2 Friday, January 23, 1981
THE- DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Purely Commentary
A Blessed Day for Captives,
and as a Farewell to Carter
End of the Period of Horrors and the Lesson for
Mankind Never Again to Permit the Uncivilized
Resort to Abusing Honorable Diplomatic Relations
of Israel. He was the discoverer of the heavy form of hydro-
gen — deuterium — and made major contributions to space
exploration and to scientific explanations for the evolution
The final day in the administration of President Carter of the universe and the origin of life. Throughout his life,
was a blessed one for the captives. It provided a sense of since receiving the Nobel Prize in 1934, he was a critic of
cheer for the-President on his last day at the White House. military force.
It was blessed because it spelled release from an out-
His interest in Is-
rageous captivity. It -was cheering for the retiring President
rael was manifested
because it ended the saddest element in his administration.
on many occasions,
For the nation it was not only relief from horrible
and one of his most
tensions: it served as a warning never again to trust to
impressive speeches
chance in dealing with horror. The end of terrorism is a
in support of the
warning to prevent its repetition.
Jewish state was in
For the captives it was not only relief from misery,
an address in De-
cessation of tensions, but hope for more glorious days for
troit at a dinner
America into whose environs they must now adjust again
meeting of the De-
as human beings, as citizens of the land in whose diploma-
troit Chapter of the
tic services they were subjected to tyranny. An end to a
American Technion
barbaric act does not condone forgetting the barbaric. Re-
Society.
membering it, it demands caution and protective measures
Among his defini-
never again to permit recurrence of the 444-day abduction
tive statements was
committed by a government which was wrongly judged as
the following:
responsible in a civilized age.
It is to be ex-
Sizzling Middle East Cauldron
pected that if any
aggressive war is
and Its Warnings to Those
undertaken by the
Who Make Israel the Scapegoat
United States
The Middle East is a boiling cauldron. The Arab na-
DR. HAROLD UREY
there would be a
tions are divided, warring, territorially greedy.
very determined minority at least who would choose
The Arabs themselves, with the exception of the Egyp-
concentration camps and death rather than sanction
tians, refuse to take their own animosities and threats to either actively or passively the total immorality of a
their existence into consideration when they combine on
preventive aggressive war.
hatred for Israel. Israel remains the scapegoat while the
The Christian and Jewish religions have too
area is torn asunder by internal bigotries.
strong
a hold on the morals and ideals of our people to
The "substance of Arab unity" is defined
permit them to do otherwise.
authoritatively by responsible analysts, thus:
Briefly the democratic institu-
"If we look at a map of the Arab homeland, we
tions of the United States must be
can hardly find two countries without conflicts
effectively destroyed before such an
which have either already erupted or are about to
aggressive war is possible.
explode. We can hardly find two countries which
Albert Einstein had a great role in the
are not either in a state of war or on the road to
research that led to the nuclear dis-
war." This was stated by Syrian Foreign Minister
coveries. Harold Urey was the chemical
Khaddam at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers
genius who discovered the hydrogen
in Oman, as quoted on Nov. 28 by London Times
power. Both men were pacifists. Both
commentator Richard Owen.
•
were devoted to the Zionist liber-
Owen goes on to list some of the inter-Arab wars
tarianism. Glory to both names which
and conflicts referred to by Khaddam: Morocco-
symbolize peace and justice for Israel
Algeria, Libya-Tunisia, Libya-Egypt, Libya-
Einstein
and Jewry.
Sudan, Libya-Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia-
Bahrain and Qatar, Saudi Arabia-North Yemen,
Saudi Arabia-South Yemen, South Yemen-North
Yemen, South Yemen-Oman, Oman-Ras al-
Haima, Abu Dhabi-Dubai, Iraq-Iran, Iraq-
Kuwait, Iraq-Syria, Syria-Jordan, civil wars in
Lebanon, Syria and Sudan, and internal jolts in
By DR. WILLI
understanding among all
all the Arab - states against the background of the
GUGENHEIM
groups of the population. It
restless ethnic-religious-ideological minorities,
Zionist Information
is a founding member of the
and in view of the fact that most of the leaders
News Service
World Jewish Congress.
have a narrow power base.
GENEVA — According to
The SIG unites 24
Anis Mansour, editor of the weekly October and
the 1970 census, there are communities: small and
Sadat's personal adviser, on Nov. 23 compares the
20,268 Jews in Switzerland, large, Orthodox and Lib-
Arab summit in Amman to the Tower of Babel
representing three per eral, German-Swiss and
whose occupants were unable to communicate
thousand of the general
French-Swiss. This uni-
with one another, but rather fought each other.
population. Of these,' only versality explains the
Guardian commentator, David Hirst, writes on
11,977 are Swiss citizens.
strength of the SIG as
Nov. 25 that the Amman summit constitutes a
Some 58.4 percent of Jews well as its limitations. Its
polar contrast to the essence of the event: it re-
live in German Switzer-
strength is that it is the
flects the inescapable Arab split and the disinte-
land; 37.5 percent in officially recognized
gration of the anti-Sadat "front."
French, and 3.9 percent in representative of Swiss
The Egyptian Al-Ahram asserts that the Pales-
Italian Switzerland. The Jewry, its spokesman in
tinian issue has been dwarfed by the inter-Arab
most important centers are all matters concerning
disputes. This appraisal is reinforced by a car-
Zurich (5,477), Geneva Jews. Its limitation is
toon that appears on Nov. 22 in the Kuwaiti AI-
(3,128), Lau4anne 1,394), primarily that in order to
Anba, showing the Arab's incredulity in the face
Basel (2,071) and Bern
maintain its overall
of the list of disputes that are on the agenda of the
(561).
character, the SIG must
Amman summit: first the inter-Arab disputes, and
The Jewish population in strictly respect the au-
only at the end does the conflict with Israel ap-
Switzerland
has remained tonomy of its member
pear.
That's how it has developed not only in the Middle East almost stationary in recent communities, their pri-
years; the relative propor- vate interests and the
but in the consideration of the area's problems by the West-
ern worlds — that only under complusion is the role of tion of Jews in the general various religious trends.
population is steadily de-
Israel taken into consideration.
The reason for founding
creasing. Furthermore, the SIG in 1904 was to take
Kurt Waldheim, when challenged on the issue, is apolo-
getic, defensive, but never admits the totality of hatred for there are signs of aging whatever joint action was
within the Jewish popula- possible to remove the
Israel.
The developed situation proves one point: the tion.
specific prohibition against
availability of Israel for scapegoatism. It doesn't matter
The Schweizerischer Is- shekhita ( kosher slaughter-
that Iran is fighting Iraq, that Lebanon is war-torn. Israel, raelitischer Geirieindebund ing) inserted in the Swiss
unites the haters. Even the leader of the Lebanese Chris-
(SIG), the Swiss Jewish Federal Constitution fol-
tians, Major Saad Haddad, is ignored by all, including the Federation of communities, lowing a plebiscite in 1903.
U.S. State Department, because his allies are the Israelis.
is the all-embracing organ- In 1907, the Federal Court
Such is the glory of modern-day statesmanship.
ization of Jewish com- upheld a contention by the
munities. The SIG fights Swiss Jewish Federation of
Harold Urey, the Pacifist:
anti-Semitism and other Communities that the pro-
His Deep Interest in Technion
forms of racial or religious hibition applied only to
discrimination and quadropeds and did not
Dr. Harold Urey, the Nobel Prize winner in chemistry,
endeavors to promote better apply to the slaughter of
who died Jan. 5 at the age of 87, was a pacifist and a friend
By Philip
Slomovitz
Michigan State University
Overseas Study Programs
Merit Proper Communal Support
A community like Metropolitan Detroit Jewry is sel-
dom if ever without some kind of fund-raising campaign.
Even in the midst of the major task to assure support
for Israel and her institutions and the local and national
agencies represented in the Allied Jewish Campaign, there
are drives on the fringe.
Priorities are never ignored. Therefore the appeals
that are made for the universities and research projects in
Israel, Bar-Ilan, Technion, Weizmann Institute, He' - - v
University, Ben-Gurion, Tel Aviv and Haifa univen
receive proper responses.
While the burdens are great, there are occasional
supplementary needs which must be provided for.
It is discouraging to learn that the Michigan State
University Overseas Study programs are affected by obsta-
cles. The increased air fares, the inflationary costs and the
expensive aspects of enrolling students in such study mis-
sions are so serious that some portions of planned student
missions to Israel already are being abandoned.
It is in the interest of continuing such programs, their
educational values, the training they provide in Jewish
ranks for future leadership and among non-Jewish partici-
pants for a closer relationship with Israel and Jewry, that
the imperative need is to support such programming.
Two of the Israeli aspects of this program are the Social
Science Summer Term, conducted by Prof. Donald
Gochberg, and an emphasis on the humanities, conducted
by Prof. Jacob J. Climo.
Unless student participation is subsidized, student
participation may well be not only very difficult but nigh
impossible. This is where community backing for the pro-
gram becomes mandatory.
Surely there are enough concerned individuals who
will be willing to provide financial aid to supplement costs
for interested students to participate in and assure the
continuity of the Israel Overseas Study Programs at MSU.
The appeal for such aid is especially vital in a statement by
Thea Glicksman, an administrator of the MSU programs.
The anthropological study tours have already been
curtailed. It can be revived with proper assistance. The
other programs should not be made to suffer.
In spite of the great needs in other fields and the mul-
tiplicity of fund-raising efforts, it is to be hoped that suffi-
cient support will be given the Michigan State University
study programs to assure their workability.
Report on the Swiss Jewish Community
Shows a Stationary and Aging Population
poultry.
Since 1926, the SIG has
been the exclusive importer
for kosher meat and is the
administrator of distribu-
tion quotas.
A majority of the Swiss
voted in a 1973 plebiscite on
the revision of the Federal
Constitution in favor of re- .
placing the 1903 prohibi-
tion of ritual slaughter with
a general article for the pro-
tection of animals. This
would not have changed the
situation as such, but it
would have eliminated dis-
crimination.
However, in spite of re-
peated efforts by the SIG,
not even minimal conces-
sions were made in the
two houses of Parliament
in the new 1977 law, al-
though the economic
interests of various
groups, poultry factories
for example, were given
consideration. In a
strongly worded state-
ment, the SIG protested
the hypocritical attitude
that disregarded the reli-
gious rights of a minority
but yielded to economic
pressure groups.
The major problem of
Swiss Jews is assimilation.
In 1971, of each 100 Jewish
men and women contract-
ing marriage, there were 50
mixed marriages. In the
non-Orthodox communities
some of the youngsters who
feel committed to Judaism
go on aliya; the indifferent
ones mostly keep aloof from
community life.
Swiss Jews are among the
largest per capita con-
tributors to the United Is_-
rael Appeal. The sums col-
lected for Israel far surpass
the total amount of the
budgets of the communities,
the SIG, and the Jewish
welfare organizations.
Jewish education is
given in the religion
classes of the com-
munities (two to 15 hours
a week). Only the
raelitische
gionsgeselschaft" in
Zurich has a Jewish day
school.
There is a chair of
Judaism in Lucerne, and
the library of the Zurich
Jewish community is the
most important Jewish li-
brary in German in all
Europe. It contains a cen-
tral catalogue of all Judaica
in Swiss libraries.
There is a Jewish
museum in Basel. There are
two Jewish weekly news-
papers: Israelitische
Wochenblatt published in
Zurich, and Judische
Rundschau-Maccabi pub-
lished in Basel. Both are in
German and French.