THE JEWISH NEWS

Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue' Qt*.hrly 2o, 051

Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorill Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17515 W. Nine Mile. Suite 865. Southfield, Mich. -1S075.
Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Alailing Offices. Subscription $10 a year.

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Editor and Publisher

CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ

BUsiness Manager

Alan Ilitsky. News Editor . . . Heidi Vress. Assistant \('

DREW LIEBERWITZ

Advertising Manager

Editor

Sabbath Scriptural Selections

This Sabbath, the 29th day of Tishri, 5737, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:

Pentateuchal portion, Genesis 1:1-6:8. Prophetical portion, Isaiah 42:5-43:10.

Rosh Hodesh Heshvan, Sunday and Monday

Pentateuchal portion, Numbers 28:1-15

Candle lighting, Friday, Oct. 22, 6:22 p.m.

VOL. LXX, No. 7

Page Four

Friday, October 22, 1976

Apathy: a Political Agony

A majority of Americans seldom if ever
voted even in the most critical presidential
election, and this year the prediction is that
more than half of the eligible American con-
stituency will abstain from casting ballots
on Nov. 2.
This is a political agony. The
speculators are at work trying to prove that
abstentions will be good for one or the other
of the major party candidates for President.
As a matter of fact, defections to a third
party which doesn't have a chance of gain-
ing ascendancy in even a single state in the
Union is believed to be threatening the
chances of a certain candidate — and the
certainty applies to both of the candidates
of the dominant parties.
Meanwhile, the oppressive problem is in
the ranks of the cynics and indifferent who
create apathy. The defections may not make
much of a difference in the long run. Yet the
apathy has emerged as a cause for concern.
Why do citizens not take advantage of the
privilege of casting their ballots on the most
important election day in the four-year

cycle of administrative rule in the White
House? Isn't it a blight on democracy?
Admittedly, the Jewish voters are in the
ranks of the most concerned and the most
dedicated, with overwhelming majorities in
all communities trekking to the polls on
election day to exercise their rights as citi-
zens who have suffrage rights. Perhaps it is
because ancestral sufferings under dic-
tatorships and governments that enforces
religious prejudices taught the liberated
Who had acquired just citizenship rights to
value their liberties. That is why leaders of
the black communities keep pleading with
their people to register and take advantage
of the political weapons to protect their
rights as Americans and as defenders of
their inherited rights in society.
The anticipated and speculated apathy
among voters is deplorable. It is possible
that much or most of it this year is ascriba-
ble to the inability of the two major party
candidates for President to inspire greater
dedication .to the most serious citizen
duties?

Old Issues on a New Agenda?

A ruling by a state official on the illeg-
ality of introducing religious prayers in
schools in a remote Michigan community
raised again the question of the workability
of the Church-State Separation principle.
Candidates for political' offices fre-
quently speak out of turn in opposition to
Supreme Court decisions with their . ap-
proval of such practices.
A former President introduced religi-
ous services in the White House.
In the name of religion it is possible to
appeal to the prejudices of many v6ters and
the Separation ideal which has become
rooted in American philosophy often be-
comes a menacing issue and occasionally
creates embarrassments for aspirants for
political offices.
This is not necessarily a national issue

in a presidential campaign. It can, and often
does, introduce divisiveness in communal
disputes.
This is not a matter to be ignored, even
if it is not a continually debatable issue.
Its frequent repetition, however, calls
for caution and vigilance..
It has not been easy to convince those
who would have prayers for their children
in schoolrooms that religion belongs in the
home and in the house of worship and that
where there are pupils of many faiths there
must be neutrality and anything threaten-
ing conflict, especially among children,
should be barred from public schools.
From the era of Jefferson and Madison
this has been a conflict. The Founding
Fathers' adherence to the Separation prin-
ciple has been a cardinal principle in Ameri-
can life. It will undoubtedly remain as such.

Munitions and Pol itical Implications

President Ford's announcement of a new
arms deal for Israel, assuring provision of
sophisticated weapons 'which were not
hitherto available to Israel, created an un-
derstandable dispute over the practicality
and timeliness of the official statement. At
the outset it was condemned as a political
plot prior to the November election. Then
came revelations from Israel that the latest
arms sales deal was not new in any respect
and that, on the contrary, it had been con-
cluded more than a year ago. One Israeli
official even called the announcement "ut-
ter nonsense."
It is regrettable that the defensive needs
of a nation in travail should be a matter
utilized to benefit a political need or that it
should be a subject of public dispute. If
there is anything to dispute it is the muni-
tions industry itself. Israel has repeatedly

declared that it would welcome interna-
tional decisions to curtail arms_,Fales, pro-
viding' it were universal, involving all na-
tions. But as long as the United Sts, Rus-
sia and other munitions making -M5ntries
are arming Arabs who ,threaten Israel's
existence, -*he Jewish state must be fully
provided with the most powerful defensive
weapons.

It must be emphasized that Israel is un-
deservedly being penalized with criticisms
in the process of arms sales agreements
being concluded between her and the Un-
ited States. Unfortunately, the moral issue
of self-defense has become linked with the
immorality of weaponry. It is unjust to
make Israel the scapegoat in a situation
that calls for unlimited support of the Is-
raeli effort for defensiveness.

17th Volume Issued

Israel Who's Who Combines
Biographies, Historical Facts

Israel's "Who's Who," the major compilation of its kind in
the Jewish state, in its 17th volume, includes the roster of the
nation's most prominent citizens.
As in the earlier volumes, linked with the Israeli notables are
hundreds of Diaspora Jews who had important roles in work for
Israel and the Zionist cause.
"Who's Who in Israel and in the Work for Israel Aboard" is the
full title of the 1976 volume, thus describing the compilation, as
in previous years, to define the list of prominent leaders who
have merged their labors as representatives of world Jewry in
behalf of the Jewish state.
' Three of the previous volumes also appeared in Hebrew and
the forthcoming 1978 "Who's Who" is planned as the most ex-
tensive and most expressive work of its kind to appear in celeb-
ration of Israel's 30th anniversary.
The impressive work, published by Bronfman and Cohen
PubliShers of Tel Aviv, is much more than a record of "Per-
sOnalia" as the first part of the book is entitled. It is encyclopedic
in many respects. It contains the complete list of the members of
the Knesset. It is a record of Israeli institutions, of the Zionist
and fund-raising agencies and of a vast number of institutions
which concern themselves with the Israeli educational and in-
dustrial aspects of a progressive community.
The world's leading Jewish personalities who have impor-
tant roles in Israel's manifold activities are among the per-
sonalia. The Detroiters recorded in the current volume include
Max M. Fisher, Emma Schaver, Leonard Simons, Philip
Slomovitz, Paul Zuckerman and Philip Stollman.
Listing the names of all members of the Knesset, Israel's
parliament, "Who's Who" provides a record of the parties they
represent, according to their numerical strength, in the follow-
t' order:M-aarakh (Alignment Labor-Mapam), 54 seats; Likud,
38 seats) National Religious Party, 10 seats; Hazit Toratit, 5
seats; Independent -Liberals, 4 seats; Rakah (New Communist),
4 seats; Citizens Rights, 2 seats; Independent Socialists, 2 seats;
Moked, 1 seat; and Independent, 1 seat.
The unique value of this Israel "Who's Who" is that in
listing names of prominent Israelis the former names, before
Hebraization, also are given. Descriptive material is de-
voted to the purposes and ideological factors of the Zionist
ties and the worldwide Jewish philanthropic agencies engag,
in work for Israel.
, •
•
Many etraordiria"ry: features give special merit to this
"Who's Who." The editors took into consideration the important
role of the artist and the interest that is shown-in creative art by
-Z1 urists as well-as Israel's. The book, therefore, commences with
roductions of selected paintings and drawings by these Is-
raeli artists: Nahum Gutman,"Jacob Eisenscher, Arieh Lubin,.
Judith Har-Even, Osias Hofstatter, Ephraim Lifshitz, Gershon
Rerinert and Irene Gaber.
Messages by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and President
e , Ephraim Katzir as well as the ideological analyses of the Jewish
Agency and other majd facets in Israel's role as an historic
entity supplement the massive work.
Usually, an advertising section of a book or a magazine is
treated as sheer commercialism. There is a difference in this
"Who's Who." , The industries listed form a veritable record of
Israel's economic achievements and of the country's growth.
The combined effort of compiling the names of leading per-
sonalities with the commercial aspects of a young country
emerges in an especially effective fashion in the new "Who's
Who."
That a private publishing house could have launched uporira
project that gives so much official value to a work of this kind is
an additional mark of merit for a notable work.

