THE JEWISH NEWS
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Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of July 20, 1951
The Jewish News Publishing Co.
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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 19th day of Tevet, 5741, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
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Pentateuchal portion; Exodus 1:1-6:1. Prophetical portion, Isaiah. 27•6-28:13; 29:22-23.
Candle lighting, Friday, December 26, 4:48 p.m.
VOL. LXXVIII, No. 17
Page Four
Friday, December 26, 1980
PERMISSIVENESS IN THE UN
For nearly three decades, the United Nations
provided a platform for hatred steeped in lies.
The spreading venom has been exposed numer-
ous times, by many. It has never been a secret
that anything could be perpetrated in the world
organization if it was aimed at Israel and at the
Jewish people.
In exposing the lies resorted to in attacks on
Israel and on Zionism, public opinion has been
asked to realize that when the enemies of Israel
spoke against Zionism while maintaining that
they really were not attacking Jews, their
anti-Zionism was anti-Semitism.
More than once, Arab spokesmen resorted to
such vile lies about Jews and Judaism that their
anti-Semitic utterances were fully evident, al-
though they are themselves Semites.
The most recent anti-Semitic outbursts in the
UN General Assembly induced a New York
Times editorial writer to utilize an old defini-
tion of anti-Semitism, "Socialism of Fools," as
the title of this editorial:
"Stereotypes are like hand grenades; they
often explode on you before they're thrown.
Arabs rightly protest terms like tAbscam' and
the stereotyping that paints them as rapacious
sheiks turning OPEC spigots and banking in
Zurich.
"Well, maybe that reminder will bring home
our disgust with the diplomats who have been
resorting to even uglier forms of another anti-
Semitism at the UN. It is a well-known fact
that the Zionists are the richest people in the
world and control much of its destiny,' said Jor-
dan's ambassador the other day, claiming as
evidence that Lord Rothschild secretly controls
the price of gold and South Africa's Harry Op-
penheimer manipulates -diamonds and
uranium. (Need one 'disprove' this claptrap by
noting that Mr. Oppenheimer, recorded in
Jewish records at birth, is a member of the Ang-
lican church?)
That such hateful lies should be spoken
anywhere is bad enough. That diplomats could
speak them in the General Assembly without
immediate censure is appalling. And Jordan's
anti-Semitic bilge was merely the worst of sev-
eral recent outbursts there. Having promoted
the reckless theory that 'Zionism' is the equal of
'racism,' the members of the UN seem ready to
tolerate the most explicit racism, provided only
that it comes in an anti-Israeli context.
"Truth may be too much to expect in a world
organization that prides itself on hearing every
point of view and letting the most extreme ket-
tles vent their steam. But is this the level of
argument that Jordanian, or Palestinian, or
anti-Israeli policies now generate? The Israelis,
even as they finally rose in justified outrage,
must have had cause for quiet satisfaction at the
paucity of reason among their adversaries.
"August Bebel, a German Marxist, observed
long ago that anti-Semitism can be the
'socialism of fools.' He said it lets racist de-
magogues masquerade as leftists, ensnaring
peoples while pretending to oppose power and
privilege. That some monarchies can be foolish
is hardly news. But when, even falsely, they
summon the mobs against power and wealth
they only volunteer to become the first victims
of their venom."
The shame that spells United Nations has
turned into an inhuman outrage in the years of
Arab-Soviet organized hatreds of Israel and
Jewry. Why did it take the "Socialism of Fools"
to inspire the expose of. the disgraceful acts
permitted by the statesmen of the world in the
movement that was formed to make peace and is
instead mobilizing to make war on the small
Jewish state?
It is a question that has demanded an answer
for many years. Yet, when the guilty nations
that permit the permissiveness of anti-
Semitism meet in the UN General Assembly,
they always subscribe to the hatred of Jews and
Israel. That'S the shame spelled UN!
American aid to the UN is major and has been
a subject of controversy in legislative quarters.
The ADL protest against such assistance cannot
be ignored. The mere fact that it was necessi-
tated is in itself a rebuke to irresponsibility, to
the factors which have led the world organiza-
tion along roads of indignity, prejudice and com-
fort to anti-Semites.
A recent Gallup poll shows: The public's
rating of the United Nations performance has
declined to a 35-year low point. Currently, only
three Americans in 10 feel that the UN is doing
a good. job. Only 31 percent of those questioned
approved of the work of the United Nations, 16
percent expressed no opinion and 53 percent
disapproved. Things were quite different in Gal-
lup's 1956 survey. Then 51 percent said that the
United Nations was doing a good job, 37 percent
a poor job, and 12 percent had no opinion. In
1956 the United States and its allies dominated
the world organization and the great rush of the
Third World nations was still to come."
It is true that in the last anti-Israel resolution
adopted by the UN General Assembly theile was
a drop in support for the would-be Israel de-
stroyers, but the opposition voices were mainly
silent. It is this that is to be regretted and the
hope must be entertained that eventually there
will be an awakening of humanism in the world
organization. While this now appears hopeless,
there is never an end to hopes, difficult as the
obstacles for obtaining them may be.
NEED MAJORITY
Regardless of the result of the forthcoming
election in Israel, whether it is to be held as
scheduled next November or earlier if the oppo-
sition triumphs in securing a no-confidence vote
rebuking Prime Minister Menahem Begin, one
thing is accepted as a certainty: unless there is a
majority vote for the voters' choice of a ruling
party, Israel's agonies will remain endless.
The present coalition is subservient to the
ultra-Orthodox elements who reject com-
promises, who make demands which hold the
elected officials in check, who impose restric-
tions which make the Conservative and Reform
Jews the only religious element under restric-
tions in a country where there is otherwise com-
plete religious freedom for all other faiths.
It is difficult to anticipate a majority for any
party in a country where there are 20 competing
parties. If it can be achieved, as David Ben-
Gurion always hoped it would, Israel will attain
a new opportunity for domestic glory.
A
F?
in. Rescuing Danish Jewry
Danish Jewry's escape from the Hitler threat of mass incarcera-
tion in the Theresienstadt concentration camp and eventual extermi-
nation remains among the most - impressive tales of heroism on the
part of the people of Denmark who assisted in the rescue operations.
The October 1943 organized escape of 8,000 Danish Jews into
neutral Sweden has been described in a score of books. The factual
experience was detailed by Harold Flender in his "Rescue in De-
nmark," published in 1963. It has just been re-issued as a paperback
by Schocken Books.
Flender's detailed account of the occurrences provides an historic
record of a tragedy averted. It gives all the details of the German plans
and how they were frustrated.
It gives full credit to the role of Georg Ferdinand Duckwitt, a
member of the German ambassadorial staff in Copenhagen, who was
outraged by the Hitler plans and warned of the plot by giving the
details of the impending danger on Sept. 25, 1943 to Per Albin
Hansson, the Swedish prime minister. The Swedish diplomat said he
wanted German consent to welcome Danish Jews. This inquiry was
ignored.
Then there were developments which called for action and the
Jewish leaders were alerted to the approaching danger. It led to
Denmark's Chief Rabbi Marcus Melchior's admonition to Jews, on the
eve of Rosh Hashana, to escape immediately.
Then the dramatic operation began, Danish fishermen taking the
escapees on the two-hour boat rides . to Sweden. The German boats
ws:ef4Depthark to the death
that were readied t4::tratiggpri,"*.:Je
• -
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camps remained empty.
The Christians of Denmark, theli6noilible German official,
Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz, the people of Sweden, share in the glory
of having averted a massacre of an entire community of Jews.
Harold Flender mentions many names of the heroes who were
with Duckwitz in the ranks of the rescuers. In his preface to "Rescue
in Denmark" he makes this comment:
"I have not been able to include all of the names that should be
included. To do so would require a volume of smaller print and
larger size than the Manhattan telephone directory, for virtually the
entire Danish population participated in the rescue of the Jews.
"On the outskirts of Jerusalem stands a large building known as
Yad Vashem. It is a monument to the atrocities perpetrated against
the, Jews during World War II. It is a necessary reminder, as was the
Eichmann trial, of the depths of depravity to which mankind is capa-
ble of sinking. Perhaps now is the time of another type of monument
— one dedicated not to despair but to hope, not to death but to life.
This monument would be a reminder of those who risked and oft
sacrificed their lives that others might have their alloted time c
earth.
"Not all monuments need be of stone or marble. Perhaps the
longest-lasting monuments are those in the minds and hearts of men.
To that purpose this story of the Danish rescue of the Jews is de0:
cated."
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Hanuka Novelized
"Heroes of Hanuka" is a novel. Therefore, a review of the story is
as suitable after Hanuka as during the festival.
Donald Lieberman, the author of "Heroes of Hanuka" (Ktav) is a
California doctor who has made a deep study of the Hellenistic period.
Dr. Lieberman drew upon all the characters in the Hanuka story.
He has drawn his cast of characters based on historical records, and
his masterful style has transformed the historical into suspenseful
modern storytelling.
"Heroes of Hanuka" does not deviate from fact. This makes the
historical novel suitable for all occasions, while it primarily em-
phasizes the heroes of the Festival of Lights.