2 Friday, December 11, 1981 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Purely Commentary Newest Biography of Stephen Wise Recalls Era of Yahudim and the Existence of the Sha-Sha Jews . . . Distortions in Media Deplored . . . When Anti-Semites Were Rampant in Congress Is there a Replica of the Sha-Sha Jews in the Present Generation? Is Oil-Soaked Oman Teaching Our Government Proper Lesson? Prof. Melvin Urofsky revives an interest in' a rather old, seldom reiterated, attitude of Jews when confronted with serious anti-Semitic threats, in "A Voice That Spoke for Justice" (N.Y.U. Press, Albany). In this account of the life and times of Stephen S. Wise, there is a reconstruction of the reference to German and Spanish-Portuguese Jews as Yahudim. It was also a descriptive term for Reform Jews who were at the time chiefly constituted by congregants from the German Jewish ranks. At that time the counterparts were the Galician (Galitzianer), Litvakes, Russische, Polish. Now these di- visions are extinct, therefore the term Yahudim, which was not strange to Stephen Wise, Louis D. Brandeis and their associates as an applicable moniker. There is another aspect of Jewish responsiveness to challenges from anti-Semitic ranks to the security of Jews wherever they may live and to those who protested vehe- mently and unhesitatingly to discrimination and attempts to deny justice to the Jew. The term that was applied to those who hesitated to speak out for Jewish rights and in defense of Jews was Sha-Sha Jews. That was some decades ago. The panicking aggravated Stephen Wise, Louis Brandeis, Julian Mack, Louis Lipsky, Joseph Barondes and the scores of Jewish leaders. For them the fearful were the Sha-Sha Jews. Because this term is no longer heard, it doesn't mean that Sha-Sha Jews do not exist. They are in evidence and it would do them good to read Urofsky's "A Voice That Spoke for Justice." A brief news item carries with it a serious lesson for White House and State Department as well: RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia and the other Persian Gulf Arab states have offered the sultanate of Oman $1.2 billion in aid if it will can- cel an agreement allowing the United States ac- cess to its military facilities. The offer, disclosed by a high Saudi govern- ment official during a recent interview, came dur- ing a meeting last month in Riyadh of the newly formed Persian Gulf Cooperation Council. The offer would provide Oman with the equvalent of what it reportedly hopes to obtain in military and economic assistance from Washington. The inspirer of this proposal is none other than the Saudi government whose friendship is flirted for by the Reagan Administration. These are the people our govern- ment will soon be providing strategic arms and massive military hardware. Is anyone blushing in the White House and the State Department upon reading the above news item? Bingay's Tribute to JWV, Drawn From His Shocks at Dachau Assuming leadership in the campaign for $50,000 to wipe out the mortgage on the Jewish War Veterans build- ing in Southfield, Samuel J. Rhodes who is identified with the JWV for half-a-century, drew upon the views of the late Malcolm W. Bingay to inspire the support he seeks. Undoubtedly, there are many who remember the Bin- There Is Due Cause for Voices gay column in the Detroit Free Press which appeared daily to Reject New Animosities under the title "Good Morning." In the column dated Nov. That which is grouped as duty to be vigilant is never 1, 1951, which RhOdes retained in his files, Bingay drew absent. There is need for protest against both prejudice and upon his tragic experiences at Dachau after the Nazi hor- distortion. There is much of both. There is also evident the rors in World War II. Bingay described the shock at the delusion among Jews themselves which frequently adds to Nazi death camp and contrasted it with a tribute to the Jewish War Veterans when he attended the dedication anguish. An example is provided by the Nation, which has reception at the JWV Memorial Home on West Davison, grouped an essay of self-criticism by an Israeli correspon- Detroit, which preceded the one now functioning on 12 Mile dent with an anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian article by an Arab Road in Southfield. He wrote in his "Good Morning" col- who is teaching at Columbia University and has emerged umn: The inspiring thing to me was the contrast be- as the chief propagandist for the so-called Palestinian tween the ravished Europe I saw and the tone of cause. the Memorial Home. Here there is no hate, only a The entire series of articles in the current issue may be great love for all mankind of every race and creed. cause for curiosity why the more positive approach to Is- In honoring the young Americans of their faith rael's predicament is not-alluded to. who died in the crusade for liberty, the whole The Jewish viewpoint is filled with abstractions, with motif is tenderness and understanding. claims that the basis applied to Zionist ideology is filled In the center of the main hall there is a magnifi- with failures, that the support from American Jews en- cent mural, painted by the brilliant young Detroit courages annexations of territory, thereby negating the artist, Marvin Beerbohm. The theme is from the very purpose of the philanthropic aims. Song of Isaiah. In front of Isaiah there is the cen- This is not the exact terminology of the Jewish self- tral figure of a young soldier, discarding his gun deception, but it is a bit of evidence of a bitterness in Israeli At war's end with a great light of hope in eyes that ranks that negates the Oneness of the Jewish People which haunt you. has been acclaimed as a necessity in American Jewish The symbolism is the gradual fulfillment of the support for the Jewish state. spirit of Isaiah's prophecy: The Current Situation: "He shall judge among the nations and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their A Lessening of Anti-Semitism swords into plowshares and their spears into There is this to be said about the current situation and pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword the existence of anti-Semitism. The prejudice exists in against nation, neither shall they,learn war any- many areas. It has not disappeared. It has undoubtedly more." increased in the past decade. But it is not as violent as it Each room has been named for one of the mar- was 40 years ago. tyred dead. For example the exquisitely ap- At that time there was a Clare Hoffman in the Michi- pointed library is named after Lt. Raymond gan delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives. There Zussman, awarded the Congressional Medal of was a John Rankin and a number of their cohorts who Honor for leading his men beyond call of duty. soiled the pages of the Congressional. Record with their Later he was killed in another action. A life-sized advocacy of the vilest in prejudice. Now there are few who oil painting of him is on the wall and no matter act as spokesmen for the PLO. But they are fewer, less where you move his searching eyes seem to be inhuman, they are legislators who attempt to present their upon you. views on an ideological basis. In another room there is the ginning face of a There is still the urgency to prevent the re-emergence glorious boy who could not have been more than of the Sha-Sha Jew. There remains the duty for eternal • 18. He, too, had gone to his death and here I heard vigilance, and it rejects silence no matter how minute a the loveliest story of all. When she learned that danger. her son was to have a room named in his honor, Perhaps it is not surprising that the Nation should his mother brought in a beautiful vine, explain- have thus approached the issue, that it should have en- ing: couraged the negation of Zionism. This has been a policy in "This was his. He planted the seed and watched Nation columns. There were predecessors to the present over it until he was called to war. It belongs here." editorial staff who, in their liberalism which added many Now they are all worrying for fear that it, too, Jews to their supporting readership, were tolerant toward will die. But the best of our horticulturists say that the Zionist idea. This could be said for Oswald Garrison it Will not die, that it can be preserved and live on, Villard. His successor, Frieda Kirchwey, may have been as did the acacia of Solomon's Temple, symbol of among the friendliest fo Zionism. everlasting life. The Nation, like many more in the ranks of.the media, There is no room that does not reflect a deep is a case in point. They often bend backwards not to utter a spiritual note. The Jewish War Veterans and their friendly word for the Jewish state that has emerged from Gold Star Mothers have contributed something Zionism. They don't even acknowledge, as the Israeli cor- fine toward peace and understanding in our respondent writing in the Nation totally failed to indi- community life. cate the dignity attained by the Jew from the state of That column by Bingay had the special merit of having Israel in being master of his own destiny. Will a deluded expressed the horror over the Nazi crimes and the mass writer insist on making it a debatable subject? murders. By Philip Slomovitz What Bingay wrote in 1951 is especially significant at this time, when imitators of the beasts arise to deny the reality of the Holocaust. Bingay related the facts, stating in his 1951 column: Toward the close of the war in Europe when I was with a group of 18 newspapermen who, at Gen. Eisenhower's request, inspected Hitler's horrible hells of slave camps and mass murder factories, we tarried awhile at Munich, after spending a day at Dachau. There in -the basement of the beer garden from which Hitler launched the most terrible crusade of hate the world has ever known, I found a large-sized Nazi battle flag carried it back to Detroit. "I asked you to , - come here." the Gen- eral explained to us, "so that you can tell the people the unbe- lievable stories of bestiality and utter madness which has destroyed Europe. I want you to testify that these accounts have not been exagg- erated." These are not exaggerated. Horror upon horror slashed at our eyes and sea- MALCOLM BINGAY red our souls. S'ome years later, Gen. Eisenhower asked me if I had been able to eradicate from my mind the scenes of Buchenwald and Dachau. I assured him I could not and he agreed that he was in the same state of mind. "I sometimes awaken at night, as though coming out of a nightmare," he said and I can still smell the stench of those torture cham- bers." When I presented the flag to the Jewish Vete- rans I dwelt on this: that hate is a pathological poison. As the apotheosis of the Ku Klux Klan spirit, Hitler gave to history a study of what hate can do. First it was the Jews, then the Roman Catholics — especially the priests — then the Ma- sons and on and on into every denomination and race. Hate is like a terrible forest fire that sweeps all before it. Bingay earned appreciation for his views, for his sen- timents on the Nazi crimes, for his encouragement to the Jewish War Veterans. Posthumously, again, there is this expression of thanks to him, especially by this Commen- tator to his first editorial boss in Detroit. The Bingay statements will surely aid the JWV in their fund-raising under the chairmanship of Sam Rhodes. . New Jerusalem Video Team World Zionist Press Service JERUSALEM — Jerusalem Renaissance Inc. was founded last year by young religious olim (im- migrants) — mostly from America — all of whom happen to hold outstanding credentials in their respec- tive fields. In many cases, the traditional kippot and tzitzit are relatively recent additions by those who ar- rived only lately at their Jewish identity. - The company is involved in co-production of cable television programs for the U.S. and Israeli markets and uses some of the most advanced equipment and technololy in the video field. Jerusalem Renaissance has an agreement with Is- rael's Gesher educational institution to co-produce a $2 million project, geared for both Israeli and Ameri- can cable TV, of high- quality programming of a Jewish nature. The first pilot for the series is a half-hour presen- tation of Shabat, geared for the early teen market. It utilizes comedy skits, inter- views, some animated seg- ments prepared on Madison Ave. and a host-audience format. The idea is to produce in- formative, even inspi' material in a medium vka young, sometimes quite as- similated teens can relate to. Technicians discuss a script in one of the studios of Jewish Renaissance Inc.