THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle cum w i ncing with the issue ())-* fitly 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
Man Flitsky, News Editor s . . Heidi Press. Assistant News Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the eighth day of Iyar, 5735, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Levit. 16:1-20:27. Prophetical portion, Amos 9:7-15.
Candle lighting, Friday, April 18, 6:58 p.m.
tOL. LXVII, No. 6
Page Four
Friday, April 18, 1975
Beware of Panic-Inciting Rumors!
Headlines and speculative news about the
Middle East change by the hour. One day war is
inevitable, the next brings assurances of stabil-
ity. One day Sadat speaks like an angel, the next
he is recorded as meeting with Arafat and en-
dorsing a policy of .destruction for Israel. It's a
heyday for commentators and news analysts,
and for every one who has access to syndication
of his articles.
Now Henry Kissinger has become the tar-
get of a skeptical newspaper fraternity that only
a few weeks ago hailed him as the genius in di-
plomacy and statesmanship. And President
Ford, who as the legislator from Grand Rapids
was a major backer of Israel, is depicted as the
angry man who is shaking an accusing finger at
the embattled defenders of the Jewish state.
It is time, therefore, for a warning. Let the
reader beware lest he is thrown into a state of
panic by the inspirers of fears. Slot to be forgot-
ten in the process of studying the Middle East
situation is that Israel is fighting for its very
existence — if one is to take seriously the Arab
threats that Judaism is a menace to the Mos-
lems. There does exist the economic threat
which has caused havoc for the Israelis. There
are the uncertainties and the indecisions. But
there is still an Israel determined to live and
anxious for peace and cooperation with neigh-
bors. That little state still has a voice in its
own behalf and in refusing to accept and to sign
suicide notes. Such a self-defending state must
be considered in primacy when studying the
war-panicked communications media. That lit-
tle state may have the last word in the battle for
The late Simon Rawidowicz occupied a unique position in modern
life. That's why the hate-mongers and panic- Judaism. He combined solid historical and philological scholarship
with a leader's concern for the Jewish community of his day' and an
spreaders must be ignored.
Tragedy of Indifference to Israel
Another Israel anniversary, commence-
might mark them as overly concerned with Jewish
ment of the Jewish state's 28th year of strug-
issues. And what could be more parochial than Is-
rael, so easily identified with U.J.A. fund-raisers
gling existence, inevitably forces the query
and Hadassah ladies?
about the intellectual Jewish kinsmen of the Is-
Twenty-five years ago, when Israel was in mor-
raelis and their response to Israel's needs. Some
tal peril, its struggle moved two of our age's finest
— it is difficult to refer to them as being many
advocacy journalists — Arthur Koestler and I.F.
Stone. Both cosmopolitan Jews, they did not think
— are concerned and are acting.in Israel's sup-
the cause of Israel too parochial. The England that
port. All-too-many are either indifferent or
Koestler was writing to was Israel's arch enemy.
phlegmatically deaf and blind to realities.
The United States, to which Stone sent his dispat
ces,
had imposed an arms boycott on the new nation
Barbara Tuchman has spoken and written.
and public support in America was shaky. Their
So have Irving Howe, William Saffire, Cynthia
writing helped convince a large public that, given
Ozick, a few others. The list of Israel's journalis-
historical circumstances, the fate of Israel was much
tic friends is longer among the non-Jews. The
more than merely a Jewish concern.
list of antagonists — some among them could be
A lot has changed since then, but not that much.
As events unfold in the Middle East, it may yet be-
listed as enemies — is longest.
come clear again that a new world order that would
A thorough study of newsmen and their
have Israel as its first victim will also not leave much
reactions was made by Sol Stein, a writer who
room for the values advocacy journalists are fighting
has gained distinction, in the February More
for. Then, perhaps, some of them may see that a jour-
nalism that includes as one of its serious commit-
magazine, under the heading "Has the U. S.
ments the survival of Israel is not tantamount to
Press Abandoned Israel?"
being anti-Arab, nor merely a "Jewish bias." •
Stein's review of newsmen's attitudes, as
What is to be done under such conditions?
presented at considerable length in More maga-
How
can the situation be corrected? If Jewish
zine, points an accusing finger at some Jewish
intellectuals
and writers will not assert them-
writers, acknowledges the interest and respon-
selves
and
will
not come forth with demanding
siveness of some and conclusively asserts:
journalistic efforts in Israel's behalf and protec-
There has been some very tough writing about
tion, how is it possible to hope for Jewish youth
Israel's survival in the past year. But the bylines interest in Jewry and Israel?
that come to mind are novelists Elie Wiesel (Op-Ed
Something is basically wrong with the Jew-
page) and Cynthia Ozick (Esquire), and social critic
Irving Howe (New York). Where are the journalists? ish public relations system. There is a weakness
One of the rare exceptions is the aforementioned in the ranks. Those listed as belonging to leader-
Richard Reeves, who is not Jewish but wrote, he ship are quick to issue statements that smack of
said, "as an unashamed Jew lover."
publicity, Jewish organizations are over-publi-
New York City is the capital of media and the
Jewish world. Yet the sad fact is that, aside from C. cized and over-printed — 90 per cent of Jewish
L. Sulzberger and Sidney Zion, the ex-Timesman
organizations and national organizational mag-
who is now writing for the Soho Weekly News, I can
azines should be ordered out of business — but
think of no Jewish journalist in the city who feels the
survival of Israel is a cause worth writing about reg- the expectations of positive results from unified
planning seems to be missing; Results of meet-
ularly, if at all. Where, in particular, are the commit-
ted journalists — David Halberstam, Jack Newfield, ings with the Secretary of State and the Presi-
J. Anthony Lukas, Norman Mailer, Anthony Lewis, dent are always glorified and more often exag-
to name a few. Their crusades are legion: Vietnam,
Chile, Watergate, the C.I.A., the banks, nursing gerated, but a common ground for action is
homes, the American Imperium. But the possible de- never in view.
struction of Israel and the new Arab oil imperialism
The situation is too grave to be overlooked
somehow fails to move them.
and the Israel anniversary, while it inspires
This is hardly a coincidence, it seems to me.
pledges of solidarity to accompany the birthday
More likely, Gay Talese's observation about the
acute sensitivity of the Jewish media barons applies greetings, call for stronger action than is on the
equally to Jewish journalists as a group. They seem record. Jewry dare not fail in action in Israel's
to shrink from the unpleasant confrontations that behalf.
'Studies in Jewish Thought'
idealogue's attempt to shape the forces that determine the Jewish peo-
ple's future.
A thinker and scholar of high distinction, as well as a forceful
polemicist, at the time of his death, in 1957, he was professor of Jew-
ish philosophy and Hebrew literature and chairman of the Depart-
ment of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University.
"Studies in Jewish Thought," a recent publication of The Jewish
Publication Society of America, offers samples of Rawidowicz's stim-
ulating scholarship and provacative thought.
Some of the essays appeared previously (in English) in various
sources, most of them out of reach of the common reader: others were
translated especially for this volume from the original Hebrew and
English.
The collection affords a cross-section of Rawidowicz's wide range
of Jewish concern. There are essays on Saadya Gaon and Moses Mai-
monides, as well as on Moses Mendelssohn and Nachman Krochrnal.
Rawidowicz's philosophy of Jewish history is represented by his key
essays, "Israel's Two Beginnings" and "Israel: The Ever-Dying Peo-
ple," which plead for the unity of the Jewish people in its land and in
the Diaspora. -
"Israel," in the Rawidowicz formulation, is a single entity, encom-
passing both Zion and the Diaspora and indicating the creative part-
nership role of the state Of Israel and the Jewish communities of the
world.
Simon Rawidowicz was born in a town near Bialystok. He re-
ceived a thorough traditional Jewish training, and at an early age be-
came active in behalf of modern Hebrew culture. In 1919, he went to
Berlin to study philosophy and to spread the Hebrew language and
Jewish thought.
He established two Hebrew publishing houses and founded the
Brit Ivrit Olamit (Hebrew World Union). In 1933, he moved to Eng-
land, and for some time taught at Leeds University. In 1947, he arrived
in the United States, and ultimately settled at Brandeis University,
where he remained until his death.
The present volume was edited by Professor Rawidowicz's friend
and colleague, Nahum N. Glatzer, with a foreword by Abram L. Sa-
char, Chancellor, Brandeis University. Benjamin C. I. Ravid, son of the--
late author, has contributed a moving biographical tribute.
'Caine Mutiny' in Paperback
"The Caine Mutiny" by Herman Wouk, a best seller as a hard
cover book, and on the most popular list as a paperback thereafter,
continues in great demand and has been reissued by Simon and Schus-
ter Pocket Books as an Enriched Classics Edition.
The new paperback includes a special "Reader's Supplement"
with a by-lined comment by Wouk and historical notes.
"Uncle Frank" by Leonard Jatz, a biography of Frank Costello, is
among the newest Simon and Schuster Pocket Books.
Other paperbacks in the new Simon and Schuster series include:
Given Davis' "The Motherland," "How to Read a Person Like a Book"
by Gerald I. Nierenberg, Henry A. Calero's "Ethnic American Short
Stories," plus short stories by noted authors, edited by Katharine D.
Newman.