THE JEWISH NEWS

Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20, 1951

Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial Association
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co.. 17515 W. Nine Mile. Suite 865, Southfield. Mich. 48075.
Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices.
Subscription $8 a year. Foreign $9.

PHILIP SLOt 'OVITZ

Editor and Publisher

CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ

Business hi

CHARLOTTE DUBIN

City !Editor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections

This Sabbath, the fifth day of Tebet, 5731, the following scriptural selections will
be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Gen. 44:18-47:27. Prophetical portion. Ezekiel 37:15-28.

Fast of Teveth Torah Readings, Thursday

Pentateuchal portion, Erod. 32:11.14, 34:1.10. Prophetical portion, Isaiah 55:6-56:8.

Candle lighting, Friday. Jan. 1. 432

VOL. LVIII. No. 16

Page Four

January 1, 1971

Crucial Issues We Face in 1971

A year that was filled with tensions is bent upon destroying our liberties, we shall
coming to an end, and a new 12-month period face doom.
commences with such serious obligations, so
It is on this score that we must be ever
many tests of our faith in ourselves and in vigilant—that we should hold fast to faith in
the society with which we are linked, that our way of life, that we should retain loyalty
more courage than has ever been displayed to the principles of freedom of expression
will be needed to face the issues of our time. while guaranteeing the security of the peo-
It is the war we should have averted that pie. But under no circumstances are there to
may have caused most of the despair. We are be concessions that may lead to abuses and to
promised an early end to our involvement in abandonment of the basic policies upon
the Southeast Asian power struggle, and we which this republic has been built. It is im-
should retain hope that there will be vital portant that in facing the issues that confront
changes in people's thinking and therefore us we do not permit deviations that can lead
also in their actions. us to extremes. A road to the extreme in this
And there is an oncoming economic crisis land, whose people are so staunchly anti-
that is far from helpful. If we should have a Communist, could well mean a bowing to
decline in the living standards of a people as fascist ideas, and it is this that must be avoid-
affluent as the American which has become ed at all costs.
accustomed to all the luxuries of life, the
We are a free people. Many often suffer
threats to amity within the ranks of this na- from bigotries and from expressions of
tion may become more serious. hatred. If we ever abandon the right to free
Therefore, 1971 must be faced with con- speech, we shall be leaning toward something
cern, and the guidance that comes from ad- much worse—toward the dangers that were
ministrative sources must strive for realities experienced by Europeans and Asiatics,
and for pragmatic applications without being toward totalitarianism that spells fascism and
anti-Semitism, toward a form of racism that is
unnecessarily visionary and impractical.
anti-black, and toward religious fanaticism
We will be hearing even more as time pro- that is anti-Catholic.
gresses about drug addictions and about
All of us, free citizens, are obligated, in
youth irresponsibility. Law and order already the year ahead, to protect the roots of our.
has become a major slogan in the search for democracy, to oppose any attempt at intro-
stability, and the confusion that marks ap- ducing racist and fascist ideas in our society.
peals for strictness has often interfered with As long as we have the freedoms that are the
the right to protest-end to free expression of very foundation,..of our democratic way of
views that are the right of a citizenry that is life, we will be secure and our institutions
obligated to protect the basic constitutional will be secure. The moment we make conces-
rights.
sions to the rightists in fascism, we will be
The issues are multiplying, and there are facing the horrors of a Hitler era. In 1971,
no secrets about them; there is responsibility we are obligated to ascertain that under no
in administrative quarters to meet them circumstances will free Americans permit
squarely. We must retain confidence that in transgressions that endanger our constitu-
a two-party system there is sufficient watch- tional rights. If we make these rights secure
fulness tb prevent irresponsibility. But if and reject the extremism of hatred, bigotry
there is to be a loss of faith, if we are ever and intolerance, we shall emerge again as a
to be led to believe that our government is free people in the crucial years ahead.

Shortcomings in Evaluating Philanthropy

Philanthropy, so vital in our communal
planning, must take a new form in the year
ahead. Unless it is linked with a thorough
understanding of the basic objectives in
a people's planning for the aimed-at results,
fund raising cannot be expected to achieve-
its goal. The budgeting discussions held here
last Sunday were an indication of shortcom-.
ings that need to be repaired.
We have some specific obligations to deal
with. We must retain priority for the cultural
needs which include both the school systems
for our children as well as an enlarged adult
educational program. One without the other
is doomed to failure, since the child must be
linked to the parent with an understanding
that represents an obligation in each age
group.
There must be an understanding of the
duties we owe to Israel and to the related
causes for which we must provide vast sums,
and in whose behalf we must make invest-
ments to assist the country economically. If
the needs are not properly evaluated, we may
face difficulty in getting the increased con•
tributions that will be asked for in the months
to come.
There are many other causes to which we
must contribute. If they are not evaluated,
we'll face difficulty in getting participation
in the over-r.11 objectives of a vital campaign.
What we need, therefore, is the type of
educational effort that should prove convinc-
ing in its definitive aims in cementing com-
munity feelings in support of the serious ef-
forts that' cdziftbnt " ' "
The type of conference that was held last

Sunday aggravated rather than helped our
needs. There was a democratic spirit and it
should be said to the credit of the Federa-
tion's president that he granted freedom of
expression to all. But what can possibly be
expected in a combination of reports and dis-
cussions that last less than two hours and
which lack the basics of probing the needs
and reaching conclusions on how to involve
an entire community in the most serious
tasks that confront us today?
Both on the local level and nationally,
there has to be a practical approach to Amer-
ican Jews who are seriously involved in their
communities' tasks but who must be kept
fully informed on achievements as well as
needs. We have thus far been only very mini-
mally successful in such endeavors.

Arab Sanctimony

Financial Times of London reports an
Aden newspaper quoting an official of the
Aden Port Trust as saying: "Arabization of
all posts in the Aden Port Trust is complete.
New pilots have been recruited from the
UAR, Russia, East Germany and India."
That's how unholy alliances are exposed.
Then there is this one-sentence UPI dis-
patch that appeared in the Washington Post:
"Libyan religious leaders have turned Tri-
poli's Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Sac-
red Heart into the Gamal Abdel Nasser Mos-.
que, covering the crucifixes and other Chris-
tian articles of faith with sheets."

-
Is' aid feligiblieffebubhi bf
antagonist!

fs

Moses of the New World

De Hirsch-Herz) Negotiations

Described in Baron's Biography

Had Baron Maurice de Hirsch lived on for some years after his
passing, April 21, 1895, at the age of 65, would he have become an
associate of Theodor Herzl in advancing the Zionist cause?

The very interesting biography by Samuel J. Lee of the great
philanthropist who gave away millions to aid distressed Jews, and who
established the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA) for the settle-
ment of Jews in Argentina and for other ways of assisting Jewish emi-
grants, implies that de Hirsch and Herzl understood each other and had
planned to meet again after their first conference. But the world-famous
philanthropist died before Herzl drafted his plan to be submitted to
Baron de Hirsch. According to Lee, Herzl's "The Jewish State" was
written after the meeting with de Hirsch and the text was intended to
be the proposed program of action for Jewish statehood.

Lee's "Moses of the New World" is a thorough account of the life
of Baron de Hirsch, his early failures in finance, his eventual great
successes, and his dedication to the efforts to assist oppressed Jews
even though he personally favored absolute assimilation and abandon-
ment of a separate Jewish religious existence.

Perhaps the title of the Lee biography is ascribable to the title
of an article about Baron de Hirsch in the London Daily Graphic,
July 7, 1894, by the prominent Jewish historian and journalist, Laden
Wolf. Wolf then wrote about Baron de Hirsch as "The New Moses."

The new biography of de Hirsch, published by Thomas Yoseloff, is
the work of a man who devotes himself to research on Jewish historical
matters and who has gone deeply into all available data about Jewish
emigration problems and the efforts that were made in the last decades
of the last century to assist persecuted Jews.

With regard to JCA, the biographer quotes Simon Dubnow's "His-
tory of the Jews in Russia and Poland": "Ere long Baron Hirsch's
dream of transplanting millions of people with millons of money proved
an utter failure."

Lee quotes the facts: Instead of de Hirsch's calculated plan to
take out 25,000 Russian Jews a year for settlement in Argentina, thus
rescuing from Czarism 2,500,000 in 10 years, from 1892 to 1894 only
6.000 people were absorbed in the vast area acquired by the baron.
Half of these settlers remained in the capital city of Argentina, Buenos
Aires, instead of going to the farms. Lee states: "Actually, after four
years, a meager 1,2= families were settled in the several colonies with
only 18,210 hectares of land under cultivation out of the 189,023 hectares
(472,562 acres) owned by the Jewish Colonization Association."

There was an enmity between the Rothschilds and the de Hirsch
family. The Rothschilds bad turned Herd down in his proposals for
a Palestinian Jewish State developed in his modern political Timid
program. The Rothschild. later admitted they were wrong in their
judgment. Herd acquired greater confidence In the philanthropic
spirit of de Hirsch, who ridiculed the possibility of aid tram the
Rothsthilds. He told Herd: "Rothschild will give you SN francs."
When Herd insisted that he'd raise a national loan of 10,009,000
marks, Hirsch admonished him: 'Rbe rich Jews will give you nothing.
The rich Jews are bad, they display no Interest in the suffering of
the poor•"

These are just a few of the interesting references to the developing
conditions of the time of de Hirsch whose biography contains analyses
of historical occurrences over a period of more than a century, to
provide background material on Jewish migration needs.

Lee's biography is a fascinating review of the attitudes of the rich
of the time, of the success attained by Maurice de Hirsch whose finan-
cial skill, his management in building railroads in Turkey, his charita-
ble inclinations, elevate him to great heights. His formation of JCA,
although its aims collapsed, was an historic occurrence. He was an
assimilationist but be never abandoned oppressed fellow Jews. In
"Moses of the New World" Samuel J. Lee portrays him in a fashion
that cornmenits .threekilialihy; iriost big* as a spleilidid addendum to

Jewish historical reviews of . last half of the past century.

