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 Office, Subscription $12 a year.
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
HEIDI PRESS
Assistant News Editor
DREW UEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
- Sabbath' Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 19th day of Sivan, 5738, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Numbers 8. - 1-12:16. Prophetical portion, Zechariah 2:14-4:7.
Candle lighting, Friday, June 23, 8:53 p.m.
VOL. LXXIII, No. 16
Page Four
Friday, June 23, 1978
Argentina as Area of Distress
Argentinian Jews have differed in their views
on the developing conditions which have af-
fected the lives of millions of people of all faiths
in that country.
Charges of oppressive measures that have
been taken against many Jews in the witch
hunt that has turned Argentina into a land of
distress and insecurity are causing increased
concern over the future of the approximately
400,000 Jews who reside there.
Claims by Argentinian Jews who have come
to Israel that 700 Jews are among the tens of
thousands who have been arrested and have
vanished,_on unknown accusations, add to the
distress that has arisen over the status of one of
the largest of the Latin American Jewish com-
munities.
The World Soccer Football Championship
Games in Argentina were utilized by the
Argentinian government as a means of creating
a better image for it and its administration.
Reportedly, an American public relations or-
ganization was employed at a cost of $1 million
to establish a better rapport for them. That de-
sire may indicate a wish to improve the reputa-
tion of a major country on the American conti-
nent whose record has not been commendable in
recent years.
There is little that Israeli and world Jewry
can do to assure better conditions and greater
security for Argentinian Jewry, other than to
aid in their emigration. This does not happen to
be the aim of the hundreds of thousands who
live in anxiety. Perhaps the new search for a
good image by Argentina offers some improve-
nient in the treatment accorded by the Argenti-
nian dictatorship to those who either differ with
it or are under suspicion of differing. But the
situation in its entirety in Argehtina is laden
with dangers and world Jewry can be truly con-
cerned with the fate of the hundreds of
thousands of Jews in Argentina.
Is Anti-Semitism Internationalized?
Nazi circles has clearly grown." Maihofer ad-
At another of his frequent visits to West Ger-
ded: "It must be noted that for the first time
many, at a conference in Berlin at the Aspin
Institute on that country's relations with Is- right-wing extremist activities have gone into
the terrorist area."
rael, Dr. Nahum Goldmann, who continues to
It is true that the neo-Nazi forces in Germany
enjoy the respect of world Jewry as its unchal-
lenged leader for many years, contended that dropped from 28,000 in 1969 to 9,000 in 1976.
But the violence has admittedly increased.
increased right-wing political activities and
Indeed, they may be numerically small, but it
anti-Semitic acts in West Germany reflect an
only took a handful of Hitler supporters to give
international phenomenon.
him power, and it takes less than a dozen in
German academics who participated in that
Detroit to cause all the trouble that has been
conference wondered whether the latest occurr-
experienced here. They get backing or they.
ences were caused by disillusioned youths look-
could not operate. Where does their financial
ing for scapegoats. In a sense this could be vie-
wed as an echo from the past when Jews gener- support and encouragement come from?
ally were the scapegoats in many happenings 4- An aspect of the developing violence is the
display of the swastika, a factor in the protests
affecting the nations where anti-Semitism was
against Nazi marchers in Skokie, Ill. The Nazi
rampant.
Dr. Goldmann did not view the newly emerg- emblem may be outlawed in Germany, but as an
ing attitudes of young Germans as "a plausible historical image it persists and some of the
anti-Semitism." Taking into account the fact trouble stems from it. -
That trouble is brewing in Germany is evi-
that only 30,000 Jews remain in all of Germany,
Dr. Goldmann conceded that the young people dent from the growth of prosecutions from 80 in
1976
to 300 in 1977. Dr. Goldmann has warned
involved in the demonstrations against Jews
"had never even seen or met a Jew . . . For the that anti-Semitic tendencies are in evidence
young, anti-Semitism is only a symbol — the both in the right and left-wing ranks, that "both
Jew is a scapegoat for everyone." He added: "For groups have anti-Semitic tendencies and both
20 or 30 years it was not fashionable to be anti- are dangerous to German democracy."
If, as-he stated, the anti-Semitic trends are
Semitic. Now this situation is more normal."
Goldmann's views remain significant to this international in nature, then both elements
day and it is important to note also this state- must be scrutinized in whatever battles are
ment he made at the Aspin Institute conference: conducted to offset the menace of the re-
"This new anti-Semitism is international. Ac- emerging anti-Semitism.
There have been many abuses; synagogues
tually, there is more neo-Nazi activity in the
and cemeteries have been vandalized in this
United Kingdom and the United States."
country
and in England. Therefore, compla-
In view of the experiences in Detroit and in
other communities, where neo-Nazis again cency is deplorable. It becomes a bit oppressive
- raised their ugly heads, this is an admonition to to keep asking for vigilance, yet it is demanded,
those who live in free lands that there is no and the civilization of which democracies pride
escape from hatreds, both religious and racial, themselves seems to be retreating into the Mid-
and vigilance remains an obligation wherever dle Ages.
It is not to be assumed that the menace points
people may reside.
There was an admission of a growing trend in to calamities. It doeS, however, demand that
people
with concern over the recrudescence of
right-wing neo-Nazi activities in the statement
by Werner Maihofer, West German interior hatreds should never be silent when the time
minister, that while membership in these comes to condemn the spirit that equates with
movements is diminishing the "militancy of Nazism.
Shapiro's Unpublished Works
Karl Shapiro's fame as a poet began more than 30 years ago. In 1945
he won-a Pulitzer Prize for his poetry. In 1946 he was named consul-
tant in poetry at the Library of Congress.
He is now professor of English at the University of California at
Davis and he has held numerous professorial posts, including Johns
Hopkins University and the University of Illinois.
His newest volume containing his selected poems, 1940 to 1978, has
just been issued by Random House. It contains a large collection of
selections from his numerous Other works and a section with hitherto
unpublished poems.
His "Poems of a Jew" is well represented in his newest collection.
There are numerous Jewish titles from his other books in this an-
thological work.
Two of the poems in the new volume merit attention. One is "Jew"
from his "The Letter and Other Poems," and the other, hitherto
unpublished, "The Mezuzah." They. follow:
Jew
The name is immortal but only the name, for the rest
Is a nose that can change in the weathers of time or persist
Or die out in confusion or model itself on the best.
But the name is a language itself that is whispered and hissed
Through the houses of ages, and ever a language the same,
And ever and ever a blow on our heart like a fist.
And this last of our dream in the desert, 0 curse of our name,
Is immortal as Abraham's yoke in our fragment of prayer
Adonai, Adonai, for our bondage of murder and shame!
And the word for the murder of God will cry out on the air
Though the race is no more and the temples are closed of our will ,
, And the peace is mad, ' fast on the earth and the earth is made fair;
Our name is impaled in the heart of the world on a hill
Where we suffer to die by the hands of ourselves, and to kill.
The Mezuza
A hand in morning banged the door,
not hard but with a kindly fist,
splashing my mercurial dream
to beads of light. I turned and thought
it has to be a Christidn there- -
banging at my bright front door,
and turned back to my sleep.
Let him leave his literature, I said,
and put a pillow on my head.
Once on a secular afternoon
two Adventists or Mormons came
(who always come in twos like nuns)
to confront me or affront me.
.1 took their literature in hand
and with a kind of smile assayed
to point the error of their way.
Rather I pointed to the jamb
where I had tacked the doorpost prayer
hidden in its small bronze case
to consecrate the house. I said
that is the holy letter Shin,
•
that is the secret name of God;
inside are praise and promises.
Sirs, when you see that talisman
you really ought to skip that house.
They looked at it and glanced at it
and nodding wisely went their
IE.