THE JEWISH NEWS

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

Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers. Michigan Press Association. NationalEditorial Association
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co... 17516 W. Nine Mile. Suite ass,Southfield. Mieb. 48075.
Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices.
Subscription $8 a year. Foreign it.

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

CHARLOTTE DUBIN

CALM! At SLOMOVITZ

City Editor

atanasar

Editor and Publisher

Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 25th day of Shevat, 5731, the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Exod. 21:1-24:18, 30:11-16. Prophetical portion, 11 Kings
12:1.17.
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Candle lighting, Friday. Feb. 13, 531 p.m.
Torah readings, Rosh Hodesh Adar, Thursday and Friday. Num. 28:1.15.

VOL. LVIII. No. 23

February 19, 1971

Page Four

Sense of Justice Among Israel Military

Propaganda has its relative merits and
revulsions. If it is intended to arouse hatred
and to spread lies, it must be counteracted
responsibly and vigorously. If it is intended
to present the facts on public issues, there is
a civic duty to spread it earnestly.
As in the instance of the Deir Yassin
tragedy in the late 1940s, we stated frank-
ly, quoting a research report presented by
a study group from the University of Mich-
igan—in our issue of Dec. 18, 1970—that
we, too, were propagandists. There was the
U-M research team's qualification: we are
propagandists for truth. On that score we
labor under serious responsibilities in de-
fense of a people that is threatened anew
with genocide but will not submit to another
threat of extermination as in the era of Hitler.
A people that functions under such con-
ditions has another obligation: to act justly
toward others and never to yield to bar-
barism. It is on this score that we are in
position to express gratitude that our fellow
Jews who are Israelis are observing.the basic_
ethical traditions of our heritage to adhere
to the highest principles of decency, whether
dealing with kinsmen and friends or with
enemies.
It is important that the action that was
taken to prevent even a "Little My Lai" from
emerging in Israel should be given due con-
sideration. The disciplinary action against
Israeli army officers and soldiers who have
been accused of acting violently in—dealing
with Gaza terrorists points to the basic at-
titudes of the Israeli authorities and to the
attitudes that have been adopted as guides
for actions in dealing with Arabs who live in
territories now occupied by Israel.
There is trouble in Gaza_ Terrorists are
at large. Bombs are thrown by young and
old. Children under 10 have been used as
tools in a game of destruction. Some Jews
have been murdered. The saddest case was
that of the family of 30-year-old Robert Ar-
royo into whose car, while he was driving
through Gaza, a bomb was -thrown. His wife,
Pretty, 22, was seriously injured. His chil-
dren, Mark, 7, and Abigail, 4, were killed.
He drove frantically through the Arab area
begging for help, asking Arab policemen to
take them to a hospital. He was ignored.
But Bob Arroyo, who was born in Malta, his
mother a Swiss, his father of Spanish origin,
desiring to live with his people in Israel, did
not permit hatred to get the best of him. He
spoke of his feelings for Arabs, said he did
not hate them and declared after the tragedy:

Tice. Israel's soldiers are in great danger
while on duty in the Gaza Strip, but their
minds have not been poisoned. They do
not want to be killed, and they are opposed
to killing. From the current issue of New Out-
look magazine, the English-language organ
of the Mapam Israeli leftists, we quote:

"A year ago, Israeli soldiers stationed in the
Gaza Strip were permitted to do what is still for-
bidden in the other occupied territories—to shoot
in the direction of a grenade-thrower even if he
melts into a crowd. But most of the soldiers on
patrol told their commanders that they could
not do this: they refused on the ground that such
action risked injury to innocent bystanders. Re-
vealing this on Jan. 6, General Dayan added:
'And I must tell you that I am proud that our
soldiers, daily exposed to these killers, refused
the permission'."

This is what marks the continuity of
ethical living, of striving for and adhering to
justice. We would be ashamed of our kins-
men if it were otherwise. There must be
no My Lais in a Jewish environment.
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By the same token, we will not yield to
a My Lai directed against us. There is need
to defend the Jewish position within safe-
guarded borders. There also is the neces-
sity to prevent the spread of untruth on the
political, religious and . social fronts within
which Jews and Israelis must continue to
function as members of an ethical society.
We are grateful, therefore, for the de-
fensive actions of Christians Concerned for
Israel. The president of this group, Prof.
Franklin H. Littell of Temple University,
Philadelphia, a Protestant minister, refut-
ing charges leveled at Israel by an Arab
spokesman, had this letter published in the
,
New York Times of Feb. 9:

Jewish Music of the Ages
•
Preserved in Two Volumes

Specialists acquainted with Dr. M. T. Mehdrs
activities as an -Arab League propagandist are
not likely to give much credence to his opinions:
"Israel: Is It Democracy?" (Feb. 3) is more of
the same—except that he pmsnines to speak
with authority on American religious and con-
stitutional history, an area' where he is at least
equally unbelievable. Far any reader not so
acquainted, the following" points abodd he made:
Israel as a sacral society is certainly no less
just toward religious asisseities Una England
(Anglican) or Sweden (Lutheran). adIt is eee-
sidemely more ithertariaa -than Saudi Arabia
(Medea) or Russia (Orthoclase Misdate, then
Marxist).
Islam, as repressive a sacral society as Chris-
Madam was before the Ealightereat, is se
ices
Istransigeat in 'many sectors that Jewish serv
cannot even be held at United States bases for
our servicemen. The boycott at American firms
engaged in inter ■ atimal trade, incbsdieg trade
"Also these boys are wretched, their warier
with Israel, is well known. Less well known is
also is lost. Just across from Pretty In the hos-
the fact " that Moslem citbesis of Israel who
pital was an Arab saboteur. I went to him. I -
' refuse to bin the jihad against their min co miry
wished him a geed recovery. I felt some kid of
are prevented by mit-styled Mosima-govesaments
need. Maybe because I wanted to ask him if he
from 11111.1•11t *Mr religions _Wigan& at a •
thought it was justice, to slimier my two children.
.
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pilgrimage to Mee&
He looked at me, astmisked. He didn't west asy-
That the Pennine' of -the Paleatioiso terreaishi
hand* . But hatred, no. Somesma has pateased
is to establisika secular state Is sheer /abeleatiiii.
their souls. They are not responsible for their
Wanted unto for palliation among gdlible_nieti
actions . . . "
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eiders. The use of Meshes fanatic:ism to strengthen
Arroyo said he wanted to inapt the spot - Arab
andsoaliset and irredentism to daily awn;
where the murder took place:
mooted in radio broadcasts sad publicans= tram
"I'd like to erect a big iseassrisi there 7n Gaza,
Cairo, Amman and Beirut.
where it happened. I'd write an It ony the names
Daring the third attempt to destroy Israel, in
of Abigail and Mark, in Hebrew and is Arabic,
1967, Dr. lgeledl expressed his real views it a
and their ages. I'd wait every Arab- to see this
perhaps unguarded moment: "The United Nations
memorial. I believe they'll understand that it
will force Israel back to her 111111 boundaries,
isn't justice . .
after which all Arab teatime will site in a war
Meanwhile, the terror hurts the Arabs
to exterminate her, because this is Imhof to be
much more. Hundreds of Arabs, men, wom-
jest like the Crusade's." So meek for tibia pre-
en and children, were the victims of the - Jellified champion at religious liberty and the
secular state.
bomb throwers. Many hundreds were seri-
We are grateful for this statement. There
ously injured. Some 7,000 Arabs travel daily

from Gaza to work in Israeli factories, and
the terrorists are especially bent upon kill-
ing them because they object to their earn-
ing a livelihood as workers in Jewish in-
dustries.
Naturally, there is resentment among

many Israelis. But it is tempered with

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Music as a valuable cultural asset in Jewish life is 'outlined in
a scholarly work by Alfred Sendrey. His "Musie of Jews in the,
Diaspora," published by Thomas Yoeelofi, is well-illustrated. splendidly -
annotated and filled with musical lyrics. ,
Dr. Sendrey's study has historical merit. Its value lies in its vast
coverage. He deals with the music of the Ashkenazim as well as that
of the Sephardim. He traces the creative labors of Jews-in the ghettos
of Europe as well as in the early Diaspora settlements. He descrthes
expertly the music of the Hasidim.
describes the role of the troubadours, of the badhan and
the minstrel.
This is the work of an expert who is a masterful historian, an
expert researcher and a good musician, as the monereas musical
examples is his book indicate. Dr. Sendrey has heist several teaching
posts, the last one at the University of Judaism is „Las -Angeles.
As Dr. Greenberg, chancellor of the L.A. University _of Judaism,
states in a foreward to his book, Dr. Sendrey is not merely an objective
historian: he is a musician and a Jew and as such he is emotionally
and profoundly involved in his subject." -
This book also concerns itself with instruments of early times,
conceding that it is striking that some of those mentioned in the
Sfidrash are not alluded to either in the ,Apocrypha or in.the writings
of Josephus or Philo.
A variety of theaters that were established by Jews in many
lands is described in this collection of data regarding music and
Ellieirians Thus we learn about the Netherlands Jews after the
Inquisition, and about the "curious fact about the Sephardic colony
(there) around 1750 (when) the 'Portuguese' Jews established a
'Spanish' theater, where operas in 'French' were also staged."
The information about the music of the Hasidim sad the trou-
badours is especially enlightening.
"It was no mean triumph for a minority to have kept alive the
driving forces of musical creativity, which was exposed most of the
time to every adversity," Dr. Sendrey .states. "Not until they were
able to come into their own again did Jewish music revive, -especially
in Israel in the present century.'
For musicians this volume is a veritable treasure. Laymen will
find this work as valuable and is informative for them as it is for
historians. The latter will fmd the. history of music greatly enhanced
by the efforts of an eminent researcher.

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Notable Collection of. Yiddish Songs

Eminent connioiers, noted musicians and the **tic works at out- •
standing Jewish writers have been 'Incorporated in the large and
impressive 210-page "Let's Sing a Yiddish .Song," recently published
by Binderhoch Publishers of New York.
Many of the most popslar Yiddlili - megi are Presented here. all
in Yiddish and- Hebrew literatures.
.
Itcbe Goldberg, in an introductory note in 'behalf ot Itholeibeech
Publishers, describes this collection as "a small gateway to - thstrisser
life at your people." He notes: "if you will begin to feel el nor;. to, the
lives of StandPerents and great-grandparents through these soup . . -
if you become more aware of the life of the people in Isenetcloday, or
the suffering and heroism of Jews in the • ghetto, or tifelvey -they
celebrated a holiday which we still celebrate today--if .yoU'leans all
this, or at least some of it, if you make these songs your own, this
book will have served its Purpose."
This is a logical approach, in view of the traditional songs to be
found in this fine work—songs from works by =lova:4 Peretz.
Reisen, Zeitlin, Yehoash, Weinper, Blank, Yehuda Halevi, Goldfaden,
Rosenfeld and many, mayor others whose names are indelibly recorded
has been too much antagonism to Israel in Yiddish and Hebrew literatures.
some Christian ranks. Prof. Littell 'does
There is- much that is very nostalgic in this collection, its Sub-
much to overcome such prejudices and to division into mueic of the Diaspora and Israel, the songs of joy and
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present the Jewish case in its proper per- - those of sorrow.
spective.
. Hebrew Songs from modern Israel, holiday lyrics,' love songs
It is often difficult to plead for truth, make this a very popular work that contributes immensely toward
but we must never abandon that task. ' preserving Jewish - cultural treasurers. .

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