THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with issue of July 20,
1951
MUNICH 1972
Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Assodation, National Editorial Assorts.
tion. PU.;i1,11.
every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17515 W. Nine Mile. Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48078.
Second-Clam Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices. Subscription $11 a year. Foreign $8
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
CARM1 M. SLOMOVITZ
Softness Manager
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising FA
Scriptural selections for Sukkot:
Pentaleuchal portions, Saturday and Sunday. Levit. 22:26-23:44, Num. 29:12-16
Prophetical portions: Saturday, Zechariah 14:1.21; Sunday, 1 Kings 18-21.
Hol Hamoed Sukot Torah readings: Monday, Num. 29:17-25; Tuesday, Num.
29:20-28; Wednesday, Num. 29:23-31; Thursday, Num. 29:26-34.
Hoshana Raba Torah reading, Friday, Num. 29:26-34.
Candle lighting, Friday, Sept. 22, 6:17 p.m.
VOL. LXII. No.,2
September 22, 1972
Page Four
United Nations Again Put to the Test
Another United Nations Assembly is in
session. Among the issues to be debated will
be the multiple problems affecting the Middle
East, and high on the agenda will be the ter-
rorists' threats to mankind.
No one will be surprised by the repetitive
attacks on Israel from the Arab bloc, from
the Soviet Union, from the Chinese repre-
sentatives and a few others.
not be a bit surpris-
And perhaps it
ing to hear some of the Western powers par-
ticipating in the projudiced gang-up on Israel.
There was proof of it at the Security Council
meeting last week, when the so-called liberal
powers failed to give support to the United
States resolution that took into account the
inhumanities that were perpetrated in Munich.
It is shameful enough that Israel Foreign
Minister Abba Eban should have found him-
self impelled to say that the Security Council
—in whose deliberations he had participated
for more than 20 years—"need not be solely
a factory for the production of biased and
unbalanced resolutions."
William S. White, commenting on the re-
cent events, found it necessary to state in a
recent column: "Throughout the ordeal no
instrumentality has been less helpful and
more determinedly blind than the sainted
UN."
Perhaps it was understandable that Rus-
sia and China, avowed enemies, should have
joined the anti-Israel ranks on a par with the
l. an states. Both are seeking favors from
the Arabs. But the roles of Italy, Belgium,
France, Great Britain, Japan and Argentina
are even more shocking. They have given
comfort to terrorists and terrorism and they
stand condemned for their position. But in
the UN they will be among the saints—be-
cause they are with the majority!
Israel does not stand alone in her struggle
for justice. There will be some Latin Amer-
ican countries, and possible some Afro-Asians,
who may back her up. In the meantime, the
UN role is unsavory.
Meeting in an atmosphere of hatred, of
antagonism to the embattled Israelis, the
General Assembly is on trial. It will either
change its attitude and assist mankind in
ridding itself of terror and insecurity or it
will go down in shame as a cohort to the
worst elements in the world who are menac-
ing the security of athletes, statesmen, edu-
cators—people who may now be assembling
in fear whenever they gather in groups.
Perhaps the UN's image can be rescued.
Perhaps the present session of the General
Assembly will be more rational, more real-
istic, a bit more just. Liberty- and justice-
loving peoples will be watching for better
results than has been mankind's experience
in the last two decades.
The Value of Lay Leadership
Never write off the value of lay leader-
ship!
Negotiations that were conducted during
the past weeks on new contracts for teachers
in our school systems had hit snags and re-
sulted in embittered controversies. It looked
bad for the schools and for our children who
might have been deprived of the opportunity
to acquire a Jewish education. A new interest
among lay leaders in matters that were
hithero limited to legal mediators or admin-
istrators led to solutions that have re-estab-
lished amicability and cooperation between
teachers, administration and parents.
There is a lesson in the most recent com-
munity experience that should be applied
more frequently and that should teach us that
there is sincerity and dedication to Jewish
needs in our ranks. We are always certain of
action when anti-Semitism strikes at Jewish
positions, or when Israel is under attack. In-
ternal problems have been left to profession-
als, to their staffs or to administrative assist-
ants. Under normal conditions, such proced-
ures are necessary and inevitable. It is in
time of crisis that lay leaders must play their
roles to avoid controversies and to insure un-
hampered cooperation in our ranks.
The occurrences in educational ranks are
unusual only because there was an impasse
that resulted in strikes. There must be rec-
ognition of differences of opinion that often
lead to labor disputes. Scores of strikes had
already been recorded in public school sys-
tems in many cities, and it could be argued
that Jewish schools might not necessarily be
an exception to the experiences in American
life. There is a vast difference, however. The
Jewish schools are operated by lay leader-
ship which has the obligation to strive for
amicability in our community.
In the Jewish school systems we count
upon teachers to be dedicated to a great idea
of providing our children with an apprecia-
L
tion of our heritage. As a minority within a
larger majority such a task becomes more
difficult in dealing with the Jewish aspect,
even if it is to be argued that in the public
schools there is a similiar need for emphasis
on teacher dedication and perpetuation of
traditional historic values.
The roles that were played by lay leaders
in our community in the past several days are
indications that impartiality can be injected
in disputes to provide agreements on a give-
and-take basis that can assure good will and
uninterrupted cooperation in pursuing the
striving for high standards in education.
Lay leadership is vital not only in fund-
raising. We have reached high goals in secur-
ing financial support not only for Israel but
also for all our overseas, national and local
causes. The lay leader is vital as a function-
ary in the conduct of many of our agencies.
He is vital also in establishing good will in
our ranks. He has proved effective in the edu-
cational crisis and thereby has established a
principle of merit in communal operations.
The
Insane
Jihad
There is a gang that threatens the safety
cf human beings. They are so brave that the
Kremlin provides them with means of de-
struction. They attack women and children
in supermarkets, they make use of garbage
cans to plant their ammunition, they are us-
ing the mails to strike at their victims with
hidden bombs. They are so brave! They call
themselves warriors, and their battles are
aimed at innocent people—on planes, in for-
eign offices, anywhere except where they
would have to face those they have chosen
to be their enemies. One wonders how Ma-
homet, who glorified the sword, would have
judged those who worship him and conduct
the insane jihad7--holy war=inAtis .narne,
'Roosevelt, New Jersey': Moving
Story of Idealistic Community
Changing generation habits and characteristics, nostalgic chron-
icling of an important pervious era in American experience, the devo-
tions of a previous generation to social advancement—these factors
are so movingly depicted in "Roosevelt, New Jersey," that the recol-
lections recorded in it by Edwin Rosskam provide most fascinating
reading. This Grassman-published volume is a classic in social studies.
Many volumes have been published about the New York East Side,
about immigrants, their offspring, the impression they left on this land
and upon the generation that followed them. In "Roosevelt, New Jersey"
we have a teaoly moving account of a period when Jews turned to
coopero...ve living, to farming. Rosskam's is a book, as the subtitle'
states, about "big dreams in a small town and what time did to them."
It developed from Jersey Homesteads. In that earlier community there
were idealists. They came from New York's tenement districts, from squalor
that accompanied them to this land from the oppressive Old World. They
came to Homesteads to build a new life. There were heroes among them.
Outstanding in their midst was the man who secured government aid in
establishing that community—Benjamin Brown. And there were others.
Every character depicted in the Rosskam book is a spiritual factor in a
notable setting. And because they were no idealistic, so socially minded, so
anxious to establish a community of merit, the neighbors considered them
Communists. There was anti-Semitism. They had problems with few blacks
—even though there were so very few among them! They Ole to provide a
glorious setting for the latter, and the assassination of Mart Luther King
only added fuel to the fire. But these were minor incidents compared with
the greater drama of building a new life in a remarkable Mug.
In the beginning there was a measure of hatred. There were those
who called the early settlers, the Homesteads builders, "Reds." Com-
ments Rosskam: "The Reds? Who were the Reds? Since the two or
three open communists in town, trying to sell subscriptions to the
Daily Worker (mailed in a plain envelope), weren't frightening any-
body . . . " Yet, eventually, there was a "normalcy," there were Jews
who formed a civic league to fight the New Dealers, and later these
conservatives (reactionaries?)' regretted their actions. There is this
historic note on a national election:
Roosevelt was one of the few localities where Henry Wallace's
Progressive Party carried the 1948 election, with Truman close be-
hind and Dewey almost nonexistent. The issue here 'was not between
Republicans and Democrats: it was between moderates and radicals
of the same persuasion. And politicking, was participatory as hell."
How well this serves as a study of political concerns among immi-
grants—recalling the years when a Socialist was elected to Congress
from the East Side, and the lines were sharply divided, as indicated
in the Roosevelt N.J. experience!
That's when the Civic League was formed, as "an organization
specifically intended to clear the town of Reds, although this purpose
did not appear in so many words in its bylaws," no wonder that one
of the group's organizers who is quoted by Rosskam later felt ashamed
to have had a share in it.
Rosskam's reminiscences serve well as commentaries on hu-
man relations, as definitions of aspirants to standards that are
so excitingly sought even now, in the battle for justice, in the
struggle against poverty, in the tasks for a peaceful life.
Jersey Homesteads was changed in name to Roosevelt. Mrs.
Franklin D. Roosevelt came to share in the celebration honoring her
husband's name. There was a social gathering in the home of Ben
Shahn, who lived and labored and became a hero in Roosevelt, N.J.
This, too, is part of the fascinating tale woven by Rosskam—the
devotion of Shahn to this community and the pride his fellow citizens
took in his being their neighbor.
There are the Jewish aspects in the Roosevelt story, the observ-
ances by the devout, the resort to devotion by the aging who found
no other social outlet than the synagogue, the effort to build • new
synagogue and the lagging response. -
There are new conditions and a new life, and even "the heritage
of FDR simply isn't pertinent any more," in this history-making episode
called Roosevelt, N. J. There has been a reconstitution of the Ku Klux
Klan nearby. Only one black family lives in the city. In this com-
munity, once a Jewish city, "whole classes in school don't have a
single Jewish child in them." Yet Author Edwin Rosskam believes "the
town is alive ... going somewhere ... by some mysterious process ...
this place is still here ... Perhaps I just think so ... Because I want
to believe it." He still lives there, this able author who has written
-this-excitingly fascinating book "Roosevelt, New Jersey."