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 Associ-
ation Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075.
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PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 26th day of Sivan, 5731, the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Num. 13:1-15:41. Prophetical portion, Joshua 2:1-24.
Rosh Hodesh Tamuz Torah Readings, Wednesday and Thursday, Num. 28:1-15.
Candle lighting, Friday, June 18, 7:52 p.m.
VOL. LIX. No. 14
Page Four
June 18, 1971
Russia's Puzzling Blindness to Fact
There is a measure of frustration in the
efforts to solve the problem of Russian Jewry.
If the Soviet authorities were to grant visas
to those desiring to go to Israel, there would
be a lessening of controversy. And if the
Russians had granted even the minimum of
requests for cultural activities by Jews, the
bickering might end almost momentarily.
But there seems to be an inherent bitter.
ness, possibly the inherited anti-Semitism
from Czarist days, that doesn't permit the
Kremlin to admit the injustice of its practices
toward the Jews who desire the same rights
as are granted other, much smaller minority
elements in the Russian population.
Russian authorities deny that there is an
upsurge of Jewish nationalism within Russia,
that there are many Jews—including young
people—who wish to leave Russia for Israel.
The facts, however, refute the official Russian
claims. For example, Charlotte Saikowski, the
Christian Science Monitor correspondent in
Moscow, cabled to her newspaper in Boston:
"The question political observers now ask
is whether the Soviet authorities in the light
of Jewish militancy can ever manage to
extinguish the awakened sense of Jewish
identity, especially among the youth. The
problem also concerns the desire of Jews to
leave the Soviet Union."
Why are basic elementary facts denied?
Why not acknowledge the desire of tens of
thousands of Russian Jews to leave their
birthplace? Such a right has been established
in the United Nations Declaration of Human
Rights and can not be negated. If fewer Rus-
sian Jews utilize visas for exit once the right
to emigrate is established, and the Russian
official viewpoint proves to be justified, then
the Kremlin can boast. But why the present
attitude that is responsible for the worldwide
mounting protests?
Indeed, the Russian position is puzzling,
especially since all the elementary rights are
readily granted to very small nationality
groups in Russia. Prof. Robert G. Wesson of
the University of California, in a letter to
the New York Times refuting the claims by
Aaron Vergelis, editor of the Yiddish maga-
zine Heimland, the only Jewish publication in
Russia except for the Birobidzan newspaper,
pointed to these facts:
"The latest Soviet statistical yearbook on hand,
published in 1969 for 1968, gives books published
in over 30 languages of the Soviet Union, down
to Mordovian, 28 titles; Tuvinian, 46 titles, etc.,
but no works at all in Yiddish.
"It is of interest to note that in Stalin's day
there were 463 titles in Yiddish in 1930, when the
total number of titles published in the Soviet Union
was only about half of what it has been in recent
years."
Why are the truths ignored? What good
does it serve the Soviet Union? Why does the
Kremlin perpetuate bitterness with its anti-
Jewish and anti-Israel attitude? Unless it is
merely to retain the friendship of the Arabs,
it continues as a policy of stupidity.
When Medievalism Is on a Rampage
Human beings have tendencies to love
and to hate, to express a liking or to have a
dislike, to approve or disapprove of the ways
and habits and thinking of fellow men. But
when their hatreds assume the bigotries of
medievalism they show their mentalities and
their sense of thinking of human beings.
It has been said that nations can be judged
by the manner in which they treat the Jews.
Perhaps this now can also be said about
many in democratic countries that boast of
being Caucasian by their approaches to race
issues.
In the instance of Jews the severest test
to which non-Jews are submitted is their
reaction to the shockingly inhuman charge of
ritual murder against Jews. It is a charge
that has shamed theologians. It has drawn
severest condemnations from the Vatican.
The condemnations become necessary as a
result of manifestations of ignorance and
medievalism from quarters whence there had
developed the stupid accusation.
Yet it keeps repeating itself. Some years
ago a ritual murder charge was leveled at
Jews in Flint, Mich., by a bigoted group. It
became a sensation in Massena, N.Y., in the
late 1920s. Now it has re-emerged in Cleve-
land, where a group calling itself the National
Socialist White People's Party has spread the
charge in taped telephone messages. These
stupidities have gone as far as to claim that
two Ohio girls were ritual murder victims.
And the freedoms that are enjoyed in our
democratic society make it possible for such
bigotries to gain an audience!
_ One of the major injustices that has ema-
nated from Russia in recent years was the
revival of the ritual murder charge, primarily
in the Ukraine. Yet little was done about it,
in spite of the knowledge in the Kremlin
about the infamous Beilis Case.
What a pity that in fighting anti-Semitism
and the bigotries of the demented it becomes
necessary to deal with their venom and their
poisoned minds as if we lived in medieval
times. That's exactly what we are confronted
with in such hate-spreading: medievalism.
Bigoted Prejudice
Prejudice alone is bad enough, but it be-
comes much more contemptuous when it is
swathed in bigotry.
It was 'bigoted prejudice when the assem-
bly of the World Health Organization, at its
recent meeting, adopted a resolution charging
Israel with preventing the Red Cross from
distributing supplies to inhabitants of occu-
pied territories.
The International Committee of the Red
Cross denied the allegations. A spokesman
for the ICRC said: "It is completely untrue to
assert that we have been barred from this
distribution work by the Israeli authorities.
Distribution is continuing normally at a
number of points."
But the WHO vote nevertheless was anti-
Israel: 41 to 2. It was the machination of
the sponsors of the resolution: Afghanistan,
India, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritania, Pakistan,
Somalia and Yugoslavia. Israel and the mi-
nority that votes against such schemes can
always recognize the bigoted haters. How else
would India and Pakistan become pals if not
on a matter of hate and bigotry which be-
comes even more acute when the Jews are
the victims? '
Jewish Law of Confession:
Preventing Self-Incrimination
Dr. Aaron Kirschenbaum, an associate professor of rabbinics on
leave from the Jewish Theological Seminary who is now associate
professor of law at Tel Aviv University, provides a thorough study of
the Jewish law of confession, discussed in the light of general legal ,
history, in "Self-Incrimination in Jewish Law," published by Burning
Bush Press.
Developing his findings with studies based on research in biblical,
tamudic and medieval juridical aspects, Rabbi Kirschenbaum asserts:
"It is to the everlasting glory of the rabbinic tradition that cen-
turies before enlightened citizens began to protest against police
brutality in the interrogation of suspects and to clamor for its
cessation, Jewish law proclaimed unequivocally that confessions
extorted by words of inducement or by means of threats, though they
appear to be true, may not be used to incriminate, convict or punish
anyone. This rule holds true even should such confessions be obtained
by the duly constituted officers, appointed to maintain law and order,
who know that a crime has been committeed but cannot find any
witnesses who could testify as to who the criminal is."
In a concluding cocnment on practical considerations of the sub-
ject, Dr. Kirschenbaum offered this example:
"The Mishna records a remarkable debate among the rabbis of
old: A Sanhedrin (Jewish court) which convicts a man to death once
in- seven years is called 'The Bloody (destructive) Sanhedrin.' Rabbi
Eleaiar b. Azariah says, 'Once in 70 years.' Rabbi Tarphon and Rabbi
Aquiba say, 'Had we been members of the court, no man would have
ever been executed.' Rabbi Simeon b. Gamaliel says (about R. Tarphon
and R. Aquiba), 'They would have also multiplied murderers in Israel'."
There is the author's added comment that "the liberal judicial
procedure and heavy protection of the rights of the accused in Jewish
law were coupled with a deep religious conviction that the criminal
will eventually receive his just desserts and that justice will triumph."
Rabbi Kirschenbaum went deeply into his discussion which he
bases on study of current as compared with Jewish traditional law,
the regulations in Tannaitic times, the controversies in Arnoraic times
and subsequent teachings and application of Jewish teachings. He notes
that during the Spanish period, "when inquisitorial elements found
their way into Jewish courts, almost every responsum contains a
reminder to the questioner of the differences between the revered
talmudic tradition and the Spanish-Jewish practices."
There were disagreements and debates, as indicated in the views
of Simeon b. Gamaliel versus Tarphon and Aqiba, and through the
ages, in Amoraic times, in the Spanish period and in other eras. The
contrasts with non-Jewish law give emphasis to the Jewish position
so well defined in Kirschenbaum's "Self-Incrimination in Jewish Law."
In an introduction to this book, Dr. Kirschenbaum's thesis is high!.
commended by former Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Goldberg.
Kolitz's 'Survival For What?'
Zvi Kolitz, Broadway producer, creator of an Israeli film that:
merited a high award, noted lecturer who has addressed Detroit audi-
ences numerous times, tackles many questions in "Survival for What?"
published by Philosophical Library.
Primarily, this book is based on the author's experiences in the
battle for Jewish survival, in Israel's role as a defender of her people's
just rights. The author draws upon legend and history, and he empha-
sizes the traditional in searching for the human values to be preserved
in Israel's survival.
"For the unknown ointment of Judaism yearning to be applied to
our wounds as well as to the wounds of mankind in general," is one
way in which Ihe answers the question "Survival for what?"
Anther form given the reply to that question is Kolitz's decla-
ration: "For the sake of a day in which the ordeals of Job's people
will be as vindicated as the ordeals of Job."
Kolitz explores Jewish experience of the past half century, the
tortures under Naziism, the anti-Semitic trends, the fight on bigotry. He
writes as effectively as he is known to speak to the many audiences on
causes for Israel.