THE r - JEWISH NEWS (USN 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 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. CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ Business Manager PHILIP SLOMOVITZ Editor and Publisher ALAN HITSKY News Editor HEIDI PRESS Associate News Editor DREW LIEBERWITZ Advertising Manager Sabbath Scriptural Selections This Sabbath, the fourth day of Elul, 5740, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues: Pentateuchal portion, Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9. Prophetical portion, Isaiah 51:12-52:12. Candle lighting, Friday, Aug. 15, 8:15 p.m. VOL. LXXVII, No. 24 Page Four Friday, August 15, 1980 THE POLITICAL EMBRACE What else could be expected than an embrace after all the wrangling over policies, abilities, perspectives, and not to be ignored — ambi- tions? The party had power and attraction, and there could be no other result than an embrace at the Democratic National Convention be- tween the two leading contenders for the Presidency. That's how it works in American politics, and elsewhere as well. The party that has gained power has a chance to retain it, unless there is a revolt so drastic that the demand for a change brings results. This has happened often, but not often enough. Israel and Sweden are examples. The labor ranks, the Socialists, were in power in both countries for three decades before the con- servatives rolled to power. What'll happen there now remains to be tested. In this country the two major parties retain adherents because their political symbolism is too important to be abandoned. Therefore, the embrace. The party cannot be abandoned. Is the embrace and the party domination good for the country? Those who wish to remain in power also must make it good for the party. as well. Therefore, that which appears like a fraudulent attempt to blind the voters to realities, the party platform, must be treated with respect. Such treatment demands that the document presented as the party's pledge to the people and its ideological obligation for the four years ahead must be kept aloft as a reminder to those assuming power that pledges are not made to be broken. The voters will know how to judge between men, candidates and parties after the debates involving the two chief contenders for the major political job, as well as the third candidate who should not be counted out of the race too soon. PERSONALITIES AFLOAT Whatever may be said about the debates al- ready encountered, the accusations, charges, counter-charges and demands for attention by the candidates for the office of President, there is no denying that the personality issue will play a role in the campaign. The actors on the stage now being watched by the American people are divergent in character, in appearance, in manner of speech. One was a peanut farmer, the other an actor. Both were governors of their respective states. Neither is lacking in experience as a cam- paigner. Nevertheless, no two are ever alike. There are differences and preferences, and in politics, as in the special spheres, there are al- ways the preferences. Some attract, some repel. The personality issue is not to be ignored-. With it, however, will surely go the viewpoint of each of the contenders. How will the ideas, the policies, be treated by the voter who is a king for a day nationally once in four years? Blunders often mar an entire career. The two major candidates — in the process the third may yet play a more important role — will have to be cautious. They have the -social and economic problems to tackle on the home front and the foreign policies to be guided by. Jerusalem has become a major issue glob- ally. Will it be treated with justice by the candi- dates. Israel, and in the proce,ss Jewry, have become the targets of the bigots in the entire world. How courageously will the candidates face up to the issues? The answers will be provided in the debates in the weeks ahead. THE DIPLOMATIC GASPS Reaching the roots, the agonizing concern over the status of Israel, the gamble over the Israel-U.S. friendship, the security of a very small state that is acknowledged as being the only democracy in the Middle East, approaches reality. Lots of promises will be made in the coming months. Much talk will be directed toward the Middle East issues. Jews will be assured that the party, depending on who speaks for what, will stay close to the established American policies. What are these policies? They are uttered with frequency, but not always with total sin- cerity. There is a tongue-in-cheek diplomacy that can never be trusted fully. Jerusalem is exemplary. There is a State De- partment policy that seems determined to treat the Holy City, the City of Peace, Yerushalayim, not as the historic right of the Jewish people for whom it is inerasably sacred but as a means of flaunting it before Israel's enemies as some- thing anyone who has a church or a mosque there can aspire to. Only under Israel's ad- ministration has there been absolute religious freedom in Jerusalem. The diplomats would de- stroy it with their whims and inabal4nces.,.. Diplomacy, imbedded in the State Depart- ment, is the dominating factor. Therefore, whatever the promises by political candidates, the American policies will emanate from State. An agonizing aspect of the developing man- ipulations to strike at Israel's very existence in the matter involving Jerusalem, and the resolu- tion about its capital status that was such an unnecessary move in view of the realism of the capital status, is the attempt to line up nations now acknowledging Jerusalem's Israel-adopted status to withdraw their legations from the Holy City. This adds to difficulties in negotia- tions and is, of course, most deplorable. Therefore, the concern lest whoever is elected lacks the courage to stand firmly by Israel in a time of crisis. Jerusalem is only one of the is- sues. Those who insist on destroying Israel and who crave for recognition are the menacing fac- tor. Will the occupant of the White House commencing in 1981 have the courage to fight for the prevention of another Holocaust? This is the test. Diplomats and statesmen can either add to distortions or they can glorify the just in humankind. The electorate may have no power over either, but it can at least keep it in view while .ca§ting . the. 141ots on Nov. 4. .L---/ A Schocken Publication Jewish Names: Their History Selection, Americanization Names and choosing of them, the origin of Jewish names, their conversions from the Hebraic to the Anglicized, these and many other factors are presented in a most fascinating book on the subject. In "A Dictionary ofJewish Names and Their History," (Schocken Books) Rabbi Benzion C. Kaganoff of Chicago goes into details, listing names, relating how in lands of oppression they were imposed upon Jews, utilizes the anecdotal in outlining his informative topic. First published by Schocken in 1977 as a hardcover book, the Kaganoff volume has been reissued as a paperback. Trends for Americanization are indicated in the adoption of names, especially in the Orthodox community and among the author's Orthodox colleagues. Rabbi Kaganoff states in advance that he was surprised to learn "how uninformed and misinformed so many were about the meaning and origin of their family names." He arrives at the conclusion "the bridge between the Old World and America has become weaker and weaker between each passing generation." "The historical processes that created the name forms that ap- pear today" are thoroughly studied in this volume on names. This volume is the most extensive study of onomastics since the publication 140 years ago of "Names of Jews" ("Die Names der Ju- den") by Dr. Leopold Zunz, a founder of the Science of Judaism move- ment. Typical examples of names ofJewish families are incorporated in this study. In his description of name origins, Rabbi Kaganoff gives this example: "A classic example of multiple naming is Moses Schuster Kahn, who was also known as Moses Spanier Kahan and Moses Frosh Spanier. Schuster is an occupational surname, denoting, in German, that he was a cobbler by trade; the Hebrew-based name Kahn tells us that he was of priestly lineage; Spanier identified him as having originally come from Spain; Frosh (`frog' in German) indicates that either Moses or his forefather once lived in a house 'at the Sign of the Frog.' "This disorganized state of affairs as regards Jewish fame.,, names created great difficulties for government authorities, and st , when the German states undertook to 'emancipate' the Jews at turn of the 18th and 19th Centuries, they made an effort to regulari-- Jewish family names by requiring them to adopt fixed and permanent ones." The introduction of house signs, with picture signs that preceded the modern custom of numbering houses, is credited to the Jews in Frankfort-on-Main, in an era that was otherwise so vastly illiterate'. The house signs were in accordance with the occupants' occupations. Thus, as the author writes: "Thus, those signs are responsible for the prevalence of fish names in Jewish family hames: E.g., Fisch (the English word fish), Lachs (salmon), Hecht (pike), and Karp or Car- pels." "The most famous house sign name which Frankfort has given us is, of course, the name Rothschild (Red Shield). House Number 148 in the Jusengass bore a Red Shield," Kaganoff writes, explaining the famous Rothschild name plate. A chapter in the Rabbi Kaganoff book entitled "From Eizik to Irving: From Shayna to Shirley to Sandra" typifies the description of the "Americanization" process in name changing. A dictionary of selected Jewish names appended to this work is the helpful medium in the study. Rabbi Kaganoffs researched subject is both informative and de- lightful reading. ik I A • • II ► X 2, ;