THE JEWISII NEWS
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chtou*le 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, Mch. 48075.
Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield, Mich. and Additional Mailing Offices.
Subscription $8 a year. Foreign $9.
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
Business Manager
DREW LIEBERWITZ
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
Advertising Manager
City Editor
Passover Scriptural Selections
On the first two days of Passover, the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portions: Saturday, Exod. 12:21-51, Num. 28:16-25.
Sunday, Lev. 22:26-23:24, Num. 28:16-25.
Prophetical portions: Saturday, Joshua 5:2-6:1, 27. Sunday, II
Kings 23:1-9, 21-5.
Hol Hamoed Passover Torah Readings
Monday, Exod. 13:1-16, Num.. 28:19-25, Tuesday, Exod. 22:24-23:19,
Num. 28:19-25; Wednesday, Exod. 34:1-26, Num. 28:19-25; Thursday,
Num. 9:1-14; 28:19-25.
Seventh Day of Passover Scriptural Selections, April 16
Pentateuchal portions , Exod. 13:17-15:26, Num. 28:19-25. Propheti-
cal portion, II Samuel 22:1-1-51.
Candle lighting, Friday, April 9, 6:48 p.m.
VOL. LIX. No. 4
Page Four
April 9, 1971
Seder Dedication to Soviet Jewry
.
Emphasis in the seder ritual is on Egypt. Now we have
another area where Jews are spiritually enslaved to be con-
sidered in our devotion to our kinsmen and our tasks to assure
justice for the oppressed.
Now, in addition to lands including Egypt and its Moslem
counterparts, it is the Soviet Union upon which we must center
our attention in the challenges to all of us to help in securing
freedom for the unfortunate Jews who are suffering from a
Russian heritage from czarism.
We speak of justice and we link it with freedom. True,
Jews have jobs and—until they lose them when they become
targets of the bigots—nominally there is no anti-Semitism in
Russia. That's what the Kremlin and its propaganda agents,
Novosti and other media tell us and seek to impress upon an
unsuspecting world. But there is oppression.
When Jews are denied the right to emigrate to the land
of their ancestors, which has become the land of their choice
for hundreds of thousands of applicants for exit visas, they are
oppressed. When Jews are deprived of the right to study He-
brew or to pray, that's persecution. When Jews are labeled
"Zionist's" in a campaign to brand them as enemies of the state,
that's bias to the nth degree.
Therefore, the seder ritual assumes another aspect: not
only of recalling the era of slavery under the Egyptians which
led to an ancient Exodus, but also to consider and to act in
behalf of our Russian kinsmen.
Egypt remains an area of trouble for Jewry and for Israel
—and on that score, too, it is the Russian who is as much the
villain.
All of the Moslem countries have declared war anew on their
Jewish cousins, and the Russian Katyusha is among the wea-
pons used to hurt—to kill!—Jews.
Therefore, at the seder, we'll be concerned as much with
Russia as with the ancient enemies. A new antagonist has
arisen, and our duty is to save those who wish to escape the
humiliations that are accorded them.
There have been centuries during which the relationships
between Jews and Egyptians were quite good. They existed
until Israel became an autonomous state. We had hoped for
friendship with Russia after the doom of czarism. We retain
the hope that such friendships will be restored. But as long
as there are oppressions we must strive for the freedom of
our kinsmen.
The oppressions are primarily spiritual and cultural. They
also relate to a desire to share in the national redemption. In
support of those who strive for the right to Jewish identity we
will be dedicating our thoughts to Russian Jewry as well as
to those who suffer indignities in other lands.
May .the Passover spirit reunite us in a fellowship of free-
dom for all–.the freedom that brings glory not to individuals
alone but to all mankind.
Avoiding Mind-Enslavement
Prejudice, an ugly word, remains in practice and is not
abating.
The racial tensions have not vanished, and a renewed
anti-Semitism is in evidence so frequently that one wonders
whether the lessons of what we considered an enlightened age
are well grounded in proper exchange of good will among men.
We are far removed from the realization of the great
ideal of people living together in genuine brotherliness while
conceding the rights of neighbors and friends to differ in some
respects, whether it is in the preference for political affiliation
or observance of a religious faith.
The anti-Jewish prejudices have mounted with the intro-
duction of anti-Zionist venom and the misinterpretation of the
principles of .a people's liberation movement. The distortion
may well be considered a symbol of the ignorance that encour-
ages misunderstanding.
How can these emerging bigotries be cured?
Because
,
Passover is the festival of freedom for all mankind, as the
source of libertarian ideology in history, perhaps this is the
occasion to assert anew that unless there is understanding,
based on knowledge, we confront dangers. Let us understand
that without appreciation of human values for all mankind we
can revert to slavery. And slavery of the mind is more danger-
ous than enslavement of the physical being
,,,but IN) every gemeratiov)
some ijave risev) agai9srt uts
to atimittillate us, 6(,(t, tloe
Jtoty One, Ressex.,
ever saves Rsirov}) ilf)e14),
•
HA GG A DAH
Passover's Justice-Linked Freedom
As the Festival of Freedom, Passover always inspires discussion of the meaning of
the principles inherent in the terms related to liberty, in the obstacles in attaining the goal, in
the road toward a free society.
The subject and the aim are general in their varied terms, and they apply to all peo,:;
pies. But for Jews it is of a prior interest because of the difficulties that we have confroniel
in gaining the rights to a just share in social benefits, as well as the role of leadership Oar
people have played in reaching toward it for ourselves and for mankind.
The very aspect of freedom contains not only challenges to the human responses _to
the need for unhampered roads toward a just life, but also the obstacles, the contradiction,
often the selfishness, frequently the enmities.
A very interesting statement was made more than 100 years ago by President Abra-
ham Lincoln, who, in a speech in Baltimore, in 1864, said:
"The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the sheep thanks
the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act, as the
destroyer of liberty, especially as the sheep was a black one. Plainly the sheep and
the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty."
There is so much wisdom supported by realism in this Lincolnian statement that it
serves as a basis for evaluating libertarian principles.
Isn't this the very essence of selfish conflicts when peoples confront each other,
when individuals are motivated by personal preferences? Doesn't the sheep-wolf struggle
relate to the East-West differences, to the Israel-Arab enmities, to Jewish Christian-rela-
tions? Aren't all these problems soluble—if only the reasonable approach will be adopted in-
stead of the attempt to stifle the right to differ or the search for security?
These are the Jewish principles that we strive to emphasize and to adhere to. There
is somthing basic in the assertion in Leviticus: "Proclaim liberty- throughout the land, unto
all the inhabitants thereof."
The point is that freedom is not for oneself alone but for all mankind, and when a
tolerant world recognizes it there may be an end to warfare. In his lengthy commentaries
on the Passover Hagada the talmudic scholar Rabbi Menahem Kasher emphasized that the
freeing of slaves was the first commandment given in Egypt, and he explained:
"The children of Israel were commanded to liberate their slaves, as it is written: 'Thus said
the Eternal the God of Israel. On the day that I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt, out
of the house pf bondage, I made a covenant with them, saying, "At the end of seven years ye shall
liberate each one his fellow Hebrew who hath been sold unto thee." `. . . The divine commandment
to free the slaves was given as an antecedent condition to Israel's redemption from Egypt, because
no person has a right to his own freedom so long as he enslaves another. In fact, no one ever has ,the •
right to enslave another human being and become his master. God alone is the Master of men."
Inherent in this is the basic ideal for freedom for all—that man is not master over
men, that all peoples have a right to liberty, that greedy nations can not dominate over similar
folk, just as an over-affluent selfish person can not dominate his neighbor. The truisms of
Passover are the lessons for all mankind and we are again rejoining in this festival to empha-
size this ideal for mankind.