THE JEWISH NEWS Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issne July 2 ► , 19 5 I Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial .Association. Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co.. 17515 \V. Nine Mih , . Suite s65, Southfield. Mich. 1S075. Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield. (Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices. Subscription $10 a year. PHILIP SLOMOVITZ CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ Editor and Publisher DREW LIEBERWITZ Business Manager tiara Advertising Manager Editor . . . Heidi Press. k,sistani Ne.s, Editor S SCRIPTLKAL SELECTIONS This Sabbath, the 14th day of Sivan, 5735, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues: Pentateuchal portion, Num. 4:21 7:89. Prophetical portion, Judges 13:2 25. - - Candle lighting, Friday, May 23. 8:35 p.m. VOL. LXVII, No. 11 Page Four Friday, Nlay 23. 1975 'Leaks' Are Diplomatic Catastrophes On one of his last shifts from Arabian coun- tries into Israel during his Middle East "shuttle diplomacy," Secretary of State Henry A. Kissin- ger reportedly pleaded with the corps of corre- spondents on his plane to avoid "leaks" and to prevent their being spread. He implied that the delicate negotiations he was then conducting could end disastrously if rumors were to substi- tute for official statements. This, at least, was the implication. Now it is becoming more evident with time that "leaks" are both unavoidable and near-cal- amitous. The revelations about the effects of "secret diplomacy," the branding of would-be friendships as fables, the ironies that oversha- dow aspirations for good will in the ranks of statesmanship — these and many other factors multiply in the process of international diplo- matic transactions being conducted in camera. Human nature is a factor that adds to the speculative risks in such transactions and in se- cret diplomacy. The stealing of documents for public gain, the breaking of confidence resulting from a desire to profit from sale or publication of documents that are kept from immediate publication, the anxiety of newsmen and com- mentators to lay their hands on such hidden evi- dence of talks which often involve the destiny of nations — the craving for notoriety adds to these elements in human relations which lead to "leaks" and could well result in calamities. Saddening developments often emerge in the publication of off-the-record statements by diplomats who are as apt to lose their tempers when dealing with the animus of contending na- tions as would average citizens of lands involved in disputes. All of which proves the realism of silence being golden, but anger is uncontrollable and "leaks" can add rather than detract from anger. The latest "leaks," those involving Dr. Kis- singer, could seriously affect his diplomatic in- volvements and the tasks aimed at assuring bet- ter relations between nations and a possible peace between those now so far adrift as Arabia and Israel. In the long run, the major sufferer may be Secretary of State Kissinger rather than the na- tions whose destinies he was directing. Taking Israel as an example, it is apparent that the ur- gency of the emerging problems continues to call for a great deal of firmness in acquiring the security that is so brittle in an area in which Israel is so minute numerically. There can de- velop — as there has between Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and former Foreign Minister Abba Eban — a feud based on great difference of opinion over the state's policies as well as an assumed quest for power. But these are routine results from political differences and aspira- tions. If not for the somber state of affairs in Israel, such occurrences as the Eban attack on Rabin would be viewed as normal. Under exist- ing conditions they are deplorable. Nevertheless, they vanish when the issues assume mere per- sonal feuding. They remain internal problems, unlike those involving the external dangers rele- vant to "leaks" affecting Kissinger. Whatever the speculation, the new chapter in diplomacy labelled "leaks," especially those now being temporarily suppressed by the Israeli censor, do not augur well for current negotia- tions by the head of the U. S. State Department. The setbacks already recorded are serious blows to his status as one of the world's major archi- tects for what had been hoped for as an ap- proach to international stability. The new "leaks" and the continuity of such breaks in se- cret diplomacy are temporarily harmful to Dr. Kissinger. It is to be hoped that they should not be immeasurably harmful to the nations of the world, especially to Israel and the United States. A Lull Over Remembrance After the Holocaust A ruling in France for an end to observance of the anniversary of the defeat of Nazism as a means of remembering the Holocaust has caused considerable disturbance in anti-Nazi ranks and in the Jewish community. Attention to the French president's declara- tion is especially drawn by the Movement Against Nazism and Anti-Semitism and for Peace whose leaders declared: "We cannot build a democratic Europe today by forgetting Naz- ism and the sacrifices we made to destroy it." It is emphasized that the only way of preventing more calamities is by recalling the beastialities of the past and striving to prevent their recur- rence. An important question is thus posed: who really does remember the Holocaust, and how can its horrors be kept in view as an assurance that it won't happen again? Many books are published on the subject. Volumes dealing with the Warsaw Ghetto Re- volt, with the tragedies of the 1930s and 1940s, with the Nazi barbarities and related occur- rences. Are these works being read? Is the Holo- caust really being defined so that the Hitler ter- ror should be fully understood? w Most of the published works are by Jews, and the impression is that they are intended mainly for Jewish readers. Christian humanitarians who show a deep interest in the tragedy that is within the recol- lections of this generation join effectively in reminding the world of what had occurred. But the readership of this material is lim- ited, the textbooks in the public and high schools of this country are devoid of mention of the Hol- ocaust and the age of forgetfulness of the tragic events is upon this era of emerging indifference. Contributing to the indifference, forgetful- ness and a measure of ignorance of the Holo- caustian experience are the evidences of a re- birth of Nazism, the proposals to build monuments for Hitler by bigots who could rein- troduce the massacres of the beasts they admire and apparently would gladly imitate. New developments admonish the concerned elements to strive for a remembrance, to reject callousness about the shelving of the warnings against the recurrence of Hitler terrorism. The anniversaries of the Holocaust must not be for- gotten, lest the very tenets of human decency should be relegated to the gutter. i.)!JL Rawidowicz's Scholarship 'Studies in Jewish Thought' The late Simon Rawidowicz occupied a unique position in modern Judaism. He combined solid historical and philological scholarship with a leader's concern for the Jewish community of his day and an ideologue'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 provocative 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 specially 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 Krochmal. Rawidowicz's philosophy of Jewish history is represented by his key essays "Israel's Two Beginnings" and "Israel: The Ever-Dying People," 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. Covering 25 Years Sermonic Tests of Time Rabbi Israel Mowshowitz of the Hillcrest Jewish Center, Flush- ing, N. Y., has selected 25 of his sermons — representing the 25 years he has served his congregation — for his volume, "To Serve in Faith- fulness" (Ktav). Having taken into account all of the major events of the quarter- century that was filled with many challenges to Jewish life, to Israel and to America, Dr. Mowshowitz's sermons chronicle every important development of interest to Jewry and to mankind. Israel and the Arabs, the United Nations and the American role in world affairs and especially in the Middle East, the after effects of the tragedies of the 1930s and 1940s — there is a totality of testing of human experiences in these collected essays. The Jewish educational needs, the philanthropic aspects, the spir- itual values in Jewish life — these supplement an ingathering of ideas that enrich this interesting volume of sermons by a prominent rabbi.