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THE JEW ISII INENN
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of July 20, 1951
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 Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075
Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices. Subscription $12 a year.
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Business Manager
Advertising Manager
ALAN HITSKY, News Editor...HEIDI PRESS, Assistant News Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 23rd day of Kislev, 5738, the following scriptural selections will be read in our
synagogues: Pentateuchal portion, Genesis 37:1-40:23. Prophetical portion, Amos 2:6-3:8.
Hanuka Scriptural Selections
Monday: Numbers 7:1-17. Tuesday: Numbers 7:18-29. Wednesday: Numbers 7:24-35. Thursday: Numbers
7:30-41. Dec. 9: Numbers 7:36-47.
Candle !;,fliting.
VOL. LXXII, No. 13
Friday. De,.
Page Four
2, 4:43
p.m.
Friday, December 2, 1977
MaccabeanSpirit Undiminished
Hanuka lights are shining more brightly,
more visibly, when the spirit of the festival
becomes an apparent evidence of inspiration
from the celebrants of the festival wherever
there are Jews.
There is nothing especially new about a holi-
day, no matter how minor the festival obser-
vance which is a perennial event. Yet, the pride
one takes in the triumph of the Maccabees
serves as a reminder of a people's obligations
always to emulate the courage of the warriors
of old when experiences marked by battles for
survival remain a constant challenge to the
people who are linked in history with the
Maccabees.
Often on the brink of destruction, the descend-
ants of the Maccabees might have perished had
it not been for the feelings sensed from the past
that Mattathias and his Glorious Sons keep
pointing their fingers at the Jew, admonishing
him not to forget the lessons of the past and to
apply them to their present, as their forefathers
had learned the Maccabean lessons through the
ages.
This is an especially apropriate time to reas-
sert that the Maccabean spirit has triumphed
over accumulated enemies who vowed that
Israel should be destroyed and the People Israel
condemned to agony with the endangered state.
It developed otherwise, and it did require the
gun to do it. It needed the spirit that dictated
the will to live in defiance of whatever weapons
may be wielded by the massive enemies.
That is what has conquered: the spirit of the
Maccabees more than their weapons !
Of course, the weapon is unavoidable. When
life is threatened the Jew is compelled to resort
to the gun. If it can be avoided, the spirit that
makes Jewry strong becomes the most effective
defensive instrument.
Howard Fast coined the term "The Glorious
Brothers" in his descriptive work on the Mac-
cabees which was a best seller nearly 30 years
ago as a Hebrew Publishing Co. volume. It is
now a Schocken paperbadk and its introductory
paragraph is as valid today as it was when the
book first appeared with this Howard Fast defi-
nition of Hanuka and its heroes:
"A little more than a century and a half
before the brith of Christ, a handful of Jewish
• farmers in Palestine rose against the Syrian-
Greek conquerors who had occupied their land.
"For three decades, they carried on a
struggle which, in terms of resistance and liber-
ation, had almost no parallel in human history.
In a sense, it was the first modern struggle for
freedom, and it laid a pattern for many move-
ments that followed.
"This tale, which is still celebrated by Jews
all over the world as Hanuka, or the Feast of
the Lights, I have tried to retell here, consid-
ering that in these troubled and bitter times
there is both a need for and a value in recalling
the ancient consistency of mankind.
"Whatever is good in the telling, I owe to the
people who march through these pages, those
wonderful people of old who, out of their reli-
gion, their way of life, and their love for their
land, forged that splendid maxim—that resist-
ance to tyranny is the truest obedience to God."
It is in the spirit of Hanuka that the hope for
peace is paramount in the minds and hearts of
the deseendants of the Maccabees. And it is
with that in view that there is the determination
to keep the festival alive as an admonition that
one must retain both the spiritual and physical
strength to make life livable and to make free-
dom a reality.
Israel: lnerasable from the Map
Whatever the speculations, no matter how
deep-rooted the doubts, the occurrences in
Jerusalem on Nov. , 19, 20 and 21 will remain
inerasable from the most dramatic pages of
history.
It was only yesterday that Arabs refused to
shake hands with Israelis. When they were to
meet at television or radio stations, Arab
spokesmen demanded that partitions be set
between them. When the Geneva Conference
was to convene in 1973, there was a delay
because Arabs would not sit next to Israelis.
Among the most shocking of prejudices
against Israel was the practice of eliminating
the very mention of Israel from world maps.
Now Israel is recognized by the chief spokes-
man for the Arabs, President Anwar el-Sadat of
Egypt, who has declared, in undeniable terms,
that Israel is inerasable from the map, that
Israel is to be recognized as a sovereign state,
that Israelis and Egyptians can and should be
good neighbors.
The road to peace is not an easy one. It is
strewn with obstacles. Long ago, Isaiah uttered
a prayer for the removal of such obstacles,
when he pleaded (Isaiah 57:14): "Make a
path...remove all obstacles from the road of my
people..."
The obstacles are still there. The neighborli-
ness for which Menaharn Begin and Anwar
Sadat pleaded continues to be blocked by gun-
bearing troops. But the introductions to peace
have been uttered and there is hope in a critical
part of the world for which only a while ago
anything approaching amity among neighbors
and kinsmen appeared as hopeless and
impossible.
Arabic is not strange to the Knesset, the Par-
liamerit of Israel. Arab citizens are represented
by parliamentarians of their peoplehood who
use that language when addressing their fellow
members and the nation of Israel. But the
Arabic heard in the Knesset on Nov. 20 was the
language of a man who had earlier in his career
aligned himself with the enemies of Israel.
What a glorious day it was when that leader of a
nation nominally at war with Israel spoke of
peace and neighborliness and good will and an
interchange of ambassadors.
These are occurrences preliminary to the
actual approaches to peace. It may not mate-
rialize at a reconvened Geneva Conference. But
it is a beginning, and the confidence of the emi-
nent Israeli leader, Prime Minister Menahem
Begin, lends courage to the view that where
there is a flicker of hope there is the possibility
of an attainment of peace.
Hebrew-English Dictionary
Is Scientifically Updated
Updated to include the newest terms in both the Hebrew and Eng-
lish, fully accounting for the need to define the technological, scien-
tific and socially developing terms, the new Bantam-Megiddo Hebrew-
English Dictionary is receiving wide acclaim as one of the great con-
tributions in language definitions issued in recent years.
Two eminent authorities combined their skills to produce this
immense work which has already appeared as a paperback that has
accounted for large sales and is now available in hard cover as a
Schocken book. Dr. Reuven Sivan, philologist, translator, author of a
number of books, is an executive member of the Israel Association of
Applied Linguistics and is a lecturer in Israeli universities. Dr.
Edward A. Levenston heads the department of English at the Hebrew
University and is a senior lecturer in Hebrew linguistics. He is widely
known as a lecturer, author and philologist.
The Hebrew-English section has 294 pages. The English-Hebrew
portion is in 399 pages.
There are more than 46,000 entries in this new approach to philologi-
cal definitiveness and the result is impressive in many respects. The
alphabetical and grammatical guides are important and the complete
result is of service to the already knowledgeable in Hebrew as well as
the learners. The Bantam-Megiddo Hebrew English Dictionary seems
certain to command first place as a language-defining work for the
years ahead.
Fast's Hanuka Idyl
Much has been written about Hanuka. The heroes have been
defined hundreds of times. The history and philosophy of the festival
has been an inspiration for many authors.
In American Jewish literature, Howard Fast's "The Glorious Broth-
ers" remains one of the classics devoted to the Festival 'of Lights.
First published in 1946 by the Hebrew Publishing Co., Fast's book
now is available as a paperback issued by Schocken. •
This is history. It also is capitalizing on legend that has become
reality. As such it emerges as a factual account that will stir the
imagination and will relate to the events of the Maccabean era as well
as the conflicts that gave emphasis to a spirit of devotion to faith and
determination not to sacrifice life to false gods and to pressures from
ancient tyrants.
Fast's "The Glorious Brothers" remains one of the very great
works about the Maccabees and the festival to which they gave its
historic beginnings.
Hanuka Story Is Fully
Retold for Modern Youth
Marilyn Hirsh tells the story of the Maccabees well and illustrates it
herself impressively. That's what makes "The Hanuka Story," pub-
lished by Bonim Books of the Hebrew Publishing Co., such an espe-
cially welcome picture-story book for the very young readers.
The narrator of this story delves into the Antiochus manner of rul-
ing, of robbing the Temple, of attempting to force strange gods upon
the Jews. The Maccabees, Mattathias and his sons, their bravery, the
leadership of Judah Maccabee — these are tales well-known and in
the current new world there is an indication that the author had
applied her interest in archeology to an ancient theme. It is properly
depicted and will be welcomed as a valuable story to be read by the
youngsters in addition to