12 Friday, October 1, 1983

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Bnai Brith International Marking 140th Anniversary

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WASHINGTON (JTA) —
Bnai Brith International
will celebrate its 140th year
beginning next Thursday
by doing what it does best:
serving the community.
Ceremonies denoting the
state of the Jewish service
organization's 15th decade
will be held throughout the
year by members around
the world.
Gerald Kraft, president of
Bnai Brith International,
said, in announcing the
year-long anniversary
celebration: "At 140, Bnai
Brith is more robust than
ever, and continues to play a
leading role in preserving,
protecting and promoting
Jewish life the world over —
and confident that our
greatest achievements still
lie ahead."
The organization, whose
half-a-million members in
48 countries comprise the
largest democratically or-
ganized group of its kind,
was founded in 1843 by 12
emigres in New York City.
Their objective was to unite
Jews "in the work of prom-
oting their highest interests
and those of humanity."

Early in its history,
Bnai Brith focused on br-
inging together Ameri-
can Jews with disparate
backgrounds. At the
same time, members
widened their attention
to help widows and or-
phans.

In short order, they were

GERALD KRAFT

also helping victims of
natural disasters and
launching their first fight
against anti-Semitism — in
1851, by persuading the Un-
ited States to withhold ap-
proval of a treaty with Swit-
zerland until several Swiss
cantons removed legal re-
strictions against Jews.
Today, Bnai Brith is still
aiding disaster victims and
fighting religious and racial
bias. Its Anti-Defamation
League, founded 70 years
ago to thwart the growing
menace of the Ku Klux
Klan, is widely -considered
to be one of the foremost
human rights advocates in
the world. The ADL has of-
fices in North and South
America and Europe and
works hand-in-hand with
other Bnai Brith human
rights groups in Canada,
Australia and New Zea:
land.
In the 1880s, as the first

massive wave of Jews from
Europe reached the United
States, Bnai Brith set up
manual and technical
schools and the first free
employment bureau, all
aimed at making these im-
migrants both self-
sufficient and comfortable
in their new surroundings.
A hundred years later,-Bnai
Brith volunteers continue
to assist immigrants —
mostly from the Soviet
Union — to become "at
home" in America.
About the same time,
Bnai Brith's first overseas
lodge was established —
appropriately, in Israel.
Today members reside in
countries from Austria to
Australia, from Japan to
Jamaica. Israel, of course,
remains special.

Not only are there more
than 200 lodges in that
country, each engaged in
social and educational
welfare projects, but
there are some 5,000
teenage members of Noar
Lenoar, Israel's Bnai
Brith Youth Organiza-
tion (BBYO) counterpart,
and thousands of stu-
dents active in the Bnai
Brith Hillel Foundations
at various college cam-
puses. In addition,
Jerusalem is the site of
Bnai Brith's world
center, which serves as a
program resource
agency for the organiza-
tion. ,

Just as Israel is special,
so, too, are Soviet Jews.
For nearly two decades,
Bnai Brith has spearheaded
efforts to prod the USSR to
permit Jews and others who
desire to emigrate to leave.
During that time, some
270,000 Jews did leave,
most of them going to Israel.
Last March, in face of a
virtually complete emigra-
tion shutdown, Bnai Brith
led a worldwide rally to let
those Jews remaining in the
Soviet Union know that
they have not been — and
will not be — forgotten.
Bnai Brith is also a world
leader in seeking positive
resolution to other issues of
Jewish concern. Through its
International Council,
members are kept informed
on what is happening
around the world both in
front of and behind the
scenes Of formulating public
policy. An accredited Non-
Governmental Organiza-
tion of the United Nations,
Bnai Brith maintains a
close watch on activities af-
fecting - Jews at the UN as
well as in other nations.

In recent years, as
ethnic neighborhoods
disappeared in many
countries, Bnai Brith has
attempted to keep its
members strongly aware
of their Judaic back-
ground through educa-
tion programs.

The organization pre-

New Zealand and Israel.
The purpose of the program
is to enable these people to
participate in their com-
munities and to enjoy to the
utmost the sunset of their
lives.

pares, through its Adult
Jewish Education Commis-
sion, a variety of publica-
tions and audio/visual tapes
that range from how to con-
duct Sabbath services at
home to interpretation of
the Bible; it also sponsors
summer institutes at which
noted authorities in relig-
ion, philosophy, history and
politics discuss issues of
Jewish interest in the light
of their expertise.
At the same time that
ethnic neighborhoods are
disappearing, the popula-
tions of many countries are
growing older. As with
Soviet Jews, Bnai Brith has
been making it clear that
the elderly are not forgot-
ten. In place of the orphan-
ages it had sponsored from
the Civil War through
World War I, Bnai Brith
over the last 15 years has
been sponsoring low-rent,
non-sectarian apartment
projects.
In the U.S. alone, some
5,000 senior citizens reside
in these homes in 17 cities,
with more projects planned.
Thousands of additional el-
derly reside in Bnai Brith
apartments in Canada,
Great Britain, Australia,

And while Bnai Brith
helps the elderly, it looks
to youth to maintain the
organization's vigor in
the future. In 1923, the
first Bnai Brith Hillel
Foundation was
founded, at the Univer-
sity of Illinois. Today, 60
years later, there are
Bnai Brith Hillel offices
on more than 400 college
campuses in a dozen
countries, offering religi-
ous, educational, cultural
and social activities to
some 300,000 students.
Bnai Brith offers similar
activities to teenagers
through its youth organi-
zation, which was estab-
lished in 1924.

Both BBYO and Bnai
Brith Hillel also offer lead-
ership training, the purpose
of which is to prepare young
people to become leaders in
Bnai Brith and both the
Jewish and general com-
munities as they mature.
Among the alumni of
BBYO are three former
Ambassadors to the United
Nations, two members of
President Carter's Cabinet,
scores of American Con-
gressmen and thousands of
local executives and legis-
lators.

Political Semantic Games Harm the World's Democracies

By REV. FRANKLIN
LITTELL

National Institute
on the Holocaust

PHILADELPHIA — One

of the major studies of the
Nazi "reversal of values"
deals with the corruption of
the language. Victor Klem-
perer showed that the de-
struction of accepted mean-
ings was planned by Nazi
ideologists, but it also
exploited a corrosive pro-
cess which was well on the
way before the Nazi seizure
of power.
In the lingo of some Ger-
man political philosophers,
"liberty" had already been
defined as "submission to
the will of the state." And
"democracy" was discre-
dited by identifying it with
parliamentary tricks rather
than its true essence: the
pursuit of genuine political
consensus through full and
free public discussion.
Most fatal was the lazy
acceptance of demagogic
slogans in place of valid
political concepts, in the
process of which "liberal"
became melded into
"socialist" and "communist"
and "conservative" made

indistinguishable from
"reactionary" and "fascist."

The sloganizers of
either extreme, Com-
munist and Nazi, encour-
aged the polarization.
Both groups of ex-
tremists thought the
polarizing process
served their own interest
by destroying the middle
ground of discussion and
common-sense politics.
Under assault from the
extremes, the center
could not hold.

In societies that have a
chance at liberty and self-
government, a great deal
depends upon thoughtful
language. And much de-
pends upon a pedestrian,
problem-solving approach
to politics. The true busi-
ness of politics is jeopar-
dized when banners and
slogans and ideological
catchwords replace careful
expression.

Totalitarian politics is
characterized by the effort
to lift political issues to the
religious level. "No com-
promise!" replaces common
sense accommodation.
Screaming slogans and

mass rallies replace the
dialogue in town meetings.
Violence replaces civility in
debate. The millenium is
promised for "the day" when
the party seizes power and
eliminates its rivals.
Totalitarian politics are
conspiratorial and fre-
quently terrorist in tactic.
Usually they are anti-
Semitic or "anti-Zionist" (a
polite pseudonym for the
same bigotry). Terrorist
movements, if successful,
create criminal govern-
ments, their pseudo-
religious political crusades
turning into genocidal
programs.

We have recently suf-
fered two dramatic inci-
dents in the American
press that show the
danger of a "reversal of
values" is by no means
limited to-the Germany of
the past. The intellectual
slovenliness of yellow
journalism is an interna-
tional phenomenon.

The first incident has to
do with the identification of
Yitzhak Shamir, Menahem
Begin's successor as head of
the coalition, as a "onetime

terrorist." The term is
falsely used, whether from
intellectual slovenliness or
malice. Shamir, like Begin,
was a freedom-fighter.
The distinction between a
terrorist and a freedom-
fighter has been made many
times. A"freedom-fighter,"
whether his cause is sound
or not, is a soldier not in un-
iform who directs his action
against military targets. A
"terrorist" is one who di-
rects his actions to terrorize,
to de-stabilize a society by
murdering unarmed civi-
lians: women shoppers,
-school children, athletes,
diplomats, etc. A "freedom-
fighter" is fighting a de-
spotism or dictatorship. A
"terrorist" is trying to de-
stroy a legitimate govern-
ment.
Some of the journalists
mix the terms because they
lack intellectual precision
and clarity of language.
Some of them are sym-
pathetic to the terrorists
and try to give them a re-
spectable "cover." Those
who call Begin and Shamir
"former terrorists" are
either slovenly or hostile to
Israel.

Misuse of the language
is demonstrated in a sec-
ond recent flurry of
newspaper articles. The
late Rep. Larry
McDonald of Georgia is
constantly called a "con-
servative." A feature
story in the New York
Times called him "uncon-
testably the most conser-

vative member of Con-
gress."

McDonald was one of the
victims of the recent Soviet
atrocity, the shooting down
of a Korean airliner with
269 civilian passengers.
More to the point, he re-
cently became head of the
John Birch Society, a secret
conspiracy which has be-
come since 1958 the or-
ganizing center of a net-
work of "fronts" aimed at
polarizing American public
opinion and destroying the
middle ground of common-
sense politics.
The founder of the John
Birch Society, and its head
until McDonald took over,
was Robert Welch. Welch's
books, pamphlets and
magazines have accused
President Eisenhower of
being a conscious tool of the
Communist conspiracy.
Virtually everyone more
liberal than Eisenhower is
charged with being a "con-
symp" or a secret card-
carrier.
Welch described the
strategies of the Com-
munists and advised his fol-
lowers to imitate them with
secret cells, hidden agen-
das, infiltration of police of-
fices and school boards, es-
tablishment of "fronts," re-
lentless harassment of
political "enemies."

Most sensible people,
who believe that gov-
ernment should limit it-
self to practical issues
and problem-solving, do
not like ideological

labels. They are "liberal"
on one issue and "con-
servative" on another,
depending on the merits.

Sensible people confine
their political discourse to
specific issues and choices,
and they know that those
who cherish the middle
ground of democratic deci-
sion have far more in com-
mon with each other than
they have with any ideolog-
ical extremists — Com-
munits, fascist, Nazi, racist
or "religious."
As the demise of the
Weimar Republic well
documents, the fascists and
Communists build each
other up. Both target the
parties of the middle for de-
struction, knowing well
that as long as the center
holds they have no chance.
Without the KPD the
NSDAP would never have
come to power. Without the
brutality of juntas and fas-
cist distatorships, the
Communists would have no
appeal.

The Birchers refer to
their late head, Larry
McDonald, as Com-
munism's strongest
enemy in America. On the
contrary,' he was one of
their best friends. He
gave credibility to their
sloganizing about "fas-
cist America." More than
that, like them he wanted
to polarize American
politics and destory the
champions of problem-
solving, pedestrian poli-
tics.

