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THE JEWISH NEWS

Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of July 2(1, 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 .sit) a year.

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Editor and Publisher

CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ

DREW LIEBERWITZ

Business Manager

Advertising Manager

Alan Hitsky, News Editor . . . Heidi Press. Assistant News Editor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections

This Sabbath, the 18th day of Adar, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:

Pentateuch& portion, Exod. 30:11-34:35. Prophetical portion, Ezekiel 36:16-38.

Candle lighting, Friday, Feb. 28, 6:03 p.m.

VOL. LXVI, No. 25

Page Four

Friday, February 28, 1975

Aliya to. Israel: Multiple Aspects

Aliya Month now being inaugurated as a
step in the direction of American Jewry's sup-
port for the Jewish state has many important
aspects.
It is elementary to speak in terms of value
of Western settlers in Israel's development. The
unskilled who formed the vast majority of new-
'corners to Israel were always in need of the tech-
nical assistance that was provided by pioneering
elements from the Americas and Western Eu-
rope.
There are many other very necessary and
contributing factors to such an assistance pro-
gram. Even those who had gone to Israel for a
brief period to provide service as skilled techni-
cians had given invaluable service in Israel's
upbuilding. Such services continue to be a ne-
cessity, and this sort of Aliya must receive un-
- stinted encouragement.
The universities symbolize another sort of
Aliya for participants in Israel's academic activ-
ities. The students who had gone to Israel for

even a short two- or three-year period, the visit- 1
ing professors, the lovers of learning who helped
build libraries, those who provided for the ad-
vancement of scientific research — these form
an element of specialized service to Israel.
Aliya spells an upward trend towards shar-
ing in Israel's progress. While tourism is not
Aliya in the highest degree of sharing in the con-
structive work of keeping Israel on the highest
economic and scholarly levels, it is a necessary
factor in bringing Diaspora Jewry closest to a
kinship with the Israelis.
In this respect, the level of interest in Is-
rael's airline, El Al, also is a necessary element
in assuring the closest interest in Israel's devel-
opment.
Thus, Aliya Month to be observed in the
coming weeks is an invitation to Israel's sup-
porters to keep in mind vital needs that assure
continuity in Israel's progressive planning for a
secure future.

Hebrew University: Historic at 50

In the midst of tensions, while placing em-
phasis on the security and very life of the entire
nation, Israel prepares to celebrate the 50th
anniversary of its top-ranking university.
As at the time when the university came
into being, the scholars who met for the official
opening of the Hebrew University on Mount
Scopus in Jerusalem were subjected to threats
and abuse from Arabs who failed to respond to
the call for unity that would embrace them as
well as Jews as beneficiaries of the advantages
to be offered by the great school of learning
about to be established. At that time, Arthur
James Balfour, who, with Dr. Chaim Weiz-
mann, was among the most prominent partici-
pants in the inaugural ceremony of the Hebrew
University, was threatened with death. Nev-
erthelesS, the university was established and it
grew to its present greatness among the leading
schools of higher learning in the world.
At World Zionist Congresses in the first

years of this century, Dr. Chaim Weizmann be-
gan to plead for the establishment of a Jewish
university. His efforts finally met with the suc-
cess that was marked by the 1925 Hebrew Uni-
versity inauguration.

Thus, a 50-year school of higher learning,
with faculties in all departments, including the
sciences, humanities, law, medicine, dentistry,
pharmacy, has gained an historic role.
As in the days of Yohanan Ben Zakkai, who
established an academy in Yavne as a means of
perpetuating Jewish ideals, then, as now, during
war-threatening conditions, the emphasis on
learning takes priority in Jewish life and be-
comes a weapon for survival and progress. This
is how it is with the Hebrew University and her
sister schools of learning in Israel. That's how
Jewish history is perpetuated. This is why the
50th anniversary of the Hebrew University is
cause for rejoicing by Jews everywhere.

A Cry for Justice in the Wilderness

Nahman Brazlav, the Hasidic rabbi of Podo-
lia (1770-1811) commented realistically on phi-
losophy when he wrote in "Maggid Sihot:" "It is
the way of philosophic works to ask questions
which seem very difficult and to offer answers
which are very weak." This is applicable to the
current philosophy of our time when all ques-
tions relating to the Jewish people become most
difficult and the answers are hard to find.
Philosophy and ethics are filled with puz-
zles relating to the attitudes towards Israel and
the Jewish people. Why is there so much confu-
sion about a simple issue involving the quest for
life in a community isolated from the world in
an atmosphere that surrounds the people with
enemies? Why have the enmities spread so univ-
ersally? Why is the term intransigence now ap-

plied to Jewry at a time when those who would
choke off a people's resistance are themselves
bathed in a refusal to grant recognition to an
embattled people?

Like a cry in the wilderness, the agonized
appeal for recognition of a people's will to live is
meeting with rejection. There is an agonized
outcry for an elementary right to existence, yet
there is an apparent rejection of the humanitar-
ian aspect of a struggle for survival.

The question is framed in simplicity, the
answer is wrapped in indifference that ap-
proaches scorn from governments and the inter-
preters of tactics in the media . Why? That's the
current puzzle that creates the enigma for phi-
losophers and historians.

—arA

Radicalism's Affect on the Arts
Described in 820-Page Volume

Few biographies of artists touch upon the social and political events that influ-
ence art work. But Donald Drew Egbert's volume, "Social Radicalism and the Arts
— Western Europe," published by Knopf, offers an in-depth study of the many
social theories and political factors that affected the art world in the last 200
years.
Dr. Egbert, professor of art and archaeology at Princeton University, says that,
"Both American Art and American social radicalism have had their sources so
largely in Europe, they cannot be adequately understood without knowledge of the
European origins of conceptions of art held by American Marxists, anarchists, and
other kinds of radicals.
"Yet no general study has ever been made of the many relationships between
varieties of social radicalism and artistically radical artists in Europe, especially
since the French Revolution."
With 122 photographs and prints, and 820 detailed pages, Dr. Egbert describes
his study as "intended to be a kind of cultural history of modern radicalism as
reflected in theories of art, works of art, and the social activities and beliefs of
their creators." It serves as a valuable reference to the world of art, and the affect
of the everyday world on art, and includes a detailed index and notes.
Of particular interest is the effect of two famous men on the world of art: Cap-
tain Alfred Dreyfus and Adolph Hitler. In one brief chapter Dr. Egbert describes
how the Dreyfus case affected Emile Zola and other radical artists just before the
turn of the present century:
"The abandonment of violence by the French Marxists in 1896 was not enough to
persuade the individualistic Zola to join their ranks . . . However in the famous
case of Captain Alfred Dreyfus — that first Jewish officer ever appointed to the
French General Staff, who was falsely accused of treason by anti-Semitic fellow
officers — Zola was joined in supporting Dreyfus by Marxists and other social
radicals .. .
"He was equally backed by nearly all the avant-garde artists of the time .. .
among the many socially radical artists and art critics who in one way or another
participated in seeking justice for Dreyfus were the anarchist painters Camille
Pissarro, Signac, Luce, Ibels, and Vallotton .. .
Dr. Egbert writes that the artists' position in favor of Dreyfus was opposed by
the mass of public opinion, which thought Dreyfus was guilty. "This is only one
of many examples of the highly ambiguous relationship existing then as now be-
tween the masses and socially radical avant-garde artists. Especially characteris-
tic of that relationship has been the almost complete failure of the masses ever to
show any real understanding of, or sympathy for the work of such artists."
That misunderstanding was amplified in the example of Adolph Hitler, who of
course, did not care to understand when it fit his political purposes:
"In spite of the sincere efforts of these men to be non-political, when the Naz
came to power in 1933, the spirit of International Style (architecture) was so at
tithetic to the exaggerated nationalism and racism of the Nazis that they com-
pelled the Bauhaus to close its doors on the grounds that it was a 'breeding place of
Cultural Bolshevism' producing art that was not only boishevistic but also de-
generate, while the kind of architecture it stood for was dismissed as cold, utilitar-
ian constructivism, suitable only for factory buildings.
"Hitler regarded all modern art as degenerate. He attributed this degenerate art
primarily to the influence of the Jews, arguing that the 'house with the flat roof is
oriental — oriental is Jewish — Jewish is boishevistic,' and completely disregarded
the obvious fact that many of the leading architects of the International Style were
not Jewish."

JPS Publishes New Haggadah

A panoramic view of the development of the Passover Haggadah during the last
500 years has just been released by the Jewish Publication Society. "Haggadah
and History," compiled by Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, includes more than 200 black
and white plates, from Haggadahs printed in Italy in 1486 to an Israeli Haggadah
in Hebrew and Russian published three years ago for Soviet immigrants.
Selections from the libraries of Harvard University and the Jewish Theological
Seminary of America are represented in "Haggadah and History," including a
plate from a Haggadah published in an internment camp in Vichy France in 1941.

