THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951
Member American Assoclaton of Engleh-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial Association
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 885, Southfield, Mich. 410075.
Phone 25041400
Subscription MI a year. Foreign $9.
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
CARM1 M. SLOMOVITZ
Business
Editor and Publisher
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City Editor
Hol HaMoed Sukot Scriptural Selections
Saturday: Pentateuchal portions, Erocl. 33:12-34:26, Num. 29:17-22; Prophetical
portion, Ezekiel 38:18-39-16. Sunday, Num. 29:20-28. Monday, Num. 29:23 - 31. Tuesday,
Num. 29:26-34. Wednesday, lioshana Raba. Num. 29:26.24.
Shemini Atzeret and Simhat Torah Selections
Pentateuchal portions: Thursday, Deut. 14:22-16:17, !slum. 29:35-30:1. Friday,
Deut. 33:1-34:12, Gen. 1:1-2:3, Num. 29:35-30:1. Prophetical portions, Thursday. I Kings
8:54-66; Friday; Joshua 1:1-18.
VOL. LVIII. No. 5
Page Four
October 16, 1970
Inspiration of Suka, Legacy of Sukot
Immediately after Yom Kippur, observant
Jews who follow the tradition of building
sukot at their homes for the observance of
the Feast of Tabernacles commence the joy-
ous task of erecting the booths to mark
Sukot.
In Israel and in communities throughout
the world, the suka-building project is a
mark of peace, of hope for security, of reten-
tion of the ideas and ideals imbedded in the
great tradition.
The aim is a simple one: the perpetuation
of the right of all people to a home, and the
suka signifies the interim period that occurs
between the hope for the home and the reali-
zation of the aspiration.
While the suka is the temporary home,
it directs all hopes and ideas towards guaran-
teeing the security of a home for peace-loving
home-builders.
What Jews are doing today, in the process
of building the sukot, is to reaffirm the
right to home building and to reject home-
lessness.
This is an especially firm resolve today as
Israel asserts its just position in a home built
after abandoning the homelessness of the
Galut.
Elsewhere the suka retains memories
of the time when it was a temporary abode—
and it speaks to mankind in terms of re-
minders that freedom-loving people can re-
tain memories of a homeless past while
rejecting perpetuation of enslavement to a
life of wandering without abodes.
Sukot thus is primarily the festival of
planting and of building and of abandoning
the despair of those who are robbed of the
joys of sharing in the bounties of the earth.
Before Israel had regained sovereignty
and independence, a noted woman poet, Jes-
sie E. Sampter, left her American home and
settled in Israel. She was an inspired woman
who sang the glories of Sukot in these
verses:
We live in narrow alleys
Where hovels stand in rows---,
Our hearts are in the valleys
Where rose of Sharon grows.
-
From battering, peddling, selling,
We seek a moment's calm—
Our hearts today are dwelling
Where citron grows with palm.
We come from stinting, suffering,
From streets that pennies yield,
And bring the Lord our-offering,
The produce of the field
Untended, robbed and driven
And happy to escape,
Our dreams today are given
To farm and flock and grape.
In many a stone-bound city
Still roofed beneath the skies,
The Lord of boundless pity
Lets little flowers rise.
And in those tabernacles—
The wanderer's blessed relief—
He turns our heavy shackles
To strings of fruit and leaf.
Who bring in want and sorrow
The stranger's fruit with psalms
Shall plant in joy tomorrow
Their citrons and their palms.
Now we live in the realities of a Sukot
marked by recollections of the desert booths
and the insecurity of the homelessness of a
long Exile_ while ascertaining the joys of
sharing in creative labors in the farmlands
of Israel. It is for the security of these re-
deemed legacies of freedom that we affirm
with dignity the lesson of the suka and the
inspiration of Sukot.
Red Cross Must Probe Charges
Israel has constantly turned to the Inter- tortured, are "the result of a 'limited one-
national Red Cross with requests to sub- man inquiry.' "
Now the international community is con-
stantiate charges of alleged torture and mis-
fronted with basic facts relating to the tortur-
treatment of prisoners by Israel.
The Red Cross also has been asked to ing of prisoners. The murder of Lt. Moshe
negotiate exchange of prisoners between Goldwasser demands an immediate investiga-
Israel and the Arab states, and the efforts -tion. „Israeli physicians have established that
the pilot who had been held prisoner by Egyp-
have proven futile.
Because of incredible accusations made tians was treated cruelly and that the torture
frequently against Israel that Israel has tor- led to his death.
There should be an end to such inhuman
tured Arab detainees, it is urgent that the Red
Cross should not delay action in investigating treatment, just as there must be an end to
the falsehoods leveled against Israel. The
the charges.
The Guardian of London saw fit to pub- Red Cross is the proper agency to do the
lish such charges by a Jerusalem Committee investigating, and it is sincerely to be hoped
which it described as "a British pro:Palestin- that the medievalism practiced out of hatred
ian Arab group." The incredibility of such for Israel will end quickly.
The International Red Cross faced many
charges is further attested to by the Guard-
challenges in the past few months. The hijack-
ian's report of this committee's admission
that its accusations, that 10 Arabs were ings and the civil war in Jordan placed serious
responsibilities upon the world organization to
provide relief for the needy.
It is -because of these duties that the Red
Cross, representing the major—perhaps the
Rioting in American communities, polar- only—means of contact between nations that
ization of forces divided on racial Nees, vi- are either at war or do not have proper
olence on campuses and bomb throwing in diplomatic relations, must act in time of crisis.
Many crises have arisen and more can be
what should be peaceful America place re-
sponsibility for orderliness, for observance anticipated. Especially in instances that can
of laws and for expression of differing views be solved so simply and promptly as those of
above party differences. The entire nation exchange of prisoners between Israel and her
is obligated to find a way out of the current enemies, it is inexcusable that there should
American tragedy, and anyone injecting the be delays and that brutalities should be per-
issue on the basis of party lines harms Ameri- mitted. It is urgent that the Red Cross should
ca and fails to bring about peace in our act without delay in the current Middle East
obligations.
communities.
Above Party Lines
-
71D
4nEtEriae,
•■■ 42neiR
Klausner Biography Describes
Dramatic Palestine Occurrences
Rabbi Simcha Kling of Louisville, Ky., who in addition to holding
a pulpit teaches sociology of religion at the University of Louisville,
has added a valuable biography to his collected works with his pre-
sentation'of the life story of Prof. Joseph Klausner.
Author of biographies of Menahem Ussishkin and Nahum Sokolow,
Rabbi .Kling, in "Joseph Klausner," published by Thomas Yoseloff,
traces the activities of the eminent historian and Zionist from his ear-
liest childhood and presents a thorough account of the noted Scholar's
--
life in all its aspects.
In Rabbi Kling's "Joseph Klausner" we have a valuable review of
the events that marked life in Israel during the trying days when Jews
debated issues involving Arab-Jewish relations, the question of the
partition of Palestine, the emergence of the Hebrew University and
numerous other significant historical occurrences.
Dr. Klausner is depicted here as a controversial figure. He differ-
ed with Chaim Weizmann over the question of partition. He was at
odds with Judah L. Magnes over the question of Arab relations. He
had his differences with Chaim Nahman Malik and others. He also
disagreed on occasions with Ahad HaAm.
His close friends were Menahem Ussishkiu and the eminent
poet Saul Tschernichovsky, and in spite of having differed with
them, he was close to Ahad HaAm and Malik and admired and
respected Dr. Magnes. He followed a Revisionist line and was an
associate of Vladimir Jabotinsky, edited the Betar magazine,
and supported the Irgun policies.
While the manner of approach to the character of Prof. Klausner -
depicts him here as a man who always quarreled, the ideas Promul;
gated serve, however, to present the issues as they emerged during
the crucial years of the eminent historian's residence in Israel and his
services to the Jewish community and to the Hebrew University.
He attained his goal as head of the Hebrew University's history
department, but because he had to start as professor and head of the
department of Hebrew literature, he was distressed. But in the latter
assignment, he also rendered great service.
His writings, on Jesus and Paul, on the history of Hebrew litera-
ture and on the messianic idea, remain noteworthy, yet his "Life of
Jesus" was cause for many debates, and Rabbi Kling's analysis will
be found of immense interest.
While reviewing the life of Dr. Klausner, the biographer also deals
with the literary contributions made by the eminent leader who was
as devoted to Jewry's political needs as he was to the development of
a literary atmosphere in the Palestine of pre-Israel days. The analyses
of his writings emerge as a splendid factor in this biography.
Especially interesting is the chapter dedicated to Tschernichovsky.
Rabbi Kling offers a Very interesting comparison between Klausner
and Tschernichovsky, two distinctly different personalities yet the best
of friends. He writes on the question of their dissimilarity:
"Klausner was strongly rooted in traditional Judaism; his poet-
friend was not. Klausner was reserved and dignified; Tscher-
nichovsky was uninhibited and indifferent to many of society's
accepted norms. The scholar was religiously observant; the poet
was not bound by any religious discipline. Klausner took an active
role in Zionist affairs; Tschernicbovsky believed in Zionism but
took no part in its practical or organizational functions."
Dr. Klausner is portrayed as the Hebraist whii, with Ussishkin,
was an anti-Yiddishist.
While tracing all of Dr. Klausner's qualities, and his manner of
differing with his associates in Zionism and in the Palestinian Jewish
community, Rabbi Kling provides an interesting portrait of the pro-
fessor as an observant Jew who adhered to the dietary laws, sanctified
the Sabbath, attended synagogue services. He describes him as akin to
a Conservative Jew in America. Yet Dr. -Klausner is the humanist
It is as a Zionist that he emerges especially supreme in this story
—as a man who was fearless, who spoke out stubbornly on issues he
chose to support, opposing those he could not accept.
The non-Jewish world recognized his merits and while disapprov-
ing of his theme on Jesus he was nevertheless highly respected, and
Christians as well as Jews honored him for his creative efforts.
In Rabbi Kling's biography, Prof. Klausner, worshiped by his bio:
grapher, appears as one of the great Jewish figures of this century.