2 Friday, October 24, 1980 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Purely Commentary Jewish Publication Society and Jewish Studies Chair at University of Detroit Gain Significance Through Efforts of Detroiters ... Presidency and High Court By Philip Slomovitz Theoretical and Speculative: High Court as Campaign Issue Campaign panic is temporary. The bemused ( what a weak term!) in the present dilemma of choosing a candidate on who to pin the coveted vote on Nov. 4, will be sobered on Nov. 5. The responsibility to be placed in the hands of the victor will chasten and will cause self-control with the responsibility that goes with the Presidency. Major for consideration is the posing of the future make-up of the U.S. Supreme Court. President Carter has not been privileged as yet to make a single appointment to the high court. The next President will surely appoint four, possibly five members to the U.S. Supreme Court. Who is to be trusted? The injected fear is that if Ronald Reagan is given the privilege of packing the court it will be ultra-conservative. Is this such a certainty? In past experience it isn't. Felix Frankfurter the Liberal became a Conservative on tine bench. Hugo Black, who hailed from the Ku Klux Klan, became a militant Liberal. Some Presidents became more liberal in office; some were blind to reality. Check the record of Franklin D. Roosevelt: he was responsible for failures in efforts to rescue victims of Nazism. A person elected President has a force that will check the danger of irresponsibility. There is a Congress. There is public opinion. There are the communications media. The fellow who goes to the polls with fears had better remember that collectively, in unity, the nation can protect itself against impending dangers from misguided officials. U of D Chair in Jewish Studies: The Vision of Leonard N. Simons The Nobellists: Hebraic Student, Human Rightist A university chair in Jewish studies is not a novelty: in a Jesuit college it is. While the University of Detroit had courses in Jewish studies in the past, the establishment of a specific profes- sorship in a specialized department is an added expression of confidence in the spirit of ecumenism that is being fos- tered in liberal ranks and in the circles of Jewish-Catholic aims for understanding and cooperation by the two reli- gious groups. That spirit has be.en especially commendable and heartening in this community, and the establishment of a chair in Jewish studies, granting a full professorship to Dr. Richard C. Hertz, is cause for communal satisfaction. Dr. Hertz, presently senior rabbi of Temple Beth El, who will assume the full professorship upon his retirement from his Temple Beth El post, will assume a new role with acknowledged qualifications and with the devotions for which he has earned communal respect. Creation of the new pro- fessorship calls for appre- ciation for the labors in that direction of the dynamic Leonard N. Simons. It is an- other element of accom- plishment in his rich career of genuine leadership and of vision _that has led him for many years towards crea- tive aims that have resulted in triumphs in constructive tasks in civic as much as in Jewish affairs. It was due to his efforts that the fund needed to es- tablish a university chair in Jewish studies was secured LEONARD SIMONS speedily. There was a ready response and what has been attained is attributable to his recognition of a need, the availability of a professor for the courses to be offered, the selection of a university whose authorities share the view that a great service can be ren- dered with the planned new collegiate department. Simons possesses the skill of organizing genius in ful- filling a task like the one he achieved for the new Univer- sity of Detroit professorship. Two faiths owe him a debt for his latest achievement. There is a heartening note on the announcements of this year's Nobel Prize winners. Selection of a human rights advocate who suffered a jail sentence in Argentina is an indication that the judges meant to give emphasis to the need for libertarianism and rejection of oppressive policies anywhere in the world. The naming of Adolfo Perez Esquivel for the Nobel Peace Prize strengthens these views. Another interesting aspect of the current Nobel Prize winners is that Czeslaw Milosz, the Lithuanian-born Polish poet, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature, is a student of Hebrew. He has already translated the Psalms from the Hebrew original into Polish and plans other trans- lations from the Scriptures. These provide special interest in the news from Stoc- kholm about this year's Nobellists. Even if it sounds a bit chauvinistic, the Jew should be permitted a sense of pride that there is always a Jewish winner among the selectees for Nobel Prizes. This year is not an exception. The awards to Professors Barju Benacer- raf, Paul Berg, Lawrence Klein and Walter Gilbert are a source of pride. Jewry has cause to be proud. What else does the Jewish people have to boast about — in addition to the spiritual- cultural triumphs in Israel — than the successes attained by Jews in the creative cultural and scientific spheres? `Lunatics Are on the March': Some Liberals Are in Trouble U.S. Senator Henry Jackson of the state of Washington warned the people of the state of Idaho that "the lunatics are on the march." He bewailed the attacks on Idaho's U.S. Senator Frank Church whose reelection is menaced by groups of ultra-reactionaries who are bent upon destroying his political career. Jackson reminded the people that he is a hawk and is attacked by the same groups who dislike Church for being a dove. The lunatics are active in many places and some of the best legislators are in danger of losing their important posts because "the lunatics are on the march." That's the real danger to America. Senator Church's struggle for re-election was utilized for a partisan analysis and a challenge to the Idaho U.S. Senator's views on military matters. In his syndicated col- umn, entitled "Jackson, Church: Strange Bedfellows," William F. Buckley, who more often than not charms his readers, accuses Church of flirting with Fidel Castro. There is usually another side to the story and the Buckley attack sounds like party preference. Isn't this what will motivate many voters when they go to the ballot box on Nov. 4? That's where Jimmy Carter may have the edge on Ronald Reagan, because the party dominates thinking and the Democrats have the numerical edge. This does not consume Church into the hellish flames lit for him by Buckley. It'll be a pity if so liberal a candidate as Church is to lose the battle for re-election to the U.S. Senate. A Major Danger: Threat to the Religious Freedoms What appears to be a major threat to the liberties of the people of this nation is the undermining of the principle of Separation of Church and State. A fellow who favors Separation has already been branded an atheist. Vice President Mondale defended him- self ably against such a charge. In the American idealism it should be recognized that freedom of religion also spells freedom for the irreligious. The secularist cannot be damned if he chooses to be a good citizen and a good man without going to church or synagogue. The Fathers of this Republic knew and under- stood this well and imbedded it in the plinciples and ideals of this nation. Now they need defenders for their idealism. Toby Holtzman's 'Fanaticism': He Asks People to Respect Books At the approaching annual Book Fair of the Jewish Community Center, aided by scores of cooperating organ- izations, an important function will be the propagandizing of the cause of the Jewish Publication Society of America. There will be a dinner in honor of the Israel poet Yehuda Amichai as well as other notables. The purpose is to popularize an important movement, the Jewish Publica- tion Society. This results from an in- . 00.— teresting "fanaticism" — Irwin "Toby" Holtzman's. Holtzman devotes all of his time and much of his money in assisting Israeli authors, sponsoring their trips to this country for pub- lic appearances, for Hebrew poets to read their works, novelists whose writings have been translated into English to tell Israel's story of a literary renaissance in which the Detroiter Toby Holtzman plays an impor- tant role. This is a "fanaticism" TOBY HOLTZMAN that deserves applause. Holtzman is propagating increased membership in the Jewish Publication Society. His "fanaticism" should bear profitable dividends. New Stage for Institute of Jewish Affairs By MAURICE SAMUELSON (Copyright 1980, JTA, Inc.) LONDON — The Insti- tute of Jewish Affairs (IJA), the research and publica- tions unit of the World Jewish Congress, this month moved into a new London headquarters in keeping with its growing prestige in Britain and abroad. With its six full-time re- searchers and their assis- tants, its 10,000 volume li- brary and huge newspaper clipping archive, the IJA oc- cupies a fashionable four- story house in the Mayfair district, a few minutes walk from the London Hilton. The IJA, transferred here from New York in 1966, had long since outgrown its cramped offices in a small courtyard about a mile north of the new address. The move enables the IJA, under the directorship of Hungarian-born Dr. Stephen Roth, to expand its program of topical lecturers and its research facilities used by Jewish organiza- tions and the general pub- lic. It is all the more re- markable as it comes at a time when many leading Jewish bodies are being driven out of the center of London by ever-rising rents. For example, the Wiener Library, the famous anti-Nazi documentation center, has left Britain al- together, transferring most of its activities to Tel Aviv. Among organizations which have quit central London are the Jewish Na- tional Fund, the Joint Israel Appeal, the Zionist Federa-. tion and the Jewish Agen- cy's aliya office. Only the IJA, therefore, is moving up in the world, and for this it largely has to thank Edgar Bronfman, acting president of the World Jewish Congress. The move is the third major landmark in the IJA's history since it was founded in 1940 in New York. It was set up by the World Jewish Congress with the dual task of processing information on Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe and drafting plans for post-war rehabilitation. After the war, it per- formed three main fuc- tions: contributing ideas for international conven- tions on human rights; preparing material for war crimes trials; and to draft the agreements on German reparations to victoms of the Holocaust. Its success in those first years was a tribute to the high caliber of its first two directors, Dr. Jacob Robin- son and his brother Nehemiah. Jacob Robinson, an international lawyer, held the post until 1948 when he became chief legal adviser to Israel's United Nations delegation. Nehe- miah held the post until his death in 1966. It was in that year that the IJA transferred to Lon- don and came under the di- rectorship of Stephen Roth. Since then, the IJA has steadily widened the range of its activities to include research on current politi- cal and sociological issues. It has three regular publica- tions on Soviet Jewry, anti-Semitism and Christian-Jewish relations. It also turns out a steady stream of background pap- ers, intended to brief Jewish organizations on world is- sues and their impact on Jewry. In addition, the IJA spon- sors major historical re- search projects. Among the results of these are Prof. Bernard Wasserstein's im- helping portant book on Britain and the Jews of Europe during World War II; Dr. Meir Michaelis's study of Musso- lini and the Jews; and a his- tory of Soviet Jewry since 1917, edited by Dr. Lionel Kochan, which has gone into three editions since 1967. All were published by Oxford University Press. Currently under prepara- tion is a study of the anti- Jewish spasm which shook Poland in 1968. It is based on interviews with former Jewish members of the Polish security organs who were themselves ousted in the 1968 purge. Other current IJA proj- ects are studies of Jews in the new left; Jews in Soviet literature after the death of Stalin; and the Jewish con- tribution to Soviet life. All this is apart from the IJA's lectures by eminent academics and politicians. . In the future it will be able to hold many of them on its own premises, which in the past have been too small for all but the most restricted gatherings. At a time of growing Jewish concern about pressures on Israel as well as on the Diaspora, such a forum is bound to be of increasing importance for the whole Jewish people.