THE JEWISH NEWS
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PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Hanuka Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, Sabbath Hanuka, the following scriptural selections will be read
in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portions, Gen. 41:1-44:17, Num. 7:2429. Prophetical portion, Zecha-
riah 2:14-4:7.
Hanuka Torah readings: Sunday, Num. 7:30-41; Monday, Num. 7:36-47.
Rosh Hodesh Tevet and Hanuka Torah readings: Tuesday, Num. 28:1-15, Num.
7:42-47; Wednesday, Num. 28:1-15, Num. 7:48-53.
Torah reading for last day of Hanuka, Thursday, 7:54-8:4.
Candle lighting, Friday. Dec. 21, 4:45 p.m.
VOL. LXIV. No. 15
Page Four
December 21, 1973
Geneva Negotiations: Global Agonies
An agonized world, often puzzled by the
enmities that have engulfed an area whence
once stemmed the ethical teachings of the
Hebrew Prophets, whos influences are the
roots of the faiths of all mankind, now has
its eyes on the Swiss city of Geneva.
At last, the representatives of two con-
flicting forces meet to discuss the possibilities
for some measure of amity in the troubled
Middle East.
It is not a peace conference. It is a nego-
tiating meeting resulting from bloodshed that
should have and could have been avoided
during the 25 years of Israel's resumption
of statehood.
Had it not been for the selfishness and
political myopia of the warring Moslem
forces stemming from two dozen or more
functioning and sovereign nations, the wars
of the past 26 years would have been averted.
But dozens of nations with vast areas, and
billions of dollars in oil begrudge the Jewish
people the right to be masters of their own
destiny in a small territory neighboring upon
several of Israel's enemy states. Therefore,
the bloodshed, the miseries, the hatreds,
which have developed into wars that neither
Israel nor her Arab neighbors can afford
either in loss of manpower or reduction in
the already limited good will.
At Geneva, the civilized forces in man-
kind hope, the issues will be discussed ra-
tionally, realistically, face to face by men con-
sidered enemies but who should come to a
political discussion with human aspects, in
a spirit of self-respect which alone can in-
spire mutual respect one for another of the
negotiators at international deliberations.
That's exactly what the Geneva sessions
are: they are international in nature. Not
only becuase Israel's role, and world Jewry's
involvement, have global phases, but because
of the peripheral yet pressing involvements
that can not be erased. There is the hatred
for Jewry that has been injected into the
Middle East situation; it has isolated Israel
and Jewry and once again, except for the
American friendship, they are fighting alone
for justice and the right to live. *
There is the energy crisis that has as-
sumed such vast proportions, in dangers to
many nations' economic status as well as in
the exaggerated fears stemming from failure
to approach the issue pragmatically. There
are many more matters—and the religious
prejudices and fanaticisms certainly are not
missing from the causes and effects of a
crisis that has already been viewed in many
quarters as bordering on the catastrophic.
So much needs to be done at the Geneva
conference that it is certain to be a major
source for pressing news for months to come.
They will be worth all the energies expended
if a measure of amity can be achieved.
It is not the war-or-peace of the Middle
East alone that is involved in the obligations
that will rest upon negotiators in Geneva.
There is the growing global tragedy that dl-
vides people, that inspires prejudiced minds
to unneccessary hatreds.
For the Jewish people the results of the
Geneva negotiations are pressingly signifi-
cant. Associated with the Middle East prob-
lem are many more troubling situations. It
would be unwise to deny that anti-Semitism
is growing by leaps and bounds. There is no
sense being. pilpulistic about it and attempt-
ing to view it as anti-Jewishness because
Arabs, too, are Semites. Arabs are now more
anti-Semitic than those they have inspired to
hatred. In their quarters there has been a
revival of such medievalism as resort to ritual
murder charges. Ignoring the benefits that
stem from Israel in the Middle East, they
have encouraged hatreds that will be viewed
as unbelievable by future generations. The'y
have resorted to unspeakable methods of at-
tacking Israel.
Because hatreds for Jews have not dimin-
ished, the animosities from the Mediterran-
ean have spread to the Atlantic and the
Pacific; they have engulfed the Soviet Union
and Red China. Jewry and Israel both share
the agonies that stem from such venom. If
Geneva manifests a genuine desire for peace
these bigotries and hatreds can end. And the
world will gain from an end to animosities.
Many other questions puzzle those in our
midst, and among the friends for whose un-
derstanding we are grateful. Why, for exam-
ple, are the black African nations against Is-
rael? Why, from the long list of African coun-
tries with which Israel had the best relations,
many of them having been helped by Israeli
experts, are only Swaziland, Malawi, Bots-
wana and Lesotho still in the ranks of Israel's
friends? Is there a lack of courage in coun-
tries which happen to be predominantly Mos-
lem?
It brings us to our fellow citizens who are
black. Why are so many against us? Why do
they misjudge and harass and hate and line
up with Arab propagandists as if we were
enemies? We are fellow Americans: why have
many Blacks joined forces of hatred and divi-
siveness? This, too, is part of the agony that
stems from a lack of understanding of the
Middle East issues and insistence upon
spreading hatred rather than injecting good
will. This, too, is part of a global misery that
must be corrected, and out of the Geneva
deliberations may evolve better understand-
ing based on the humaneness that is essential
for neighborliness and peace.
There is also the shocking European ani-
mosity toward Israel. Perhaps the Russian
position is more understandable. The Soviet
Union seeks domination in the Middle East.
Now it is essential for the Arab nations to be
on guard lest they fall prey to such domina-
tion. But why the anti-Israelism of France
and Great Britain that has developed into
virtual anti-Semitism from two great nations
whose desire is to be listed among the civ-
ilized and progressive? Why the antagonism
of a Pompidou? Why the bitterness in the ap-
proach of British Foreign Secretary Sir Alec
Douglas-Home who collaborated with Neville
Chamberlain as his parliamentary private sec-
retary in Munich and whose attitude may be
described as Munichanized?
These are among the many questions to be
posed, among the problems which, hopefully,
will lead to global solutions of matters that
have led to hatreds.
That's why not only Jewry and Israel but
the entire world must look hopefully to the
Geneva conference. Perhaps the constructive,
pragmatic and justice-loving minds of nego-
tiators will lead to amity for the Middle East
and better relations among the peoples of
the world.
Buber's Final Definitive Work
on Hasidic Origin and Meaning
Prof. Martin •Buber has left a rich legacy. His scholarly works
on Hasidism continue to be among the most significant on the subject
of the movement that continues to influence many Jews. The latest
work containing his essays on the Hasidic movement is presented by
the publishers, Horizon Press, marking the completion of his lifework
in recreating the philosophy of the idea he explained extensively.
"The Origin and Meaning of Hasidism," edited and translated by
Dr. Maurice Friedman, includes a
thorough historic account of the subject
that keeps intriguing not only followers
but students of all faiths and philosophic
and mystic ideas.
Prof. Buber's foreword, written in
1959, asserted that he considered "The
truth of Hasidism vitally important for
Jews, Christians and other men . . .
for now we are in danger of forgetting
for what purpose we are on earth, and
I know of no other teaching that re-
minds us of this so forcefully."
Prof. Buber
The translator-editor, in an introductory essay, declares: "The
basis for the Hasidic attitude toward redemption is the belief that
redemption, like creation, takes nlace at every moment . . . Re-
demption is not dependent upon Messianic calculations or any apo-
calyptic event, but on the premeditated turning of our whole world-
life to God. This turning is open to the whole of mankind and to all
ages, writes Buber, for all are face to face with redemption and all
action for God's sake is Messianic action."
The late Dr. Buber's posthumously published work starts from
the beginnings of Hasidism, with the foundation stone; the eminent
philosopher dealt with the ideas of Spinoza, with the roles of Sabbatai
Zvi, and with those of the founder of Hasidism, the Baal-Shem.
He proceeded with analyses of symbolic and sacramental existence,
with redemption, with "God and the Soul, and he defined the place
of Hasidism in the history of religion. A supplemental concluding
chapter deals with "Christ, Hasidism, Gnosis."
This work has great value for students of religion and philosophy
and expressively with mysticism. The eminent author did not deal
with the Jewish or Christian aspects alone in approaching the task
of defining faith but with Zen and other related aspects of religious
devotions. The importance of Hasidism is thus defined:
"Of all the manifestations of the history of religion Hasidism is
that one in which two lines meet in full clarity, lines which it is
usually assumed cannot meet by their very nature; the line of
,er
illumination and the line of revelation, that of the moment 11- ,
time and that of historical time. Hasidism explodes the familiar - View
of mysticism. Faith and mysticism are not two worlds, although the
tendency to become two independent worlds over again wins the upper
hand in them. Mysticism is the sphere on the borderland of faith,
the sphere in which the soul draws breath between word and word."
The concluding essay is an answer to Rudolph Pannwitz regarding
the issue between the Jewish and Christian religions. He countered
Pannwitz's reproach that Buber was "splitting" the "continuity of
Christianity" because, Buber wrote, "I separate that in it which is
`gnosis and mystery' . . . 'not only from the Jewish Christ but also
from the founder of Christ.' " Buber's reply is:
"Let me give the elucidation that overestimating the understand-
ing of my readers I held superfluous: that Jews that are such through
and through, from the original covenant, that 'arch-Jews,' among
whom I dare to count myself, are 'brothers' of Jesus. This, too, I
have expressed before, 20 years earlier: 'that we Jews knew him
(Jesus) from within, in the impulses and stirrings of his Jewish being,
in a way that remains inaccessible to the peoples submissive to him.' "
On the jacket of this definitive work appears this interesting
quotation from ,Buber: "Hasidism has never set foot in the world of
man as Christianity has done. Because of its truth and because of
the great need of the hour, I carry it into the world against its will."