2 Friday, June 27, 1975
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Purely Commentary
Garry Wills' Realism:
Admonition to UNESCO
Garry Wills, a former Jesuit seminarian, on a return
_ visit to Israel, devoted some time to studies of Jerusalem's
growth and development.
Wills' essay in the current issue of Esquire magazine,
"A New Way to Perceive the State of Israel," followed a
unique yet realistic method of equating current conditions
with the years of the Crusades. The threats of two centuries
ago are applied to those of the present, and the emerging
conditions are interestingly delineated.
Inevitably, the Wills studies involved observations in
Jerusalem, and at the site of important excavations he was
critical of the .UNESCO attacks on Israel. With relation
both to UNESCO and the equated role of the Crusaders,
Wills wrote:
Israel has now become defender of the holy
places, which are better kept and more open to all
faiths than they have ever been. A sample of the Is-
- raelis' contribution is the dazzling excavation at the
West Wall, so foolishly condemned by U.N.E.S.C.O.
These excavations have revealed priceless treasures
for all the three faiths of Jerusalem. The huge cor-
ner of the temple wall is bared down to original
ground level, to its own outer marble steps — steps
used in the time of Jesus.
The timeliness of these admonitions serves also as a
rebuke to the prejudiced who yielded to the pressures from
hate-mongering Third World representatives and banished
Israel from UNESCO at a recent prejudice-motivated ses-
sion in Paris. The world's most noted scholars and leading
artists and scientists have joined in condemning UNESCO's
actions. Wills' is another important voice in defense of jus-
tice for Israel.
Prejudice in Diplomacy
A handshake in diplomacy is often accompanied by
venom. Statesmen may shake Jaands and at the same time
be motivated by hatreds and by inner determination to chop,
off the very hand it was shaking. But when even the hand-
shake is avoided it marks the end of diplomacy and the un-
dermining of statesmanship. It means war.
How else is the refusal of the wife of the Egyptian pres-
ident to shake the hand of the wife of the Israel premier, at
the international women's gathering in Mexico City, to be
interpreted?
What hope is there for peace when Arabs refuse to con-
verse with Israelis? Arab spokesmen who appeared on tele-
vision programs with Israelis had set up barriers between
them, not to be seen together with those whose land they
would destroy.
Now a leading woman adds her venom to that of the
Arab men. What a glorious adaptation for women's lib!
The Handshake of Diplomats and the Venom. of
Bitter Hatreds . . . Jesuit Scholar Takes UNESCO to Task
. Sadat Unforgiving to Former President Johnson
Fairness in Judging
Defenders of Israel
Congressional friendship for Israel has irked some peo-
ple. For example: a Detroit News columnist who had the
"distinction" of resigning as President Ford's press secre-
tary, went off on a tangent to charge that members of the
U. S. Senate who need Jewish votes are among Israel's back=
ers. It was as injudicious as it was prejudicial.
Now an Arab propaganda organization has pursued the
anger and in a full page advertisement in at least two na-
tional newspapers — perhaps they utilized others — the 76
Senators who signed the letter to President Ford asking for
defensive decisions in Israel's behalf are resorting to the
same type of illogical and hate-inspiring argument.
What the Arab propagandists did this time was to list
the names of 13 of the Senators with the amounts they re-
ceived for lectures they delivered to Jewish audiences.
An important fact must be indicated in this conncec-
tion. The reason the Arab propagandists were able to pub-
lish the amounts paid for lectures is because they are not
secrets. The Senators did not hide them. The records un-
doubtedly also would show payments for lectures the Sena-
tors received from other groups, non-Jews also clamoring
for addresses by members of the U. S. Congress.
What the hate-mongering anti-Israel ads do not specify
is that the Senators attacked number 13, that if they had
not signed the letter to President Ford in behalf of Israel
there still would be 63 names of members of the U.S. Senate
on that letter, and this retains emphasis on overwhelming
American friendship and support for Israel. That's what
those who would destroy Israel don't like!
It should be added: most of the U.S. Senators who
signed the letter to President Ford stem from-states that do
not have enough Jewish voters to elect a constable in a small
village. But the Senators have sensed a need for justice and
they signed that letter. Among the 24 U. S. Senators who
did not sign that letter are men who welcome other ways of
supporting Israel, as indicated by the frequent actions by
Michigan's junior Senator Robert Griffin and in occasional
friendly declarations by Illinois Senator Charles Percy.
Arab propagandists shoud learn: American fairness
can not be erased by misleading, hate-mongering advertise-
ments.
Why a CJF D.C. Office?
Usually ultra-conservative, realistic and pragmatic,
the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds will
surely raise many eyebrows with its decision to open an
office in Washington to handle many matters involving so-
cial interests.
Regardless of the extensive explanations which are un-
doubtedly intended to justify such an action, the opening of
By Philip
Slomovitz
a new working center for CJF in the nation's capital creates
doubts as to the practicality of such a move.
Is it possible that contacts in matters involving social
welfare needs necessitate the introduction of a new set of
office holders? Can't the work be done by mail or by tele-
phone or by a trip to Washington which is so close to the
national headquarters of CJF in New York?
There is entirely too much to probe and to test on the
national scale, among the national organizations, without
introducing another enigmatic dilemma. It's distressing
enough that the civic protective movement, the pro-Israel
forces and the Zionists already are, in a sense, duplicating
their labors. Must the welfare funds and those dealing with
social needs introduce another search for pomp and glamor
in the capital of this country? The pragmatic in the social
welfare ranks of American Jewry may have been over-hasty
in their decision to create an office in Washington. Will fho
religious elements be next in the quest for added pon ,,,
glamor?
Humor from the Nile:
Sadat's Dislike for LBJ
Many puzzles emanate from the fables of Arabism. The
one passed on by Anwar el-Sadat is the most amusing of all.
- Highly-spirited by the flattery he must have garnered
from his visit with President Ford in Salzburg, the Egyp-
tian president drew a contrast between Gerald Ford and
Lyndon B. Johnson and he was quoted stating last week:
"We were sick of the cowboy politics of (former Presi-
dent) Johnson, but Mr. Ford was frank and open . . . and I
can see the man wants a settlement of the problem. In fact;
he is determined."
If it were not so serious, this would be another philoso-
phy to laugh at. LBJ's confrontations were not with Egypt,
among the defeated in 1967, but with the USSR, with Nikita
Khrushchev. Perhaps it- was the toughness of President
Johnson that assured an avoidance of a blunder like Dulles'
and Eisenhower's in 1956. Naturally, Sadat doesn't like a
defender of Israel. He could just as well have added to LBJ's
name among the cowboys of his dislike some 70 - percent of
the members of both houses of the U. S. Congress and the
reported sentiments of some 60 percent of the Americans
who stand by Israel in the polling of views on the -Middle
East.
Sadat isn't in a huri'y to approach peace and in a perpe-
tuation of hatred of his neighbor Israel he finds it necessary
to have other targets. What better name for a hate list than
Lyndon B. Johnson, especially while nurturing the friend-
ship of his one-time political antagonist from Grand Rap-
ids, Mich., Gerald Ford?
`Liberal Parents, Radical Children' Examines the New Generation Gap
Four exemplary and de-
scriptive analyses of experi-
ences applying to the seri-
ousness of her theme mark
the already highly ac-
claimed; "Liberal Parents-,
Radical Children" by. Midge
Decter (Coward, McCann
_ and Geoghegan). In an ef-
fective approach to the con-
flicts of the "generation
-- gap," the author provides
serious guidance to a major
controversy.
Midge Decter, who is
–married to Norman Podhor-
etz, editor of Commentary
- magazine, and the mother
of four, authored other not-
able works, including "The
New Chastity and Other Ar-
guments Against Women's
Liberation" and "The Liber-
ated Woman and Other
-Americans."
- Formerly an executive
editor of Harper's Magazine
and managing editor of
World Magazine, Miss Dec-
ter is currently senior editor
at Basic Books.
.
In her new book Midge
Decter calls upon the most
recognized youth in his-
tory and the "new class"
of professional, enlight-
ened and liberal parents
who reared them, to ac-
count for and understand
the subtle generational
interactions that' took
place between them.
Through four composite
portraits of typical 1960s
young people — The Dro-
pout, The Pothead, The Sex-
ual Revolutionary and The
Communard — Miss Decter
sets out to reveal for those
on both sides of the genera-
tion gap "why we all feel
. . . that there is everything
left to say."
Beginning with a letter to
"My Dear Children," Miss
Decter asks the children of
the youth revolution to "look
long and well into the faces
of your mothers and fathers
and to understand their con-
cern at 'What has gone
wrong with the children
. . . Why the children, hav-
ing had every advantage
pressed upon them, having
suffered no hardships, be-
loved and encouraged, sup-
ported, sympathized with,
heaped withlargesse both of
the pocketbook and of the
spirit . . . Why the children
can't yet find themselves."'
In her analysis of the 60's
youth, Miss Decter de-
scribes them as:
More than usually incapa-
ble of facing, tolerating or
withstanding difficulty of
any kind — a refusal to be
"hassled," in effect, to be
tested, that sees voluntary
Equally, Midge Decter
downward mobility:
invites the parents to un-
More than usually self- derstand how they — with
regarding — making deli- the very best intentions
cate daily calibrations of the in the world — allowed
state of their feelings. •
the classical transaction
More than usually de- between the generations to
pendent — more than go so badly awry.
usually lacking in the capac-
Through the four compos-
ity to stand their ground ite portraits she has drawn,
without reference, whether the author dramatically
positive or negative, to their demonstrates how the par-
parents.
ents, in their desire to raise
their children without guilt,
repression" and pain, have
actually refused to assume
that ultimate parental obli-
gation — to be the final ar-
biter of right and wrong.
According to the author,
there are no villains and no
victims in these sketches;
only the painful recognition
of the self-delusions ,and
great expectations by which
one generation nearly lost
another.
For as Miss Decter points
out in her Letter to the
Young, "The truth is that
your freedom, your rebel-
lion, even your new life-
styles were based on a fic-
tion, the kind of fiction that
gets constructed between
people who are, for their
own separate reasons en-
gaged in denying the facts."
Divorce Among Orthodox Seen as Major Problem by Rabbis
By BEN GALLOB
(Copyright 1975, JTA, Inc.)
The steep rise in the rate
of divorces among Ameri-
cans and American Jews
has become, for the first
time, a major problem even
among deeply Orthodox
Jews, including members of
Hasidic sects, according to
an official of an Orthodox
rabbinical court (beth din)
in New York.
Rabbi Nachum Josephy,
executive vice president of
the Rabbinical Alliance of
America and secretary of its
beth din, reported that dur-
ing the eight months of the
current Jewish year, there
had been a 50 percent in-
crease in Jewish divorces
(gittenYgranted by the beth
din.
•
Rabbi Josephy said that and that many are clearly
the Rabbinical Alliance not ready for the responsi-
Beth Din had granted 341 bilities of marriage though
gitten since the start of the all, in accordance with Or-
current Jewish year last thodox family practices, al-
September and that it was ready have children. Of Or-
expected an additional 80 thodox Jews applying for
plus would be approved by gitten, he said, 75 percent
the end of the Jewish year are from yeshiva and Has-
next September, for an esti- idic backgrounds and 25
mated total of 420 Jewish percent of less Orthodox
divorces. commitment.
During the prior Jewish
Rabbi Josephy said that
year, he said, the beth din among the reasons for the
had approved a total of 232 rapid rise in applications for
gitten. He said 22 gitten Jewish divorces might be, in
had been handed down addition to the failure of
during April, the highest parents to act as concilia-.
monthly total since he be- tors in marital squabbles of
came beth din secretary.
their children, the current
He said the majority of recession and a change in
the couples coming to the lifestyles, in which young
beth din . for a get are be- Orthodox Jewish males are
tween 19 and 28 years of age leaving the family home to
/live by themselves as sin-
gles, something new in ul-
tra-Orthodox patterns.
He said the beth din
makes every possible -4.
fort to persuade the
tending couples to work
their differences out and
avoid a divorce but that
even those who agree to
try a reconciliation
usually return to the beth
din to go ahead with di-
vorce proceedings.
-
The husband must pay a
$160 fee for a get which rep-
resents a recent increase of
10 percent. The goal of the
beth din, he said, is to keep.
fees at the lowest possible
level. The beth din rulings
are accepted by all Orthodox
Jews, as well as by Conserv-
ative and Reform Jews.