THE JEWISH NEWS (LISPS
275-5201
Incorportiting The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of July 20, 1951
TH HOST A ES
Copyright © The Jewish News Publishing Co.
Member • of American Association of English-Jewish Newspapers, National Editorial Association and
National Newspaper Association and its Capital Club.
Published every Friday by The Jewish News Publishing Co., 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075
Postmaster: Send address changes to The Jewish News, 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075
Second-Class Postage Paid at Southfield, Michigan and Additional Mailing Offices. Subscription $15 a year.
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
Editor and Publisher
ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
_HEIDI PRESS
Associate News Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 29th day of Av, 5741, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17. Prophetical portion, Isaiah 54:11-55:5.
Sunday and Monday, Rosh Hodesh Elul, Numbers 28:1-15.
Candle lighting, Friday, Aug. 28, 7:55 p.m.
VOL. LXXIX, No. 26
Page Four
Friday, August 28, 1981
WORLD'S MOST TESTED AREA
It is no wonder that the Middle East had been
labeled. as the Battleground of the World. Its
wars in the ancient periods were even more
sporadic than the present. The conquerors were
the frequenters in that part of the world.
Turks ruled for hundreds of years and prior to
their domination there were the Crusaders who
came to the Holy Land in paths marked by
bloodshed, departing in bloodshed. Even Napo-
leon Bonaparte had his eye on Acre, failing to
conquer its defenders, an act that was left to the
small band of Israelis to achieve in the 1948
War Of Independence.
These historic events reappear as reminis-
cences in the context of latest occurrences, the
U.S. action on the Libyan shores, the saber-
rattling of the threatening elements who would
destroy Israel.
It is a battleground to be reckoned with, and
because of the domination by the oil-rich coun-
tries the craved-for security and aim for peace is
not easily obtainable.
The Israeli is among the seriously-affected by
developing situations, and his Jewish kinfolk
are deeply involved with their concerns over the
state of affairs that could seriously affect the
future events.
The immediate involvements, related to the
tensions, include Israel's urgent need for defen-
sive weapons and her right to use them for her
defensive purposes; and the impending sale of
the AWACS which could prove tools of destruc-
tion aimed at Israel.
The obligations for those concerned with the
security of the state of Israel are clear. They
must ask for fulfillment of pledged defensive
means for Israel and the strengthening of the
American-Israel friendship, and resort to every
effort to persuade President Ronald Reagan and
Secretary of State Alexander Haig to alter the
plan to provide deadly weapons to the Saudis.
In the process, there must be an averting of
panic. It is when fears are permitted to affect
attitudes and hopes for a genuine, peace that
these very aims can be thwarted.
ANTI-PLO COMMITMENT
Constanr reaffirmation of the U.S. position
not to deal with the PLO must not be inter-
preted as loose talk. The policy is a matter of
record.
In a sense it is puzzling why the origin of that
decision has not been fully publicized. At last it
is given proper recognition in the article by
Bernard Gwertsman, in the New York Times,
Aug. 13 in his report on the Zbigniew
Brzezinski viewpoint on the PLO. In that arti-
cle, Gwertsman reported:
"That policy was first stated in September
1975 in an American-Israeli document that ac-
companied the second Sinai disengagement
agreement between Israel and Egypt. The Ford,
Carter and Reagan Administrations have all
interpreted the document to mean that there
should be no American discussions with the
PLO on issues related to Middle East peace
questions until the PLO fulfilled the condi-
tions."
Perhaps that Gwertzman analysis serves also
to remind students of an earlier U.S. adminis-
tration that Brzezinski was considered a bit
pro-Arab in his prejudices. Also: it serves as
emphasis on the well-known human failings of
avoiding being pro-Arab while in office, becom-
ing critical of Israel when out of power. That's
what could be called political unburdening. Just
as in the case of former Vice President Walter
Mondale, who might -have been cautious in
offices, who is now strongly anti-AWACS-for-
the Saudis while out of office.
All of this is a testing of the princes as they
vacillate in and out of power.
THREAT OF MEDIEVALISM
Even before the rebirth of the state of Israel,
fanatics caused the Jews in Eretz Israel untold
agonies. A lunatic fringe went to extremes in
attempts to enforce zealotry. They threw stones
at automobiles on the Sabbath in the name of
sanctity. They resorted to violence in their
demonstrations.
Now comes the outrageous attempt to inter-
fere with normal archeological tasks as a result
of which history is reconstructed and the factual
backgrounds about the nation ascertained.
There is the ridiculous fear that the bones of
ancient saints are thus tampered with.
The inanities which accompany the ex-
tremists' attitudes brought the shocking asser-
tion by Prof. Binyamin,,Mazar of the Hebrew
University, who has supervised many of the
archeological programs, that if the zealots suc-
ceeded in halting the excavations Israel would
be turned into "a giant Jewish cemetery."
• Prime Minister Menahem Begin is put to the
test by the latest occurrences. They are shock-
ing to say the least, and they challenge the
sensible in and out of government to prevent the
lunatic fringe from forcing itself into Israel's
life. The nation will be disgraced in its own and
the world's eyes unless the Begin government
completely repudiates the bigoted.
VOLUNTEERISM
Why a special article about the Mormons?
It is because the interesting report on the
Mormons' social standards and communal ac-
tivities provides a lesson for all.
Yehuda Rosenman's ,interesting explanation
of the Mormons' emphasis on volunteers is a
reminder to the Jewish community that volun-
teerism has declined. The professional has a
place in Jewish society, but not without the
emphasis on the role of the volunteer. Without
the volunteer the community approaches ban-
krupcy.
Back to volunteerism should become a re-
newed slogan in all Jewish ranks.
■ Eiggrwcell .1■1■
`Judaism as a Civilization'
Reissued in Honor of 100th
Birthday of Mordecai Kaplan
Few attain this mark of longevity, few are similarly honored by
the republication of a book by a centenarian.
On the occasion of the 100th birthday of Dr. Mordecai M. Kaplan,
the Jewish Publication Society of America has just re-issued the
classic that has made him famous.
This most scholarly work assumed
historical significance because it
served as a guide in the founding by
Dr. Kaplan of the Reconstructionist
movement. It is therefore most appro-
priate that "Judaism as a Civilization"
should have been co-published by the
Reconstructionist Press.
First published in 1933, this defini-
tive work emerged immediately as a
guide to the perplexed on the modern
era. Out of print until now, it once
again challenges Jewry to action for a
reconstructed devotionalism and for
an understanding of the historical
guidelines for Jews seeking the
knowledge necessary for an identifica-
tion of the Jewish consciousness with
MORDECAI KAPLAN
the highest values in American life.
It is Torah as a way of Jewish life that is the root of the teachings
of the centenarian who reached his 100th year on June 11 of this year.
The eminent scholar, the teacher of many scores of rabbis at the
Jewish Theological Seminary before he settled in Israel, viewed the
crises of his era nearly half-a-century ago. These crises are repetitive
and a definitive conclusion to his book makes the point regarding
Judaism viewed as he constructed it as a civilization:
"In sum, those who look to Judaism in its present state to provide
them with a ready-made scheme of salvation in this world, or in the
next, are bound to be disappointed. The Jew will have to save Judaism
before Judaism will be in a position to save the Jew.
"The Jew is so circumstanced now that the only way he can
achieve salvation is by replenishing the 'wells of salvation' which
have run dry. He must rediscover, reinterpret and reconstruct the
civilization of his people. To do that he must be willing to live "n to a
program that spells nothing less than a maximum of Jewis ;s.
"True to his historic tradition he should throw in his lot with all
movements to further social justice and universal peace, and bring to
bear upon them the inspiration of his history and religion. Such a
program calls for a degree of honesty that abhors all forms of self-
delusion, for a temper that reaches out to new consummations, for the
type of courage that is not deterred by uncharted regions.
"If this be the spirit in which Jews will accept from the past the
mandate to keep Judaism alive, and from the present the guidance
dictated by its profoundest needs, the contemporary crisis in Jewish
life will prove to be the birth-throes of a new era in the civilization of
the Jewish people."
An introduction to the 1981 edition by Dr. Arthur Hertzberg, one
of the students for the rabbinate under Dr. Kaplan, evaluates the
great work and pays honor to Dr. Kaplan. He asserts that "Kaplan's
intellectual openness and a basic optimism were, and remain, the
dominant elements in his persona."