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Sabbath Scriptural Selections

This Sabbath, the 21st day of Tevet, 5738, the following scriptural selections will be read in our syna-
gogues: Pentateuchal portion, Exodus 1:1 - 6:1. Prophetical portion, Isaiah 27:6 - 28:13; 29:22
- 23.

Candle lighting, Friday, Dec. 3Ct, 4:51 p.m.

VOL. LXXII, No. 17

Page Four

Friday, December 30, 1977

History's Repetitions—Gloriously

Justice, fairness, truth,• the glory of human
relations, are being enacted amidst friendly
reactions in an atmosphere that had been
viewed as one tarnished by warfare.
History is, indeed, being re-enacted in the
Middle East.
The occurrences in Cairo are even more
glorious than those that took place on the Island
of Rhodes in 1949. -
At that time the achievement was one of
cease fire and armistice.
But there was an even more dramatic prece-
dent for peace.
In 1919, • Dr. Chaim Weizmann, who in 1948
became the first President of Israel, met in the
desert with Emir Feisal, who was soon to
become the president of Iraq, now one of the
countries most antagonistic to Israel. The Emir
Feisal then told the world ZioMst leader that the
Arabs recognized _Jewry's right to a homeland.
The friendly spirit that then existed between
Arabs and Jews was symbolized in an exchange
of letters between Felix Frankfurtei-, one of the
Jewish representatives at the Versailles Peace
Conference after World War I and who was
later to be elevated to a U.S. Supreme Court
Justiceship, and Feisal. They signified a deter-
mination that Jews and Arabs were to live in
peace in the Middle East. Their letters, which
retain their historic significance, follow:

Delegation Hedjazienne, Paris, March 3, 1919
Dear Mr. Frankfurter:
I want to take this opportunity of my first contact
with American Zionists to tell you what I have often
been able to say to Dr. Weizmann in Arabia and
Europe.
We feel that the Arabs and Jews are cousins in
race, having suffered similar oppressions at the
hands of powers stronger than themselves, and by a
happy coincidence have been able to - take the first
step towards the attainment of their national ideals
together.
We Arabs, especially the educated among us, look
with the deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement.
Our deputation here in Paris is fully acquainted with
the proposals submitted yesterday by the Zionist
Organization to the Peace Conference, and we regard
them as moderate and proper. We will do our best, in
so far as we are concerned, to help them through: we
will wish the Jews a most hearty welcome home.
With the chiefs of your movement, especially with
Dr. Weizmann, we have had and continue to have the
closest relations. He has been a great helper of our
cause, and I hope the Arabs may soon be in a position
to make the Jews some return for their kindness. We
are working together for a reformed and revived
Near East, and our two movements complete one
another. The Jewish movement is national and not
imperialist. Our movement is national and not impe-
rialist, and there is room in Syria for us both. Indeed
I think that neither can be a real success without the
other.
People less informed and less responsible than our
leaders and yours, ignoring the need for cooperation
of the Arabs and Zionists have been trying to exploit
the local difficulties that must necessarily arise in
Palestine in the early stages of our movements. Some
of them have, I am'afraid, misrepresented your aims
to the Arab peasantry, and our aims to the Jewish
peasantry, with the result that interested parties have
been able to make capital out of what they call our
differences.

I wish to give you my firm conviction that these
differences are not on questions of principle, but on
matters of detail such as must inevitably occur in
every contact of neighboring people, and as are easily
adjusted by mutual goodwill. Indeed nearly all of -
them will disappear with fuller knowledge.
I look forward, and my people with me look
forward, to a future in which we will help you and you
will help us, so that the countries in which we are
mutually interested may once again take their places
in the community of civilized peoples of the world.
Believe me,
Yours sincerely
Feisal

March 5, 1919
Royal Highness:
Allow me, on behalf of the Zionist Organization, to
acknowledge your recent letter with deep apprecia-
tion.
Those of us who come from the United States have
already been gratified by the friendly relations and
the active cooperation maintained between you and
the Zionist leaders, particularly Dr. Weizmann. We
knew it could not be otherwise ; we knew - that the
aspirations of the Arab and the Jewish peoples were
parallel, that each aspired to re-establish its nation-
ality in its own homeland, each making its own
distinctive contribution, each seeking its own peace-
ful mode of life.
The Zionist leaders and the Jewish people for whom
they speak have watched with satisfaction the. spirit-
ual vigor of the Arab movement. Themselves seeking
justice, they are anxious that the just national aims of
the Arab people be confirmed and safeguarded by the
Peace Conference.
We knew from your acts and your past utterances
that the Zionist movement—in other words, the
national aims of the Jewish people—had your support
and the support of 'the Arab people for whom you
speak. These aims are now before the Peace Confer-
ence as definite proposals by the Zionist Organiza-
tion. We are happy indeed that you consider these
proposals "moderate and proper,” and that we have
in you a staunch supporter for their realization. For
both the Arab and the Jewish people there are
difficulties ahead — difficulties that challenge the
united statesmanship of Arab and Jewish leaders.
For it is no easy task to rebuild two_great civilizations
that have been suffering oppression and misrule for
centuries. We each have our difficulties we shall work
out as friends, friends who are animated by similar
purposes, seeking a free and full development for the
two neighboring peoples. The Arabs and Jews are
neighbors in territory; we cannot but live side by side
as friends.

Letters by Kafka Renew
Interest in Literary Genius

Franz Kafka, the genius whose name will live in literary history
among the great of all time, left many unpublished manuscripts which
will continue to intrigue the readers and will retain the popularity of
the great author in a spirit of constant revival.
Schocken Books first published his works in Germany. The Scho-
cken publishers in the United States continued that tradition of being
the Kafka publishers.
Earlier this year Schocken produced "The Complete Stories of 11
Kafka." Now comes another treasure, "Letters to Friends, Family
and Editors."
Adherents to the Kafka tradition, students of his works and his
admirers, will be intrigued by the contents of this immense work.
Kafka (1883-1924) especially inspired the eminent author and Jewish
activist Max Brod (1884-1968), who was his editor and who continued
to gather and assure the publication of his works through the years.
The letters to Brod- add imm-bil-sely to the link between them which
becomes apparent again in the newest of the Schocken Books on
Kafka.
The "Letters," published for the first time in English, reveals the
Kafka role as Kafka in his-student days, as an insurnace agent in his
adult life and as a writer. The agonies of the author as a dying man
are described in some of the letters.
In addition to Brod, the( letters include some to Felix Weltsch and I
Oskar Baum.
Kafka's personality emerges from these letters. His professional __
career becomes apparent.
Final notes by Kafka, in his last days, scribbled on pieces of paper,
appear in the final pages of his book.
Translated from German by Richard and Clara Winston, these
"Letters" are based on "Briefe-1902-24" edited by Brod.

dl

Very respectfully,
Felix Frankfurter

4

Now these do'cuments return to_significance,
as guidelines for a lasting peace between Arabs
and Jews, with Egypt's President Anwar Sadat
taking the lead to establish the vitally needed
amity together with Israel's Prime Minister
Menahem Begin.
These are the realities of justice superseding
hatreds.
This is a repetition of an historic experience
that must be valued by all, that should serve as
an encouragement for peace everywhere.
This is an admonition that the phrase "history
repeats itself" can, as it should, be imbedded in
the glory of fair play, never to be erased.

1

FRANZ KAFKA