ilr_A•vr 0
n
Jewish
Chronicle
commencing
with issue of July 20, 1951
Incorporating The Detroit
IAEA 31.
Member Arderican 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
Editor and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City Editor
Business Manager
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the fourth day of Tevet, 5734, the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Gen. 44:18-47:27. Prophetical portion, Ezekiel 37:15-28.
Scriptural Selections for the Fast of the 10th of Tevet
Pentateuchal portions, Exod. 32:11-14. 34:1-10. Prophetical portion, Isaiah 55:6-56-8.
Candle lighting, Friday, Dec. 28, 4:50 p.m.
VOL. LXIV. No. 16
Page Four
December 28, 1973
Bonn Neutrality Comforts Neo-Nazis
Few of the international developments
resulting from the Middle East crises have
been as shocking as those that emanated
from Bonn.
Israel is indebted to Germany for much
of its brain power. But it is Jewish brain
power and it settled in the Jewish state dur-
ing the world's most horrifying times, under
duress created by Germans.
There was a period of reparations, and
many Jews who escaped the barbarities of
the Nazis continue to receive compensation
for the great losses they incurred during the
Hitler regime.
For a time there was feeling of guilt. The
needs of the remnant of Jewish survivors
from the German terror were viewed obliga-
torily. A change has taken place. When Israel,
the harborer of the survivors from Nazism,
was in danger of annihilation, in the post-
Yom Kippur days, Germany officially con-
demned the single humane effort on the in-
ternational scene to protect the existence of
the Jewish state: the American airlift of arms
to keep Israel on the defensive.
So— in a new era of forgetfulness, when
the guilt complex is apparently wearing off
— Bonn's Foreign Minister Walter Scheel
said: "After all my job is to look after the
interests of the West German people even
though these interests do not always coincide
completely with what other people regard as
their interests."
Such claims, rooted in generalizations, did
not need the current crisis for reiteration. In
its formalism, it could have been -- it was!—
used in almost the exact terminology by
Hitler, Goebbels, .Goering, their representa-
tives in foreign embassies before Germany
outlawed herself from international human-
ism
Does it mean, therefore, that another na-
tion, now composed in some measure of
escapees from the self-interests of Germany,
should have been sacrificed in a beastly arena
without being given an opportunity to pro-
tect herself — as Jews under German rule
were kept defenseless and without protection?
German International. "a monthly news
magazine for politics" published in Bonn, in
its current issue carried the apologetics of
some Germans: Conrad Ahlers, the friend of
Chancellor Willy Brandt, who argues that
"Palestine solution mandatory," as if it were
ever in doubt that it must be resolved for
the benefit of Arabs as much as Israelis; and
Heinz Moeller, who makes the startling state-
ment "When Bonn says it is neutral . . . it
means neutral."
One wonders how much of this is said
with tongue in cheek.
Leaving the impression that Israel does
not plead for peace, let alone crave it, is
outrageously misleading.
The claim to neutrality sounds a bit hypo-
critical in the light of Moeller's subsequent
analyses (sic!) of the "calming down of events
resulting from the breaking of diplomatic
relations between Bonn and Arab countries
and the restoration of relations with them."
Moeller concluded with a glorification:
"Fortunately, however, in recent months
as a result of the personal efforts of Foreign
Minister Scheel and the Social Democrat
Party's foreign trouble shooter Hans Jurgen
Wischnewski — affectionately known to the
Arabs as 'ben Wisch' — the unhappy events
of nearly a decade ago have now been largely
buried and full friendly relations have now
been restored with most of the Arab coun-
tries."
On what ground would it ever be claimed
that Israel and world Jewry ever opposed or
interfered wtih friendship with Arabs, as
long as Jews, too, were treated justly?
The just quoted sanctimony, at Israel's
expense, can't possibly fool too many people.
It cannot obliterate the Munich crimes of the
1930s and the 1940s and the Munich massacre
of 1972, during the Olympic Games, after
which Bonn paid blackmail to Arab hijackers
who not only escaped punishment but were
compensated for their "heroism."
Other lands have experienced interruption
of diplomatic relations with antagonists, but
they did not boast about neutrality in such a
spirit of arrogance.
Coming from Germany, the self-exonera-
tions of guilt in relation to Israel, especially
with claims of neutrality and of looking after
the country's own interests comes as a shock
so soon after Munich, Auschwitz, Dachau,
Buchenwald . . . There are too many in Israel
and elsewhere, among the survivors, after the
Six Million, who still see the Mark of Cain on
many German brows, to view tolerably the
new German attitude. Oh, how the neo-Nazis
must gloat as they witness perpetuation of an
inheritance that denies Jews the right to live
and defend themselves!
International Red Cross Put to the Test
Sinai does not deny it. Pentagon spokes-
men believe it. Israel's fears that her prison-
ers of war were murdered by Syrians are
treated as basically confirmed.
World public opinion is silent. There is
complacency that could well be interpreted
not only as indifference but as endorsing any-
thing bordering on approval of any evil per-
petrated against Israel and world Jewry.
If Amnesty International or any member
of the United Nations were to submit similar
charges against Israel, the Security Council
immediately would be called into session to
condemn Israel. That's what the General As-
sembly did on the slightest pretexts in the
past few weeks, whenever someone sub-
mitted a resolution condemning Israelis.
But what about the International Red
Cross? Why can't the great humanitarian
movement act to secure justice for Israelis
under the rules of the Geneva Convention?
Why the silence over so vital an issue that
it may have kept guilty Syria from the Geneva
peace conference?
The question must be asked again, and
there should be pressure for an answer:
Why, having recognized the Red Crescent,
does the International Red Cross fail and re-
fuse to admit into membership the Magen
David of Israel?
The International Red Cross is being put
to the test. Its very basic ideals are being
challenged by the failures to serve the cause
in the present critical situation in the Middle
East.
Red Cross officials owe an answer to the
posed questions in the best interests of a
supreme humanitarian movement.
"Always preaching! Why can't he let us remain
our simple, selfish selves?"
Jewishness of Some Russian
Musicians Related by Schwarz
Jewish musicians who have gained recognition in the Soviet Union
are recorded in an extensive study, "Music and Musical Life in
Soviet Russia, 1917-1970," by Boris Schwarz, published by Norton.
While the list of Russian Jewish musicians is a long one, there
is special reference by Schwarz to select ones, and their Jewish
interests. There is a description of Moissei Vainberg as "a composer
who deserves wider attention abroad," and Schwarz writes about him:
"Born in 1919 in Warsaw, he received his musical education in
Poland. When his country was overrun by the Germans in 1941, Vain-
berg sought refuge in the Soviet Union and eventually settled in Mos-
cow. He is one of the few Soviet composers of Jewish origin who has
achieved genuine equality among his colleagues: he is extremely well
liked and receives many commissions and performances. In contrast
to the older generation of Jewish-Russian composers who stressed
their Jewishness (among them Engel, Achron, Krein, Veprin, Gnessin)
the younger generation does not limit itself ethnically.
"Composers like Lev Knipper, Yulian Krein, Boris Kliusner and
Vainberg have acquired a Russian or international musical idiom. In
Vainberg's music there is neither avoidance of, nor stress on, Jewish-
ness; some of his works contain elements of Jewish folklore, while
others employ a musical idiom related to Shostakovich and Bartok."
Considerable attention is given to Mikhail Gnessin and the Gnessin
Institute. Schwarz states:
"Although Gnessin could compose in a traditional Russian idiom
and adjusted himself early to the Soviet trend (his 'Symphonic Move-
ment' of 1925 was one of the first compositions on a revolutionary
topic), he is best known as an important representative of the Jewish
wing of Russian composers. The fact that the Gnessin Institute re-
tained his name after its nationalization testifies to the high regard
he and his sister Elena Gnessina enjoyed in high Soviet circles."
These are among the interesting revelations in the Schwarz com-
pilation of facts about Russian musicians. Among others extensively
described in this volume are Mikhail Pekelis, David Oistrakh, Igor
Oistrakh, Leonid Kogan, Alban Berg, Semyon Ginzburg, Israel Nestyev
and many others.
Rabbi Cohen's 'Why Judaism?'
Defines Jewish Identity Issues
Rabbi Henry Cohen of Philadelphia, in a new volume devoted to
"A Search for Meaning in Jewish Identity," published by the Union
of American Hebrew Congregations, provides answers to many ques-
tions under the general title "Why Judaism?"
In addition to probing and defining Jewish traditions, the philosophy
of Judaism, ideals of the Prophets and the hasidic ways of life
thinking, Rabbi Cohen provides data on "Judaism and the Gosp,
discusses Jesus in relation to Jews, Paul, the Crucifixion and rabbinic
responses to the Christian attitudes.
Regarding the Crucifixion, he points to distortions in many ac-
cusatory statements and declares: "Whatever the precise details of
the trial and crucifixion may have been, one can fairly conclude that
those Jews involved represented not the Jewish people but a handful
of collaborators who, to safeguard their own interests, were always
Rome's obedient servants. If anti-Semitism were no longer found in
the Christian world, the discussion could be considered irrelevant.
However, since the age of brotherhood has not yet dawned, Jews are
still concerned lest this inaccurate story be used to plant in young minds
the image of the Jew as Christ killer. The Vatican Council recognized
this danger and has insisted that Gospel not be so interpreted. Some
Jews fear that when the story is melodramatically or sensationally
presented then serious harm is done. Others, claiming that today's
anti-Semites are not motivated by New Testament images, feel less
cause for concern."
An important section of the book is devoted to a discussion of who
and what is a Jew. In all instances, authoritative views are drawn
upon to define the issues discussed. Rabbi Cohen's "Why Judaism?"
has the added merit of sets of questions posed after each chapter to
inspire further discussion.