THE JEWISH NEWS

Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue Qt . inly .20. 1951

Nlember American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., i7515 1.V. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield. Mich. -IS075.
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

flan Hitsk ∎ , Ne‘ssEditor . . . Heidi Pre,..s. %:-.,..istaut News Editor

Sukkot Scriptural Selections

This Sabbath, the 15th day of Tishri, 5737, is the first day of Sukkot, and the following scriptural selections
will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion (Saturday and Sunday), Levit. 22:26-23144 and NUM 29:12-16. Prophetical portion
(Saturday), Zechariah 14:1-21; (Sunday) I Kings 8:2-21

Hol Hamoed Sukkot

Pentateuchal portions, Monday, Num. 29:17-25; Tuesday, Num. 29:20-28; Wednesday, NUM. 29:23-31;
Thursday, Num. 29:26-34
Hoshana Rabba, Friday, act. 15 --
Pentateuchal portion,, NUM. 29:26-34

Candle lighting, Friday, Oct. 8, 6:44 p.m.

VOL. LXX, No. 5

Page Four

Friday, October 8, 1976

The Moral Issue: The Boycott

Americans of all faiths and all racial and nationality backgrounds are being awakened
to the morality of international relations and to the inherent prejudices in banking and
other business relations which must be averted lest the basic decencies in established
democratic principles are subjected to destruction.
The Arab anti-Israel boycott which has developed into an anti-Jewish and anti-
AmeriCan instrument has become the means of testing the strength of character of legis-
lators, industrialists and financiers in dealing with a serious issue affecting all Americans.
The Arab boycott is aimed at Israel and the Jews, but the targets are Americans who could
become victims of one of the most dastardly means sought to undermine the very existence
of a state struggling for security.
The issue became linked in recent weeks with the propoSal regrettably backed by the
Ford Administration and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to provide massive arms
sales to Saudi Arabia. The two issues became inter-related and immediately there were
reverberations of threats that unless the U.S. sells arms to Saudi Arabia this country will
be penali z ed with increased oil prices and a possible embargo on oil sales to this country.
This is how the immorality has spread, in spite of some denials of threats by Saudi
Arabia. The forms the Arab threats had begun to assume as weapons against this country
as well as Israel and Jewry motivated a powerful editorial, "No American Boycott," in the
Washington Post. The Washington newspaper has not hestitated to be critical of Israel and
certainly is not_partial to the Jewish state. That is why its strong argument is all the more
vital to the issue. The editorial in the Washington Post states:

The Arabs' decision to establish an Arab boycott than in enforcing it. In the past, Ameri-
-
boycott of Israel is their business. But their at- can companies had little incentive to help bring
tempt to establish an American boycott of Israel the Arabs to this sensible view of their own self-
is something very different. It runs against interest. Now the American companies have an
American interests, American values and the incentive. Now, too, an American company de- _
American grain. That is the elementary distinc- dining to participate in the Arab boycott will not
tion made by the Congress - in writing anti- face the same risk of paying a financial penalty
secondary-boycott provisions into the tax reform for honoring • the United States' longstanding
bill. Whether a tax bill should be the vehicle for a anti-secondary-boycott policy.
measure related to foreign policy is an interest-
One needs to step back a pace. We think it
ing question for the lawyers. The rest of us can
take satisfaction that legislative teeth are being entirely healthy and useful that the boycott
put into the diplomatic jawbone wielded quietly issue has come to the fore. It goes to the. basic
by the administration in the last few years. It is framework in which the United States and the
precisely in those last few years, of course, that Arab world are trying to expand and deepen a
the Arabs' practice of a secondary boycott, one relationship that has been, until relatively re-
directed at American firms that trade with Is- cently, narrow and formal and sometimes even
rael or that have Jewish or "Zionist" officers, has antagonistic. That there is potential for great
spread to encompass business deals measured in mutual advantage in the relationship is evident
the hundreds of millions of dollars. Seldom has to everyone. That is all the more reason to try to
the inadequacy of diplomacy and the necessity move it forward on the basis of mutual respect. It
for legislation been so overwhelmingly de- makes no more sense for Arabs to demand that
monstrated.
Americans now boycott Israel than for Ameri-
Opponents of the new legislation argue, in cans to demand that Arabs now trade with Is-
effect, that Arab nations are so determined to rael. We would not contend that, for all Arabs, it
compel Americans to support their boycott of Is- is easy to accept the ways of the open interna-
rael that, if flouted, they will take their billions in tional system they are trying to join. Arab states
business elsewhere and perhaps even diminish have made impressive progress, however, in
the flow of their oil. No one would be surprised halting discrimination against American (or
if some Arab-American deals are junked in con- other foreign) firms and individuals on strictly
spicuous and symbolic protest. But it is demon- religious or ethnic grounds. The administra-
strably false that gaining American support of tion's diplomacy, by the way, has been quite ef-
their boycott is so important to the Arabs that, to fective in this regard. It will be harder for Arabs
that end, they will jeopardize the thick economic to accept that they cannot force;Americans to
and political ties they have built up so carefully discriminate in trade against a third country.
with the United States in recent years. Arabs are But it denigrates their intelligence, and it unde-
spending billions on arms produced by the very restimates their general passion for moderniza-
manufacturers who sell to Israel, for instance. tion, to say that they must stick fast in their
They are doing so presumably because they see traditional ways. Certainly Americans should
more advantage to themselves in ignoring the not be encouraging them to do so.

The challenge to the conscience of the Pord Administration and the State Department
is clear. The threats that . have emanated from Arab quarters and from misguided members
of the Administration are anti-American. There must not be a yielding to diplomatic
blackmail, just as the genocidal threats demand rejection by all decent Americans.
The waters can no longer be muddied by Arab threats and pro-Arab condoning of the
immoral boycott of Israel and her friends. The bigotries inherent in the boycott are being
aired with courage and their effects should be of lasting value to this country in averting
repetition of a resort to the indecencies that mark a boycott built around bigotries that are
repugnant to the American principles of fair play.
A matter that should have been retained into the fold of discussion over the morality of
outlawing prejudices in business relations, regardless of the participants in it, now places
the sincerity of many public officials into doubt.

'In the Arena'

Historic Zionist Facts Fill
Dr. Neumann's Biography

Dr. Emanuel Neumann, as one of perhaps five or less of the
.ranking pioneer leaders in the world Zionist movement whose
experiences date back to Herzlian days, also is among the best
qualified to treat the history of the movement most authorita-
tively.
His autobiographical memoir, "In the Arena," (Herzl Press)
is replete with so many historical incidents, in his personal
experiences, that the volume is even more than a history of
Zionism: it is a supplement to American and world Jewish his-
tories• because of the many international leaders who crossed
Dr. Neumann's path in this colorful leadership career.
Dr. Neumann's recollections are not only of Zionist ac-
tivities but also of early Jewish life in New York. The family's
cultural record, the early years on the East Side, the young
Zionist societies he has. been associated with together with men
like Abba Hillel Silver and other personalities who later rose to-
distinguished careers and Jewish leadership — these combine to
make "In the Arena" a noteworthy chronicle of Zionism and
American Jewish history.
Many of the highlights in Dr. Neumann's more than six
decades of labors for Jewry and Zionism relate to the scores of
aspects in his life as author, lecturer, the
head of major Jewish movements and
participant in negotiating sessions in Is-
rael's behalf. Epecially noteworthy are
his appearances in support of the Zionist
ideal at the United Nations, a task which
led to the adoption of the partition prog-
ram and later the admission of Israel to
membership in the United Nations.
Not all roads were smooth. Some of
the - difficulties seemed insurmountable,
yet he and his associates labored on and .
the memoirs in this volume define both
the obstacles that were on the road to
national rebirth as well as the successes.
As president of the Zionist Organi-
zation of America Dr. Neumann again
Dr. NEUMANN
encountered challenges and obstruc-
tions. Prior to that time he was engaged in inter-organizational
disputes. None is hidden and the autobiography recalls • how
inner struggles were resolved.
His interests included dedicatiim to the cultural aspects of
Zionism as well as to his Jewish educational interests. In that >
capacity, having begun as a teacher, he concerned himself
primarily in encouraging knowledgeability of Judaism and
Zionism. It was out of this aspiration that he succeeded in in-
teresting Abraham and Jacob Goodman in providing a million
dollar fund for Tarbuth Ivrith, the Hebrew cultural foundation. .
As chairman of the American section of the Jewish Agency -
and in many other functions, Dr. Neumann pursued a leader-
ship that brought him into closest organizational relations with
Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, first President of
Israel Chaim Weizmann and scores of world leaders. He was an
anti-Brandeisist at the Cleveland ZOA convention in 1920 but
later formed a renewed friendship With the Supreme Court jus-
tice, being among, those who helped retain the interest in
Zionism which resulted in positive support and encouragement
to activists in the movement.
Dr. Neumann's-is an interesting story assuring retention of
the most important Zionist facts in the record of Israel's state-
building architects.