THE- JEWISH NEWS C

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Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of July 20, 1951

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PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

CARMI M. 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 11th day of AL', 5742, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11. Prophetical portion, Isaiah 40:1-26.

Candlelighting, Friday, July 30, 8:35 p.m.

VOL. LXXXI, No. 22

Page Four

Friday, July 30, 1982

WHOLESOME DIASPORA

Priority of concern in the current Middle East
situation by the Jewries of the world is under-
standable. It is major news for all mankind, and
certainly for Americans of all faiths, all shades
of opinion who judge the events in Lebanon as
overshadowing most occurrences. Therefore the
interest in the unity being displayed by Jews
everywhere, in contrast with consideration
given to demonstrations for peace which are
interpreted as "splitting Jewish ranks." Peace
is the prime objective of all Israelis and those
who shout for peace are only echoing the voice of
the entire Jewish people.
There is a way of judging demonstrations.
When 50,000 march for a peace which is inter-
preted as opposition to the Israeli actions
against the PLO, they are followed by a body
more than four times such a sizable gathering in
support of the present government of Israel.
Greater realism applies to the unity which as-
serts that Jewry stands firm in defense of the
Jewish state.
It is in this sense that a rally for solidarity
with Israel this Sunday afternoon in Oak Park
will take the form of a united Jewish commu-
nity upholding the hands of the activists battl-
ing for the security of the Jewish state.
This Solidarity Rally exemplifies the senti-
ment which sends forth a- message to peoples
everywhere that the acquisition of Jewish
statehood by a people persecuted through the
centuries is not to be bargained with. It de-
clares, to Jews first and to the world at large on
all occasions, that the rights gained by Jews to
be masters of their own destiny are not to be
trampled in the dust or polluted by exaggera-
tions and villifications.
This is a major task demonstrated by a united
Jewish community. There are the few dissi-
dents, the critics, those who, surely unmoti-
vated but nevertheless misled into providing
misunderstanding, inadvertantly perhaps lend
comfort to Israel's enemies. It is in the unity
that there is also the expression of sorrow that
suffering of innocents is a resultant tragic war
factor. The security of a nation striving for
peace nevertheless emerges as an obligation for
support against threats from accumulated
animosities. It is a duty that must be seriously
adhered to.
While demonstrating an important role in
support of Israel, there is an added wholesome-
ness in Diaspora actions. This in evidence in the
communal planning of Metropolitan Detroit
Jewry, in behalf of the elderly, in the provisions
for the many who must be provided with
adequate housing, with the knowledge that
they will not be abandoned, that their fellow
citizens recognize their needs and will provide
for them.
The immense projects, to be fully accounted
for in the communal planning, make homes for
the aged necessities never to be ignored. This is
a duty uppermost on Detroit Jewry's agenda. It
will .assume even greater significance in the
new plans now formulated and considered with
a sense of priority for this generation and for the
next one to follow it.
The immensity of the new project now pro-
claimed as a realized aim is of such vast impor-

tance that the parent organizations sponsoring
the cause, under the leadership of the Jewihs
Welfare Federation, earn the acclaim they are
already receiving.
Then there is the adjunct, the accompanying
project which has gained from this community
the highly meritorious name of Federation
Apartments. Twice, under this title, construc-
tive achievements provided housing for those
who can care for themselves but who need the
type of housing that has proper guidance, the
encouragement that must be given so many who
seek independence but who nevertheless must
have the type of supervision which guarantees a
collective aim to assure comfort, to provide
means to make for sociability that spells corn-
munity.
For the third time, such a task now redounds
to the credit of the organized community whose
t onstituen'cy concerns itself with the cultural
and social service objectives and proclaims to
the senior citizens that they are not being aban-
doned.

* * *

This is the spirit of what may well be termed
Wholesome Diaspora. Israel is on the agenda.
Neighborliness with the non-Jews is vital. The
social services are important. Refugees are wel-
comed from lands of oppression.
The citizenry itself is not ignored and the
elders among them are being provided for with
dignity and with security.
These are achievements now being recorded
with pride. They are the plans that proclaim
that a community has many duties, and the
elderly and the homeless never play second fid-
dle. They are part of the life of a community that
spells dignity and self-respect. It is the self-
respect that invites respect from all, and it is in
this fashion that the planners of the very crea-
tive tasks now merit the acclaim of an apprecia-
tive and united Metropolitan Detroit Jewry.

* * *

A community's solid position also is judged by
the response it gives to the major needs of the
hour that call for philanthropic involvement.
This is in evidence in the Detroit Allied Jewish
Campaign. Many of the factors in these efforts
raise above the charitable. They are the socially
challenging and have the value of the human
factor.
The decisions now being made for a
specially-oriented fundraising effort to provide
for Israel's needs in time of crisis emphasize the
human, the cultural, the spiritual. The urgency
of the newly-planned drive for urgently needed
funds is to provide assurance that the social
'services in Israel for new immigrants and the
elderly will not be curtailed, that the univer-
sities will not suffer from the lack of
government-provided financial means, that the
spirit of the people of Israel will be uplifted by
the message of solidarity from the Diaspora.
To have risen to the occasion, so soon after
another important Allied Jewish Campaign,
with plans for an emergency fundraising task,
adds creditably to the already high record for
concern that calls for fulfilling all obligations to
major Jewish challenges.

Edited by Dr. Sklare

American Jewry Under
Scrutiny by Researchers
in New Transaction Volume

Research develops into a science in a series of thoroughly re-
searched essays scrutinizing the current American Jewry.
In "Understanding American Jewry," (Transaction Books),
edited by Dr. Marshall Sklare of Brandeis University, noted scholars
deal with a variety of themes analyzing the status of the American
Jewish community and its trends.
While the essays in this highly-inforinative volume already indi-
cate a trend toward research, Dr. Sklare points to the slowness with
which academic chairs are being established to pursue such needs. He
points out that "most Jewish organizations have not moved in the
direction of conducting basic research." He also indicates that "none
of the Hebrew colleges have sponsored research institutes in the field
of contemporary Jewish studies." He adds that "the most widely
known research institution in the _field of contemporary Jewish
studies is located in Jerusalem, the Institute of Contemporary Jewry
of the Hebrew University."
While the latter conducts studies limited to Diaspora Jewry, the
American historical values are ignored. Therefore the importance of
this volume which is an encouragement in the American direction.
Dr. Sklare proceeds to evaluate the result of studies conducted at
Brandeis University and its Department of Near Eastern and Judaic
Studies. It is from a conference aimed at introducing research held at
Brandeis University and financed by the Charles H. Revson Founda-
tion that the essays in this volume emanate. They are the texts of
lectures delivered at that conference, held in October 1979.
The papers delivered at that conference, conducted by Dr. Sklare,
deal with demography, Jewish identity, religious life, education, the
family, anti-Semitism, the Jewish community and a study of Israelis
and the yerida to this country.
In addition to his prefatory statement, Dr. Sklare is represented
here with the essay on the preparation of a sociology of American
Jewry.
Research needs of local communities and the needs of natio
Jewish organizations have special merit for participants in the
tional philanthropic movements. Bruce A. Phillips and Ira Silverm
analyze these issues.
Then there is an important essay by former Detroiter Daniel
Elazar, who discussed "The Jewish Community as a Polity."
Scholars who contributed towards this collective essay include
Calvin Goldscheider, Harold Himelfarb, Charles S. Liebman, David
A. Resnick, Sheila B. Kamerman, Chaim I. Waxman, Earl Raab, Dora
Kass and Seymour Martin Lipset.
The essay by Kass and Lipset, "Jewish Immigration to the United
States from 1967 to- the Present: Israelis and Others," has special
merit. It provides an analysis of the Israeli yerida problem, the
reasons for the exodus, the Israelis considering themselves "sojour-
ners" and therefore viewing themselves as being here temporarily,
planning to return to Israel. While they consider themselves Israelis,
their integration becomes a difficulty. This problernis so well defined
that the essay provides a basis for understanding of what some review
as a problem.
"Understanding American Jewry" emphasizes the need for re-
search. It seems to emphasize increasing interest in such studies.