THE JEWISH NEWS
(USPS 275 520)
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
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CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
Business Manager
HEIDI PRESS
Associate News Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 28th day of Tammuz, 5740, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Numbers 30:2-36:13. Prophetical portion, Jeremiah 2:4-28, 3:4, 4:1-2.
Monday, Rosh Hodesh Av, Numbers 28:1-15.
Candle lighting, Friday, July 11, 8:50 p.m.
VOL. LXXVII, No. 19
Page Four
Friday, July 11, 1980
NATION LOOKS TO DETROIT
GREETINGS TO THE GOP
Delegates and alternates to the Republican National Convention, convening here next week
in the thousands from all the 50 states and the U.S. territories, are confronted with the serious
responsibilities that have accumulated as issues for the American people.
The two-party system continues to function, even when third and other party interests affect
the thinking of the nation and the approaches to the political and social needs which demand
attention and beckon for solution.
Political conventions seldom solve the nation's' problems. The decisions of the delegates
inevitably set the pace for aims to be pursued in confronting the needs that may affect the security
of the nation, the economic and social standards of the people, the foreign policies and the
treatment manner in which the basic principles of Americanism are to be treated by the legislators
who are to become the ruling power.
While party platforms often vanish as mere rhetoric, they nevertheless assert the standards by
which the elected officials are to be judged. They form the basis for demands from the people for
adherence to the principles by which respected political figures are to be guided.
This is a crucial year for the American people. The party in
power is viewed as battling for its role as the dominant factor.
Those who are to convene in Detroit already are smacking their
lips in anticipation of a triumph over the incumbents. What the
GOP delegates do in Detroit, the dignity with which they ap-
proach their responsibilities, may seriously affect the results to
be recorded in the November election.
Therefore, the convention sessions in Detroit commencing
on Monday will be expected to deal with realism and with the
spirit of American traditions, all the issues at hand, the foreign
policies, the nation's security in its relation with the rest of the
world, the economic issues, with serious consideration for the
inflationary agonies; the social and educational problems, the
relationships between citizens of differing religious views and
racial backgrounds.
The Jewish community will watch with keen interest for
the attitudes affecting Israel. The strategic role of Israel is
civicHov commitiminc. placed uppermost in the consideration of foreign affairs by the
American commitment-to Israel's progress and security.
All candidates for President have committed themselves to the continuation of that traditional
friendship. Yet there has often been evidence of the tongue-in-cheek element that creates so much
concern when a good word for Israel is sullied by flirtations with those who do not hesitate to
advocate the very destruction of Israel. Surely, from the deliberations in Detroit, there will emerge
a re-affirmation of friendship, for. Israel and for Israel's friends and protectors. Such decisions are
anticipated as inevitable.
The commitment to Israel's security is only one of the many challenges that will be on the
agenda here. Scores of other needs confront the delegates. Some relate to concern for Jews as a
religious entity. They are issues involving the basic American principle of the Separation of
Church and State. It is not a Jewish issue: it is vital to all faiths dedicated to the ideal of religious
freedom which must not be affected or injured by the injection of such needs into political disputes
or by striving for church domination over the thinking, the worship, the teaching in schools, in the
aspirations of the partisans who would dominate religiously over their neighbors.
Adherence to the Separation principle must become mandatory, else the very idea of fair play
will vanish.
No one dares to be parochial in testing American needs. It is not the Middle East alone, or the
Church-State conditions, or the black-white issue which is in no sense minimal, that are included
in the challenges for action at the GOP sessions here. The social and economic are not to be ignored.
The ERA and abortion issues are on the agenda. The delegate with a sense of responsibility will be
put to the test. It will not be the candidate for President alone who will be a subject for concern. The
principles for which he stands be uppermost in judging the results of the sessions about to open
here.
Politics need not be rancorous. It must not tolerate hypocrisy. It must seek dignity. It is not
always available, but it could be an aspiration. Because the country judges delegates to a political
convention not as self-seekers but as aspirants for the highest goals for the nation, the sessions in
Detroit are anticipated as serious, history-making days with concern for the serious consequences
over what is to develop. How the representatives are chosen to be the standard-bearers of the great
Republican Party, to be challengers for the most important political office in the world, their
aspirations and those of their party are most important issues.
In the hope that what transpires here will be in the best interests of the nation, holding out
hope for amity among all Americans and peace for mankind, this hearty greeting of welcome is
extended to the delegates who will assemble here next week for the Republican National Conven-
tion.
`Positive Thinkers Describes
Christian Science Counterpart
In "Positive Thinkers" (Pantheon), a study of the Christian Sci-
ence movement, Donald Meyer relates it to the Jewish Science advo-
cates and describes the emergence of a movement akin to the Chris-
tian.
The subtitle to "The Positive Thinkers" explains: "Religion as
Pop Psychology from Mary Baker Eddy to Oral Roberts."
The author tells about the formation of the Jewish Science
movement by Rabbi Morris Lichtenstein. Donald Meyer defines the
Lichtenstein view:
"Jewish religion was, of course, close to the 'congregational'
model, allowing for varities and innovations still within a tradition
defined by memory, teaching and self-choice. In Judaism mind cure
generated one organization of its own at least, Rabbi Morris Lichtens-
tein's Jewish Science Movement in New York, with its own publish-
ing company. Lichtenstein's first book was 'Jewish Science and
Health,' exactly a half-century after Mrs. Eddy's first edition.
"Lichtenstein was able to locate all necessary biblical authority
in the Old Testament without the New, and did not equate the power
of the universal Divine Mind with the 'Christ.' The Old Testament
prophets had been able to heal, just as had Jesus. The Talmud, too,
enjoined positive thinking."
Meyer traces the relationship of Jewish Science to the Christian
counterpart by relating the interests of other noted rabbis. He states:
"Louis Binstock of Temple Shalom in Chicago, for instance, map-
ped 'The Road to Successful Living' in 1955 following his 'The Power
of Faith' three years before. Israel Chodos of Los Angeles' Conserva-
tive Sinai Temple published 'Count Your Blessings' in 1958. But
before Peale's first success, it was a rabbi, Joshua Loth Liebman of
Temple Isarel in Boston, who wrote the book first heralding the whole
flood of postwar religious bestseller, 'Peace of Mind,' in 1946, re-
printed 30 times and reissued in 35 cent paperback in 1955.
"Still, while 'inspirational,' these books did not truly qualify in
the mind-cure evangel, for mind cure was not just inspiration.
"It is not easy to know just why Liebman chose the title he did. It
was not new. One of Rabbi Lichtenstein's books had been called 'Pr
of Mind,' too, and in it Lichtenstein expounded the mind-cure imp
tions of the title. But the chief fact about Liebman's book was its debt
to Freud, and the phrase 'peace of mind' hardly did justice to Fre i
's
meaning."
ii.
`Sincerely, Ronald Reagan'
"Sincerely, Ronald Reagan" is an appropriate title for a 224-page
paperback aimed at portraying the character of the Presidential can-
didate.
Helene von Damm, Reagan's executive secretary since 1966,
edited the letters included in "Sincerely, Ronald Reagan" (Berkley
Press).
Excerpts from Reagan's letters to students, members of his fam-
ily, friends, a large variety of people, are included in this well-edited
work.
Ms. Von Damm, now Reagan's northeastern regional financial
director, was given access to the Reagan correspondence and was thus
able to compile the letters and comments upon them.