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 fdtaprial Assoets-
lion. Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17515 W. Nine Mile. Suite 865. Southfield, Mich. 48076.
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DREW LIEBERWITZ
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Advertising
City Editor
•usinass M
Editor and ► oblishar

Sabbath Scriptural Selections

This Sabbath, the eighth day of Adar 1, 5733, the following srcipturat selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Erod. 25:1-27:19. Prophetical portion, 1 Kings 5:26-6:13.

Candle lighting, Friday, Feb. 9, 5:39 p.m.

VOL. LXII. No. 22

Page Four

February 9, 1973

Tragedy on Campus and Search for SolutLon

It happened before and it is happening
again. Under the guise of rebellion we are
witnessing a campus inspiration to hatred
that does not and can not cement good feel-
ings among all elements in our population.
The campus newspapers have undergone
changes that have encouraged the sort of
non-cooperation that hardly fits into the
wholesomeness of an academic existence.
Indeed, it occurred before on the Wayne
State University campus, and we are suffer-
ing again from outbursts of meanness that
undermines rather than unites the various
elements in the student population.
President George E. Gullen and his as-
sociates on the board of governors of Wayne
State University expressed justified resent.
ment against the anti-Israel articles by a
biased clergyman who distorted facts and
even charged that Jews had capitalized on
the Six Million figure.
This, too, has happened before—that Nazi
bigots accused us of falsifying figures, as if
we were seeking gains from the horrible
losses that registered for the German people
and for humanity the most dastardly crimes
ever committed against a segment of world's
society. That campus editors should have
given a platform of such hate, stemming
from the era of the swastika and emphasized
under a swastika, manufested one of the
most shocking examples of youthful obstre-
perousness, veiled as mutineering, that has
yet been witnessed in college ranks.
President Gullen and his associates under-
took to repudiate vilness. They were con-
fronted with abuse that bordered on ugli-
ness. There is no doubt that under any con-
ditions of differing views, on any subject,
when there is a desire to elevate standards,
people can get together. But instead of deal-
ing with the issues that had arisen, out of
the prejudices that motivated the anti-Semitic
campus incidents, the student paper's editors
have introduced the Black issue.
It is on this score, primarily, that there
is reason for added resentment coupled with
deep regret that such divisiveness should be
sponsored by any group, black or white,
Christian or Jewish. If it were a Jewish man-
ifestation we'd be thoroughly disgraced and
subjected to shame. Now we must share the
shame that some young Jews should be part-
ners in the hate-spreading we have witnessed
on our university's campus.
We would like to believe that just as the
Jewish self-hating and self-degrading young-
sters are a minority, that the black commu-
nity will have a similar judgment for those
from its ranks who have caused the tragic
situation in the midst of a great university.
Naturally, we are indebted to Dr. Gullen
and the WSU board of governors for its
courageous stand. Regrettably, this is not
enough. There is need not only for an apol-
ogy but primarily. for correction of condi-
tions which make possible the shocking di-
visiveness introduced in a university atmo-
sphere.

The tragedy is that the guilty ones do not
even wish to learn. They still believe that
ugly vituperativeness accomplishes a pur-
pose. By their tactics they perpetuate the
lowest in journalistic approaches. Instead of
raising the standards of journalism they in-
sist that what had preceded could not pos-
sibly satisfy them in attaining their purpose.
Resulting from the methods pursued by
the college paper in its present status is that
instead of publishing a college newspaper
the community is subjected to venom in the
personal diatribes the writers resort to and
in granting platforms to venomous outsiders
like the hater whose writings merited the
swastika in the judgment of the campus
editors.
There is need for the good college news-
papers. When a good periodical suffers, the
community suffers. When a wholesome jour-
nalistic venture faces difficulties, the citizen-
ry becomes concerned. Seriously considered
was the condition in which the Columbus
Daily Spectator found itself. It was in finan-
cial trouble, and because it is a newspaper
and not a rag it found sympathizers. That is
why the New York Times, on Dec. 11, 1972,
in an editorial entitled "Students' Voice," had
this to say editorially:

The threatened demise of The Columbia Daily
Spectator ought not be shrugged off as the curtail-
ment of just another extracurricular activity. The na•
tion's leading undergraduate newspapers have com-
bined the functions of training ground for future Jour-
nalists and forum for the expression of student opin-
ion. These publications provide faculty, administra-
tion and outside community with a barometer of the
student mood.
Making such undergraduate papers financially
independent of the university is the objective of a
salutary trend to turn these newspapers into more
economically realistic and journalistically responsible
organs. But the transition from subsidy to independ-
ence has generally required a longer phasing-out
period than Columbia's administration has provided.
Spectator's disappearance would be more than the
elimination of a frill; it would be the silencing of
an important student voice.

In dignity, honorably, possessing self-re-
spect, this could have been said about a col-
lege newspaper in our own midst if it had
manifested reasonableness, if it sought to
elevate journalistic standards, had it under-
taken to provide the students in the Greater
Detroit area with something to be proud of.
This, as is shown in the evidence that has
piled up against the existing paper, has not
developed.
Is it possible to correct the situation as it
exists at present? Will the young editors who
are so anxious to irritate the community will-
ing to learn and to cooperate? Hasn't Dr.
Gullen offered them that opportunity? Isn't
this the basis for good will among black and
white, people of all faiths?
Will these remain mere questions or will
we be blessed with positive responses in the
spirit of the American—the human—way of
life? Once again we must wait for time to
prove the solver and the humanizer.

Refuting Falsehoods About Zionist Ideal

Confusion over the various issues that
have arisen in the Middle East has become
even more complicated because of the
distortion of the position of the Palestinians,
the claims in their behalf and the attitude of
Israelis.
Few humanitarian principles have been
subjected to as much abuse as the libertarian-
ism of Zionism.

Misrepresentation of the Zionist idea pre-
sents a great challenge to the movement lead-
ership and membership, to the Israelis and
the government officials. There is need for
clarification. In our own ranks, young Jews
have fallen prey to falsehoods about the move-
ment. The sooner the truth is established, the
better for all concerned in assuring an image
of fairness for a great libertarian ideal.

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A Plea for Friendship

'Letter to an Arab Friend'
Proposes Practical Conciliation

Andre Chouraqui is deputy mayor of Jerusalem. He was a Jerusa-
lemite from earliest days in modern Palestine's history—he was forced
out of the city when Jordan took control of it in 1948.
Among his close friends was an Arab fellow-student, and to him he
now addresses "letter to an Arab Friend"—title of his book published
by University of Massachusetts Press.
The cover of this interesting book has the Hebrew words "Haver
Aravi"—"Arab Friend." It is appropriate because of the warmth of
the author's message to his former classmate who now again is a fellow
Jerusalemite, with Israel's assumption of the administration of the
Holy City.
There is power to the arguments advanced by Chouraqui for firm-
ness in friendship, for cooperation, for kinship and rejection of warfare
intended by Israel's enemies for the Jewish state's destruction.

The immense value of the book, however, lies in the author's
understanding of the history of the Middle East and of the Arab
states, his background as an Oriental Jew, his knowledge of lan-
guages—this book, life his earlier works, was written in French
and was translated into English by William V. Gael.

Chouraqui delves into Muslim history. He reviews the background
of Mohammed's enmity for Jewry because Jews refused to follow him
as a religious leader. In tact, this "Letter to an Arab Friend" should
be viewed as an outline of history that should bring peace between
Arabs and Jews but instead has caused enmities that have led to the
present conflict.

In his quest for friendship, Chouraqui proposes a peaceful way
of solving eithorpships of a "Jordanian-Israeli treaty on nationality,"
permitting Arabs who live In Israel to retain their Jordanian cit-
izenship.' Jerusalem, of course, would remain under Jewish ad-
ministration, but a Jordanian flag could fly over the extra-terri-
torial areas, like embassies, special Jordan-oriented structures, etc.

On this score, he makes the point that flags of other Arab nations
may soon fly in Jerusalem and he suggests that the Jordanian flag flying
in Jerusalem is but the beginning in the process for peace.
In the preface to the book, Shimon Peres, who was Israel minister
for Arab affairs at the time he wrote it, commends Chouraqui for his
approach to the Arab problem, for his "dream of the reconciliation of
Israel and the Arab states," and he points to the economic cooperation
and other developments that already point to achievements in that
direction.

Adventures in the Galilee

Pre-State Frontier Life in Israel
Told in JPS Covenant Book

A new Jewish Publication Society Covenant Book for young readers
serves as splendid reading for lovers of adventure stories while it
provides historical background in describing elements in Israel's de-
velopment.
Yehoash Biber, in "Adventures in the Galilee," tells stories about
experiences in the Galilee while the British were still governing the
Holy Land. In this story, translated from Biber's Hebrew text by Jose-
phine Bacon, the reader is taken through many experiences which terve
to revive interest in the days of struggles for autonomy.
It is like a Frontier Story, with Safed and Tiberias as the centers
in a modernized Wild West, and besides the Jewish heroes there are
the Druze and the Arab children.
There are some of the tense moments and primarily the festive
that introduce the pre-Israel experiences in this splendid story. The
illustrations by Assaf Berg add to the story's merits.
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