THE JEWISH NEWS
USPS 275-520i
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of July 20, 1951
The Jewish News Publishing Co.
Copyright
Member of American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers and National Editorial Association and
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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
Business Manager
DREW LI EBERWITZ
HEIDI PRESS
Advertising Manager
Associate News Editor
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
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This Sabbath, the fifth day of Shevat, 5741, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Exodus 10:1-13:16. Prophetical portion, Jeremiah 46:13-28.
1 .4111.11.
Candle lighting, Friday, January 9, 5:01 p.m.
VOL. LXXVIII, No. 19
Page Four
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Friday, January 9, 1981
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OBSTACLES ON PEACE ROAD
No matter how belligerent the warmongers in
the Middle East, they are not having an easy
time obstructing the peace decisions of two of
the nations in that area of the world.
Charismatic Egyptian President Anwar
Sadat has not hesitated to emphasize that he
remains firm in the decision to assure the peace
of the Middle East. Israel Prime Minister
Menahem Begin, who continues to be an avail-
able target for haters in non-Jewish as well as
some Jewish ranks, collaborates in that aspira-
tion. Therefore, there has been no shooting and
no casualties on the Israel-Egyptian borders.
This is apparently what the rest of the Arab
world, notably Jordan's King Hussein, doesn't
like. It's too peaceful for them.
But the aspiration for peace is firmly upheld.
It was emphasized by the retiring President
Jimmy Carter. It will hopefully be the aim of the
President-elect Ronald Reagan.
The obstacles are the cause for concern. The
Arab world is split, there is a war in progress
there, one of the warring nations is holding
Americans as hostages in a most criminal fash-
ion. But the United Nations had nothing else to
do but to keep adopting resolution after resolu-
tion condemning Israel.
That's why the world organization, which was
organized for peace but has no other motivation
but to encourage war on Israel, is now held in
disrepute. That's why the collapse of decency in
the UN has emerged as such a calamity for
mankind.
If one searches for obstacles he finds them
also in Jewish ranks. The comfort given to Is-
rael's enemies by a lack of vision and realism
about what is happening in the world today to
affect Israel's role is the shocking demonstra-
tion of Jews who advocate submissions without
recognizing the menacing situations inherent
in every proposal by the submissive.
It is bad enough when the road to peace is
strewn with thorns in the Middle East, under
pressure from warmongers. It is worse when
Jews fail to create the unity that is necessary for
security, and perhaps also for survival.
The quest for unity is in no sense an encour-
agement to uniformity. Criticism is vital in an
atmosphere of freedom. Without realism, how-
ever, criticism often emerges as condemnation
in the language of Israel's would-be destroyers.
This is inexcusable.
To THE YOUTH IN JEWRY
Is it possible that you do not feel at home and
at ease in the presently functioning Jewish
community? Can it be that you are now ready
for a revolution to alter the existing and to adopt
new means of serving American and world
Jewry?
An addendum to the question: if you are in a
state of protesting, then it must be asked addi-
tionally: are you identified with the instrument
you wish to alter?
And if you are not associated, involved and
identified, what is the object of a protest if you
are not involved in it?
Identification also includes the obligation to
add strength to the existing forces in Jewish
life. It calls for the right to differ, the privilege of
criticizing. It denies the temptation to destroy.
It encourages alteration in providing strength.
Under no circumstance does it inspire the de-
structive.
That is why in the Ethics of the Fathers, the
Pirke Avot, there is the admonition of "Al tif-
rosh . . .," you are not to separate yourself from
the community.
A gathering of several hundred, in Washing-
ton last weekend â the report said there were
many young people in attendance â invited
participation in a new movement. The keynot-
ers said they were disillusioned with the exist-
ing organized community, That they were disaf-
fected by the Jewish leadership.
This meant rejection of the organized com-
munity that includes a score of leading national"
movements. .
Therefore the curiosity whether those who
met to disrupt the existing forces are in any way
formally associated with the existing; whether
the seekers of a new communal leadership are
in any way themselves affiliated with the com-
munity as it exists.
Creative forces are needed to criticize, to
suggest improvements. Such critical applicants
for leadership can and should be a force in
Jewish life â if they build on the solid founda :
tion that exists. This foundation needs im-
provement, not destruction, in the interest of a
new and in many respects mythical leadership.
Therefore the call to the youth in American
and world Jewry to be critical, to differ, but
never to destroy. Build on solid and sound foun-
dations, but don't undermine the existing. The
call to youth is to adhere to the "Al tifrosh . . ."
never separate yourselves from your com-
munities.
BLEAK REPORT
Increasing anti-Semitic occurrences, re-
ported by the Anti-Defamation League of Bnai
Brith in the summations of the experiences of
the past years, provide distress for world Jewry.
They contain upsetting information for Ameri-
can Jewry and for many communities in the
U.S.
Noteworthy is the reference to Metropolitan
Detroit experiences. An ADL report states that
in 1980 the major anti-Semitic occurrences here
grew to 21 from four the previous year. Consid-
ering the acknowledged fact that only major
happenings are recorded, it is reasonable to
suspect that anti-Semites were much more evi-
dent here than reported by the ADL.
These facts, added to the expanding hate
movements in European countries and the
menacing situation in the UN, represent a
warning to Jews everywhere to be on guard and
to enroll every available assistance in efforts to
overcome the threatening prejudices.
That which threatens Jews, as individuals
and communities, also becomes a danger to
their neighbors as well. The hatemongering
thus becomes a universal threat and is to be
treated as such by the communities affected.
`The Brothers Ashkenazi'
Regains Its Original Fame
For nearly an entire generation, the novel "The Brothers
Ashkenazi" was among the most popularly discussed novels. Its
theme echoed the experiences of conflicting generations, of families
whose evolutionary processes mirrored many Jewish roles.
It became a sensational theatrical theme. As a play on the Yid-
dish stage it drew record audiences in New York and on its travels in
the provinces.
Its author, I.J. Singer, gained leadership in Yiddish creative
writing. Since then his brother, Isaac Bashevis Singer, captured the
limelight as the winner of a Nobel Prize in Literature.. Now I.J. Singer
is regaining fame.
His The Brothers Ashkenazi," (Atheneum) is certain to regain
its previous fame with its reappearance in a new edition.
The new translation of this immense work, since its first appear-
ance in 1936, is by Joseph Singer, the son of the eminent author who
-became famous in his lifetime also by the then best-selling novel
"Yoshe Kalb," which also was among the most popular stage plays in
its time.
Notable about the reappearing "Brothers Ashkenazi" is the de-
scriptive introduction by Irving Howe, who not only evaluates the
novel itself but also in its relation to Yiddish; which was I.J. Singer's
medium in his published works and in the Yiddish press.
"The Brothers Ashkenazi" reconstructs a violent era in Polish
Jewish history. It is a work dealing with social problems, with the
brothers-heroes contrasting roles and aspirations, the revolutionary
occurrences, the pogroms.
The anti-Jewish happenings, the communal reactions, the
brothers' struggles as depicted in this work, all serve to remind the
reader and the student of history of a period when the challenges were
multiple and the morality of reactions to hatreds as challenging as the
threats to Jewry.
Howe paid great honor to the novelist on the posthumous appear-
ance of this novel in a translation by his son, and there are commend
tions for the remarkable new translation.
Howe comments in his introduction, which also shows the differ-
ing approaches of I.J. Singer and Isaac Bashevis Singer, the former
having written only in Yiddish, and the latter being read mainly in
English translation. Howe comments about the Ashkenazi text that
"outwardly, Singer follows the familiar curve of the social novel," the
rise and fall -of a house, an infatuation with worldliness and sub-
sequent disenchantments."
To- avoid confusion, the life story of the author of The Brothe.
Ashkenazi" should be known.
Israel Joshua Singer, the older brother of Nobel Prize-winner
Isaac Bashevis Singer, was born in 1893 in Bilgoraj, Poland, the
second of four children of a rabbi. At the age of two, he moved with his
family to Leoncin, the scene of the memoir, "Of a World That Is No
More."
In 1916, he contributed to Yiddish newspapers in Warsaw and
then in Kiev, and in the latter city his short story, "Pearls," was
published, which brought him immediate recognition.
In 1921,, I.J. Singer was hired as a correspondent for the Jewish
Daily Forward. This association lasted until the author's death, and
his articles were compiled in the book "New Russia." in 1927 he wrote
his first novel, "Steel And Iron," which was followed, five years later,
by "Yoshe Kalb." I.J. Singer came to the United States in 1934. He
died in New York on Feb. 10, 1944.
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