16—Friday, July 24, 1970
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Nordau Foresaw Drug Spread
By DAVID SCHWARTZ
(Cop)right 1970, JTA. Inc.)
If Dr. Max Nordau were alive
today, he could sit back and say,
"I told you so."
Or he could say, "Read the last
chapter of my book, 'Degenera-
tion.' "
Nordau was a physician but the
world knew him ' -
as a challenging
writer, the au-
thor of "Conven-
tional Lies"
and "Degenera-
tion." In the last,
published in 1895,
he contended that
the spirit of dec-
adence was grow-
ing. In the con-
cluding chapter,
Schwartz
"A Prognosis of the Twentieth
Century," he presented a horren-
dous picture:
"In the place of the present tav-
erns, houses would be found de-
voted to the service of consumers
of chloral, naptha, ether and hash-
ish . . A number of new profes-
sions would be formed—that of
injectors of morphine and co-
caine."/
7Re are many more unde-
lightfuPthings forecast in this book,
including assassination clubs.
Nordau thought literature and
art were also traveling the road
of decadence. Bernard Shaw
challenged his thesis with a lit-
tle work, "The Sanity of Art"
and his daughter, Maxa,
a painter herself, didn't agree
with him about painting, al-
though she was greatly at-
tached to her father.
Nordau was the type of assimi-
lated Jew that Theodor Herzl had
been. Herzl made Nordau into a
Zionist and in the process, Nor-
dau made Herzl more of a Zionist.
After Herzl had written "Das
Judenstaat," he gave it to a
friend, who after reading it, tear-
fully suggested that Hei•zl might
not be all there. The agonized
Herzl visited Nordau. "I wish you
would read this. Schiff thinks I
am crazy."
Nordau read it. "Well," he said,
"maybe you are crazy, but if
you are, then both of us are."
Nordau became Herzl's right
arm, frequently presiding at those
Zionist congresses in Switzerland
to which good Zionists travelled
every other summer or to sing
Hatikvah. If sometimes, they
thought they didn't accomplish
I much, they were compensated by
' the fresh air of the Swiss moun-
tains and it was nice to hear the
yodeling.
Nordau had a big white beard
—like a prophet, and was an im-
patient man, which was also
very important in a Zionist Con-
gress. The Bible said, "For
Zion's sake, I will not be si-
lent," and that was one part of
the Bible the delegates always
kept and it was necessary to
cut short the speech making and
Nordau was the man for that.
Nordau was impatient with the
pace of Zionist development after
the promulgation of the Balfour
Declaration. He proposed that im-
mediately 600,000 Jews from Eu-
rope be moved to the Jewish
homeland to make it a factual
reality.
But the Zionist leaders boasted
of their practicality. The organiza-
MAX NORDAU
tion didn't have the money for
that and besides you couldn't
dump people like that, they said.
But who knows? Maybe the im-
practical would have paid off in
the end. Instead of taking Nordau's
advice, Jews were admitted only
in driblets, for some twenty years.
Perhaps if the 600,000 had
been transported, the Six Million
Jews who perished later might
have been saved.
When Hitler came to power,
there were only 400,000 Jews in
the Jewish settlement of Pales-
tine. If there had been a million,
the story might have been different.
Ben Franklin had Poor Richard
say, "Now I have a cow, every-
body bids me good morrow."
There is a big difference be-
tween having 400,000 and having
Moratorium on Strikes
a million people. The difference
to Be Sought by Almogi might have been big enough to
avert the tragedy which later
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Minister occurred.
of Labor Yosef Almogi will call
for a one-year moratorium on
strikes to prevent further deterio-
ration of the nation's labor and
economic situation, the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency learned Tues-
day.
He will also, it was learned, ask
The following sub-editorial in
for a ban on importation of luxury
Rhodesia's National Sunday paper
items, a reduction in profits and
The Sunday Mail, dated July 5,
price stability, especially for es-
expresses the feeling of Rhodes-
sential goods to counteract the
ians toward the Middle East crisis:
genuine fear that some employers
AND MAO SMILES.
might try to take economic advan-
ISRAEL.
A modern country built
tage of a strike moratorium.
from sand by the sweat of Jewish
In such cases, a special commit- pioneers. The target of pan-Arab
tee would have the power to hatred.
authorize strikes, under the Almogi
Russia has made no secret that
plan.
she arms and trains Arabs for
The labor minister is known Israel's elimination.
to oppose the outright prohibi-
America is now warning that she
tion of strikes, which he con- trill not stand idle and let Israel
siders both undemocratic and
die.
ineffective. But he will urge
The two Super Powers seem
Histadrut and the Knesset to committed.
endorse his moratorium proposal
Rut the West thought the Sude-
to bring Israel's style of living tenland not worth a war. And the
more into line with wartime con- East thought Cuba not worth a
ditions. His aim is to create an war. Do either think Israel is—
atmosphere in which the popu- atomic war? We doubt it,
There is a smell of Munich in
lace would frown on labor the air. But who plays Chamber-
strikes.
lain?
In a related development, the
Institute for the Advancement of
Man's Soul
Labor Relations held its first meet-
A man's soul is sometimes wont
ing here Monday. It is seeking bring him tidings, more than seven
ways of improving the -worker- watchmen- that sit .oce high. on a
employer relationship.
watchtower.—Ecclesiasticus 57
Rhodesian,
M.E. Epic
Israeli Boxers Corning to U.S. in December
By JESS SILVER
(Copyright 1970, JTA, Inc.)
The Israel national boxing team
will be in New York City on Dec.
19 to participate in a series of
bouts with the New York Jolts of
the International Boxing League.
The action will take place at Madi-
son Square Garden in all weight
classes except the heavyweight di-
vision. "We don't think our heavy-
weights are far enough advanced
for international fighting," ex-
plained Noah Klieger, honorary
sports director of the Maccabi
World Union.
The event will be sponsored by
Centurion Industries, Ltd., a New
York industrial conglomerate which
will donate all profits to charities
in Israel. "We will give to any
fund designated by Israel's Boxing
Federation," said Leon Charney,
Centurion's general counsel. "We'd
like especially to help the families
of children killed and injured in the
school bus bombed by Arab ter-
rorists."
The team will be led by Jack
Levy, acting chairman of the
Israel Boxing Federation and
will be made up of students,
policemen and clerks between
the ages of 18 and 26. Also in-
cluded in the itinerary will be a
meeting with West Germany on
Dec. 2 and competition in the
Asian Games in Bangkok, Thai-
land.
Iry Kintisch, Columbia Univer-
sity's newly appointed track and
field coach, has been elected presi-
dent of the Intercollegiate Associa-
tion of Amateur Athletes of Amer-
ica Coaches Association. Before
arriving at Columbia Kintisch
served as an assistant coach at
Manhattan College for 19 years.
A former AAU shot put champion,
Kintisch was co-coach of the U.S.
track and field squad at the 1969
Maccabiah Games.
Jerry Liebenberg of Milwaukee,
a junior at Western Michigan
University, was named to the
United States track and field
team that will face France, West
Germany and the Soviet Union
this summer.
Liebenberg was runner-up in the
3000-meter steeplechase at the
NCAA championships and placed
fourth, with a personal best time
of 8:44.4, in the National AAU
competition in Bakersfield, Calif.
The best Jewish sprinter of the
Mapam Committee
OKs 2 Ministry Posts
JERUSALEM (JTA)—The Mapam
Central Committee has ratified the
party's decision to accept two min-
istry positions held in reserve for
them in the government.
Victor Shemtov, who has been
serving as minister without port-
folio, becomes minister of health.
Nathan Peled, a former ambas-
sador to Bulgaria, who has been
serving as political secretary of
Mapam, becomes minister of im-
migrant absorption, filling the va-
cancy created last month by the
death of Israel Barzilai.
Peled was elected to the post
by the Mapam Central Committee,
defeating Aharon Efrat, a member
of Histadrut's Central Committee,
by a vote of 87-73.
season is Tibor Farkas of Hungary.
Farkas ran the 100-meters in 10.2,
a Jewish and Hungarian record. He
was Hungarian 100-meter cham-
pion in 1968 and the Israel 100-
meter champion in 1966. Tibor
lived in Israel for a year before
returning to his native country.
Raoul Salomon, a recent im-
migrant from France, ran the 100-
meters in 10.4 to capture the Israel
championship. Salomon represent-
ed France in both the 1965 and
1969 Maccabia Games. Another
recent immigrant in Israel is How-
ard Jacobson and his family.
Jacobson won a silver medal in
race walking for the United States
in the 1969 Maccabia Games.
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