THE JEWISH NEWS Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the 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 Alan Hitsky, News Editor . . . Heidi Press, Assistant News Editor Sabbath Scriptural Selections This Sabbath, the 16th day of Kislev, 5735, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues: Pentateuchal portion, Gen. 32:4-36:43. Prophetical portion, Hosea 11:7-12:12. Candle lighting, Friday, Nov. VOL. LXVI, No. 12 n, 4:44 p.m. Page Four November 29, 1974 Identity and Careerism in Jewish Ranks Old cliches about children abandoning the ways of their parents and grandchildren arising to reconstruct the idealism of an older generation haunts the family complexes and then emerges to prove the realism of such speculations. The general assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds may have proven the truth of such bandying of ideas. Second generation American Jews were often taunted with criticisms of their alleged indifference. Now a new generation is taking charge of the communal functions. The young- est in the ranks have assumed responsibility. They are more active. They are generous. Their major concern is advancement of the spiritual-cultural values of their people. At the CJFWF sessions last week it was apparent that the younger element is con- cerned. There is a renewed identification that is heartening the elders. Concern for Israel, Israel's security retains top consideration in community planning. Inseparable from it is a desire for knowledge of existing conditions and a determination to defend the cause of justice for embattled kinsmen. A desire for knowledge, a determined will for truth to assure an appreciation of Israel's and Jewry's position in an era of threats to the people's legacies and the priority given to Jewish education in communal programming, combine in formulating the policies that moti- vate Jewish activism in the unified actions of American Jewry's major Jewish agency. The role played by the young people in the sessions of the assembly gives strength to the continuity of the overall obligations. Stemming from the devotions of a dedi- cated young Jewry must come progress in all Jewish activities, advancement of the stand- ards of Jewish education and reassurance that the serious efforts in behalf of Israel will not diminish. The heartening developments will, hope- fully, encourage young Jews to assume active roles in all Jewish social service and educa- tional needs. There is need for able social workers. There is an even greater need for well trained Jewish teachers. What is especially needed is a desire by able young men and women to make Jewish communal work, especially the teaching pro- fession, their careers. If careerism can be encouraged by the experiences gained at the CJFWF and its gen- eral assemblies, and related movements', a new era may be foreseen for American Jewry through a progressively trained Jewish youth. Encouragement to the youth to aspire to ca- reers in Jewish life could rebound to the benefit of Jews everywhere. A Blundering General .. . And the Principle of Decency Recalled Gen. George S. Brown retains his post as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff of our armed forces. He will carry the mark of a modern Cain as having been rebuked by Presi- dent Gerald Ford for anti-Semitic remarks, and the sentiments of government and leaders will no doubt be respected: the original de- mand for either his resignation or his dismis- sal will be abandonded. Nevertheless, there will be, in the ranks of highest authority in our government, a man who has been called ignorant—because only the basest forms of misinformation could have included him to spout vernom; and it may well be that his judgment will be questioned henceforth. There is an old Yiddish saying: vos oif a nikhteren oifen lung is bei ah shikeren oifen UNESCO's Disgrace Dragging into the mud of the important United Nations agency, the bigotries and pre- judices of the Soviet and Arab blocs, the aims to advance educational and scientific projects for the benefit of mankind have been trans- formed into insane motivations of deranged beasts who are posing as diplomats. UNESCO has lost its usefulness as a result of the inhumanities introduced in the world society that has been robbed of its very honor. Civilized people are temporary placed into an isolated vacuum. Restoring humanness into the ordinary relations between peoples becomes a major obligation in international search for a bit of clear air in a world threat- ened by beasts in human attire. tzung—what is on a sober man's lung is on a drunkard's tongue. General Brown will have to prove that he was mentally sober when he spoke of domination by jews in basic econo- mic areas and in the media. Is he forgiven? If this question is truly posed it must be ruled ridiculous. No one is ever forgiven for an insult to a people in hu- man society. This is not a time for joking. He was merely trying to impress college youth with a canard that can do harm to Israel and can menace the American position in a war- infested area. He attempted to show that Jews are influencing congressional opinion in mat- ters involving arms for Israel. Perhaps he blundered. Granted! If he did, then he must either apologize or explain the truth in the entire matter or do both. The fact is that a very small nation is be- ing threatened with destruction. When a ter- rorist speaking in behalf of the now UN- dignified PLO was asked about Israel's and Palestine's status, his comment was that Israel was borderless, implying that his murderous hand is ready to gobble up all of Israel. This is a threat of genocide, and a U.S. spokesman is expected to speak out against it and to act to prevent it. It is as simple as all that: it is all a matter of preventing the destruction of Israel. Gen. Brown is not the symbol of Ameri- can honor. That mark of respect for this great nation must be protected whether a blundering general likes it nor not. The responsibility is the President's and of Congress. Both, retaining a blunderer, must hold fast to the American principle of fair play. For that ideal the battle must never end. Shulman's 'The Old Country' Depicts Pathos of the Shtetl For the third generation American Jew the shtetl could be viewed as a legend. For the second generation it is a memory. The first gener- ation American Jew — the grandfather, and he could also be the father — retains a memory that is embedded in inerasable impressions. Factually, it is history. The shtetl was representative of a genera- tion that carried on great traditions, struggled to pursue spiritual- cultural legacies, adhered to faith while anguished by oppression and by economic distress. The shtetl acquires new retentive power in an impressive collection of photographs incorporated in a volume that is both photographically and textually powerful. "The Old Country" by Abraham Shulman (Charles Scribners Sons) tells the story of the heroes of the Old World, most of it destroyed by the Nazi beasts, in the 200 photographs gathered by the author from the files of 60 years of issue of the Jewish Daily Forward. Himself a member of the Forward editorial staff, Shulman was able to give authoritative status to his labors to recapture the spirit of the shtetl in the pictures that relate every aspect of human experi- ence in the ghettoized areas portrayed so movingly in an impressive volume. Scholars and merchants, tradesmen and artisans, the impoverished who never abandon pride in their heritage, grandparents and their children and grandchildren — every element in the community that was isolated from the world but nevertheless carried on age-old traditions is under scrutiny in these collected picture stories. There was a struggle to be productive and the odds to attain economic dignity were great. Yet they struggled to be productive and to attain a respected standard of living. A charge of speculativeness is denied in one photo, displaying productivity, and the author-collector's refutation of the contrary is expressed in this note: "According to popular belief, the majority of the shtetl's inhabitants were Tuft-menschen, people who made their living out of thin air. Nothing is further from the truth. The Jews knew very well the mean- ing of the harsh Biblical phrase "In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread." The shtetl's inhabitants were engaged in a hard struggle for their daily living — made harder by the restrictions and discrimin7 tions imposed by their non-Jewish rulers." Isaac Bashevis Singer, in an introduction to this volume, advances this point regarding the people who have vanished and their destroyed communities: "When modern man indulges more and more in compas- sion for murderers of all kinds, trying to find various excuses for their evil deeds, this book manages to tell us that the victims too should be remembered." The interest created by "The Old Country" is evident in the sub- division of the subjects related to the basic theme. Children and women are given specified considerations, as are the Hasidim, workers, and other elements in the depicted ghettoes. Shulman did not limit himself to photographs in compiling this book. He authored a 29-page informative essay describing life in the shtetl, its pathos as well as its humor. The happy moods and the tragic endings are delineated. The bitter end he defines in this concluding paragraph: "It can be said up to the last moment of its terrible death, the shtetl preserved the innocence it possessed at its beginning. The Jews who had arrived seven or eight hundred years earlier believed that the earth where they came to settle down was chosen for them by their God. Poland, in Yiddish Tolen', was composed of the two Hebrew words: .po and lin — 'here shall we spend the night', Nobody could have forseen that this phrase which expressed so much hope could materialize in such an appalling way. That it would mean 'Night' in its most horrible sense."