Purely. Commentary
A Year of Hakhmot and of Challenge to the
Democratic Idea Has Ended . . Old Problems
Continue to Plague Leadership and flocks
By Philip
Slomovitz
Middle East Auguries on Basis of Lessons of 1971
The Wisdoms of Jewish Leadership and the Practicality of Self-Criticism
The Christian holiday period that ended with the civil New Year
An exciting year ended for American Jewry with manifestations of self-criticism, a
had a few more lessons for mankind, for the religious faiths of all plethora of strictures, expressions of horror over our cultural status, the emergence of the
denominations, for the Middle East and those involved in it.
day school issue and a multitude of I-told-you-so asseverations of wisdom.
Thanks to Israel's proper handling of the security obligations,
There has been nothing like that before. We have had many angry speeches over
Christmas was without incident in Bethlehem, Jerusalem. Nazareth.
the failure of the - rich to support popular causes, but there has never been as much fuss
New York Times correspondent Peter Grose cabled from Bethle- over matters that should have been day-to-day causes of concern but have suddenly been
hem: "Although all participants at Bethlehem's Christmas are usually
careful to keep world politics out of the celebration, the mayor of the inflated into causes celebres.
The day school matter: it's a new idea, but a hakham who has risen to national
town, Elias Bandak, permitted himself at one Christmas dinner meet-
ing to call on the 'leaders and people of the Middle East to abandon leadership has become the critic of the rich and the interpreter of a condition in our
their threatening tone and adopt a logical path toward a regional life which, he says, is dependent upon whether the rich sponsor a - cause. Where were the
peace'."
critics in years past, when they might have influenced the Max Fishers earlier? Were they
There was a hopeful note from Rome. Pope Paul VI, in his annual the supporters of a way of life that could have rescued both the day-school as well as the
message, appealed for an extension of the cease fire in the Middle afternoon school programs? Isn't the truly justified plea for day schools nevertheless exag-
East. That was an encouraging note. The Pope commented that a gerated when the majority of our children still are in afternoon schools and need as much
wisely balanced Middle East approach to peace "of course cannot be attention as the minority to rescue our cultural heritage?
imposed by recourse to other wars or by means of military victories."
Yes, there are skeletons, but the closets are not those of the rich alone: our intel-
This was a welcome bit of advice to warmongers. The Pope also spoke
of Jerusalem, and he uttered a reminder in his Christmas message that lectuals, the rabbis, the teachers, the literati, are as guilty of failure. And when the president
he has in the past advocated a special status for the Holy City that of the Council of Federations (a movement that until now had been viewed as most assimi-
"would do justice to the pluralistic and altogether special character of latory) becomes a sponsor of the day school idea, perhaps we are closer to the verge of rescue
the Holy City and to the rights of the various cocncnunities which are for our spiritual needs than when the platform oratory was the predominent factor in
situated there and which look to it and come to it as their,spiritual Jewish life.
center." While the Pope has never really defined his demands for an
"internationalized" Jerusalem, he did not mention such claims in his
Take Yiddish: now everybody bemoans the death of a great Yiddish newspaper. Where
latest speech, and that it in itself is encouraging. TO assurances of pro-
tection and the granting of just rights to all faiths in Jerusalem, as were the bakhamim years ago? Now that they weep over the death of an important community
in all Israel, by the Jewish state may after all serve as a basis for the organ, let us ask whether they or many in their ranks know or understand - or can read
cementing of cooperation between Israel and all religious denominations. Yiddish? In the early days of assimilationist tendencies, when there was a great battle
Among the very encouraging messages that come from the Middle between the Reform and Orthodox, the Deitchen and the East Europeans, Louis Marshall
East during the Christmas-New Year week was the report from the had a sense of responsibility in his quest for leadership: he proceeded to learn Yiddish
abandoned village of Karameh in Jordan that 64 families had returned to be able to read the views of his opponents in original in which they wrote and spoke.
there to rebuild and rehabilitate it, to resume farming there. Among Is there anyone in top ranks in Jewry today who would emulate such a sense of duty?
those who came to resettle there was the 25-year-old Palestinian
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refugee, Mohammed Absi, who commented: "We do not believe that
We could call names—of the hakhamim who now shed tears over the decline of Yiddish
Jordan will go to war again."
We could even ask whether in the ranks of Labor Zionism and among the Sholem Aleichem
The latter comment is significant. In mid-November, King Hussein
of Jordan said that he would not enter into a war with Israel, as Sadat adherents there is a preponderance of loyalty to Yiddish. If there is, why has one of their
had already begun to threaten then. He said: "I don't think the Arab newspapers collapsed?
world can possibly face a fresh disaster." True, his position was and
Another Yiddish daily has appeared in New York. It must prove its ability to survive
is that the Arabs must •first be assured a victory over Israel. In in an age when the strongest in the publishing field have collapsed. William Randolph
other words, unless he and his cohorts can destroy Israel he, at least, Hearst started a Yiddish newspaper when he ran for governor of New York. It was for
won't enter active warfare. A bit later, on Dec. 11, in an interview political ptirposes and lasted the political campaign months. Will a political advertising year
granted in Amman to Marvine Howe of the New York Times, Hussein (1972) give strength to a new Yiddish organ?
again said that the Arabs are unfit for war at present. It is at present
fiat retains its menace for the Middle East, but as long as the cease
We must learn from experience. It had been said that every time a reader of the
fire can be continued in the Middle East, Israel and the Arabs and the
entire world will bo blessed.
Yiddish press passed away, there was no one to replace him. But it also was deplored that
i Meanwhile_ there is_no forgetting_ the .'bloOd...drinking"_.bv one of when a writter for the Yiddish press left us, there was no one to take his place. Therein lies
the murderers of Jordanian Prime Minister Wasfi Tal, in Cairo. It the tragedy of another disappearing dialed.-
was, as newsmen described it, "a bizarre act," of drinking blood of
But in viewing the Jewish experience it is necessary to take into account an element
the assassinated Jordanian minister. There were two other atteippts of hypocrisy that was inherent in the daily Yiddish newspaper that has just ended a long and
on the lives of Jordanian diplomats by their fellow Jordanians. It is an
productive life. Only last April it stopped publishing the Saturday edition. Until then, its
indication of the type of mentality Israel and Jewry have to deal with.
name Tog-Morgen Journal was used for the entire week except Saturday. On the Sabbath, as
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a sop to the religiously observant, the latter part of the name, that of a one-time Orthodox
*elcome to the Club of Self Respect, Myra
newspaper, was dropped and only Tog, the name of the newspaper that was non-observant
Myra Wolfgang proves her mettle often with her courageous man- before it merged with the Morgen Journal, was used. One wonders how the Orthodox will
a`ging of the needs of members of the union in which she holds an now react to the Forward, to whom Yiddish readers must turn henceforth.
important supervisory role. Her,distinction is her courage. She showed
it when she refused to accept a "Power of Woman" function invitation_
In 1971 we were witnesses also to near-scandalous occurrences in Zionist ranks. The
to the Detroit Athletic Club. Her reasons: DAC discriminates against
women and Jews, and as a woman and as a Jew she refuses to go there. vote-by-mail scheme for the selection of delegates to the World Zionist Congress has not
More power to Au, Myra, and welcome to the club of self-respect ! added glory to a democratic movement, and the removal of Nahum Goldmann from the
Her courage led to abandonment of DAC as a meeting place for the roster of speakers at the WZCongress is a shocking example of too much haste in judging
situations. Those of us who will be in WZCongress delegation should feel slighted and
"Power of Woman" sessions.
For many years this commentator has refused to attend civic personally aggrieved by what has happened. If Dr. Goldmann was not to be given a sole
philanthropic luncheons that were to be held there because of the spot in reviewing_ the 75-year history of Zionism, there could have been an associate
discriminating character of the club that is located on the corner speaker. But Dr. Goldmann, with all the faults now ascribed to him, remains the major
opposite the Jewish Welfare Federation Building. Very few Jews have spokesman for the movement. Besides, wehappen to agree with his view on Russian Jewry:
gone to the DAC. The late Albert Kahn, who was the architect of that that while we would like to see most of the Jews from the USSR settled in Israel, those who
building on Madison at John R, refused to be a special case when he wish to remain there if given all religious and cultural rights should have that privilege.
was offered membership and would have served as a court Jew and We doubt whether it is even a debatable subject.
as an excuse by the club to prove it does not discriminate by favoring
a single member of our faith. (Isn't this what some clubs and firms
So—we are entering upon a new year with interesting experiences as hindsight. We
still do with Blacks and Jews, to offset criticism?). The late Rabbi
Leo M. Franklin, the Butzels (Judge Henry and Fred), the late Judge doubt whether we have learned very much. Our educational programs still are deplorable
Harry B. Keidan and a few more among us refused to go to meetings and need major attention. The congregational school has numerically overwhelmed the so-
held at DAC because of its biased policies. The late Morris Garvett called community school system and unless there is a thorough study into the developing
frequently upheld our judgment in rejecting invitations to the DAC.
situation the Jewish educational programs may become a rebuke rather than a blessing
Now Myra is a member of our Club of Self-Respect. She is a most for American Jewry. The day schools need proper teachers, else the whole scheme is a farce.
welcome adjunct in an expression of rebuke for discrimination that Are we able to provide them?
harms not us but the prestige of a club that would have had greater
The Zionist program needs genuine democracy and an end to high-handed methods
esteem from the community if it were not a biased membership move-
ment. We hardly need the club, but that doesn't mean that we can't like those that developed in a denigration of democratic voting principles and the censor-
ship on speakers. If Zionism is a popular movement, let the constituents speak bluntly in
cxpose its biased code.
Myra Wolfgang comes by her liberalism as an inheritance from vital matters!
an established family tradition. Her parents, the late Avraham and Ida
If we are looking for problems, we are sure 'to find lots more. Perhaps it's best
Komaroff, were pioneer leaders in the Poale Zion movement and were to finish right here, with the recognition of the wisdom, the hakhmot and the hakhamim
among the early Histadrut functionaries. Ida Komaroff was an organizer in our ranks, and the skeletons for which there are more closets than has thus far been
and among the most active workers in Pioneer Women. Both were admitted. But if we are aware of these things, perhaps more of us will emerge as hakhamim.
devoted workers for the Yiddish school system here. It is from such
stock that the courage of Myra Wolfgang has developed and earns .or political motives to his aspirations for President is a grave injustice to
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a coura ,, eous man who hasn't hesitated under most critical conditions
her the respect of all her Detroit fellow citizens.
In the meantime, the political pot
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to defend Israel's role and to demand protection for the Jewish state.
to boil and there is no
A typical example of his consistency and his refusal to be badgered has be
Senator Jackson's Early Role as Israel's Defender
by enemies was his reply to a letter from Dr. M. T. Mehdi, secretary- doubt about the support for Israel
Ebullient Bella Abzug doesn't mince words about any subject and
pledged
by
leaders of both Pali-
general of the anti-Israel Action Committee on American-Arab Rela-
even her associates in both houses of Congress aren't safe when she
issue
cal parties.
This is on
how
tions who made the outrageous, arrog.ant offer of suppOrt with a sum should
be handled:
a the
chooses to criticize.
nonparti-
of $500,000 in exchange for backing Arabs against Israel. The
Thus, in judging candidates for President, she included Senator Mehdi arrogance was dated Nov. 2. On Nov. 23. Sen. Jackson son basis. It's the only way of
Henry M. Jackson among those who, she declared, became friends of acknowledged receipt of his letter by informing him that on that day assuring a just and sound Ameri-
Israel for political reasons.
he was sponsoring legislation to provide military credits for Israel can foreign policy.
She happens to be wrong in "Scoop" Jackson's case. The Washing- There is no doubt about the Jackson position, and 'Congresswoman
ton senator has a consistent record of support for Israel. He has not Abzug should have known about his sincerity in dealing with Israel's
THE DETROIT -JEWISH—HEWS
deviated from such views for more than 10 years and to ascribe selfish reeds.
2—Friday, January 7, 1972
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