THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the iss ► e of inly 20, 1951
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. 48075.
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PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Editor and Publisher
Business Manager
Advertising Manager
Alan llitsky, News Editor . . . Ilvidi Press. Assistant
NI`WS
I: liior
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 21st day of Sivan, 5736, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues
Pentateuchal portion, Numbers 8:1-12:16. Prophetical portion, Zechariah 2:14-4:7.
Candle lighting, Friday, June 18, 8:52 p.m.
VOL. LXIX, No. 15
Page Four
Friday, June 18, 1976
Perpetuated Soviet Oppression
Has silence settled upon the Russian atti-
tudes towards Jews and the dissenting liberals
in the USSR? Is there danger in a new compla-
cency? What has happened to the courageous
spokesmen for justice who for a few years raised
their voices against the bigotries in Communist
Russia?
A letter featured in the New York Times
calls attention to the need for continuing de-
mands for fairness towards minorities in the So-
viet Union.
The letter was signed by four eminent per-
sonalities: Lord Lloyd of Hampstead, professor
of jurisprudence, University of London; Arthur
J. Goldberg, former justice, U.S. Supreme
Court; Gaston Monnerville of the French Consti-
tutional Council; and Haim Cohn, justice, Su-
preme Court of Israel.
The letter of these eminent men, as it ap-
peared in the New York Times, follows:
More than a year has passed since some
40 lawyers from 20 countries assembled in
London to examine the question of Soviet
Jewry and the rule of law. The conference
adopted a statement, representing a consen-
sus of all participants, which pointed out that
"Soviet Jews wishing to leave the Soviet
Union have been consistently subjected to
harassment and other forms of maltreat-
ment" and that "in trials of Soviet Jews
(from which neutral observers have been ex-
cluded) human rights have been denied, So-
viet law and procedure infringed, and unwar-
ranted punishments inflicted."
We, the sponsors of the London confer-
ence, must express our deep regret that the
Soviet Government has not yet seen fit to alter
its policy and put an end to oppressive and un-
lawful measures directed toward Jews. Trials
of Soviet Jews, whose only real "offense" is
their desire to leave the USSR, continue una-
bated, and harsh sentences are imposed. Jew-
ish applicants for exit permits are in many in-
stances arbitrarily detained or dismissed
from their employment, expelled from institu-
tions of higher learning or subjected to irreg-
ular military call-ups, their communications
with the outside world, whether by post, tele-
phone or radio, are severed and their basic
rights disregarded in a variety of ways. De-
spite official assurances to the contrary, there
has been a drastic decline in the number of
Jews permitted to leave the USSR in the last
12 months.
This unfortunate state of affairs is partic-
ularly deplorable in the light of the recent
Helsinki declaration and at a time when men
and women of good will everywhere, includ-
ing the USSR, fervently hope for a détente
based on removal of barriers and respect for
fundamental freedoms.
We urge that public opinion should be
brought to bear on the Government of the
Soviet Union, in order to persuade it to recon-
sider its policy and comply with the universal
standards of the rule of law.
The facts related here relate not only to the
Jews but also to the dissidents. Non-Jewish aca-
demicians in Russia, scientists and authors,
have spoken firmly against the developing pre-
judices in Russia. There have been protests and
demands for succor. The voices of liberals, Jews
and their fellow libertarians, brought tempo-
rary results. Now there seems to be a silence.
That must end. Only when men devoted to free-
dom speak out can they bring relief from perse-
cutions.
Historicity of AJCommittee
So varied are the events that marked the
emergence of the American Jewish Committee
into a role of genuine leadership that the move-
ment's 70th anniversary merits special atten-
tion.
It began as a movement of individuals, of an
autocracy that that was composed of shtad-
lanim, of individualists who were pleaders for
Jewish rights in a fashion of personal ap-
proaches to the mighty. It was viewed as con-
trary to the democratic way of life.
The divisiveness in Jewish ranks over the
AJCommittee's policies was caused however, by
the anti-Zionist attitudes of many of the move-
ment's leaders. In the course of time it became
a nm-Zionist approach.
Changes began in the late 1920s, after the
issuance of the Balfour Declaration, when Louis
Marshall, the brilliant leader of the AJCommit-
tee, collaborated with Dr. Chaim Weizmann in
founding the Jewish Agency for Palestine, now
the Jewish Agency for Israel. It was a unity of
action which led to greater solidification of Jew-
ish activities in behalf of the rescue efforts after
the Holocaust. In that, the AJCommittee even-
tually became one of the most effective forces in
Jewish ranks.
At the outset it was a battle of masses
against classes, of the democratic forces fight-
ing the alleged autocracy of the AJCommittee,
and it was also a sort of masses against classes,
East European against Yahudim controversy in
Jewish ranks.
It's an entirely different story today. Now it
is the powerful AJCommittee that shares in
Jewish civic protective labors on a par, if not su-
perior, to the similar existing Jewish organiza-
tions. Its defense of Israel, its elaboration upon
truth and justice for the embattled Jewish state,
is the result of a positivism that elevates Jewish
communal activities.
The research department of the American
Jewish Committee, its search for facts and its
insistance upon truth and realism in matters af-
fecting Jews in all aspects of communal experi-
ence, are among the evolutions that have made
the AJCommittee one of the most vital factors in
Jewish civic protective and educational move-
ments.
The Detroit celebration of the AJCommit-
tee anniversary, with the eminent Rita Hauser
as speaker, provides an opportunity for this
community, a number of whose noted leaders
had a share in the movement's advancement, to
join in celebrating an important American Jew-
ish event.
New Edition Published
Prof. Haim B. Rosen's Classic
'Textbook of Israeli Hebrew'
For Hebrew students, indeed, for philologists generally, "A Text-
book of Israeli Hebrew" by Professor Haim B. Rosen of Hebrew Uni-
versity (University of Chicago Press) is an exceptionally authoritative
work.
Explained in the subtitle that the volume contains "an introduc-
tion to the classical language," the Rosen work is more than a text-
book. It is a combination of textbooks since it emphasizes the gram-
mar, the terminologies and elements of speech and the writing as well
as conversational factors in Hebrew studies.
This is the second and a corrected edition of Prof. Rosen's
-
"Textbook of Israeli Hebrew."
Prof. Rosen defines the many aspects of his collective effort and
he introduces his work by providing guidance to student and reader,
suggesting among others:
"In several instances we have found it simpler to delimit the se-
mantic range of a Hebrew word by equating it to a certain part of the-
range of an English expression; e.g., 'stop (intransitive)' means that
the given Hebrew word is equivalent to the intransitive use of the En-
glish verb stop and not to its transtitive one; these grammatical re-
strictions (italicized, on the English side of the glossaries) have the
sole purpose of delimiting semantic ranges and do not convey any
grammatical information concerning the Hebrew lexical item. Some-
times the same end is achieved by stating opposites in English; e.g., if
a given Hebrew word is translated 'old (opp. young)' it means that it is
the equivalent of English old whenever the opposite of the latter is
young, but not where its opposite is, e.g., new.
"Occasionally, the semantic range of a Hebrew word need not be
completely introduced at the very first stage; moreover it may be more
advisable to present, initially, only such range as may be covered
(more or less) by one or a few English equivalents.
"But a more extended and specialized semantic range may some-
times be necessary, at a later stage, to enable the student to follow a
more advanced text. English equivalents that are superfluous (and
consequently disturbing) at an initial stage, but essential at a more
advanced stage, have been appended, at the first presentation of the
word, in small print. The student should disregard them in t' cirst
place, but in his more advanced readings he should frequenti. eck
the more specialized or extended equivalents of the words, since some
of them will be necessary to permit a good understanding of the texts
at the later stages.
"Experience has shown that — in highly inflectional languages
more than in others — the use of a dictionary is something that has
to be learned by study and progressive experience much as anything
else. Since the student, after completion of this book, will enc. ,- nter
ordinary Hebrew dictionaries for his further reading, the way es-
entation in this book gradually and by calculated steps appruaches
that of a dictionary."
The remarkable approach to the teaching of Hebrew by Dr. Rosen
is his resort to news stories from the Hebrew press, extracts from
narratives and poerrts by eminent scholars and short stories of a gen-
eral nature as a way of teaching Hebrew by encouraging reading. The
explanatory terms, the - word translations and the simplicity with
which Dr. Rosen guides the student towards an acquisition of knowl-
edge of Hebrew thus makes his textbook a very impressive and schol-
arly work.