THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle cove fencing with issue of July 20. 1951
Member American Association of P:nglish.Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association. National Editorial Associa-
lion Published every Friday by The Jewish Neus Publishing Co . 17515 W. Nine Mile. Suite 865. Southfield. Mich. 48075.
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PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
• usiness
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City
Editor
DREW LIE•ERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the eighth day of lyar, 5732, the following scriptural selection ;
be read In our synagogue,.
Pentateuchal portion. 1,erit id:ft.:it 27. ProphrGcal portion. Amos 9:7.15.
Candle lighting. Friday, April 21, 7:02 p.m.
VOI.. I,Xl, No. 6
Page Four
April 21, 1972
Ultimate Triumphs for Free Electorate
American politics is overwhelmed with
bitterness and with conflicts that often ap-
pear threatening to our national unity. Yet.
It has its benefits even in acrimony as long
as the issues continue to be viewed openly,
frankly, by politicians who seem to show
more courage when fighting for votes than
they do when they attain otticial status.
Before very long the communications
media will be loaded with the shouts that
are heard every four years at party conven-
tions. The •air will often be polluted with
cries that carry the sting of insincerity. For-
tunately, the voters usually know what they
prefer and what is best for the country.
Therefore many of the battles for power,
while watched with great interest, frequently
draw tongue-in-cheek response. The candi-
dates may think they struck oil: often they
draw ridicule.
But in the main, when the problems that
affect our nation, at home and abroad, are
aired factually, they must lead to improve-
ments in the status of American conditions.
The response must serve as a guideline for
action. The old stereotype, even if hackneyed,
always emerges: "You can't fool too many
people too often ... "
That's how we are confronted today, with
the competitive pclitical aspirations. The Re-
publican problem won't emerge until after
the party conventions: President Richard M.
Nixon is assured of renomination. At the
moment its a free-for-all among Democrats,
and it would be idle to predict a winner,
i%Ith Senator Edward Kennedy invisible on
platform but an occasional foghorn spelling
out his name: dark horses hiding behind the
scenes, praying for convention stalemates so
that they may be called in to carry the banner
for the party while those who spent the mil-
lions campaigning are rejected.
Fortunately, the electorate is not de-
prived of the opportunity to hear all sides,
regardless of liberalism, conservatism or re-
actionary ideas that may be injected into
the campaign. There would be much to re-
gret ii Governor George Wallace's name had
been omitted from the ballot. It is better for
the country that he should present his views
without restrictions than that he should be
a force in hiding, underground. Being on
the ballot, Wallace is as free to speak out as
are Hubert Humphrey and George McGovern
and Edmund Muskie. That matches the voters'
freedom to act. It is this freedom to ex-
press views that leads to action representative
of the people.
There is as much justice in such collective
action out of which niust emerge a people's
choice as in Vice- President Spiro T. Agnew's
assertion, in a speech to Republican mem-
bers of Congress: at the Capitol Hill Club in
Washington, last week, in which he dubbed
some members of the academic community
as "intellectual Yahoos" and warned against
"latter-day Goebbels of the radical left." Im-
plied is the danger that stems from extremists
who may imitate Adolf Hitler and Paul Jos-
eph Goebbels or who may, in an American
political garb, reconstruct the Ku Klux Klan
or give encouragement to Communist ide-
ology.
The current political debates undoubtedly
will be directed toward American foreign in-
volvements. President Nixon already has in-
curred anger in his own party for having
conferred with the Red Chinese and for
gestures to Communists in a search for peace-
ful cooperation with nations now considered
antagonistic to us and whose ideological ap-
proaches to world affairs have been branded
as dangerous to our way of life. The situa-
tion in Vietnam is becoming even more seri-
ous in its effects upon American politics.
The Middle East is certain to be judged as
part of problematic American considera-
tions.
Out of the political debates will certainly
emerge clarification of perplexing issues.
There must shine forth some light out of
the gloom of battles of personalities.
It is to be hoped that there will be rational
approaches to major issues, that the Middle
East situation will not be transformed into
a conflict of prejudices, that while seeking
justice for Americans on the home front,
while striving for improvement of the ec-
onomic status of all our citizens, the fairness
that has marked American friendship with
Israel will not be sullied during a bitter pol-
itical presidential campaign.
We are due for interesting months, prior
to and after the party conventions. Out of the
controversies must emerge rededication of
the highest American principles, and the
choice for President again must be antici-
pated in the best interests of the American
people.
Solidarity for Justice for USSR Jewry
Herod, as Vassal of Rome, Shown
In His Greatness by Prof. Grant
Herod earned the title "the Great." He also was "the Terrible,"
the brutal, who engineered murders in his own family, who was the
wife-killer, who prevented survivors of the Hasmonean members of
his family from succeeding him by plotting their death.
Yet, he was the great master builder. Prof. -Michael Grant of Edin-
burgh University, in "Herod the Great," published by American Her-
itage Press, places'emphasis in his splendid historical account upon
Herod's role as a favorite of Rome. He tells how Herod for 40 years
walked a "most precarious political tight-rope" to attain his goals and
to maintain equilibrium as a favorite of the Roman Empire to prevent
disaster.
Dr. Grant's story traces the intrigues, the negotiations which
led Herod to emerge as a selected ruler who could serve Rome's
purpose and who in his own way was able to establish a strong
rulership as a result of manipulations that assured him security
from frequently emerging enemies.
The emphasis in this biographical-historical narrative is on how
the Judean king, who was only partly of Jewish parentage, managed
to retain the Jewish character of the state while giving to Rome its
dominant position of glory as ruler over the Jews.
Josephus Flavius is quoted here, and his position as historian
plays a vital role in this biographical study of one of the most crucial
periods in ancient Jewish history.
Construction of the Temple as one of Herod's achievements is
described by pointing out that "Herod . . . was deeply proud of what
he had achieved, and he never got tired of pointing out that the
Hasmonean liberators had never begun to undertake the mighty task
during the whole 125 years of their regimes . . . Yet Herod also was
a Roman client. The Romans were tolerant of the national gods of the
client peoples and, when Marcus Agrippa visited Jerusalem, he made
a point of coming to the 'remote to do it honor ... "
The family feuds, the wars, the murders, the final decisions
on succession, the women in the plots—history is dramatized in
the Grant story. Herod does emerge as "the Great," and as
history judges him in spite of the crimes, of his submission to
Rome, of his dual role as Jewish king and as a vassal of the
Roman rulers.
Also in this story there are the conflicts between the Arabs of
ancient times and the Jews who were determined to protect their
sovereignty. Herod was both ruler and warrior, he also was the states-
man who knew how to deal with the great world power.
Also—he knew how to perpetuate his glory with the great Temple
and other structures that retain for him a place in history.
Josephus' anti-Herodian stand is taken into account by the author
of this biography, and the discussion relating to it adds immeasurably
to the historical merits of Dr. Grant's work.
'Orthopsychiatry and Education
Solidarity Day—Sunday, April 30—will Lansing for an expression of kinship with
be a day of unified effort by Americans of Russian Jewry. Such humanitarian unity must
Problems and processes of education are notably defined in an
all faiths to express concern over the status serve greatly to impress President Nixon in
of Russian Jewry, tens of thousands of whom whatever plans he may have to broach the important volume edited by Prof. Eli M. Bower of the University of
California at Berkeley.
have courageously affirmed their desire to issue at the Kremlin.
Noted educators have contributed more than two scores of essays
assert their Jewish loyalties, to demand rec-
The demands for recognition of Jewish to this volume entitled "Orthopsychiatry and Education." It was pub-
ognition of their rights to identification with cultural and spiritual rights are understand- lished for the American Orthopsychiatric Association by Wayne State
thier heritage and with the Jewish people and able. Equally principled is the right to emi- University Press.
"Orthopsychiatry" concerns itself with the mental health of chil-
to emigrate to their ancient homeland if they grate. Jews who have begun to suffer under
so desire. discriminatory rules must not be deprived of dren and adults. The emergence of the current work is traced to a
meeting
of nine notable psychiatrists, in 1924, to initiate the Ortho-
It is the solidified effort of Christians their demands to settle in Israel. There also psychiatric Association. Among its organizers were Herman Adler,
and Jews in support of the tasks undertaken will be a small number desiring to be re- David Levy and Karl Menninger.
for the day on which to interact with Russian united with relatives in the United States
Contributors to the present volume include Israel Zwerling,
Jews and their kinsmen everywhere that and other Western countries: This is an
David A. Goslin, Meyer Rabban, Phyllis Levenstein, Richard Walt-
man. Marilyn F. Hersh, Martin Deutsch, David Rottenberg, Morton
makes the oncoming day for an expression acknowledged and justified human right.
Levitt, Ben Rubenstein and many others.
of the feelings of Americans so vital on the
Solidarity Day assumes worldwide signif-
The subjects covered present an all-inclusive concern with all
calendar of American current events.
icance. it will be a day on which to demand
educational problems, with curricula. motivations, emotional problems.
justice, and the combined expression of the the student protests and the desired responses, sexual morality and
Michigan Jewry's role in Solidarity Day
attitudes of justice-loving people from all college dilemmas and numerous other issues.
is especially significant in view of the unified
While educators will he especially helped by this volume, lay
faiths should surely bring the desired re-
effort by a score of outstate communities
readers will find it a valuable guide in tackling educational needs.
sults of succor for Russion Jewry.
whose representatives will converge upon
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