THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

64 Friday, June 13, 1980

Marie Syrkin's 'The State of the Jews': Major Definitive Work

World Jewry's most
pressing issues, those in-
volving Israel and the
menacing problems affect-
ing her very existence, as
well as matters relating to
the experiences of Jewish
communities in the Dias-
pora, receive thorough
treatment in a volume that
is filled with analyses by
one of American Jewry's
most authoritative authors.
Marie Syrkin, in The
StaLe of the Jews" (New Re-
public Books), covers a vast
field of subjects which have
affected Jewish concerns
since the Holocaust.
Miss Syrkin, whose es-
says cover more than four
decades of journalistic
creativity as an analyst of
Jewish historical records
and experiences, renders an
important service in the
explanatory section dealing
with Israel's rebirth, the
struggle for survival, the
role of Jerusalem, the latest
demands of the Palestinians
for the creation of a Palesti-
nian state.
A defender of the
Zionist ideals, Miss Syr-
kin repudiates many of
the accusations and mis-
interpretations of Israel's
approaches to a solution
of the problems on Is-
rael's borders. In an
essay first published in
1979 and reproduced in
this volume, she deals
with the question of au-
tonomy, presents the Is-
rael viewpoint and de-
clares, in effect indicat-
ing how a Palestinian
state could operate once
Israel's existence is af-
firmed:
"The Israeli government
has repeatedly announced
its readiness to negotiate
'secure and agreed' borders
whenever the Arabs were
ready to discuss peace.
Though there are dif-
ferences of opinion with re-
gard to what should be re-
tained or returned, for the
overwhelming majority of
Israelis the conquered ter-
ritories with the exception
of Jerusalem have no value
in themselves; barring
peace, their occupation
makes defense against at-
tack easier.
The Sinai desert which
three times served as the
staging ground for Nasser's
armies, the fortified ridge of
the Golan Heights from
which Syrians shelled the
Israeli settlements at will,
the enclave of fedayeen in
Gaza, are cases in point.
Neither the empty Sinai nor
the Golan Heights present a
human problem. Gaza and
the West Bank are another
matter. There live the bulk
of the Arabs displaced by
the fighting of 1948.
"The most reasonable
solution among the many

informally discussed, the
one which does least vio-
lence to the vital interests
of the parties concerned,
is the proposal to set up a
Palestine entity on the
West Bank and the East
Bank of the Jordan.
To begin with, the actual
territory was part of historic
Palestine, until 1948 and
1922 respectively. The area

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MARIE SYRKIN

represents five-sixths of the
territory originally set
aside for the Jewish home
by the Balfour Declaration.
It is the place where most
Arab refugees already live
for the reasons of consan-
guinity and proximity al-
ready indicated.

"The dominant role of the
Palestinians in Jordan is an
open secret. Such a Palesti-
nian state could serve to
satisfy newborn Palestinian
nationalism and in condi-
tions of peace prosper eco-
nomically in partnership
with Israel. The emergence
of such a state would mean
compromises for both par-
ties to the conflict.
"Israel, regardless of vic-
tory, would have to accept
the narrow confines of its
much amputated state, and
the Arabs would have to
come to terms with the
reality of Israel."
Israel's and Jewry's
antagonists are dealt
with bluntly in Miss Syr-
kin's treatment of the
views of Arnold Toynbee,
Hannah Arendt, I.F.
Stone and others who
have derided the Zionist
idea, who have, in the
Arendt instance, ques-
tioned the resistance to
Nazism among Jews.
The Holocaust and its
after effects are dealt with
compassionately, and the
reader gets an authoritative
outline of occurrences that
have horrified civilized
communities.
Matters affecting Jewish
relations in this country,
confrontations with blacks,
the issues revolving around
quotas and the reverse dis-
crimination arising from af-
firmative action proposals
receive serious considera-
tion. Myss Syrkin exposes

the "irresponsible de-
magogues" who created and
fostered anti-Semitism
among blacks and showed
how economic and educa-
tional shortcomings in the
ranks of the blacks were un-
justly ascribed to Jews.
Pointing to the support
given by Jews to efforts to
improve the status of
blacks, Miss Syrkin reiter-
ates the strong pro-black
position of Jewish members
of Congress, as had been
publicized in an analysis
made by the Jewish Tele-
graphic Agency, indicating:
In this regard the vot-
ing record of the 23
Jewish members of the
House of Representa-
tives is instructive. In
votes on 18 key issues
selected by the Congres-
sional Black Causes as of
concern to black and
lower-income persons'
the Jewish congressmen
voted correctly in ac-
cordance with the
standards of the Black
Caucus in strikingly
greater measure than the
other members of the
House, with the excep-
tion of the Black Caucis
itself.
"Though only six percent
of the House, the Jewish
members constituted 42
percent of those with perfect
records of support for meas-
ures advocated by the Black
Caucus. The issues included
funding for lower-income
persons, Rhodesia, school
desegregation and affirma-
tive action. It should be
added that most of these
congressmen had few or no
black constituents in their
districts."
"The State of the Jews" is
a most powerful Zionist
document in its definition of
Zionist aspirations and
achievements as well as the
need to increase Zionist
studies and affiliations as
means of strengthening
Jewish interest in Israel
and the future of Jewry.
Writing as a secularist,
Miss Syrkin offers a study of
the status of American
Jewry and does not reduce
confidence in continuity of
Jewish activities as Jews in
America. Nevertheless, she
emphasizes that a full
Jewish life can be attained
only in Israel. Writing
under the title "Have
American Jews a Jewish
Future?," she contends:
"The greatest Jewish
achievement of modern
times — the creation of
the state of Israel — was
the achivement in the
main of secular Jewish
nationalism, yet in that
process all aspects of
Jewish life were re-
vivified. I said before that
the crisis of Zionism was
also the crisis of Judaism;

by the same token,
Zionism fulfilled be-
comes the chief
nourisher of Judaism!
"At an ideological confer-
ence in Jerusalem several
years ago, Golda Meir made
a paradoxical statement. In
the course of one of those in-
evitable debates about Is-
rael and the Diaspora she
declared: 'When I meet my
American friends, women
who are my contemporaries,
I am sorry for them. They
worry about their
grandchildren. My
grandchildren are in Re-
vivim, a kibutz in the
Negev, but I am absolutely
sure about them.'
"Of course, we under-
stand the nature of her con-
fidence. Grandchildren in
the Negev may pose many
serious problems in the
matter of sanitation or
safety, physical survival in
the grimmest sense, but
none in the matter of their
`Jewish' survival. Of this
Mrs. Meir could be more
sure than her American
friends. She might have to
worry about the strategy of
defense against invaders
but not at all about the
strategy of keeping them
Jewish.
"This Jewish life which
once more has full opportu-
nity to flourish has its rich
Jewish spiritual character
whatever the nature or ab-
sence of formal religious
commitments. The vision of
a social justice which ani-
mates Israel's founding
fathers stems more from the
Prophets than from Marx,
or perhaps it would be truer
to say that in Israel
Socialist doctrine has been
divested of its alien mate-
rialist guise.
"The rift between the
faith and the people,
which gapes ever wider
in the contemporary
Diaspora until it
threatens to become the
abyss in which both will
be swallowed, has been
closed in - the Jewish
state.
"I should not like to be
misunderstood. I do not be-
lieve that the existence or
well-being of American
Jewry is threatened. Nor do
I believe that the only good
life for a Jew is in the
Jewish state. American
Jews certainly know the
good life — and I use the
term not ignobly — as equal
participants in American
democracy. But a complete
life as a Jew can only be ex-
perienced in full sincerity in
the Jewish state."
There is a note of pes-
simism in Miss Syrkin's
"The State of Jews." In her
introductory essay she de-
clares:
"Since 1948 American
Jews have demonstrated
their deep emotional in-
volvement in the fate of the
Jewish state by unprece-
dented financial and politi-
cal support. They fell short
of Zionism's ultimate de-
mand — large-scale immi-
gration to help build the
young country — largely
because their sense of being
at home in America was au-
thentic, and, for most Jews,

stronger than the wonder of
a Jewish homeland.

"At the same time,
pressures to which Jews
were particularly vul-
nerable began to appear
in the fabric of American
society. These did not
signify a recrudescence
of gross anti-Semitism
but something more sub-
tly threatening.
"Since the sixties a new
gospel as to what consti-
tutes justice in a democracy
has been proclaimed.
Equality of opportunity,
once interpreted as the
right of the individual to
advance without regard for
race and religion, has be-
come more associated with
group rights.. What once
would have been viewed as
the failure of democracy in
the new ideology has be-

come its triumphs.
"When in the twenties I
was appointed to a New
York high school purely on
the basis of rank in the
examination lists, despite
the ethnic or religious pref-
erences of my principal, this
was hailed as progress. But
today 'meritocracy' is a
fashionable word of con-
tempt; the form of the good
- society is being cast in a
different mold. In such a
transvaluation, American
Jews — who constitute only
21/2 percent of the popula-
tion — are bound to bP
among the chief losers."
As a documentary oi
major Jewish concerns, as a
definitive work on Zionism,
"The State of the Jews" is
must reading for all who are
concerned with the prob-
lems affecting Israel and
Jewry at this time.

Boris Smolar's

`Between You
. . and Me'

Editor-in-Chief
Emeritus, JTA
(Copyright 1980, JTA, Inc.)

THE CONVENTION SEASON: The season of con-
ventions of national Jewish organizations is almost over.
However, they did not overshadow the problems and
realities within American Jewish life. Problems faced by
the American Jewish community were widely analyzed
and discussed, including the constantly growing rate of
intermarriage, low Jewish fertility, the rise of the propor-
tion of Jewish aged in need of aid, the moving of Jews to the
south and west of the country which affects Jewish family
life and Jewish communal life, the increase in divorces,
Soviet-Jewish immigration, U.S. legislation affecting
Jewish communal interests, Jewish-Christian relations,
the issue of whether women should be admitted to the
rabbinate, and numerous other problems.
Nevertheless, the question how can American Jewry
help Israel in the very critical situation in which she may
find herself in the coming months was foremost on the
minds of the delegates.
ARABS AND THE U.S. ELECTIONS: This is a year
of Presidential elections in the United States, and Arab
rulers have chosen this year to flex their muscles in the
Arab-Israel conflict in order to test their own power of
influencing the U.S. as compared with the influence of
American Jewry. This is not even an anti-Israel test but
one against the Jews in the United States. And the test is
centered on the fate of Jerusalem.
The Jerusalem issue, hitherto comparatively dormant,
is now being brought to the front by Arab rulers in full
force. They know that in an election year the candidates
running for President — as well as the political parties
nominating them — are competing for Jewish votes and are
therefore inclined to commit themselves to pledges for
Jewish causes, especially for the cause of the state of Israel.
The Arab rulers are therefore embarking now on a strategy
of not only trying to prevent the making of such pledges;
they also seek to utilize the situation to secure a pledge for
themselves — a pledge that Jerusalem will be put under
Arab control. •
The ruler of Saudi Arabia has now signaled to the
United States to this effect. He indicated that he intends to
raise the price of oil after the election results. He will
probably do it anyway, but he obviously believes that hic
blackmail threat can influence the candidates running
President to be careful in making pro-Israel statemei,,,
during the election campaign. He is also pressuring Err -
tian President Anwar Sadat and the U.S. to alter the C
David policies and include Jerusalem in the territories to
be ceded from Israel.
Jumping on the bandwagon of the Saudis is the King of
Jordan — a very small figure in the Arab world — who now
insists that Old Jerusalem be declared part of Jordan in the
present Egyptian-Israeli negotiations, otherwise he will
not join these negotiations at a time when the U.S. govern-
ment as well as Egypt are most anxious to see him become a
negotiating partner.
JEWISH-CHRISTIAN RELATIONS IN U.S.: One
of the most important problems discussed at the conven-
tions dealt with Jewish-Christian relations in this country.
Strains have developed during the last few years in the
relations between Protestant groups and the Jewish com-
munity.

