Purely Commentary
Baseball and the Fair Play Lesson . . . An American
Transgression When the Soviet Anti-Semitic Threat
Is Applied in This Country... Notable Hias Services
Shocking Echo of Russian Threat of Anti-Semitism in State Department
On a single day in Washington—Thurs-
day, March 29—two contradictory expres-
sions were uttered.
Addressing the State Department For-
eign Policy Conference for Editors and
Broadcasters, Deputy Secretary of State
Kenneth D. Rush, in a prediction that Con-
gress will grant favorite trade grant to the
Soviet Union and that the USSR will not
enforce the education tax on Soviet Jewish
emigrants, warned that contrary action by
Congress will incite a new wave of anti-
Semitism in Russia.
At almost the very same time that Rush
was delivering the apologetics in behalf of
the State Department, Senator Henry M.
Jackson addressed the U. S. Senate and
charged: "Last week's managed news of a
significant shift in Soviet emigration policy
was a fraud—and a transparent one at that."
Contrary to the position taken by Rush,
who spoke of the need for "a very respon-
sible attitude on the part of Congress," Sen-
ator Jackson declared in his Senate speech:
"I will not put a dollar sign on freedom."
Anti-Semitic threats are not new occur-
rences in Jewish experiences with Russians.
In Czarist and Communist times alike, there
was resort to protests against discrimina-
tions there were counter-attacks in the form
of threats that by talking too much in de-
fense of their fellow-Jews in Russia Amer-
ican Jews will be inspiring new waves of
anti-Semitism. But then spokesmen for the
American government undertake to echo
the Russian threats with similar admoni-
tions, often also implying the danger of an
emergence of renewed anti-Semitism in this
Russian Emigration to the United States
-
So much is being said about Russian Jews settling in
country, it is time to call a halt to panic
and to threats.
The State Department must deal with
76 senators who have gone along with Sena-
tor Jackson—Michigan's Senator Philip A.
Hart among them—in demanding that the
Soviets adopt a humane attitude toward their
Jewish citizens before there is favored trade
treatment by the United States. The sena-
torial demands encourage Russian Jews and
their kinsmen everywhere in their faith that
liberty- and justice-loving people everywhere
will not concede to the Kremlin the right to
oppress and to defy the International Bill
of Rights which affirms the right of citizens
of all nations to emigrate if they wish and
not to be molested or penalized in the proc-
ess. Mere taken concessions made by the
USSR thus far have been proven to be tem-
and Kishinev, was the area of origin for 31 of the immi-
grants. This was followed by the Latvian SSR (principal
Israel—the ancient homeland is, after all, USSR Jewry's
city Riga); the Byelorussian SSR including such promi-
major interest—that little attention has been given to
nent Jewish population centers as Pinsk, Bobruisk and
these who have come to this country.
Minsk; the Lithuanian SSR (principal city Vilna, which
United Hias Service, which supervises the resettlement
had been called the "Jerusalem of Lithuania"); the Uzbek
programs, has compiled an interesting record of the new
SSR in the Asian part of Russia, whose principal city is
migration. A -chart prepared for Hias by former Detroiter
,Tashkent; and finally the Georgian SSR (principal city
Tbilsi) in the southern part of the USSR.
Joseph Edelman, who is in charge of Hias public relations,
shows that 453 Jews came to the U. S. from Russia last
"Most of the communities of origin, with such ex
year, four of them having settled in Michigan. The com-
ceptions as Tashkent, Moscow, Leningrad, Novosibirsk
piled figures as released by Hias for Jan. 1 to Dec. 31,
and Tbilsi, were included in the area designated as th e
1972, are:
"Pale of Settlement" in Czarist Russia.
Individually Community
"Most of the USSR arrivals are from territories ac
State
Sponsored
Sponsored
Total
quired
by the USSR since 1939. These include the Western
California
21
14
Ukraine as well as the territories annexed by the USSR
35
Colorado
1
1
during the era of the Hitler-Stalin pact in 1940 and 1941
Connecticut
7
1
before
the• beginning of the German-Soviet War—West
Florida
5
Byelorussia and the Baltic states of Lithuania, and Latvia,
5
Illinois
19
3
each of which had a substantial number of Jews.
22
Maryland
3
1
4
"Many. of the arrivals had lived in so-called "market
Massachusetts
2
2
4
towns," small, semi-urban communities, the legendary
Michigan
4
4
shtetl which provided the locale for intensive Jewish life.
New Jersey
25
5
30
For
a brief period between the end of World War I and
New York State
109
171
280
the Russian Civil War, when the Czarist Empire disinte-
Ohio
18
27
45
grated and major parts of the 'Jewish Pale,' large cen-
Oklahoma
3
3,
ters of Jewish life in Poland, Lithuania, Bessarabia, and
Pennsylvania
4
2
6
considerable portions of White Russia, Volhynia, Podolia,
Texas
2
2
passed from Russian to Polish, Lithuanian and Romanian
Wisconsin
sovereignty.
5
5
"During and after World War II a number of these
Total
214
239
453
areas were annexed by the Soviet Union and some of the
There is additional interest in the Hias report about
territories were included in the republics of the Ukraine,
the areas from which Russian Jews emigrated. They came
Moldavia, Lithuania and Latvia—principal sources of UHS
from 15 Soviet republics, as indicated in the following:
assisted emigration.
Republic
Total
Male Female
"Thus, in addition to the complete takeover of Latvia,
Byelorussian SSR
15
8
7
Lithuania and Estonia, each of which become a separate
Georgian SSR
2
1
1
Soviet Republic, the West Ukraine was taken from Poland
Latvian SSR
23
11
12
and annexed to the Ukrainian SSR; West Byelorussia taken
Lithuanian SSR
10
6
4
from
Poland was incorporated in the Byelorussian SSR;
Moldavian SSR
31
14
17
Bessarabia taken from Romania and included in the Mol-
Russian Soviet Federated
davian SSR; North Bukovina taken from Romania and in-
Socialist Republic
58
27
31
corporated
in the Ukrainian SSR; the Sub-Carpathian area
Ukrainian SSR
306
144
162
taken from Czechoslovakia and incorporated in the Ukra-
Uzbek SSR
8
3
5
inian SSR."
Total
453
214
Compared with the tens of thousands of Jews who are
239
It is noteworthy that the 453 settlers in this country
migrating from Russia to Israel, the American figure is
included 25 youngsters in ages of a month to five years
minute. Yet its reality has considerable importance as an
and that the oldest group, numbering 107, was in the ages
indication that this country remains one of the havens of
21 to 30.
refuge for settlers from lands of oppression. And the Hias
There are other, interesting figures in the Hias re
role as the guide to newcomers to America is an unin-
port as compiled by Edelman. According mainly to fig-
terrupted one.
*
ures secured from the U.S. Department of Justice, Immi-
gration and Naturalization Service, adjusted to Jewish
You Don't Buy Fair Play in the 5-and-10-Cent-Store
emigrants, 5,520 came to this country last year. The data
If the philosopher - comedian-former-sports-writer who
just released indicate the following:
now is dignified with a column on the last page of the
Area of Last Permanent Residence
Fiscal 1972
Detroit News had enjoyed a better image on the basis
Europe
680
of fair play, his yarmulka comment might have drawn
Canada
500
a laugh.
Latin America (including Cuba)
1,200
After all, he should be given the benefit of the doubt:
North Africa (including Egypt)
120
he might have referred to (if he knows anything about
Asia (excluding Israel)
70
it) the red yarmulka of Catholic dignitaries.
But he doesn't merit such consideration. Therefore,
2,570
when he wrote about somebody he is deriding that "he
Israel
2,950
packs his best polyester yarmulka, spats and bathing
suit
and, for good measure, he tucks six marijuana
Total
5,520
cigarets into his suitcase — just in case," he opened
For those who have had occasion to benefit from Hias
himself to the resentment some of our readers have ex-
in early years of large Jewish migrations to this country,
pressed. There is something in that mind that has robbed
this is revealing. There no longer is the large influx of
him of the fair play we expect from a sports writer.
Jews to this country, and more than half the number who
come here in 1972 were from Israel.
Play Ball .. • and Let's Enjoy Fair Play
For the record, viewed historically and sociologically,
What a glorious American tradition—that the cry
the study of migrants from Russia will be of great value
"Play Ball" carries with it the great tradition of fair play
for students of current developments in the years to come.
and makes all Americans kindred souls.
Edelman comments in his analysis of the Russian migra-
There might be a battle on the field, or in the club-
tion to this country:
house, or in the choice of players.
"The largest number, consisting of 306 persons or
On the field there is fair play—and the sportsman-
68 per cent of the total, came from the Ukrainian SSR,
ship that distinguishes the American spirit lifts us to
which includes such well-known Jewish population centers
great heights as the new baseball season starts and as it
as Czernovitz, Kiev, Kolomea, Lvov, and Odessa among
affects the thinking and the idealism of all, regardless of
others. Fifty-eight persons, 13 per cent of the total, came from
race or creed.
the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic including
In the American spirit, the Play Ball signal calls for
such cities as Leningrad, Moscow, and Novosibirsk. The
the
wiping
out of prejudices and for the perpetuation of
Moldavian SSR, including such well-known cities as Belz
fair play.
•
By Philip
Slomovitz
porary efforts at face-saving in order to
prevent the threatened action by the U. S.
Congress to deny favored trade agreements
to the Russians if they persist in discrimi-
nating against Jews.
The resort to threats of anti-Semitism is
not a fair way of dealing with the issue. It
is a resort to moral blackmail. It is not a
new tactic for Russia and it is especially
inexcusable when an American spokesman
resorts to it and equates the American po-
sition with Russia's. If Kenneth D. Rush's
statements truly express the State Depart-
ment view, we can be grateful to him for
exposing a shocking condition on a high
level of government policy in this country
and the response should be in the form of
as much protest against the American po-
sition as against the Kremlin's.
Hashomer Hatzair and Ein Hashofet Pioneers
An important Detroit link with Eretz Israel, with pre-
statehood Palestine, is recalled on the occasion of the
Hashomer Hatzair 50th anniversary celebration.
Detroiters who pioneered as early settlers in Pak
stine had their beginnings in the ranks both of Habonim
and Hashomer Hatzair. Among the earliest enrollees for
halutzic work in the first kibutzim were very young boys
and girls who were affiliated with the ultra-liberal Hasho-
mer Hatzair.
Several of the Detroiters were among the pioneers
who established the Ein Hashofet kibutz named in honor
of Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis. One of them
was a martyr to the cause of Jewish national rehabilita-
tion. Ephraim Philip Ticktin was a very young boy when
he went to plant on barren soil and to tedn the sheep in
Ein Hashofet. It was in early 1938 when he and Eliezer
Korngold of Toronto went a bit outside the kibutz to plant
trees. They were warned not •to go too far. But a gang of
30 Arabs attacked the two unarmed and helpless youths
and they were murdered brutally.
His son was born in Ein Hashofet six months after
his death, and there is an Ephraim Ticktin family in Israel
pursuing the tasks to which the Detroit loyalist had dedi-
cated himself as an early pioneer in a kibutz that is now
one of the proudest in Israel.
There were other Detroiters in Ein Hashofet—and one
of them, Yirmiyahu Haggai, distinguished himself as an
editor of the Mapam daily newspaper Al ha-Mishmar. He.
translated and edited •a history of the Jewish people, on
visits in his native U. S. he lectured extensively. His
death, while in his 40s, was a loss to Israel and to Jewry.
Yirmiyahu Haggai's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph
Haggai, and his sister, Tikva, lived in Ein Hashofet for
several years. Joseph Haggai will be recalled as one of
the most popular and most effective Hebrew teachers and
Yiddish lecturers in Detroit. Mrs. Haggai and daughter
Tikva continue their interest in Israel and Ein Hashofet
as Detroit residents. Their grandchildren are active kibutz-
niks. These are interesting recollections on the occasion of
a significant anniversary of an interesting Zionist move-
ment.
A Large Parade in Jerusalem
On Israel's 25th anniversary—the actual date for
the observance will be Monday, May 7, the fifth day of
the Hebrew month of Iyar—there will be a parade and
a display of the nation's prowess. Bleachers are already
being assembled and 300,000 spectators are expected to
watch the demonstrations in the reunited Holy City.
There are differences of opinion over the value of
such a vast display and it is said that Moshe Dayan dis-
agrees with the minister of tourism, Moshe Kol, over the
necessity for an expense of some 20,000,000 Israel pounds
—a cost_of nearly $4,000,000.
Moshe Kol has been the master mind of tourism and
has rendered Israel country many services. Besides ad-
vancing the tourist trade, he has secured large American
investments in hotels and other media needed to encour-
age tourists tc come to Israel and to have good accommo-
dations there.
On the question of a great parade we are in agree-
ment with Defense Minister Dayan. The plans represent
false pride. Israel's genius should be demonstrated not
in its military strength but in the people and in thr
great cultural traditions.
The present plans are, we believe, in error. It's a
pity that the consideration of the wisdom of the decisions
for an unnecessary expenditure could not have been dis-
cussed sooner. But if the idea for a parade and a display
of strength can be abandoned, it would be in the best
interests of Israel and world Jewry. Those who exert
influence in the matter should act now and induce the
Israelis who have decided upon the grotesque idea to give
it up quickly.
Incidentally, Israel can take• great pride in its cultural
attainments and in its scientific progress. The Israeli uni-
versities have become the pride of that nation. American
universities readily join in cooperative tasks with Israeli
schools. Hebrew Union College and the Jewish Theological
Seminary already have projects in Israel, and Dropsie
University has established links with Israel. On that area
the emphasis should be placed rather than on the military.
2—Friday, April 6, 1973
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS