gionommeommummor THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Boris Smolar's Between You . . . and Me' Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, JTA (Copyright 1982, JTA, Inc.) A DRAMATIC STORY: A dramatic story is told by a prominent Jewish leader of how he courageously fought for life, for several years, with an incurable form of leukemia and triumphed over this cancerous disease which the medi- cal world considers fatal. The leader is Morris A. Abram, former president of the American Jewish Committee and of Brandeis University, and former U.S. representative to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. He is highly esteemed not only in the Jewish world but also among non-Jews in this country as one who is in the vanguard of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. He tells his story in a book just published under the title "The Day is Short" (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich). His remarkable battle in facing a killer, and his vic- tory, is now considered an important part of medical history. It is attributed by medical experts to a great extent to his strong will to live. The Jewish leader de- scribes frankly and meticulously the complex treatment he has under- gone, and the feelings of a man who was told by medi- cal experts that his death was imminent. He speaks candidly of his confronta- MORRIS ABRAM tion in order to stimulate courage and hope for the many thousands of people afflicted with this malady. Most interesting in his book is the review of his life. He started to look into his past when he was told that he was a dying man. He begins his memoirs with the years of his boyhood in the small town of Fitzgerald, Ga., where he was born. Young Abram — who later became one of the leading figures fighting for the rights of the Black population in the South — grew up at odds with life around him in Fitzgerald, a community where the atmosphere was entirely Baptist. CREDO FOR JEWISHNESS: From his book we learn that it was Dr. John Slawson, now executive vice president emeritus of the American Jewish Committee, who developed Abram's interest in matters Jewish. It was Dr. Slawson who "discovered" him in Atlanta where he was a practicing lawyer who took an interest in the activities of the local branch of the AJCommittee. A psychologist, one of the most prominent Jewish social, workers, Dr. Slawson saw in Dr. Abram "good timber" for a coming national president of the AJCommittee. He in- spired Abram to move to New York City where he became a partner in a prominent law firm and served for more than four years as AJCommittee president. Abram asserts that under Dr. Slawson the word' "Jewish" received equal emphasis with the word "Ameri- can," and that the AJCommittee became "a redemptive movement" in Jewish life for many such as himself. He points out that the organization's programs made identifi- cation possible for the Jew who was integrated into America but not necessarily drawn to a religious obser- vance. He makes it clear that he is not a religious man and has been officially known as a non-Zionist, but he adds that since the mid-1940s he had been fully committed to the importance and necessity of the Jewish state. MAKING JEWISH HISTORY: with his philosophy of Jewishness, Abram played no small role in making con- temporary Jewish history. He reveals in his book details on the role he played in the negotiations with the Vatican for securing the momentous declaration absolving Jews from guilt of deicide. He relates how he and Dr. Slawson met in Rome with Pope Paul VI and in New York with Cardinal Spellman, and was told by the latter — in the presence of Dean Rusk, who was then U.S. Secretary of State — that he considers the deicide charge as "absurd." "The Day is Short" — the title of Abram's book — is taken by the author from saying of the Hebrew sages: "The day is short and the work is great, it is not your duty to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it." This remains Abram's credo for the rest of his life in-his fight for liberal ideas, for human rights and against racial and religious prejudice in any form. The book is contempor- ary Jewish history, in addition to stimulating hope and courage among the many thousands afflicted with fatal diseases. * * * Correction: In 'Between You and Me" on Sept. 3, there were two references to United Jewish Appeal meetings for contributors of $1 million. The meetings are for contribu- tions of $100,000 and more. Israel's Tactics May Aid U.S. Against Soviet Union TEL AVIV (JNI) — Strategic cooperation be- tween Israel and the U.S. could counter Soviet supremacy in Central Europe and contribute to Western security, according to Joseph Churba, head of the U.S.-based Center for International Security. "Were Israel's technolog- ical innovations and tactics grafted onto our own capa- bility, it is conceivable that the U.S. and the West could neutralize Soviet supre- macy on the central front by conventional means alone, reducing the need for tacti- cal nuclear weapons in Europe," Churba told re- porters in Tel Aviv recently. 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