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THE JEWISH NEWS
(USPS 275-520)
Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of July 20, 1951
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
Editor and Publisher
ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
Business Manager
HEIDI PRESS
Associate News Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 25th day of Au, 5742, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17. Prophetical portion, Isaiah 54:11-55:5.
Thursday and Aug. 20, Rosh Hodesh Elul, Numbers 28:1-15.
Candlelighting, Friday, Aug. 13, 8:18 p.m.
VOL. LXXXI, No. 24
Page Four
Friday, Aug. 13, 1982
JUDGING THE PREJUDICES
Bitterness and prejudice has invaded Jewish
ranks.
It is not among Jews alone, but in many areas
in which the Lebanese crisis is having its effects
there is a growing bitter feeling out of which
bias is inevitably sounded.
All wars are tragedies. Israel's massive oper-
ation against its major enemies led to tragic
events that continue to arouse ill feelings, deep
hurt, resentment that the basic aims to prevent
and certainly to reduce sufferings are collec-
tively adding to feelings of resentment and con-
demnations.
There is no ignoring the facts. While the
overwhelming sentiments in Israel are in de-
fense of the government's action, there is a suf-
ficient element of opposition to the operations to
call for an accounting of a state of affairs af-
fected by heavy loss of lives and vast numbers of
injuries which include many maimed for life.
Therefore the protests, the demonstrations
for peace, the demands to an end to the events
which must be conceded as an invasion into a
foreign land by an Israel army.
No matter how justified the protestations,
however extensive the agonies over civilian
casualties, the unpleasantness of an admittedly
tragic situation is the exaggeration that is at
the root of the experienced events.
There is nothing to match the many tens of
thousands of casualties within Lebanon which
continued for nearly a decade upon the
entrenchment there of the PLO and the divisive
factions in that unhappy situation which links
the ill effects of the Israeli invasion with the
terror that dominated the country preceding it.
That the emphasis by the media upon the sad-
dest of incidents, thereby ignoring the Israeli
policies of not condoning cruelties contribute to
the horrible results stemming from exaggera-
tions.
The facts and figures attributed to the proc-
esses of the war will undoubtedly be coun-
teracted by truth when the complete details be-
come available. Continued warfare interferes
with the sifting of truth from distortions. Hope-
fully, there will be an early end to the tragic
warfare. Hopefully, a free and sovereign Leba-
non will emerge from it. Hopefully, Lebanon
will be added to the Israeli-Egyptian enforce-
ment of a No More War decision.
It is the bitterness and the prejudice that has
developed which must be dealt with in all seri-
ousness.
It is to the credit of Israel that demonstrations
for peace are not banned, that her army officials
who desire to defect from their duties during a
tragic war are not silenced.
The sentiments rampant worldwide repre-
sent the more serious challenge. It is the bitter-
ness with which Israel is condemned that is a
cause for so much deep hurt that calls for ra-
tional reviews of the events. Not only must
those who are the most outspoken critics con-
cede that there are casualties irr all wars. They
are expected to balance the blame, to double-
check the regulations adhered to in the ensuing
battles, to judge whether Israel the invader is
truly as guilty as that nation's attackers want
the world to believe. They seek to condemn a
people whose sovereignty is so dependent upon
defensive decisions.
Differing views cannot, must not, will not be
suppressed. Critics have a role in civilized
society. When, however, condemnation and bit-
terness leads to prejudice, the result is deplora-
ble. This is what has truly developed in the
current experience. The criticisms have been so
distorted by exaggerations that it will take a
long time to dispel the harm unleashed upon
Israel and in the process upon her Jewish and
Christian defenders.
Truth cannot be suppressed and it must lead
to an understanding based on justice. It is the
prejudice that stems from bitterness born out of
exaggerations that is so deplorable in the pre-
sent crisis.
A great responsibility rests upon the media,
upon representatives of all _governments in-
volved, primarily Israel and the United States,,
and also the Arab factions in the conflict. The
Christian community must play its role. Many,
under the leadership of the Rev. Dr. Franklin
Littell, have already spoken in the interest of
truth and of Israel's security. The war won't last
forever and will, hopefully, come to an end in
the days ahead. When the cessation takes place
there will be need to dispel bitterness. Prejudice
must never be sanctioned. The road to just ac-
tions by all the peoples involved must never be
obstructed.
MEDIA 4 013 S CENITIE S
Scores of names of associates with the Inter-
national Network of Children of Jewish
Holocaust Survivors are appended to an adver-
tisement in the New York Times which declares
in part:
"While we deplore the bloodshed and human
suffering inherent in all wars, we condemn as
obscene any comparison between Israeli
soldiers fighting to protect their homeland and
the German murderers of one-third of our
people; between the Jews who perished in the
gas chambers of Majdanek and cowardly killers
of the children of Maalot; or between the War-
saw Ghetto and West Beirut. There are no
similarites between Israel's struggle against
terrorism and the Nazis' systematic slaughter
of European Jewry.
"We warn the contemporary anti-Semites of
our society that we shall not allow them to de-
secrate or exploit the memory of the Holocaust,
and we reaffirm our solidarity with the state of
Israel."
How tragic that pandering to such obscenities
are personalities who figure prominently in the
media! Anthony Lewis has a long record of vit-
riolic assault on Israel. I.F. Stone and Noam
Chomsky are no surprises to the concerned in
Jewish life. John Chancellor adds his poison in
the chanting of what the survivors from the
Holocaust call obscenities.
Ancient, Modern Sources
Tel Aviv University Issues
Philosophical Sabbath Study
Has the Sabbath lost step with the modern world and its ideas?
Has its importance, its traditional value, declined?
Tel Aviv University has introduced a series of studies to present
"the philosophical background to the evolution of the unique aura
which surrounds the Sabbath, especially its approach to time."
The Sabbath concept is defined in a series of Tel Aviv University
publications, the first of which, "The Sabbath: Time and Existence,"
provides an enrichingly evaluative study of the sanctity of the tradi-
tional day of rest.
Included in the first large-sized paperback are writings from
several modern philosophers who have concerned themselves with
the implications of the Sabbath.
Sabbath observance, customs and ceremonials as expressed in
early Jewish sources, viewed by latter day Jewish thinkers, supple-
ment these studies. Then there is the integration of values and ideals
of the Sabbath with practical action.
To educate the Jewish reader and to re-create the values of the
Sabbath the aim is to provide understanding, leading to acceptance,
emphasizing a program of action.
David Zisenwine and Karen Abramovitz are the compilers and
authors of this volume which emerges as an unusual product offered
by one of Israel's leading universities.
Rashi's commentaries, the philosophical approaches in
Maimonides, Halakhic regulations, the Shulhan Arukh, the Midrash
and Agada are drawn upon as explanatory sources.
Noteworthy in this impressively definitive work is the following,
entitled "Definition of Terms":
"The Sabbath is a `sabbath unto the Lord thy God, in it thou
shalt not do any kind of work' (Exodus 20:10). P is also 'a sabbath of
holy rest, holy to the Lord' (Deuteronomy 5:14). Halakhic discussion
views these verses and asks: what is work? what is rest?
"The discussions, also known as the Oral Law, include traditions,
customs and biblical interpretations, and make the Written Torah the
source of a viable way of life in all generations. The Oral Law includes
the Halakha but is greater than it.
"The Oral Law was written down in the the first five centuries of
the Common Era. The Mishna, the Talmud and the Midrashic-Agadic
literature are its classic expression. Mishna and Talmud deal primar-
ily with Halakha — the laws, the obligations, the do's and don'ts.
Midrash-Agada is the repository of Jewish ethical teaching, theology,
history, legends and folk-wisdom.
"The Sages dealt with the problem of the definition of work on
the Sabbath in the Mishna and Talmud. Just what sort of activity
qualified as work in the eyes of the Torah, and what was the yardstick
by which any action — planting a field, cooking a meal, or (later)
running a computer, using electricity — could be considered work?
"We will first present the way in which the Sages determined thL
categories of prohibited work. Then we will list the categories them-
selves. Following that, we will offer several modern reflections on
`work.' Finally we will turn to anthologies and halakhic codes for
some details of Sabbath observance."
Markedly enriched by illustrations of Sabbath lamps and kidush
cups, breast plates, wine jugs and other photographs of objects relat-
ing to the Sabbath, this introductory volume to a significant study is a
significant literary contribution to the most impressive factor in
Jewish tradition and is an enrichment in Tel Aviv University's crea-
tive efforts.
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