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 Second-Class Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co.. 17515 W. Nine Mile. Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075. Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices. - Subscription $8 a year. Foreign $8 PHILIP SLOMOVITZ Editor. and Publisher CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ CHARLOTTE DUBIN 'Business Manager City Editor _ DREW LIEBERWITZ Advertising Manager Sabbath Scriptural Selections This Sabbath, the 27th day of Shevat, 5732, the following scriptural selections v . ,11 be read in our synagogues: Pentateuchal portions, Krod. 21:1 - 24:18. 30:11 - 16. Prophetical portion, 11 Kings Torah readings for Rosh Hodesh Adar, Tuesday and Wednesday, Num. 28:1 - 15. Candle lighting, Friday, Feb. 11, 1:42 p.m. VOL. LX. No. 22 Page Four February 11, 1972 Unity in Tackling USSR Jewry's Needs Responsible leadership in American Jew- r■ must take into account a reverberated sit- uation that reminds us of the period during and for a time after World War II when there was an immense overlapping of activ- ities in the American Jewish community. While shunning conformity, in a time of crisis it is imperative that we have a meas- ure of unity. We are now experiencing an unusual miracle. The large number of emi- grants from Russia to Israel represents a sit- uation -that was unexpected and unbelievable as few as five years ago. In the 1960s there still was the dreaded fear of reprisals in Rus- sia against those who spoke of Israel or Zion- ism or Hebrew. effort which is under way is so huge that only an organization like the United Jewish Appeal could reasonably be expected to undertake the extraordinary efforts to meet the financial needs of the Soviet Jewish migration. The UJA instru- ments are the same ones which have performed the modern-day miracles of relief and rehabili- tation of oppressed Jews around the world whose numbers are counted in the millions. "An official statement which was issued advisedly last December by the World Zionist Organization includes the following clear infor- mation: It should be noted that the needs of Soviet Jewry in their efforts to leave Russia and in transit to Israel and other countries, are being provided for by the agencies supported by the Jewish Welfare etmds—United Jewish Appeal campaigns. Their needs on arrival in Israel and elsewhere likewise are provided for by the same campaigns. The considerable sums which are required can be mobilized only by the United Jewish Appeal as the central, hu- manitarian agency of American Jewry for over- seas needs. UJA agencies spare no effort in bringing relief and facilities for rescue of Soviet Jews who are able to leave the Soviet Union, and for their absorption in Israel and else- where. In order to assist Soviet Jewry, all Jews should channel their aid through the _UJA." "The proper instrument through --which re- sponsible citizens of Detroit's Jewish conununi- ty can do their utmost financially in meeting the over-all problem will be by generous contri- butions to em Allied Jewish Campaign-Israel Icmergency Fend which of coarse, is the main- stay of the United Jewish Appeal Volume by Howe, Greenberg Helps Perpetuate Great Yiddish Writings in Notable Collection Suddenly, there emerged a courageous spirit that defies suppression, that chal- lenges those who would oppress Jews who express loyalty to their historic her- itage. Entirely unexpectedly, Jews in - Two scholars, Prof. Irving Howe and Eliezer Greenberg, who have previously collaborated in editing anthologies of Yiddish stories and Russia are affirming kinship with other poetry, have jointly produced another important work, "Voices From Jews, . dedication to the Zionist goals, a the Yiddish," published by the University of Michigan Press. determination to study Hebrew. Some even express religious sentiments. Sharing "a common historical matrix," the essays, memoirs and This is viewed as one of the miracles of diaries in this volume add immeasurably towards perpetuating the our time, and the tens of thousands who are availability of Yiddish writings in English translations. expected to find haven in their ancient home- In many respects, the works collected here provide, valuable land this year represent a revolutionary force addenda to the history of Yiddish literature, and they serve at the in an atmosphere of counter-revolution to same. time the purpose of presenting anew, biographically and their ideals. ideologically, many of the great names hi the Yiddish literature. These hordes of emigrants must be pro- Lovers of Yiddish, those who are acquainted with the names of vided for. They need actsistance. And they are getting it. But they need more help than This is self-explanatory in relation to the eminent writers in the American Jewish press will be especially delighted to read their essays in English translations. It is not often could possibly have been planned for in ad- fund raising. But it is not fund raising alone that the names of Abraham Koralnik, Hayim Thillowsky, Joseph Opa_ vance, and the activities of the Joint Distri- that matters in a situation as pressing as that toshrt and many others are brought to light again and their views re- bution Committee, the Jewish Agency and involved in the Russian Jewish situation. affirmed in their own articles. their allied forces in many communities There is also the overlapping in organiza- In view of what has just happened to a large Yiddish daily in emerge as vital in the new rehabilitation and tional efforts that should be watched as pos- New York, these writings assume special significance. When we read, rescue task that has become world Jewry's sibly endangering unity. therefore, the creative works of Shmuel Niger, Hayim Greenberg We don't know how many dozens of Jacob Glatstein major responsibility. and others in a volume of splendid translations, well In Detroit it is the Allied , Jewish Cam- groups are functioning with the aim of as- edited, the nostalgia for Yiddish returns. paign that supplies the means of- assisting sisting Russian Jewry, of protesting against Prof. Solomon Liptzhi of the American College in Jerusalem discrimination and demanding justice - for the thousands of migrants from Russia to was the translator of the first essay in this volume, "Advice to our kinsmen in the USSR. Butit is clear that Israel, and the additional numbers who may the Estranged" by I. L. Pereti. It Iippears in the section "The find refuge in the United States will get their most of them are laboring for the same aim, Founding Fathers," It is followed by other essays by Peretz trans- that they plead for the same men and women assistance from the United Jewish Appeal, lated by Nathan Helper. The eminence of the translators points the major beneficiary of the Detroit drive. who are jailed or who have been denied to the seriousness of the effort exerted in the editing of these means of earning a livelihood -after they had selected essays. This has to be understood in order that an be in dto e n res e, tsp in eedil Zioy nis an m d an there should not be the overlapping and the undhesi Isra tael t: Yiddish readers will recall another important name in that litera- confusion that might erupt from insignifi- and in their Jewish heritage. t This is the type of overlapping that ure of Ba'al Makhshoves. His essay on "Mendele, Grandfather cant individualistic efforts claimed to be in of Yiddish is an appropriate part of a work of the nature should be avoided, the sort of confusion that of "Voices Literature," support of Russian Jewry. From the Yiddish." It is impossible to conceive of a com- should have no place in Jewish life. There indt is much meath ed to Niger's "The Humor of Sholom Aleichem" is another of the im- petitive movement that might even supple- ment the labors of the major existing ingly, and vast sums of money will be needed portant articles that raise this volume to a high level. philanthropic causes, primarily, the UJA for the rescue efforts. If there will be compe- Then there are the essays in the section "Eastern European and the JDC, when it is taken into account tition, overlapping and confusion, our aims S cene" in which the shtetl and its components are revived. Essays that our- chief agencies that function in will be thwarted. Let us avoid such affronts by Dr. Abraham Joshua Heschel, translated by himself, are noteworthy h ere. the settlement of newcomers to Israel to Jewish dignity. must plan to spend some ;35,000 to in- tegrate it single Russian family into Is- rael's economy. This requires such great dedication that any effort to supplement it could well turn into a regrettable fiasco. It is regrettable, therefore that in this critical period of mass migration of Russian Jews it should have been necessary for Mil- ton J. Miller as chairman of the Jewish Wel- fare Federation's committee on independent appeals, to warn of "the danger of splinter- ing and fragmentation which could only con- fuse those of us who desire to be helpful." The statement on behalf of the Federation went on to state: "There is no longer any question about the plight of Soviet Jews and fortunately there seems to have been a reversal in their government's policy so that thousands of Jews have recently been allowed to emigrate. The symapthy of Jews the world over for their brethren is also an established fact. "The dimensions and the scope of the relief UN Monkey Wrench A special section of the book devoted to "The Holocaust" is noteworthy. It contains the memoirs of Emmanuel Itingelhanin ("In the Warsaw Ghetto") and Michael zylberbers ("A Warsaw Diary") and a splendid commentary, "Goias-Jew," by Hayim Greenberg. Not unlike the peace talks between Israel and her Arab neighbors in 1918, on the island of Rhodes, the proposed "proximity" ap- Because they deal so extensively with language and literature, proach might well lead to agreements in the and renew acquaintanceship with the great personalities who predomi- Middle East . ated in the Yiddish literary field, this work is important In the But United Nations Secretary General effort to retain all the great contributions that have been made in a Kurt Waldheim seems to have put a monkey language that served rtilllions of Jews. wrench into the machinery with his apparent - disapproval of the plan. Evidently, Waldheim, by his insistence on In their scholarly introduction, the editors of this volume describe the Yiddish writers' straggles to confront an unfriendly world, the d d ifficulties they had among Jews as well as in facing the giving priority to a role for the Gunnar Jar- 0 non-Jewish They point out how they became major factors in "putting ring mission, and by an implied opposition to to bstacles. gether the very terms of yiddishkayt." But also they point to the an American role, is, consciously or subcon- Y writers' "enormous advantages of a spiritual and ethical sciously, playing an anti-U.S. game in this na iddish hue which other writers might well ,envy." matter. With the situation developing as it • has, it is doubtful whether even the Soviet t h It is this total picture of a great era of an enormous literary output Union antagonism matches such a position. of at makes this anthology of such great worth in an era when lovers What it does, clearly, is that it reduces con- w ho Yiddish justifiably weep over the decline of, the language,*and those fully appreciate the literature should strive to keep the great fidence in the importance of the UN under p roducts alive, even in translations, as Waldheim's direction. the Howe-Greenberg volume oes.