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 Scriptual Selections
This Sabbath; the 14th day of Tevet, 5735, the following scriptural selections will be
read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Gen. 47:28-50:26. Prophetical portion, I Kings 2:1-12.
Candle lighting, Friday, Dec. 27, 4:49 p.m.
VOL. LXVI, No. 16
Page Four
Friday, Decerhber t7, 1974
New Congress: Increasing Obligations
A new year enters with anxieties that spell to dispel such attempts to destroy a policy of
unprecedented obligations for this nation's justice for Israel will surely • mount into the
legislators. A new Congress, with many new most pressing responsibility for action by
faces, is confronted by problems that exceed American Jewry.
A new Congress, with many young mem-
in intensity the most serious of earlier years.
An unimpeded inflation, a recession bordering bers whose judgments are being trusted to
on a depression; foreign issues so immense confront the foreign issues with knowledge
that the security of oncoming generations may and a determination to perpetuate the Amer-
be at stake, and a score of social and educa- ican ideal of fair play must be approached
tional problems—all combine to create a chal- with facts that overwhelm fiction. The expec-
lenge that calls for practical approaches, for tation that a new Congress will not interrupt
courage as well as vision into the future. the close relations between Israel and the
The accumulated problems demand coop- United States stems not from a lobby but from
eration with President Gerald Ford. Any ef- the concerned 6,000,000 American Jews who
fort at politicizing the needs of the people is ask for justice for their .kinsmen, who plead
certain to meet with resentment that will with their fellow Americans to understand
surely affect the 1976 presidential campaign. that they are not a lobby but a vital portion of
A citizenry that has already demonstrated the American people who plead that another
disgust with some of the occurrences in the– genocide should be prevented, that any thing
nation's capital is not to be expected to tol- likened to a holocaust should find resentment
erate procrastinations, unnecessary_ debates in their hearts as much as they do in the Jew-
lacking in prompt action on the country's ish appeal for fairness to their fellow men.
needs and an indifference to the rising tide The very thought of a lobby in relation
of foreign pressures which have already evi- to American Jewry, in this regard, is re-
Rabbi H. Hirsch Cohen, in the distinguished new interpretation of the
denced a desire to stimulate anti-American pugnant. One may as well say that the syna-
biblical Flood story, "The Drtinkenness of NOah" (The University of
sentiments in many areas, on a global basis. gogue and the church are lobbies aimed at Alabama Press), challenges Erich Von Daniken's claim that the
Domestic economic issues are first on the controlling the Almighty's domain. The tragic "giants" referred to in the Book of Genesis may have been space trav-
agenda_ for action. Related to them are the crisis affecting the Jewish community in ellers-from elsewhere in our galaxy.
Israel begs
for understanding
and
co-
critical conditions existing in the universities, operation
in assuring
protection for
an for
entire
- Von Daniken's theorizing in the best-selling book, "Chariots of the
the sad plight in the postal system, the unre- people whose very existence is constantly Gods?", is based on the mistranslation of a Hebrew word as "giants",
solved racial issues.
threatened by neighbors who overwhelm them Dr. Cohen claims. As he points out in "The Drunkenness of Noah", the
Not least among .the issues to be resolved and surround them with weapons of destruc- word in its biblical context means "rutters" or sexually voracious men.
is the energy problem, the blackmail that tion.
The crime of the diluvian generation was sexual depravity so gross
-
stems from the oil-rich potentates, the schemes
This, therefore, is another major factor on as to cause th _ e earth literally to stink, Dr. Cohen maintains. And the
of the wealthy oil magnates to buy their way the agenda of obligations for the new Con- flood waters, far from being intended as punishment, served to wash
away the earth's foul odor and to cleanse the polluted atmosphere. Thus
into the industrial enterprises of this land as gress. The plea for a continuing friendship is
the God of Genesis appears as a redeeming deity more concerned with
well as of many European countries. The couched in an earnestness marked by a hope
deliverance than punishment.
dangers are obvious and they must be pre- that humanism and fair play will never be
Some of the more striking conclusions of Dr. Cohen's investigations
vented from impeding the very existence of abandoned by the executive and legislative de-
are:
the Western world. partments of our government.
Related to these is the situation in the The new year is, therefore, welcomed with
The Book of Genesis reveals only one literary strand, not the three
Middle East and the role of Israel in a critical hope for an emerging Congress bent upon en- previously alleged.
period in history. The executive and legisla- acting justice for the American people and
Wine, in biblical thought, was believed to stimulate sexual desire and
tive departments of the United States have fairness towards those seeking decency and insure
potency. Hence, Noah's nakedness and drunkenness are related to
established precedents of uninterrupted Amer- humanism in the U.S. foreign relations. The the divine command to replenish the earth's population after the Flood.
ican-Israel friendships. Rumors and specula- same plea for action towards justice also is
Eve was created co-equal with Adam; only after she ate the forbid-
tions regarding an imaginary "Jewish lobby" addressed to President Ford.
and pressures upon Congress to force sup-
Faith in American idealism provides the den- fruit was she subordinated to Adam.
port for Israel may be part of the growing assurance that the highest ideals of this land
Cain killed Abel for cultic reasons, not in a fit of jealousy, in a
move to supplant -Abel as the divinely appointed agent.
propaganda to undermine the friendship that will never be sacrificed. May 1975 prove to be
has been so vital for both the United States a year of glory, embanked in idealism, for
The phenomena following the•eruption of the Aegean island of Thera
and for Israel. In 1975 the need and the duty Congress and the President.
coincide so closely with the details in the biblical account of the Flood
'Drunkenness of Noah' Author
Shatters Diluvian Theories
The 2% of Readers Amorig 6,000,000
"A shocking statistic for a people con- Jews do buy books and, perhaps, also read
cerned with preserving its past and safe- them. Yet it has often been asked whether
guarding its future" is presented for serious those attending book reviews find themselves
consideration by Jerome P. Shestack, presi- fully satiated by the knowledge of those who
dent of the Jewish Publication Society of do read them as imparted to them in their
America. analyses.
Indicating that only 2 percent of the
More importantly related to the question
6,000,000 American Jews buy Jewish books, raised by the head of the Publication Society
the head of the JPS makes an appeal for is whether Jews, granted that they do buy
greater interest in the printed word and in and read the best selling sensations, also read
the important books published by the presti- Jewish books and encourage authors and pub-
gious Jewish publishing house, which serves lishers by buying them. This is questionable,
as a nationally recognized non-profit agency. judging by the impoverishment in Jewish
The very challenge is significant. It should cultural ranks.
have been the major subject for consideration
Schestack's appeal for memberships in
during the observance of Jewish Book Month, the nationally recognized JPS deserves an
and it remains a major cause for concern.
immense response. It should be accompanied
Judging by the many programs devoted by encouragement to Jewish authors and
to the review of books, in synagogues and publishers as a major step in protecting the
primarily in women's groups, it is evident that cultural status of the Jews everywhere.
that the biblical narrator of Genesis must have incorporated Thera's
seismic waves, heavy rains and volcanic clouds into the story. In re-
writing the history of the universe in monotheistic terms, the narrator
blended the details' of the Thera catclysm with the earlier Mesopotamian
flood epic. The narrator's account of the Flood preserved the psycholog-
ical reactions of the survivors of the Thera eruption.
Rabbi Cohen is director of the Bnai Brith Hillel Foundation at th •
University of Connecticut. "The Drunkenness of Noah" is the fifth vo.
ume in the distinguished series of Judaic Studies published by in
University of Alabama Press.
Malamud's 'Idiots First'
A popular collection of short stories by Bernard Malamud, which
appeared under the collective title of one of the major stories in the
book, "Idiots First," has been reissued as a paperback. The new edition
published by Pocket Books, the Simon and Schuster subdivision, con-
tains in addition to the title story, 11 other Malamud narratives.
Humor and pathos intermingle in these tales, giving evidence anew
of the Malamud skill in storytelling and portraying the experiences of
the characters, many in the metropolitan Jewish community.
Also reissued as a Pocket Books paperback is the widely acclaimed
"The Day They Shook the Plum Tree" by Arthur H. Lewis. _ .
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