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 -Ilitslcy, News Editor . . . Heidi Press, Assistant News Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 21st day of Tevet, 5735, the following scriptural selections will
be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Exod. 1:1-6:1. Prophetical portion, Isaiah 27:6-28:13;
29:22-23.
Candle lighting, Friday, Jan. 3, 4:55 p.m.
VOL. LXVI, No. 17
Page Four
Friday, January 3, 1975
Suspicious Detente Inaugurates 1975
What had been part of the "quiet diplom-
acy" that has developed as a tactic for Jewish
spokesmen for major needs in behalf of the
oppressed has developed into a normal query
whether American statesmen are being misled
in their dealings with foreign governments.
Detente has become a puzzle and disen-
gagement of military forces in the Middle
East an enigma.
Is Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger
a tool of tricky Russians and Egyptians? Have
Senators Henry Jackson, Jacob Javits and
Abraham Ribicoff been taken in by the Rus-
sians who now disavow whatever pledges for
a 60,000 emigration has been quoted as Krem-
lin's pledge in exchange for favored nation
status in the new U.S.-USSR trade bill?
The Russian role, if it is really a trick that
may drag the Kissinger reputation into the
muds of Moscow, has been revealed in an illu-
minating article by New York Times corres-
pondent in Russia for three years, Hedrick
Smith. Under the heading that exposes much
of the Kremlin vacillation and truth juggling,
"Moscow has Secured Detente Without a Risk
of Open Society," Smith's nearly solid page
of New -Work Times copy commences as
follows:
Three years ago, as de-
tente became a headline
issue, many in the West
and some in the Soviet
Union thought that a new
era of East-West accom-
modation would open up
Soviet society, bringing
reform and liberalization
in many walks of life.
It is apparent now,
however, that the Soviet
leadership—with increas-
ing self-confidence and
pragmatism — has found
a formula for achieving
the foreign policy and
economic dividends of
accommodation with the
West without paying the
price of relaxing controls
at home.
The ruling group, head-
ed by Leonid I. Brezh-
nev, has shown a deter-
mination not to allow a
repetition of what hap-
pened somewhat more
than a decade ago under
the late Nikita S. Khrush-
David's Sling Against
Goliath's Poison Barbs
David still has his sling. His enemy is no
longer a single Goliath. The forces that are
determined to destroy him are multiplying.
There are many Goliaths. They are armed to
the teeth. Besides, they have their poisoned
barbs, the venomous propaganda under the
guise of humanism, weakness against many
hordes of enemies becomes a crime.
The poison is spreading. In Canada, where
traditional friendships have declined, the poli-
ticians and the press have yielded to the fan-
tastic charge that Zionists are influencing
public opinion against Arabism, while, as a
matter of fact, Canadian support for Israel in
diplomatic courts has been reduced to a min-
imum. In Washington the rumors are that the
State Department and the Defense Depart-
ment have begun to consider drastic cuts in
aid to Israel. Western European countries
have not been helpful at all in easing the war
threats.
So, Goliath's weapons are accumulating,
his poisoned barbs threaten to become dead-.
her, and David's sling remains little Israel's
weapon. It happens to be a sling with a spiri-
tual motivation. Therefore, the tiny Jewish
state affirms, as she must, the grave dangers.
chev, when the promo-
tion of friendly relations
abroad stirred ferment
at home.
The Kremlin has made
some tactical conces-
sions, such as in the field
of Jewish emigration and
in the treatment of a
handful of world-known
dissenters. B u t these
have been minor adjust-
ments that have not af-
fected the established or-
der at home. They were
not reforms heralding a
transition to a new and
more liberal era.
The Soviet Union has
-
imported billions of dol-
lars worth of Western
technology, bought mil-
lions of tons of grain and
acquired computers and
entire factories without
decentralizing or reform-
ing the economy substan-
tially or even significant.
ly altering the secretive
style of its foreign deal-
ings.
It has stopped jam-
ming selected Western
radio stations but has
kept sufficient controls
at home to prevent the
contamination o f free
ideas from stirring new
creativity.
The portrayal is not a bright one. While the
world's leading nations could have cemented the
warmest friendships, and detente might truly have
proven a "release of tensions . . . a cessation of
strained relations"—indeed, a blessing for that could
spread comfort for other nations—it now functions
with uncertainty.
The Jewish angle has not been helped by the
back-biting and the irritations. It has retained an
uncertainty that is agonizing for those seeking the
right to leave Russia and for those who are deter-
mined to help the applicants for exit visas.
In the process, there is name-calling, and Dr.
Kissinger has become a victim of the poisonous situ-
ation that has arisen out of the quest for friendships
that is paved with thorns of suspicions and lack of
confidence.
The Kissinger role in international affairs appears
to have been dragged, similarly, into a state of disre-
spect for the man who attained so much when he
succeeded in attaining a cease fire but now is viewed
as one who has been "taken in" by a manipulating
Sadat who has yielded to the terrorism of the Syrians
and the PLO and who is scheming with Faisal of
Saudi Arabia to encourage those who aim for Israel's
destruction.
This is how the New Year commences: with pre-
dictions of an inevitable war and with uncertainties
about detente in Russia and proposed non-engage-
ments in the Middle Est. It is nob a happy way of
greeting 1975.
Ford Reiteration,
Kissinger Dilemma
Reiterating his interest in and support
of Israel in the struggle for survival, Presi-
dent Gerald Ford has heartened the dele-
gation of Jewish leaders headed by Rabbi
Israel Miller. Nevertheless there are concerns
over the gossiping about an American aban-
donment of American aid to Israel out of
fear of another emergency crisis, and this cer-
tainly does not ease the tensions.
Then there is the Henry Kissinger di-
lemma. An avalanche of irritations, doubts
about his firmness, rumors of double talk—
all add to the distressing speculations affect-
ing the many U.S. foreign involvements.
These are cause for concern regarding the
Middle East. World Jewry's hopes are that
the faith shown in many quarters in both the
President and Dr. Kissinger's will prove justi-
fied.
Meltzer Dramatically Delineates
Story of Eastern European Jews
An impressive record of literary creativity has already earned
wide acceptance for the variety of books by Milton Meltzer.
His biography of Langston Hughes and his history of black
Americans already are rated invaluably as contributions toward an
understanding of the black community and its noted leaders.
"Remembering the Days," (Doubleday), his brief history of Amer-
ican Jews, reviewed earlier in this column, emphasized his ability to
pursue research in the Jewish historical field.
Enriching his tasks in the Jewish area is his newest work, "World
of Our Fathers: The Jews of Eastern Europe" (Farrar, Straus &
Giroux).
The struggles for survival, the adherence to faith, the hopes
and frustrations, the Zionist aims and the Bundist obstacles, the
hasidic lore and the many aspects of the shtetl life — these are
fused into a summary of events that distinguished the East Euro-
pean Jews during the decades which ended tragically while hope
dominated the aspiration for fulfillment in traditional loyalties.
Actually, this is a retracing of the history of a vital factor in
world Jewry. The remnant that has settled in this country, in a few
other free, lands and in Israel serves as evidence of the spiritual
power that emanated from East European JeWs. Their communities
were destroyed in a holocaust that remains a tragic memory. It is
this memory that Meltzer helps to retain as a tribute to a people
that lived and suffered but was able to display courage spiritually.
The Meltzer attainment in his new book is in the form of photo-
graphs, maps, documentaries and actual recollections in historic
evaluations of the era he describes impressively and dramatically.
The Meltzer account deals with the longperiod of East European
Jewish history through World War I and merely leads up to the
Holocaust. In that respect it is necessary as an introductory work
to a further understanding of the historical developments through
World War
The authorities quoted, the events that occurred in this history,
the dramatic epiSodes recalled, all give weight to Meltzer's research.
Polish and Russian Jewries are delineated with emphasis on their own
creativity as well as the pressures imposed upon them. "World of
Our Fathers" deserve an interested reading public.
Jung's 'Essence of Judaism'
A Russian edition of the Jewish classic "Essentials of Judaism"
by Rabbi Leo Jung, of the Jewish Center of New York City has
been published, announces Harold M. Jacobs, president of the Union
of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America. The project, which
is the first attempt to produce basic religious material for the use
of Soviet Jews in their own language, was funded through a special
grant from Jacobs and other leading philanthropists in the Orthodox
community.
The original work by Rabbi Jung has become a standard work in
the field. Since its first, English language publication in 1937 by the
UOJCA, it has gone through 13 separate editions. It presents a
compact introduction to the basic tenets and practices of Judaism
from the Orthodox point of view. Its author, Rabbi Jung, is one of
the senior members of the American rabbinate, a noted scholar and
author in many areas of Jewish philosophy and theology.
According to Jacobs, "the publication of this tract in Russian
is only the first step in a broad program to aid the tens of thousands
of Soviet Jews in their search for their Jewish: heritage. We in the
Orthodox Union will redouble our efforts in their behalf."