THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of . •.10y .20. 1951
Member American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, :Michigan Press Association. Natiomd Editorial Association.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co.. 17515 W. Nine Mile. Suite'865, Southfield, Mich. 4S075.
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PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
Business Manager
Man Hitsky. News Editor . . . Heidi Press. Assistant
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
NI . 1% S
Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 17th day of Shevat, 5737,-the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Exodus 13:17 17:16. Prophetical portion, Judges 4:4-5:31.
-
Candle lighting, Friday, Feb. 4, 5:33 p.m.
VOL. LXX, No. 22
Page Four
Friday, February 4, 1977
Carter and the Palestinians
Substitute for the name (President
Jimmy) Carter that of any other world
statesman or diplomat, and that of any
other country for the U.S., and there will be
a re-echo of the so-called Palestinian and
also the PLO "causes" that have been
foisted upon Israel, world Jewry and the
world.
It may as well be anticipated: that the
menacing situations threatening the secu-
rity of Israel and the conflicting attitudes
relating to the proposals for the re-
convening of the Geneva Conference will be
treated with a compassion that is aimed at
even-handedness towards the Arab an-
tagonists of Israel while the danger to Is-
rael keeps growing.
In judging the developing and continu-
The challenges are bitter. But so are the
realities. The accepted fact is that Israel
can resist all pressures as long as the state
is strong and defensible. For that pur-
pose it is necessary to have strong suppor-
ters — those like the U.S. who provide the
military hardware and the Jews whose sen-
timents must never be negotiable. Time can
be not only a healer but also a strength-
provider. This is the hope on which the de-
fenders of Israel subsist.
Endless appeals to the Arab nations
have emphasized the need to elevate the
standard of the impoverished and the illit-
erate among them and instead of giving
priority to warmongering against Israel the
basic necessity today is to create new social
conditions for the vast masses of the needy.
Occurrences in Egypt have proven that
there can be poverty amidst affluence.
Saudi Arabia has been ready to provide
large sums - to the Sadat government for
arms to be used against Israel.It is yet to be
indicated that the immensely wealthy Arab
nations are ready to provide food for their
hungry kinspeople.
During the rioting in Cairo the op-
pressed Arab masses shouted that since
they already were hungry they may just as
well be shot down by their rulers.
Thus the tragedy of the Middle East
emerged in a true light. The affluent rulers
do not hesitate to ask the United States for
food supplies rather than to provide the
necessities from their own coffers. But
there are always the ready sums for muni-
tions, so long as the enmity for Israel can be
their main uniting force.
As in Lebanon presently, Egypt against
Yemen in earlier days, and on other occa-
sions, there is the evidence of Arab divi-
siveness in their own ranks. The hatred for
Israel unites them, and even the
humanitarianism of the Good Fences on the
Israel border with Lebanon is not a guaran-
tee that the Lebanese Christians will re-
member the Israeli kindnesses when the
fratricidal Lebanese war will have ended.
Meanwhile, there is the basic point to
remember: that Israel admonishes war-•
mongering neighbors to strive for'elevation
of the standards of living of their im-
poverished masses and to provide better
educational opportunities for the illiterate.
Israel's major plea to the Arabs is to estab-
lish business relations with them, thereby
adding to opportunities for progress for
both and introducing the means of ending
warfare.
There is a hatred that stands in the way
of such progress. There is a "sim' at olam
l'am olam," the eternal hatred for the eter-
nal people, that has poisoned the Arab
world as well. That is why, as a result of the
blindness to facts and deafness to truth,
there were riots against government regu-
lations in Egypt.
ing situations, there may be a great need to
adopt a regrettable attitude of acceptance
of the Palestinian claim as it merges with an
emerging Jewish appeasement, such as the
Breira and related movements in Israel as
well as the Diaspora.
Poverty Amidst Affluence
Boycotts and H uman Reactions
On two occasions, in eras quite apart
one from the other, boycotts of governments
and their peoples for injustice to the Jews
proved operable. One was the anti-Nazi
boycott of the 1930s and 1940s. Mankind was
so outraged by the murderous German re-
gime that the protesting actions by people
refusing to do business with Germany was
spontaneous. Similarly effective and spon-
taneous was the boycott of. Mexico a year
ago, in condemnation of Mexico's anti-
Israel and anti-Jewish vote in the United
Nations.
On many other occasions there were
second thoughts when boycotts were pro-
posed as weapons against bigots who
functioned on many fronts against Israel
and Jewry. Israel's policies have not en-
couraged retribution, and there is always
hesitancy to resort to vengeance when the
people is harmed and its status in the world
undermined.
The French situation is an example in
proof of hesitancy because there is the ur-
gent desire by Jews always to be on the best
of terms with fellow men everywhere.
But there is the human reaction. No one
is anxious to provide benefits for those who
harm them. Therefore the French, and
others who are antagonistic to Jewry,
somehOw suffer when Jews plan to travel
and to make purchases from foreign coun-
tries.
In France it is an antagonistic govern-
ment that has caused all the trouble. The
press and the people have shown resent-
ment against official French actions pur-
sued as a result of a pro-Arab policy of sub-
mission to the oil producers. That's when
the human element becomes a factor in a
refusal to give comfort and support for Is-
rael's enemies. The nations who act hastily
and unwisely as did the French government
in the Abu Daoud case have an important
lesson to learn if human reactions tan-
tamount to boycotts are to be averted.
'The Yeshiva,' Masterful Grade
Novel, Depicts Shtetel Life
.
Chaim Grade already ranks among the leading Yiddish
writers. As .an interpreter of Jewish life in pre-Holocaust days,
and certainly, as an essayist, also of current conditions, he has
gained the title of the outstanding author in Yiddish literature.
This became evident in his "The Agunah"*.three years ago.
It is even more pronounced in his newest novel, "The Yeshiva"
(Bobbs-Merrill Co.)
It is a long novel and it transmits the inner feelings as well
as the conflicts inspired by the religious experiences of a gener-
ation of the Old World ghetto. It incorporates all of the basic
habits, viewpoints, aspirations that marked the life of emerging
youth in an age of challenge to the habitat which they consid-
ered depressing. The temptations and hopes, the difficulties and
the allurements of a people's heritage — all are imbedded in the
life of a Jew and the environment that encircled them.
"The Yeshiva" gains special merit in the translation by one
of the most eminent Yiddish scholars whose labors to assure
recognition and -appreciation' of Yiddish have given him major
status in Jewish literary ranks. Prof. Curt Leviant of Rutgers
University is a short story writer and author of numerous es-
says on Yiddish, its history, its many important - writers. He is
the translator of the works of Sholem Aleichem as well as other
leading Yiddish writers. Bobbs-Merrill Co. will publish his first
novel, "The 'Yemenite Girl," in February.
- Chaim Grade, who received the Bnai Brith Jewish Heritage
Award for Excellence and the Morris Adler Prize of the Ameri-
can Academy ofJewish Research, has earned many other prizes
and awards for the several. novels he has written and for his
distinction in Jewish literary circles. His memoir on the
Holocaust gave him additional status as an evaluator ofJewish
developments in the post-war era.
Grade's latest novel may well be
viewed as history of a period as well
as the experiences of a generation
that has vanished. "The Yeshiva,"
like his earlier works, is replete with
humor, while retaining the serious-
ness of a life marked by tensions and
temptations.
Contrasts and transformations
mark the life of the hero in "The
Yeshiva." Tsemakh Arlas is a typical
product of the Jewish village in
Eastern Europe. He grows up in
piety and .soon he is ''tempted by
worldly 'matters, becomes a mer
chant, undergoes mental angui
CHASM GRADE
that soon leads him again into tt._
asceticism of his associates.
Again he turns to the Yeshiva, to the religious life, to. the
devotions which once more become inerasable.
From piety and family devotions the Tsemakh experience
also deviates into lust and an additional experience with
another woman in a life that emerges with so much richness in
the challenges Of changing mores in the East European Jewish
aura.
An admonition from an associate, as the transformation of a
return to piety ensues, to be calni, to be considerate in dealing
with the young students in the Yeshiva, once again leaves a
mark of strength in the emphasis on traditional values
which become major in a great story dealing with an overpower-
ing subject.
Leviant has retained the Yiddish and Hebrew terms to give
the novel substance and reality. The five-page glossary attests
to the value of this major literary achievement.