THE JEWISH NEWS
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Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of July 20, 1951
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PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
HEIDI PRESS
Associate News Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 24th day of Adar I, 5741, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Exodus 35:1-38:20. Prophetical portion, I Kings 7:40-50.
March 6-7, Rosh Hodesh Adar II, Numbers 28:1-5.
Candle lighting, Friday, Feb. 27, 6:02 p.m.
VOL. LXXVIII, No. 26
Page Four
Friday, February 27, 1981
UNESCCPS NEFARIOUS ROLE
UNESCO — the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization — was, at
its founding and for many years thereafter,
among the sources of pride stemming from the
world organization. Then began the campaigns
against Israel and, in that process, against the
Jews. In reality, it was a bigoted revival of the
worst elements of anti-Semitism. Therefore the
influence of the combined Soviet-Arab bloc fos-
tered by an inhuman campaign of villification.
It became an anti-human spectacle.
So vicious were those tactics that for a period
of time the U.S. Senate canceled allocations to
UNESCO.
Under the evil influences, UNESCO has
yielded to methods of censoring the press, of
making it difficult for American journalists and
their confreres in democratic countries to cover
the world scene news-wise as free agents of an
uncontrolled press. The new aims, apparently
stemming from Soviet influence, are to control
the press. This caused the New York Times to
comment as follows editorially on "Ethical Cen-
sors at UNESCO":
"There is a dangerous new burst of solicitude
for the safety of journalists at the United Na-
tions Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization in Paris. The agency seeks opin-
ion on a plan to license correspondents for 'safe
conduct' passes, to be earned by a favorable
rating for the 'ethics' of their work.
"The invitation list for the conference was
-peculiarly tilted toward the Communist and
Third World groups that favor this kind of
licensing. And the proposal itself comes not
from any recognized journalistic body but from
a French political scientist. The episode is one
more sign that, despite all denials at UNESCO
conferences in recent years, the agency's direc-
tor, Amadou Mahtar M'Bow, and his staff are
trying energetically to make themselves the
monitors of who writes what, and where.
"There remains a lively debate in Western
democracies about how best to demonstrate
understanding for the Third World nations that
feel themselves unfairly covered by the world's
news media. Those that appreciate free inquiry
certainly merit help in telling their stories to
the world — and also in upgrading their infor-
mation industries. But their grievances are
being exploited at UNESCO by coalitions of
governments that practice thought control and
yearn to censor western news organizations.
The latest idea is to give safe-conduct
passes to reporters who comply with 'generally
accepted' ethics of journalism. But Americans,
among others, 'generally accept' none of the
ethics of many of their would-be judges, includ-
ing the Russians and such Third World nations
as Libya. It is impossible to compromise West-
ern standards of free expression with the cen-
sorship of states that monopolize information.
Americans should have no part of such com-
promises, and if UNESCO won't drop this
enterprise they should simply quit."
The anti-Israel policies that were forced upon
UNESCO stemmed from opposition to the ar-
chelogical activities which are part of the global
policies of civilized nations to search for roots
and to reconstruct historic realities. The ra-
tional among the leading nations were shocked
by the actions of the Soviet-Arab program of
hate for Israel which they sought to translate
into condemnations of the Jewish state. In the
instance of the archeological reactions, there
was such a sense of outrage that cessation of
U.S. aid was ordered at the time.
Now, the condemnation of attempts to impose
censorship upon journalists has again aroused
such contempt that the UNESCO-proposed ac-
tion of restricting press freedom has been post-
poned. There can be no doubt that rebukes like
the one in the New York Times editorial had led
to a change of heart. But such changes were
previously recorded and the advocates of
bigotry continue to revert to it.
It is therefore logical to assume that the cen-
sorship proposal will be renewed. Therefore, in
the insistence upon assuring freedom of the
press and rejecting other obstacles to justice, it
may be necessary again to ask the U.S. govern-
ment to stop supporting an agency whose origi-
nal constructive aims are being thwarted.
Those insisting upon strict adherence to the
rights of all peoples to justice and freedom must
be prepared never to allow the destruction of
such rights, even if the hate policies are touted
under a UN banner.
DISTORTION OF EXILE
Israel's enemies tried it before — to introduce
a devilish scheme of creating the image of a
"government-in-exile" as a weapon in the aim of
destroying the Jewish state. It did not mate-
rialize for the obviousness of a devilish plot. It
was re-introduced, by the person who was least
expected to be trapped into such a scheme — by
Egypt's President Anwar Sadat.
The encouragement the charismatic Egyp-
tian leader received for such a proposal was
from the Jewish head of state in Vienna, Bruno
Kreisky. This makes sense in acquiring an
understanding of the revival of the fantastic
proposal. Kreisky is among the closest of the
diplomatic collaborators with Arafat. Kreisky
may have done more harm to Israel in the dip-
lomatic community than any other person in
the foreign services.
Of course, Israel scoffed at the very idea of
dealing with her enemies under the cloak of a
new terminology.
The fact is that the very term "exile" is being
misinterpreted. There were "governments-in-
exile" during World War II when the Poles and
the French were battling Nazism away from
their home scenes whence they were either ex-
pelled or fled for their safety. The Arabs are
.conducting a campaign for Israel's destruction
from the 21 national areas over which they
dominate. They are plotting to erase the minute
entity whose very existence they begrudge. Is
this "exile"?
That the man who alone has defied the rest of
the Arab world in an approach to peace with
Israel should have been a tool for the new
scheme of destruction is deplorable.
JPS Jewish Poetry Series
Stresses Universal Themes
Jewish poets in medieval, Renaissance and modern times are
represented in the new series of books of the Jewish Publication
Society, appearing under the title "The Jewish Poetry Series."
A multilingual, a Hebrew and an American are the poets repre-
sented in the first three volumes in the series.
A group of 60 poem's is featured in "Hebrew Ballads and Other
Poems" by Else Lasker-Schuler. These poems were translated and the
book edited by Audri Durchslag and Jeanette Litman-Demeestere.
This book appears posthumously. Else Lasker-Schuler (1869-1945)
wrote in what she dubbed "mystic Asiatic" and was called "a Hebrew
poet in the German tongue." Her own explanation was, in a comment
she made in Jerusalem where she died in 1945: "They wanted to
translate my poems into Hebrew, but they are already Hebrew
poems."
"For those who consider the poet predominantly German, the
dedication of her last volume of poetry, 'My Blue Piano,' was evidence
enough of her own feelings on the matter. Written in Jerusalem, her
alleged spiritual homeland, the dedication reads: To my unforgetta-
ble friends in the cities of Germany and to those, like me, exiled and
dispersed throughout the world, in good faith!' "
The volume by the American Pamela White Hadas, appearing
under the title "In Light of Genesis," contains four collections, "The
Passion of Lillith," "The Departures and Voices of Sarah," "The Pas-
sion of Rahel Varnhagen" and "Women With Quasar."
The characters thus portrayed by the contemporary poet are of
mythical biblical concern and are Jewish in spirit. Of special signifi-.
cance is the Varnhagen theme about the German Jewess of the late
18th -Century who was brought up speaking Yiddish.
"The Syrian-African Rift and Other Poems" is by Avoth Yeshu-
run. It was translated from a conglomeration of languages, thus
explained: "Many of the poems are studded with expressions in Yid-
dish, Arabic, Hebrew slang, and portmanteau."
An authoritative designation is given the new JPS series by the
general editors of the series, Yehuda Amichai, the most popular
Israeli poet of this era, and Allen Mandelbaum, chairman of the
graduate school and University Center of the City University of New
York.
JPS announces that the second phase of this series, to be issued in
the spring of this year, will include the poetry of noted authors.
Projected volumes will include the works of Hayim Nachman Bialik
and eminent Yiddish poets.
Hebrew Calligraphy Guided
Into Artistic Designations
Calligraphy is an art. With skillful treatment it can also become
a science.
This is what Jay Seth Greenspan achieves in "Hebrew Callig-
raphy," in which he guides his readers in a step-by-step treatment of
the subject which becomes a fascination for those dealing with the
Hebrew alphabet.
Hebrew lettering emerges as a perfection in Greenspan's in-
structive book, published by Schocken.
Preparation of greeting cards and illumination of manuscripts is
part of the author's approach to the skills he provides as a guide for
students as well as for readers who will be fascinated by a knowledge
of a notable scientifically treated art.
The scripts and designs introduced in this book make Hebrew
calligraphy a notable treatment of the Aleph. Bet.