THE JEWISH NEWS
T .
. " ? t
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.
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PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
CHARLOTTE DUBIN
City Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 18th day of Tevet, 5734, the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Exod. 1:1-6:1 Prophetical portion, Isaiah 27:6-28:13:
29:22-23.
Candle lighting, Friday, Jan. 11, 6:03 p.m.
Page Four
VOL. LXVI. No. 18
January 11, 1974
Israel Democracy: Voters' Independence
Under stress and strain that followed a
tragic war bloodied by many losses, the people
of Israel went to the polls in large numbers
to demonstrate their democratic allegiance.
With results that create new problems
inevitably entangled in the creation of a
coalition government, the Israelis neverthe-
less demonstrated concerns that enabled con-
flicting views to find expression in the various
ideologies of the nation's many parties.
The fact that a much stronger opposition
emerges from the balloting is an added indi-
cation that a community that resorts to the
ballot will be able eventually to overcome
the dangers stemming from the deadly bullets
that threaten the very existence of the embat-
tled democracy.
Speculation was rife, there were innumer-
able threats to the administration that ruled
Israel. While time may not heal all wounds,
it will be a contributing factor toward nego-
tiations which,- hopefully, will lead to accord
that will eventually erase from the Middle
East the connotation that it is the battle-
ground of the world.
There is no cause for ecstasy, and the elec-
tion provided agony from the internal strife
ascribable to the craving for security and
from the unfortunate alignment of the Israeli
Arabs with Communist and other extremists
whose aim is the reduction of Israel to a
ghetto-slave state. That the serious Israeli ef-
forts to create a kinship in citizenry with the
Israeli Arabs should thus have been under-
minded is that major cause for concern in
the crucial election results.
Surely, all elements in Israel must strive
for solutions that will make the nation secure
while enabling the reaching of agreements
that will end the tensions and the wars that
are all too costly for the entire Middle East.
World Jewry shares with the Israelis the
hopes for peace, and in the struggle for it
there will be no end to the cooperation Jewry
will give to Israel.
1,nconsistency in Peace Terms Mocks the Hopeful
What hope is there for accord that will
bring Arabs and Jews together for salaam
and shalom? There has already been some
handshaking, in the process of the discussions
for disengagements. How seriously are these
approaches to be viewed? Tragically, another
term for peace is in the vocabulary of Arab-
ism. Sulh stands in the way.
The conflict between salaam and sulh al-
ready became apparent in a dispatch to The
Jewish News through .JTA (Dec. 21) which
contained a threatening message from an
Egyptian journalist that Jews who entered
pre-Israel Palestine before 1948 would be
expelled from the land under Arab rule. That
journalist, Sallah Jowdat of the magazine
Al-Mussawar, drew a distinction between
salaam and sulh the latter interpreted as
the extreme, rejecting full accord in dealing
with Jews.
A confirmation of such an attitude ap-
peared in an article on the Yom Kippur War
by Winston Churchill, grandson of the British
Prime Minister Winston Churchill of World
War II. The young Churchill, in the second
of a series of articles in the 'London Observer
Review, in which he gave a full report on his
experiences as a war correspondent in Octo-
ber, on his numerous interviews with Israeli
and Arab military leaders, and on many other
events during the tense war period, wrote:
—
The preliminary peace negotiations at Kilometer
101 were conducted in an atmosphere described to
me by the Israeli negotiator, Brigadier General
Aharon Yariv, "as very cordial on a personal
level," although there remained a wide gulf be-
tween the positions of the two governments. In the
course of one of their conversations which were
conducted in English, General Gamasy, the Egyp-
tion negotiator and now newly-appointed chief of
staff, mentioned the word "peace."
Yariv asked: "Would you' mind saying that in
Arabic?"
Gamasy replied, "Salaam" ("Peace.").
"What about `Sulh'? (Peace with forgiveness')"
countered Yariv.
Gamasy did not reply. He merely raised the
palms of his hands and shook his head in the
negative.
Far from being a semantic quibble by the Is-
raelis, this is in fact the root of the matter. De-
pending on which it is to be, there are two totally
different maps of withdrawal to which the Israelis
are willing to accede. For "Sulh," which carries
the implication of being an end to the question and
a lasting peace, many Israelis, possibly the ma-
jority, would go virtually all the way in meeting
Arab demands on Resolution 242. If it is to be no
more than "Salaam," which in the context of the
present Middle East situation would imply an
armed peace of short duration, with both sides
arming to the limits allowed by their economies
and their sponsors, likely to last only until the
Arabs felt strong enough to attack again, the
Israelis would clearly be willing to concede little.
In such circumstances, the situation lacks
hope and the future is filled with forebodings.
Nevertheless, there are some signs of a possi-
ble accord, and the oasis that became espe-
cially apparent during the Yom Kippur War
provides a measure of comfort in hours of
grave tensions. Churchill appended to his
article on Salaam and Suhl the following:
Perhaps the most striWng and hopeful sign for
the future is the situation to be found across the
River Jerdan, as I discovered as I walked across
the Allenby Bridge with my suitcase in my hand.
As I left the Israeli side of the bridge, .which was
busy with Palestinian Arabs crossing by bus in
both directions, I asked a 19-year-old Israeli lieu-
tenant: "By the way, how long is it since the
bridge has been re-opened?"
"Re-opened?" replied the astonished soldier.
"It was not closed for fiVe minutes throughout the
whole 18 days of the war!"
These are established facts, and they are
evidences that Jews and Arabs can, as they do
in Israel and in the occupied areas, live to-
gether LI peace. Yet, the strife insti 6-aLe_ ifom
the Kremlin. Cairo, Damascus and Baghdad
has no bounds. There is no limit to suspicions
and hatreds. All in spite of the gains that
can 'be made through peace for Arabs as well
as Jews. Perhaps Egyptians and Syrians still
are unaware of the results of the last war.
Israel emerged miraculously victorious, in
spite of overwhelming odds against her, as
Churchill indicated in his London Observer
Review article:
Whatever the results in Geneva, it is difficult
to believe that any peace agreement or any inter-
national guarantees could survive the hitherto re-
morseless injection of the tools of war into the
Middle East by the Soviet Union. In 18 days of
war the Israelis destroyed a total of 550 Arab air-
craft, 1,000 Egyptian tanks, 1,000 Syrian tanks and
more than 30 SAM missile batteries. The Arabs
lost ten times as many aircraft in dogfights in 1973
as in 1967, and a total of 350 pilots; they also lost
twice as many tanks and more than 8,000 prisoners,
the equivalent of a whole division. Today, every
one of those tanks, aircraft and missiles has been
replaced by the Russians.
Remaining hopes for a peace that is so
vital for the entire world diffuk into prayer
for an end to conflicts. Israel hopes against
hope, and world Jewry together with Israel
cling to the difficult aim, with a vision of an
end to warfare as the inevitable. Meanwhile
it is a continuity of hope and prayer, that the
era of good will and amity will not be delayed
much longer.
Lauterbach and Morgenstern
Scholarly Rabbinical Studies
Ktav Publishing Co. has reissued one of the outstanding works in
rabbinic scholarship.
"Rabbinic Essays" by Jacob Z. Lauterbach includes the most note-
worthy works by the leader in American Reform Judaism in the first
half of this century.
Included in these studies are the eminent teacher's works on the
Sadducees and Pharisees and their teachings. While they were written
more than half a century ago, they retain their value to this day as
guides for reconstruction of the history of the period of these sects.
Of significance in this volume is Rabbi Lauterbach's essay "Jesus
in the Talmud," one of the most thorough studies of the subject in
which Dr. Lauterbach traced the references to Christianity in the Tal-
mud. For a knowledge of Judeo-Christians, the Lauterbach essay is
indispensable.
Other of his essays in this volume are on "The Sabbath," "Midrash
and Mishna," "Ethics of the Halakha" and "Tashlikh."
An appreciation of Rabbi Lauterbach and his works by Rabbi
Solomon Freehof is included in this volume.
Another noteworthy collection of essays by a Reform scholar,
"Rites of Birth, Marriage, Death and Kindred Occasions Among the
Semites," by Dr: Julian Morgenstern, has also just been reissued by
Ktay.
For rabbinic students, this volume is a must, and it has great merit
for lay readers who seek knowledge about basic customs related to
Judaism.
As Dr. Morgenstern himself indicated, this series of essays "has
established various facts of significance for the history of Semitic reli-
gion in general and especially for the history of the religion of Israel
and of the Judeo-Christian heritage therefrom, and of Islam, and of
many of the conventional ritual practices of these religions in the
present day."
Nearly as many pages in this volume are devoted to annotations
as to the text •tself,'thus emphasizing the extent of scholarship imbedded
in the serious research conducted in the compilation of these studies.
In a preface to this volume, Dr. Bertram W. Korn states that al-
though 20 years had passed since Dr. Morgenstern retired from the
presidency of Hebrew Union College, "his eye has not dimmed, and
the power of his vigorous pursuit of the measure of Scripture has not
abated. Even while this book is 'in press, he is busily engaged in further
efforts to increase our understanding of the life of our people in biblical
times." _
Rabbi Glustrom's Definitive
'The Language' of Judaism'
What is a shtadlan? How is Derekh Eretz defined? What's the
explanation for Pidyan Shevuyim?
They mean, consecutively, "Advocate of the Jewish community,"
"Acceptable Behavior" and "Ransom of Captives." These are the
explanations given by Rabbi Simon Glustrom in his interesting paper-
back, "The Language of Judaism," published by Ktay.
Selected at random, these terms are part of a lengthy collection of
Jewish terms, some used very often, others not so extensively.
In its totality, this volume serves an excellent purpose. It deals
concisely with the many topics the scholarly rabbi undertook to explain.
Each term appears in Hebrew, with an English transliteration, an
interpretation of the meaning and the explanatory essay.
A listing of the terms defined would at once indicate the value of
such a work for Jews seeking knowledge about the basic Jewish ideas
under discussion.
Rabbi Glustrom's "The Language of Judaism" is like a miniature
encyclopedia. It is worthy of high commendation, recommending it
for wide distribution.
Oft