THE JEWISH NEWS

1USPS 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.

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager

Editor and Publisher

ALAN HITSKY
News Editor

HEIDI PRESS
Associate News Editor

DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager

Sabbath - Scriptural Selections

This Sabbath, the 11th day of Ay, 5739, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11. Prophetical portion, Isaiah 40:1-26.

Candle lighting, Friday, Aug. 3, 8:31 p.m.

VOL. LXXV, No. 22

Page Four

Friday, Auguest 3, 1979

PROJECT 'HOPE' FOR RUSSIANS

"Project Hope" is an innovation that merits incoming Russians. After analyzing the situa-
applause and encouragement.
tion at length, the newspaper made this cogent
Proposed by Mrs. Charlotte Jacobson, an comment:
American member of the Jewish Agency for Is- "Nevertheless, there is little doubt that U.S.
rael, it is an idea intended to bring Russian should continue to welcome them. The foremost
emigre youths on guest visits to Israel before reason is the moral one: denying them refuge
they decide on their future domiciles.
would certainly lead to a sharp reduction in the
As is well known, upon arriving in Vienna, number leaving the Soviet Union. If all were
after receiving permission to leave the Soviet compelled to go to Israel, the Soviets would
Union, Jewish emigres have, to an extent of come under Arab pressure to cut off the supply
more than 70 percent of their numbers, made of soldiers, settlers, and workers.
demands to be taken to Rome and from there
"This would also weaken the U.S. demand
HIAS takes them, at their request, to Western that the Soviets allow emigration in return for
countries, mostly the United States.
'trade, which is the main reason the Jews are
American official support for this effort has being allowed to leave at all. We could hardly
made it possible for the emigres to go to the criticize the Soviets for restricting emigration if
lands of their preference, and while their visas we refused to take the emigrants.
were secured from the USSR on the ground that
"Another reason is the nature of the emi-
they were going to Isiael, the latter is mostly grants themselves. They include large numbers
shunned and settlement in Israel is greatly re- of highly qualified professionals — doctors,
duced from the Russian ranks.
engineers, physicists, technicians and teachers
It. is natural that this should have caused — who can make valuable contributions to their
consternation, with the resulting proposal by new country, creating more jobs than they take.
Mrs. Jacobson of a "trial vacation," as the idea
"So let them come. Let the Soviet Union give
might be termed, for as many of the Russian us its ambitious, its educated, its energetic re-
Jews as possible to be taken to Israel for testing, jects from an oppressive, deadening political
in the hope that they would then choose to system. We will make them welcome. And in
make Israel their home. This is where "Hope" time, perhaps, the Soviets will recognize the
enters into the suggested project.
error of their ways."
The preferred solution to what has become a
It is this conclusion to a resume of the basic
painful problem may augur comfort for the facts that dominates the Jewish position in this
communities where so much concern has been country. There is an urgency to encourage Rus-
expressed over what is described as "defection" sian Jews to settle in Israel. But more vital to
by the Noshrim who fail to fulfill their aim to the issue is the over-all human factor which
settle in Israel.
demands that those who are rescued should be
Meanwhile, the controversy continues and it aided in their efforts and their choice of home-
has reached external forces which are debating lands should not be tampered with.
the issue. Thus, the Chicago Tribune went into
"Project Hope" is the possible solution to a
great detail in probing the differences in the problem that is so agonizing. If, as guests in
Russian emigres' attitutes, to the extent of indi- Israel, without restrictions, Russian Jews can
cating the objections to settling in Israel as well be taught to make Israel a preference in choice
as the possible opposition to permitting Russian of refuge from the Russian Gehenna, then there
emigres to come to the U.S. It is on this score will be a partial end to the agony. For this pro-
that the Chicago Tribune viewpoint has serious posal Mrs.- Jacobson has earibied Jewry's
bearing on the issue of American support for gratitude.

A MAJOR TASK AT MSU

From 1947, the Jewish student enrollment at encouragement of Jewry on a wider basis.
The Jewish activists on the campuses must
Michigan State University in East Lansing in-
have the means of attracting fellow students
creased from 150 to 3,000.
This is the impressive proof of the trend in the into the spheres of Hillel Foundations and
ranks of Jewish youth, with the encouragement whatever congregational and other services are
of parents, to pursue advanced studies and to in need of the adherents yet to be enrolled. This
cannot be accomplished without an address, and
aspire for training for the professions.
Regardless of the number of Jews in any it is for this purpose that Jews in all com-
school of higher learning, there is an obligation munities of Michigan are being contacted for
to provide facilities for a Jewish-oriented the current building program.
The campaign for enlarged and improved
environment, for students to have access to a
Bnai Brith Hillel Foundation quarters for
synagogue, to a Jewish library, to sociability.
While the Jewish student body has grown, the Michigan State University students of neces-
facilities for services were not improved, and sity extends to this, the city with the largest
the current activity for enlarged quarters suit- Jewish population in the state. It is conceivable
able for the needs of a large body of interested that the vast majority of Jewish students at
affiliates must have the support and MSU come from the Greater Detroit area. But
regardless of their home origins, the students
encouragement of the community at large.
It is difficult enough to hold the attention of have a right to find a Jewish environment dur-
youth under tempting conditions that can draw ing their college years, on a cultural and social
the youth to strange gods and competitive serv- basis. To fulfill this need, every available means
ices. The provision of pr'oper environmental at- of support should be corraled here to make the
tractions, therefore, are exceedingly vital to aspiration of the MSU Hillel' Foundation, for
Jewish programming and must have the proper quarters, a reality.

LA

h

Rejoicing in Citizenship

An Immigrant's Saga, Paying
Tribute to America's Glories

"A Time to Remember: Growing Up in New York Before the
Great War" by Marie Jastrow (W.W.'Norton Co.) is a moving story of
an immigrant's life and struggles. The author, now 82, describes the
challenges that face a newcomer to this country and her story is the
tribute to the adopted country that inspires gratitude to the benefits
that stem from Americanism.

The mother of the astrophysicist Robert Jastrow, she was born in
Austria.
The author's parents came from Austria in 1905. The struggles
that were inevitably those of immigrants struggling to make a new
life are expressive of the immigrant life that preceded World War I.

The experiences, deeply moving, indicative of the newcomers'
confrontation with want, often with hunger, revive an interest in the
courage that made the immigrants the courageous builders of a better
future for their children while overcoming the challenges facing
strangers in a new land.

The ultimate is a recollection, the author asserting: "No, it had
not been easy; it had not been a great life always. But difficult and
demanding as life was, in retrospect there emerges a grandeur from it
all. It had been a simple life, with simple pleasures, with good people."

Mrs. Jastrow, in the process of evaluating her experiences,
speaks of the immigrant's role in America. In the process, she paid
tribute to the new homeland and to its glories, and she asserts in her
summation:
"The United States, fearful of being overrun by the multitudes
from the war-torn lands, passed rez ,tri :live laws. And in 1924, with
the new quota system in effect, America closed its gates that had been
open to the world.
"A trickle of immigrants passed through Ellis Island after that.
"An era had ended.
"Perhaps it had to end, this vast migration of people; perhaps it
had gotten to be too much. I don't know. I do know that without that
great surge of humanity, whose initiative and courage carried them
here, America would not be what it is today. The tremendous
storehouse of brainpower, vitality and strength in those teeming
millions is ours only because of the -free flow of the immigrants who
braved the ocean to seek their opportunity in the new land.

"And if I see this era with romantic eyes, it is because it was a
romantic era. Who can deny the romance of a world flocking by the
millions to the lure of the phenomenon called America?

"And now, as I write this, an aging lady looking back down the
years, it is my hope that I have touched, at least in part, the essence of
that remarkable time when the shores of America were open to the
world.

"It was then, and will never be again."
There is an enrichment photographically in this interesting
self-portrait of an immigrant. The many pictures, portraying life in
America, are in themselves a saga lending glory to a land built by
immigrants, making it the haven for the oppressed that is the fate of
this land of freedom.