Purely Commentary

Golda Meir's Genius and Devotion . . . Inevitability of
Political Declines . . . Need for Israel and Diaspora's
Emendations . . . Sick Minds Who Corrupt M. E. Amity

By Philip
Slomovitz

Accepting Realities . . . Partnerships in Jewry That Demand Stronger Leaderships

Israelis were better prepared for the termination of Golda Meir's leadership
than was Diaspora Jewry. For the Jews of the world who benefited from her oratory
and the courage with which she faced many trying events that affected her nation,
she was the prophetic woman, the very popular leader, the inspirer of millions she
helped enroll in the ranks of Israel's protectors and supporters. For the Israelis she
became part of a political machine that needed overhauling. The damage for which
she also carries a share of the guilt is being repaired and the anticipation•must be of
an administration that will be able to tackle issues so immense that the cooperation
of all Jews everywhere will be needet to encourage retention of faith in Israel's in-
vincibility.
News that comes as a shock soon vanishes to allow for newer developments, for
an accustoming to realities, for acceptance of conditions of inevitability. Even in the
brighter years of Golda Meir's dedicated services to her People there was no reason
to expect uninterruption in her official duties. There are always the uncertainties. The
approaches to peace are tense, the role of Henry A. Kissinger who was befriended
by Mrs. Meir is yet to be ascertained as spelling unqualified justice for Israel, the
buildup of overconfidence by the Israelis is a matter to be dealt with more seriously
than it has ever been approached in the past.
In e time of crisis, and when a loser is down—there is no denying that the
Meir image has suffered—it is easy to criticize and to condemn. It must not be
done unjustly. If American Jews are to judge past events by the emissaries from
Israel who represented the now-fallen government, the propagandists who abandoned
military duties for periods of fund-raising appeals, it will be possible to reach some
conclusions regarding approaches to truth. It was more than over-confidence that
dominated the oratory: It had been challenged as a form of arrogance. Whatever had
happened in the past, that which occurred last week, must be treated as means of
correcting all errors, including those of Jewry's and Israel's relationships.
Golda Meir's services can not and will not be forgotten. Hers was a lifetime
of dedication to the Jewish national cause, first as a labor Zionist volunteer in the
ranks, then as a halutz, as an Israeli pioneer, soon as a leader in the labor move-
ment, then as a diplomat and finally as head of the Jewish state. Such roles are not
erased from history. Nevertheless, in time of crisis a statesman, 2 diplomat or a
politician—and she was all of these—must suffer the consequences of setbacks.
Now Israel and world Jewry must work together to assure a sense of confi-

Sick Minds ... Murderers Consoled by Our Society
Sick minds have disrupted peaceful human relations
in many areas of the world, with the Middle East a
fnajor sufferer with Israel a chief target.
Three terrorists resorted to mass murder and 18
people—nearly all children and women—were the victims
in Kiryat Shemona.
They learned from Nazism and the cruellest of med-
ievalism when they threw youngsters from third floor
apartment windows. Their aim was a school: that's how
the insane among Israel's enemies are conducting their
inhuman war. Are these the representatives of Israel's
enemies to be dealt with in negotiations for an end to
antagonism?
Perhaps Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger has
a new task ahead while dealing with the war-mongers:
to establish whether society must confront murderers in
negotiating accord between people.
Where do we place the blame? At many doorsteps,
whence came encouragement to banditry, blackmail, whole-
sale murder and inhumanity: the Western nations, for
whom black gold from Arab oilwells is more important
than human value; the Arab nations, which have encour-
aged the inhumanities and often financed the demented
and insane murderers who posed as patriots; the Soviet
Union, which provides the weapons for the massacres;
the United Nations, whose failures to prevent the crimes
degrade into and give it notoriety only when the bigots
among the nations meet to insinuate against Israel; the
Vatican, whence continue papal asseverations for the in-
ternationalization of Jerusalm at a time when those who
suppress freedom at the holy places are throwing bombs
(would Paul VI invest authority over his churches in the
capital of Israel, the City of Peace—that's what Jerusalem
means in the Hebrew tongue—to the ilk of the murderers
of innocent children and women in Kiryat Shemona?
Weren't they the kinsmen of these murderers who denied
access to Jewish holy places to Jews when Arabs were
its protectors.
The international arena meanwhile again became a
nest for haters and condoners of violence when the UN
Security Council conducted its special session on the Leb-
anese-Israeli dispute. Terrorism doesn't matter to the
great diplomats, if Jews are the sufferers. But the Krem-
lin, the oil wells, the ancient canards about Jews: those
are the objectives of hate-mongering in already disre-
putable diplomatic quarters on the banks of the East River
in New York!
Let blame fall where It should! Let the guilty be ac-
counted for! The sanctimonious in the world are not blame-
less! Their blindness to realities, their silence when mas-
sacres were boasted in Beirut and Cairo and Damascus
and Amman encouraged the horrors. If there is to be an
end to these outrages, they won't come unless and until
the guilty are accounted for, and the bill of indictment is
in the preceding paragraph.

Bishop Emrich Nails a Lie
A salute to a courageous man who saw fit to castigate
an endorser of one of the most outrageous forgeries in
history.
Bishop Emrich received "a comment" from a reader
who wrote: "If you think there is something wrong with

2—Friday, April 19; 1974

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

dence in Israel. The excessive feelings have abated, the normal needs for faith and
self-assurance must persist and gain strength.
Will the lessons of the past be treated properly? Will the popular feelings that
forced the end of the Meir administration be respected? There is every reason to
believe that there will be a sense of honor and dignity in dealing with the problems,
even during periods of rebuke for those who are being rejected.
In the process, perhaps there should be a thorough study of the methods pur-
sued in establishing good relationships between Diaspora and Israel. Will-the latter's
role in that partnership continue only as a fund-raising instrument when emissaries
interchange fraternalism with us? Will there be a higher level of mutuality based on
an ineradicable kinship?
In the process, will there be an improving change in Jewish leadership in the
Diaspora, especially in American Jewry? Those considering themselves leaders hay,
sunk into a rut. Some are concerned with publicity, with issuing statements every
time there is a sneeze about a Jewish issue; some submitting to pressures that come
from political quarters. The attitudes on the Russian issues have not spelled unity.
The Henry A. Kissinger role has been treated as secret diplomacy medicine. Flattery
takes the place of realism. Men of the year functions have become more important
than the principles that become hidden, at events for causes sponsored in their honor.
Even the oratory from leadership has become ineffective. The organizational
media emerge unproductive. An overabundance of house organs, some from national
organizations, merely emphasizes waste rather than creativity. Someone should look
into it. After all, public funds are involved.
We have already heard admissions that our educational systems are failing,
that we need new approaches to inspire our youth and to retain the elders in their
Jewish identifications. These needs are not to be separated from the larger issue
of protecting Israel and creating the great cultural-spiritual center there. The totality
of Israel is not separated from the people scattered worldwide. If there is to be a
strong Israel, there must be a sound, responsible and cooperative Jewry. While cor-
recting the Israeli situation there must also be proper emendations in world Jewish
relationships with Israel. If there is need to revamp Zionist and related ranks, in
the interest of the people's dignity, the changes must be effected promptly and fear-
lessly. And if there ere, in Jewish ranks, those who panic over criticism, then they
do not earn the leadership title.

being anti-Semitic, I suggest you read •the Protocols of the
Elders of Zion." To which Bishop Emrich replied:
Dr. M.M.: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is
a lie and a fraud.
It was written by anti-Semites to . promote anti-
Semitism. If you ask me to read it, you 'are asking
me to read a vicious lie. If you spread its contents by
your words, you are spreading vicious lies.
And if any man, woman or child is insulted or
attacked because he or she belongs to the Jewish com-
munity, you are not without blame.
When I studied in Nazi Germany, the Protocols
of the Elders of Zion was circulated widely. It was
interesting to observe that Hitler's government ac-
cused the Jews of the crimes and plots which the
accusers were then planning.
Go to a library and read un on the evil history
of that publication. Ignorance is excusable. But if
after reading about it, you continue to spread its con-
tents as truth, may God have mercy ou your soul.
How fortunate that there are honest people who will
not permit subjection to bigotry. The mere fact that the
M. M. in question should have accepted the lie as a reason
for hating Jews is disturbing enough.
The Protocols were exposed in the London Times in
1920, immediately after their circulation. But they were
reprinted by Father Coughlin, they were given notoriety
by the senior Ford in the Dearborn Independent, the Arabs
utilized it and the Nazis used it, as Bishop Emrich corn-
ments.
Must the libelous fraud constantly be explained for
the weak-minded? How grateful truth-loving people should
be to Bishop Emrich for exposing the lie!

The Saxbe Inanity
If it were only the current blunder of equating the
intellectuals of two decades ago with communism, Attor-
ney General William B. Saxbe might be excused. After
all, he attempted an explanation. But before he became
a member of President Nixon's cabinet, as a member of
the Senate, he had already insulted his constituents and
the entire American Jewish community when, he said
while discussing Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union
in relation to the U.S.-USSR trade agreement: "If the
Zionist Jews believe that we are going to fight to the last
drop of the farmers' blood, then I'm not going to be a
part of it."
Such hatred does not belong in the cabinet of an
American president, and Mr. Nixon should understand
the justification for a demand that he fire him outright—
before he causes more damage to the American idea of
fair play, and honest judging of his fellow men.
Saxbe is not alone in his blunders, inanities, misinfor-
mation that turns into misrepresentation. Take the column
in last Sunday's Detroit News by Smith Hempstone. Sud-
denly another Daniel came to judgment in that column-
ist's assertions that are so misleading that once again
there is amazement that such columns pass muster. Hemp-
stone stated:
"Insofar as the American Communist Party is
concerned, we •have it on the authority of Nathaniel
Weyl, a former member of that organization, that,
as late as 1947, 39.3 per cent of the party's activists
were Jewish, with Jews accounting for only 3 per cent
of the population."

To be wondered at is how many people discovered the
outrage in this paragraph. The entire Communist Party
membership may have been under 1,000. The "activists"
referred to may have numbered 10. That 'means that
Jewish Communist activists may have numbered three,
four, even five, if one exaggerates just a bit. But to link
that insignificance with 3 per cent of the Jewish popula-
tion of America—which could, in 1947, have totaled
3,000,000, is to utter a libel that is inexcusable even if
Smith Hempstone were 'an anti-Semite. Perhaps he did it
inadvertently, but he added a chapter to the outrageous
myth called "The Protocols," It is, indeed, inexcusable!
It. is reminiscent of the story about the violent anti-
Semite who was fuming about the Jews in a small town—
let's call it Nicknock—all being crooks. "Ti'e Jews in
Nicknock are all thieves, disloyal, cheats, they robbed
me!" "How many Jews are there who you know in
Nicknock," he was asked. "One" was his reply.

AZA—Vital Bnai Brith Function
Bnai Brith leadership was realistic when it did not
limit itself to mere talking about the need to organize the
youth. It proceeded to form the Aleph Zadik Aleph move-
ment, and the Bnai Brith Youth Organization for boys and
girls became a factor of merit in efforts to create identity
for our young people.
As AZA, the movement has gained strength and merits
recognition as one of the major accomplishments of Bnai
Brith. Supplementing the Hillel Foundation, the movement
for college students, Aleph Zadik Aleph, functioning under
the initials A Z A of the complete name of the youth
movement, provides means for youth to be active in Jews-
ish discussion groups, in athletics, socially, in support of
the great tasks that demand affiliation in behalf of Rus-
sian Jewry and in defense of Israel.
During the 50 years of A Z A services, the movement
earned the acclaim it is receiving at this time. The 50th
anniversary of the movement, to be celebrated at a dinner
sponsored by the Detroit branch of the movement, will
be an occasion for our community to take proper note of
the accomplishments of Bnai Brith's youth organization
It will be a time for dedication to assure continuity fog
these important functions.

* *

HIAS—A Noble Name in. U.S. History
When the mass migrations of Jews from Eastern
Europe, notably from Czarist Russia, began to pour into
this country, toward the end of the last and at the be-
ginning of the present centuries, the guardian angel over
the otherwise unprotected newcomers was the Hebrew
Immigrant Aid Society. The welcoming agency became
world famous under its initials HIAS. For nine decades
this society extended a welcoming hand to newcomers to
our shores. For decades at Ellis Island, now wherever
boats or planes arrive with immigrants, HIAS continues
a role of friendship and compassion for people who other-
wise would •be helpless in a strange environment.
HIAS is an honored name in Jewish ranks. It per-
petuates a great Jewish tradition of hakhnasat orkhim,
of !hospitality to strangers. In Jewish experience it is
much more than that: it is comfort to the homeless and
protection for many who have fled from persecutions.
Continuing this great role, HIAS has earned the re-
spect and support of the American Jewish community. It