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 Association.
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

Business Manager

DREW LIEBERWITZ

Advertising Manager

Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 20th day of Elul, 5734, the following scriptural selections will
be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Deut. 26:1-29:8. Prophetical portion, Isaiah 60:1-22.

Candle lighting, Friday, Sept. 6, 7:45 p.m.

VOL. LXV. No. 26

Page Four

September 6, 1974

Nation in Anguish and Expedient Friends

--

Never expect an individual or a political
party in power _to be as committed to pledges
and to fraternalism as the loyal minority in
quest of rulership or candidates seeking suc-
cess in elections!
The lesson was especially apt in Great
Britain. The opposition party always support-
ed Zionism and Israel; the party in power
soon forgot its ideological position.
This was especially true of the Labor
Party in the 1940s. It became evident at
the dubious Roosevelt-Ibn Saud conference in
1945.
On occasions, some who were viewed as
committed friends either found themselves
hand-tied and some emerged as tongue-tied
when it was necessary to speak up in Jewry's
defense — because they claimed to be cau-
tious.
One historic experience needs recalling.
In the early 1930s, when the Jews and Arabs
were called to a conference to review the
situation in Palestine, the Arabs established a
policy of refusing to sit as negotiators with
the Jewish spokesmen at one table, but sep-
arated themselves into adjoining rooms. The
late Dr. Stephen S. Wise broached the prob-
lem to the representatives of the British For-
eign- Office, and they told him they were
submitting to the _ obstructions because of
expediency.
This has remained a chief obstacle to just
approach to the mounting problems affecting
Arab-Jewish relations. The desire to be ex-
pedient has created havoc and has interferred
with proper and firm tackling of the issues..
- The newest confrontation is with the
American adaptation of expediency. As a
staunch friend of Israel and as a supporter of
justice for oppressed Jews, Congressman Ger-
ald R. Ford took a strong position and was
among the most eloquent• advocates of. Amer-
ican recognition of Jerusalem as the capital
of Israel. As President, confronted with the
question how he now views the issue and
whether he will adhere to the view that the
U.S. Embassy be transferred from Tel Aviv
to Jerusalem, Mr. Ford said at his press con-
ference on Aug. '28 that "the question must
stand aside" until other Middle East issues
between Israel and the Arab states are re-
solved.
The 1972 Democratic Party platform con-
tained a pledge of endorsement of Israel's
claim to Jerusalem's status as Israel's capital,
but while the Republican Party did not in-
clude a similar plank its commitment to Israel
was strong enough to imply Jerusalem's role
in a struggle for. Israel's sovereignty. That the
President who, as Congressman Ford, had
been the strongest advocate of capital-status
for Jerusalem, should now be hesitant on the
subject, is a matter for new concern over
impending American policies.
Regardless of the rationality, practicality
or wisdom necessitated by the serious prob-
lems affecting the Middle East, this approach
to the Jerusalem problem emerges again' un-
der the guise of expediency. From this cau-
tious tern' will inevitably develop, uninter-
ruptedly, obstacles and embarrassments,
reversions to the old experiences of parties
seeking political successes parrying with those
in power who will use expediency as an excuse
for inaction.
Meanwhile, the Middle East continues to
be a powder keg, with endless dangers -from
war threats and continuing evidences of
enmities that are rooted in Arab aspirations
for Israel's total destruction.

In his analysis of the situation as he
viewed it during his visit to the Arab coun-
tries and Israel, with the Nixon-Kissinger
mission, James McCartney, the Detroit Free
Press correspondent, incorporated this telling
quotation from a statement made to him by
an adviser to Egyptian President S ad a t:
"When we say we want our land we mean
every meter." This is believed to be the aim
of the Arabs: Israel's total destruction, and
this must not be overlooked or ignored in
facing the issues.
In view of such attitudes which deny a
people's right to exist as an autonomous en-
tity, it is imperative that even the best of
friends should be challenged if their position
emerges as threateningly to Israel's security
and survival. Even a friendly President must
be admonished when there is danger to an
entire people's right to live and to function
as a member of the society of nations. -
Summarizing the seriousness of the cur-
rent situation, in Near East Report, Gil Carl
Alroy, eminent author and student of Middle
East affairs, on the prevalence of anti-Zion-
ism:

"There is often sharp discrepancy between
what we read in the Western press and what is
actually said in the Arab world." There have
been many reports of new modernization in Arab
attitudes toward the Jewish state, but it is
usually the Western journalist who deduees this
transformation. For example, Henry Tanner
notes in The New York Times that the Arab
press cited an Israel spokesman on the progress
of the Syrian talks, and from this he leaps to
the deduction that the Arabs are now finally
"accepting Israel."
"Yet Tanner ignores key items that clearly
reveal the opposite: the endorsement by Egyp-
tian 'Foreign Minister Fahmi of the fedayeen
goal of replacing the Jewish state with a "dem-
ocratic and secular state"; the public declara-
tion by Egyptian Youth Minister Al-Magd that
Cairo policy remains the elimination of Jewish
statehood, beginning with the withdrawal from
lands occupied in 1967; the Palestinian Ten-
Point Program in which the struggle against the
existence of the Zionist state is reaffirmed. The
continued anti-Israel mood in the Arab world is
captured in a recent Al Ahram cartoon depicting
the execution by guillotine of the government of
Israel and of Zionism itself.
"It is only against this reality that one may
properly evaluate the continuing pressure to
persuade the vulnerable -Israelis to rely on for-
eign guarantees that have been so unreliable
in the past and to depend on the presumption of
Arab good will, which seems to exist only in the
minds of Western diplomats.
"Kissinger has succeeded in making deals,
but he has given us no promise of a genuine
peace in which the survival of Israel is safe-
guarded."

Inhuman trends have spread to deny life
to an entire_ nation, threatening it with • an-
other genocide. Expediency has become an
instrument to blind responsible leaders to
their duties, deter responsible people from
their duties and to mislead those who might
otherwise evidence compassion for an ancient
folk returning to its homeland. That is why
it is so vital that there should be unhesitant
assertion of their rights by those affected by
the emerging conditions, and a duty upon
their friends and kinsmen to stand by them.
Just as Stephen S. Wise was horrified by
resort to expediency, so must the people of
Israel today be on guard against its domi-
nance. Without firmness on the determined
will to live and the human right to exist
humanly, the very basis of civilization will
collapse and humanitarianism will be a farce.

Synagogue's History Traed
From Its Biblical Inspiration

Tracing the history and continuity of the Jewish house of worship,
from its biblical origins to the present, Dr. Azriel Eisenberg; in "The
Synagogue Through the Ages" (Bloch), portrays interesting historical
developments.
Extensively illustrated with photo-
graphs of synagogues of olden times and
major contemporary structures, cere-
monial objects and scenes of activities
in the important houses of worship, the
global as well as historial record intro-
duced in this volume is impressive and
informative.
"Intrinsic to the story of the syna-
gogue," Dr. Eisenberg emphasizes, "are'
the fundamental prophetic ideas promul-
gated in the Bible, as follows: 1. God is
universal; 2. He may be served by the
heart's yearning to be near Him; 3. He
may be approached directly without in-
termediaries; 4. His servants (Priests
and Levites) must be pure and •edi-
Dr. Eisenberg
cated. These are the very foundations-
of the synagogue."
Analyzing the role of the temple, the author traces the birth
of the synagogue, the roles of the Prophets, the Exile, the ensuing
trials and tribulations led to the inspirations for study, the urge for
worship, and the _synagogue as it is known today, born in Babylonia.
Dr. Eisenberg states on this score:
"The exiles did not forget those of their neighbors and brothers
who had stayed behind in the devastated land and cities of Judea.
Without the Temple and a strong national leadership, what would
become of them? Since they hoped one day to return, they also had
other, more personal reasons for anxiety. For exarfiple, what if those
who had stayed behind now claimed ownership of the land that had
belonged to the exiles, and refused to give it up? Once again, it
was Ezekiel who suggested the answer: True, I have not banished
them far away and scattered them in a foreign land, but I have been
to them a little sanctuary in the countries where they have settled
(Ezekiel 11:15-16).
"The prophet here assures the exiles that they are not to be
deprived of what was theirs, and that God is with them even in a
land far from their own. But this statement also contains what may
be a clue to the origin of the synagogue. The Hebrew word Mikdai.'
meaht, translated as "little sanctuary," is believed by the rabbis
refer to the synagogue. It may be, as scholars have suggested, th.i,
the visits to the home of Ezekiel were a continuation of the visits the
ISraelites had made to the "man of God" on special days, as in the
time of the prophets Samuel and Elisha. Be that as it may, tradition
has it that the first synagogue ever built for the purpose of prayer
was in Babylonia. According to Jewish legend, it was located in
Nehardea, the first distinguished seat of learning, and was constructed
near the House of Study of Ezra with the stones •and the earth that
had been transported from the Temple at Jerusalem—a sign of un-
broken continuity."
The Eisenberg related story is impressive. In the process of
describing the ancient synagogue, the author also deals with the
school 'and community center. In the review of the house of worship
in the medieval world he also touches upon the historic museums.
The synagogues in Holland, England and Poland—and other
lands—and those in the New World receive due treatment in authori-
tative fashion.
The contemporary synagogue, the customs of the present time,
the activities of women and youth as well es the variety of leaderships
—these and other factors are fully evaluated to provide totality for
the descriptive work about the great spiritual centers of world Jewry.

