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 Assorts.
tion. Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co.. 17513 W. Nine Mile, Suite 863, Southfield, Mich. 48071.
Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan ■
and Additional Mailing Offices. Subscription in a year. Foreign 1118
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
CAROM M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City Editor
DREW LIEIERWITZ
Advertising
Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 19th day of Kislev, 5733, the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Gen. 32:4 • 36:43. Prophetical portion, Hosea 11:7 - 12:12.
Candle Lighting, Friday, Nov. 24, 4:47 p.m.
VOL. LXII. No. 11
Page Four
November 24, 1972
Moshe Dayan's Current Mission to U. S.
Israel Defense Minister Moshe Dayan
plays a double role. He is the hero in Israel's
defense policy making, and on occasion he
is also the diplomat. On his current visit to
this country he played the peaceful role of
negotiator with State Department spokesmen.
It was undoubtedly a wise move to send
the courageous Israeli representative to Wash-
ington because he was in position not only
to ask for uninterrupted sales of planes that
are vital to Israel's defense but at the same
time to speak authoritatively on the existing
situation and the urgency of retaining a posi-
tion that will prevent any attempt to accom-
plish Arab aims to destroy his country.
Full details of diplomatic discussions are
never fully revealed at the time of the de-
liberations. Even the most dependable leaks
never tell the full story. But one thing ap-
pears certain. It has been rumored since the
presidential election that there now will be
pressure upon Israel from the State Depart-
ment upon Israel to return to consideration
of the (Secretary of State William) Rogers
Plan which called for Israel's withdrawal
from the occupied territories.
If this is not being shelved, at least
temporarily, at least the only compulsive
item that appears to have been touched upon
is the necessity again to review conditions
and to plan some form of accord on a peace
plan. There is nothing new in this. Partial
withdrawal from the Suez Canal had already
been discussed in the past, and a plan had
been formulated for a measure of amity
based on such an idea, provided it would as-
sure an end to warfare. Therefore, whatever
may have been reviewed could well be a re-
capitulation of past discussions.
General Dayan certainly is not a man to
capitulate. He has dealt with American lead-
ers before, and they know each other well.
It is to be expected that whatever pressures
may be hinted—and at present the hope is
that whatever rumors have been spread about
renewed pressures upon Israel are mainly
the results of columnists' speculations—will
either be rejected or deferred for a time
lengthy enough to achieve accord between
the warring nations in the meantime.
Political prognosticators may have served
Israel well with the warnings of an impend-
ing "return" by Washington to previously
rejected schemes. Remarks by Joseph Sisco
had already been interpreted as serving notice
from Washington upon Israel to "follow or-
ders" or else. It is doubtful whether such a
complete about-face would be possible under
any circumstances. But the rumors of new
pressures upon Israel served to place the
leaders of the Jewish state on the alert. It
must have been with such armor that Moshe
Dayan faced William Rogers and others with
whom he met in Washington. Those who
know the Israel general with the patched eye
won't sell him short.
International human rights principles are
affected by the recent Russian imposition of
a "head tax" upon those desiring to emi-
grate. The Russian claim of reimbursement
for free education provided its citizens ne-
gates the basic policies of democratic nations.
While an early UNESCO statement on the
question of "emigration of talent" had called
on "member states to take appropriate meas-
ures to restrict encouragement of foreign
scientists to leave, or not return to, their
country," a more recent declaration on the
subject of human rights, adopted by experts
who met, in June 1972, at Uppsala, Sweden,
defended on any generally recognized legal
grounds, Including those embodied in Soviet law.
It is true that under Soviet law, graduates of
professional schools are required to accept as•
signed employment in the profession for which
they were trained for a period of up to three
years. However, the law contains no provision
for reimbursement to the state by individuals
who forsake the occupation for which they were
trained, even during the obligatory three-year peri-
od of indenture. To impose such taxes on profes-
sionals who have worked in their fields for a num-
ber of years is to ignore the fact that their ef-
forts have already repaid the state for its invest-
ment. Furthermore, unlike emigrants from the
United States and other Western countries who
choose to retire to countries in the Soviet bloc,
emigrants who leave the Soviet Union must for-
feit the pensions they have earned. Such for-
feiture must, of course, be seen as another offset
for any alleged educational debt.
"There is even serious question about wheth-
er the "head tax" has any standing in Soviet law.
According to a 1958 decree of the Presidium of
the Supreme Soviet, all decrees of the Presidium
concerning matters of general and normative im
port—as this surely is—must be published in the
records of the Supreme Soviet. Yet, as of Sept.
14, 1972, the records of the Supreme Soviet
contain no reference to such a tax. Thus It would
seem that a ruling which has the effect of pre-
venting many persons from exercising their fun-
damental liberties has been imposed by adminis-
trative fiat in defiance not only of the general
international norm, but of Soviet law as well."
• ,
Kremhn s Inherited Anti-Jewish Policy
asserted that no state "shall subject a per-
son or his family to reprisals, sanctions, pen-
alties or harassment, for seeking to exercise
or for exercising the right to leave a country."
Basically, this re-emphasizes Article 13 of
the Univertal Declaration of Human Rights
which states:
"Everyone has the right to leave any
country, including his own, and to return
to his country."
Russia's role, puzzling as it is, arouses many
concerns over the East.West conflict that often
involve very elementary matters on which there
is difficulty to reach agreement because of the
suspicions and the constant antagonistic ap-
proaches to human needs. For example, in the
matter involving the American proposal for fIrm•
ness to end the spread of terrorism, Russian
spokesmen at the UN have failed to cooperate and
have given comfort to the bloc that condones
hijacking and imposes horror upon air travelers.
A study conducted for the American Jew-
ish Committee on the subject of the "head
tax" reached these conclusions:
"The Soviet Constitution guarantees its cit-
rens an unconditional right to free education at
all leve14 (Article 1211, and nowhere suggests an
obligation on the part of individual citizens to
reimburse the state for that education under
particular circumstances. The imposition of such
an obligation is clearly a retrogression which
runs counter to the worldwide thrust for free
universal education. To impose such an obliga.
tion retroactively—that is, after the citizens have
availed themselves of a right (heir Constitution
assured them was without strings—cannot be
Principles involving human decencies
have been negated by prejudices. The Rus-
sian position is motivated by the bigotry
created by the pro-Arab position, by an in-
herited anti-Semitism, by a continuing harass-
ment of Jews, many of whom had already ren-
dered great services to the Soviet Union.
There could have been a continuing friend-
ship between Israel and Russia, between Rus-
sians and Jews. Unfortunately, the discrim-
inatory trends inherited from Czarism have
been perpetuated in the Kremlin. Will time,
with its salve, also solve this bitter issue?
The ransom tax that could bar the way
to Israel for thousands of Russian Jews is a
major issue that calls for international action.
Feuchtwanger's Jewish Interest
Described in Evaluative Work
Reviews of novel< and other writings by Lion Feuchtwanger have
appeared In the mary hundreds. Yet, in his preface to "Lion Feucht-
wanger—The Man, His Ideas, His Work," which he collected and
edited, Dr. John M. Spalek of the State University of New York at
Albany states that "this volume of essays is the first attempt in any
language to present a comprehensive treatment of Lion Feuchtwanger's
works." He justifies tLis contention by maintaining that only brief re-
views have appeared hitherto, with an emphasis that is especially true
of evaluations of the great writer's accomplishments in Fnelirth.
Published by Hennessey and Ingalls of
Los Angeles, where the widow of Lion
Feuchtwanger now resides, this volume
contains 18 essays, including a biograph•
ical sketch of the famous author. Three
of the articles concern Feuchtwanger's
concern with the themes of progress,
America and Judaism. Eleven essays
deal with Feuchtwarger's theory of the
drama and dramaturgy.
Hilde Waldo, who was Feuchtwanger's
secretary, wrote the biographical sketch.
In the important essay on "Lion
Feuchtwanger and Judaism." Prof. Wal-
ter A. Berendsohn mikes interesting ob-
servations on the eminent author's many
Jewish interests, his writings on Jewish
historical subjects and the characters -
Frucluwanger
under review. He comment", on Feucht-
wanger's treatment of the "Jew Suess" theme. Of Interest is this ref-
erence to his literary work: "In 1907 he coronleted his doctoral dis-
sertation on Heinrich Heine's novel fragment 'Der Rabbi von Bache•
rach,' a subject which gave him the opportunity to aptly his exten-
sive knowledge of Jewish traditions."
It is noted In the Berendsohn essay: "In retrospect, Feuchtwanger
explicitly acknowledged the great predominance of Jewish theme, in
works: 'Of the lf novels that I wrote, seven are concerned ex-
clusively with Jewisli subjects.' "
Of course, Berendsohn devotes himself also to consideration of
Feuchtwanger's series of books on the Jewish historian Josephus
Flavius.
In this critical analysis, Berendsohn makes this significant com-
ment on Feuchtwanger and his works: "Judais:n can certainly be
interpreted in many ways, and Feuchtwanger could be criticized from
various points of view.
let me cite only one sentence
which contains a highly subjective assertion: 'They (the Jews) consider
the practice of literature to be the highest profession,' Not creative
writing but the
of the Torah and the Talmud enjoys the greatest
respect among pious Jews; such study is undertaken for the sake of
God and not for the sake of the intellect.
"We sense in Feuchtwanger's attempt to explain the religious
cohesiveness of the Jews that he tries to do this by rational means
and thus tends to secularize the spiritual. But at the same time it
is clear that he derives his own literary work from the spirit of
Judaism as he understands it. Humanism, justice and yeace are the
lights of Feuchtwanger's work. He himself is completely convinced
that this work is in keeping with the spirit of Judaism. For him there
was never any question of approaching Catholicism, like Franz Werfel,
or of converting to it, like Alfred Doeblin."
•
Literary student. will find supplementary interest in the essay
by Prof. William
Yuill on "Jew Suess: Anatomy of a Best-
Seller."
Then there is the valuable study, "Lion Feuchtwanger's 'Die -
Juedin von Toledo,'" adds to an understanding of Feuchtwanger's
approach to Judaism and his deep interest in the faith of his fathers
in which he became absorbed.
Other noted sch.,:irs who are included with essays in this volume
of tribute add imme.. , urably to the important book about a most im-
portant author.
his
To illustrate,
study
Ecv..ard