THE JEWISH NEWS wsps..., - 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 $15 a year. 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. —