THE JEWISH NEWS 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 S15 a year. PHILIP SLOMOVITZ Editor and Publisher ALAN HITSKY News Editor CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ Business Manager HEIDI PRESS Associate News Editor DREW LIEBERWITZ Advertising Manager Sabbath Scriptural Selections The: Sabbath, the 16th day of Teret, 5740, the following scriptUral selections will be read in our synagogues: Pentateuch& portion, Genesis 4 7:28-50:26. Prophetical portion, 1 Kings 2:1-12. Candle lighting, Friday, Jan. 4, 4:56 p.m. VOL. LXXVI, No. 18 Page Four Friday, January 4, 1980 NO ENT) TO OPPRESSION Whatever hopes nourished human hearts, after two world wars, that there would be an end to persecutions, that freedom would ring out for the oppressed, is vanishing. The return to bigotry in several areas of the globe makes the present era tragic. There are fears that create hopelessness. Iran is exemplary for the world and has be- come a distress area for Jews. Whatever truths are uttered against the Shah Pahlevi, the fact is that Jews were secure under his regime. Jews prayed for his welfare out of fears that when his regime fell there could have been wholesale massacres. There are no massacres. Jews are protected by Khomeini. Moshe Dayan said at a press con- ference recently that Jews in Iran are not perse- cuted as a religious group. He added in his comment that the Iranian Jewish community is impoverished, contrary to claims of their being wealthy. Very little is reported about Iranian Jewry. They are isolated and they are silent. They do not speak to anyone. The only report that has come from Teheran about Iranian Jewry is an important account about that community in the Miami Herald by its staff writer Guy Gugliotta. It's a gloomy tale about a synagogue that is sparsely attended, about people who have pledged an allegiance that assails Zionism and rejects Israel. Gugliotta reports that half of Iranian Jewry has left the country, that 40,000 remain, and for these there now develops a new concern threatened by insecurity. A lack of freedom adds to the burdens of solving anew the problem of homelessness which remains a major Zionist task. Iran is not the only area of distress. The Argentinian issue remains a delicate one. After releasing Jacobo Timerman there were declara- tions of faith by Argentinian Jews who claimed they had the government's protection. The Argentinian authorities maintained there were no oppressions, until last week, when another prominent Argentinian journalist was forced to seek freedom and left Argentina with his fam- ily. The inhuman factor in the case of Robert Cox was the threat to his 10-year-old son, in an anonymous letter, that the Cox family would be killed unless they left the country. Cox was editor of Buenos Aires' Heralda and had lived in Argentina since 1960. Such an experience de- flates all of the assurances about a new era of freedom for his adopted country. Thus the inhumanities increase and fears are generated, forcing emigration of people who have lived in established communities for many years. The situation in many lands remains grave. The Russian emigration movement escalates as a result of increasing dangers there for the Jewish community and for the dissidents of all faiths and nationality backgrounds. For Jews seeking havens of refuge, only Israel is-major with her open door for the oppressed. That's how it is now in a world of turmoil. It is grave for mankind, especially tragic for Jews. LEARNED ARISTOCRACY A notable transfer of professorships is taking place at two of the world's leading universities. The Salo Wittmayer Baron Professorship in Jewish History, Culture and Society will be fil- led by Prof. Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi, who will be giving up the posts of Jacob E. Safra Profes- sor of Jewish History and Sephardic Civiliza- tion and chairman of the department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Har- vard University. It would not be politic to say that the loss is Harvard's. After all, the gain remains — a major post will continue to be filled by an emi- nent scholar. The assumption of a Columbia University chair named in honor of one of the most brilliant Jewish scholars of all time and the leader in his field in this century is a matter to be viewed with great interest and appreciation. It is the recognition of great scholarly qualities by the leading universities that merits acclaim. It is an indication that scholarship will be respected and students will be encouraged to benefit from it. Prof. Baron's vast library, the hundreds of eminent people who studied with him and bene- fited from his tutelage, his creative works, make his name an impressive Baron Chapter in Jewish history: Dr. Yerushalmi was a student of Prof. Baron. Therefore he adds to his many qualities an asso- ciation that adds to his status. An aristocracy of learning is being encouraged and perpetuated in the transfer of professorships. It is the American community that continues to gain from the respect accorded eminence in learning and teaching. RUTHLESS FUTURE? Predictions in military circles are that Kho- meini will be ousted in not more than two years and that his successors will be even more ruth- less. Which poses the question whether the scapegoats will remain "Americans and Zionists" on the basis of which the fanatical onslaughts on abused embassy employees were perpetrated. Auguries are a dime a dozen today and may not fully materialize. But in the Iranian experi- ence the lesson is already applicable. The vic- tims are in an evident sphere. The reasons as- cribed for the criminal acts are constantly being duplicated in the maddened Middle East. While the world, Jews especially, are well prepared for the worst, the means for protection and defense against the cruellest of anticipa- tions must become part of a workable plan. Nothing can be properly workable unless the nations of the world cooperate against barba- rism. So far, the cooperative spirit is lacking. Holocaust Facts For Youth, Facts Related by Survivor Judy Hoffman experienced all the horrors of the Nazi occupation of Holland. She was born to a Cohen family in Germany and her parents sent her off to Holland with other Jewish children who were provided with homes in an orphanage. • From one orphanage she was taken to another at the age of seven. Her parents perished. The foster parents in Amsterdam named her Dotje. She had gone to Amsterdam with her brother Joseph, but was separated from him when she left to live with her foster parents. Both miraculously escaped death at the hands of the Gestapo. Now she is Judy Hoffman and she relates her story in "Joseph and Me: In the Days of the Holocaust" (Ktav). It is a story for children and it fills a great need of explaining to the youth how a young girl suffered and how she survived. It is like the Anne Frank story. Of the 54 Jewish children who were given shelter in the orphan- ages described, only Judy and her brother Joseph survived. Joseph managed to see her only once during the turbulent years, but he survived in the ranks of the resisting underground and years later they were reunited in Israel. It provided the enthusiasm with which Judy Hoffman writes, in her concluding chapter, about Israel, the savior for those who survived the Nazi terror. The sufferings she endured make this a deeply moving tale. Written for children, it has equal power for the elders. In simple terms, it relates how children were martyred, how the German beasts tortured and beat the victims. Judy was in hiding and therefore lived to tell the tale. At one point she relates: "I prayed that God would stop the Germans from frightening me so much, but God must have been very busy with many other more important prayers, for he didn't answer mine." At war's end, Judy managed to find a home with relatives in Mexico. It was not until she was 16 that she was sent to school to get her elementary education, to learn to read and write and to master arithmetic. Her story enriches the Holocaust literature. It will keep alive the memory of events never to be permitted repetition, for youth espe- cially and also those of all ages.must be enlightened by the Holocaust. The Jewish Lists' Covers Many Notables' Biographies Hundreds of Jewish personalities are included in "The Jewish Lists" by Martin H. Greenberg (Schocken Books). The compiler-author has gathered lists of scientists, authors, physicists, businessmen, Jews in public life and the arts and sciences. notables in academia, sports and other fields of activities. Of unusual interest are two indices: 32 pages of lists of birth places and 24 solid pages of names gathered for this interesting book. Greenberg teachers international relations at the University of wisconsin, Green Bay. Exemplary among those listed in the book are: Irving Stone. Mike Nichols, Milton Helpern, Herbert Bayard Swope, Harry Houdini, Lipman E. Pike, Elmer L. Rice, Yip Harburg, Eugene Fer- kauf, Arthur Murray, Edwin H. Land and August Belmont. Also included are Detroiters Byron Krieger, Harry Newman, and others; Edward Israel of Kalamazoo; Mervin Pregelman, Lansing: Morton Mintz, Ann Arbor; William L. Seidman, Grand Rapids.