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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 Associa-
tion. Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075.
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
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City Editor
Business Manager
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 18th day of Elul, 5733, the following scriptural selections will
be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Dent. 26:1-29:8. Prophetical portion, Isaiah 60:1-22.
Candle lighting, Friday, Sept. 14, 7:25 p.m.
VOL. LXIV. No. 1
Page Four
September 14, 1973
Settling Mideast Dust for 'Negotiations'
President Nixon's views on the Middle
East, the energy crisis and the need to pre-
vent blackmail from both the Arab potentates
and the oil magnates has helped put Water-
gate in a temporary shadow. They have be-
come the basis for new speculations about
future prospects in the Arab-Israel conflict.
They may not have raised new issues for the
Jewish community, which is deeply involved
in all the problems that have been created by
the militants in the Middle East, but they
certainly add challenges to produce the facts
and to base the actions that will follow upon
them.
The President faulted both Israel and the
Arabs for continuation of a tragic conflict. He
stirred the dust of the desert and has asked
for negotiations to commence to accomplish
a "pro-peace" aim. Mr. Nixon formulated his
position as follows:
Israel simply can't wait for the dust to settle,
and the Arabs can't wait for the dust to settle
in the Mideast. Both sides are at fault. Both
sides need to start negotiating. That is our pos•
tion. We're not pro-Israel; and we're not pro-
Arab. And we're not any more pro-Arab because
they have oil and Israel hasn't. We are pro-
peace. And it's in the interest of the whole area
for us to get those negotiations off dead center.
That is why we will use our influence with Israel;
and we will use our influence — what influence
we have — with the various Arab states to get
those negotiations on."
When a search is made for faults it be-
comes a limitless adventure. Then all of us,
the United States included, become targets of
the political and diplomatic critics. To deny
guilt in judgment and action when so much
is involved affecting the world and humanity
would be to hide from realities senselessly.
But since the search for faults has commenced
it is well to review the existing situations.
Israel has not submitted to demands for
withdrawals. She has not committed herself
regarding ceding some of the conquered ter-
ritories. But she has asked for an opportunity
to discuss the critical issues, to negotiate.
This has been rejected and Israel's proposals
have been denied. When the President pro-
poses starting negotiations, he renders a valu-
able service. But it has to be understood and
acknowledged that the talks that are to lead
to peace are yet to commence. And in fault-
ing the parties involved in the controversy
there is need for an acknowledgment that
one of the parties has asked for the oppor-
tunity to talk to the enemy and has been
denied it.
A welcome declaration by the President
was his comment, after he had spoken about
the faults, the American impartiality and the
aim — the pro-peace position — that: "Now,
one of the dividends of having a successful
negotiation will be to reduce the oil pressure."
That's not enough, Mr. President! The de-
mand must be for an end to all pressures
from the oil interests! There has been parti-
ality, threat, unending danger spreading in
communities throughout the world, resulting
from the existing conflict. The Arab states
and the oil interests share the guilt for the
state of terror that has been imposed upon
the entire world. Insanity has emanated from
the ranks of haters who seek Israel's destruc-
tion, and all too little has been done to end it.
There has been no action whatsoever either
from Arab quarters or from the oil magnates
to repudiate the panic that has descended
upon many countries from the insane terror-
ists' quarters. It was only when a Saudi-Ara-
bian embassy was invaded by crazed bandits
that the Saudis expressed indignation.
With all due respect for the concern ex-
pressed by Mr. Nixon at last week's press
conference, and with an appreciation for his
quest for friendship with both Israel and the
Arabs — and that is the only way of serving
properly: impartially! — there is need for
constant reminder that even in diplomacy
the two-way street must be seen realistically.
If there is to be an approach to peace, Arabs
must respond to the offer by the adversary
to cross the street and to meet the contestant
to discuss the differences.
If the President can attain this aim, he
will have written a glorious chapter for him-
self in diplomacy as a peace-maker in one of
the most troubled areas in the world. While
there is little hope for positive responses to,
the pro-peace declaration from the head of
our government, the hope is that he will
succeed in reducing resistance. In the process,
he must utilize his power as our chief execu-
tive to put an end to oil pressures, under the
guise of an energy crisis, so that the magnates
who are customers of Arab potentates in the
oil deals do not resort to anti-Israel bigotries.
Women's Lib Now Synagogue-Tested
A ruling by the Rabbinical Assembly's
commission on law standards, recognizing
women as candidates for the minyan, draws
attention to women's place in Jewish life. The
women's lib demands thus enter the religious
ranks. While the new step affects only the
Conservative element in Jewry—Reform is
unconcerned with a minyan—the gathering of
10 that constitutes a community — and the
Orthodox view it as inconceivable that a basic
rule involving women should be changed so
radically—the move is revolutionary.
The fact is that in most Conservative syn-
agogues women have already been invited to
the bima — to the pulpit. Even if it is only
for the reciting of the Prayer for Our Coun-
try, or to make special announcements, it is
not unusual for a woman to rise up to address
a congregation.
But calling a woman to the reading of the
Torah marks a departure from accepted tra-
dition, and if a woman can be counted in a
minyan, why not also be permitted to recite
the prayer at a Torah?
Reconstructionism has already recognized
woman's right to be called to the reading of
the Torah upon the bima. Some Conserva-
tive svnaaoaues did not have to wait for a
commission ruling to exercise such a right.
Now it is being put into practice, first by wel-
coming women into the community, and
eventually it will undoubtedly be the right
to an aliya—to be called to the reading of
the Law.
The new development is part of the drastic
change that has taken place in Jewish life.
There are emendations that will prove un-
savory for the Orthodox. But conditions of the
time will be called into evidence as compel-
ling forces for changes in observances.
There will be the inevitable debate over
the role of women in Jewish life. A saying
in the Talmud describes women as "a nation
unto themselves." It is the woman of valor
in Proverbs that has been the inspiration to
man. Yet there was the frequent criticism of
Jewish tradition which did not give woman
rights on a parity with men.
The new ruling may or may not change
conditions rapidly. It will, however, revolu-
tionize some synagogue activities. It will also
arouse the curiosity whether the gathering of
a daily minyan for synagogue services will be-
come easier or whether even with women's
rights the synagogue will be empty on week-
days.
Dr. Zucker Defines Israel's
Secular-Religious Struggles
Dr. Norman L. Zucker. professor of political science at the Uni-
versity of Rhode Island, approaches Israel's problems uniquely in his
book that has been published on the state's 25th anniversary by MIT
Press, Lawrence, Mass.
In "The Coming Crisis in Israel: Private Faith and Public Policy,"
he deals especially with the religious issues, and his analyses relate
to the conflict as well as to the party struggles affecting it.
The opening chapter at once introduces the problem that has created
many tensions. Entitled "Theopolitics in Israel," it poses the questions:
"Ought Judaism assert a claim upon the secular authority, thereby
obtaining non-religious sanction for essentially religious activities?
What are to be the relations between the secular authority—the Is-
raeli body politic—and Judaism, the soul that survived in Jews
throughout history?"
Touching upon the factors involved in Zion's restoration, and re-
viewing the various parties in the theopolitical processes, the author
explains the attitudes toward religion and the institutions that have
been developed. He refers to interviews that were conducted, the re-
sponses to which showed that 23 per cent favored enforcement of
religious traditions in communal life, 20 per cent more saying that
such regulations would "probably" be wise.
Should Israel be a secular or a religious state? Prof. Zucker refers
to the difficulties that arose over adoption of an Israeli constitution, the
compromise that was reached for a coalition government, asserting:
"The definition of the basic religion-state relationship was postponed to
be resolved in the future through the political process. In the words
of Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Ha-Levi\Herzog, a 'synthesis of democracy and
theocracy' was possible."
Personalities involved in these discussions and their views, Israel's
legal system, "The Establishment of the Orthodox Rabbinate," the edu-
cational system, the Orthodox view and the military,—these and "Ortho-
dox Pressure Tactics" are under scrutiny in a volume that undoubtedly
deals with the issue more thoroughly than it has been tackled until
now. Dr. Zucker states: "The conflict over national service for Ortho-
dox girls is the only significant area relating to the military where
there is secular-religious discord."
With regard to pressures, he states that Orthodox "protest and
demonstration often are effective in that they tend to modify govern-
ment positions. No democratic government wishes to alienate a por-
tion of its population. Nor do Israeli leaders wish to disrupt the close
ties with Israel of Jews in the Diaspora, by giving the impression
that the government is hostile to Orthodox Judaism." Yet he states
that "when the actions of the rabbinate become detrimental to the
Israeli public at large . . . the secular authority . . . has restrained
the rabbinate and reminded it of its dependence on secular authority.'
The "Who is a Jew?" question also is discussed at length by Dr.
Zucker. He points out that decisions reached thus far have not resolved
the issue in relation to state and religion. At best, he states, there is
only a compromise, a modus vivendi, and he asserts:
"The established rabbinate with its exclusive jurisdiction in mar-
riage and divorce has made it abundantly clear that conversions abroad
will not be acknowledged by rabbinical courts unless they have been
executed in accordance with the Orthodox rabbinate's standards in
Halakha. Individual cases are certain to arise and produce continued
controversy and agitation if not coalition crises."
Dr. Zucker declares that Reform and Conservative Jews can not
influence and depoliticize the Israeli rabbinate, that only the Orthodox
can do it, and he points to the formation, under the leadership of Prof.
Efrayim E. Urbach, of the Movement for Torah Judaism, dedicated
to "the depoliticization of the institutions of the rabbinate." He submits
that prospects of the rabbinate relinquishing its position are not good.
He asserts that "the political system will remain viable, and a Kultur-
kampf will be postponed," and he adds:
"Throughout the centuries, religious Jews hoped for 'Next Year
in Jerusalem.' It is an irony of history that with the establishment of
the Third Jewish Commonwealth and the incorporation of Jewish in-
stitutions into the Israeli body politic the spirit of Judaism is languish-
ing."