'THE JEWISH NEWS I (1 )17m) 1 II fl T/(( ' 1)( 1 1(1i t ,1( 71 . 1.41 ( l'OltI•l( M ! II '1 issm th( Nleinher American Association of English-.1exvish Ne%k spapers. :\lichigan Pre., .1s,uciat \V Nine Nid•. Suite Published every Friday by The Je\Ni , h Ne,s Publishing Co., Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield. Nlichigan and A(in::tional .////!/ Jo, 1.9.51 National Soot hlichl. Mich 1,, 07:, . .•ar. SI2 di. PHILIP SLOMOVITZ CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ DREW LIEBERWITZ Editor and Publisher Business Manager Advertising Manager ALAN lirrsto. rditor...111.:11/11)1(ESS. \ Editor Sabbath Scriptural Selections This Sabbath, the 14th day of Tevet, 5738, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues: Pentateuchal portion, Genesis 47:28 - 50:26. Prophetical portion, I Kings 2:1 - 12. Candle lighting, Friday. Dec. 23. 4:47 p.m. VOL. LXXII, No. 16 Page Four Friday, December 23, 1977 A Campaign in a Global Role While all eyes are on Cairo, with intermittent interest poised on Jerusalem and Washington, there are other areas of importance in the great drama now being enacted in the hoped-for peace the Middle East. It is the vital factor involving the kinsmen of the Israelis, with spe- cial emphasis on American Jewry. Israel could not possibly operate for - any peace effort unless it emanated from strength. While security spells military power, there is another form of strength, with the economic and social involvements. The comfort Israel ac- quired from supporting Jewries, the encour- agement and assistance that came from the largest Jewish community in the world, U.S. Jewry, surely gave to Israel the confidence that is such a vital necessity in efforts like the present and those that preceded them in the tasks for survival and normal existence. Greater Detroit Jewry last week provided an example of the sort of comfort that must come from the Jewries of the world of _ _ in the process urgency that Israel retain the vitality that is of such great importance in the negotiating proc- esses for an accord with a former enemy. A weakened Israel would be menaced under any conditions, and a proud Israel that is able to meet a former foe with dignity must have the socio-economic confidence that gives self- respect to the nation in quest for security. The encouragement that went forth from this community to the people of Israel was so effec- tive that it must have served as a clarion call to all communities to be partners in the message or cheer to the Israelis in an hour of great enthusiasm over the endorsements that are being gained for amity where there previously was anger and suspicion. Under the general chairmanship of Phillip Stollman and Philip Warren, an army of work- ers has set forth to make the message of cheer to Israel one of great realism. The record- breaking sum subscribed at the Campaign-open- ing function augurs a notable success for the drive now in progress. What the introductory achievement here philanthropically means is that the people of Israel are assured that their hands will be upheld in the tasks ahead. It means that Israel's social services will be pro- vided with the assistance needed to reduce want among the newcomers who are settling in Israel. It means that Israel's universities may secure the help needed to assure the highest standards in scholastic programming. It means that the economic want that exists in Israel may, as it should, be alleviated. Coinciding with the initial Allied Jewish Cam- paign efforts undertaken here, the United Jew- ish Appeal held its annual conference in New York to plan the nationwide drives. An appeal addressed to that conference by Israel's Prime Minister Menahem Begin frankly discussed the depressing social and economic handicaps suf- fered in Israel. Mr. Begin stated, addressing his appeal to American Jewry: The Thirtieth Anniversary (of Israel) is a time to assess and define what major tasks lie ahead and to initiate the action necessary to carry them out. Our attention is immediately directed towards the yet unsolved problem of the social gap and the poverty manifested thereby, mainly in the field of housing. More than a quarter-of-a-million of our fellow Jews, some 45,000 families, nearly 10 percent of the entire Jewish population, live in distressing housing conditions. Eight or nine persons live in a tiny apartment of two or three rooms, and a row of mattresses must be spread out on the bare floor every night to provide sleeping space for the children, and be removed in the morning for daily activities. Seventeen percent of all those living in poor housing conditions are elderly persons. The obvious social and cultural consequences of this situation are tension and anxieties, severe handicaps, an utter denial of chances to develop skills and equal opportunities. These, we must eliminate. The frank presentation of an existing problem was pursued by Prime Minister Begin with an appeal in which he gave emphasis to the urgency of existing handicaps. He appealed to American Jewry: A sum of $1 billion U.S. dollars will be needed in the next few years in order to resolve this great human problem. I call upon you, there- fore, and through you to all leaders, co-workers and contributors of Keren Hayesod - United Israel Appeal throughout the world, to launch immediately a special Thirtieth Anniversary campaign in this spirit. This must be a commitment over and above the regular campaign. Regular campaign income of increased magnitude is vital for financing of the ongoing immigration and absorption of immigrants, for higher education, agricultural settlements, social services and more. These are some of the regular responsi- bilities of the Jewish Agency which it carries out with campaign income at its disposal. Dear friends, I am hopeful that you, your con- tributors and leaders throughout the world will respond to this call. Allied Jewish Campaign leaders and contrib- utors understood the message. They recognized the problem. American Jewry undoubtedly will meet the challenge. The concerns emanating from current philan- thropic duties are inseparable from the events occurring at Mena House in Cairo. They are intertwined. A secure and socially wholesome Israel will give greater strength to those speak- ing for the embattled nation in Egypt. What is done here through the Allied Jewish Campaign provides such power. It must not diminish. The good beginning must produce a complete triumph for the philanthropy which, in corn- pletest terms, must spell dignity, self-respect and confidence for Israel and the Jewish people. Effects of War Described Three Yehoshua Stories on the Human Condition The black-gray, swirling bleakness of life in war-time and the bur- den of war on the human spirit are the subjects of three short stories c_ by young Israeli author Avraham B. Yehoshua in "Early in the Sum- mer of 1970" (Doubleday). The three stories share the common style of focusing on an individ- ual and exploring his character through the effects of the military on himself or his family. With war and the military as the background, Yehoshua does not hide any of the demeaning qualities of military life, but on a larger scale these three stories are more a commentary on the human condi- tion in Israel, a look at conflicting generations, than another view of the nature of war. "Early in the Summer of 1970" is also the title of the first story in thie brief volume (165 pages). In it, Yehoshua describes what it is to be a father and what it is to be a son. When the old Bible teacher enters the morgue to identify his son, the attendants turn up the lights, "as though it was a ques- tion of light." They pull back the blanket from the body lying on the stretcher. It is all routine: i "Enter, look, weep. part; sign a paper too perhaps..." but the old c man says, "It isn't him." - The old Bible teacher is lifted , into a jeep. wedged between two A machine guns. A steel helmet, a modern caricature of a yar- AVRAHAM YEHOSHUA mulke, is jammed on his head. He is being taken to the front, to his son's outfit, to find out whether it is really possible for death to be a mistake. His coat flaps in the wind, for, using a small penknife, the chaplain has rent his garment accord- ing to tradition. Beside a half-track, several soldiers who have just come in —0'th' ,[ patrol are relieving themselves. One of them is the Bible teacher's son. He listens to the story calmly. He is more at home with bureau- cratic errors than with classical tragedy. The whole war, in his view, is a mistake, of which this is only an example. His father, too, par- takes of the general absurdity. He is the only person present who believes in death. Now the son's wife appears, singing her incomprehensible reassurances. Secure in her Americanism, she never accepted the idea of her husband's mortality. This is the title story, the best and longest of the three, in "Early in the Summer of 1970." In "Missile Base - 612," the second story, Yehoshua writes about another kind of death: the death of meaning. The protagonist of this story is also a teacher, and he too comes into equivocal contact with the war as he shuttles between an empty pri vate life with a wife to whom he no longer speaks, and his life as a teacher in the reserves, which is also empty. The final story of the three is "The Last Commander," a chilling parable of the futility of war.