2 Friday, October 29, 1976
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Purely Commentary
Symbolizing Political Faith, the Yarmulke Gives Prom-
ise of Even-Handedness and Nonpartisan Aid for
Israel . . . the Balfour Declaration Anniversary
By Philip
Slomovitz
The Yarmulke as Symbol . . .-the Reality as Comfort
They had their say!
The yarmulke sanctified them.
Now the candidates for President of the United States are convinced that
they will support Israel's right to exist, that they will assist in striving for peace,
that emigres from Russia have their blessings.
All of us knew that all 'the time,
didn't we. Don't we have faith in this
great land and in the traditions of this
republic to retain confidence that a
nation born with the blessings of the
White House, by an overwhelming
vote of a United Nations that was not -
as prejudiced in 1947 as it is today, a
nation with a history inseparably
linked with its homeland, will not be
abandoned by fellow libertarians who
are our compatriots of all faiths?
It was a lot offun, interlaced with excitement, that marked the interest in the
political contest due to end on the first Tuesday of November. Now comes the Day
of Judgment. It will be a glOrious day for the citizen with the right to vote. It is the
one day in four years when he is the master; the politicians admit that it is the day
on which the voter is the master of his destiny. Now comes the test of time, the
probing of realities, the reckoning with the pledgers who have offered much and
who are themselves about to be tested in their abilities to fulfill the promises that
make a Presidential campaign such a magnificent show.
Some, if not the candidates themselves then their campaigners, already
admit that party pledges are not necessarily irremediable commitments upon
candidates. The tongue in cheek is already partially visible. The aftermath of -
exciting era is about to become obvious.
May the voter be witness to a new era of political ethics that do not necessarily
demand strictest adherence to campaign pledges but submission to an ethical
code of loyalty to the voter who gambles his vote on a better four years than had
been his experience until now.
Even under most, dire circumstances this is a great land with wonderful
traditions, and all official terms witness national survival. Yet it is unselfish
enough for the American constituency to hope that there will be only honoT‘and
self-respect in the White House and in all government offices, now and always.
Without self-respect by elected officials there can not be respect for the
citizens. That's what the nation expects. That's what the nation will strive for. • - \
And that's what's implemented and fortified also by the yarmulke.
All blessings to the victors on that Judgment Day of November 2, 1976.
Zionist Factors Fulfilling Historic Balfour Declaration
Every November 2 since 1917 has been an occa-
sion for fomented hatreds by Arabs against their
Jewish cousins. They demonstrated in protest against
the historic Balfour. Declaration because they beg-
rudged the Jews their minute inheritance. Nov that
begrudgement 'continues because the Arabs would
like a few more states in addition to the 20 over which
they already dominate, and their motto is the rejec-
tion of Jewish historic rights to the legacy of the ages
called Eretz Israel, the Land of Israel.
Nevertheless the Jewish appreciation for the
document that was dated Nov. 2, 1917, over the signa-
ture of Arthur James Balfour, remains intact. Now, on
the eve of the 50th anniversary of the issuance of
that historic document, Jews again evaluate the
status of the_ document's results and the duties that
evolve upon Jewry to make the paper stick to the
realities of Israel redeemed and rebuilt.
This is a time, therefore, for re-evaluating the
significance of the Zionist movement and Jewry's obli-
gations to it.
Theodor Herzl's avowal of faith in the historic
Jewish libertarian ideal was summarized in the seven
words "Zionism is the Sabbath of my life. - This decla-
ration of pride in the aspiration for justice and free-
dom for the Jewish people has a renewed challenge for
world Jewry, more especially for American Jewry in
the crucial times of struggle to assure the sovereignty
of the state of Israel, which was born out of the
legacies of Zionist idealism.
Israel has much need for philanthropy, without
which the cultural and social. function of the people
would be imperiled. Vital for Israel also is the public
relations program of the Zionist movement which pro-
vides knowledgeability for non-Jews as well as about
the justice of the Jewish role in Israel and the aims for
a peaceful existence for the embattled Israelis who are
striving for peace.
Public opinion among the free peoples of the world
rose to new heights of admiration for the Israelis on
July 3, 1976, when a courageous operation in Uganda
gave warning to terrorists and barbarians that
liberty-loving people will not permit their kinsmen to
be sacrificed on an altar of blackmail and hijacking. It
is the tragic lesson of the present generation that oil-
infested propaganda often causes such triumphs for
human decency to be forgotten because of the influ-
ence that is exerted by the oil-infested powers.
A role of great significance is retained by the
Zionist Organization of America in its pursuit of a
public relations program aimed at making the truth
regarding Israel's place among the nations of the
world a predominant obligation for American Jews in
their kinship with their Israeli kinsmen. This is as
vital in the tasks in support of Israel as philanthropy
itself.
Because • of the urgency of the obligation to
guarantee emphasis on truth stemming from the
Zionist ideal that has dominated Jewish liber-
tarianism, there is the indisputable great movement
not to falter and to act firmly in time of need. It is to
Zionist leadership that Israel turns at all times to
guarantee strengthened and positive public relations
programming.
The Balfour Declaration's significance remains
as a link with Zionism and as a history-shaping pledge.
It was a pledge to be broken frequently, but its author
remained loyal to his principles and Zioriists cherish
the document. That is why the Detroit Zionist Organi-
zation makes a festival of the occasion with its annual
Balfour Concert scheduled this year for Nov. 7.
Foreign Office,
November 2214, 1917.
Dear Lord Rothschild.
I have Much-pleasure in cenVeylng to you, on
behalf of His Majesty's Government, the followYng
declaration .of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations
which has bean submitted tc and approved by. the. Cabtne
1-115 Majesty's' Government view with favour the
e:;tablishment in Palestine of a national home for the
Jewish people and will use their best endeavours to
facilitate the. achievement of this object. it being
clearly understood that nothing Shall be done Which
may prejudice'the civil and religious rights of
existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine. or the
rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any
other country -
1 should be grateful It yoU wouid.bring this
deCiaration CO Abe knowledge of the Zlonist Federation.
Saul Bellow the Nobel Laureate: A Heartening Saga
Saul Bellow was in Israel in 1975
gathering notes on his experiences with
Jews in the process of state-building and
nation-protecting. He was about to begin
writing his articles for the New Yorker
on "Jerusalem and Back: A Personal Ac-
count" which is now available as a
Viking-published book. Word came to
him then that he had barely lost out for
the 1975 Nobel Prize in
Literature to the Italian
poet Eugenio Montale.
Recognition did not abate.
He is the 1976 Nobel
Laureate in Literature.
Bellow is an old hand
at winning awards for his
1 . ry accomplishments.
1968 he received the
Brith Jewish Heri-
Saul Bellow tage Award. Last April he
was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his
novel "Humboldt's Gift."
With the acquisition of the distinc-
tion attached to being a Nobel Laureate,
new interest is now focused on Bellow.
He is the Jewish author. His charac-
ters are Jewish. He is respectful in test-
ing them and himself.
His "To Jerusalem and Back" has its
humor, its self-testing, its links with a
great adventure. He becomes part of
that experience in a personal way.
. Suddenly Bellow emerges as one
wii _
- -bavitcher. who with a con-
—
tinuity that becomes significant with the
rediscovery of a great literary artist and
perhaps - this quotation from his "Je-
rusalem" may be viewed as part of his
new credo:
As an American, I can decide on
any given day whether or not I wish to
think of (the world's) abominations. I
need not consider them. I can simply
refuse to open the morning paper. In
Israel, one has no such choice. There
the violent total is added up every day.
And nothing can be omitted . . . Is-
raelis must, n
i fact, bear in mind 4,000
years of Jewish history. The world has
been thrown into their arms and they
are required to perform an incredible
balancing act.
Another way of putting it: no
people has to work so hard on so many
levels as this one. In less than 30 years
the Israelis have produced a modern
country — doorknobs and hinges,
plumbing fixtures, electrical
supplies, chamber music, airplanes,
teacups.
It is both a garrison state and a
cultivated society, both Spartan and
Athenian. It tries to do everything, to
understand everything, to make pro-
vision for everything. All resources,
all faculties are strained. Unremitting
thought about the world situation
parallels the defense effort. These
people are actively, individually in-
volved in universal history. I don't see
how they can bear it.
A non-Jew judged him when he be-
came a Nobel Laureate. Writing in the
New York Times, John Leonard ex-
plained the Bellow themes and his
emphasis on Jewish characters. Almost
contemporaneously John Leonard also
wrote under the title "Why Do We Love
To Hate the Jews?" in the November
issue of Penthouse Magazine and he re-
vealed, disturbingly:
The most a Jew had done to us was
to write the words on the Statue of
Liberty: "Give me your tired, your
poor, your huddled masses yearning
to breathe free . . ." And yet there is
as much anti-Semitism in the fiction
and poetry of Theordore Dreiser,
Ezra Pound, Thomas Wolfe, e e cum-
mings, Sherwood Anderson, T.S. Eliot
("And now the jew squats on the win-
dow sill, the owner . . .") Ernest
Hemingway (see the portrait of
Robert Cohn in "The Sun Also
Rises"), and F. Scott Fitzgerald (see
the portrait of Wolfscheim in "The
Great Gatsby," although Fitzgerald
would later grow up to Monroe Stahr
in "The Last Tycoon") as there is in,
say. Chaucer and Shakespeare. It
shouldn't have happened here, but it
did.
This is relevant to the current dis-
cussion about authors and Jews, and
about Jewish authors.
A sense of relief creeps into the pride
that goes with the selection of Saul
Bellow for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Hopefully, he won't get drunk, as some of
the John Leonard-listed writers have.
Assuredly, he will not disgrace his
people. He has avoided the cheap
caricaturing that has lowered standards
of dignity and he has embraced re
Bellow's selection and the an
Leonard expose are cause for another
pleasant recollection. It is about another
Nobel Laureate ? John Steinbeck.
Steinbeck did not offend. Steinbeck
spoke out for just rights for the Jew.
Steinbeck had been branded a Jew and
his "Grapes of Wrath" was ridiculed by
the anti-Semites as Jewish propaganda.
The late Leon N. Birkhead, who or-
ganized and directed Friends of Democ-
racy, asked him for an opinion on the
shabby propaganda. It was in 1940.
Steinbeck then wrote a classic letter
which appeared in what this reporter
cherishes as the shortest book ever pub-
lished. Besides the few lines written by
Dr. Birkhead this book contains three
pages of Steinbeck's message repudiat-
ing prejudice.
So, not all Nobelists were anti-
Semites. But their ranks are not mini-
mal. That is why the unprejudiced Saul
Bellow is a blessing to the ranks of the
Laureates.