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.