4 Friday, February 3, 1918
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
THE JEWISH NEWS
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
Editor and Publisher
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
ALAN HITSKY, News Editor...HEIDI PRESS, Assistant News Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 27th day of Shevat, 5738, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Exodus 21:1-24:18. Prophetical portion, Jeremiah 34:8-22; 33:25, 26.
Monday and Tuesday, Rosh Hodesh Adar 1, Numbers 28:1-15
Candle lighting, Friday, Feb. 3, 5:31 p.m.
VOL. LXXII, No. 22
Page Four
Friday, February 3, 1978
Democracy Newly Menaced
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The Lunatics on the Front Pages
A measure of panic has invaded some com-
munities over the notoriety gained by the luna-
tic fringe. Having gained space on the front
pages of newspapers, granted freedom to spread
their venom on radio and television, an emerg-
ing Nazi element is making use of every oppor-
tunity to revive the spirit of Hitlerism. They
have gained freedom and openly avow that they
would deny just rights to others. Theirs is a
freedom to deny freedom to others, and in the
ranks of these others are many — not Jews
alone, but Blacks and liberals — where it serves
their purpose they also introduce religious hat-
reds.
Is it any wonder that survivors from Nazism
should be demanding that the rights of such
haters be curbed and that they should be denied
the platforms from which they spew their hat-
reds?
There is an aggravation affecting the entire
issue not to be ignored under any circum-
stances. It is not enough to assert that just be-
cause the revived Nazi movement represents a
tiny minority the issues it creates are either to
be ignored or to be treated with indifference.
Nor is the fact that the protests are primarily
inciting the survivors from Nazism to be treated
as if it were an emotional matter. The emphasis
that was given to a pro-Nazi program by a pub-
lic service television station in this community
is sufficient reason for concern and for increased
vigilance. The issue is too serious to be ignored.
An important study of the spread of Nazi
ideologies in this country was made for the
American Jewish Committee by Milton Ellerin.
In a summation of important research the
author of that study wrote:
In a' moment of unusual candor, one Nazi
publication's editorial (January 1977) lamented:
"One of the most notable features of the National
Socialist movement in America has been its lack
of success . . . The supporters we do have in-
clude all manner of dead beats, police informers,
regalia freaks, dilettantes and dabblers, right
wing kooks, religious nuts, anarchists and
nihilists."
John Toland, Pulitzer Prize winning author
who spent 20 years researching Nazi Germany,
recently observed that American neo-Nazis are
nothing more than "motorcycle bums wearing
swastikas. They are non-achievers and big
mouths who have trouble getting girls." They
are, he said "fakers and haven't the slightest
idea of what National Socialism really is."
Given the discord, hatreds and petty
jealousies of the various Nazi leaders, their total
lack of political acumen, an estimated active
membership (for all factions) of no more than
1,500-2,000, absent any program with mass ap-
peal, why the anxieties of Jews and many other
Americans?
Because of past experiences, naturalized
Americans who survived the Holocaust under-
standably overrate the danger. They are often
unable to believe that "it can't happen here";
that America today,and in the foreseeable future
does not and will not bear any resemblance to
the chaos of the Weimar Republic in which the
Nazi movement germinated. However, Ameri-
can Jews cannot ignore or look with equanimity
on a movement which reviles them and exhorts
its followers to assay another attempt at a "final
solution."
It must also be borne in mind that while
Nazism in America is important, the poison it
has released into. America's bloodstream has
had some harmful consequences. Within the
year, synagogue windows were smashed in San
Francisco, and a half-crazed subscriber to Nazi
periodicals went on a rampage in New Rochelle,
N.Y., killing five innocent victims before turning
the gun on himself. A self-admitted Chicago Nazi
wantonly murdered a Jewish citizen of that city
by forcing him to inhale cyanide and then com-
mitted suicide by the same method. The sub-
sequent police investigation of the sordid affair
uncovered a cache of poison and ammunition
and a list of prominent Chicago Jews marked for.
assassination. In Charlotte, North Carolina . a
young man wearing a swastika armband shot up
a church gathering, killing two persons, and
Jews in various cities have received anonymous,
threatening phone calls.
Rockwell and Tomassi have been assassi-
nated by disgruntled Nazis. The National Liber-
ation Front is avowedly dedicated to acts of vio-
lence. In a letter received in New York on July 8,
1977, John Duffy, national organizer for that
group, wrote that "the only way that we can ever
hope to contest the Jew terror grip on America
and ergo the White Race is through superior
terror and violence . . . we of the NSLF not only
condone violence but encourage and participate
in striking blows against Jew power."
The National Socialist Movement's Robert
Brannen, in a Cincinnati Post interview of July
6, 1977 boasted that in seeking recruits, he looks
for people who will commit violence, and that a
branch of his organization consists of trained
assassins.
Shortly after the looting that occurred during
the July power failure in New York City, the
National Socialist White Peoples Party, in a
dial-a-telephone recorded message, offered a
$200 reward to any white man or woman who
killed a looter.
The danger of American Nazism then is not
that it has the capacity to engulf Americans or
capture our government and its institutions.
Rather, the concern is and should be with its
harmful effects on emotionally unstable or zeal-
ous adherents who act on the built-up hatreds it
inspires. That is a danger for all Americans to
think about.
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Ktav-published Essays
`Serving the Jewish Family'
AnalyzesCommunalProblems
Contemporary needs for strengthening Jewish family life and,
inter alia, the Jewish community, and definitive reviews of Jewish
experiences in the synagogue and the community, are authoritatively
analyzed in a series of essays included in "Serving the Jewish Family"
(Ktav), edited by Gerald D. Bubis.
The editor, who is the author of several of the essays in this volume,
is director of the School of Jewish Communal Service and is professor
of Jewish communal studies at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Insti-
tute of Religion.
Noted scholars, rabbis and laymen are included in the list of au-
thors of the major articles in this volume.
Exemplary is Dr. Bubis' essay dealing with "Intermarriage, the
Rabbis and the Jewish Community," in dictating at once that one of
the chief concerns in Jewish life at this time receives emphasis and
consideration in a volume concerned with guiding the communal
spirit towards increased indoctrinations and commitments to Jewish
values.
Other essays by Dr. Bubis are "Facing New Times: A Response to
Changing Needs" and "The Jewish Community Center's Responsibil-
ity for the Needs of the Jewish Family."
An essay by Prof. Victor Sanue of City University of New York on
the subject "The Contemporary Jewish Family: A Review of the Social
Science Literature," opens the many discussions to which this volume
is dedicated.
Among the issues discussed are matters devoted to the Family, the
Synagogue, Centers and Camps, Family Service and an outreach into
related concerns.
Of course, there is an emotionalism that is
inevitable. It exists because the numerals on
the arms of survivors serve as flashing evidence
of what had occurred and what is not to be for-
gotten.
Authors participating in this work include Marvin Bienstocl- -
Charlotte, N. C., Federation .director: Barbara Braub, a leader in th
Havura movement; Solomon Brownstein, New York social worker t
Felicia Carmelly, Toronto social worker; Rabbi Edwain H. Friedman,
Bethesda, Md.; Prof. Alex Gitterman of Columbia University;
Pauline D. Goldberg, Baltimore social worker: Rabbi Erwin L. Her-
man, Los Angeles; Alen Henkin, rabbinic student; the late Theodore
R. Isenstadt, Los Angeles Family Service; Fern Katleman, of the
Council of Jewish Federations; Rabbi Norman Lamm, Yeshiva Uni-
versity; Rabbi Benjamin J. Leinow, Los Angeles: Joanne Leinow, Los
Angeles; Marcia W. Levine, Cleveland social worker; Michael Mayers
Mayershon, rabbinic student; Rabbi Donald Peterman, HUC-JIR:
Bernard Resiman, Brandeis University': Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis,
Encino, Calif.; Dr. Manheim Shapiro, Orange, N.J.; 'Ruth Silver,
Canoga, Calif., social worker; Alezah Weinberg, Cleveland social
worker.
The existence of even a fractional group of
Nazis demands the sort of action that will defy
silence. Should the Nazis predominate in ex-
pressing their views, while fanning hatreds, in
the process of their having been granted the
freedom that enables them to deny that very
freedom to others? Silence is objectionable.
Parental dilemmas, synagogue structures, the Havurot, intermar-
rhge, designing Jewish Center programs and a score of other chal-
lenging subjects are under scrutiny by these authors, each having
devoted accumulated knowledge and experience towards providing
guidelines for personal, family or communal living. The timeliness of
this book is emphasized in the subjects discussed and in the knowl-
edgeahility of the authors.