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CARMI M SLOMOVITZ
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
Business Manager
HEIDI PRESS
Associate News Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath. the fifth day of Tishri. 5742, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Deuteronomy 31:1-30.
Prophetical portion. Hosea 14:2-10; Micah 7:18-20; Joel 2:15-27.
Thursday, Yom Kippur
Pentateuchal portion. morning, Leviticus 16.1-34, Numbers 29:7-11. Afternoon. Leviticus 18:130.
Prophetical portion. Isaiah 57:14-58;14; Jonah 1:1-4; Micah 7:18-20.
Candle lighting, Friday, October 2, 6:53 p.m.
VOL. LXXX, No. 5
Page Four
Friday, October, 2, 1981
TONGUE-IN-CHEEK HATRED
Civic protective movements in recent weeks
adopted an optimistic attitude of rejoicing over
a claimed decline in anti-Semitism. The deeper
studies of the existing conditions begin to justify
the branding of such claims as sheer baloney.
In the first place, the many desecrations of
synagogues and Jewish public buildings, in
some cases of cemeteries, indicate that such
conclusions are exaggerations.
If the viewpoint of a decline in anti-Semitism
were true, why did it become necessary for the
state of New Jersey to adopt the most stringent
law on record in any state in the Union? New
Jersey set penalties of up to five years in prison
for anyone convicted of attempting to incite fear
by burning crosses, painting swastikas or defac-
ing buildings or property with threatening slo-
gans or symbols.
Such threats continue to be heard, and legis-
lators who take them into account should be
commended. They not only seek to punish of-
fenders. They also warn of the existence of
bigotries and anti-Semitism.
Why become overly complacent? Frederick
M. Schweitzer, associate professor of history at
Manhattan College, New York, is to be counted
among those who refuse to be complacent and
indifferent to realities. In a letter to the New
York Times, which the editors entitled "Anti-
Semitism in America: The Good News and the
Bad," Prof. Schweitzer wrote:
"I take much encouragement from William G.
Blair's article of July 29 reporting the decline of
anti-Semitism in the United States since 1964.
My subjective impression had been that any
trend was in the opposite direction.
"Over the last dozen years or so I have often
felt disheartened by the slow and unsteady pro-
gress of my own and many others' efforts in
teaching, writing, lecturing, etc., trying to dis-
pel anti-Semitism. In desponding moments I
like to recall the remark of that doyen of Chris-
tian combatants of anti-Semitism, James
Parkes. When asked in 1934 how long it would
take to root out that noxious weed, he replied
300 years.
"I cannot help thinking — or hoping — that
the explanation of the decline since 1964 is con-
nected with the Catholic Church's "Declaration
on the Church and Non-Christian Religions,"
("Nostra Aetate") promulgated by Pope Paul VI
on Oct. 28, 1965.
"In the light of two millennia of the Jewish-
Christian encounter, that document is a 'mira-
cle,' although it did not resolutely condemn_
anti-Semitism in its Christian and other guises,
acknowledge Judaism as an authentic, self-
contained religion in its own right or consider
the possibility that Israel has some theological
significance for Catholics.
"But the hopes partly dashed in 1965 have
been redeemed in good measure by the various
national and diocesan guidelines for imple-
menting 'Nostra Aetate.' They have greatly ex-
tended it in both the letter and the spirit.
"Implementation is a slow, tortuous affair.
Precious few sermons reflecting 'Nostra Aetate'
have been preached, with the result that the
older generation of Catholics has not been
reached and, as the Yankelovich survey shows,
remains steadfastly anti-Semitic.
"But the young have been reached, and they
provide the most hopeful part of the report.
"My own history of the Jews was commis-
sioned by the New York Archdiocese's Office of
Education and inspired by 'Nostra Aetate's' im-
perative that we Catholics set our theological
tablets straight and overcome our abysmal
ignorance of Jewish history, from the Apostles
and the Destruction of the Temple to Auschwitz
and Israel reborn. One of the most critical fronts
for this work is the curriculum of the seminaries
for the priesthood; some significant changes
have been effected, but not uniformly and possi-
bly not irreversibly.
The Yankelovich report is ominous in the
sharp increase of the number of those who as-
sert that the Jews are too powerful and more
loyal to Israel than to America (two of the most
venerable calumnies in the annals of anti-
Semitism): Worse, one-third of us are still
anti-Semitic; that may translate as one-third of
us being blatantly anti-Semitic, two-thirds la-
tently so.
The 'sleeping giant' can awaken. If domestic
supply runs low, anti-Semitism can be im-
ported; it is the most readily importable/
exportable item in the international ideology
market. I conclude that Parkes's term of 300
years is not excessive, and that no one should be
surprised if in another 70 years we have a report
entitled, like that of 1964, 'The Tenacity of
Prejudice.' "
There is much more to the study of anti-
Semitism than these basic facts. Prof.
Schweitzer, the Christian, deals with the very
obvious facts. There also are the hidden factors,
the attempts to hide under the cloak of respec-
tability. These are the evidences of a tongue-
in-cheek anti-Semitism which is more obnoxi-
ous and could be even more dangerous than the
direct and immediately evident. The diabolic
haters are those who strike knives in the back of
Israel, condemn Jews who are critical of the
enemies of the Jewish state and of those who
would protect the embattled and always
threatened Israelis, and then turn to them and
say: "Just because we criticize you, don't call us
anti-Semites." They hide under the cloak of
condemning Zionism and therefore they feel
free to strike at Israel and Jewry but wish to be
commended and shout Hallelujah.
These are the warnings of the new age of an
unhalting anti-Semitism. It exists. It persists. It
has a strong opposition in Christian ranks as
evideiaced by Prof. Schweitzer, as reiterated by
notables like Prof. Franklin Littell, Robert St.-
John, Dr. Carl Voss and many others who know
and reject the outright haters who seek Jewry's
and Israel's destruction.
Once again it must be emphasized that the
vigilant must recognize all elements in the bi-
goted ranks, acclaiming that they will never be
sanctioned.
40:1
Holy Land Books Chronicle
Protestants' Deep Interest
Under the heading "Holy Land Series," informative works deal- 1 „'
ing with Israel, the Middle East and the Zionist movement, provide
the definitive data necessary for an understanding of the situations
affecting the Jewish state. The background factual data, the current
problems, the policy-making are all tackled in the series co-published
as a joint project of the Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the
Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the American Jewish Historical t.
Society.
Master-minded by the project director, Dr. Moshe Davis, the ,t
series commenced with "Guide to America — Holy Land Studies,";
edited by Nathan M. Kaganoff, librarian and editor of the American
Jewish Historical Society.
Commanding unusual interest in its treatment of the Christian
concerns in pre-Israel history, the second volume in the series, "The
Holy Land in American Protestant Life, 1800-1948," edited by Prof.
Robert T. Handy of Union Theological Seminary, is a handbook for -,
scholars and an inspiration to students of Zionist developments.
Edited by Dr. Moshe Davis, "Zionism in Transition" is a combina-
tion of historical evolutions in the movement, discussions of current
applications to the movement and analyses of the existing problems
and confrontations.
Dr. Handy's "The Holy Land in American Protestant Life" in-
cludes a series of essays by one of the most distinguished Christian •
scholars.
Indicative of the eminence of the participating scholars is the
discussion by William Folcwell Albright, a pioneer in archeological
tasks in Jerusalem in the first decade of this century. Archeology and
the Bible are the subjects selected for this volume from the writings of ;r.
Prof. Albright.
The launching of the American Board of Commissioners of
Foreign Missions, with stations in Jerusalem, Syria and Lebanon,
invites special attention. Authoritative articles by William A.,
Thompson, author of "The Land and the Book," and Kenneth Scott
Latourette, 19th Century author of "A History of the Eipansion
Christianity," have special merit for Christian scholars, and share in*;
importance as valuable background material for the Jewish readers.
The extensive interests aroused by this volume are indicated it
the titles of the five sections of the book, "The Bible and thi Land,T•
"The Missionary Venture," "Pilgrirris and Travelers," "Americant
Protestant Residents in the Holy Land" and "Restoration Pro anct:
Con."
Clergymen, teachers, business folk, visitors in the Holy Land an
a variety of other participants indicate the extent of interest fostere
by this work. It is a revealing collection of experiences affirming th
Protestant interest in the Holy Land.
The interest built up in the 1940s in Protestant ranks in suppo
of the Zionist dream gives the volume the contemporary emphasis
Such well-known names as John Haynes Holmes, Charles
Russell, Harry Emerson Fosdick, Henry A. Atkinson, Adolph A. Berl
and others are amongthose who could be delineated as having taken
deep interest in the emergence of Israel. It is not all pro-Israel, but
in the instances of Albright, Atkinson, Holmes and others, the d
larations are those of the friends and supporters who can be coun
among the Christians who gave encouragement to the builders
Zion.
The entire series is significant, and the editorship of Dr. Da
gives it the authoritativeness that makes all of these works his
ca I ly significant.