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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
2 Friday, October 21, 1977
Purely Commentary
Not Intransigence But the Will to Live Explains
the Jew's Role Amidst Antagonism ... The Kehillah
in Jewish Life as a Community Council Background
By Philip
Slomovitz
Why the Stubborness of the Jew? Because the Floggings, Physical and Mental, Never Cease
Tried by many fires, begrudged even the minuteness of a territory that is his heritage
and which he has rebuilt as a haven to end the homelessness of his kinspeople, the Jew
remains the target in many quarters. He is maligned in the United Nations. He must
exchange harsh words with the President and the Secretary of State of the United States,
his cousins the Arabs have become his bitter enemies. He has enmities on many fronts.
Yet he, the Jew, is called the intransigent.
Is it intransigence? Of course not! It is stubborness. It has a traditional reference in
Scriptures where the Jew is called an am kshei oref—a stubborn people.
Why? Because he will not die ! Because he keeps saying "lo omut ki ekhyeh..."—I shall
not die but live to declare the words of the Lord.
The explanation is simpler than it appears on the surface. The Jew will not yield to
pressures that would condemn him to suicide. These pressures are felt everywhere. They
are in evidence at the UN. They are sometimes echoed in Washington. They predominate
in the Arab states and behind the Iron Curtain. They are frequented in France and the
Scandinavian countries are submissive. The anti-Israel pressures that are more often
than not the anti-Jewish sentiments of enemies are heard all too often in England.
It is to the British Empire that Theodor Herzl looked for comfort for his Zionist ideal,
for support of the fulfillment of Prophecy of Israel's rebirth as an equal among the
nations of the world. That aspiration gained support from Arthur James Balfour and his
associates in 1917. It was negated all too often. Now there are parliamentary groups plac-
ing obstacles in Israel's path and London has become a center of pro-Arab anti-Israelism ;
British universities are being utilized by leftists to mobilize student opinion against
Israel.
The National Union of Students in England has become the medium for action to
impugn Zionism and Israel. It is a deplorable development and it places Jewish students
and the Jewish community on the defensive. The developing need for action will, hope-
fully, be met with courage.
Now there is a new cause for concern. The PLO supporters have used London as a base
The Jewish Community Council
and the Traditional Kehillah Concept
The Jewish Community Council's 40th anniversary draws
attention to one of the oldest concepts in Jewish life in the
Diaspora.
In many lands the Jewish communities operated like gov-
ernments within governments. Because they were depend-
ent on themselves and were forced not only to provide
means for all their needs but also to collect the taxes that
went to the governments under whose "toleration" they
subsided, they were like sovereignties. Each was a Kahal
unto itself, a Kehillah.
T
.
TIT
An excellent definition of the Kehillah is provided by the
noted scholar, Rabbi Philip Birnbaum, in his "Book of Jew-
ish Concepts" (Hebrew Publishing Co.). Dr. Birnbaum thus
defined "Kehillah":
During the medieval period, Jewish localities organ-
ized themselves into communities having autonomous
rights and being responsible for taxation as well as the
establishment of educational and charitable
institutions. The head of such an organized community
was called Rosh ha-Kahal or Parnas (011D). He was
assisted by three to seven advisers particularly in
money matters, who were referred to as -pyri
There were besides several trustees (CPX21), forming
committees that- were in charge of the public
institutions, such as the synagogue, the hospital and
home for the aged, charity funds and ransom funds
(pidyon shevuyim). In the nineteenth century, with the
abolition of the ghetto in central Europe, Jewish self-
government was reduced to conducting the purely reli-
gious affairs of the various communities .
There is a vast difference in the Council idea as it oper-
ates today from the traditional Kehillah. It is no longer a
matter of the "korobka," the policy that was pursued of
placing a tax on meat which was to be used for the oper-
ation of communal affairs. Council can not impose taxes
and can not force anyone to obey established rules. The
Council of today needs to educate the community, to be on
guard against bias, to battle prejudices, to defend Israel's
'sovereign status. In its formative stages the Council was
duty-bound to fight anti-Semitism, to be in the front ranks
of the opponents of the Nazi ideologies that threatened the
world, to strive for justice for the hundreds of thousands of
DPs who were to be rescued and settled honorably, prefer-
eably in what was then Palestine.
Therefore, in the present stage of Council activities it
must also fight for just rights for all and help protect the,
underprivileged of all faiths and all races. And by the same
token when the UN adopts a shocking resolution calling
Zionism racist, the Council must become a Zionist body
fighting for the truth and defending the libertarianism of
world Jewry.
A Council has many duties, not least among them being
the responsibility to educate Jews as well as their non-Jew-
ish fellow citizens to a people's right to enjoy the liberties
that are mankind's great legacy from the Prophetic teach-
for its propaganda campaign and once again the British Jewish community is challenged
to act firmly and fearlessly. There were four Jews at a conference of the PLO,•amidst 116
who soon became apparent as the enemies. They invited the few Jews to be among them,
but the proceedings were definitely antagonistic, without even the slightest intentions of a
friendly dialogue.
The Jews who attended were: Reserve General Matityahu Peled, a well-known "dove"
and a leader of the Israeli Council for Peace; Uri Avneri, editor of Haolam Hazeh and a
former Member of Knesset; Dr. Haim Darin-Drabkin, editor of the Tel Aviv left-wing
publication, New Outlook; and Dr. Amnon Kapeliouk, also from New Outlook.
They were the deluded, even though Peled thought the participation by four Jews was
Ireful. It's tragic that when Jews wish to speak to Arabs, as Moshe Dayan was so ready
to do, the Egyptian foreign minister erected a barrier. Doesn't the world that is watching
these events see and understand these tactics?
The London PLO conference had a fifth person with a Jewish background in attenL
ance, a rabbi who is not considered a Jew. He spoke to the gathering with a message for
Israel's destruction. He is Elmer Berger, the one-time Pontiac and Flint co-organizer of
the anti-Israel and anti-Zionist American Council for Judaism who has been repudiated
even by the very group of haters of Zionism which he helped organize.
That a handful of Jews should be so self-hating that they become the enemies of their
own kinfolk is regrettable but not strange. A people of some 14,000,000 can withstand half
a dozen enemies like Berger. But the delusion under which Israeli representatives give
comfort to the PLO is deplorable. What have the four good Jews among 116 enemy Arabs
accomplished? Don't they feel a bit degraded?
Such are the situations amidst which Jews live today. There are enemies and antago-
nists, and among those who would harm Israel are well-meaning but misled people.
But Israel and Jewry is called intransigent. A handful of people in a world of enemies is
intransigent! What a misnomer! The people are stubborn! It insists on surviving and the
enemies do not like it! What a long explanation for a simple definition of the Jew among
his neighbors!
ings that are the guides for the People Israel. The Council
as it functions as a vital force in Jewish life is under scru-
tiny now as it marks the end of four decades of activities
and is about to commence another decade in an age of
much turbulence.
The Deir Yassin Tragedy:
Additional Explanatory Notes
Innumerable massacres of Jewish women and children,
and continuing bombings of supermarkets and buses in
Israel don't count with Arab propagandists. They keep
harping on the one tragedy pinned on Jews: that of Deir
Yassin. The circumstances that occasioned that tragedy,
the apologies by Israel, the many explanations of the events
that occurred at that time, are of no concern to those who
would blame everything on Israel and Zionism.
A letter to the Jerusalem Post presented the Arab point of
view:
Sir,—What enrages me is your editorial response to ,
Yamil Sabat's letter, "Who is a terrorist?" You declare
hypocritically that the actions of IZL, in contrast to those of
Arafat, were "directed against carefully selected military
targets." You know very, well that Deir Yassin was a
wretched Arab village—a far cry from having been a "mili-
tary target."
Dr. K. Gronemann
Haifa
It is therefore necessary to keep emphasizing the facts
relating to Deir Yassin. A second letter in the Jerusalem
Post provides the added definitive facts regarding the great
tragedy:
Sir,—I refer to the letter of Yamil Sabat, "Who is a ter-
rorist?" The Deir Yassin libel has joined the "Elders of
Zion" and the blood libel in the arsenal of vicious and men-
dacious anti-Semitic propaganda.
I was even more surprised by the inadequacy of the Edi-
tor's reply to this letter. Why didn't you point out that one
of the main principles of Begin's IZL was that of not har-
ming civilians? In the case of Deir Yassin, an open truck
with a loud-speaker was driven close to the village entrance
and a warning was broadcast to civilian non-combatants to
withdraw: some 200 civilians actually took advantage of
this warning and were saved.
The actual battle of Deir Yassin began with the Arab sub-
terfuge of hanging out white flags from the windows and
then shooting at the advancing Irgun party. After the battle,
the IZL were horror-stricken to find bodies of women and
children among the dead Iraqi and Palestinian Arab
soldiers.
This is the 'exact opposite of the tactics of the PLO, who
boast with glee when they succeed in killing Jewish
children.
Dr. Jacob Rosin
Netanya
Perhaps those who may be influenced by Arab propagan-
dists will recognize the truth if and when the facts are pre-
sented to them. Addressing the truth to the Arab spokesmen
has thus far proven useless.
The Blunder of Planning
Zionist Congress Elections
Dr. Joseph Sternstein, president of the Zionist Organizi-
tion of America, is the leader of a practical group of Ameri-
can Zionists who are appealing for the abandonment of
plans for elections to the forthcoming World Zionist Con-
gress to be held in Jerusalem in February. He logically
explains that it will not necessarily stimulate democratic
procedures, that the selection of delegates will of necessity
be proportional to party strength and that it would be crimi-
nal to undergo an expense of more than $2,000,000 to facil-
itate election procedures.
His views were endorsed in these columns last week.
Now we receive word of similar protests against an
expensive election in England. The Jewish.. Observer and
Middle East Review carries this editorial under the heading
"A Waste of Money That Must Be Stopped"!
With the Joint Israel Appeal about to launch its annual
Kol Nidre appeal to the Jewish community in Britain, to be
followed by its 1977-78 general campaign, it is ludicrous for
the Zionist movement to be contemplating spending any-
thing like 100,000 pounds on elections that no one really
wants. But unless there is a last-minute change of heart on
the part of the British Herut Movement, that is exactly
what is going to happen.
This intolerable and unjustifiable situation has arisen
because of the failure of the British Zionist parties to get
Herut to agree on how the representation to the next Zionist
Congress, which assembles in Jerusalem in February,
should be split up. Britain is entitled to 27 mandates—
enough, one would have thought, to keep everyone happy.
But apparently it is one too few.
The Zionist movement risks becoming the laughing-stock
of the rest of the Jewish community if it commits-itself to
such a huge and unnecessary expense—and all over one
seat. The Zionist leadership should realize and accept two
basic facts, however unpalatable they may be: Anglo-
Jewry cares about Israel; Anglo-Jewry does not care about
Zionist politics.
If the community at large sees that a six-figure sum, or
anything approaching it, is spent on a worthless exercise in
so-called democracy, it would have every reason to que
Lion its own future donations to Israel. For whoever foot_
the election bill—the World Zionist Organization in Jerusa-
lem or Zionist groups in Britain—it all eventually comes
from the same pocket.
We would appeal to those involved to come to their
senses, even if it means that someone's pride will have to
be sacrificed. And with everyone, including Mizrachi,
ranged on one side against Herut's stand, it would appear
that Herut has it within its power to climb down and pre-
vent a huge waste of expense. If the movement were to
relent and accept three mandates, it would deserve the
appreciation of all British Zionists.
The British verbiage and the party divisions in England
should not confuse the reader. It is the fact of vastly unnec-
essary expenditures that should be taken into consideration.
How many concerned Zionists will join the effort to pre-
vent the crime of money-wasting in the expenditure of pub-
lic funds?