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. Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co.. 17515,W. Nine 11ih. Suite S65, Southfield. 1;-q17:). Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield, ',Michigan and Additional Hailing Offices. Subscription $ld a year. 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."