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. -18075.
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PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Alan Hitsky, News Editor . . . Heidi Press, Assistant N•Nss Editor
• Sabbat h Scriptural. Select ions
This Sabbath, the 25th day of Adar, 5735, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Exod. 35:1-40:38 and 12•1-20. Prophetical portion, Ezekiel 45:16-46:18.
Thursday, Rosh Hodesh Nisan, Num. 28:1-15.
Candle lighting. Friday, March 7, 6:II p.m.
VOL. LXVI, No. 26
Page Four
Friday, March 7, 1975
'Crime of Bigotry'— Lesson for All Time
Pope Pius XI, whose firm stand in defense ever there remained of slavery in the world was
of justice for the Jew in the era that marked the the oppression of blacks in Arab countries.
beginnings of the Nazi barbarism was a guide
The roots of most of the anti-Semitic acts in
for Pope John XXIII and for all men who would
not abandon adherence to the highest ideals of the current era of crisis and tension stems from
social justice, had a definition for the horrors of an organized Arab campaign to destroy Israel
Jew-baiting. He called it "the crime of anti- and to drag the Jewish people down with the
embattled state that struggles for very exist-
Semitism."
ence. Like the anti-Semites in the Kremlin, ap-
The lesson of this admonition is yet to be parently fearful lest they be branded criminal
learned by peoples of all faiths and especially by adherents of anti-Semitism, they give the im-
that segment which still calls itself Semitic. It pression of loving the Jew and hating only the
has been ignored 'by the cousins of the Jewish Zionist. It is no longer an operating excuse. The
people, the Arabs, who have launched a cam- boycott of all Jewish firms, and of all business
paign against Jewry and the peoples who pan- houses that do business with Israel, more than
icked from the effects of an energy crisis have proves the fraudulent attempt to attain vindica-
become their partners in the crime that remains tion for inhuman approaches to the serious Mid-
Few biographies of artists touch upon the social and political events
dle East situation.
applicable to anti-Semitism.
that influence art work. But Donald Drew Egbert's volume, "Social Radi-
The boycott of Israel and the Jewish people calism and the Arts — Western Europe," published by Knopf, offers an
The crime of the ages is making itself felt by the organized Arab potentates now serves as in-depth study of the many social theories and political factors that af-
again and is not to be ignored.
fected the art world in the last 200 years.
the major admonition to the civilized peoples of
Dr. Egbert, professor of art and archaeology at Princeton University,
the world to judge anew the crime of anti-
In earlier decades, which were marked by Semitism.
says that, "Both American Art and American social radicalism have had
their sources so largely in Europe, they cannot be adequately understood
complacency, those who might have sensed pre-
If the free nations of the world choose to without knowledge of the European originals of conceptions of art held
judicial evidences were accused of looking for
enemies under the bed or under the rug. There give comfort to this revived crime, with What- by American Marxists, anarchists, and other kinds of radicals.
had been exaggerations in the periods which ever support they may give to the boycotters,
"Yet no general study has ever been made of the many relationsips
were marked by emancipatory trends, when the they subject themselves to being considered between varieties of social radicalism and artistically radical artists in
Europe, especially since the French Revolution."
numerous clauses seemed to have been relegated partners in the anti-Semitic crime.
With 122 photographs and prints, and 820 detailed pages, Dr. Egbert
to a dark past, when Jews prospered economi- There are partners of the criminals in this
describes
his study as "intended to be a kind of cultural history of mod-
cally. Now anti-Semitism is in evidence anew. It country. Their numbers are not known. Perhaps
radicalism as reflected in theories of art, works of art, and the social
is no longer a mere ghost. It has become a real- they serve as cohorts to the criminal boycotters ern
activities and beliefs of their creators." It serves as a valuable reference to
ity in many quarters. clandestinely. In that case they invite a search the world of art, and the effect of the everyday world on art, and includes
by lovers of liberty in all American ranks for a a detailed index and notes.
Pathetically, the black fellow citizens have root to babarity to be destroyed, never to raise
Of particular interest is the effect of two famous men on the world of
contributed more to the specter of hatred than its head visibly anywhere.
art: Captain Alfred Dreyfus and Adolf Hitler. In one brief chapter Dr.
any others in the midst of the American com-
Egbert descres how the Dreyf us case affected Emil Zola. and other
The emerging issue is receiving due atten- radical artists ib just before the turn
munity. Deplorably, much of the cause for such
of the present centue r` :
venom was the result of blacks having believed tion in Congress. It must be viewed as a respon-
"The abandonment of violence by the French Marxists in 1896 was not
sibility
not
of
Congress
alone
but
of
the
execu-
that Arabs, also dark-skinned, were victims of
enough to persuade the individualistic Zola to join their ranks . . . How-
Jewish aggression. They failed to take into ac- tive branch of our government as well.
ever in the famous case of Captain Alfred Dreyfus — that first Jewish
count the urgency .of a situation which de-
The poison of hatred must not infiltrate our officer ever appointed to the French General Staff, who was falsely ac-
manded consideration of inallienable Jewish democracy. The roots of anti-Semitism must be cused of treason by anti-Semitic fellow officers — Zola was joined in
rights to an undeniable legacy. And the blacks demolished. One hatred leads to another, and supporting Dreyfus by Marxists and other social radicals.
failed to listen to their moderate leaders who the spread of venom must be prevented. A boy-
Dr. Egbert writes that the artists' position in favor of Dreyfus was
recognized the friendships that have always cott of Jews spells the beginning of such opposed by the mass of public opinion, which thought Dreyfus was
linked Jews with the Negro people, Jews always hatreds. Let the American ideal of fair play guilty. "This is only one of many examples of the highly ambiguous rela-
being in the front ranks of the civil libertarians. remain the dominant principle of our way tionship existing then as now between the masses and socially radical
avant-garde artists. Especially characteristic of that relationship has
They were deaf to the admonitions that what- of life.
Radicalism's Effect on the Arts
Described in 820-Page Volume
-
An End to Stage Buffoonery
Three or four decades ago, Bnai Brith's An-
ti-Defamation League had as its major obliga-
tion the removing from the decent theatrical
stage of the comedians who were humiliating'
Jews with cheap jokes and insulting misrepre-
sentations of Jews. That evil seems, in the main,
to have been removed from the theater. ADL has
many other important obligations, on the home
as well as world fronts, to contend with. On oc-
casions, however, the duty to prevent stage
abuses by cheap comedians appears necessary
again.
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 Adolf 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 Nazis came to power in 1933, the spirit of International Style (ar ,
tecture) was so antithetic to the exaggerated nationalism and racism
the Nazis that they compelled the Bauhaus to close its doors on t e
grounds that it was a 'breeding place of cultural Bolshevism' producing
art that was not only bolshevistic but also degenerate, while the kind of
architecture it stood for was dismissed as cold, utilitarian constructiv-
ism, suitable only for factory buildings.
"Hitler regarded all modern art as degenerate. He attributed this de-
generate art primarily to the influence of the Jews, arguing that the
`house with the flat roof is oriental — oriental is Jewish — Jewish is
bolshevistic,' and completely disregarded the obvious fact that many of
the leading architects of the International style were not Jewish."
* * *
both instances they are Jews and Poles who re-
sort to such buffoonery does not justify its being
tolerated.
It is true that the stage comedians may now
be limited to the night clubs. But if they are
given the freedom to those platforms they may
crop up on the legitimate stage, on television and
as some have, in religious edifices.
The Poles who have protested villifications
from buffoons are justified in their anger. Jews
Correction: An item on this page in last week's issue wrongly de-
and others would be lacking in self-respect if
they failed to condemn cheap theatricals at their scribed the Jewish Publication Society "Haggadah and History" as
If it isn't the Jewish joke, it is what has expense. The low-grade stage buffoon should not an Haggada. It is not an Haggada text but a history of the Haggada
in 500 years of Passover art creations. A review of the fascinating
been branded "the Polish joke," and because in be tolerated.
new JPS book will appear here in next week's Jewish News.