THE JEWISH NEWS CUSPS 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 $18 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 15th day of Heshvan, 5744, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues: , Pentateuchal portion, Genesis 18:1-22:24. Prophetical portion, II Kings 4:1-37. Candlelighting, Friday, October 21, 6:21 p.m. VOL. LXXXIV, No. 8 Page Four Friday, October 21, 1983 A PEOPLE'S VIRILITY For the several hundred delegated rep- resentatives from scores of communities in 11 states, the sessions of the East ,Central- Midwest Leadership Conference of the United Jewish Appeal, now in session here for a long weekend of reviews of Jewish needs, the mount- ing problems in Israel will be among the most pressing challenges yet hurled at American Jewry. Israel's economic problems have reached so serious a stage that a near-panic has resulted from the latest devaluation of the shekel. There- fore, concern over the status of that .oft-tried people echoed similar disturbances among the Jewish compatriots in this country. The change in government added to anxiety. The battles between political parties in Israel added a measure of alarm over the future developments. The religious differences and the domination of power-infected extremists do not help in the search for a sense of calmness over multiple problems. If one were to search for all the reasons for concern over the tenseness of a situation that affects all Jews, everywhere, in relation to the future of Israel, it would be limitless. There is always the agony of divisiveness in Jewish ranks which magnifies an already-over- charged experience. Therefore, when responsible representa- tives of Jewish communities meet to confront the challenges — and they are primarily those emanating from and about Israel — the duty is to be realistic in order to reach a firmness that will reject panic. There is no room for fright and therefore every appeal for unified Jewish action must be based on the pragmatism that belies subjection to unrest and fear. The United Jewish Appeal representatives assembled here will surely confront the issues, none of which can or should be shelved. Trou- bles galore are on the agenda and the record of alarming occurrences cannot be either erased or hidden. Therefore, there will, as there must, be an acceptance of what exists. Therefore, the in- vited reply to all that is truly horrifying in the people's experience. World Jewry has never been without prob- lems on a general basis, and Israel has to her credit only a minimum of relatively peaceful years on the lenghty calendar of threats to her very existence and obstacles to unified action internally. There have always been the an- tagonists within the family ranks who created obstructions to Jewish aims for progressive ac- tions in the redeemed Jewish state. What is occurring now is cumulatively more serious. But there is nothing new when troubles appear on the threshold of Jewish existence. All of which invites the emphasis on the major factor of Israel's rebirth. It is the exis- tence of Israel that has inspired and must em- phatically add to the inspiration that what was attained is never to be destroyed. The great miracle of redemption can never be reduced in historic significance. Whatever the obstacles, Israel must receive the encouragement for life on the highest levels, and when these are tem- porarily polluted the reply must be on the scale of the declarations of the ages, of "never say die," of reasserting that the chief item of Jewish experimentations with problems, no matter how threatening they may be, is a continuity that cannot be questioned. It has been questioned and there are fellow-Jews who add to obstructions. This is one of the chief items on the agenda of a gathering of Jews who assemble to plan in defense of their people's right and determination to be a con- structive factor in humankind. It is a repetitive aspiration to and demand for Jewish unity. What is occurring now, the problems in Is- rael, the divisiveness over-sensationalized in American Jewish ranks, combine to state to representative assemblies that what is vital and demanding is Jewish unity. * * * A UJA assembly like the one in session here at the present time will call for philan- thropic ardor. It will, as it must, indicate the need for an uninterrupted flow of funds to aid Israel in undeniable distqss. This factor, too, must be clarified. No matter how much money is provided by Diaspora Jews, it is insufficient to meet the needs. Yet, the money is needed — as aid to new settlers, whose ranks hopefully will increase; to provide for the elderly and the indi- gent; to assure the support for the universities which are so important for Israel and for the Jewish people everywhere as inspirations. Primarily, what is most vital is the mes- sage that goes forth from Diaspora to Israel — stating to the embattled people that it is not being abandoned, that the Jews of the world stand with them in time of crisis, that there is a unity that is indestructible. There is an occasional headline sen- sationalizing divisiveness, as in one notable in- stance that "Brothers Split on Israel." What the assembly here surely declares is that such agonies exist but they are rare and Jewish devo- tions do not respect them. What is surely in evidence in the gathering of unifying Jewish forces is that the unity of the Jewish people cannot be destroyed by either a lack of vision, or a missing of a sense of decency, or the inhuman- ity that would wipe out a people's determined will that redemption be treated as the glory of fulfillment of inerasable Prophecy. * * * Therein the positive "therefore": that the miracle of redemption be treated as the unas- sailable determination that Jewish unity never be molested, that it send forth a message to Israel and to Jews everywhere who need her that solidarity in Jewish ranks is here to assure the security of the attained end to Jewish homelessness. It is in this spirit that this community wel- comes the assembled who are here to solidify Jewish unity. Published. by Avon Books Holocaust Hasidic Tales Dignify the Resistance The deeply moving "Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust" (Avon Books), assembled by Yaffa Eliach, has incorporated "The Last Re- quest": "As the German einsatzgruppen were about to execute the Jewish population in a small Ukrainian town, an Hasidic Jew walked over to the young German officer in charge and told him that it was customary in civilized countries to grant a last request to those con- demned to death. The young German assured the Jew that he would observe that civilized tradition and asked the Jew what his last wish was. " 'A short prayer,' replied the 'Jew. 'Granted!' snapped the Ger- man. "The Jew placed his hand on his bare head to cover it and recited the following blessing, first in its original Hebrew, then in its German translation: 'Blessed art thou, 0 Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hath not made me heathen.' "Upon completion of the blessing, he looked directly into the eyes of the German and with his head held high, walked to the edge of the pit and said: 'I have finished. You may begin.' The young German's bullet struck him in the back of the head at the edge of the huge grave filled with bodies." It is an ending in martyrdom. The lesson, however, is on the highest level of spiritual dignity and is perhaps among the most impressive evidences of a resistance that has defied the brutalities and has emerged in the triumph of the Jewish will to live under the most brutally oppressive conditions. Every account of tragic experience in this record of response to the inhumanities is marked by a dignity that is rooted in the spiritual powers attained in Hasidism and in the Jewish spirit of retaining faith under the most difficult conditions. Miss Eliach introduces her tales, in translations from the Yid- dish, by defining the emergence of the Hasidic acclamation of faith in its historical aspects. Her introductory essay on Hasidism therefore adds immensely toward a recognition of the great contributions made by the movement toward inspiring confidence in a faithful Jewish traditional life. It perpetuates the glory of the legacies that are Jewish in confronting the agonies that stemmed from the oppressions threatened by the tyrannies of the people's historic experiences. The Eliach preface has additional value in the attention it draws to the influence of Hasidism on scholars like Martin Buber, authors like I.L. Peretz and many more. It points out, for example, that "like_ Peretz, Buber, one of the pioneers in bringing Hasidic literature to the world at large, was deeply moved by the religious message of the Hasidism, and he considered it his duty to convey that message to the world." - "Hasidic Tales from the Holocaust" is subtitled "From the Tor- ment of the Camps, They Brought Their Tales of Faith, Hope and Love." Miss Eliach traces the history of the Hasidic beginnings. It was in the early 1800s in Podolia, Volhynia, in the Ukraine, after the me massacres conducted by the forces of the Cossack Bogdad Chmielnicki and in the era of the False Messiah Sabbatai Zevi that the movement came into being under the inspired guidance of Israel ben Eliezer who became known in history as the Baal Shem Tov. The revitalization of Jewish life that developed from such spiritual teachings is reflected in what must be viewed as the most courageous resistance record recorded in the Eliach edited and trans- lated tales of faith and courage.