2 Friday, May 28, 1982
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Purely Commentary
Epithets .. .
Anti-Semitic Trends as Evidence of Growing Bias
Especially Emphasized in Insults and Epithets ...
New Studies Re-Emphasize Extent of Hate-Mongering
repeated; so is the spirit which repeats with Bob Greene
that it is bigotry, and bigotry functions but never fully
triumphs. The Jew is here to prove it.
New Generation Introduced
to the Insults of the Past
A New York state law prohibiting harassment with
ethnic or racial slurs was applied last week to a woman who
called her neighbor "a Jew animal." She also called the
Jewish neighbor on Rosh Hashana and wished her "a
Happy Jew Day."
The non-Jewish woman, who had been a friend of the
Jewish neighbor in the past, was sentenced to 35 hours of
community service.
This raises the question of epithets, how they are to be
treated, whether annoyance should become a matter of
personal agony.
If the New York law had been applied to an Illinois
citizen, what could have been the sentence?
In a recent column, Bob Greene wrote about "a Chicago
gentile businessman who does most of his business with
Jews," who became involved in a dispute with a Jewish
owner of a dry cleaning establishment and called him a
"kike" in a letter.
Bob Greene wrote a column on the subject for his news-
paper, the Chicago Tribune, which syndicates his articles.
The Detroit Free Press published the explanatory essay
by the columnist. Bob Greene withdrew the original col-
umn after writing it. His reason for having the column
yanked was explained by Greene:
My reason was this. The man is a bigot.'He has
foul mouth, an ugly temper and a nasty streak of
prejudice. However, the more I thought about it,
the more I was unsure whether his bigotry ought
to be exposed to the more than a million people
who read the Tribune ...
I knew what the reaction would be if the column
appeared. His business would be damaged, and
damaged badly. The whole public image of his
company would change. For the rest of his life, he
would be known not as a successful businessman,
but as a Jew-hater. (I know he said he didn't hate
Jews; but when you start writing letters calling
people "kikes" and then try to defend it, you are
pretty well branded.)
So why didn't I just run the column? Five years
ago I might have just thrown it in there and
watched the reaction. But now ... the man
seemed stupid and naive, but I wasn't sure that
the punishment of the mass-distributed column
was worth the crime of his ignorant remarks.
I have given a lot of thought in recent months to
the press as bully. We have grown so powerful; on
the surface the column would have appeared to
be exposing a wrong, but the Chicago Tribune is
so much bigger than this one ugly-spirited busi-
nessman . . . should the full weight of the Tribune
really be brought down on him because of his
muddled attitude?
Anyway ... I decided that the column would not
run. But a week later, Pm still thinking about it. I
honestly don't know if I did the correct thing or
not — and that's the purpose - of today's column.
You and I have this regular interchange, through
the paper. I'd be grateful to hear your opinion.
Bob Greene, who never hesitates to affirm his Jewish-
ness, not only expresses justified anger. He has also
brought attention to what may have become a forgotten
epithet: "kike."
The younger generation may not know it. There was an
uglier period when Jews were called kike and sheeny. Here
is how the Random House Dictionary of the English Lan-
guage defines the terms:
Sheeney: Offensive. A Jew.
Kike: Disparaging and offensive. A person of Jewish
religion or descent.
There are many disparaging terms in dictionaries and
Jews often feel offended by reference to them in dic-
tionaries. Bob Greene now proves that they should at least
be recorded — as rebukes to those who resort to them.
Is it possible to legislate against their usage? 4par-
ently it is, but not in Illinois.
There was a time when these offensive terms could not
even have been avoided in the highest legislative forums. It
was not so many decades ago when anti-Semites were ram-
pant in Congress.
They exist everywhere. Meir Kahane had a bit of ad-
vice, in a radio interview here, when he admonished Jews
to stop attending testimonial banquets and go instead to
the bars. There, he said, is where the evidence is that
anti-Semitism predominates.
What's to be done about it all, when anti-Semites make
themselves visible and their diatribes are publicized? A
long chapter in Jewish history predominates on the subject.
The experienced Jew may, with good reason, say, the
epithets are inerasable. But so is the indomitable spirit
which confronts it: the insults are on the record and are
.
Monsignor Higgins: An Editorial
Voice of Justice to Israel
In an "Editorial Opinion" in the Michigan Catholic,
May 14, Monsignor George G. Higgins makes this com-
ment: "When Israel risked its survival by handing over the
Sinai — a huge chunk of strategically vital land, not to
mention uncounted millions in investments in oil revenue
— in return for a promise, many editorialists used the
occasion as an excuse for another round of gratuitous ad-
vice on what more Israel should do. Scarcely a word has
heard that perhaps it's time for the Arabs to replace the
rhetoric of war with the actions of peace."
This editorial comment merits special attention as a
challenge to those in the media who are bent upon sen-
sationalizing everything that is negative about Israel's
current role while ignoring the horrors that stem news-
wise from Arab countries. Therefore, Monsignor Higgins
chose to state on that score: "Could it be that anti-Semitism
is becoming socially acceptable again?" Here is how he led
up to making this accusatory statement:
Israel was routinely condemned by the United
Nations as collectively responsible for the attack
of a lone fanatic on the Dome of the Rock mosque
in Jerusalem. Yet there were no cries of collective
Islamic guilt when Moslem fanatics seized the
sacred shrine at Mecca and the Pope was shot by
a Turk.
Such accusations would have been absurd and
racist in the extreme, of course. But why does our
concept of racism change when it comes to the
Jews? Could it be that anti-Semitism is becoming
socially acceptable again?
Monsignor Higgins registers an example of dedication
to fairness with his editorial which he titled "Return of
Sinai, Plus for Peace." His comments are a plus for common
decency in treating a most aggravated world problem.
,
Growing Anti-Semitism
Emphasized in New Studies
It isn't a unanimous opinion, but the growing view-
point is that anti-Semitism has vastly increased.
Theodor Herzl was right on many matters. He was
among the prophets who foresaw, in 1898, that there would
be a Jewish state in 50 years. (Vladimir Jabotinsky pre-
dicted independent Jewish statehood in 10 years during the
turbulent and unpredictable times in 1938, and he was an
even more effective prophet on that score.) But Herzl was
wrong on one point. He believed that the establishment of
the Jewish state would also spell an end to anti-Semitism.
Instead, with Pan-Arabism and anti-Zionism there has de-
veloped a growing hatred for Jews linked with the venom.
stemming from the Arab animosities.
The very title of one of the newest researched accounts
of growing venom indicates that the antagonism to Jews
has gained momentum. "A Legacy of Hate: Anti-Semitism
in America" (Franklin Watts Inc.) by Ernest Volkman is
pessimistic. He provides a step-by-step analysis revealing
an escalation in hate maneuvers.
While many of the background facts are fairly well
known, the extent of research in this volume is impressive.
This recollection of past events is still w _ orth remembering,
as Watts reports:
But the shadow that began to lengthen over the
American Jewish community had its beginnings
in Europe, where fascism had begun to dominate
the politics of the continent. That phenomenon
By Philip
Slomovitz
began to find echoes in this country, spawning a
new variety of American anti-Semitism: uni-
formed paramilitary groups that were virtual
copies of Hitler's Sturm Abteilung (Storm Troop-
ers, more popularly known as "Brownshirts").
One of the more notorious of such American
groups was the Silver Shirts, led by William. Dud-
ley Pelley, who averred that his group repre-
sented "the cream, the head and flower of our
Protestant Christian manhood." As for goals, in
1934 Pelley announced that his group had only
one: "There is but one issue in the United States,
and that is the forcible removal of the Jew from
office."
Other such groups included the Crusaders for
Economic Liberty (the "Whiteshirts"), the Ameri-
can Vigilantes, and a group led by Gerald Win's(
a fundamentalist evangelist who won a wide L._
lowing in the -Middle West by claiming that the
"international Jew" was responsible for "the
scourge of international Communism."
With their gaudy uniforms, strident rhetoric,
virulent anti-Semitism and occasional show of
arms, these groups represented the most sensa-
tional expression of Jew-hatred in American his-
tory. Their chorus was joined by nonuniformed
(yet equally notorious) anti-Semites such as the
gangs of thugs in New York City who beat up
Jews in the streets, and the infamous Father
Charles Coughlin, whose radio audience was es-
timated to be about 30 million listeners.
Coughlin, a spell-binding preacher, had begun
his broadcasting career with sermons on social
justice, but he soon began making anti-Semitic
remarks. He referred to Supreme Court Justice
Felix Frankfurter and his close association with
President Roosevelt as the "Jew deal," and at-
tacked Frankfurter and the Justice's friends as
"Felix and his happly little hot dogs."
Couglin increasingly lost touch with reality,
and eventually called for what he termed a
"Christian front" that would not fear being called
anti-Semitism "because . . the term anti-Semitic
is only a pat phrase in Communism's glossary of
attacks." He went on to say that the authenticity
of "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion"
was irrelevant since "we cannot ignore the news
value of their strongly prophetic nature."
Is the threat as serious today as it was then, some 50
years ago? Of course not, else the indictment of the Ameri-
can people would be too severe. But there are symptoms
that can not be ignored. The infamous "Protocols," the most
outrageous lies of the century, often reappear. Arabs, espe-
cially in Saudi Arabia, have become their distributors.
There are legacies of hatred. They are seldom totally
abandoned. The faithful, as in Catholic ranks, often recall
Pius XI having spoken of "the sin of anti-Semitism." Such ,
forces must continually be viewed as possessing that sense
of justice which rejects hatred.
There is need to be on guard. Friends like Franklin
Littell, Roy and Alice Eckardt, keep reminding the Ameri-
can people about the anti-Semitism that comes from the
country heavily armed by the United States — Saudi
Arabia — whence comes the major support provided finan-
cially for those who would destroy Israel. The Saudis pro-
vided proof of the venom they generate when relations were
broken with Zaire for its resumption of friendship with
Israel.
These are the things to contend with. These are the
legacies that call for the vigilance that must never be aban-
doned.
Gadna Youth Mark 40 Years of Service
JERUSALEM — The schools and on its work with
Gadna (Gedudei Nor— working youth.
Youth Corps) which came
After the Yom Kippur
into being 40 years ago is a War and the increase in ter-
para-military organization rorist activity (particularly
encompassing all Israeli following the incident at
youth between the ages of Maalot), the Gadna turned
14 and 18. Its functions, like its energies to training its
those of the Israel Defense members for service with
Forces in general, have the Civil Guard for local de-
changed over the years to fense and guard duties in
meet the needs of the hour. the area of their homes.
In the beginning, it
The Knesset has defined
worked* alongside the the division of functions be-
Hagana and its members tween the Ministry of Edu-
were active in the War of cation and Culture and the
Independence. In the 1950s Gadna command and the
its members worked with Gadna is responsible for the
new immigrant youth, help- pre-army training of all Is-
ing them adapt to their new raeli youth between the
country, while in the 1960s, ages of 14 and 18.
it concentrated on the high
Gadna activities today
schools and technical cover a very wide field,
starting with preliminary
instruction in rifle shooting
and an introduction to the
structure of the Gadna and
the Defense Forces.
Each year members of
Gadna spend 6-10 days on
"national service" during
which time they are intro-
duced to life in the army,
working alongside soldiers
in supply bases, mainte-
nance depots, fortifications,
shore observation posts and
emergency stores. In this
manner they save the coun-
try' thousands of workdays
that would otherwise have
been performed by civilians
called-up for reserve duty.
In addition, members
spend six days a year train-
ing at Gadna bases.
ei
5.00
c--'
Israel in April issued a
new commemorative
stamp honoring its
Gadna youth corps.