THE JEWISH NEWS
Incorgoratfrig The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of duly 20. 1951
h Newspapers. Michigan Press Association, National Editorial Association
Nternher American As , ociiition of English..lewi ,
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865. Southfield, Mich. 48075
, Subscription $12 a year .
"lecond-C1.1.-, Pu,toge Paid at Southfield. Michigan and Additional Mailing Office
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
Editor and Publisher
ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
HEIDI PRESS
Assistant Newr Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 20th day of lyar. 5738. the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion. Leviticus 25:1-26:2. Prophetical portion, Jeremiah 32: 6-27.
Candle lighting, Friday, May 26, 8:38 p.m.
VOL. LXXIII, No. 12
Page Four
Friday, May 26, 1978
The M.E.: Calling Spade a Spade
An endless controversy clouds the issues af-
fecting the Middle East and American interests
in protecting democratic principles in that em-
battled area. As long as the so-called Palesti-
nian problem is permitted to be sensationalized
as an Israeli crime of Jews having occupied the
Palestinians' territory and Anwar Sadat is
popularized as the great peace missionary who
is being obstructed by the inflexible Menahem
Begin, the atmosphere will be charged with
hatemongering.
Israel is a state, internationally recognized
and affirmed, built by Jews for Jews in fulfill-
ment of a heritage and Prophecy. If this is not
yet fully affirmed and acclaimed, then there is a
lack of justice in the world.
The Palestinian issue has been debunked and
the realities must be attested. There was a par-
titioning of territory. Israel was established and
Jordan was given the Arab function in the di-
vision of the Holy Land. Only half-a-million
Arabs had fled from Israel when the state was
reborn, contrary to the wishes of the state-
builders. Now there are a million and a half of
those claiming to be Palestinians. They live in
freedom in Jordan and there are the refugee
camps in Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. All
could be accommodated in Arab lands. Saudi
Arabia alone needs a million workers and that
number is imported from other lands. But the
refugees, whose sustenance comes in the main
from the United States, are being perpetuated
as weapons against Israel.
These facts are not unknown to Anwar Sadat
and his Arab compatriots as well as the U-.S.
officials who are concerned with the Middle
East. Nevertheless the issue keeps suffering
from factual pollutions. It needs correcting.
The roots of the most recent distortions are in
Jerusalem where the Egyptian leader was
given a royal reception and since then has been
demanding total abnegation by Israel. The de-
mand for a surrender is so drastic that the time
has come for an expose of the true facts and of a
demand for justice dominated by realism in a
situation charged with dynamite.
What are the facts?
Egypt's President Anwar Sadat was wel-
comed gloriously, majestically by Israel and the
masses of Israelis. There was a spark of hope for
peace for which Israel keeps begging in the in-
ternational arena. What did Sadat say? He re-
peated all the demands that are in the Arab
terminology when dealing with Israel. He de-
manded abandonment of territory which Israel
maintains as protective for survival, he has
asked for withdrawal from Jerusalem and even
proposed establishment of a state for Arafat's
forces whose covenant calls for Israel's destruc-
tion.
Menahem Begin did not reply as arrogantly as
he is described by his enemies. He offers self-
rule for the Arabs on the West Bank. He is
willing to keep negotiating for peace. He pleads
for the right to discuss an amicable agreement
with Egypt. Why did Sadat interrupt such dis-
cUssions, thereby ending the peace negotia-
tions? He has thus far failed to explain his re-
petitive animosities.
Hasn't the time come for a showdown, for
calling a spade a spade, for abandoning the
policies of hiding behind cliches and distor-
tions?
If there is to be the courage of calling a spade a
spade, then the limelight also will have to be
aimed at Washington and at the President. Mr.
Carter cannot continually glorify Sadat and at
the same time imply a faulting of Begin. It isn't
enough to acclaim a friendship for Israel
"forever" without fortifying the assurance with
protective support in the "present." And the
current analyses demand that the true facts be
stated, that the Sadat policies which continue to
demand submissions leading to Israel's demise
must be exposed and rejected.
Of course, this is admittedly an oil-soaked
problem. Is it conceivable that in civilized
society the threat of a boycott on oil shipments
by Arab states can be permitted to affect the
peace of the entire world?
Indeed, all mankind may be affected by what
transpires in the Middle East, not the security
of Israel alone. The self-respect of the United
States also is at issue because of this natioa's
involvement in that area and the need for pro-
tection of democratic principles in a seriously-
charged area of the world.
A Newly-Menacing Front Line
Forty-four U.S. Senators took into considera-
tion the creation of a new front line for Israel in
the adopted packaged jet sale to Arab countries.
The 54 opponents acted, as the argument went,
for moderation as well as protection of Saudi
Arabia against Russia. In the meantime, Israel
must be prepared to defend herself on another
front, with Saudi Arabia becoming another
potential border danger.
This is really what has happened as a result of
the new policy introduced by President Jimmy
Carter.
Precedents point to pilots being trained in
this country for the jets to be sold to Saudi
Arabia and to Egypt. Israel will have to strain
herself even more militarily to prevent menac-
ing consequences from the approval given by
the President for the sale of the most powerful
planes to nations which have never denied their
animosity to the Jewish state that is entirely
based on an aim to destroy the state.
Two aspects in an issue charged with danger
must not be ignored. One is the fact that the
total of arms for the Arabs overwhelms what-
ever sales will be made to Israel. And the pro-
vision of planes for Israel involves sales, not
gifts. The second item is one of human values.
Instead of aiming for improvement of the living
standards of all peoples involved, in the Middle
East, encouragement has been given to an arms
race.
That's the trouble. An arms race has been
escalated and human values ignored. That's the
pity when an arms race predominates and
creates new, menacing frontiers for a state sur-
rounded by enemies.
'From the Ghetto'
Abraham Cahan as Pioneer
of U.S. Jewish Authors
Abraham Cahan acquired fame as author, Socialist leader and
leader in the acculturation movement among the immigrants who
came in the largest numbers from Russia in the early years of this
century. His popularity was especially evidenced as editor of the
Jewish Daily Forward from 1903 until his death in 1951. It was due to
him that the Forward became the most important non-English lan-
guage newspaper in the U.S. Yet he had another career — that of
initiating the literature about Jews and by Jews in this country. This
is the fascinating account of Cahan's literary accomplishments in
"From the Ghetto — Fiction of Abraham Cahan," (University of
Massachusetts Press).
Dr. Jules Chametzky, University of Massachusetts professor of
English, provides a history of the era in which Cahan was one of the
most influential figures on New York's East Side and in the Socialist
and labor ranks.
Primarily, this notable book of literary criticism, while dissecting
the works of Cahan, also relates to other authors who have, since
Cahan, been major in America's literary spheres.
Prof. Chametzky credits Cahan not only with being the predeces-
sor of the major literary writers of the present era, Saul Bellow,
Bernard Malamud, Michael Gold, Henry Roth, Philip Roth, Alfred
Kazin and many others — Cahan literally fathered the brilliant
chapters of creative writings by Jewish authors, their Jewish themes.
Not only the most popular of Calian's works, "The Rise of David
Levinsky," but scores of other Cahan works, especially his memoirs,
the five-volume historical record, are under thorough scrutiny by the
author of "From the Ghetto."
The genius of Abraham Cahan as editor and story-teller, as de-
lineator of Jewish experiences in this country during the years of
large Jewish immigrations into this country, provide Dr. Chametzky
with the opportunity of reviewing Cahan's role as labor leader and
Socialist, as well as the creative leader in Yiddish journalism.
Interestingly, the formation of the Jewish Daily Forward in 1897
had the cooperation of such noted Jewish labor leaders as Joseph
Barondes, Louis Miller, Morris Hilquit and others, and in association
with these and other notables of his day Cahan's name figures promi-
nently in the significant chapter of American Jewish history de-
scribed in "From the Ghetto."
Of course, there were eminent non-Jews who were befriended in
association with Cahan, notable among them being William Dean
Howells, Stephen Crane, Eugene V. Debs, Norman Hapgood and
others, and their roles add importantly to this volume.
Cahan's association with Sholem Aleichem, the fact that he ad-
mired and published the works of I. L. Peretz, and other important
contributions to Jewish literature, are so prominently recorded in
"From the Ghetto" that it assumes a vital role in Jewish literary
criticism.
There is a great social significance to the analyses of the Cahan
novels and short stories and his delineations of the early years of the
large immigrant influx in this country. That which marked integra-
tion then is strange to the present generation, and the informative
nature of the researched study of Cahan's works emerges in this
volume as a notable addition to the study of American Jewry's history
as it has developed into a present-day status of an overwhelming
native-born population.