THE JEWISH NEWS
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Incorporating The Detroit Jewish Chronicle commencing with the issue of July 20, 1951
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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 ninth day of Teuet, 5743, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Genesis 44:18-47:27. Prophetical portion, Ezekiel 37:15-28.
Sunday, Fast of the 10th of Tevet
Pentateuchal portion, Exodus 32:11-14, 34:1-10. Prophetical portion (afternoon only], Isaiah 55:6-56:8.
Candlelighting, Friday, Dec. 24, 4:48 p.m.
VOL. LXXXII, No. 17
Page Four
Friday, December 24, 1982
KEEPING THE SABBATH HOLY
From the very beginning, it was decreed:
"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy
(Exodus 20:8). This applies to every Sabbath,
commencing with sunset on Friday until sunset
on Saturday. There are some special Sabbaths,
and they are supplementary, undeviating.
There are no absolutions from the basic princi-
ple.
Nevertheless, there is something special to
the two Sabbaths, tonight's and next week's.
Because of the environmental effects, adher-
ence to the basic ideal becomes especially oblig-
atory.
Because there are so many observances
that involve the neighbors who differ spiritu-
ally and ideologically with the Jewish fellow
citizens, the glory of the Sabbath calls for more
devotional adherence, both on Christmas Eve
and New Year's Eve.
The value of the Sabbath has been recog-
nized by all faiths.
Benjamin Disraeli, in "The Genius of
Judaism" (1833), had one such definition: "An
entire cessation of all the affairs of life on each
seventh day, is a Jewish institution and is not
prescribed by the laws of any other people."
This is a glorious acclaim for the right to
differ, and in the process it invites others, of all
-faiths, to benefit from and respect this notably
ideal day.
The synagogue invites the adherents to its
fold, the home venerates it, thus making the
Sabbath holy. There is an especialy emphasized
glory to this day when Jews can venerate it
without defecting from the privilege of good will
with neighbors, salutations to the spiritually-
minded in all mankind. That's the spirit Shabat
Shalom!
NO PLACE FOR PANIC
There is no place for panic in Jewish life, in
the developing history of Israel, in the hopes
that sustain the people in spite of whatever
difficulties may arise.
There is always cause for concern. There
was much, perhaps too much, of it in recent
weeks. The ' attitudes of outsiders who judged
and prejudged prejudicially created agonies.
Time will surely resolve it, as the passage of the
period of near-despair already indicates it.
Gloomy attitudes to the contrary, there are
measures of hope in Israel that defy despair.
Tlie very men who are being tested in the hear-
ings conducted by the commission of inquiry
over occurrences in Beirut keep giving assur-
ances that there is a road to peace and that it
will be attained. Let it occur, and there will be
relief for all amidst the tensions that have
caused so many heartaches.
Meanwhile, it is not only the expressions of
confidence that there will be amity in the Mid-
dle East resulting from an accord to be reached
with Lebanon's new government, but more
especially the creative spirit in Israel that ad-
_monishes Jews everywhere and the most skep-
tical in mankind to recognize the creativity and
achievements of the people in Israel. The pro-
gress in the universities, the many contributing
factors that make Israel's scientific achieve-
ments stand out in the academic world, serve as
signals of a people's determination to contribute
towards mankind's progress.
An impressive example of the defiance of
despair and the dedication to the creative in all
, spheres, in art, literature, science — and in
music! — was demonstrated last week. Israel
was celebrating the 100th anniversary of the
birth of a great musician, Bronislau Huberman.
The man who was among the most eminent in
the world as a violinist was the organizer of the
Palestine Orchestra more than half-a-century
ago. It has since developed into one of the
world's greatest symphonic ensembles, the Is-
rael Philharmonic Orchestra.
To mark the centennial of the birth of
Bronislau Huberman, the world's greatest
musicians assembled as participants in a series
of concerts which transformed the week into a
holiday spirit. It was a tribute to a great musi-
cian, an acclaim for the notable orchestral at-
tainments, an expression of joy as a nation
whose devotion to music created a festive spirit.
This is the Israel that relegates the horrors
of war into a background when the people's as-
pirations are involved and the faith that sus-
tains it is uppermost in the attitudes of a na-
tion amidst its struggles for survival.
Perhaps the echoes of the concerts
memorializing Huberman will be heard glob-
ally. In Jewish ranks they must serve as a re-
minder that a people's creativity lends it the
power and the strength to make life livable, to
deny the abuse that may seek to relegate
creativity to a low status. What Israel achieves
is what her people hope for. These are the at-
tainments that give no succor to despair. They
retain the pride in creativity that lends pride to
the people's faith and determination to assure
highest goals for mankind.
ZIONIST
FUTURE
Party politics left a sad mark on the World
Zionist Congress sessions in Jerusalem. Yet,
the bitterness and personality conflicts are
understandable. The sharp differences in views
have always been in evidence, and the problems
affecting Israel that have arisen in recent
months inevitably added to the confrontations.
The challenges that were uttered to Zionist
leadership as well as to the Israel government
proved a readiness to differ, in the sense of a
prevailing democratic aim.
Nevertheless, the need for a strong force to
advance the cause of Israel as a defender of the
state's sovereignty remains a vital need in the
Zionist sense. As such, whatever animus may
have been demonstrated must be abandoned for
the serious'efforts to strengthen the libertarian
Jewish ranks that are ideological in Zionism.
Bauer Re-Defines Holocaust
in Historical Perspectives
A library of volumes filled with data about the Holocaust, trac-
ing the horrors, listing the guilt and the guilty, continues to be
headlined predominantly by the works of Dr. Yehuda Bauer, who
heads the Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University
in Jerusalem.
In his "The Holocaust in Historical Perspective" (University of
Washington Press), Dr. Bauer pursues his analytical efforts, em-
phasizing the attitudes of American Jewry, the historical aspects, the
relationships with non-Jews.
The four essays in this volume are
the texts of addresses Dr. Bauer deliv-
ered at the University of Washington.
In its totality, this collective effort
touches upon aspects that assist in'"
clarifying many misconceptions.
Dr. Bauer's address, which as an
essay is titled "The Holocaust and
American Jewry," has a special chal-
lenge on the basis of which the author
discusses the Holocaust. There is this
declaratory comment which features a
deeply moving David Ben-Gurion plea
to mankind:
"Slowly, as 1943 came to an end
and 1944 arrived, the,tragedy was ac-
, DR. YEHUDA BAUER cepted as fact — not really grasped,
not really understood, but accepted as a kind of verdict from which one
would have to restart life. There was a job to be done. Those would
could be helped had to be helped; those hwo had to move had to be
' moved. Hungry people had to be fed. Jews who survived had to be
-
assisted in their migrations.
"On Nov. 15, 1943, the Jewish National Committee in under-
ground Warsaw sent a message to London which said that 'the blood of
three million (Polish) Jews will cry out for revenge not only against
the Hitlerite beasts, but also against the indifferent groups that,
worlds apart, did not do anything to rescue the nation that was sen-
tenced to destruction by the Hitlerite murderers.' And in the autumn
of 1944, Ben-Gtuion wrote an article called 'Before the Tribunal of
History,' in which he asked:
" 'What have you done to us, you freedom-loving peoples, guard-
ians of justice, defenders of the high principles of democracy and of the
brotherhood of man? What have you allowed to be perpetrated against
defenseless people while you stood aside and let it bleed to death,
without offering help or succor, without calling on the fiends to stop,
in the language of retribution which alone they would understand.
" 'Why do you profane our pain and wrath with empty expressions
of sympathy which ring like a mockery in the ears of millions of the
damned in the torture house of Nazi Europe? Why have you not even
supplied arms to our ghetto rebels, as you have done for the partisans
and underground fighters of other nations? Why did you not help us to
establish contracts with them, as you have done in the case of the
partisans in Greece and Yugoslavia and the underground movements
elsewhere.
" 'If, instead of Jews, thousands of English, American or Russian
women, children and aged had been tortured every day, burnt to
death, asphyxiated in gas chambers — would you have acted in the
same way?' "
The entire series is deeply moving.