Purely Commentary
Attitudes of College. Students
Revealed is Congregational Study
A study conducted among college students by a Balti-
more synagogue iChiruk Amuno Congregation) is un-
doubtedly- applicable to most Jewish students in the U S.
The Baltimore survey shows that 58 per cent of the
respondents would not disapprove of intermarriage and
that only 34.7 per cent would still want to be associated
with their synagogue when they establish their own homes_
Yet. 71 per cent said they would ant to be associated with
a Jewish congregation. and the overwhel-ning number.
84 4 per cent consider the effect of Israel on American
Jewry to be positive and state they would identify their
interests with Israel.
Conducted under the direction of a committee con-
sisting of three scholars. Drs. Daniel Thurso, Paul H.
Ephross and Lewis D Hamburger, this study shows that
only 8 per cent of the teen-age srudents suffer from a
feeling of insecurity, that 77 per cent feel the need for
demonstratiorts and rallies for Israel and in defense of
Russian Jewry. with 28 per cent having participated in
such rallies
With 80 per cent assert.ng that they would inter-
date. only 13 per cent said they would not date non-Jews.
34 7 per cent said they would consider marrying non-
Jews, and an additional 24 per cent said they were not
certain. and wtnie IS per cent said their parents would
not permit mixed marr.ages. 58 per cent said that while
their parents would be "very upset - . 17 per cent said
the parezes would be - not too upset" and 3 7 per cent
said the elders would cot care one way or another
Tabular results obtained in the Baltimore congrega-
tional study deserve attention.
Here are iaorneof the reported findings
Most Important Characteristics of a -Good Jevr7
Accept being a Jew and not trying to Inde
Sst =Pct
Leading an ethical and moral life
57 7
Knowing the fundamentals of Judaism
56 3
Believing in God
38 5
Contributing to Jewish chanties
31 3
Working for the equality of all minorny groups 26 6
Supporting Israel
21 4
Keeping a kosher home
62
Belonging to a synagogue
-
8-1
Gaining the respect of nen-Jewish neighbors
44
Attending sers ices on High Holidays
3.7
Reported Religious Observance
Per Cent rtep.rung Per Cent Reporting
asraal or tit ail Lug
• . scree tars e 01
obser ■ rut,
—se • e .late rvazte
Having or attending Passover
Seder
97 7 Pet
2 3 Pc:.
Lighting Hanuka candles
94 7
5 3
Candles are lit at home on
Friday evenings
63 6
36 4
Special Sanbath meal on
Friday evenings
63 0
37 0
Family keeps a kosher home 40. 6
59 4
At least one faintly member
attends a Sabbath morning
service once per month
:excludes grandparents) 2.2 2
77
Eating only kosher food
outside of home
5 1
94 9
Reported Frequency of Synagogue (Claduk Ammon)
Attendance During the Past Year
Not at all
10 1 Pct.
Four to 11 times
40 7
Once a month
6 6
Two or three times a month
1. 4
More often
0
On the basis of a view expressed in the Talmud that
Sadal• 'Varela bad ha. that the ways of the world are
we accept these results as applicable to us as well.
Therefore it would be advisable foe those dealing with
Jewish synagogue needs, with communal and serial needs
in our communities, to take these results to heart.
Perhaps we should also view conditions as being
affected by mounting ratter than reducing problems The
dangers to Jewish identification are growing. While there
are evidences of an increasing anu-Sernitzsm. there are
many evolving situations that will not be helpful in the
task of assuring ties of our youth with their legacy ,
Like their elders, the youth even more pressingly
must learn bow to face issues, how to confront challenges
and attacks. A typical exarr.ple of a nuisance that has
arisen which may cause us damage was a televised dis-
cuss:oat of religious prospects for the corning year. The
three faiths—Judaism. Protestantism and Catholicism—
were represented. Rabbi Edward Sandrow, one of Amer-
ic an e Wry 'a most respected religIOU.S leaders, had to
take issue over the new "Jesus Cult," He cornmented.
frankly, that while individuals base a right to adopt,
whatever faith they choose. that the major religions are
obligated by newly emerging codes not to enter into
proseletineg schemes. Yet, his confreres on the TV pro-
gram giorifed in the public demonstrations which make
the "Joy for Jesus" and other slogans fashionable.
We did not and we do not consider the "Jews for
Jesus" cry. which has been stimulated by sseskausudim
(apostates) and prwelenzers. as a very grave danger,
Yet. it must be a:knew:edged as a nuisance that will not
be too easy to overcome.
Getting our youth to identify. to value their heritage.
to exercise loyalties. is a serious bessuses-s It is not they
t' who are being tested but their elders who must demon-
rirate ability to inspire the young and to earn an embrace-
ment of parents with chi:siren. We hope that It will not be
forged out of the tragic, the ann-Semens pressures.
Urgent Need for Researchers to Seek and Establish
Truths About Israel and to Negate Widely-Spread
Destructive Propaganda ... Self-Hate Adds to Guilt
By Philip
Slomovitz
Urgent Need for a Commission to Establish Truths About Israel
Accusations leveled at Israel that the state is brutal
to its non-Jewish citizens, charges stemming from both
religious and leftist ranks that Israelis are brutal to
prisoners and they are prejudicial toward people of other
faiths, are no longer academic. They are not theoretical.
They are damaging to the Jewish state and to the entire
Jewish people.
It becomes urgently necessary, therefore, to demand
of those in responsible positions, both in Israel and in
world Jewry. to act firmly to disprove the charges and to
establish the facts in their realities.
This call for immediate action is based on our deep
convictions that the charges, which have inspired aM-
mosities towards Israel and which have given a free hand
for bigots, haters and advocates of genocide in the United
Nations. in churches, in newspapers.
We propose that an impartial commission — let it be
composed entirely of Christians and Moslems, if necessary
—be asked to view the existing conditions in Israel with
a view toward presenting the truth as they find it. To
delay such action will contribute toward perpetuation of
the falsehoods, tereby postponing the desired approaches
to peace.
A deplorable example of the misundertsandings that
are being injected in many ranks is the comment Israel
Prinse Minister Golda Meer made, upon her return to her
country after a visit at the Vatican that:
"The Pope said to me at the outset that he found it
hand to understand how the Jewish people, which should
mervil-l. behaves so fiercely- in its own country."
Naturally. the eery able Israeli chief of state knew
how to respond to this restart. For all Jews it is a chal-
lenge: if the Vatican is so easily misled by false rumors
— we repeat ear conviction, based on our experiences in
Israel that the accusations against Israel are unjustified
— why the surprise ever similar spread of prejudiced
attitudes towards Israel!
Clarificanicm of the sadly-distorted issue is imperative
not cis because Christians are being misled by the
charges. Jews. too. are kept in the dark about the basic
facts as long as there is no expose of the untruths and
the affirmation of the sincerity with which Israel tackles
stuat.ons affecting Christians and Moslems, prisoners
and terrorists. A typical example was the demonstration
by Jews with leftist leanings against Mrs. Meir during
her Paris visit. Even worse is the attitude of a group
that calls itself Matzpen—Hebrew for compass—and which
has been causing a great deal of trouble for several years.
It is out of Matzpen that Jewish traitors, spies for Syria,
emerged in Israel. True: their number is small and it is
dint:ash:rig. But they are arrogant, destructive, enemies
of the state into which some were born and in whose
ranks some of them fought in defense and self-defense of
Israel and Israelis. Israel has not recovered from the
shock of discovering several of its youths spying for the
enemy. Matzpen has done more: it has sent emissaries
to the United States and to other countries to spread the
lie against Israel. Perhaps this self-hating group functions
only outside Israel. where they are repudiated. But their
damage is in evidence and it must be repaired.
Two or three years ago, we had a sample of the poison
spread by Jews in the propaganda that was introduced
here, over TV and radio stations and among Wayne State
University- students, by Arie Bober. He stemmed from
Matzpen and he is now reportedly self-exiled from his
Israel homeland. But he managed to spread his propa-
ganda in a book published by Doubleday as an Anchor
original paperback under the title "The Other Israel."
It is a "documentary" aimed at vilifying the Zionist
movement His purpose becomes evident in the intro-
ductory words: "The Zionist state was born in the violent
expropriation and expulsion from their country of the
Palestinian Arabs, and the process continues today." Is
this true? Is there such a process? We deny it, and we
view Boberisin as the self-hatred that accounts for treason
that stems from spying. How else could youngsters who
were born in a kibutz and had seen the development of a
free society under duress and constant attack from Arabs
aiming to annihilate them and their homeland have been
induced to betray their families and neighbors?
Bober managed to include in his book the attacks on
his countryn en by other leftists. Communist propagan-
dists, extremists, Matzpeniks who are so few and so
thoroughly discredited that they hardly count. But they
assume importance when a major publishing house pro-
duces the book that carries all of their venom against
their own people.
All of the anti-Israel documents, the Israeli Socialist
Organization assertions that combine the Matzpen plat-
form, are in this book. There are distortions that are
harmful to a major plank in the leftists' program — that
of providing a state with independence for so-called Pal-
estinians. There is justice in some of these proposals,
provided they are approached with a view to humanism
that does not deny justice to Jews End Israelis. Matzpen's
program as Boberized in the Doubleday-published paper-
back does deny humanism to Jews.
Subject to challenge is a statement like this in an
article by Akiva Orr in Bober's book: "Saving Jewish
lives from h ider is considered by Ben-Gurion a potential
threat to Zionism unless the Jews thus saved arc brought
to Palestine. When Zionism had to choose between the
Jews and the Jewish state, it unhesitantly preferred the
latter." We reject this as a distortion, as a misrepresenta-
tion of the Zionist attitudes as they were advanced in the
years when, in fighting Hitlerism and striving for practical
rescue efforts for the victims of Nazism, Zionists empha-
sized Palestine as the haven. It was the only place avail-
able and the rest of mankind refused to help. Socialists
were among the worst offenders.
Bober and his associates have gathered data—not
all authentic—indicting Israel for scores of crimes, for al-
leged discrimination against Arabs, without mentioning
even a single instance of attacks on Israelis and threats to
Israel's very existance by Arabs. Their approach to the
issues is so unfair that the one-sidedness and bias in
what is termed "The Other Israel" condemns the hodge-
podge of charges as a volume unmatched in prejudice.
This type of hate tract echoes the vituperations of the
Arab and Communist blocs at the UN.
How is the negativism to be fought? How can truth
be established? Is there a way of setting the record
straight so that the charges leveled at all Jews through
the anti-Zionist propaganda can be effectively refuted?
Let' ■ return to the original theme: by establishing a
proper commission, let its membership be composed
entirely of non-Jews if it'll serve the purpose to search
and establish truth—no matter what the cost, perhaps
we can let the world know both bow distortions are man-
ufactured and basic facts hidden, and how urgent it is for
realities to be fully on the record.
There are many Christians who know the truth and
unhesitatingly assert it. Let such an element rule in the
repudiation of the Big Lie. And as proof of the existence
of the honorable faction whose members will not let even
their coreligionists pull the wool over their eyes we now
call to witness an eminent Catholic scholar, Msgr. Higgins.
Let him testify in support of our plea for proper evidence
to destroy the lie that harms Israel and all Jewry.
Israel and Catholic-Jewish Relations in the United States
By Msgr. George G. Biggins of Catholic-Jewish relations
and an even greater insult
Secretary for Research,
to their Jewish friends and
U.S. Catholic Conference
Fattier Joseph Ryan. S.J., colleagues. Equally insult-
speaking in Washington on ing to our Jewish fellow
November 30 under the aus- citizens is Father Ryan's
pices of the Muddle East Af- cavalier attempt to rewrite
fairs Council, charged that the history of the Six-Day
ecumenical relations between War in 1967 and to play
Ctunstians and Jews in this down or make light of its
country have suffered from military significance. "Since
JewLsh insistence on support 1967." he told his Washing-
for Israel as a proof that ton audience, "ecumenical
Christians are not anti-Sem- relations have been based
itic. Because of their limited on a false understanding of
contacts with the Middle East the situation. They have
and with Arabs. Father Ryan been based on the myth that
said. Amerkan Catholics are there was a threat of anni-
heavily- thfluenced by "how hilation of the Jewish peo-
Americans in general look at ple for the second time in
the Middle East, namely with a century." He branded this
a marked partiality for Is- "myth" as "clearly false."
rael,
for this partiality The Six-Dap War, he said,
"Reasons
was "not a threat to (Is-
are many. As Americans we rael's) security. -
are culturally prejudiced, ig-
Father Ryan can believe
norant of the Middle East, that if he wants to. I don't
made mute by tear of anti- believe a word of it. To the
Semitism t from within or contrary. I think it's a com-
without), and acutely sensi- plete falsification of the his-
tive to Jewish pressures." torical record.
That's a gratuitous insult
Father Ryan has been
to those American Catholics promoting this line persist-
who are working in the field ently' for some time with a
passion worthy of a better part to undermine the very
cause. In fact, he has spok- effective work being done in
en in this vein so frequent- this country by Father Ed-
ly during the past several ward
Flannery, executive
years that he has won the secretary of the U.S. Bish-
unenviable reputation of be- ops' Committee on Catholic-
and by
ing one of the most vocal of Jewish Relations
all the pro-Arab, anti-Israel his diocesan counterparts
propagandists operating in throughout the United States.
Nor is this the first time
the United States at the
present time. Actually he is that Ryan has tried to pull
the
rug out from under Fath-
stationed in Beirut, Leban-
on, but he seems to spend er Flannery. Some time ago
a lot of time in the United he sent a letter to every
States and, somehow or bishop in the United States
other, manages to hit the trying to discredit Flannery's ,
anti-Israel lecture circuit in work in the field of Catholic
this country with surprising Jewish relations. On other oc-
regularity.
casions he has written sur
Father Ryan is obviously reptitiously to Father Flan-
entitled to his own opinion nery's immediate superior
about the Israel-Arab crisis, with the same purpose
but, in my judgment, he is mind. Now he is at it again
doing a great disservice to this time even more mis
somewhat
the cause of Catholic-Jewish chievously, albeit
relations in this country by more subtly.
As Father Flannery's pro
injecting his own political
views into the ecumenical tern predecessor on the staf
dialogue and, even worse, of the Bishops' Committee o
by trying—none too adroit- Catholic-Jewish Relations,
(Continued on Page 7)
ly, I might add—to play the
Vatican off against Amer-
THE DETROIT JEWISH
ican Catholics. This is an
2—Friday, Jan. 26, 1973
awkward attempt on
his