2 April 16, 1976 -41

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS'

dtaM
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Purely Commentary

Exaggerations Over
Jerusalem Religious Issue

The Jerusalem religious issue is another
example of the anxiety in anti-Jewish ranks
to make the Jew the target'over every trivial-
ity as well as the major issues.
The religious stir over the Temple
Mount is a typical example of distortion of
truth and resort to the Big Lie to malign
Israel.
An interesting letter in the Jerusalem
Post helped demolish the lie. At the risk of
repetition, since the truth has been indicated
in these columns numerous times, the letter
to the Jerusalem Post by Avner Tomaschoff
is worth quoting.
With reference to distortions about the
sacredness of the Temple Mourit to Jews
Tomaschoff wrote:
. . . the two Jewish Temples stood here
for close to a millennium, until finally
razed to the ground by the Romans in 70
CE. During that period, it was the hub of
Jewish existence, temporal as well as
spiritual. The two Moslem structures, an
afterthought of the Seventh Century CE,
were built there precisely because of the
Temple Mount's paramount sanctity in
Judaism. Even so, the site comes a poor
third to Mecca and Medina, the twin cyno-
sures of Islam.
Will the appeals to reason and for truth
help? The form some editorials have taken
have proven that truth often falls on deaf
ears. Both Detroit daily newspapers, for ex-
ample, swallowed the anti-Israel religious li-
bel hook, line and sinker. At the very time in
which their editorials appeared, the New
York Times discussed the issue objectively

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An Admonition to Liberals About Anti-Semitic Ero-
sion in the U S
Exploding the Exaggeration
Regarding Religious Worship on the Temple Mount

and reached an entirely different conclusion
as this portion of the Times' editorial proves:
It is a lie — not just incorrect and un-
balanced, as Ambassador Scranton diplo-
matically put it — that the Israeli authori-
ties have been taking measures "aimed at
changing the physical, cultural, demo-
graphic and religious character of the oc-
cupied territories" of the West Bank. End-
less repetition of this lie will not make it
truth. Nor is there any basis for intimat-
ing that the Israeli government has failed
to "respect and uphold the inviolability of
the Holy Places," as the Arabs notoriously
failed to do when they were in control.

The local papers are not accused of
venom. But they did blunder in judgments as
well as in checking on truth. And it is on the
latter score that the plea is now made that
they be more cautious lest they truly become
tools i in the hands of anti-Semites.
* * *

Anti-Semitic Erosions and
Self-Respecting Christians

An eminent philo-Semite who has been
battling for justice for nearly four decades,
had a shock a few days ago. Already dis-
turbed by the erosion in American-Israel re-
lations in the nation's capital where the
Arab view is exerting damaging influence
against the Jewish state, this friend of Israel
and Jewry, whose wife is Jewish, expressed
his horror over an emerging anti-Semitism.
To illustrate, he told of a personal experi-
ence, relating:
Our nearest neighbor here in the
woods is a vicious anti-Semite; has the
largest library I have ever seen of anti-

Semitic books and magazines. He knew
one of us is a Jew because one day a copy
of your paper was put in his mailbox by
mistake, with our name on it. But he
thinks I am the Jew and my wife is the
goy. So he and his wife do their "anti-S'
talk to my wife.
Today his wife said she complained to
the local taxing authorities about an in-
crease in her tax bill saying: "It's all a Ju-
deo-Roman plot to tax us old white people
off the land and out of our homes and then
turn them over to the Jews of New York."
The tax man (so she reported) replied:
"Listening to you I'm glad I'm not a
Jew."
The philo-Semite quoted here — some
friends of Israel and Jewry object to this des-
ignation, claiming even more positive roles
as just plain human, justice-loving people —
is an avid reader of The Jewish News. There
are many Christian readers of these col-
umns. W. K.,(Bill) Kelsey, the very popular
and able Detroit News columnist of the
1930s through the 1150s, was a regular Jew-
ish News reader who told of an interesting
experience he had while a resident at the
Belcrest Hotel. He had been seen reading the
Michigan Catholic and then The Jewish
News. He always read his papers in the resi-
dential hotel lobby and he befriended many
people. He was that sort of person — amica-
ble, genial, building friendships.
One day a fellow-resident at the Bel-
crest, a lady who had been watching him,
said to him: "Oh, Mrs. Kelsey, I didn't know
you were a Jew. I thought you were a
Catholic."
There are the good and the evil. Bill Kel-
sey was a diamond. Haters, on the other
hand, had their minds poisoned. In life one

Sephardic Jews Doing Well in France

By BEN G. FRANK

(Copyright 1976, JTA, Inc.)

PARIS — Sephardic Jews
from North Africa who have
today a slight majority in
the French Jewish commu-
nity have done so well in
their adjustment to France
that the success worries
French Jewish leaders.
What will the next decade
bring?
One Jewish leader even
goes so far as to say that
Jews in France simply as-
similate after the second
generation. Others say it
will not happen now, for
there are close ties with the
state of Israel and France
has a vibrant Jewish com-
munity.
One fact certainly is
emerging. There is no
doubt that the French
Jewish community, the
third largest outside of Is-
rael, is gaining in import-
ance in world Jewry and
Paris itself has become a
center of Jewish life.
There are about 250,000 to
300,000 Jews, 70 synagogues
and 120 kosher butcher
shops in the French capital,
plus two large Jewish com-
munity centers.
There are several impres-
sive monuments and memo-
rials to Jews who perished
in World War II. There are
historic landmarks for
Jews, such as the hotel
where Theodor Herzl wrote
the "Jewish State." There
are kosher restaurants, a
Jewish museum and several
famous synagogues.
Actually, it is the North
African Jews who have con-
tributed to French Jewish

life with their clubs and ac-
tivities. They are the ones
who have given the commu-
nity its strength to demon-
strate, if need be, for Jewish
rights, and for Israel.
One French Jewish
leader said that it is the
North African Jews who
give the community a push
when demonstrations are
needed. And French Jewry
in recent years especially
has made what they call
•"representations" to the
French government to
point out that French in-
terests would be better
served by supporting Is-
rael, too.

French Jewish leaders
and Israeli officials agree
that the atmosphere is bet-
ter regarding Israel-French
relations. At least, said one
Israeli, the French will lis-
ten and while on some is-
sues they will be pro-Arab,
they have moved toward Is-
rael when they felt it was in
their interests to do so.
For example, they did
agree to the European Com-
mon Market-Israel accord
which gave the JeWish state
the right to export goods to
France and other nations in
Europe duty free by 1977.
The pact gives Israel an
opening to 250 million duty-
free customers. Israel was
the first Mediterranean na-
tion to be accepted on this
basis.
While there are delicate
relations between France
and the USSR, French Je-
wry has demonstrated en
masse for Soviet Jews and
the press noted that the
French President Giscard

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d'Estaing agreed to discuss
the matter of Soviet Jews
with the Russians on his
recent trip to the USSR.
But a visitor to the
French Jewish community
is also struck by the reali-
zation that new commu-
nity centers, more Hebrew
schools, more youth activi-
ties, are needed if French
Jewry is to survive.
For France assimilates
people faster than any other
country in the world. "As-
similation is unavoidable in
a wide open society such as
the French one," said one
Jewish leader. Religion also
is on the wane in France and
lack of interest in religion
on the part of Christians
also percolates down to the
Jews.
Leon Masliah, director of
the Consistoire Central Is-
raelite de France, said that
for the first 10 years, North
African Jews were busy
working on getting settled
economically, but now bec-
ause of French society,
"every opportunity is open
to them."
Moreover, because the
French economy has done
very well these past dozen
years, following the drain of
French participation in
Vietnam and the Algerian
war, French Jews have
fared well financially. There
are few poor Jews in
France, asserted one Jewish
leader.
In fact, North African
Jews have made sure that
their children took advan-
tage of the French educa-
tional system and many
Sephardim are doctors,

pharmacists, lawyers, and
professors.
But Jews in France,
whether they are from
North Africa, Eastern Eu-
rope, or native-born, have
played and are playing an
important role in French
life in all fields, in culture,
politics, 'the economy and in
communications and travel.
Just to cite a few — be-
sides the Rothschilds —
there is the late Rene Cas-
sin, Nobel Prize-winning
scientist; Pierre Mendes-
France, former French
Prime Minister; Raymond
Aron, the sociologist; Max
Albert, general manager for
France of Air France;
Andre Schwarz-Bart, win-
ner of the Concourt prize for
literature for his novel, "The
Last of the Just." In the
arts, there are Marcel Mar-
ceau, Simone Signoret, An-
ouk Aimee and others.
But the success also
brings problems. Intermar-
riage is 40 to 50 percent. It is
not clear whether French
Jewry can arrest the assimi-
lation. But closer ties with
Israel and with America
could help in bringing mod-
ern educational methods
and programs that could
slow down the rate of assi-
milation.
Contacts between Ameri-
can Jewry and French Je-
wry should continue and
should increase. French Je-
wry is a larger Jewish com-
munity than England or
South America, and because
of its vitality and strength it
deserves more approaches
and communication with
other Jewish groups than it
has received in the past.

By Philip
Slomovitz

confronts both and must be grateful for the
decent and the fairminded.
* * *

Realism vis-a-vis Israel: Where
There is Immigration There
is Inevitably Emigration

Israel's multiple difficulties contributed
towards a measure of panic over the condi-
tions in which the Jewish state is presently
engulfed. The economieconditions are cause
for concern in the Diaspora as well as in Is-
rael. The reports of a mass emigration have
proven especially distressing.
In the best interests of Israel's strugglill
for a better life it is vital that panic should be
averted. Shaul Rosolio, inspector general of
the Israel police force, gave an example of
realism and caution during his visit here for
an address at the opening of the Allied Jew-
ish Campaign-Israel Emergency Fund. He
explained that where there is immigration
there is, inevitably, emigration.
He indicated how Israel, a land of mi-
grants, had periods of emigration — in the
1920s when Polish Jews returned to their
former homes because they could not un-
dergo the hardships of pioneering. In the
1930s many German Jews emigrated to the
United States from Israel for the same rea-
son. Now there are Israelis who are migrat-
ing because they can not withstand the ri-
gors of life in a country that is, in many
respects, still a country of frontiersmen.
General Rosolio's argument makes
sense. His realism serves to avoid panic be-
cause it confronts the truth properly. It rei-
terates the warning in Jewish tradition that
affirms the slogan "Fear Not."

Jerusalem Town Planning
a Major Israel Controversy

BY UZI BENZIMAN

(Copyright 1976, JTA, Inc.)

JERUSALEM — The al-
ways-controversial debate

over the town planning of
Jerusalem has come to the
fore again.
Since 1967, when Jerusa-
lem was reunited, the dis-
cussions about its town
planning have reflected the
conflict between the politi-
cal goals and pure planning
considerations.
It was David Ben-Gurion,
who in 1967, as an ordinary
citizen, summoned several
cabinet members to his
home and told them of his
deep concern over the future
of Jerusalem.
Levi Eshkol, then pre-
mier,' undertook the re-
sponsibility of erecting
new Jewish quarters in
the annexed part of the
city. Eshkol personally
supervised the housing
projects in East Jerusalem
by establishing a special
governmental agency
which was to circumvent
the ordinary bureaucratic
procedures.
Ever since then, political
considerations have had a
major impact on Jerusa-

lem's town planning. When-
ever peace talks with the
Arabs seemed likely or feas-
ible, the planners and politi-
cians were summoned to
discuss suggestions aiming
to increase the Jewish pres-
ence in the eastern part of
the city.
The first new Jewish
quarters were built along
the former border that had
divided the city for 19 years,
creating "stitching" be-
tween the two halves of the
city. The second wave of
building focused on the ex-
ternal ring of the hills ar-
ound the city, aiming to sur-
round the whole city with
Jewish suburbs.
In June 1968 "tem-
porary" prefabricated
houses were erected near
Mount Scopus — appar-
ently in reaction to politi-
cal pressure coming from
the U.S. in the direction.
an imposed political sett
ment.
New plans designed
surround Jerusalem w .
new Jewish settlemen
have been recently dis-
cussed in several ministries
and some have been leaked
to the press.

`Let All Who Are Hungry
Come and Share Our Food'

The basic ideal that distinguishes Passover from all
other festivals is incorporated in the message of the Haga-
da: "Let all who are hungry come and eat." It-is a challenge
to Jews everywhere to fulfill the aspiration for freedom for
homeless Jews in Israel through the United Jewish Appeal.
The Allied Jewish Campaign awaits Detroit Jewry's gener-
ous response to the UJA and to 60 local, national and other
overseas causes, in the weeks to come.

