THE JEWISH NEWS
CUSPS 275-520)
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of July 20, 1951
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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 seventh day of Kislev, 5741, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Genesis 28:10-32:3. Prophetical portion, Hosea 12:13-14:10.
Candle lighting, Friday, Nov. 14, 4:54 p.m.
VOL. LXXVIII, No. 11
Page Four
Friday, Nov. 14, 1980
HATREDS ENVELOP THE GLOBE
Few areas on the globe appear to be immune
from the anti-Semitic virus that has reappeared
and is growing at this time.
The occurrences in France are symptoms of
the experiences in many lands, including ours.
Vandalism aimed at synagogues in many
American communities has been in evidence in
many cities and is often recorded in this area.
In Suffolk County, Long Island, N.Y., there
was a spate of anti-Semitic occurrences which
seem to have a pattern for vandalism aimed at
molesting Jews and damaging synagogues.
In Hauppaugh, L.I., a task force had to be
organized to deal with the anti-Semitic inci-
dents which included the mowing of the lawn in
front of the Jewish center into crosses. Preced-
ing that, an automobile was driven onto the
sidewalk of the Jewish center, narrowly mis-
sing people leaving services.
Synagogues in Suffolk County have been de-
secrated with obscenities.
The anti-Semitic acts appear to be endless, as
this portion of a report of occurrences on Long
Island, in the New York Times, reveals:
In Port Jefferson Station, L.I., Mrs. Arnold
Zilber was virtually a p-isoner in her own home
last Thursday evening when vandals threw
rocks through the windows of the front of the
house for more than five minutes. When the
police arrived they found the attackers had
painted swastikas and the word 'Jew' on a fence.
"What officials described as the most serious
attack in Nassau County in nearly a year took
place a week ago at the Great Neck North
Senior High School, where s - andals used spray
paint to scrawl anti-Semitic slurs, obscenities
and swastikas and the letters "KKK" across the
front of the building. .
"In New Jersey, - -.ng the most recent at-
tacks was the burni of two garages owned by
Jews in Inter'. aken and
' the taping of explosives
to the window of synagogue in Wayne."
The exter , of anti-Semitic occurrences is
global. Not only in France but in Great Britain
as well the-virus of hatred is being nurtured by
the haters, as a portion of an expose in the Lon-
don Jewish Chronicle shows:
In a week when the Director of Public Pros-
ecutions has been considering action in connec-
tion with virulently anti-Semitic material dis-
tributed in the London area, a pig's head was
left in the doorway of Ruislip Synagogue on
Sunday.
"Meanwhile, evidence of a far more sophisti-
. cated anti-Semitic campaign has been related
by the Board of JewisliDeputies.
"It concerns a number of fa.ke readers' letters
which have appeared in such prestigious na-
tional journals as The Listener' and The Spec-
tator.'
"Ostensibly moderate in tone, they are calcu-
lated to promote anti-Semitism or to damage
Israel's cause by questioning the reality of the
Holocaust.
"Other methods include the equation of
Zionism with terrorism."
In the British Isles, as in many other lands, it
has become apparent that much of the anti-
Semitic propaganda stems from the hatreds
generated by Arabs, mainly under the leader-
ship of PLO adherents.
These occurrences are the vilest replicas of
the anti-Jewish movements in this country in
the 1920s and 1930s, of the Nazi era in Europe
during the Hitler regime, and the growing
neo-Nazism that has begun to menace the
1980s.
Anti-Semitism understandably strikes the
Jew first and hatred quickly spreads to embrace
the Christian as well. This was especially true
in Nazi Germany, as it was also in other lands
where bigotry was permitted to gain a foothold.
Therefore, the obligation to erase the prej-
udices are -as much Christianity's as they are of
the Jewish communities.
While the Jewish victims of these hatreds
must be the most vigilant in the resistance to
the venomous occurrences, the shame created
by the revival of anti-Semitism is mankind's.
It is to be expected that every evidence of such
revived bigotries must arouse spontaneous con-
demnations from author' des in power the mo-
ment there is evident f their emergence. Si-
lence, no matter for how brief a period, could
serve to encourage repetition of vandalism.
Vigilance is therefore the duty of all citize , s,
and those who speak as elected officials of cc 1-
munities, whether they are villages or states L
entire nations, must assert the dignity of an
honorable citizenry. This must be viewed as the
commencement of every action to protect all
elements in a population against any attempt to
spread hatred, whether it is the neo-Nazi, the
KKK or any other conceivable crackpot
hatemongering.
The bigotries of the Middle Ages and of the
recent dark years of Nazism and anti-Semitic
tirades are on the scene, claiming freedom for
barbarism, and silence in confronting them
must be adjudged to be criminal.
PROPHETS OF DOOM
In the interim period between the Carter-
Reagan administrations, the political
speculators will be a dime a dozen.
Already, there are those who forsee a "tilting"
of a sort, with President Carter exerting pres-
sures on Israel for submission of a sort.
President-Elect Reagan meanwhile is getting
"advice" on Jerusalem and the Camp David
legacies.
Charismatic Anwar Sadat wisely commends
continuity of negotiations in the Camp David
spirit, and Menahem Begin concurs. It is only on
the question of Jerusalem that there is yet to be
proper judgment to understand that the desired
freedom for all religions is attainable in
Jerusalem, the Capital of Israel.
Prophets of doom do not help very much in the
interim process between now and Jan. 20. The
realist must acknowledge that a continuity in
fulfilling the Camp David pacts must be ascer-
tained as the U.S. as well as Israel and Egyptian
policies. These negate auguries of doom.
Poetry and Art as Factors
Celebrating the Festivals
Native Detroiter David Rosenberg lends appropriate significance
to the title of his latest book, "Chosen Days" (Doubleday), in the
fascinating text in which poetry and art combine to emphasiie beauty
and dignity in festival observances.
:Mr. Rosenberg has gained stature with his translations of the
Psalms. He is the author of the equally significant "Job Speaks," and
his poetic works "Blues of the Air" and "Lightworks."
"Chosen Days" adds impressively to the impressiye record of a
poet and student of Jewish traditional experiences.
Historical events are emphasized in the festival studies provided
by Mr. Rosenberg. The fabrics of the festival celebrations are linked
with the Scriptural teachings.
goti v .vorg
In truth, in this volume Jews walk
through history with the sacred teach-
ings. It is the triumph of God that is
declared here in the renderings for
Rosh Hashana, in the drama of the
Binding of Isaac and other elements of
the legacies of Israel.
Leonard Baskin did the illustrating,
decorations which add impres-
sively to the poetry, to the evaluation
of Yom Kippur and the reading of the
Book of Jonah. In this section, the
author's poem "The Book of Jonah" is a
distinct contribution to Scriptural
literary writing.
Supplementing all of the festival
studies and their descriptive values
are poems by the author, each drawing
DAVID ROSENBERG
the inspiration that comes with wor-
ship and study of history and religious traditions.
The portion dealing with Sukkot carries the Nehemiah Decora-
tion and poems "An Unguarded Joy" and "Rain Has Fallen on the
History Books."
Hanuka, Purim, Passover, Shavuot are extensively annotate lih`
and treated poetically.
Significantly, "Holocaust Day" is a linking of Tisha b`Av with the
tragedy of the present century. Mr. Rosenberg's appropriate poem "To
Put Your Mouth to Dust" applied to this theme is among the very
deeply moving poetic works of a master poet.
The definitive portions of this notable book point to deep study
and true scholarship that mark Mr. Rosenberg's latest book. This
brief comment is especially worth noting:
"Reducing the Jewish festivals to a nostalgia for custom and
ceremony is like pretending no one had to die by the shots fired after
the original Fourth of July. Yet why bother with ancient history? To
begin with — and unlike Independence Day in America — the Jewish
festivals do not commemorate events isolated in time, but make those
events doorways out of time itself.
"On the threshold of the universal, we can become increasingly
fond of the present, or we can leap into some great mystery. It's as if
the Jewish festivals chose the former — life — with such passion that
the past and future are pulled into the embrace of the present."
David Rosenberg's "Chosen Days" is poetic, historically ana-
lytical, scholarly, impressive. The Jewish observer, the student of
history, is treated to a genuine treasure with this work.