Purely Commentary

By Philip Slomovitz

Hanuka Spirit—Russian Jews' Courage

So much has been made of the Simhat Torah demonstrations by
Jews in Russia that one wonders whether loyalties to Jewish needs
and affiliations are limited to expressions on that fall day. What about
the Maccabean spirit and Hanuka? Perhaps we shall hear something
about it after the Festival of the Maccabees. Meanwhile, we can rejoice
that people who are oppressed are fearless and speak out against
intolerance.
When the cancellation of the U.S. tour that was scheduled for the
Bolshoi was announced in Moscow last Friday, there was immediate
speculation that Russia's action was not to punish Zionists who were
blamed for having picketed visiting Russian troupes in this country
but the fear of spreading defections. It sounded like satire, yet it
developed into a factual analysis of existing conditions. The fear of
defections now is accepted as a reality, and the fact is presented in
this AP analysis:
"There is some reason for fear of defections, the analysts
explained. The Soviets lost three of their dancers in 1970, including
one of their most famous ballerinas, Natalya Makarova of the Kirov
Ballet, and two less-known male dancers of the Moiseyev group who
defected in Mexico.
"The increased number of defections is evidence of stirring
in the Soviet cultural coThmunity against certain oppressive measures
reintroduced by the present Soviet government, the analysts believe."
The Jewish Defense League is being blamed for many of the
demonstrations of protest against Russian oppressions and the refusal
of the USSR to open its doors to Jews who wish to emigrate to Israel.
The fact is that the objectors to the policies of the JDL are the ones
who speak out against the Russian bigotries, and they can accomplish
their purpose without violence.
It is the Hanuka spirit that motivates many affirmations of 'faith
and an insistance on just treatment. That's what is happening in
Russia: Jews are courageous in their demands for the right to live
where they choose ar.:l to practice the faith they choose even under
the emblem of the hammer and sickle. The Maccabean inspiration is
undying.

They Are the Tayere Yidden'

The Facts and the Lies About Deir Yassin

Every April—perenially—the spurious specter of Deir Yassin is
revived by Arab propagandists. This year the spreaders of hate are
beating the gun and are renewing the charge ahead of time. They
even had as an agent the editor of Detroit's morning newspaper, who
introduced the Deir Yassin tragedy in one of his stories about Israel
written from Amman.
What is not generally told by the Arab propagandists is that the
Deir Yassin incident occurred before the rebirth of the state of
Israel. What they do not tell is that this was the exception to the
established Jewish rule not to kill unless it is in self-defense. What
they do not tell is that during Israel's War of Independence there
were many massacres perpetrated by Arabs against Jews: the attack
on Haifa refineries in which 41 were murdered; the 76 who were
murdered in the Hadassah convoy on Mount Scopus; the murder of
240 in the village of Etzion near Hebron.
Having taken into account the manner in which the lie has been
spread, the Center for Research on Conflict Resolution at the Uni-
versity of Michigan has prepared a statement relating the actual
occurrences. Introducing the statement the U. ofM. Center for Re-
search comments on Arab propaganda by stating: "The pamphlet,
too, is intended to propagandize, bunt in this case it is to propa-
gandize the facts about Deir Yassin. Its strengths rest on facts, not
on fabrication." The U.of M. Centr for Research fact finding state-
ment follows:
Jerusalem Road Convoy Battle
When the full-scale invasion of
The battle for the Palestine Arab Israel's territory by the armies of
village of Deir Yassin was an in the Arab states began on May 15,
tegral, inseparable episode in the 1948, he did not hesitate to de-
battle for Jerusalem. What was dare: "This will be a war of ex-
to become known as the Israel termination and a momentous mas-
War of Independence started on sacre which will be spoken of like
November 30, 1947, the day after the Mongolian massacres and the
the UN Palestine Resolution in Crusades."
favor of the establishment of the
It was no mere fantasy, no im-
Jewish State. On that day the Pa- petuously-expressed but evanes-
lestine Arabs, the Arab League cent ambition. Azzam Pasha, and
and the Arab States declared war the Arabs, meant it. The attack on
on the UN Resolution and pro- Jerusalem, where 150,000 Jewish
claimed that they would prevent civilians were fighting for their
its implementation by force. In lives, assumed many forms. Front-
Palestine the fighting began with ally, four-fifths of the part of the
Arab attacks on the Jewish corn- city where the Jews lived was
munity, aimed at preventing Is- being battered by the artillery and
rael's sovereign rebirth. The aim armored cars of the British-led
of the Arab onslaught was bluntly Arab Legion of Jordan, and bitter
proclaimed by Azzam Pasha, sec- street fighting was in progress.
retary-general of the Arab League. Units of the same force were at-

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Moshe Rivlin, director of the Jewish Agency office in Israel,
speaking about the situation in Russia at the UJA conference in New
York, told of the excessive costs that have been placed on visas for
those desiring to leave Russia, and he referred to the description
"expensive Jews" given those whose transportation costs must be
covered by public funds.
Rivlin amended the description with a translation from the Yid-
dish: "They are the layere yidden," he explained. Not the expensive, Discovery of Old Mikva at
but the dear Jews in the affectionate meaning.
WILLEMSTAD, Curaco, Neth-
*
*
*
erlands Antilles—While one must
Gideon Bible to the Rescue
go to Caracas; Venezuela, for a
National conferences are respecting the Sabbath, and practically view of the largest Jewish com-
all convention programs include arrangements for Sabbath services. munity in the Caribbean, it is in
While in many instances the leadership is invisible at such religious Curacao that we locate the roots
ob-servances, there are always a few minyanim who daven, some get of Jewish settlements south of us.
aliyot, and there is a sermon.
Much has been said about the
At such services, there are always some prayer books and oldest synagogue in the Western
taleisim, but seldom humashim to follow the Torah and prophetic Hemisphere that still functions
readings.
here and continues to inspire Jew-
Rabbi Earl A. Jordan conducted the religious service on the ish loyalties. A great deal will yet
Sabbath of the UJA conference and he, too, had no Bible. That's when be said about the new administra-
the Gideon Bible that is provided to guests in all hotels in this tion, the establishment of an in-
country came into use, and Rabbi Jordan quoted the prophetic reading teresting museum at the Mikve
of tie week.
Israel-Emanuel site, the old ceme-
*
tery, the discovery of an old mikva
Attitude of Youth on Israel and Zionism
at the synagogue.
The synagogue, which com-
We have said again and again, and we repeat: don't sell our youth
bines the oldest on the contin-
short. Don't you believe that the so-called New Left will amount to too
ent, Mikve Israel, and the Re-
much. The latter make all the noise, but the wholesome elements of
form Emanuel congregation
youth have positive approaches, and they do not apologize for views
which, on its 100th anniversary,
that should, in the course of time, bring us great comfort in our
merged
with the traditional syn-
changing society.
agogue, conducts a Reconstruc-
After the General Assembly sessions of the Council of Jewish Fed-
tionist
service.
erations and Welfare Funds, held in Kansas City, youth took account
Its last rabbi was Leo M.
of what had transpired and some passed judgment. One of them,
Jeffrey .Mass, national coordinator of Youth Mobilization for Israel Abrami. Now a young man from
and editor of one of the so-called Jewish students' underground news- England, 23-year-old Rev. Reuven
papers, "The Flame," commented on many of the assembly issues and Silverman, who began his studies
for the rabbinate, conducts the
with reference to Zionism and aliya had this to say:
"The Jerusalem Program of the World Zionist Congress, now services. He is a good hazan and
being used worldwide as a basis to enroll voters for elections to the he shares with Rabbi M. Trizrnan,
Congress in 1971, was discussed by the caucus. When It was brought the leader of the Orthodox Shaarey
to the workshop session, objections were made to aliya (immigra- Zedek synagogue, the responsibili-
tion) to Israel. The feeling was that the CJFWF wasn't against ties of conducting the combined
aliya, but rather against the commitment of aliya from the United
school for the community's chil-
dren.
States, from Russia, yes, from America, no. The General Assem-
The
bly, it would seem, is still fostering a dichotomy between Jew and
long-time shammos of
Zionist when in reality they are one and the same."
Mikve Israel, Morris Cardozo, still
We do not judge these attitudes as rebukes. On the contrary, they supervises the old synagogue.
are invitations to the elders for action. This statement by Jeffrey Mass,
There is great interest here in
however, does reject any negative attitude toward Zionism, and the
the recent discovery of a mlkva,
emphasis on aliya is heartening. American Jews must not be unrealistic
believed to be 300 years old, at
in the matter of settlement by many from our ranks in Israel—and
the Mikve Israel synagogue.
what the quoted statement especially challenges is respect for the
The old structure was being re-
Zionist and his ideals which have brought Israel into being. More
stored when workmen came
power to youth who are positive in their Jewish approaches.
upon the traditional ritual bath
—4 feet by 7, 2% feet deep.
Menahem Begin in Our Midst
Jessy Jesurun, a dentist who
In the list of notables who were to have been seated on the heads the committee in charge of
dais at the UJA dinner that was addressed by Israel Minister of De- another great innovation here —
fense Moshe Dayan appeared the name of Menaheen Begin, the Herut the establishment of a Jewish
leader. He wasn't thci- Was it because of his differences with Museum at Mikve Israel, pointed
Dayan? It is reasonable to believe that it was out of regret that to the discovery at Kuiperstraat
the Herut had pulled out of the government when Israel agreed to 28 as being of a great historic sig-
nificance. He called attention to
a cease fire.
If Herut regrets it, so should all of us, because it would have the fact that Curacao oldtimers
been much better to have unanimity in Israel's actions and decisions had insisted that Kuiperstraat had
in the present crisis.
been called banal di banio —
Begin addressed a Herut dinner the night after Dayan had Street of the Bath — "but no one
spoken. Insofar as Israel's security is concerned, all interests undoubt- knew where the bath was, and
edly are alike. In that respect, we are all brothers in Israel.
many thought it was an old wives'
tale. Now we know — the mystery
2—Friday, December 18, 1970
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS has been solved."

tempting to cut the only highway
linking Jerusalem with Tel Aviv
and the outside world. It had cut
the pipeline upon which the de-
fenders depended for water. Pa-
lestinian Arab contingents, stif-
fened by men of the regular Iraqi
army, had seized vantage points
overlooking the Jerusalem road
and from them were firing on
trucks that tried to reach the be-
leaguered city with vital food-
stuffs and supplies. Deir Yassin,
like the strategic hill and village
of Castel, was one of these vantage
points.

In fact, the two villages were
interconnected militarily, rein-
forcements passing from Deir Yas-
sin to Castel during the fierce en-
gagement for that hill. Hagana,
the Jewish defense formation, af-
ter heavy uphill fighting in which
it lost many men, took the strong-
ly fortified height. Deir Yassin
had been similarly fortified, its
stone dwellings transformed into
bastions. As its share in the bat-
tle for Jerusalem's approaches, the
second—and smaller—Jewish para-
military force, the Irgun Zvai Le-
umi (known as "Etzel" or "Ir-
gun") decided to assault Deir Yas-
sin. It detailed 100 of its number
for the purpose.
Deir Yassin

In those days, before Israel be-
came a state, the Jewish defend-
ers had no national army or uni-
fied command. They were poorly
equipped, with light weapons,
sparse medical supplies, and prac-
tically no communications equip-
ment. The company that assaulted
Deir Yassin was typical. Some of
(Continued on Page 16)

Curacao Synagogue . . . Jewries in Barbados, Trinidad

Visitors at Mikve Israel are
shown tlfe bath. It is not usable,
it can stand a good cleaning, but
it is being retained as a memento
as it was uncovered.'
A few steps from it is the invit-
ing museum into which Dr. Jes-
urun has placed many mementos
of historic values which he has
personally collected, and many
more that are beginning to come,
in. A charming member of a
pioneer Curacao family, Miss Mae
Capriles, guides guests through
the museum and takes pride in its
beginning — now only a few
weeks old
and in the aspirations
of its founders.
More about the Curacao syna-
gogue, its old Mikva, its museum,
its cemetery — the oldest on this
continent—later. Meanwhile, a few
more words about two of the Car-
ibbean communities.
BARBADOS -
There were three Jewish fam-
ilies in Barbados when Joseph
Kriendler came there in 1932. The
community grew to more than 100
in 1933 as a result of the influx of
East European Jews. Now there
are 14 families left, and the old
Nidchei Israel synagogue no long-
er exists. In a residential area
there is a building with the name
Trou Blue that serves as a syna-
gogue.
Since there was no one to admit
us, we depended on Kriendler's in-
formation — that this Trou-Blue
synagogue has two Sifre Torah
and that there is no longer a need
for a school, since all the youth,
having been sent abroad to study,
did not return to Barbados.
TRINIDAD
Among the interesting stories
one gathers in the Caribbean is the
Trinidad Jewish community's his-
tory. There, too, there is evidence
of serious decline. Yet, it is dif-
ficult to foretell what may hap-
pen, in view of historic changes
that have taken place there over
a period of nearly three centuries.
There were hundreds of Jews
there, now there are fewer than
100.
Hans Stecher, who operates the
Steelier stores, knows the situation
there welL He came to Trinidad in
1938 from Vienna. He then pos-
sessed $5. Now he has stores in
Port - of - Spain at Independence

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Square and Frederick Street, as
well as the Trinidad Hilton Hotel
He displays the Israel flag
in his stores, and there are no
secrets about his Jewish affili-
ations. He Is in close contact
with the Israel ambassador to
Venezuela, Jacob Doron, and as-
sists in "gathering funds for the
United Jewish Appeal.
He sees little hope of revival in
the community generally because
there are no children left there
and for the two who need instruc-
tion there are no teachers. He is
concerned about black militants
who get inspiration from the Unit-
ed States. There was a riot there
last year and Jewish store keepers
suffered a great deal. He does not
envision the development as anti-
Semitic: he concurs that it is anti-
white and Jews suffer as whites.
But he sees black activism as a
danger that will detract Jews from
settling in Trinidad.
As a natural Trinidadian, Steeli-
er is highly respected in his com-
munity in the British West Indies.
As one of the present-day leading
Jews there, he is distressed. There
is just a handful of Jews left. The
old glory is fading.
Yet, Trinidad has an interesting
Jewish background. Jews began to
settle there in 1783 when the In-
quisition was shorn of its powers
in Cuba and the nearby dependen-
cies, the Spanish Inquisitional pow-
ers having prevented Jews from
settling there earlier as escapees
from persecutions. Jewish life
flourished in Trinidad especially
when refugees from Nazism began
to arrive in 1938.
The Trinidadian historical rec-
ord shows that in 1893 Sir Nathan-
iel Nathan became a judge. He
was named attorney general in
1898 and was chief judge from
1901 to 1903.
There were 31 Jews in Trinidad
in 1900. Their number grew in
1938, there were 240 in the Port-
of-Spain capital, city in 1950 and
35 in San Fernando. Then there
was a functioning • synagogue, a
school and a center. Now life has
deadened and it remains to be
seen whether there will be a re-
vival in the course of time. Per-
haps it'll depend on whether the
entire Caribbean appeal will re-
sult in a new interest for the settle-
ment of more and younger Jews.

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