I
A
4
THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue ot . July 20, 195/
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.
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
Advertising Manager
Man Ilitsky. News Editor . . . Heidi Press. kssistaill \e%,.. Editor
U
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the eighth day of Tishri, 5736, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Deut. 32:1 52. Prophetical portion, Hosea 14:2 - 10,. Micah 7:18 20; Joel 2:1.5 27.
-
-
-
Yom Kippur, Monday
Pentateuchal portion, morning: Levit.•16:1-34, Num. 29:7 11; afternoon: Let*. 18':1 30.
Prophetical portion, morning: Isaiah 57:14-58:14: afternoon: Jonah 1:1-14:11, Micah 7:18 20.
-
-
-
Candle lighting, Friday, Sept. 12. 7:29 p.m.
VOL. LX1, 111, No. 1
Page Four
Friday, September 12, 1975
The Atonic and the Atoned in 5736
Yom Kippur has a universal aspect. It is a
Day of Atonement, a Day of Awe for the Jew,
and it has a message for mankind.
Guilt is not limited to a single group, to one
people. Sinning is acknowledged by all faiths.
Therefore atonement is as much for all as for-
giveness is an aspiration by all.
There is much to atone for, and therefore
atonement need not be limited to a single day on
the calendar, except that it is so much easier to
give emphasis to the search for forgiveness on a
specially selected day.
A world in tumult needs atoning, and the
inevitable is repetitive: that the sinners keep sin-
ning even after admission of guilt. Therefore the
realization that a single day on the calendar
does not correct errors. Many lessons may yet
have to be learned to correct the guilt that has
turned mankind into sinners.
Accepting the universality of the theme, the
fact remains that this age has witnessed man-
kind enbroiled in a state of insecurity, nations
have been merchants of destructive munitions,
the color line in human appearance has incited
hatreds. There is no lessening in bigotries and
racial hatreds.
What does one atone for now? Does he
atone for himself or for his kinsmen, for his own
people or for mankind?
The idea of atonement remains valid, neces-
sary, impelling; the atoning is simple; the ac-
quisition of the aim in search for forgiveness re-
mains remote.
Are the sinners atoned? Is this as important
as the attainment of humaneness by mankind?
The slackening of the process of civilization is
the chief cause for concern and for true skepti-
cism.
Much in Jewish life is put to the test in this
period of a people's experience. Two years after
the Yom Kippur War one wonders whether
mankind is ready to assert that the Great Sin is
the denial to Israel to live at peace. Boundaries
can be adjusted, national differences can be mi-
tigated, but a major need is the assurance that
all humanity has a right to life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness. When any of these bene-
fits are denied to even one of the many nations
of the world the whole of mankind is endan-
gered.
Isn't this a cause for atonement for all
humanity?
It is one of many faults and guilts. On a sin-
gle day the sins are admitted; as a year-round
practice they are ignored. It is the ignoring. of
these facts on the year-round basis that creates
cynicism, and the correction, the reduction of
whatever leads to indifference to realities, is
what matters. If correctness can be attained,
atonement will be real. That is the great human
value sought in the process of prayer and self-
searching for moral improvement that matters
on this significant day.
Euphoria and the Missing Handshake
What amounted to an accord for an ex-
tended cease fire on the Egyptian-Israeli border
was drummed up sensationally as diplomatic
drama. The generally conceded interpretation of
the accord was that it did not mean peace. Nev-
ertheless there is the recognition of an undenia-
ble fact that once again Israel and an enemy
Arab state may in the process of Kissinger-in-
spired negotiations, act as if they really are good
neighbors.
Therefore there is euphoria in some mea-
sure and the pleaders for peace feel as if they
are on the road towards an eventual cementing
of neighborliness.
In a sense the hopes for peace are in them-
selves muted by realities. On the morning after
the initialing of the proposed agreement for an
accord the Egyptian and Israeli ambassadors to
the United Nations were interviewed on the
same program, during the NBC Today show.
The Israeli was willing to sit together with the
Egyptian; the latter insisted on a barrier, a par-
tition of the sort that has separated Israel from
her neighbors during the many troubled years.
This was not a good omen. On the contrary,
it symbolized a continuing animosity that does
not lead to a total peace.
Contrary to the drummed-up sensational-
ism, the accord reached on Sept. 1 was not the
first to mark an agreement between Israel and
antagonistic neighbors. There was the accord at
Kilometer 101 near the Suez Canal, after the
Yom Kippur War. At that time the military of
the two warring nations shook hands. It was
then erroneously interpreted as a beginning for
handshaking between neighbors who have been
kept apart and who, it was hoped, might sit to-
gether for harmonious relations.
What was to have been expected to be a
semi-friendly session when the Israeli and
Egyptian military men signed the agreement in
Geneva on Sept. 4 developed into a grim, chilly,
friendless, wordless, smileless ceremony. There
was no handshaking. It was another demonstra-
tion of a continuing feud.
The earliest such experience was in 1949,
when the late Dr. Ralph Bunche engineered the
armistice agreement between Israel and Egypt.
At his urging there was a handshaking at that
time.
Such gestures are still awaited. Every move
in the direction of assuring fulfillment of details
of the agreement that resulted from the diplo-
matic efforts of Secretary of State Henry A.
Kissinger continue instead to be muddied with
warnings of discord in the U. S. Congress, of
continuing threats from Syria and other Arab
states and of speculative interpretations by com-
mentators and columnists, many of whom
thrive on the sensational, to introduce the divi-
sive rather than emphaisze the positive.
Such is the status of a condition that is not
new to Israel, that mars fullest humanism in di-
plomacy. It's not the happiest state of affairs in
one of the most serious international conflicts
ever to affect the peace of the world and is yet to
be adjusted. The fact that the Egyptian ruler
also resorts to an aspiration for peace, the road
to which is often blocked by other Arab poten-
tates, renders the hope for an accord more ap-
proachable.
'Ralph Bunche,' Story of Great
American M. E. Peacemaker
From poverty on Macomb St. in Detroit to the high international
role as the mediator for peace in the Middle East in 1948 and 1949,
Ralph J. Bunche emerged as one of the great personalities of this
generation.
His life story is told pragmatically, in full detail, by an apprecia-
tive biographer, in "Ralph Bunche: UN Peacemaker" by Peggy Mann
• (Coward, McCann & Geoghegan).
•
Educated in the Detroit
schools, the first Negro to win rec-
ognition for scholarship and admis-
sion to Harvard, Dr. Bunche was to
attain many firsts in his rise to
high ranks. He was the first black
man to have a high role in the U.S.
State Department. He then became
a leader in the tasks for peace in the
Middle East. It was as negotiator
for the armistice between Israel
and Egypt that his name is inerasa-
ble in the story of mid-20th Century
diplomacy.
Thus, he became the first black
American to win the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1950, in recognition of the
labors he exerted in keeping the Is-
raeli and Egyptian delegations to-
gether at Rhodes.
Bunche was rescued from the
DR. RALPH BUNCHE
effects of a poverty-stricken home
by his grandmother who raised him, continually gave him courage to
study and to pursue high ideals in life. He fulfilled her hopes and rose
to scholarship and diplomatic skills.
He was the first to attain the goal of having Israelis and Egyp-
tians sit together, to shake hands, to pursue reaching an accord.
Only once more, at Kilometer 101 in 1974, the military represent-
atives of Israel and Egypt spoke amicably and shook hands. In the
experience made possible by Dr. Bunche it was far more amicable: it
was the sitting-together and the warm handshake between diplomats.
Walter Eytan then headed the Israeli delegation. There was much
to smooth over and many difficulties to be overcome, and the credit for
the success went to Ralph Bunche.
Therefore the Nobel Peace Prize was well earned and the Ameri-
can Negro who rose to high stature emerges in all his glory in the
Mann biography.
Miss Mann will be remembered as the author of a biography of
Golda Meir under the title "Golda" and of the long-lasting recent best
seller "The Last Escape," which dekribed the launching of an effective
movement of resistance to Nazism. As in her previous works, Miss
Mann has\ dealt with the realism of history and its noted personalities
and has added immensely to an understanding of the events that
marked Israel's rebirth.
In her research, Miss Mann has traced the life of Dr. Bunche, has
given a full account of his services as the United Nations representa-
tive in the peace efforts.
The recapitulation of the incidents in which Folke Bernadotte was
involved, the latter's assassination, the Jewish underground and its
activities — all are recorded to make the Bunche story complete and
historically pragmatic.
Emerging is an exceptionally fascinating book. Detroiters will be
especially interested in this biography which acquires national signifi-
cance as the story of a great American who attained what may now
appear unattainable but which serves as an inspiration for an aim now
— to have Israelis and Egyptians sit together at a peace conference
and to shake hands as good neighbors.