64 Friday, February 22, 1980

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Dr. Rothenberg Details Historic Role of the Israeli Defense Forces

Israel is in an endless always invites the interest He was a founding
despair, anxiety, and adula- military leadership that in- have been impressive. A na-
state of war. The Arab an- of the military as well as
member of the U.S. See- tion of leftist authoritarian eluded the most noted of Is- tion of less than 706,000 has
tagonism mes it a con- historians. Perhaps the best
lion of the International regimes, supposed to have rael's personalities receives absorbed so many immig-
tinuous threaat k to the state 's analysis of it is provided in
Military Commission.
inherent military advan- due treatment.
rants that its population
existence. Is the Israel army The Anatomy of the Israeli
So highly qualified, it is tages over democracies, Is-
The Israeli army between has quintupled. They came
invulnerable?
Army" (Hippocrene Books). important to note that in his rad furnishes proof to the the wars of 1957 and 1967 from more than a hundred
The role played by the Is- Its author, Gunther E. preface Dr. Rothenberg
contrary."
has added interest. Here is countries and all were
rael Defense Forces makes Rothenberg, is currently provides the basic evalua-
while this volume is an where the reader is in- different. And in its 30-year
the army an element of professor ofmilitary history tion of the IDF when he analytical work defining formed about the arms race, history, the state has also
great concern and interest at Purdue University. Edu- states:
the IDF, its composition, its the aid given by Russia to fought and won four wars
on an international level. cated in Germany and in
"Perhaps the most impor- military commanders, it is Egypt, the friendly rela- against nations that out-
Many nations are watching England, he served during Cant lesson which Western at the same time valuable tions Israel still had at the numbered her 40 to 1.
the IDF's progress with the World War II with the defense specialists can draw as a history fo the develop- time with France. This
"Israel at 30 has many
keenest interest, and some British army in the Western from the history of the IDF ments of Israel's defensive
leads to an understanding of troubles — economic, politi-
have admitted they had Desert, Italy, Yugoslavia is that even a very small mechanisms. The opening later developments which cal, cultural — but she has
much to learn from the IDF. and Austria.
democratic state can suc- chapter indicates how im- resulted in drastic changes remained a democracy de-
Therefore, the IDF's
He was in the U.S. Air cessfully
withstand portantly this element in the relations with the two fended by a citizen army. If
status is perhaps the most Force from 1949 to 1955.
enemies superior in num- serves the discussion of European powers.
for the first time in three de-
vital factor in Israel's exist- He earned his PhD from
bers and materiel. Against IDF's role in its title, "The
cedes there is talk and the
en as well as history and it the University of Illinois. the
Of the many books on
current of contemporary Foundation: 1907 to 1947."
h
hope of peace, it may well
the subject of the IDF and
have come about because
It provides an under- the wars which chal-
standing of the clifficul- lenged Israel's existence, the Arab leaders have rec-
ognized that they cnno
a
t
ties Jews confronted in Dr. Rothenberg's is per-
destroy the state by mili-
the period of the early haps the most thorough.
tary means. And this may
settlements, leading up to His resume of the Six-Day
well be the proudest
f o u n di ng re bi rt h o
By HEIDI PRESS
o f War and the Yom Kippur
mon link among all of the
recovery, it was decreed the fudi
achievement of the Israeli
War gains immense his-
"She was Rachel. She was Rachels: Besides their obvi-
that recipients of the Jewish statehood.
army."
torical
significance.
not alone, an accidental ous genealogical tie, each is
diamond would receive
There is continuity in the
Photographs accomnany-
entity, but one of a line of a defender of her faith and
the legacy on their wed- treatment of the subject by
There is a concludingnote ing the text of "The
family, of tradition. What will go to great lengths to
ding day.
Prof.
Rothenberg.
The
army
that
offers
a
summary
of
the
Anatomy of the Israeli
she would have to do, she act on behalf of her fellow
Aided by her family's of the War of Independence IDF's significance, in a Army" add documentary
would one day know. And Jews.
diamond industry connec-
receives the attention mer- tribute to Israel and her data on the British role of
what she would do, she
Although the Rachel tions, Rachel Cohn Be- ited in the conflict for survi- army in which Prof. creating defense problems
would do well."
Cohen
of
Berlin enyamin helped the then val.
Rothenberg asserts:
for Israel and the Hagana's
struggling Je ws establish
This is the key to a bril- downplays her Jewish
Dr. Rothenberg says the
"In the last analysis, resistance to the British
liant new novel by Joel background, she still
businesses and kibutzim.
new
army
developed
from
however
the
state
of
Israel
suppressive
measures, and
Gross, "The books of does not turn away from
The final Rachel of note is 1949 to 1953 with noted has always relied on its own on the noteworthy experi-
Rachel," published by Sea- her co-religionists. Yet,
Rachel Kane of World War military leaders, commenc- efforts and the achieve- ences of the IDF and its
view Books.
her father still had reser- II-era England. Her family, ing with Moshe Dayan. The ments of independent Israel leadership.
descended from the
In his much researched vations about giving her
Cuhenos as were the Co-
novel, Gross traced the tale her birthright.
of the Cuheno diamond, "Herr Cohen gave his hens, Cuhenos, Cohns,
from Inquisition-era Spain daughter's hand to Phillip HaCohens and Cogans ,
By ABRAHAM HATSH
to modem-day New York. Meier, the son of a banker feared the persecution of
veloped and backward. ernment to do so! But the
Bought by gem trader and jeweler, and when he Jews in Germany would
(Editor's note: Dr. Ab- Even in the so-called Pale average Russian contin-
Judah Cuheno, the diamond gave the bride the Cuheno spread to England. The
raham I. Katsh, president of Settlement they were ued to hate Jews, just as
is named for and passed diamond that was hers by topic was not discussed in
emeritus of Dropsie Uni- excluded from the major he did under the Czar.
vereity in Philadelphia, is cities.
down to descendants of his right of her birth he cried. her presence.
No one in Russia today
the
only known Western
She
became
aware
of
the
sister, Rachel Cuheno, a
In a territory with no in- can move about without an
This was a Rachel who
. -
spirited Jewish defender of understood nothing of her heinous crimes against the scholar who was granted dustry to speak of, Jews identification card. The
permission by the Soviet were forbidden to own land. term "nationality" not
her people, who was mar- people, and who had no Jews when a distant cousin,
Union in the 1950s and Only petty trade and "religion" is used for iden-
tyred in the Inquisition. interest in anything but Wilfred of Germany, came
1960s to examine and elementary handicrafts tification. But Jews do not
Christian
poets
and
sensual
to
live
with
the
Kanes,
after
Cuheno decreed that
descendants bearing her pleasures. Herr Cohen his own family had suffered microfilm important were open to them. Jewish benefit from the term na-
Jewish
documents and children found schools tionality as do the Ukrai-
name will receive the cried, because he knew his much at the hands of the
manuscripts in the Soviet closed to them, their mans, White Russians and
Cuheno diamond — a 60- daughter was unworthy of Nazis.
Like her antecedents, Union.)
number in the gymnasia others, because Jews do not
carat flawless diamond her inheritance, unworthy
Rachel vowed to help her
The Jewish position in and universities were live in a territory, where
of her name."
— in her memory.
countrymen,
and
in
Ger-
the
USSR
is
an
anomaly
—
limited by a numerus they are a majority and
In a tale that reflects The next, Rachel Cohn of
many when she acted in and an anomaly breeds clausus of two or three per- where they could give ex-
much research into Jewish 19th Century Paris, is to be
defense of a Jewish trouble. The Russian con- cent in places where Jews pression to their own Ian-
and general history and admired. A wealthy French
woman taunted by a stitution prohibits anti- constituted 50 percent.
diamond mining, cutting, Jewess, Miss Cohn left the
guage, culture and civiliza-
Nazi, the German shot Semitism. Yet, as an ethnic
Official harassment and tion.
selling and buying, Gross pampered lifestyle of her
her on the spot.
cultural and religious group the anti-Semitism of the
presented his own history of class for a dream — to help
Jews are the only nation-
Joel Gross' "The Books of and as individuals, Jews Christian
population ality deprived of official pol-
Jewish survival through the Jews of then Palestine.
Rachel" is reminiscent of a suffer extraordinary dis- threatened their very lives. icy from privileges
centuries of persecutions, To help her travel through
ge granted
news story about the abilities, a kind of spiritual On the eve of World War I, to other nationa lities —
while at the same time, giv- the Arab countries en route
the procurator of the Holy schools, newspapers, pub-
ing the reader a love and to Jerusalem, a protector famous Israeli nurse genocide.
Shwester Selma, who re-
Although the Soviet gov- Synod of the official Russian lishing houses, theater in
adventure story of passion and guide, Avi Beenyamin,
whose family transplanted ceived a gift of a ring from a ernment occasionally per- Church and a former the national tongue and in-
and faith.
woman in whose family the mits Yiddish concerts and teacher of the Czar struction in their cultural
Following
the itself from Russia to Pales-
heirloom was passed down the publication of some prescribed the following and historic traditions.
Inquisition-era portion, the tine, was engaged and soon
- reader is taken to 17th Cen- the two fall in love. Just through unmarried female books by Sholem Aleichem, solution for the six million
Furthermore, there is a
Members. Could this have and a few other classical Jews in Russia: one-third to
tury Venice, where a prior to her wedding to be been
been the inspiration for Yiddish writers, as well as a em igrate, one-third to be constant struggle in the
of the Amsterdam enyamin, Rachel became
monthly magazine in Yid- baptized, and the remaining USSR between the repub-
branch of the family, David seriously ill, but vowed to "Rachel?"
lies and the federal govern-
his created
inspiration,
dish, Jewish
spiritual life is third to starve to death.
HaCohen, sought to better make it through her wed- Whatever
Gross has
an excit-
ing being.
stifled.
After the Revolution, the meat. In the Ukraine, for
the lot of his Italian rela- ding.
Russia anti-Semitisin Bolshevik leaders, influ- instance, despite the "ruc-
ing book, historically valu-
tions, and carried through
Unexpectedly,
her able for Jews since it recalls is associated with the enced by their philosophy of sification" efforts of the fed-
the escape of Devorah and
brother appeared from the Jewish struggle for sur- Czarist pogroms and the economic determinism, re- eral government, the Uk-
Rachel Cuheno, from the Paris-
on her wedding day .rival through the centuries. Soviet leaders therefore garded the Jewish problem raining majority manages
anti-Jewish restrictions
maintain its language
imposed by their homeland. and bestowed on her the It is breathtaking, inspiring react angrily when they are as another evil of the to and
culture.
Cuheno diamOnd. She and worthy of re-reading. being accused of' being Czarist system that would
By the third book, set in survived the wedding
Perhaps Jewish mothers anti-Semitic. Still, the man- automatically disappear.
For Jews the struggle is
18th Century Berlin, one and lived to her 90s. As a
will make it a legacy for ifestations of anti-Semitism
They thought that, with almost hopeless. There are
can detect a trend, a com- result of her miraculous
are everywhere.
their daughters.
the abolition of legal dis- no Jewish schools, no
Russian Jews are abilities and social and Jewish instruction in any
afflicted by the legacy of economic discrimination, language, and there is vig-
Czarist Russian Jew- the Jews would become orous opposition to any ex-
hatred. In Czarist Russia, absorbed into the new pression of Jewish culture.
which at one time con- Socialist society. They Regardless of the govern-
tained two-thirds of confirmed the decrees of ment's claim to not being
world Jewry, discrimina- the Provisional Govern- anti-Semitic, the fact re-
tion followed the Jew meat under the leader- mains that Soviet Jews
from birth to the grave. ship of Alexander alone are denied the rights
Jews could reside only in Rerensky, declaring the Soviet Constitution
the western provinces, anti-Semitism a criminal
108
aiitte
its
which were poor, unde- offense — the first gov- nationalities.
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Exciting Books of Rachel' Novel
Has History,Lov
e
and Adventure

Bias 'Officially' Dead in USSR

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