THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle conemencing with the issete of Jelly .20, 1951
Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing ('o., 17515 W. Nine Mile, -Suite
865. S(wthlielii,
Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices. Subscription $10 a year.
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Business Manager
Advertising Manager
Man Ilitsky, Neus Editor . . . Heidi Press. tssistant Neiss Editor
SABBA:11-1 SCNIPTLRAL SELECHONS
This Sabbath, the 28th day of Sivan, 5735, the following scriptural s.elections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Num. 133-15:41. Prophetical portion, Joshua 2:1-24
Rosh Hodesh Tammuz, Monday and Tuesday, Num. 28:1 15.
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Candle lighting, Friday, June 6, 8:46 p.m.
VOL. LXVII, No. 13
Page Four
Friday, June 6, 1975 . ■
Israel and the International Community
There is a measure of decency in the inter- ership in refusing to condone the bigotries that
national community, and the subscribers to fair have made the UN impotent in human relations.
play and justice must not be ignored. Therefore The few nations which have rejected the inhu-
a place of honor must be given to four nations manities that have besmirched the UN, the
who have joined in defending Israel's role in the United Nations Economic, Social and Cultural
World Health Organization. Together with the Organization (UNESCO) and now the WHO
United States, the bigots' action in condemning seem to stand alone in a battle for common de-
Israel at the WHO meeting in Geneva was oh- cency.
jected to by Uruguay, Bolivia and Costa Rica.
Meanwhile Israel struggles to retain the
This poses the question: what has happened
friendship of the few, the strong links with the
to the democratic spirit of so-called civilized
U.S. and a sense of balance in her own ranks
Western countries?
where hatreds such as stem from world powers
Indeed, what is the role of Great Britain,
tend to create bitterness.
France, Holland, Belgium and the Scandinavian
A similar feeling of self-control needs to be
countries?
retained by world Jewry. The battle for justice
The warning by John Scali, the retired U. S. now demands continuation of effort to enlighten
delegate to the United Nations, of an impending those who are blinded by developments so that
effort to expel Israel from the world organiza- they may understand the indecencies which
tion adds immeasurably to the disgraceful situ - mark international actions stimulated by the
ation that has been created on the world scene bigots who control the UN.
by the nations seeking Israel's destruction and
It is in the interest of decency for mankind
the fear that has gripped the so-called democra- that the injustices emanating from the world or-
cies which go along in the threats leveled at Is- ganization must be battled to a finish. For the
rael. The encouragement given to these hatreds Jewish people it marks a reversal to the dangers
by the Soviet Union and the Communist bloc that were confronted in medieval times. If civili-
may well be viewed as a major contributing fac- zation is to benefit, Israel and Jewry must again
tor to the growth of prejudice and the rebirth of labor to the end that beastialities are relegated
medievalism among the nations of the world.
to the jungle and that the human spirit is res-
The United States retains a position of lead- tored to mankind.
Diaspora Under Scrutiny
Shunning fears, displaying the courage that
is so vital to a people's existence, Israelis often
admonish those who are inclined to be panicky
over their status to look at their own situations
in order fully to appreciate the confidence they
retain in their status and their future.
Now there is a new concern among Israelis,
involving the spiritual aspects of life in the
Diaspora.
Rabbi Isaac Stollman, a former Detroiter
whose home in Jerusalem for the last 10 years
has given him a renewed sense of confidence in
the "Heaven on earth" he has found in Medinat
Israel, expressed the growing concern in what
he termed a fear over American Jewry's future.
He spoke of 50 per cent intermarriages here, of
"the loss of our, youth," of danger in abandon-
ment of Torah. It is not the future of Israel
Jewry that causes him worry — he is certain of.
the power of faith in Eretz Israel; the reported
declines in world Jewry's spirituality concern
.him.
He is not alone in expressing such fears,
and the Diaspora Jew is therefore challenged to
make an accounting of his status.
Is there really so much danger to American
Jewry's future? Is the term "the vanishing Jew"
which was bantered recently a real threat, or
can it be relegated to the mythical?
Most certainly, the concern can not be ig-
nored and the warning is not viewed with . dis-
damn. There is a lessening of worry over assimi-
lation because the fusion of the Jewish group
with the majority of the population develops
so naturally in the normalcy of American life. It
is this normalcy that calls for greater effort to
assure retention of the legacies, which mark the
difference between Jews and their neighbors
and make their spiritual values distinct for
them.
Israeli kinsmen are not alone in testing the
concern over continuity of Jewish loyalties. Re-
sponsible leadership in this country recognizes
the: need for positive educational programming,
for opposition to mixed marriages which emerge
as a threat to Jewish identifications.
Is youth escaping from Jewish duties? Are
the young actually vanishing from the commu-
nity? Is there really a lessening of identifica-
tion?
It is possible that the most menacing area is
the university. The accepted view is that the
mixed marriage factor is especially threatening
among the college youth. Perhaps it is exagger-
ated. The situation now is not different from
those in the 1920s through the 1950s. But the
numbers of Jewish students in universities have
grown immensely in the 1960s and 1970s, and
this is a major cause for growing separation in
that area from organized Jewish life.
A fact not to be ignored is the existence of
concern over the developing conditions in Ameri-
can Jewish ranks. Perhaps the Hillel Founda-
tions can be strengthened. The establishment of
Jewish centers on campuses by the Hasidim, as
in the instance of the Lubavitch on the Univer-
sity of Michigan campus, is an instance worth
considering. As long as the needs are not ig-
nored there must be a rejection of hopelessness.
As in all Jewish crises, hope reigns supremely.
Hopefully, a new period of re-identification may
well be anticipated while Diaspora is under
scrutiny.
Impressive Record of Heroic
Jewish Resistance to Nazis
The Six Million were victims of Nazi barbarism but they were not
all submissive. The record of Jewish resistance is rich in examples of
heroism. Young and old, men and women, mere youngsters, partici-
pated in underground activities.
Yuri Suhl told the story in his impressive "They Fought Back, The
Story of the Jewish Resistance in Nazi Europe," published in 1967
by Crown. Now it is available in a paperback issued by Schocken
Books.
The value of this record is timeless. It retains the facts about the
heroic stand that was taken by many in the Nazi-made ghettoes, in the
concentration camps 'and in the crematoria.
Suhl's editorial task in "They Fought Back" was to gather factual
statements by participants in anti-Nazi underground battles and to
chronicle them to indicate how the resistance operated in the various
labor and death camps. Many of the articles by the authoritative parti-
cipants in the resistance are supplemented by Suhl's subsequent data
gathered about the immediate subject under discussion.
An example:
Suhl's dramatic stories contain especially moving descriptions of
heroism by children. An important article by Misha Gildenman tells
about "Diadia Misha (Uncle Misha) and His Partisans: The Blowing
Up of the Soldiers' Home." Appended to this article is the following
"Editor's Postscript:"
"In his account of Jewish children who displayed heroism as
partisans, Kaganovich brings some additional information about
12-year old Motele, based on Diadia Misha's memoir. When Dia-
dia Misha's partisans discovered a boy sleeping in the woods, he
gave his name as Mitka and they thought he was a Ukrainian.
Later they learned that he was Jewish, the son of a miller, and
that he was born in Krasnuvka, a village in Volhynia.
" 'By coincidence,' writes Kaganovich, `Motele was not at
home when Germans and Ukrainians killed his father, mother and
little sister. That same night he escaped to the woods and hired
himself out to peasants as a shepherd, for his room and board. In
Diadia Misha's detachment the clever, daring and alert boy was
utilized for intelligence and espionage work.'
"In addition to blowing up the German Soldiers' Home, Mo-
tele is credited with, among other things, saving the lives of two
Jewish children and a Russian, partisan, and with shooting a Ger-
man to death with his revolver. Motele fell in battle shortly before
liberation. He was crawling over to a new position to warn the
Soviet officers of an impending danger when he was struck by a
German bullet."
Such are the acts of heroism, translated from the records retained
in the writings of Ber Mark, Reuven Ainsztain, Emmanuel Ringel-
blum, Abraham Lissner and many others. They are the stories of the
heroic acts in the Warsaw Ghetto and the other Nazi-created areas of ,
terror. There is an index to' many hundreds of areas of resistance.
These indicate the extent of the resistance so well delineated in Suhl's
important historical record.
`Faith in Spite of All' is Cited
"Faith in Spite of All, A Rabbi's story" by Rabbi Juda Glasner
(Vantage Press) was awarded the George Washington Certificate this
week by the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge. The award cited
a chapter in Rabbi Glasner's book on "Detente or Subterfuge" in
which, the rabbi described detente as a temporary Russian strategy to
Western
estern technology.