2 Friday, May 19, 1918
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Purely Commentary
Israel's Time for and Right to Rejoice Over the
Many Notable Achievements in a 30-Year History
of Glorious Accomplishments Marked by Jewish Unity
By Philip
Slomovitz
Take Pride, Israel . . . Rejoice, Pursuers of Justice . . . Israel's Star Shines in the Heavens
Israel's 30th anniversary year commenced with an unforgettable television salute. It
will be inerasable from memory and will serve as an encouragement to pride and a sense
of rejoicing over the triumphs for self-respect and fulfillment of anticipations that Jewish
pioneers will continue to reclaim deserts and will create a life of glory for the citizens of a
small state that has risen to greatness.
Call it chauvinism, if you wish: the attainment is cause for pride that an oppressed
people, survivors from crematoria, untrained folk who were prevented from pursuing
productive pursuits, had risen above the inhumanities of seekers of destruction. Jews
created and continue to create in Israel. The television salute to Israel by this nation's
most eminent entertainers was like a call to arms for justice-loving people never to
abandon the task of assuring for the brave people of Israel the security they are battling
for. For the Diaspora as well as Israel, the 30th anniversary and the accounting of
achievements by Jewish pioneering is a message to the world that peace can not be
treated in an auction for deadly weapons. It must be rooted in what Israelis did: the
redemption of the deserts and the assurance that those who strive for normalcy have a
right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and the attainment of these goals
contributes towards similar privileges for the neighbors of the liberated from prejudice.
By satellite, the televised salute to Israel on the glorious night of May 8 linked Israel
Supporters of PLO Abet
Plan to Destroy Israel
Threemembers of the Detroit City Council and a number
of Jewish academics added their names to an appeal for
recognition and support of the PLO. The former may not
have read the PLO platform calling for Israel's destruction.
The latter should have known better than to subscribe to
policies advocating suicide by Israel.
The PLO aspirations specifically advocate an end to Is-
rael's existence. They would grant second class citizenship
to Jews who have been in Israel prior to 1917 and propose
banishing all others. What sensible person could possibly
fail to see the intent of a group bent upon Genocide, upon
another Holocaust, which is being formulated by the PLO
for the Jews of Israel?
The PLO gets financial support from Arab potentates,
including Saudi Arabia, but none of the Arab states would
welcome them in their midst. Yet the campaign aimed at
annihilating Israel has become a policy for the misled, with
some Jews backing their program.
Apparently it is being made more difficult with time to
battle against the injustices advocated by Israel's enemies.
Saudi Arabia, which has become a favorite in the Carter
Administration plan of more arms for Israel's enemies,
could be a factor in peace agreements. But anything ap-
proaching amity is shunned. The Saudis boast about the
million workers who have been imported to work in the oil
fields. Such a million and more, employed in drilling for oil,
could solve the exaggerated Arab refugee homelessness
problem. But Arab states will not contribute towards a
human solution of the refugees' needs as long as the latter
can be used as weapons aimed at Israel's demise.
It is clear that the struggle in Israel's defense must go on,
even if the Carter Administration must be criticized and
the Arab states' collaboration exposed.
And just because a few Jews have become partners in the
ranks of the destroyers, Jewish unity in behalf of Israel
must be assured and strengthened_ There must be total
mobilization in Israel's behalf. This is one of the messages
that must go to Israel, on her 30th anniversary, as an
assurance that the kinspeople of world Jewry will not be
abandoned to a cruel fate.
Irving Berlin at 90;
An Incident Recalled
Irving Berlin, at 90, continues to inspire all Americans
with his compositions that will remain indelible marks of
genius. He began as a child, singing for pennies in cabarets,
and he rose to greatness with skills unmatched.
with the United States. Could there be a doubt that the friendship sought so urgently
remains intact between the two nations?
Perhaps this humane unity serves as a rebuke to those who would either weaken or
destroy it. How, in the light of Israel's courageous defiance of obstacles and of threats of
destruction, and the progress admittedly attained, can the neighbors who are rattling
sabers fail to appreciate ail emphasis on decency and refuse to emulate it for their own
advancement?
Perhaps there is a lesson, in the determined Israeli will to live and to create, for the 37
who combined to issue a message of peace to Israel's Prime Minister Menahem Begin. Let
them continue to share in the appeals for peace, which are the basis of all diplomatic
actions. Let them do it in the spirit of protection for the creative program that has enabled
Israel to live, to prosper, to elevate the standards of living and of spiritual values.
For Jews everywhere, as for Israel, the 30th anniversary year, marking redemption
rooted in the determined will never to bend backs again and never to submit to tyranny
and injustice, is a call to action. It is a quest for solidarity. A united people is indestructi-
ble. This is the lesson of the 30th year of Israel's redemption. It is a determination that
will not be stifled, either in this generation or the milennia to come.
this chairman. Then Irving Berlin was invited to the
podium. The famous song writer announced: I'll sing White
Next to this presiding chairman sat Mrs. Israel (Bert)
Goldstein. She was there with her husband, the eminent
world Jewish leader who was national president of the
JNF. Bert Goldstein interrupted Berlin, tugged at his jac-
ket and said to him quite loudly: "You'll sing 'God Bless
America.' "
"I'll sing 'God Bless America,' " Irving Berlin then told
his audience. In addition to being a great composer, he
proved something that night — he knew how to be an
understanding and cooperative human being.
All the tributes paid to this man on his 90th birthday last
week are minimal compared to his achievements. He has
enriched America's spirit with his music. Happy birthday,
Irving Berlin!
A New Religious Enigma:
Dr. A.J. Reines' Polydoxy'
An old chestnut puns about Jews building synagogues
and not attending them, about a stranded man on an island
who, when rescued, was discovered as having built two
synagogues while a recluse. Asked for an explanation he
said that one was the structure he was shunning.
The anxiety in Jewish ranks is to get a response to the
synagogue's appeal, and any obstruction proves deplorable.
Yet there are the mavericks who organize their own ways of
observance. We have the humanists and now there is the
"Polydox" Jews. It was proposed by Dr. Alvin J. Reines,
prominent member of the faculty of Hebrew Union
College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati.
In a Time magazine article, Dr. Reines proposed a new
way of Jewish observance. Dr. Reines asserted that even
Reform Judaism seems right wing to him and his followers
in the new movement he proposes under the title "Polydox."
Here is how the idea is defined in the Time story:
"Polydoxy," he explained is "a radically open-handed
faith with only one absolute, that there are no absolutes."
In Polydoxy, Dr. Reines lists God with a small "g." It is
explained that because many Jews no longer believe in a
personal benevolent deity who revealed Himself to Moses,
Polydox liturgies use vague formulations, such as "the
power of creation" or "the flow and force of life." It is pointed
out in Time that "in fact, the Polydox hold 'services,' not
'worship services.' "
One wonders: if it is difficult to draw congregants to
"religious services," will "Polydox services" be more attrac-
tive, or will they be mere escapes leading to total abandon-
ment of identification?
Polydox may be appearing on the scene as competitor to
the Humanist movement. Both are so limited that the av-
erage Jew will undoubtedly be more puzzled than inspired.
Is solidarity the cause for search for the visionary?
Perhaps the creators of new visions will learn that in the
long run there is nothing better than the tried and the
traditional.
When a TV Page Editor
Loses Ability to Judge
Topping this page is an expression of joy over Israel's 30
years of progress as a member of the society of nations. A
Jewish lad who has fallen into power as the editor of the TV
Page in Detroit's afternoon newspaper saw fit to babble
over the program that saluted Israel, with the most emi-
nent movie, stage and TV stars as participants.
Frank Judge, the Goy who preceded him, could not have
sunk to such incredulity. Many who were stunned by the
Jewish TV evaluator's comments already call him the
self-hating Jew.
Dr. Max Nordau, addressing one of the early World
Zionist Congresses in Switzerland, some 75 years ago, re-
ferring to indifferent Jews who did not know the value of
self-respect and had no desire to liberate Jews from oppres-
sion, said about them: "Sie Bind auch Juden? Sie rind
bauch Juden." "Are they also Jews? They are stomach
Jews." The Jewish lad who wrote so nonsensically about
the tribute to Jewish sovereignty knows kreplach. What
else? Will the grandmother who served him Jewish de-
licacies enlighten him that there is a glorious chapter in
history for Israel with her emergence into statehood after
two milennia of persecution? That a people uplifted itself by
its own bootstraps and defied the enmities of the entire
world with a miraculous redemption? Is it too much to
expect an uninformed newspaperman who has fallen into a
responsible job ever to learn anything after the immature
blunder in his column on Israel's anniversary? His news-
paper's editors have something to think about after that
sad self-degradation polluted their pages.
k
President Jimmy Cart er an Active Lobbyist
There is nothing new in a President cajoling Congress to
support his policies. It was a bit different last week-end
Except for his associations with musicians, publishers, when President Jimmy Carter became an active lobbyist in
stage technicians in the process of preparing great prod- an issue that was magnified as one of conflict between the
uctions that featured his music, he had few links with the
White House Lobby and the Jewish Lobby. The indignity of
Jewish community. But he was not unresponsive when the whole business is the process that was in evidence in the
contacted for Jewish causes.
media as if Jews were pressuring Congress, State Depart-
There was an instance in ment and the White House with selfish motivations in
Detroit, when the Jewish support of a new Israel administration that has been
National Fund of America maligned and castigated. Because the White House may
had its convention here, at have been chiefly responsible for a situation that has
the old Book Cadillac Hotel, glorified the .Egyptian Sadat and denigrated the Israeli
in December of 1942. Berlin Begin, lobbying has emerged in a new diplomatic garb. It's
was here for the production not a happy state of affairs.
of one of his musicals. He
Attribution of a "courage" label to the supporters of a new
was invited to the JNF ban- arms deal for the Middle East poses the more pressing
quet.
question whether opposition to the President on a serious
Your Commentator then issue was less courageous. Perhaps it was more realistic
chaired the event, at which because it took into consideration the menacing threat of a
Vice President Alvin new border danger for Israel. Now Israel must be aware of
Barkley was the guest another front line, and the security of the Jewish state is
speaker. Barkley arrived a menaced more than ever.
bit late: he said the oysters
The debate over and the vote on the Carter-pressured
he had eaten gave him a packaged jet sale indicated clearly that there was more to
stomach cramp. "It couldn't the issue than an Israel-versus-Carter-and-Saudi Arabia
IRVING BERLIN
happen to me," commented controversy. An offer of more planes to•Israel was not a
solution in a case in which the total weaponry for Arab
states always overwhelms the aid given to Israel.
One sad note injected into the debate exposed the basic
problem: there was talk about Israel's struggle to survive.
That being the case, the transformation of the Jewish
lobby into a Jewish people's lobby becomes a matter of
human concern and the White House should begin to rec-
ognize it and transform the friendship forever pledge into
a reality based on Israel's strength and ability to counteract
all threats to her very existence.
President Carter's sincerity is not being doubted. His
policies vis-a-vis Israel nevertheless are subject to chal-
lenge. It all began with a build-up for the Palestinian mir-
age, and now the PLO operates from offices at the UN and
Washington, D.C. Glorification of Sadat, who is the most
consistent adherent to all the policies that would lead to
Israel's destruction, and rebukes to Begin who would dis-
grace his people if he were not firm in defensive planning,
have added to confusions. The debate over the packaged jet
sales have not helped the cause of fair play. Now the strug-
gle for justice commences anew. If, after 30 years of Israel's
progressively democratic accomplishments and 80 years of
Zionist libertarian educating of the masses and the classes
have not helped, then the teaching of Israel's just cause
commences anew.