THE JEWISH NEWS (USPS 275-5201 Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of July 20, 1951 THE SCALE OF DEMOCRACY 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, Midi. 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. PHILIP SLOMOVITZ Editor and Publisher ALAN HITSKY News Editor CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ Business Manager HEIDI PRESS Associate News Editor DREW LIEBERWITZ Advertising Manager Sabbath Scriptural Selections This Sabbath, the second day of Tevet, 5743, is the eighth day of Hanuha and the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues: Pentateuchal portion, Genesis 44:1-44:17, Numbers 7:54-8:4. Prophetical portion,.I Kings 7:40-50. Candlelighting, Friday, Dec. 17, 4:44 p.m. VOL. LXXXII, No. 16 Page Four Friday, December 17, 1982 SEASONAL LESSONS American Jewry's most distinguished schol- ars, as well as those in the ranks of leadership; have constantly drawn upon the urgency of em- phasizing learning as the most pressing need of honoring the legacies acquired historically and in inherited traditions. Whenever Louis D. Brandeis was asked for a Hanuka message, his theme was always the need to know, the obligation to learn, the urgency of acquiring the knowledge necessary to be fully informed about one's people and the challenges they confront. Louis Marshall always made Jewish educa- tion a priority in his appeals to American Jews and in his explanatory speeches and articles outlining the basic needs of possessing the weapons needed to counteract anti-Semitism, to attain the pride needed to honor Jewish tradi- tions, to be so knowledgeable that the non- Jewish fellow citizens will respect the con- tinuity of Jewish devotions which lend strength to Jewry. The changing conditions in Jewish experi- ence, which call for emphasis on the partnership with Israel, the obligation to protect the Jewish state, the issues that have arisen which make that unity obligatory, give new emphasis to the educational factor, albeit it is only a continuity of Jewish duties to themselves. So drastic are the obstacles placed in Israel's path resulting from Arab antagonists and Third World hatreds, so deep-rooted are the suspicions arising from the controversial issues, that Jews will be in a constant dilemma. There must be fullest understanding of the needs, a knowledge of the roots of the animus, an awareness of the difficulties on the road ahead for both Israel and the Jewish people. The most venomous indig- nities must be recognized so that friends and fellow citizens with a sense of justice will know_ how to approach the threats with the aim of eliminating them. It is senseless to complain about non-Jews not being fully informed about existing conditions affecting the Jewish people if Jews themselves are uninformed about developments and untu- tored in ways of tackling the most serious is- sues. It has often been charged that Jews, while benefiting in pride from having given the world the basic spiritual teachings, are themselves only peripherally knowledgeable about the Holy Scriptures and the teachings of the Prophets. There is the repeated rebuke that many in the ranks know very little about Jewish history. In the current crisis, so many Jews have been misled into the ranks of Jewry's enemies that such denigration adds to the regrettable status of non-knowledgeability. It does not mean that all Jews are unin- formed. It declares that many need to be better informed. This becomes a lesson especially applied to Hanuka, which was chosen for appeals for the strengthening of Jewish values through knowl- edge by the giants in Jewish scholarship and leadership. Then the duty to know and under- stand one's status becomes a year-round, end- less dedication. Such are the present lessons for Jewry, ad- monitions for all times, to make knowl- edgeability a source of pride, - its application -an emphasis on Jewish dignity. SECRETIVE FRIENDSHIPS A suspicious atmosphere predominates on Is- rael's borders. Even the coveted friends emerge problematic. The road to peace is not only obsta- cled: it is strewn with thorns and is militated by numerous inerasable hatreds. Exemplary is the plea for a peaceful accord between Israel and Lebanon. The hoped-for re- juvenation of Lebanon, with Lebanon for the Lebanese, toward which Israel contributed a high-priced task, is not too promising. It has its roots in an earlier Lebanon. For perhaps two decades there was a silent expres- sion of Lebanese friendship for Israel. It existed in the ranks of the Maronite Christians. They were mainly responsible for a neighborliness that prevented a war between the two countries. There was never a military confrontation be- tween Israel and Lebanon. But when it same down to brass tacks, to definite assertions of a cooperative spirit be- tween two peoples, between two nations, the status remained one-sided. Israel pleaded for peace . . . the Lebanese aligned with the Arab League and the latter was among the architects of the "destroy Israel" aim that remains the basic in PLO purposes. That's the continuing tragedy at this time. Menahem Begin and his associates in the pre- sent Israel administration said the aim was a peace accord with the Lebanese, and they went so far as to predict that this was about to be attained. At the moment they not only appear wrong in their anticipations but even misled into hopefulness resulting from the Amin Gemayel visits to Saudi Arabia, his flirtations with Israel's enemies, his accusations against the Israel that created opportunities of presidential leadership for him. Is there a possibility of cementing the desired friendship between the two nations? Right now it is as secretive as was the hesitation of Maro- nite Christians to openly strive for and advocate peace with Israel. This is not too happy a time for Israel's hopes and diplomacy. POISON SPREADERS Hatred has no limits. The Nobel Prize Committee in Stockholm had already rejected proposals that the Nobel Peace Prize be withdrawn from Menahem Begin. But his enemies are finding funds to make it an objective in newspaper advertising. With the list of signers of such an ad, the aim is not surprising. With Noam Chomsky and James Abourezk in the American list, it was to be expected that there is no limit to the venom. COMMISSION OF INQUIRY 1111•11111111ft Anti-Nazi Boycott Recorded as Major Unifying Force Boycotts are not generally endorsed in Jewish reactions to prej- udices. If they were, it might at times be necessary to be in constant warfare with the world. In the present circumstances, It could be a battle with most of the press, with the media. It was a different story during the rise of Hitler into power in Germany. Then, too, there were divided opinions. At the outset, many feared boycott as a double-edged sword. The attitudes changed with the rise of Nazism and the boycott became a weapon against the most vicious element in mankind. Recapitulation of the processes under which the boycott de- veloped provides one of the most interesting chapters in American history, with emphasis on the unification of forces mobilized to fight the Nazi terror. Dr. Moshe Gottlieb provides a very thorough account of the anti-Nazi movement in this country in his splendidly documented "American Anti-Nazi Resistance — 1933-1941" (Ktav). Well documented, factually stated, this is a work that must serve as one of the most important yet compiled on the subject, with the movement for a boycott of Nazi goods the vital subject under review. It traces an exciting historical occurrence, a movement that was first initiated by the Jewish War Veterans under the leadership of Col. Morris J. Mendelson, then the national commander of the JWV, on April 1, 1933, coinciding with the Hitlerite inauguration of a boycott of Jews throughout the world. The American Jewish Congress became the leading force in coor- dinating the efforts, after brief opposition to the idea. Then it emerged as the American movement to combat Nazism, in the form of the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi Leaguesto Champion Human Rights, under the leadership of Samuel Untermyer. It was in August of 1933 that the boycott movement gained the American Jewish Congress support and organizational skill, Stephen S. Wise assuming a leading role. There were others who had a leadership participation and who inspired the activity which brought better results than anticipated. They included Barich Vladeck, manager of the Jewish Daily Forward and a leader in the Jewish Labor Committee and the labor movement in this country; Abraham Coralnick, the popular Jewish Daily Day (now defunct Der. Tog) columnist; Joseph Tenenbaum of the AJCon- gress and others. Truly becoming non-sectarian, William Green, AFL president, played an important role in the movement. Thus, the anti-Nazi boycott became an American movement. How did it affect Germany? Adolf Hitler himself expressed con- cern by writing, April 28, 1939, to President Franklin D. Roosevelt: "It is likewise an unbearable burden for world economic relations that it should be possible in some countries for some ideological reason or other to let loose a wild boycott of agitation against other countries and their goods and so practically to eliminate them from the market. Dr. Gottlieb's important historical record could prove there was more resistance to Nazism than is generally conceded. Then there are the indications of conflicts as well as the silence of the U.S. in the era of barbarism — the spread of Nazism. "American Anti-Nazi Resistance" is perhaps the most important work produced on the subject as a summary both of the boycott history and the related Hitlerite threat to Jewish existence. The Gottlieb work is valuable not only as an informative work for individuals but should prove valuable as a textbook for advanced classes and study groups.