,
THE JEWISH NEWS
(usps75 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
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
Editor and Publisher
ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
HEIDI PRESS
Associate News Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 17th day of Iyar, 5740, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Leviticus 21:1-24:23. Prophetical portion, Ezekiel 44:15-31.
Sunday, Lag b'Omer
Candle lighting, Friday, May 2, 8:14 p.m.
VOL. LXXVII, loo. 9
Page Four
Friday, May 2, 1980
U•S • AND ISRAEL AFTER 1980
So much talk is heard about foreign policies
being exploited for political purposes in a
Presidential election year, and there are so
many warnings that a losing incumbent could
penalize Israel for criticisms and for evidences
of an emerging Jewish oymittym. ateeoliipt8
-
_A •
£e anticipated for the post-1980 era.
One candidate for the Republican nomination
who has since dropped out of the race, John .
Connally, had been quoted as saying that he
viewed the so-called Jewish vote as "inconse-
quential." It was when he was condemned for
his statements that were considered so damag-
ing to Israel, and also when the amount of
Jewish support for him was very minimal, some
donors withdrawing their pledges after hearing
his views on the Middle East.
Countermanding such views about the "in-
consequence" of the Jewish role are the re-
peated assurances, from White House and State
Department, that the American policies of
friendship for Israel will always remain intact.
Serious1 to be considered are the concerns
evidenced in some quarters. Exemplary is the
statement by Dr. Alexander Schindler,'
president of the Union. of American Hebrew
Congregations, who, in a letter published in the
New. York Times, states:
"The Carter Administration has turned its
- back on the single democracy, the most stable
government, the most vital strategic asset and
the closest ally of the United States in the Mid-
dle East.
The confusion within the Administration —
and now the confession by Mr.. Vance .that the
U.S. vote was indeed Carter policy — must
cause profound anxiety to all Americans con-
cerned with Israel's security and U.S. strategic
interests. It will also have a pernicious effect on
the Middle East peace process.
"If Secretary Vance is to be taken at his word,
if it is indeed U.S. policy to define the West
Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem as "Palestinian ter-
ritories," to call for the dismantling of all of
Israel's West Bank settlements, .to ignore UN
Resolutions 242 and 338 and to endorse sanc-
tions against Israel, the result can only be to
harden still further the refusal by Jordan and
the Palestinian Arabs to enter the peace talks
— and to encourage more countries to follow the
lead of Austria and India in extending diploma-
tic recognition to the- terrorist PLO.
"In Paris, President Giscard d'Estaing speaks
of Palestinian 'self-determination' — dip-
lomatese for a PLO state. In London, the
Foreign Secretary, Lord Carrington, says he
does not believe the PLO is 'a terrorist organiza-
tion as such.' Thus do Western Europe's once-
proud democracies manipulate the image of the
PLO to make it appear respectable as they vote
in the Security Council to blacken Israel's name
and to charge Israel with obstructing the peace.
"Once again the world is preparing to trade in
Jewish blood — this time in the delusory belief
that appeasing the PLO will secure a steady
supply of oil at steady prices. A likelier result of
pandering to Arafat & Co. will be to earn the
contempt of the Arab world and to invite more
terrorism. That the Carter Administration by
-
its misguided attempt to punish Israel should
encourage this evil and self-defeating strategy
is perhaps the most serious indictment of the
President's foreign policy."
If there were ever the slightest danger of a
•
agiaanaing or animosities, the paiaes relating
to the traditional Israel-U.S. friendships would
be bankrupted.
Furthermore, if such a threat were ever to be
on the agenda, now or after the elections, or at
any time in the future, a grave danger would
confront the American people as much as it
would Israel because of Israel's role in the Mid-
dle East as the most accountable and most de-
pendable friend, associate and cooperator with
the U.S. in that area.
On the record, in public assertions, all of the
candidates for President have re-affirmed their
commitment to the friendship between the two
nations. The present Administration insists
upon such policies. On paper the pledges are
recorded, but the printed word is often erasable
and therefore doubts emerge and confusions
create fears. Fears emerge into anger. Basic
American principles hardly condone such pos-
sibilities, yet they are bandied about and taken
seriously.
A President's role is vital to the basic ideals of
this country. As long as there are doubts, they
must be confronted with dignity and with cour-
age. From_both the Republican and Democratic
conventions there are certain to emerge new
commitments. These must be considered as ob-
ligations for those emerging as the party lead-
ers in the November election. It matters little
whether a candidate is or is not an incumbent.
The national obligations must predominate and
foreign policies are not to be treated as political
mirages, as pledges in erasable resolutions. The
issue is akin to all parties and must be treated
without political bias.
It is doubtful whether the American people
tolerate the breaking of sacredpledges. There-
fore those who lead the people must surely share
these-obligations. Treating the question on this
basis, there must be re-introduced a sense of
confidence in the honor of this nation. Such an
honorable policy is not to be tampered with.
Voters must go to the polls armed" with such
confidence. That's how the dignity of this nation
will be affirmed.
PLEA FOR ACTION
In the few remaining days before the formal
closing of the current Allied Jewish Campaign,
an urgent message goes forth to the thousands
yet to be reached by the volunteer solicitors for
participation in the vital social service and
_human appeal for funds for three score of impor-
tant causes.
It is not enough to be concerned about Israel's
security: the means must be provided to
strengthen the embattled country socially,
spiritually, culturally.
There is more to membership in the commu-
nity that provides for so many needs: the 50
local and national social service and educa-
tional movements must be given proper_ sup-
port.
A
Transition from Degradation
to Dignity in ORT History
Emergence of youth from degradation to dignity, from helpless-
ness to creative labors, is mirrored in an impressive history of the
movement that has become one of the most impressively progressive
tasks in providing means for constructive labors to previously op-
pressed — and depressed — Jews.
ORT, the abbreviation for Organization for Rehabilitation
through Training which is now celebrating its 100th anniversary, is
brought alive in a warm style in the Schocken-published "History of
ORT," written by Dr. Leon Shapiro.
The book will fascinate students of
Jewish history of the past century in
its evaluation of Jewish experience,
the horrors of persecutions, the cour-
age with which difficulties were con-
fronted.
Significant also is the leadership!
Included are the names of Leon Bram-
son, Aron -Syngalowski, William
Haber.
Dr. Shapiro's "History of ORT" is a
definitive work. It is also the first
scholarly exploration of ORT's impact
and its place in the economic, social,
and educational structures of com-
munities around the world.
As ORT celebrates its centennial, it
is now a well-established system of
DR.-LEON SHAPIRO
education centered in vocational high
schools. New technologies have created new occupational skills, and
the resilience-of ORT in its adaptation to evolving job markets has
become the latest development in its history.
ORT was created to help the Jews of Czarist Russia in 1880 and
continued to focus its energies on Eastern Europe as long as that area
was the greatest center ofJewish population in the world. ORT's help
was important during the Depression years of the 1920s and espe-
cially important to the victims of Hitler when the organization was
able to reach into internment camps and even into the Warsaw Ghetto
to provide some measure of hope.
Today, ORT is a world-wide network, with its largest progr
Israel. More than half of all vocational education at the seco. _cy
level in Israel is provided by the ORT network of schools and training
units.
Where once it merely tried to supply materials and traini - hr
such simple productive skills as tailoring, today its programs em ,
such sophisiticated programs as automation and avionics. Where,at
its beginnings, its activities were confined to Czarist Russia, its work
in time spread to Europe, the Mid- and Near East, Africa, Latin
America, and the United States. Most recently, responding again to a
new human and social situation confronting emigres, it has opened
programs for Soviet Jewish refugees in Rome, Israel and New York.
Dr. Shapiro highlights many aspects ofJewish life, both past and
present, with facts and figures, incisive portraits of people who
breathed into the ORT idea and programs, and with frank examina-
tion of the concepts that give meaning to the body of ORT work.
Dr. Leon Shapiro was until recently professor of Russian and
Soviet Jewish studies at Rutgers University. He was a member of the
university's department of Hebraic Studies and of the Soviet and
Eastern Europe program faculty.