2 Friday, June 24, 1977

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Purely Commentary

Abraham Goodman House Marks
Noted Philanthropist's Services

Tarbuth Foundation for the Advancement of Hebrew
Culture is not a strange name to readers of these columns.
Special features, with emphasis on Hebraic legacies. pre-
pared by Tarbuth Foundation scholars, often enrich the
contents of the pages of this newspaper.
The features on the last page of this issue illustrate
the point just made about the great
contributions made by the Tarbuth
Foundation.
The brothers Abraham and Jacob
Goodman are responsible for the cul-
tural gifts made by this foundation. A
number of years ago, the introduction
of Tarbuth Foundation activities was
marked by the Goddman's $1 million
gift. Now the Tarbuth headquarters
are to be housed in the Abraham
Goodman Building in New York. The
GOODMAN
creation of the new Tarbuth Center is
explained in_ this Tarbuth announcement.

On West 67th Street, between Broadway and Am-
sterdam Avenue, in the Lincoln Center area of Man-
hattan, construction is now underway on the Abraham
Goodman House, which will serve as a center of Jew-
ish culture.
Long in the planning and to be named after Abra-
ham Goodman, well-known industrialist, philanthro-
pist, and president of the Tarbuth Foundation, this lat-
est architectural enrichment of the Lincoln Center
Complex will owe its reality to this man's vision, in-
itiative and generosity. One of New York's leading ar-
ahitects. Ashok Bhavnami„ (of Johansen & -Bhav-
nami) has designed this building with a remarkable
conception that harmonizes esthetic thrust with well-
rounded utility.
The Abraham Goodman House will be the home of
both the Tarbuth Foundation and the Hebrew Arts
School for Music & Dance, that unique institution,
founded and developed by Dr. Tzipora H. Jochsberger,
who has been its director from its very inception.
The seven-story building will encompass the of-
fices and facilities of the Tarbuth Foundation together
with the Hebrew Arts School's wide-ranged set-up — a
475-seat concert hall, a 150-seat chamber music hall,
not fewer than 22 studios for music and dance and a
complete audio-visual recording set up. Furthermore,
there will be a large exhibition hall, a Judaica library,
a music library, and an outdoor garden with refresh-
ment appurtenances.
A special section of the building will be dedicated
to the commemoration of the Holocaust and will be
the first such memorial in the New York metropolitan
area.
Based as it is in the largest Jewish community in
the United States, the Abraham Goodman House will
truly serve as a national focal point for Jewish cultur-
al efforts and a beacon for the Hebrew arts.
At a vicarious ground breaking ceremony held
last Nov. 30 at City Hall, Mayor Abraham D. Beame
presented Goodman with New York's Scroll for Distin-
guished Service. In his remarks, hailing the Abraham
Goodman House as "a most generous gift to the
people of the City of New York" and acclaiming its
principal benefactor for "his lifelong dedication to the
highest ideals of the city's Jewish community," the
Mayor declared:
"...the New York Jewish community is not only
the largest and most flourishing Jewish population cen-
ter in the world, larger even than the state of Israel
from which I have just returned. Historically, it is
also one of the oldest communities in this country,
pre-dating the Declaration of Independence by, at least
100 years. In this Bicentennial year, it is worth noting
that the city has been the crucible for the expression
of the Jewish spirit in music,,art, poetry and scholar-
ship! Yet, not until today, has there been a facility for
giving fullest range to a unified approach to Jewish
culture in this city.
"The people of New York are grateful to the in-
itiative and commitment of Abe Goodman — the immi-
grant's son who arrived here from Czarist Russia in
1906, who built an industrial empire from the proverbi-
al gushcart on the Lower East Side, and who through-
out his entire life gave unstintingly of himself and his
fortune to enrich the cultural heritage of his fellow
Jews—here in New York as well as throughout his
adopted country."
The American Jewish community is greatly indebted
to the. Goodmans and Abraham Goodman links his name
indelibly with the highest aims for cultural attainment.
New standards for educational tasks in American Jewry,

with Pmnhacic nn 7inniern

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Abraham Goodman, the Devoted Zionist and Generous Supporter
of Tarbuth Foundation's Cultural Programs: A Record of
Service to Jewry and Israel...The Courageous Beverly Payne

op in the new cultural center.
It should be noted that both the Goodmans were mem-
bers of the Jewish Legion that fought for the liberation of
Palestine from the Turks in World War I. Both are dedica-
ted Zionists. Abraham Goodman was the chief contributor
to the official quarters of the Zionist Organization of Amer-
ican on 34th Street in New York and is the chief donor to
all major ZOA causes. He serves as treasurer of the Jew-
ish Telegraphic Agency and is devotedly active in many
major movements. Thus he earns many thanks from many
people on many occasions.

Courageous Beverly Payne
and a Major Moral Issue Involving
Television and the Media

Beverly Payne's anger over the failure of participants
on a newscast on TV Channel 2 to challenge an American
Nazi's bestial threats to fellow Americans was more than
a protest challenging the failure of an announcer on a
single program to refute indecency and to present "the
other side" of a serious issue. It opened up a major wound
involving the media.
Miss Payne was "livid" over the freedom granted a
Nazi to spout his hatred with-
out being challenged on the
spot. The news and broad-
casting media have been
guilty of failure to detect be-
tween freedom and license to
disseminate lies. To avoid
the transgression that invited
Miss Payne's protest there is
an emerging necessity for
broadcasters and reporters
to be briefed properly, to be
well informed. not to permit
venom and appeals to bestia-
lities to mislead readers and
listeners.
That which angered Miss
Payne is not new in media ex-
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perience. A typical example
BEVERLY PAYNE
was the recent incident in
San Francisco, where Jews who survived the Nazi terror
refused to permit a Nazi bookstore to survive in their
midst. One of the Nazis was interviewed on television dur-
ing the eruption of the San Francisco attempt to propagate
Nazism in this country. He was permitted to emit the out-
rageous libel about Jews using blood of Christians in ob-
serving Passover. This lie had so outraged the civilized
world through the ages that only in Czarist Russia and in
areas so backward that even the most bigoted had begun
to feel a sense of shame over the repetition of the blood
libel. The Vatican had condemned it. People of decency
were horrified by it. But an American television inter-
viewer permitted a vile Nazi to repeat the lie without chal-
lenge!
This is exactly what had infuriated Beverly Payne. It
wasn't necessary, Beverly, for an outside speaker to be in-
terviewed in challenging the Nazi. It should have been
done by the interviewer. What the Nazi did on television
here was not to threaten Jews, Blacks, Catholics: it was
the un-American type of venom that should have no place
in the free American society.
The bigots who appeal to hate and propagate in-
troduction of a Holocaust in this country are enjoying free-
dom under misconceptions. They are utilizing a license to
destroy human decencies and their alleged right to speak
is defended by the American Civil Liberties Union. To re-
tain the glory of ACLU principles, that otherwise impor-
tant movement will have to change its tactics.
There are many errors. When Howard K. Smith under-
takes to berate the chosen leader of the people of Israel by
impugning the honor of Menahem Begin. he intrudes into
an issue about which he must become better informed be-
fore emitting his form of dislike that bordered on hatred in
the case of Begin.
To make freedom and the right to free speech valid,
those who traffic in and with it must be informed properly
before allotting it helter skelter.
Perhaps TV will learn from the lesson taught one of
the channels by a courageous anchorwoman.
For what she has done deserves commendations from
all Americans with a sense' of fair play.

Those Who Would Split the
American Jewish Community

Much can be said about the treatment accorded by the \
news media to major American and world issues. The mis-
fortune in matters inviting criticism stems from the tray- ,
ing for sensation. The speculative functions often create
trouble and are the cause of resentment.
It would be utterly ridiculous to say that news people
and commentators are generally unfair. That's not true.

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By Philip
Slomovitz

dignity. But there are the sensationalists, those who specu-
late as if they were prophets predicting gloom for man-
kind.
This was exemplary in the aftermath of the May 17 Is-
rael election. A sizable plurality in the Jewish state voted
for a man who had long been the critic, who had led the
loyal opposition, who was the leader in the battle for jus-
tice against the British Mandatory Government of Pales-
tine which was betraying trust to Jews. Not only was there
a yielding to fright that the Begin victory and the choice of
his Likud party to govern suddenly became occasion for
warning Jews of an imaginary menace. There was a judg--
ing of Jewry as if the testing of what was occurring in I
rael was the business of a few sensation-seeking reporterS. -
The latter began warning that Jews would be split in their
reactions and responses to Israel's needs. Suddenly, as
some reporters judge the issues, American Jews would be
a split community.
Such was the injustice introduced by some misled col-
umnists and reporters. They were judging Israel without
giving the only democracy in the Middle East credit for
asserting itself in a craving for a change after so many
years of labor domination. They undertook to assume that
American Jews would abandon their kinfolk in Israel.
Have they not learned by now that such an abandonment
of a duty to an embattled nation struggling against many
odds is inconceivable? Many in the news media have much
to learn. Let there be gratitude for the many more in the
communications fields who adhere to a sense of dignity,
truth and justice.

`Religions Proves Noteworthy

Like his widely acclaimed fined in a prefatory chapter
history of philosophy, Dr. which also serves as a defi-
Walter Kaufmann's "Reli- nite introduction to the vas-
gions" is a major work, no- tness of scholarship
tably valuable for scholars amassed in this volume.
and of equal significance
Dr. Kaufmann asserts at
for the lay reader.
the very outset: "This
"Religions" (Reader's Di- book is a love child, born
gest Press) is four dimen- without the benefit of the
tional, devoted to the exis- clergy.
tential, aesthetic, historical
"The affair began in-
and comparative factors of nocently when I was five
the religious beliefs that em- and was given a book writ-
brace mankind.
ten by Dhan Gopal Mu-
Extensively illustrated kerji: "Kari the Elephant."
with emphasis on many of I was enchanted by India
the factors related to the va- and read some of Mukerji's
riety of topics in this 500- other books. In the prologue
page volume, "Religions" of "The Faith of a Heretic"
assumes great value as (1961) I have related briefly
guide for the student and it how at 12 I formally ab-
merits a major place jured Protestantism and im-
among the textbooks for re- mersed myself in Judaism.
ligious studies.
But I did not mention how
Understandably, the emi- at 13 I read Hermann
nent author commences Hesse's "Siddhartha" and
with analysis of the role of came to think of the reli-
"Ancient Israel," covering gions of India as profound
the aspects of social devel- alternatives to Judaism and
opments and the political in- Christianity. Martin
fluences.
Buber's books played some
After a study of the reli- part in "saving" me from
gious influences stemming the East by focusing on reli-
from "Ancient Iran," Dr. gious experience in
Kaufmann proceeds with • Judaism.
the studies of the Prophets
"The usual approaches to
in the chapter "The Jews religion are curiously blind.
Since Jeremiah: Exile and One refuses to see the ma-•
Return." The historic expe- jor religions as alternatives-
riences covering the vast that challenge us to make a)
area of time, as indicated choice.
in the title, chronicles the
"Yet Moses and Jes pr
Jewish experiences through Zarathustra and Muha --
the ages.
mad presented this chl-
The universality of the lenge in the clearest terms,
Kaufmann theme is ex- and we cannot begin to un-
pressly affirmed in the pur- derstand the religions of
suing studies, "The New the East as long as we shut
Testament," "Post-Biblical our eyes to the ways in
Christianity, - "Muhammad which most teachers and
and the - Koran," "Islam scriptures condemn some
After Muhammad." "An- ways and recommend
cient India." "Hinduism. others."
Caste, the Gita and Gan-
This excerpt introduces
dhi," "The Third Face of the scholarly approach to a
India." "From Ceylon to vast spiritual ideology, the
Japan," "Judiasm, Christ- worldwide religious
inaity, Islam and the Arts,"
spheres, the differences in
"Hinduism, Jainism, Buddh- people's minds approached
ism and the Arts" and with respect and with dig-
"Landscape and Religion."
nity. The Kaufmann theme
The four dimensions of keeps growing into a great
the book, the existential,
discussion led by a distin-
aesthetic, historical and guished and authoritative
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