THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating The D•ttinl .1cwish Chronicle commencing with
issne
20, 19.51
Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, Michigan Press Association, National Editorial Association.
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PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
Ilan Ilitsky, N•lvs Editor . .
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
!•ith 1'rrs!...1ssistatil Ne.%,- Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 19th day of Kislev, 5737, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Genesis 32:4-36:43. Prophetical portion, Hosea 11:7-12.12.
First night of Hanuka, Thursday
Pentateuchal portion, first day of Hanuka, Friday, Dec. 17, Numbers 7:1-17
Candle lighting, Friday, Dec. 10, 4:43 p.m.
VOL. LXX, No. 14
Page Four
Friday, December 10, 1976
Hanuka and History's Miracles
History is steeped in miracles and
Hanuka is chief proof that the miracle is not
supetstition but reality. Its counterpart
this year, at Entebbe, registered a mark of
pragmatism to the unexpected that de-
velops into the miraculous.
Perhaps miracles also have their tests.
The Entebbe experience is not without test-
ing. When it occurred, with an emulation of
the courage of the • Maccabees, it had its
counterpart on the Lebanese border of Is-
rael. Those who hated suddenly became the
beneficiaries of Israel's humanism. Injured
Lebanese were being treated — and healed!
— in Israeli clinics and hospitals, Lebanese
farmers were selling their agricultural
products in Israel and unemployed
Lebanese were given well-paying jobs. The
test is at hand with the cessation of a horri-
ble tragedy during which tens of thousands
of Christian and Moslem Lebanese lost
their lives or were seriously wounded. Will
the amity- enhanced by Israel end with the
hostilities, and will the hatreds recur on the
Israel-Lebanese border?
What is the reason for Hanuka? The
Jewish sages of Talmudic times are quoted
in Shabbat 21b:
"For our Rabbis taught: On the 25th of
Kislev [commence] the days of Hanuka,
which are eight on which a lamentation for
the dead and fasting are forbidden. For
when the Greeks entered the Temple, they
defiled all the oils therein, and when the
Hasmonean dynasty prevailed against and
defeated them, they made search and found
only one cruse of oil which lay with the seal
of the high priest, but which contained suf-
ficient for one day's lighting only; yet a
miracle was wrought therein and they lit
[the lamp] therewith - for eight days. The fol-
lowing year these [days] were appointed a
festival with [the recital of] Hallel and
thanksgiving."
The spirit of Hanuka was so im-
pressively defined by Emma Lazarus that
her poem "The Feast of Lights" retains its
power nearly a century after it was written:
Kindle the taper like the steadfast star
Ablaze on evening's forehead o'er the earth,
And add each night a luster till afar
An eightfold splendor shine above thy hearth.
Clash, Israel, the cymbals, touch the lyre,
Blow the brass trumpet and the harsh-tongued horn ;
Chant psalms of victory till the heart takes fire,
The Maccabean spirit leap newborn.
Remember how from wintry dawn till night,
Such songs were sung in Zion, when again
On the high altar flamed the sacred light,
And, purified from every Syrian stain,
The foam-white walls with golden shields were hung,
With crowns and silken spoils, and at the shrine,
Stood, midst their conqueror-tribe, five chieftains sprung
From one heroic stock, one seed divine.
Five branches grown from Mattathias's stem,
The Blessed Johanan, the Keen-eyed Jonathan,
Simon the fair, the Burst-of-Spring, the Gem,
Eleazar, Help-of-God; o'er all his clan
Judah the Lion-Prince, the Avenging Rod,
Towered in warrior-beauty, uncrowned king,
Armed, with the breastplate and the sword of God,
Whose praise is: "He received the perishing."
Rabbi Philip Goodman's "Hanuka
Anthology," the newest in the series of
Jewish Publication Society volumes in the
Sabbath and Festival Series is replete with
gems about Hanuka, with poems and storied
about the festival. In it will be found the
inspiration that adheres to Hanuka.
Hanuka always lends itself to the ac-
quisition of courage in time of stress. It is a
festival to inspire young and old with rejoic-
ing and with courage to carry the banner of
Israel aloft fearlessly and with the will to
live and to create Jewishly.
Quandaries Over Enemy Taunts
Israel and world Jewry are in a quan-
dary. The enemy who hasn't stopped shout-
ing "death to Israel" has suddenly sent
forth "emissaries" with olive branches. The
envoys have begun a series of meetings, the
first having been held in Paris, the most
recent in Washington. They are not many —
only two have become known out of the sec-
recy of previous shouts for Israel's destruc-
tion. From Jewish ranks, however, emerged
a number of individuals who hail from re-
sponsible positions in the organized com-
munity, who gave comfort to the introduc-
tion of dialogues with representatives of
Arab groups who can be delineated only as
enemies of Israel and unfortunately also of
all Jewry.
In view of the craving for peace in all
Jewish ranks, among practically all Israelis,
and the obstacles that obstruct the road
even to a partial amity, any talks with the
PLO must be considered with great caution.
It is true that in the experiences of nations
even the most threatening occurrences
often result in an accord. But that is possi-
ble when nations sit together through their
representatives, when peoples talk to each
other. This has not been Israel's good for-
tune. All the Israelis and world Jewry have
been hearing was the threat to destroy,
Even at the Nairobi meetings of UNESCO
in recent days the resolve to re-invite Israel
to the ranks of the United Nations Educa-
tional, Scientific and Cultural Organization
was followed by condemnations based on
lies.
Recent advertisments in American
newspapers reiterated enmities and ap-
pealed to American public opinion to help
destroy the libertarian Zionist ideal.
The two PLO members who met with
responsible Jews are described as the
"moderates" who are rejected by the parent
terrorist movement, whose one aim is to end
Israel's sovereignty.
Peithaps the road is being cleared for
actual deliberations for peace
Elath's Diary Reveals Maronite
Friendship for Zionist Cause
Eliahu Elath is among the notables in Israel's foreign ser-
vice. He was a scholarly expert on the Holy Land's southern
areas, with an historical perspective on future developments in
the Middle East. He was Israel's first ambassador to the United
States. He rose to that high role in the ranks of the newly reborn
nation after serving the Zionist cause at the United Nations in
San Francisco and in special assignments in the political ac-
tivities conducted in this country in quest of American support
of Zionist aims.
His story is told in the newest volume of the Jewish Publica-
tion Society, "Zionism at the UN: A Diary of the First Days." In
a sense the title reveals the approach. Much of what Elath has
done, whose name was Epstein when he was serving in San
Francisco before it was Hebraized, was in the service of the
Jewish people. He therefore deals as much with Jewish per-
sonalities as he does with the non-Jews he came in contact with
in that crucial political effort. Therefore, he tells the story of the
struggles in the American Zionist Emergency Council, the con-
troversies between the competing heads of the council, Dr.
Stephen S. Wise and Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, and their many
associates in Zionist ranks.
Thus, what he relates were experiences _peripheral to the
later serious developments. The title, "The First Days," affirms
it.
It is a valuable addition to the available information about a
struggle that was difficult, that was beset by many obstacles.
Even peripherally the diary has much merit. It does intro-
duce the UN personalities, the representatives at the early
meetings who were believed to hold Israel's fate in the sought-
for Jewish state in their hands.
There is one major revelation of gneat importance — the
friendly hand that was extended to Elath by the Lebanese
Maronites who earnestly desired to see a successful Israel
emerge at the peace conference after World War II. It was an
experience that was repeated in Detroit where a Lebanese
newspaper editor publicly advocated the Zionist cause. That
newspaper regrettably is now out of circulation. The Elath story
of that experience with the Maronites is related as follows:
"When I went to the conference press bureau to collect its
daily bulletin, I came across an Arab journalist from Lebanon
whom I had known in Beirut from the time when I worked as a
Reuter's correspondent in Lebanon and Syria and as a corres-
pondent for the newspapers Davar and Palestine Post. A repor-
ter for the Beirut newspaper L'Orient, he told me about the
growing tension between the Syrian and Lebanese govel
ments.
"The Maronite members of the Lebanese govenrment
a reasonable settlement and an improvement in their relati,
with France, which for generations has protected the Maronite
community against the excessive aspirations of their Muslim
and Druze neighbors. The Syrians, on the other hand, are
strongly opposed to any understanding with France.
"My journalist friend also told me that the Lebanese minis-
ter in Washington, Charles Malik, is receptive to British and
American influence, but that his rather weak personal charac-•
ter cannot stand up to the pressure of Abdallah Yafi, the former
prime minister and Muslim member of the Lebanese delegation,
who renders his wholehearted support to the Syrian
nationalists' demands. The influence of the French on the
Lebanese delegation's decisions is nil in these circumstances.
"The Maronite Church, he mentioned, is deeply concerned
about Lebanon's having joined the Arab League and looks upon
Zionism and the Jewish national home in Palestine as their
natural ally against Muslim expansionist designs in the area."