THE JEWISH NEWS wsps...,
- Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of July 20, 1951
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PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
Business Manager
ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
HEIDI PRESS
Associate News Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 12th day of Nisan, 5740, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Leviticus 6:1-8:36. Prophetical portion, Malachi 3:4-24.
(
Ve CeStEmyt as kives bow\afot
Itettutik as tourists in, peace mut
fv4elitc1,541)
Passover Scriptural Selections
••••••
Tuesday, Pentateuchal portion, Exodus 12:21-51, Numbers 28:16-25. Prophetical portion, Joshua 5:2-6:1, 27.
Wednesday, Pentateuchal portion, Leviticus 22:26-23:44, Numbers 28:16-25. Prophetical portion, II Kings 23:1-9, 21-25.
/0.
Hol Hamoed Passover
Thursday, Exodus 13:1-16, Numbers 28:19-25.
April 4, Exodus 22:24-23:29, Numbers 28:19-25.
Candle lighting, Friday, March 28, 6:35 p.m.
VOL. LXXVII, No. 4
Page Four
Friday, March 28, 1980
PASSOVER: AN OLD MESSAGE
Passover's message is not new. It is as old as
the people celebrating it. Its lessons are repeti-
tive. Yet, there is always something new in its
treatment in every generation. There is always
the message of freedom, and all-too-often the
skeptics will ask: what has happened to the
freedoms for which mankind has fought, and
what are the hopes of generations striving for
an end to oppression and bigotry?
Indeed, there is always the new approach, the
confidence of people of faith, the refusal to be
crushed by the intolerance that springs forth so
often in many lands.
There is no limit to the intolerance that
dominates the world today. It rules in the Soviet
Union, and the Russian perhaps more than any
other diplomats on the world scene have turned
the United Nations, which was the major hope
for peace, into a war-mongering and hate-
provoking center. Had it not been for Russia
there could not have been the anti-Israel actions
in the UN General Assembly and now in the
Security Council. The USSR engineered trouble
that affects security in several areas of the
world, and Afghanistan is merely one of the
examples of the Russian search for domination.
There are obstacles to peace as well, there-
fore, to freedom. Yet, one never abandons hope.
He who strives for peace has a goal, and he has a
following. If the entire world were nourishing
on hatred and oppression all hope for a free
spirit would be lost. There are enough people in
the world who adhere to the craving for liberty
to give assurance that one day, in every sphere
of the world, there will be a rejection of the
oppressive and an embracing of the freedom
without which man cannot survive.
This hope must be entertained for Iran and for
Afghanistan, for the Soviet Union where
Anatoly Shcharansky and Andrei Sakharov
and the protesters against indignities, non-
Jews as well as Jews, are symbols of the free
spirit.
This is applicable to the Middle East, to the
Arab world where there is a continuing spread
of hatred and a campaign to undermine the
peace which has been effected courageously for
a year by Egypt and Israel.
There is the specific Jewish message of
Passover and its emphasis on the freedoms vital
not only to the celebrants of the festival but to
all mankind.
Heinrich Heine had a definition for freedom
in relation to Passover. In 1834 he said: "Since
the Exodus, freedom has always spoken with a
Hebrew accent."
With an inspiration from the Jewish experi-
ence through the ages, the accented devotion to
freedom has been shared by libertarians of all
ages, all climes, with the Jews.
On Passover, the ideal is re-affirmed. It has
special meaning in this age which is marred by
so many deviations from justice and common
decency.
PaSsover is the reminder to mankind that the
free spirit of man cannot be crushed. It is an
admonition to Jews to continue to carry the
banner for justice as a symbol for humanity. In
this spirit this Passover, in this turbulent age
that often engenders doubts and fears, to be firm
and fearless is the message of the Passover in
this year 5740.
PERNICIOUS UN ACTS
Who is on the defensive in the truly horrify-
ing developments that are headlined "settle-
ments," yet introduce the shocking reverbera-
tions that senationalize an issue labeled
`Jerusalem"? Is it the pernicious ganging-up-
on-Israel at the United Nations? Is it the com-
fort that has been placed on the record by an
unfortunate concurrence in a shocking UN reso-
lution by the United States? Is it really Israel
- who is the villain who foments trouble on an
international scale?
An any statement by Mayor Teddy Kollek
of Jerusalem about the unlinseliness of Prime
Minister Mertahem Begin's approval of the ac-
quisition or MOO acres of banni int the Jerus al em
area for hcassing purposes azgravaited rather
than 1161ped resolve a tense siitlamition.
It has all been lumped 71811M; a 'settlements"
problem, ath if internal Isradi considerations
enter into the disputes it is especially unfortu-
nate. The fact is that there are more than 50
such settlements in the Samaria-Judea area,
and less than 5,000 Jews are settled in the
Samaria-Judea area. Does this represent a
threat to anyone, when the major issue is the
assurance of neighborly relations between
Arabs and Jews, under a form of autonomy that
must be arrived at through the negotiations
now in progress?
Furthermore, if internal political conflicts
play any role whatever in these disputes, why
not concede that the majority of the settlements
now established came into being during the re-
gime of the Labor Party?
Errors, in timeliness and the occasional arro-
gance that marked extremism in pursuing a
settlements policy is ascribable to Israeli of-
ficialdom. Yet there are basic principles,
primarily the right of Jews to establish them-
selves in border areas, on a par with Arabs who
should have the right to create homesteads in
overwhelmingly populated Jewish areas, which
must be resolved by just decisions, mutually
arrived at by both parties in the disputes. They
are not issues to be settled under pressure from
energy-providing sources.
There is something very pernicious about the
manner in which the Carter Administration
has conceded to the prejudices against Israel at
the UN. It is on this score that the issues must
be approached.
■
Books from Schocken
Three Contemporary Volumes
Re-Issued as Paperbacks ,
Three noteworthy books dealing with major matters of Jewish
interest, including the Holocaust and the influence of Israel upon
Jewish life, have been re-issued by Schocken Books as paperbacks.
"The Jewish Return Into History," by Emil Fackenheim, reviews
the tragic experiences of the Holocaust, points to the evolutionary
viewpoints that have affected reactions to the occurrences of the past
four decades, and emphasizes the centrality of Israel in Jewish life.
An introductory comment by Dr. Fackenheim summarizes his ap-
proach to the issues delineated in this volume. He states:
"Two duties -are conferred on us. One is to confront the Holocaust
honestly, without seeking refuge in a hundred available distortions.
The other is to recognize the centrality of Israel in contemporary
Jewish life, without seeking refuge in a hundred available equivoca-
tions.
"The source of both duties is the same: the prohibition against
blasphemy. Whoever dissolves the starkly unique tragedy of the
Holocaupt (whether in terms psychological, sociological, historical,
moral, philosophical, or theological) sooner or later blasphemes
against God, man, and in any case against the Truth. And whoever
affirms that there are today two Jewish centers — or three, five, or
none at all averts his eyes from the fact that, had there been an
Israel in the years 1933-1945, not one Jew able to flee from Hitler's
gas chambers would have died in them.
"But perhaps this is just one of two reasons why Israel is central
today. This first reason is wholly compelling but starkly negative.
Another, wholly positive but as yet ambiguous and obscure, is never-
theless felt by the soul and is beginning to reach the mind.
"Back in medieval times, the mystic Nahmanides wrote that
while many nations had devastated the Land none had replanted it;
that there had been many false messianic signs; and that the only true
messianic sign would be the Land replanted. In the same age the poet
Yehuda Halevi wrote that Jerusalem would not be rebuilt until Jews
yearned for her very dust and stones.
"Today one travels through the replanted valleys of Galilee and is
lost in wonder. And one walks through the Jewish Quarter of the Old
City, ravaged by the Jordanians a generation ago, and-is filled with a
strange serenity. Much rubble remains. Yet in its midst are rising the
rebuilt Jewish homes and synagogues, faithful to the past but surely
exceeding its beauty — the palpable presence of the ancient yearning,
intensified by despair in our time, and transfigured into determina-
tion."
Another of the new, noteworthy Schocken paperbacks
"Judaism and the American Idea" by Prof. Milton Konvitz. The eight
essays in this volume were published during the American Bicenter
nial celebrations. They deal with the contributions to American li
by American Jews and the effects of American idealism upon the
indivisibility of the American-Jewish partnership in the search for
freedom and the adherence to justice as a guideline for basic
Americanism.
"God Wrestling" by Arthur I. Waskow is the dispute-inciting
book which was reviewed in these columns when it first appeared in
hard cover.
The volume deals with a huge range of topics related to Judaism
in the context of contemporary life pressures.
In the final chapters, Waskow urges religious content in addition
to secular Zionism, but he prefers "God wrestling" to the old tradi-
tions. He wants to relate Torah to current life and suggests a revision
of Halakha suitable to our times.
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