THE JEWISH NEWS
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Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue ofJuly 20. 1951
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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 26th day of Sheuat, 5741, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Exodus 21:1-24:18. Prophetical portion, Jeremiah 34:8-22: 33:25-26.
Tuesday and Wednesday, Rosh Hodesh Adar I, Numbers 28:1-15.
Candle lighting, Friday, January 30, 5:26 p.m.
VOL. LXXVIII, No. 22
Page Four
Friday, January 30, 1981
TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE
It is true that time is a healer, that many
problems often are solved by resorting to pa-
tience in time.
Nevertheless, there are experiences which
teach never to delay action when it is required
to offset human follies, that firmness when
there are obstacles that threaten life is an obli-
gation.
An old bit of advice, "Go to the ant, ye slug-
gard," urges action in time, on time.
This could be interpreted as relating to a bit of
Jewish scholarly wisdom, "Time will free the fly
and cage the eagle," the interpretive by Ab-
raham Hasdai (circa 1230), the Hebrew scholar
and translator.
The test of time emerges in two current ex-
periences, the release of the illegally captured
in Iran and the crime committed by the Soviet
Union against Raoul Wallenberg.
Should the freeing of the hostages be viewed
in jubilation, or should the expression of
gratitude for the freeing of the unfortunates
who were imprisoned for nearly r5 months be a
cause for solemn stocktaking?
They suffered too long, the men and women
who were in the service of the United States and
who were the victims of abuse of their rights.
Now it is asserted authoritatively that pre-
cautions will be vital, that there will be the need
for action against terrorism or any form of
threats to assignees in embassies and other rec-
ognized centers for government action or as-
semblies. If this is the lesson, why not the obli-
gation for action whenever there is danger to
innocent people?
Then there is the lesson in the demand to.
ascertain the fate of Raoul Wallenberg. The
Swedish hero rescued tens of thousands of Jews
by his ingenuity, his courage, his fearless de-
fiance of the Nazis in Budapest. Then came the
hour of Liberation of Hungary by the Soviet
Union, and Wallenberg was arrested without
reason.
Nearly 36 years have passed. During the al-
most four decades the Russians several times
contradicted themselves, claiming Wallenberg
was dead. But there are witnesses who main-
tain they had seen him in Russian jails.
The conference of interested people, represen-
tatives from the United States, Great Britain,
Sweden and other lands, gathered in Stockholm
to ascertain world piiblic opinion in the demand
that the USSR free Wallenberg.
Hope had fled in the Wallenberg case, and it is
now being revived that possibly the Russians
will show compassion and will exercise justice.
In this case too, there is the painful question:
Why the delay? Why the waiting for more than
35 years to act?
There was a courageous group, in addition to
members of the Wallenberg family, who as-
serted themselves.
There should have been stronger efforts to
free Wallenberg during the years of waiting.
Iran and the USSR emphasize the challenges
to mankind not to delay efforts to rescue human
lives when the dangers arise.
Indeed, time is of the essence. Let the two
instances just recorded serve as lessons for fu-
ture action.
CONFRONTING TERRORISM
Welcoming the hostages, expressing the ela-
tion of all Americans, of all peoples with a sense
of decency, responsible governments now are
confronted with the duty of curbing terrorism
and of ending the threats to human lives. The
responsibility in such a confrontation is primar-
ily in denouncing whatever encouragement
may hive been given officially and even infor-
mally by responsible governments.
This applies not only to the Iranian
brutalities. It has an aspect in the United Na-
tions.
In Taif, Saudi Arabia early this week, the
hate for Israel took on new dimensions with
plans to re-inaugurate a campaign for Israel's
expulsion from the UN. It was part , of the
scheme to effectuate Israel's destruction. It gave
credence to a declaration a few days earlier, by
Saudi Arabian officials, propagating a jihad, a
holy war, against Israel. The meetings in Taif
were addressed by UN Secretary General Kurt
Waldheim who was pleading for Islamic unity
to mediate the Iran-Iraq war. Why was he silent
on Israel's status in the world organization, on
the outrageous campaign to destroy Israel? It is
on this score that world public opinion should be
expressed condemning encouragement to ter-
rorism in the Middle East. Silence in a matter
involving Israel's very life means an endorse-
ment of terrorism.
With regard to the freeing of the hostages and
prevention of recurrence of the barbarism
against Israel, Israel's former Minister of De-
fense Moshe Dayan called attention in an arti-
cle in Monday's Detroit News listing the many
acts of terrorism that were perpetrated against
diplomats of several countries. He charged,
especially in instances of accusations of the
non-existent Jewish involvement that fanati-
cism was permitted to take its course.
He made the important point, which should
be accepted as a principle in human relations
that when the PLO operated against our bor-
der settlements with the knowledge and coop-
eration of Egypt, Jordan and Syria, we informed
our neighbors that should our settlements not
be allowed to live in security then their settle-
ments would also be unable to live in peace."
Dayan insists that the United States should
not act with weakness, stealth or apology." This
should be a basic principle in dealing with all
terrorist acts. It is a duty to strive to prevent
barbarism. Perhaps new leadership will emerge
on that score, and the UN secretary general
should not be freed from such a duty.
The warning to terrorists by President
Ronald Reagan that bestialities will not be
tolerated could well be a new path toward pre-
venting the barbaric acts that have been ex-
perienced by the Amerucan hostages and others
who suffered from barbarism. The President's
warning is a step in the right direction.
New Dreyfus Affair Research
Defines Anti-Semites' Roles
Many incidents, historically traced, lend special significance to a
new book about L'Affaire Dreyfus.
Dr. Robert L. Hoffman, professor of history at State University of
New York at Albany, in "More Than a Trial" (Macmillan — Free
Press), explains why it took 12 years to ascertain the innocence of
Alfred Dreyfus, why there were riots and a divided France on the
issue, the anti-Semitism that became an issue that created world
concern over the rising hatreds.
Utilizing the artifacts at the Harvard University Library, and
recent studies on the affair, Dr. Hoffman shows how the trial's effects
had an influence on French political and social affairs in later years.
He also indicates how the Zionist movement was affected by the trial.
The personalities who gained world fame are fully represented in
the Hoffman book. Emile Zola's role, his condemnation of the anti-
Dreyfusards prior to writing his famous "J'Accuse" and thereafter,
his own battle against his persecutors, are fully described.
Leon Blum, Georges Clemenceau, Dreyfus' brother Mathieu,
the Daudets, the villain Estherhazy, the anti-Semites who joined in
the persecutions, Anatole France, Theodor Herzl whose Zionist
pioneering was inspired by the Dreyfus trial, Grand Rabbi Zadok
Kahn of France, the Jewish leader and writer Bernard Lazare and
many others are in the cast of characters of the drama impressively
retold in the Hoffman book.
Many works have been written on
the subject. Dr. Hoffman's "More Than
a Trial" gets to the root of why the
affair turned France into a people di-
vided, inciting it nearly to civil war.
Cartoons reproduced in this book, the
Harvard-preserved artifacts by the
late Lee M. Friedman and other works
newly applied to the latest Dreyfus
historical record lend importance to
the new work on the subject.
"Crusaders for Dreyfus" must be
credited as expressing deserved trib-
ute to men like Clemenceau and Zola
who came to Dreyfus' aid.
Dr. Hoffman contends that the
anti-Dreyfusards "found their revenge
through the like-minded Vichy regime
of 1940 to 1944."
One now hears about the Actions
CAPTAIN DREYFUS
Francaise. It is therefore important to
note the comment Eby Dr. Hoffman in relation to the anti-Semitic
elements in the aftermath of the Dreyfus drama:
"Where the intellectuals sought to relocate their mystique in
some form of socialism, anti-Dreyfusards found their mystique con-
served and revitalized in the ideology of Charles Maurras and the
Action Francaise. While neither socialism nor neo-royalism prevailed
in France, they provided the inspiration whereby the cleavage of the
Dreyfus Affair was perpetuated. -
Dr. Hoffman's research into the effects and-results of the Dreyfus
affair is especially applicable to the events of recent months and the
concern over rising French divisiveness related to the re-emergence of
anti-Semitism. This is a volume especially suitable to the study of
current aftereffects of a gfeat drama, in the midst of a peoplehood
noted for its love of freedom in whose midst there has nevertheless
also developed the virus of hatred toward Jews. That the latter is a
minority may also be the present conclusion in view of the courage of
those who fought the anti-Dreyfusards at the risk of personal suffer-
ings.