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 AS90eia-
t Ion . Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48076.
Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices. Subscription $8 a year. Foreign $9
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
, ' Editor and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 10th day of Iyar 5733, the following scriptural selections will
be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Lev. 21:1-24:23. Prophetical portion, Ezekiel 44: 15-31.
Candle lighting Friday, May 11, 8:23 p.m.
VOL. LXIII. No. 9
Page Four
May 11, 1973
Plea to U. S. Jewry: Do Not Relent!
White House meetings aimed at securing
Jewish support for the administration efforts
to shelve the Jackson Amendment, which is
aimed at preventing continuation of the Rus-
sian policies to stem emigration of those de-
siring to settle in Israel, by means of a
stopgap on proposals to grant the USSR fa-
vored-nation U. S. trade status, has created
panic among Russian Jews.
When seven young American Jews saw
eight applicants for visas in the OVIR (emi-
gration) office in Moscow, they were handed
an imploring letter, signed by 109 Soviet
Jews, asking American fellow Jews not to
falter and to keep acting in their behalf.
Their appeal, signers of which included such
noted Jews and top activists as Dr. Benjamin
Levich, one of Russia's most distinguished
scientists; Prof. Alexandr Lerner, Vladimir
Slepak, Kiril Henkin, Victor Polsky, Victor
Fiermark, Boris Orlov, Eitan Finkelstein and
others whose names are linked among the
famous in the USSR, pleads:
To the Leaders of the Jewish Communities
in the United States
We have reached the critical period
where the future of the Soviet Aliya
and our very lives hang in the balance.
You must know: Our sitaution has
never been more serious. We have re-
ceived refusal after refusal in our struggle
for repatriation. We are followed, har-
assed, beaten. We live from day to day
in the maddening uncertainty of Israel
or prison.
Do not compromise in your efforts on
our behalf. You haven't the right to ac-
cept the treacherous policy of "selective
en :.gration" based on the lie of "state
security."
Do not be comforted with self-deceit;
our history is replete with temporary suc-
cess bought with the blood of our sons
and daughters.
Remember: You are our only hope. If
you retreat now, the consequences will be
tragic and irreversible.
Brothers! Be strong! Let your Jewish
hearts guide you in the crucial days that
will follow.
The message is clear, and while it was
dictated in desperation it must not reduce
American Jewry's status into one of panic.
Spokesmen for American Jewry have
met with President Nixon, with Dr. Henry
Kissinger and other American leaders, and
have been given assurances that our govern-
ment, in all seriousness, concerns itself with
the status of Russian Jewry.
But all reports indicate that the pledged
relaxation is another attempt at misleading
the American government, that discrimina-
tions continue, that it is not the exit tax on
intellectuals alone that is at issue but the
many other prejudicial acts that have en-
slaved Russian Jewry, have robbed them of
their jobs and their security and have en-
slaved them in the mesh of Russian anti-
Semitism that has emerged as a legacy from
czardom.
The obligation of American Jews is a clear
one: it is not to relent and to continue the
protests. It is to continue supporting the Jack-
son Amendment. It is to work in gratitude
to the overwhelming majority of members
of the U. S. Senate, to the large number of
members of the U. S. House of Representa-
tives, to American public opinion which must
not be permitted to fall under the deluding
spell of those who would enforce favored-na-
tion status by our government for a regime
that persecutes and maligns not only Jews
but people of other faiths.
The need for action is self-evident. Let
there be no relaxation in tasks to assure free-
dom for Russian Jewry.
Reactions in Congress are heartening. Senator
Henry M. Jackson's position is firm. An earlier re-
port that Rep. Wilbur Mills was willing to make con-
cessions on the basis of White House pressures has
been denied and both he and Rep. Charles A.
Vanik, the sponsor of the amendment akin to Seri.
Jackson's in the House of Representatives, are re-
enforcing their position. They have gained addi-
tional support for the serious effort to assure jus-
tice for Soviet Jewry.
Besides, at a ZOA meeting in Miami Beach, a
high ranking Republican, Rep. John B. Anderson,
emphasized the need for continued pressure from
this country on the USSR.
While the role of Dr. Henry Kissinger at the
Kremlin this week is yet to be ascertained, it is to
be hoped that there will be no reneging on the
issue either in Congress or by Jewish spokesmen.
Basic Universal Rules Even Kremlin Cannot Deny
Russia's propaganda agency—Novosti—whose vileness was exposed in the trial
of French anti-Semites last month, has been spreading the bias against Russian Jews
with the claim that they must repay for their education if they wish to emigrate. The
inconsistencies are well known. The right to emigrate is not being granted to many of
Russia's most distinguished Jews who are fed up with the indecencies of the Kremlin.
The ransom emigration tax is both an excuse and a blackmail. The international rules,
as well as Russia's own specific regulation regarding a free education, defy the bigotries
that are extant in the USSR. These discriminatory practices give special credence to the
Jackson-Vanick amendments now being debated by Senate-House committees. Let the
facts be known! Perhaps whatever is left of Russian liberalism will be awakened by
them. Here they are:
"Everycne has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his own."
Article 13.2
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
"Each of the State Parties to this Convention shall take all practicalk ad necessary
legislative and other measures to bring about progressively and as soon as possible the complete
abolition or abandonment of . . . (a) Debt Bondage, that is to say, the status or condition arising
from a pledge by a debtor of his personal services or of those of a person under his control as secu-
rity for a debt, if the value of these services as reasonably assessed is not applied toward the
liquidation of the debt or the length and nature of those services are not respectively limited and
defined . . . " Article I
Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the
Slave Trade and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery
"Citizens of the U.S.S.R. have the right to education. This right is insured by . . . free educa-
tion in all schools . . . "
Article 121
Constitution of the U.S.S.R.
25th ANNIVEMARY OF *RAU.
'Faith After Holocaust' Gives
Emphasis to the Resistance
There is, primarily, the warning of a determined resistance. The
an impassioned affirmation of concern with the sufferers from Nazism,
in "Faith After the Holocaust," the impressive work by Prof. Eliezer
Berkovits, published by Ktay.
"I stand in awe before the memory of K'doshim who walked into
the gas chambers with the Ani Ma'amin—I believe— on their lips," he
declares. "How dare I question, if they did not question! I believe
because they believed."
There is, primarily, the warning of a determined resistance. The
author, in his faith and dedication to the ideals inherent in the resist-
ance, Prof. Berkovits asserts that Jews will not again submit to humili-
ation and destruction. There is the reiterated "Never Again!" outcry
when he declares:
"Essentially, this is still the holocaust world. What happened
then, may happen again, anywhere and everywhere. It is no less
conceivable today than it was in the twenties in Germany. On the
contrary! In the meantime mankind has become even more de-
sensitized to the spectacle of inhumanity and barbarism. The dis-
integration of value standards has been proceeding apace. The
Jewish response must be the one given by the Jews of Israel in
the Six Day War: Never again! If it is to die, it is better to die
with a gun in one's hand than in a concentration camp or gas
chamber. Resist! Resist! Resist! It must be incorporated in the
very core of Jewish education until it produces an instinctive
reaction of resistance to any attack. However, an attitude of this
kind must not be developed on the basis of desperation or with a
sense of hopelessness. In this way it would destroy the historic
identity of the Jew. "Never again!" must have an ethical motiva-
tion and it must be supported by an understanding of the historic
role of Judaism and of the Jewish people and its conscious ac-
ceptance.
One is morally obligated to resist evil not only if it attacks
others, but even if it attacks oneself. Anyone who denies to any
man the right to life, to self-realization, to equality and freedom
denies humanity. It is my obligation to defend myself. Since every
victory of evil emboldens it to greater depredations, it is one's
duty to resist it at every point. It is especially so in the case
of the Jews."
Is there hope for a better future? Dr. Berkovits believes in the
future of man only because he believes in the future of Israel. "I be-
lieve," he asserts, "in the future of man only because I believe that
power history will make room for faith history. I believe it because
ever since the destruction of the second Jewish state in the year
69 CE, to the extent to which Israel has survived, power history has
made room for faith history. I believe in that future because the
Jewish endurance of 19 centuries testifies to it; because the Jew who
still remembers its beginnings is also present at this its contemr-rary
phase of its self-frustrating disintegration . . . Of tomorrow he
day after tomorrow we know nothing . . . But one thing we do -ntiOw.
If ever there was a time for the Jew to persevere, it is now. If ever
it made sense for him to accept his role in history, it is at this hour of
dusk and dawn. Never was he more truly a witness to God in history
than at this juncture of history, when all this earth is in jeopardy."
Dr. Golomb Defines Festivals
Dr. Morris Golomb wrote on "the how and why of the Jewish
festivals" in his large and well illustrated book, "Know Your Festivals
and Enjoy Them," published by Shengold.
The special feature in this informative book is the question-answer
aspect for all festivals, and for the Sabbath and the fast days that are
given special consideration.
The questions and answers appear in parallel columns on the same
page, and the reader is thus able to acquire complete knowledge about
the subject.
The task of encouraging "enjoyment" of the festivals is achieved
by the author's manner of linking with all the 'holidays and the Sabbath
the special terms relating to salutations, food, observances. From this
point of view, the author encourages inspirational approaches to the
holidays and the day of rest.