THE JEWISH NEWS
(LISPS 275-520)
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
Postmaster: Send address changes to The Jewish News, 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075
Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices. Subscription $12 a year:
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
ALAN- HITSKY
News Editor
HEIDI PRESS
Assistant News Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 29th day of Iyar, 5739, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Numbers 1:1-4:20. Prophetical portion, I Samuel 20:18-42.
Sunday, Rosh Hodesh Sivan, Numbers 28:1-15.
June 1, first day of Shavuot
Pentateuchal portion, Exodus 19:1-20:23, Numbers 28:26-31. Prophetical portion, Ezekiel 1:1-28, 3:12.
Candle lighting, Friday, May 25, 8:37 p.m.
VOL. LXXV, No. 12
Page Four
Friday, May 25, 1979
SADAT IN ISOLATION
With only four of the Arab states in the ranks
of the Arab League still on speaking terms with
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat — Sudan,
Oman, Northern Yemen and Somalia — Egypt
may well be considered in isolation in the Arab
world. Sadat is under constant threat from his
coreligionists who seem bent upon applying
every conceivable political and economic pres-
sure to crush the man who dared to choose a
road of peace with Israel.
It is inconceivable, however, that world pub-
lic opinion should fail to encourage efforts for
peace. Only the Communist bloc gives comfort
to the incorrigible among the Arabs, and if it
had not been for the military aid provided to
Israel's and Egypt's enemies by France as well
as Russia, an entirely different picture would
have been viewed in the international arena.
Sadat emerges as visionary as well as the
devotee to peace, with a determination not to be
hindered in his efforts, even by his former allies
in the warring spirit of Arabs seeking Israel's
destruction. Unable to secure the assistance
that had been pledged to him- by the Saudis to
buy U.S. aircraft, he now suggests a public fund
from Americans, comparable to the United
Jewish Appeal, to supplement the financial as-
sistance he so urgently needs to assure Egyp-
tian stability and morale.
It should be noted that Israel's Prime Minis-
ter Menahem Begin, upon the signing of a peace
pact with Sadat, urged economic assistance by
Americans, and others in the free world, to
Egypt. Urging cooperation with Israel in creat-
ing new standards in trading as well as in cul-
tural pursuits, Begin asked similar support for
Egypt. This is the way to pursue peace aims, and
it is to be hoped that the Arab world will aban-
don its animosities and will recognize the
validity of peace aims for all in the Middle East.
An original contention was that either Jor-
dan or Lebanon could be the second state in the
Middle East to make peace with Israel. This was
a view that stemmed from the belief that not a
single Arab nation would dare make peace with
the Jewish state. One dared. Therefore the dis-
appointment in the position of war-mongering
pursued by Jordan's King Hussein. Therfore
also the realism in Prime Minister Begin's as-
sertion that Israel could make peace with Leba-
non in a single day. Would that there were fewer
saber-rattlers in Lebanon! That dream could be
realized.
The isolation of Sadat is a source of regret and
of great concern. Even more agonizing is the
anti-peace position of the Soviet Union. Now the
greed in France's pursuit of military merchan-
dising is even more disconcerting. These are
problems that make the situation tense in a
Middle East that could be a blessing for the
millions residing there if good will could take
root among those who prefer to hate.
PREJUDICE AND FEAR
Failure to resolve a firm stand in support of
the recognition of Israel's Magen David Adorn,
at the convention of the American Red Cross, in
Kansas City, last week, should be considered as
postponement and not as rejection.
The fact remains that in American ranks
there is friendship, a desire to cooperate and a
recognition of the Magen David Adorn qualifi-
cations as part of the world movement providing
relief in time of crisis, protecting the health of
people suffering in crises and stepping in with
comfort for those who may be affected by
calamities.
It is the prejudice that stemmed from Arab,
Third World and Communist haters of Israel
that prevents admission of Magen David Adorn
into the ranks of the International League of
Red Cross Societies. Therefore, the hesitation
even on the part of those who recognize the
justice of the demands in support of a Magen
David Adorn role in the International Red Cross
ranks must be viewed as submission to fear
which then emerges as a continuity of prejudice.
The American Red Cross leaders could well
have resisted the prejudicial that negates the
humanitarian in a great movement. The ear-
nestness with which many in the Red Cross
movement, especially the Detroit leadership,
react in support of Magen David Adorn is an
assurance that failure to act this year must be
viewed only as a delay in what must eventually
be a decisive and positive action in justice to
Israel and to a great humanitarian cause.
In viewing the future prospects for the recog-
nition of the Israel humanitarian agency by the
world organization, the activities of the last few
years should be taken into account. To Mark
Powers of Harrisburg, Pa., goes the credit of
having pressed for resolutions favorable to
Magen David Adorn. He now has the attention
of the leadership of the American Red Cross and
the chances for an amicable agreement and for
the elimination of prejudice now looms high on
International Red Cross activities.
JERUSALEM DAY
This is Jerusalem Day. Let it be observed
with devotion and enthusiasm.
This is a day of acclaim for the reunited city
from whose Holy Places Jews were barred only
12 years ago, and where now all religions are
enabled and encouraged to function freely,
without discrimination or handicaps.
This is a time also to declare that Jerusalem is
and will remain the capital of Israel, that it
must not ever be abandoned.
It is under the administration of a freedom-
loving government where all people enjoy the
rights of citizenship and comradeship. Let it
remain so! May this new holiday on the Israel
calendar, similarly observed by world Jewry,
serve as a clarion call for freedom, for good will
among all peoples who respect the glories of the
Holy City.
Hill and Wang Publication
Martin Gilbert's 'Holocaust':
Jewish Experience in Maps
Martin Gilbert has made notable contributions to Jewish histori-
cal research with the material he has gathered on a variety of impor-
tant subjects relating to issues affecting world Jewry, Jews in Moslem
countries and related subjects. Utilizing maps as means of portraying
the experiences of Jewish communities, he has made brevity in such
approaches a distinct value in providing information and in protect-
ing the record of events to which he has devoted his skills.
"The Holocaust," subtitled "a record of the destruction of Jewish
life in Europe during the dark years of Nazi rule," his latest work,
published by Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
contains valuable studies in the maps he has prepared as collective
exposes of the tragic occurrences and numerous descriptive photo-
graphs.
So dedicated and effective is the Gilbert approach to his creative
efforts that his preface merits quotation: -
"The fate of the Jews of Europe in
the Nazi era was one of the greatest
horrors of human history. It has re-
cently become subject of dispute and
controversy. Tragically, for those mil-
lions of innocent men, women and
children who were murdered, the dis-
pute is an insult to their memory.
Their lives are gone. So too is the life of
which they were part: the Jewish cul-
tural, religious and communal heri-
tage which spanned 2,000 years of
European history.
"In this atlas, I have tried to tell
something of the story of those whose
lives were destroyed. No map, ,and no
MARTIN GILBERT
photograph, can convey more than the
tiniest fragment of the torment and tortures which so many pee
suffered, some of them so young, some old and frail, all of them non_
human beings, who had committed no crime.They perished solely
because they were Jews; because they were the children of their
parents; because evil men triumphed over sanity and civilized human
feelings.
"The terrible story outlined in these pages took place within the
last 40 years. It cannot be denied, or ignored, unless we wish to deny
our own past."
Perhaps most appropriately, for a full understanding of what had
occurred, the introductory map, "Two Thousands of Years of Jewish
Life in Europe" was necessary as a prefatory description of what had
been destroyed, as the subsequent maps and photos portray. This map
shows the age of principal Jewish communities as of 1939. Thus, what
follows is the indictment of the murderers, the expose of the terrors.
Gilbert also indicates in a map the 2,000 years of Jewish cultural
and communal life. It is a confirmation of what had been as it relates
to what was annihilated.
For the historian and the student the map that shows persecu-
tion, expulsion and refuge during the years 1000 to 1600 is most
impressive.
Massacres, pogroms, emigration are among the aspects of the
study given consideration.
This is, indeed, one of the great works provided as historical gems
by Martin Gilbert.