Friday, March 16, 1919 21
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
JNF Assembly Speakers Named A Minyan in the U.S. Congress
By DAVID SCHWARTZ
(Copyright 1979, JTA, Inc.)
NEW YORK — Sen.
Jacob Javits (R-NY) is
working on his autobiog-
raphy. Autobiographies of
late have been coming out
thick and fast by political
figures who have some
scandal attached to their
names and they have been
great successes. It is hardly
likely that Javits can be ex-
pected to have equal success
with his book. There is no
scandal attached to his
The Jewish National Fund's national assembly will be held in New York
name.
Monday and Tuesday to discuss JNF reclamation operations in the Galilee and the
But the Senator probably
Negev. Speakers will include, from left, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ephraim
Evron, Minnesota State Senator Hubert H. Humphrey III, JNF board chairman just_ wants to get it off his
chest and it will be good to
Moshe Rivlin and Queens College President Dr. Saul Cohen. Other speakers will
read a political book with-
include former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and JNF President William
Berkowitz. Carmi Slomovitz, president of the Greater Detroit Council -of JNF, will out a scandal for a change.
The Senator has been at the
address four sessions at the national assembly.
top at a critical time in
American
history and be-
Bar-Ilan Prof
sides his own story is. in-
Wins Bialik Prize teresting. We recall reading
NEW YORK — Prof. somewhere that his father
LONDON (JTA) — Many Jews had nothing to fear Yehuda Ratzaby, visiting was a janitor. From janitor's
scholar at the Jewish son._ to the U.S. Senate.
of Iran's 75,000 Jews fear from the new regime.
for their future and are con-
Shofet, in a telephone Theological Seminary of What can be a more inspir-
sidering following the conversation with Rabbi America and professor of ing story of American suc-
18,000 who left the country William Berkowitz of Cong. Hebrew and Arabic Litera- cess?
There is some speculation
before the February revolu- Bnai Jeshurun, recorded ture at Bar-Ilan University,
tion, London's Daily Tele- just prior to the program, has been awarded Israel's that the Senator now plans
graph reported Wednesday.
said that as Jews were Bialik Prize for Jewish to retire and there is a good
Journalist Guy Rais, re- celebrating the safety of the Studies for his "Dictionary deal of talk about his suc-
porting from Teheran, said Jewish community, of the Hebrew Language cessor. Henry Kissinger, it
is said, would like to gethis
the exodus is expected to be
achieved by Mordecai and Used by Yemenite Jews. "
, The Bialik Prize, estab- seat in the Senate and Bella
renewed when the ban on Esther in ancient Persia,
foreign travel is lifted.
the Jewish community in lished in 1933 by the munic- Abzug too is ready to throw
Such fears are expressed present day Persia "is safe ipality of Tel Aviv in honor her big hat in the ring again
of the father of modern He- despite all of her defeats.
despite assurances by Iran's and secure." He said no
Being a Senator is a
Chief Rabbi Yedidya Shofet Jews were killed in the Ira- brew letters, was the first
prize recognizing literary tempting job. It is, next to
that the Ayatollah Kho- nian revolution.
and scholarly excellence es- the Presidency, the high-
meini would respect Jewish
est political office one
tablished
in Israel.
rights. .The Rev. David
The one-volume work can run for. Yet for those
Shofet, the chief rabbi's son, A New Haggada
told-the Telegraph that the
NEW YORK — The first is the first dictionary with maximum political
vast majority of Iranians Haggada to be produced by based entirely on the He- ambition, I believe, it is
had nothing against the an official body of the Con- brew vernacular of a dis- not good. I believe more
servative movement has tinct Jewish community. Presidents have 'dome
Jews.
Meanwhile, the Israeli been published in a pre-, It is devoted to words, from the House of Repre-
newspaper Yediot Ac- liminary edition by the expressions and idioms sentatives than from the
hronot, reported that Rabbinical Assembly. The that differ from Senate. Lincoln was a
Jews from Teheran are Spring issue of the quar- mainstream Hebrew in member of the House, not
pleading that no contact terly magazine "Conserva- meaning, usage or punc- of the Senate. Daniel
should be established be- tive Judaism" is devoted tuation. Each entry is Webster was a Senator
illustrated by examples who aspired all of his life
tween Israel and them, entirely to it.
drawn from Yemenite to live in the White House
Since the Iranian Jews do
Rabbi Max J. Routten-
speech, letters or litera- but couldn't make it. A
not want to be suspected
man in the Senate be-
of having any links with berg, chairman of the scom- ture.
mittee which produced it,
Prof. Ratzaby noted that comes perhaps a bit too
Israel. -
In New York, an overflow says this edition of the Hag- Yemenite Hebrew is in isolated and loses the
crowd attending a Purim gada "reveals a strong bias - danger of disappearing as a
program_ at a Manhattan for the traditional text and vernacular, since virtually
synagogue Monday heard a for preserving the classic all Yemenite Jews are now
declaration from Shofet order and structure as for- living in Israel. The pri-
that Iran's 60,000 to 80,000 mulated in the Mishna. At mary value of his dictio-
the same time, there is the nary, he predicted, will be
WASHINGTON (JTA) —
that a tradition, for research into the history Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.) has
Seminary_ Honors recognition
if it is to remain viable,
the Hebrew language, told Congress that the
Three Educators must undergo revision and of
and for analysis of Yeme- charge that. 'Israel "sys-
modification.
nite Hebrew literature.
tematically tortures" pris-
NEW YORK — Three
oners is • false.
educators, Dr. • Shimon
"The radical transforma-
Frost, Dr. Hyman tion of the conditions and
"There are simply no solid
Pomerantz and Dr. Aryeh circumstances of Jewish Blumberg Heads
Rohn, all past presidents of life, since the Holocaust and BB Fund Division facts supporting these as-
sertions," Aspin said in the
the Jewish Educators As- the establiihment of the
WASHINGTON — David House of Representatives
sembly, will receive honor- state of Israel, must be mir-
ary degrees on Sunday from rored in the Haggada, to M. Blumberg, who recently after a probe of the allega-
completed three terms as tions and an assessment of
the Jewish Theological
ensure that in each genera-
Seminary of America. The tion we experience the president of Bnai Brith In- reports and cables at the
degrees will be conferred at reality of the Exodus from ternational, has been ap- State Department and in-
pointed chairman of the quiries at the United Na-
a special academic convoca-
Egypt."
Jewish service organiza- tions and other sources.
tion which will open the an-
tion's fund raising cabinet.
nual convention of the
"Having completed a
Druze
Rights
Blumberg has been active
Educators Assembly.
thorough
investigation of
in
Bnai
Brith
for
half
a
cen-
JERUSALEM (ZINS) —
Dr._ Frost is acting direc-
Druze citizens of Israel who tury, beginning as a 17- the matter," Aspin said,_
tor of the American Asso-
"I can only conclude that
ciation for Jewish Educa- complete their service in the ,year-old charter member of no such accusation could
tion. Dr. Pomerantz is direc- Israel Defense Forces are the Memphis, Tenn., chap-
reasonably be made." He
tor of the Department of now eligible for security as- ter of Aleph Zadik Aleph,
noted that "Certainly,
the
boys'
component
of
the
signments_ with Israeli in-
Personnel Services of the
some cases of mistreat-
American Association for stitutions abroad, El Al air- Bnai Brith Youth Organ-
ment have occurred, just
ization.
He
served
as
na-
lines
and
Zim
ship
lines.
Jewish Education. Dr. Rohn
as they occur everywhere
tional
chairman
of
the
Previously, only Jewish
is the educational director
veterans of IDF were elgible Youth Commission from in the world, and these
of the East Midwood Jewish
instances are regrettable
1959 to 1965.
for these assignments.
Center.
Iranian Jews Fear for Lives
London Newspaper Reports
common touch necessary
for a successful race for
the Presidency.
One might have _expected
that New York with its
large Jewish population
would be the first to elect a
Jew to the United States
Senate, but this is not so.
Jews seem to have more
political success where
there, are fewer Jewish vot-
ers. Perhaps the smaller
number creates- a greater
feeling of security against
the supposed danger of the
Jews.
And then again, .Jews
themselves do not vote as
much in a bloc as other
ethnic minorities. A Jew
will say, why should a Jew
run for the Senate when he
can be president -of a
synagogue? It's better, isn't.
it, to be President, than a
Senator?
At any rate, the fact is
that Jews have fared better
politically where there are
Sewer Jews. The first two
U.S. Senators came from
the south. There was before
the Civil War, David Ulee
from Florida and Judah P.
Benjamin from Louisiana.
Ulee's real name was
Levy and maybe it was
not known that he was a
Jew and also he didn't
seem to know it too well
either. He seemed never
to have associated him-
self with anything
Jewish. In the Senate,, he
was just average.
Benjamin, however, was
a very able _Senator. Later
when the South seceded, he
became Secretary of State of
the Confederacy. Everyone
knew he was Jewish.
Northern papers called him
"an Israelite with Egyptian
principles." This was be-
cause of the affiliation with
-the Southern Confederacy,
which supported slav_ery.
However, it should be
said that Benjamin never
supported slavery. In fact,
he was' one of the early
abolitionists. As a member
of the Senate, Benjamin was
the author of an article
which appeared in Debow's
Magazine, a leading South-
ern intellectual paper, con-
demning slavery.
He maintained that slav-
ery was hurting the South
itself, that it was eco-
nomically injurious.
As far as Jewishness is- -
concerned, Benjamin
cannot be given much of
a rating. Rabbi Isaac M.
Wise tells of a little chat
he once had in the na-
tional capital with Daniel
Webster and Benjamin.
Webster remarked that
since he was a;Unitarian,
basically all three were of
the same faith. Benjamin
took exception to this
statement, but Rabbi
Wise thought -that Ben-
jamin's argument
showed a very skimpy
knowledge of Jewish-
ness.
At the beginning of this
century Isidor Rayner was a
Jewish Senator from Mary-
land and I think Oregon at
one time elected a Jew to the
Senate but for the greater
period of American history
there was no Jewish
presence whatever in the
Senate.
Now, of a- sudden, we have
quite a group, There is Ab-
raham Ribicoff of Connec-
ticut, Carl Levin of Michi-
gan, Jewish Senators from
Minnesota, Florida and, I
believe, judging by ,the
name, from NebrasWAlso
there is William,-- Cohen
from Maine, whojse,.father
was Jewish/
We haven't got a minyan
in the Senate yet, but to-
gether with the Jewish
members of-the House, we
should have no difficulty in
getting together a minyan
in Congress.
Some 210 agricultural
settlements in Israel which
were established with
United Jewish Appeal
funds are still struggling for
self-dependence.
No Systematic Israel Torture
Rep. Aspin Tells_ Congress
Disco Parties by
and inexcusable.
"The key question, • how-
ever, is whether they reflect
the policy of the Israeli gov-
ernment. There is simply no
convincing evidence that
this is the case."
11%11-14 -1ri
tAL.
Dan Sandberg
353-6699
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