THE JEWISH NEWS
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Incorporating The Detroit Jewish. Chronicle commencing with the issue of July 20, 1951
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CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
DREW LI EBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
HEIDI PRESS
Associate News Editor
ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 26th day of lyar, 5741, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Numbers 1:1-4:20. Prophetical portion, Hosea 2:1-22.
Wednesday, Rosh Hodesh Sivan, Numbers 28:1-15.
Candle lighting, Friday, May 29, 8:40 p.m.
Friday, May 29, 1981
Page Four
VOL. LXXIX, No. 13
ISRAEL'S JERUSALEM
of liberation and of emphatically declaring the
glory of an undivided Holy City.
In spite of the realities, of the facts histori-
cally recorded as Jerusalem's undisputed role in
Jewish history, the Holy City has become a mat-
ter of discord, of war threats by Israel's
neighbors, of talk by Saudi Arabia about a
Jihad, a Holy War against Israel. The facts
nevertheless keep affirming the freedoms now
enjoyed in Jerusalem, the right of all to worship
unmolested as they choose, the privileges ac-
corded to Arabs even to publicly criticize the
state, the Jewish sovereign state, in which they
live, censorship being imposed only when there
is incitement to murder.
It is for the benefit of these recalcitrants that
it becomes necessary to reassert Jerusalem's
Jewish roots over the past 130 years for which
census figures are available:
Liberation of Jerusalem from an oppressive
dictatorial domination gave the Holy City, its
meaning in Hebrew being the City of Peace, a
renewed role as the capital of the redeemed
Jewish state. For 14 years there has been an
aura of freedom in that city, Jews are un-
molested, contrary to the many years of Jorda-
nian domination when they could not even wor-
ship or reach the Kotel, the Western Wall sur-
viving as a relic of the ancient Temple; and
Christians and Moslems are no longer subjected
to the strife which was the saddest of experi-
ences in an undivided city.
Jerusalem Day, to be observed on Monday,
the 28th of Iyar, is therefore a libertarian occa-
sion. Unprejudiced Christians have recognized
the manner in which Jews emphasize the right
of all faiths to worship unmolested.
For Jews, of course, it was and remains a day
Year
Jews
Moslems
Christians
1844
7,120
5,000
3,390
1876
12,000
7,560
5,470
1896
28,112
8,560
8,748
1922
33, 971
13,413
14,699
1931
51,222
19,894
19,335
1948
100,000
40,000
25,000
1967
195,700
54,963
12,646
1970
1975
1979
215,000
250,000
275,000
61,600
85,000
95,000
11,500
15,000
15,000
The emphasis remains on the indivisibility of
Jerusalem, on its status as the capital of Israel.
It remains the City of Peace as a Jewish aspira-
tion and as an assurance to all faiths that they
will never be molested under Israeli rule.
Source
Encyclopedia Britannica Quot-
ing Turkish census.
The Living Guide Indicator de
la Terre-Sainte. (France - 1876).
Calendar of Palestine (1895-
1896).
Report and General Abstracts
of the Census of 1922 by British
Mandate (Jerusalem, Govern-
ment Printer, 1922).
E. Mills, Census of Palestine
1931 (Jerusalem, 1932).
Z. Vilnay, Jerusalem — The Old
City (1962). •
Israel Central Bureau of Statis-
tics.
Jerusalem Municipality.
Jerusalem Municipality.
Estimated.
In this spirit Jerusalem Day is the time to
celebrate and to acclaim religious freedom. This
is how Jerusalem will ever be as the undivided,
undisputed, libertarian center whence must
come peace as a guideline for all mankind.
SOVIET INTRUDING
Already a virtual powder keg, the Middle
East could well be on the verge of a most
dangerous conflagration as a consequence of the
Soviet threat to the area.
Smarting from the defeat the Kremlin suf-
fered in 1977, when a proposed Geneva confer-
ence to include the Russians was flatly rejected,
and the ejection of the Russians from Egypt, the
Soviet Union keeps plotting for a role.
There are new demands from the Kremlin,
the latest being a proposal that an international
commission deal with the Lebanese situation in
which Israel is seriously involved. Whatever
the consequences of such demands, it is to be
hoped that responsible international leadership
will not ignore the role the USSR has played.
Russia continues to arm Israel's enemies and
the military arsenals in Syria and Libya are
from Russia. It trains the PLO terrorists, in
addition to keeping them fully armed. While
Saudi Arabia is the Kremlin's most outspoken
critic in the Middle East, the tactics of both
countries are alike — both are leaders in efforts
to destroy Israel, from both of these countries
stem the distribution of the forged Protocols of
the Elders of Zion. While Russia does not use the
term it practices what the Saudis advocate: a
Jihad, a holy war, against Israel.
It is against such enemies that Israel and
world Jewry must be on guard. Fortunately Is-
rael's collaborator in peace plans, President
Anwar Sadat of Egypt, shares the anti-Kremlin
view. It is necessary that whatever steps Russia
may take to intrude into the Middle East
negotiations should be fought vehemently. This
demands also being on guard against lending
credibility to Sauid Arabia being keynoted as a
major element in the struggle against Krem-
linism. The two, USSR and the Saudis, are alike
in venom and anti-Israel plotting.
Israel and the Middle East
Defined in Ben-Meir Essays
Alon Ben-Meir, a native of Baghdad who was brought to Israel by
his parents as a child and who served in the Israel army before coming
to this country recently, is brutally frank in his analyses of world
events as they affect Israel. In the ultimate, he expresses faith in
Israel's struggle for self-protection.
His views are contained in a series of essays published in his new
book, "In Defiance of Time" (Herald Publishing Co., Houston, Tex.)
His faith becomes evident in a lengthy poem, "Jerusalem and I,"
with which he concludes his interpretations of events of the past
couple of years.
Ben-Meir also analyzes the role of the Zionist movement and the
leadership in Jewry, as well as the reactions to the threats to Israel's
existence.
He admonishes the Zionist movement "to avoid complacency"
and not to yield to fear. He urges extending Zionist educational
programming. He warns against duplication of efforts and defines the
Zionist role:
"Through massive educational programs, the Zionist movement
must crystallize our existence, to translate our ideals into daily and
simple terms, instill a new sense of values, reach for the dispossessed,
help the disinherited and disenfranchised, assert Israel's position,
give meaning to the legacy of Judaism, promote the brotherhood of
man, and oppose inequality and injustice.
"These are the basic tenets of the Zionist movement, and these
are the values of Judaism. For Zionism to render an historic service to
both humanity and to Judaism, it need not search for a new mission;
that mission is already there. What is needed is not another organiza-
tion or a refurbished one, trumpeting its "mission" to the world, but a
true movement whose very existence proclaims its mission.
"If it fails to make the change, both the movement and its mission
will become irrelevant, and the community will lose what could be-
come one of the most significant forces for its moral and spiritual
rejuvenation."
The Joy That Is Jerusalem
Echoes in Poetic Work
Jerusalem has inspired prophets and poets. It is the therne of
emphatic caliber for historians.
A small but very attractive pamphlet of poems has just been
issued by Shefa Press of Jerusalem under the title "The Joy That Is
Jerusalem." It includes impressive poems by Asenath Petrie.
Especially expressive in this brief but deeply moving set of poems
is this one titled "Holy in Thy Sight":
You taught our father Abraham
that his son need not be sacrificed.
Teach us also.
We bound each one of our children to this people, to this land.
It is all Your altar.
Teach us so that their willingness and ours,
leaves them unmanned.
As whole as was Isaac and holy in Thy sight.
Lending added significance to this poetic collection are the draw-
ings by Shmuel Katz, showing scenes of Jerusalem.
Thus, collectively, the spirit of Jerusalem pervades this attrac-
tive work that is properly titled "The Joy That Is Jerusalem."