20 Friday, August 12, 1977THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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Days of Lamentation: Fated Symbo
(Continued from Page 1)
In the mid-1930's anti-
Semitism was introduced as
a conscious element in offi-
cial policy, coinciding with
Stalin's persistent effort to
cultivate Hitler. A vast
"anti-Zionist" propaganda
campaign was mounted and
a wholesale assault was
launched against Jewish cul-
ture in which most of the
Yiddish institutions wer
shut down and many Jew-
ish writers and teachers
were arrested, imprisoned,
executed on such grounds
as "Jewish bourgeois nation-
alistic activities," "nation-
alistic diversionism," "Zion-
ist affillations" in short, for
being too Jewish.
With the Soviet-Nazi pact
of 1939, Jews began to be
excluded from every in-
WORRIED ??
stitution that dealt with for- nalists and artists were
eign affairs and national plurged from their jobs in
security. The war years the midst of hysterical, hu-
miliating anti-Jewish propa-
saw a temporary hiatus in
the liquidation of Jewish cul- ganda.
At the same time, Stalin
ture, but with Stalin's in- !
itiation of the Cold War the organized a massive purge
anti -Semitic policy moved of the Communist lead-
into high gear, culminating ership of the new East Eu-
in what Soviet Jews grimly ropean satellites and "anti
Zionism" was its leitmotif.
called "the Black Year"
Thus, in November 1952,
the, last five years of the
at one of the most anti Sem-
dictator's life, 1948-53.
The macabre era opened itic trials of the centruy, Ru-
with the secret police mur- dolf Slansky and the entire
leadership of the Czech
der of Shloime
the most distinguished So- party—slavish Stalinists
viet Jewish figure, in Janu- all—were condemned and
executed for having been Zi-
ary 1948. Later, the few re-
maining Jewish cultural in- onist spies all their lives.
It was in the midst of
stitutions were liquidated
and thousands of Soviet these atrocities that the
Jewish writers were ar- massacre of Aug. 12 oc-
curred. The uniqueness of
rested, imprisoned, de-
ported to slave labor the Jewish tragedy is not
camps. It was the con- that countless individuals
clusion of the policy begun were liquidated, as was the
a decade and more earlier.
case with many other na-
The atmosphere was fur- tional groups in the USSR,
ther envenomed for the but that the entire culture
was annihilated—and the
Jews by the notorious "anti
cosmopolitan" campaign of policy persists to this day.
The case of Soviet Jewry
1949-51, in which thousands
of Jewish academics, jour- is quite simple. The Soviet
Jewish community has a
basic human right to perpet-
uate its existence as a seg-
ment of world Jewry; indi-
vidual Jews have the basic
human right to live as Jews
inside the USSR or to leave
the country for Israel or
anywhere else.
Four things are required
for this: the establishment
of authentic Jewish cultur-
al, religious and education-
al institutions ; the cessa-
tion of anti-Semitic propa-
ganda; the elimination of
discriminaiton against Jews
in higher education and em-
ployment; and the free op-
portunity to leave the
USSR.
There is a fateful struggle
going on for the soul of Rus-
sian Jewry. Jews in the
West can do no other than
to engage full force in the
battle.
(Editor's Note: This article
was written for the Nation-
al Conference on Soviet
Jewry by Dr. Moshe Dec-
tor, noted authority on the
situation in the USSR.)
`Pressure Without Sanctions' Book
Studies Israel-Diaspora Relations
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By ALLEN A. WARSEN
Charles S. Liebman's
"Pressure Without Sanc-
tions," subtitled "The In-
fluence of World Jewry on
Israel Policy" (Fairleigh
Dickinson University
Press) is the first complete
study that deals with the
relationships between Israel
and Diaspora Jewry. The
study is factual, analytical
and the result of extensive
research.
The author commences
the study by defining the
terms "Israel," "Diaspora"
and "political relation-
ships," and raises these
quintessential questions:
'What is Israel-'s impor-
World Jewry?
tance.
t is the significance
*Wa
of World Jewry to Israel?
According to the author
Israel is important to the
Diaspora because Israel pro-
vides security to the Jewish
people who live "under con-
ditions of stress." It contrib-
utes to Jewish identity and
education. "It is the pre-
eminent Jewish symbol."
Milton Himmelfarb ex-
pressed this thus: "If —
which God forbid — Israel
should cease to exist, do we
not know in our bones, that
the Jews would cease to
exist? We have not in us
the stuff of our `galut' an-
cestors, and what they
were able to do in the ab-
sence of a Jewish state we
and our descendants will be
unable to do; for we are ba-
rely able to do it in the pres-
ence of a Jewish state."
In like manner, Liebman
discusses the importance of
the Diaspora to Israel. He
states that the Diaspora is
a source of aliya. It assists
Israel economically, politi-
cally and psychologically.
And most of all, it is Is-
rael's only genuine ally 'as
Israel is the only country in
the world "without any nat-
ural cultural, historical, reli-
gious, or ethnic ties to at
least one other state."
Is the Diaspora's in-
fluence on Israel in propor-
tion to its importance?
To answer this question,
the author probed cases
that caused controversy
and even conflict between
certain segments of Dia-
spora Jews and Israel.
Such a case was the con-
troversy over the revised
1949 National Service Law
for Women. The 1949 stat-
ute provided that girls who
objected to military service
on religious grounds "be
exempted from any obliga-
tion to serve." But the re-
vised act of 1953 required
religious girls to serve in a
National Labor Service for
two years..
The opposition to the re-
vised law by the ultra-Or-
thodox Jews in Israel and
in the United States was so
intense that the government
decided not to enforce it
Another case the author
studied to ascertain the Dia-
spora's influence on the gov-
&mot of Israel was the
controversy caused by the
Law t of Return. It provided
tha ( a person born of a Jew-
ish mother or converted to
Judaism be considered by
the government as Jewish
and at his request is auto-
matically a citizen of Is-
rael.
The Orthodox Jews ob-
jected to the Jaw, and de-
manded that it be revised
to provide that a person
who was born of a Jewish
mother or converted "in ac-
cordance with Jewish law"
be considered as Jewish .
The government refused.
Had it yielded, the con-
versions performed by Con-
servative and Reform
rabbis would have been in-
valid in Israel.
Based on his numerous
case - studies, the author ar-
rived at these conclusions:
• Diaspora Jewry exer-
cises limited influence on
the government of Israel.
• It is "not organized for
the expression of its politi-
cal interests within Israel."
• With the exception of
American Orthodoxy, it has
no regular channel within
Israel to transmit its inter-
ests and demands.
In the final section of the
.
book the author expresses
his personal view about the
relationship that ought to
exist between Diaspora
Jewry and Israel. He con-
eludes that in Diaspora-Is-
raeli relations, the most ap-
prdpriate political role for
World Jewry would be "a
judgemental or critical
role."
"Pressure Without Sanc-
tions" is an effective study
of Israeli-Diaspora relation-
ships. It is fully annotated,
contains a comprehensive
bibliography and is well-in-
dexed.
Dr. Charles S. Liebman
serves as professor at the
Bar-Ilan University and is
the author of four books, in-
cluding "The Ambivalent
Jew: PolitiCs, Religion and
Family in American Jewish
Life."
Religious Soul
Will Lead to a
Healthy Heart
TEL AVIV (JTA)—Reli-
gious men are less likely to
suffer from a heart attack
than the non-religious, ac-
cording to a study con-
ducted at the Tel Hashomer
Medical Center in Tel Aviv:
The finding was revealed
in a paper by Dr. Mitchell,
Sneider of the Bar-Ilan Uni- 1
versity Computer Center
which was read to the fifth
Israel Conference of the As-
sociation of Orthodox Jew-
ish Scientists which opened
Tuesday in Jerusalem.
The Tel Hashomer study,
conducted by Prof. Henry
Neufeld and Dr. Jack Med-
alie, was made of 10,000 Is-
raeli males over 40 years
old during the last five
years. Sneider fed the infor-
mation into the ,Bar-Ilan
computer and got the sur-
prising results.
The study also found in
addition to age, obesity,
blood pressure, high choles-
terol, smoking and certain
diseases, heart trouble was
also influenced by blood
type, country of origin, and
love for one's wife.