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. _ . - ;