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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 $10 a year.

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ • CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ

Editor and Publisher

Business Manager

CHARLOTTE DUBIN

City Editor

DAYENU

BY HENRY LEONARD

DREW LIEBERWITZ

Advertising Manager

Sabbath Scriptural Selections

This Sabbath, the 22nd day of Heshvan, 5734, the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Gen. 23:1-25:18. Prophetical portion, I Kings 1:1-31.

EMPLoiv

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DPT:

Candle lighting, Friday, Nov. 16, 4:52 p.m.

VOL. LXIV. No. 10

Page Four

November 16, 1973

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Solidarity in an Unfriendly World

Solidarity is not a shallow term in a people's need for sustenance.
In the hours of reverberating crises, when even a cease fire has its obstacles, the
unity of kinsmen is vital to security.
Israel functions in an unfriendly world. Only the Jewish people and the United
States stand firmly for protective action in a period of survival from a dastardly experience.
The dangers have not been reduced. Oil is more precious today in international
considerations than the moral codes of humankind.
Therefore those affected by the immorality of modern diplomacy must exert every
effort to assure retention of a modicum of decency for the endangered People Israel.
Therefore, the needs must be fulfilled, the Israel Emergency Fund must receive all
the necessary provisions, the Israel Bond investment tasks must be upheld. Furthermore,
to give Israel comfort the tourists must start crowding Israel's hotels again and the Israel
El Al Airline must again be among the busiest in the air, from this country to Lod Airport.
That's the program for Jewry today!

"In response to our question of 'race',
this wise-guy put down 'the human race'!"

Copr. Dayenu Productions

New Threat to Basic Separation Principle

All too often, the basic American principle
of separation of church and state is endan-
gered by proposals to legalize prayers in
American schools or in some other form to
introduce religious practices in the nation's
public institutions.
Once again, such an idea is being proposed
in Congress, and the concern over a serious
matter involving the injection of religious
teachings must again be alerted to prevent the
endangering of an ideal that is rooted in an
American heritage.
An editorial warning in the New York
Times, entitled "The Wrong Prayer," draws
attention to the newly developing threat. That
editorial stated:

In 1971, the House rejected a proposed consti-
tutional amendment to permit "voluntary" nonde-
nominational prayer in the public schools by the
narrow margin of 28 votes. Now, spokesmen for
a variety of religious and patriotic groups have
renewed their efforts to push such an amendment
through Congress. The Rev. Robert G. Howes, a
Roman Catholic priest and national coordinator-
of the Citizens for Public Prayer, in testimony be-
fore the Senate Constitutional amendments sub-
committee, charged that the prayer ban consti-
tutes a denial of religious freedom in the public
classroom.
A dispassionate examination of public school
history shows that freedom of religion was in fact
denied to large numbers of children in the very
days when Protestant religious exercises were
part of public school routine. It was at least par-
tially in response to this historic fact that the
Supreme Court in 1963 held public school prayers
to be in violation of the Constitution. And in 1971,
the court, by a vote of seven to two, refused to
hear a New Jersey school board's plea for the
resumption of prayers.
As in the past, the advocates of school prayer
again misinterpret the ban as a mark of an athe-
istic education. They would do well to heed the
warnings of Representative Robert F. Drinan, a
Jesuit priest, during the 1971 House debate, that
the amendment could create "an ersatz religion"
promoted by the government.
The leaders of most of the nation's major re-
ligious denominations and organizations have
steadfastly opposed all efforts to override the
Constitution and the Supreme Court. These are
not the sinister forces of moral subversion. No
concerned observer of the nation's state of public
and private ethics today would deny the need
for a more effective teaching of moral principles;
but the daily recitation of an officially approved
prayer is hardly the way to such a moral revival.

Religious-minded Americans could very
easily fall prey to the pending new proposal.
Out of a desire to advance religious observ-
ances, many often give support to such legis-
lative actions without realizing that religion
is neither helped by injecting it into public
schools, or any other functions of an Ameri-
can community, nor is it threatened in the
home and in religious spheres by retaining
the practices within the communities that
adhere to them.
A Catholic viewpoint on the subject indi-

cates that there is less parochialism in the
ranks of those who might be influenced by
selfish motivations of getting government sup-
port for church schools than is generally be-
lieved. Russell Shaw of Washington, associate
secretary for communications of the United
States Catholic Conference, stated recently:

In October 1971, the United States Catholic
Conference went on record in opposition to a
school prayer amendment then before the House
of Representatives. Among other objections, the
conference held that an amendment limited to
voluntary, nondenominational prayer would in
fact do little to accomplish the laudable objec-
tives of its sponsors and supporters.
Last month the Catholic Conference developed
its position further. It announced its support for
a constitutional amendment which would not only
restore the right to voluntary prayer to public
school students but also permit them to partici-
pate in voluntary nrograms of religious instruc-
tion offered on public school nremises by repre-
sentatives of their respective religious denomina-
tions.
In adopting this position the Catholic Confer.
ence is sensitive to the concern of those who fear
that voluntary prayer and religious instruction
in public schools may infringe on their religious
liberty. In the conference's view, however, this
result is by no means unavoidable; whereas the
contrary result—infringement on the rights of
those who desire voluntary prayer and religious
instructiqg in the schools—is already a reality in
the present state of affairs. The .challenge is to
devise solutions which will accommodate the
legitimate interests of all, and while this may not
be easy, there is no reason to rule it out before
the fact as impossible.
As The Times correctly remarked, "No con-
cerned observer if the nation's state of public and
private ethics today would deny the need for a
more effective teaching of moral principles." We
should begin now to seek ways of meeting this
need. To this end it seems essential that there
be a constitutional amendment of the kind de-
scribed above.

This is positive proof of a growing aware-
ness of the issue and of recognition of the
danger that lurks in proposals to inject pray-
ing in public institutions.
Of course, there are the backers of the
movement to introduce prayers in our
schools. A strong case has been made for it
by a Catholic, Rev. Robert G. Howes of Lyn-
brook, L. I., national coordinator of Citizens
for Public Prayer, who differs with the liberal
element. But the danger is apparent. You
start with prayer, and even if you separate
the faiths—which would in itself be an un-
American practice—you at once create a
wedge for propagation of religion in the
schools. Then the entire American system and
the Separation Principle collapse.
Our courts have ruled against interference
with the separation ideal.
Separation must remain an American pol-
icy, and its defenders must always be on
guard not to permit its disruption.

Frister's Richly Illustrated
'Israel' Marked by Realism

As if he was motivated by a premonition, Roman Frister, Israeli
editor, wrote "Israel—Years of Crisis, Years of Hope," for which he
gathered hundreds of impressive photographs. In this volume, made
available in this country by McGraw Hill Book Co., but in its entirety
written, photographed, printed and bound in Israel, we have the illus-
trated story of a people under stress, critically affected yet hopeful,
as •the title asserts.

Issued weeks before the Yom Kippur War by Keter Press, Jeru-
salem, at a time when there was jubilation among tens of thousands
of tourists and the people they mingled with—because there was pros-
perity and an aim for amity—one of the photographs in this large
book, showing Egyptian prisoners with their hands upraised in sub-
mission, in an earlier war, and the photo tag line states: "The war
has ended—the war lives on." This is part of the realism of the Frister
book.

There are some 160 photographs in black and white in this large-
sized book, and 22 color photographs. Like the text itself, which pro-
vides a thorough historical analysis of Israel and her problems, the
photos provide great significance for this work. With Zvi Markiss
as the book's designer, the major photographic work was done by
David Rubinger, Werner Braun, Yitzhak Isrrowski and Aliza Aues-
bach. In addition, 19 other photographers and government sources
are listed with having provided illustrations for this newsworthy 230-
page book.

Adding to the significance of Frister's work are introductions
written by the chief architect of the Jewish state, David Ben-Gurion;
Israel Defense Minister Moshe Dayan; and Deputy Prime Minister
Yigal Allon.

Ben-Gurion's emphasis is on Israel as a "Heritage for the Youth,"
Allon's essay is on education—since 'he also serves as minister of
education and culture—and Dayan's is his famous admonition, "Fear
Not, My Servant Jacob." Dayan had drawn upon Joshua 10 for his
words of encouragement to his people which serve so appropriately
in the Frister book.

Frister's "Israel" provides an historical resume of the nation's
experiences and developments. It is not limited to such analyses.
There is thorough accounting of religious differences. It deals with
the immigration and resettlement problems and with the types of
settlers who come from all parts of the globe, in that fashion, toe
creating absorption and integration problems.

The wars, politics, the new wave of Russian immigration—the
terrorists who have threatened Israel and Jews everywhere—these
and many other factors are given consideration in the definition of
the state's aims and struggles. References to the past—to Zionist and
pioneering histories—link the beginnings of the state-building aspira-
tions with the present.

In his realism, Frister has succeeded in writing a text that should
have a popular approach. With 'his reviews of events that led up to
the Sadat threats, even before the latest war, he has made his work
timely. There is always the optimistic note, in spite of apprehended
trouble, therefore the concluding assertion:

"The Jewish state emerged amidst severe labor pains, and re-
mains in existence through creation and pain, exhilaration and de-
pression, victories and defeats. The state's prophet, Benyamin Zev
Herzl, once said: 'If you will it, it is no fable.' They willed it—and
in its diaries, history writes this amazing legend—a legend of flesh
and blood. And even those who are not so enthusiastic about the
Zionist ideas of Herzl know that Ecclesiastes wrote in the Book of
Books: 'To every thing there is a season and a time for every purpose
under the heavens—a time to be born and a time to die . . . a time
to break down, and a time to build up, a time to weep and a time to
laugh . . . a time of war and a time of peace.' "

