With faith in an historic role, never again to be - plucked out of
their land." in dedication to an aspiration to assure freedom and security
for all its citizens—regardless of their religious affiliations—the unique
role of a people that has emerged out of oppression into dignity rind
sovereignty symbolizes a hope for the emergence of an universal spirit
of peace and amity into which should be linked the highest humanitarian
goals of all the peoples of the earth.
For Israel the 22nd anniversary marks another step into an unend-
ing struggle for : survival—in the knowledge that there is no other road
except assurance of security based on self-reliance, but with a measure
of confidence that there will be a growing measure of concern over the
peace of the Middle East among freedom-loving people in the democratic
spheres.
In the urgency to assure the security of Israel, there is also the
need for an understanding of a world problem which will remain tense
and insoluble unless the sovereignty of Israel is -guaranteed and fully
protected. Without it there can be no peace, there will ,he no hope for at)
abandonment of an arms race, there will be little to look forward to in
the historic process that is inconclusive without a free and fully redeemed
Israel. safe within its guaranteed boundaries.
The Jewish people everywhere are inseparable from the obligations
to uplift Israel's role universally, to provide for many of that nation's
basic needs, to make it possible for it to continue to welcome the many
tens of thousands of our kinsmen who must seek refuge from persecution
and who hope for succor in an atmosphere that will provide for them
the spiritual sustenance that is so vital for Jewish existence.
We have helped build Israel's universities and we must assure
their maintenance.
The ingathering of the exiles has been a duty for all Jewry, and
the settlement of many more continues to be our responsibility.
For those who settle there we must provide schools and health
care and proper housing—in addition to the employment possibilities that
must be created for those gathered in from more than 70 nations from
every part of the globe.
We call them duties. but they are privileges. We are blessed to
be of a generation that has seen Israel redeemed and Prophecy fulfilled,
and we must rise high to the great occasion of seeing Israel also in a
secure position among the nations of the world.
It is in a spirit of accepting the privileges that are the sacred
duties of an historic people that we join with Jews everywhere, and with
Israel's friend's among many nations in acclaiming the 22nd anniversary
of a people whose will to live overshadows whatever dangers may stand
in the path of complete redemption.
The captivity of Israel has been reversed. the vineyards are being
replanted. the joy of a freedom to come is the great hope of the years
ahead. Alay the current anniversary be the beginning of such complete
fulfillment of the people's hopes and prayers.
Detroit Jewry's Role in the Redemption of Israel
By ALAN E. SCHWARTZ, President,
Jewish Welfare Federation, and
MAXWELL JOSPEY, Chairman, 1970
Allied Jewish Campaign-Israel Emergency Fund
"Only the intense. double-barrelled incentive pro-
vided by the desire to secure the new state of Israel and
to return our tormented Jewish survivors still in Europe
to a normal existence, could so stir Jewish hearts
throughout the nation. Detroit carries its share of the
total burden fully and proudly."
This statement appeared in a report of the work of
the Jewish Welfare Federation of Detroit and the Allied
Jewish Campaign in 1948.
•
It could almost have been written today.
Twenty-two years ago Israel received its independ-
ence and began the lona difficult road toward economic
and political strength and freedom from threat of extinc-
tion by its neighbors. The road has not yet come to an end.
- Through those tears, Detroit has sent 581,400,000 to
Israel's people from its annual Allied Jewish- Campaign.
This representri by far the greatest single allocation of
funds of the - total raised for Israel, national and over-
seas agencies. Since 1948, a record year in Detroit Jewish
giving. the annual campaign has more than doubled its
annual total reaching a peak in 1970 of S11.650.000.
The Six-Day War in 1967 brought the creation of UP ,
Israel Emergency Fund by the United Jewish Appeal
and a special campaign in June of that year. Detroit
Jewry responded with enthusiasm.
Beginning with the 1968 Allied Jewish Campaign.
the Israel Emergency Fund has been conducted in con-
junction with the traditional drive.
The pre-campaign budget conference, a public forum
held prior to the opening of the campaign each year, has
annually recommended the total figure to be allocated
for local agencies and to fill the requests of national and
overseas agencies. Beginning in 1968. all funds collected
above the recommended figure have been earmarked
for the Israel Emergenc2.. Fund—every dollar of which
goes to Israel's welfare needs.
This year Detroit will send more than 58.000.000
from the AJC-IEF to Israel for the aged, the children,
the ill, and will help bring 60.000 immigrants to Israel
this year and help them start m a new life.
Each year volunteer workers and leaders for the
campaign travel to Israel for a look at what is happen_
ing there. The inspiration which the leadership receives
from seeing the spirit and determination of the people
serves to strengthen the •campaign at home.
Detroit has supplied many outstanding leaders on
the national and international scene. These are exempli-
fied by such men as :11:ix NI Fisher, who held the post
as head of the United JeWish Appeal, and is now presi-
dent of United Israel Appeal: Paul Zuckerman. a national
UJA chairman this year who headed "Operation Israel":
Mrs.- Harry I.. Jones who served as chairman Of the na-
tional WOIllell'S division of the U.IA, and many 'other
women leaders who contributed time, effort and money .
to Israel's needs.
All partners in the fund-raising endeavor—the volun-
teer solicitor, the contributor. the Jewish Welfare Fed-
eration, the Allied Jewish Campaign, the United Jewish
Alikal—play significant, vital roles • in the past and
future of Israel.
Education in the Israeli Defense Forces
soldier in National Serrice
who' has not completed his ele-
mentary schooling school years)
is obliged under the General Or-
ders of the Army to take a course
of studies which will entitle him
to the status of elementary school
graduate. Ile trill undertake this
course during the last three
months of his National Service."
— (General Staff Order. 37 .0102.)
A strange and surely unique dic-
tum, but one which, upon reflec-
tion. seems wholly appropriate to
the army of the "People of the
Book." This kind of educational
burden shouldered by the Israel
Defense Forces typifies the role
the army plays in the education of
the people of Israel. Providing
every soldier with basic schooling
and elementary knowledge of He-
brew — at the expense of military
duties these soldiers might fulfill
— is only one of the many sups
taken by the army in order to
weld the polyglot 'immigrants into
a single, united and dynamic force.
Above and beyond this immediate
end, the army, through its educa-
tion unit, adds depth and a moral
perspective to the place of the in-
dividual in the social fabric of
the state.
The bookish, scholarly Jews
have, in Israel, added military ex-
cellence to their national achieve-
ments. without ever losing sight of
what has, for centuries, contained
and upheld their national exist-
ence: education. It is entirely fit-
ting that such a unique combina-
tion of might and mind should he
honored by the very people who .
forged it: last year the chief edu-
cation officer's unit of the general
staff was awarded the coveted Is-
rael Prize for Education.
THE JEWISH NEWS
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
Business Manager
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City Editor
A woman sergeant giving a Hebrew lesson to a class of soldiers at Marcus Military School on
Mount Carmel, Haifa.
Special Israel Section
VOL. LVII, No. 9
Page Two
May 15, 1970