THE JEWISH NEWS ,USPS
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
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CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
Business Manager
HEIDI PRESS
Associate News Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 18th day of Kislev, 5740, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pen tateuchal portion, Genesis 32:4-36:43. Prophetical portion, Hosea 11:7-12:12.
Candle lighting, Friday, Dec. 7, 4:43 p.m.
VOL. LXXVI, No. 14
Page Four
Friday, December 7, 1979
INTERNATIONAL
RNATIONAIA LETHAR GY
Had it not been for the lethargy in which the
world has become embroiled, the tragedy that
has struck the United States might not have
occurred.
Perhaps lethargy also should be interpreted
as being rooted in selfishness. Was it selfish
motivations of the most powerful nations in the
world that caused them to be indifferent to what
had taken place in Teheran? Why weren't the
embassies of the civilized nations shut im-
mediately when the American embassy was
turned into savagery?
Is it fear that motivates lethargy? If it is, why
have not the nations of the world recognized
that what happens to the United States can also
happen to them?
Is it any wonder, however, that such is the
attitude of diplomats? Isn't the Teheran horror
a repetition of the terrorism that had been prac-
ticed against Israel? Did not the Great Powers
remain silent when Israel was being terrorized?
Didn't they chastise Israel at every step, when
Israel retaliated, while remaining silent
whenever the PLO and their cohorts engineered
acts of insanity and savagery with children and
innocent food shoppers as their victims?
It is at the root of the problem — that
lethargy has been internationalized, that too
few of the nations of the world had the courage
to act whenever a single tyrannical brutality
was performed.
Will the Great Powers succumb to their fears
or abandon indifference? What a gain can be
achieved if the Khomeini lunacies can serve as a
lesson for the world to abandon lethargy and
fear!
BROTHERHOOD AND HUMANISM
Detroit Round Table objectives gained new
There is a lesson for mankind in the tragic
impetus at the annual Brotherhood dinner last events in Iran. The confusion over Islamic prin-
week. The Detroit arm of the National Confer- ciples was clarified by scholars and in an im-
ence of Christians and Jews, with an enrollment passioned appeal for reason and justice by
surpassing previous activities provided the Anwar Sadat of Egypt who emphasized that
platform for a strengthened program to unify Islamic law does not approve of oppressive
Americans in the cause of justice and the elimi- means, whether in diplomacy or any other
nation of prejudice. human relationship. Thutis the appeal to rea-
The noteworthy appeals and messages at that son and for tolerance thaeembraces all peoples
function by Thomas A. Murphy, president of and is not to be ignored when speaking of
General Motors Corp., the recipient of the Brotherhood.
NCCJ Human Relations Award; Alan E.
Schwartz, Round Table co-chairman; and Mrs.
This nation now is the victim of prejudice
Ethel H. Levy, president of the Round Table stemming from a region where the clock has
Women's Division; combined to emphasize the been turned back many centuries. The lessons
urgency of making Brotherhood workable, of that are offered by the traditions that have
eliminating hatred and striving to attain rea- given rise to the movement for Brotherhood in
son in an age threatened by barbarism. this land may yet become applicable to those
The messages and appeals were timely. They who have created fears, have threatened the
were uttered at the very time when President lives of diplomats and by that token have be-
Carter was asking the religious movements, come a menace to mankind. The hope is that the
people of all faiths, to pray that the portions of prayers for and lessons of the humanism inher-
the world where even heads of government can ent in America will awaken the peoples suffer-
turn into beasts will learn the principles of ing from the tyrannies of barbarians and will
democracy and decency and will abandon their re-establish good-will even in the areas where
medievalism and vicious hatreds. medievalism now rules.
BOOKS TO EDUCATE THE YOUTH
When Hanuka and the related holiday
periods on civic and religious calendars ap-
proach, publishers begin to introduce books for
children. The gift-giving period becomes an oc-
casion to encourage reading, book buying, an
interest in publishing and authorship for the
youth as well as the elders.
Fortunately for the Jewish communities,
books of general Jewish interest for the youth
are becoming more available and publishers are
showing a greater concern for books for the
young.
Thus, the Jewish book publishers especially,
including the privately operated as well as the
communally-encouraged like the Jewish Publi-
cation Society of America, the Union of Ameri-
can Hebrew Congregations and others, have in-
cluded books for children among the obligations
to provide educational material for the young
people.
Therefore, the children's bookshelves are ex-
panding, the libraries for youth are becoming
more available, young people are provided with
reading matter that is historically valuable,
that relates to the past and the present, the
calamities and the constructive results of
Jewish living.
The children's book publishing projects pro-
vide opportunities for artists, whose works have
illustrated many important books.
The general nature of the publishing trends is
especially impressive in biographies. An un-
usual resort to fact and photographic skill is
contained in two Pantheon Books. Entitled
"Einstein for Beginners" and "Freud for Begin-
ners," these books contain the informative, the
illustrative, in photos and cartoons. They show
literary skill and an understanding of how to
appeal to young readers in presenting to them
the factual, the biographical, the informative
about science and history.
.Books for children are a necessity. The pub-
lishers' responses to these needs are most hear-
tening.
Israel President Navon's
Inspired 16 Days, 7 Gates'
President Yitzhak Navon of Israel is a man of faith. Like his
predecessors he is a highly cultured personality and his knowledge is
steeped in the history of the Middle East and especially of Israel.
He is devoted to the legendary and he is acquainted with the
mystical. His literary qualities are evidenced in his mastery of He-
brew as his native tongue, as well as Arabic and English, in addition
to European languages.
This becomes evident upon reading his "The Six Days and the
Seven Gates" (Herzl Press).
The very title indicates the concern with Israel's status in the
world and the relationship with Jerusalem.
The historic gates are treated here nostalgically, and the legen-
dary predominates.
President Navon's concluding sentiments in "The Six Days and
the Seven Gates" have special merit. These are his words that invite a
sharing in inspired sentiments:
-
"He
forth His
stretched
. hand and a flame descended upon the
Lions' Gate. His voice thundered forth
and He said to it: 'Speak!'
"TheLns ' Gate shrank, and did not
say a word.
"'Speak!' said the Holy One, blessed
be He, but it still refused.
- A ,
_
—...„„,---ix
"Then He scourged it with a rod of
--- -:
A
t flame until it spoke: 'Master of the
.1
World! Every moment I can see from
here, on the eastern side, soldiers of
Israel on the hills and on Mount
Scopus,
and at the feet of the Gates I see
them falling, scorched by fire. Let them enter by any Gate, so long as not
another single one of them falls!'
"When the Holy One, blessed be He, heard this, he said to it:
"'Since thou has belittled thyself, and held the lives of the young
men dearer than thine own glory, I hereby decree that they shad! enter
through thee, and from thee shall salvation some to my Holy Mount. Let
the young lions enter through the Lions' Gate!"
And before an hour passed, a flood of Israel's youth broke through
s th ae n L
ctiio ti n es s' G
of a l t s e riae iron cars, and thence on to the Temple Mount and the
n
misb PareLo
sidn evniatb . N avon's book was translated from the Hebrew by
11.
YITZHAK.NAVON
- : . ;
The Navon volume is a love song, a veneration for Jerusalem, a
deeply moving prose poem in which the eminent scholar echoes the
sentiments of the Israeli armed forces who approached Jerusalem in
y l 9 e to
hy recapture
rejca
orpd
the after it had been held in subjection for 19
city
years
It is the sanctity with which the Seven Gates were approached, as
p
threey
ssw
ederien b,,Tb
eineg slibc
beD
raate
yad,an
thdattbgi
ayseesvw
eneiG
s."the poetic spirit ex-
ghatteto
ifi nt t h h e o
i N
s rahv o a n p s b
odo y
o kahout Seven Gates
add Th
maegri
miafign
cen try tot t9vgr
p
alualehs
ofitnhhe
Yitzhak Navon is an educator, an author and Israel's foremost
exponent of Oriental and Sephardic folklore. He is a scion of a patri-
cian Jerusalem Sephardi family with a distinguished public career as
former secretary to Prime Minister David Ben - Gurion, chairman of
the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and chairman of
the World Zionist General Council.