Purely Commentary

By Philip Slomovitz

Israel mod Viehlann .. Facts About 79 Senators
Who Samar* Support U. S. Arms Sale to Israel
Whether ar not the equating of Vietnam and Cambodia with Israel
and the Middle East is intended as a mark of friendship for Israel or
as means of preventing U.S. aid for the nation that is under threat of
extermination by its enemies, the issue needs clarification.
There bas been much confusion about the support Israel was given
by the 79 U.S senators. The dove-hawk cry is frequently sounded and

there is misunderstanding of Israel's requests—which are for material
to help her fight her own battles. Nevertheless, even reponsible com-
mentators and columnists have befuddled the issue with false impres-
sions that Israel needs or is getting manpower support in its struggles.
With regard to the Vietnam-Middle East situation that has been
turned into a muddle by sensation-seekers, it is important that the facts
as set forth by Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri be made known.
He was replying to an article in National Observer—whose prejudices
have distinguished it among Israel's antagonists, and he stated:

I am conident that you would want to advise readers of a
clear misstatemmest of fact in an article beginning on the front page
of The National Observer of June 15, under the by-line of Wesley
Premien, Jr. The article, entitled "Doves on Asia Turn to Hawks on
Middle East," =rations a letter sent to the secretary of state by
a bilPartha. group of 73 senators who urged the United States to
provide addiIimml jet aircraft to Israel in response to Soviet escala-
tion of the Middle East conflict. The article then states incorrectly
that neither Senator Fulbright nor any of his colleagues on the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee signed the letter.
The facts are that Republican Minority Leader Hugh Scott.
Bromidic= of Pennsylvania, and I circulated the letter among our
Senate emieagnes. Seventy-three signed the letter and among them
were eight 'members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Besides myself, members of that committee who signed the letter
are: Senators Gale McGee, Jacob Javits, Clifford Case, Frank
Choweb, Thomas J. Todd, Claiborne Pell and John Sparkman.
On lime 12, Sen. Albert Gore, Democrat of Tennessee, also a
member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, announced
that be wished to be identified with the sentiment and the recom-
mendation contained in this letter. Five other senators have made
simiiar anamencements. Thus 79 senators have joined in this effort,
9 of whom are member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
In fact-finding. all sides must be given a platform. We are prepared
to do it All attitudes are and will he aired in fairness. If we can only
have the truth and not the distortions. And if there will be distortions
Israel may be hurt but so, also, will the democratic forces in the world.
especially the United States. We are engaged in a partnership that must
not be destroyed. In its interests we seek amity and we hope the Arab
nations will learn that their standards await elevation as soon as they
agree in peace with us, their cousins.

How Etfiters Are Being Taken for a Ride
If it weren't so serious this business of freedom of speech and
democracy and the right of every -one to speak would assume a funny
measurement_
Take as an instance the letters to editors. The selectors of the
letters on editorial staffs are so anxious for an even-handed policy that
they seldom check up on the writers. The correspondents might be
planted propagandists and could he using fake names, they- could well
be fronts for fantasy-spreading cliques. But as long as they offer an

opposite view to those pleading certain causes they get a platform.
There could be tests—letter-writers should indicate their reality.
But editors are either too busy or too anxious to be "fair." In their
fairness they blunder so badly that they create rather than solve issues.

The proof' Walter Golman of Silver Spring, Md., wrote a letter to
the Washington Post in which he exposed the Post's—and the New

York Timee—credulity. The Post entitled the letter "Four New Mid-
east Groups," without indicating how it, too, was taken in by the Arab

propagandists. Golman teaches a lesson to journalists not to be too
trusting. We offer his letter to the Post as a must for students of jour-
nalism and for those who earnestly strive for fair play in selecting for
publication letters to the editor. Ile wrote:
I am writing in behalf of the International Commission for
Peace and Tranquility in the Middle East, the Consultive Council
on the Middle East and the Antarctica, the Global Assembly of
Anointed Experts on Middle Eastern Events, and finally, the Gran-
diloquently Named and Official-Sounding But Actually Tiny Private
Group of Self-Proclaimed Experts on All Matters in the Middle
East and Outer Space.
The four organizations have two points in common: I am the
President/Chairman/Chief of each, and I created all of them just a
few minutes ago.
This is by way of informing the Washington Post and the New

York Times that both of you have been had.
On Sunday. June 7, the Times printed a letter from one Alan
Taylor, who identified himself as acting chairman of the "Middle
East Advisory Council, Washington." Seeking more information
about this Advistory Council—to learn for example, whom it ad-

vises and whether its advice is ever taken—I tried to telephone the

group. The telephone company, unfortunately, had never heard of it.
Several mornings later (June 11), while brooding over my

inability to speak with these people, I opened the Post and found a
large advertisement signed by Alan Taylor—still acting chairman,
but this time of a group calling itself the "Middle East Affairs
Council." Now everyone must agree that "Affairs" are more im-

pressive than anything "advisory." But how about the messages

themselves?

The material from both organizations centers on the theme
that the troubles of the Middle East stem from the rapacious activi-
ties of the greedy imperialists of mighty Israel, directed against
the pathetic. ill-equipped peace-seekers of Moscow and Cairo, who,
armed with a pitiful handful of S3 missile systems and a few hun-
dred modern jet aircraft, are doing their wretched best to defend
the democratic world's interests by destroying aggressive school

buses at dose range.
In Dr. Ta3,1or's strange world of fantasy, five Arab states did
not invade the State of Israel as soon as it was established and
recognized by the United Nations. Nor did President Nasser, a
proved friend of the West, later close the Strait of Tiran, declaring
that his purpose was to strangle Israel. Nor, during the war that
followed were the heads of state of Egypt and Jordan overheard
conspiring by telephone to charge falsely that U.S. carrier planes

2—Friday, July 10, 1970

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Serious Threat of Assimilation Ruled Out
for the Near Future in Rabbi's Survey

gogue, and possibly in the syna-
gogue's reason for existence are
not being met by the synagogue."
He suggested that the Orthodox
Jew "will be harder and harder to
find in the future, while the norm-
ative pattern of religious practice
and belief will probably be some-
where between Reform and Con-
servative."
The basic data from which

By BEN GALLOB

(Copyright 1970 ITA, Inc.)

A rabbi who has studied the
results of more than 40 Jewish
population surveys has discounted
the threat of severe assimilation
among American Jews for at least
the immediate future. The studies
all were made since World War If.
The data from those studies and
the projection of the nature of the
American Jew of the near future
are outlined by Rabbi Ronald M.
Goldstein of Buffalo, N.Y., in the
current issue of the American
Jewish Archives, published by the
Hebrew Union College, the Cincin-
nati branch of the American Re-
form Seminary.
"Since assimilation is the pres-
ent cultural pattern, one would be
remiss not to question religious as-
similation for the future," he as-
serted. However, he added, his
findings indicated that "Jewish
identity is strong, that there is a
conscious effort to maintain Jew-
ish survival," despite clear evi-
dence that "the Jew of the future
will be American-born and prob-
ably deeply entrenched in the cul-
ture of America."
He predicted that mixed mar-
riages without conversion, for
which he used the term "out-
marriage," would continue to in-
crease in the present third genera-
tion of American-born Jews "but
conversion rates" (to Judaism)
"are also increasing among non-
Jewish spouses of third-generation
American Jews. This would seem
to be true at least for the non-
Jewish wife married to the Jew.
On the basis of the past and pres-
ent, Jewish women who outmarry
will continue to lose contact with
the Jewish community."

Rabbi Goldstein made his projec-
tions for the near future indicated

that nearly 80 per cent of Jews
now alive in the United States are
native-born.

A 1957 U.S. Census Bureau
study indicated that 7.2 per cent
of American Jews had "outmar-
ried" but "reliable studies" such

as one in the nation's capital,.
indicated that "current figures
are much higher." In Washing.
ton, the third generation was
found to show "a rate of 17.9
per cent out.marriage."

The data confirmed other find-
ings that "an extraordinary per-
centage of the Jewish population
attains a college education. Cur-
rent figures estimate that nearly
80 per cent of the young, third
generation Jewish population are
college graduates." Rabbi Gold-
stein reported that in many cities,
the number of Jews who have
reached the post - graduate level of
education "is larger than the num-
ber of non-Jews with college edu-
cations."

Boris Smolor's

'Between You
. . . and Mel

(Copyright 1970, JTA Inc.)
_
—
THE DRUG ABUSE: Jewish community leaders in a number of'

cities are expressing serious concern over drug abuse by Jewish youth.
The problem has been discussed at a closed meeting of leaders of Coun-
dl of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, following reports from
28 communities.
Reliable data about the extent of drug abuse by Jewish teen-agers
is not generally available. However, a study made by the CJFWF states
it is estimated that in some schools, and in some neighborhoods, 80 per
cent or more of the Jewish youth may have experimented with using
drugs at one time or another but do not continue. These are classified
as "drug experimenters." They try drugs once, twice, or possibly a few
times.
Then there are those who are classified as "drug abusers." These
are the boys and girls who make regular and frequent use of drugs and
appear to he in search for new drug sensations. They move from milder
to harder drugs and find themselves soon unable to keep up with their
responsibilities at school, on the job, and at home. Dr. Martin Green-
berg, the CJFWF research director, says that it has been estimated that
Jews account for somewhere between 5 and 15 per cent in this category

The Jews of tomorrow will
be, on the basis of projections
of current American Jewish oc-
cupational patterns, even more
in the class- of college-educated
and business people than they

of drug users.
"Drug addicts" constitute another category. Their percentage is

relatively small. Even in New York, where the use of drugs by Jews is
reportedly most widespread, Jews constitute about 3 per cent or less of

are now. The present desire of
American Jews to be self-em-
ployed will continue because of
the "greater degree of secur-
ity" which such status provides.
While Jewish child education
will continue to be in the form of
some combination of Sunday
school and Hebrew-language edu-
cation and while more girls will
continue to be educated in Jewish
matters "as the Sunday school

the drug addicts. Although the communities are convinced that there is
widespread use of marijuana and other soft drugs, they assume that
heroin addicts are few among Jews.
*
COMMUNITY ACTION: The Jewish communities are hard at work
in combatting drug abuses and discouraging drug experimentation.
Federations and agencies are now establishing new programs to deal
with drug use, drugahuse, and drug addition. CJFWF will soon convene
leaders in the field to provide further guides.

The Jewish youth centers in the communities have taken the lead
in developing educational programs on many aspects of drug abuse for

teenagers, their parents and teachers. The Jewish Center in Buffalo is
continues to increase in popular- singled out as providing a good example of a training program fcr those
ity," the synagoge may be facing working with high school and college students.
major changes, Rabbi Goldstein
Jewish Family Services in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland,
indicated.
Miami and other cities have developed various programs for reaching
He suggested that such changes teenagers as well as counseling their parents. In New York, the Jewish
would probably occur in the pro- family and child care agencies, hospitals, and community centers have
graming of the American syna- been reaching out with new innovative services. Baltimore is establish-
ing two parallel programs, both centered in its Jewish hospital, one
involving a network of Jewish agencies, and the other non - sectarian
were attacking Egyptian targets.
agencies which serve Jews.
Nor have the Arab states con-
Atlanta, Denver, Seattle and other Jewish communities are mount-
tinued to behave according to
ing centrally planned services to deal with drug abuses.
novel doctrine that permits them
In Toronto, the Jewish Family and Child Service has achieved high
to sponsor raids against civilians
results by instituting a trailer project to reach drug users with medi-
and soldiers in Israel but for-
cal, legal and other advice. The client group was predominantly males
bids Israel to reply.
between the ages of 16-19. The trailer service—given in a 40-foot house
Perhaps br. Taylor's topsy-
turvy world can be traced to the trailer—proved a great success. It established contact with several
thousand
drug users.
problems inherent in juggling

the various paper organizataions
he either does or does not head.
Still, to give him appropriate
credit, be did manage to hood-
wink two leading newspapers.
We live in hope that blundering
editors who seek excuses for fall-
ing prey to bluffs like those related
by the Silver Spring writer will

recognize the need to demand truth
from correspondents. But at least
one such blunderer we know could
find no other excuse than to accuse
one defender of Israel of always
having been biased himself. Truth-
seeking defies distortion and jour-
nalism courses will surely need
emphasis on facts and truth. There
is room for even-handedness and
fair play in the most controversial
issues, without giving a platform
to bigots and haters. On this score,
too, we live in hope. But we also
recognize the validity of the des-
pairing reality in the facious as-
sertion: "Liberty, what crimes are
committed in thy name!"

MIDDLE CLASS PROBLEM: It is interesting to note that most of
the Jewish teenagers experimenting with drugs come from middle class

I

1

and affluent homes. Jewish youths from families with lower income do
not show inclination for using drugs.
An explanation is sought in the fact that the boys and girls coming
from affluent homes have more money to spend and indulge in spending
it on drug experimentation. It is an established fact that drug use rarely
occurs as a solitary pursuit. There is social group influence behind it.
It is a group activity.
This social group influence plays no small role in attracting youth
from the middle class families into the circle of the drug users. The

boys and girls who can afford to participate in spending money on
drugs want to be "in." They don't want to be in a social.vacuum, with-
out friends and without excitement.
Because the middle etas and affluent families are able to protect
their privacy by seeking help for their drug-using children from private
physicians, and not from appropriate institutions, there is actually lack
of data on the use of "hard drugs" by Jews. Professor M. Sacks, the
research director for a pilot project conducted by the Jewish Community
Services of Long Island, in New York, says his findings have proven
that "drug abuse among Jewish adolescents is a greater problem than
the general public is willing to acknowledge, especially among middle-
class Jews." A study in Nassau County, New York, estimates that 'hard
drug" use among Jewish adolescents is 18 per cent of the total of ado-
lescent drug users. This is six times the estimate of Jewish drug addicts
in New York.

