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
CARMI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
Editor and Publisher
ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
HEIDI PRESS
Associate News Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the sixth day of Kislev, 5744,
the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Genesis 28:10-32:3.
Prophetical portion, Hosea 12:13-14:10.
Candlelighting, Friday, November 11, 4:55 p.m.
VOL. LXXXIV, No. 11
Page Four
Friday, November 11, 1983
THE BOOK ON THE AGENDA
From the viewpoint of a community's
organizational skills, another triumph is being
registered here. The annual Jewish Book Fair,
masterminded by the Jewish Community Cen-
ter, cooperatively supported by nearly all the
organizations affiliated with the synagogues,
the Zionist movement, the religious and the
secular, the eight days of speeches and book
displays are certain to draw large audiences.
Jewish Book Fair continues through the
years as the most successful audience drawing
power. It registers to the credit of community
program planners.
In the process of pursuing the agenda out-
lined for the eight days of speechmaking and
book selling, attendant to the autographing
temptations, basic questions should be posed.
Are books read or does an author's appearance
at a program designed for his book suffice? Is
subject matter vital, or is the assembling of
large audiences the chief attainable purpose?
With the book on the agenda for the eight-
day assigned annual period, it is well also to ask
whether the challenges contained in the many
books to be reviewed create the interest vital to
dialogues on the major issues that confront the
Jewish people?
There will be some 24 speakers on the
agenda, and the subjects of their works cover a
vast field of concerns. Even the novels to be
reviewed have challenging messages. A sum-
mation of the contents covered, and they are
legion, include the rebirth of Jewish statehood
and the personalities who engineered the ac-
tion, the hatreds inherent in anti-Semitism and
the horrors defined as Holocaust, the Redemp-
tion and the. Rescue, the unity as well as the
divisiveness in Jewish ranks. Indeed, even the
latter is vital because there will be Israelis on
the agenda who will face up to issues which are
far from unity-inspiring and yet represent an
element in Jewish thinking and acting.
It is not enough to rejoice at the sight of a
book. It is necessary to be moved by its contents
even if effects may prove devastating. It is
necessary to arouse discussion and encourage
exchange of opinions because Jewish life isn't
all honey, because the very approach to total
redemption calls for a knowledge and under-
standing in counteracting the conceded as well
as conceivable menacing obstacles to Jewish
life.
There are dangers on the road. Israel must
always face up to neighbors and their allies who
declare war against her. Mixed marriages are
assuming immense proportions and are
threatening Jewish strength. The cultural
standards are not always up to par.
It does not mean that Jewish existence is in
danger. On the contrary, when confronted with
challenges, strength revives. What is urgent is
that there be an understanding, a knowledge-
able Jewry, that the people carrying the banner
of faith and devotion to the Jewish heritage be
worthy of the legacies.
The book leads in that direction. A Book
Fair can encourage the teaching of it. In addi-
tion to the books and their authors, these ideas
must also be placed on the agenda.
BETRAYALS • • • DECEPTIONS
"Horror befell all of us" is the essence of
shock expressed by a spokesman for the U.S. as
a reaction to the tragedy that struck Israelis in
the same fashion as suicide-murderers struck
down American and French military in Leba-
non.
The terror is a more continuous experience
for Israel than any other group, and retaliation
by Israelis is much more understandable. One of
Israel's means of preventing more of such mass
murdering is provide a lesson that will be un-
derstood and taken into account. It is a lesson to
be learned by whoever stems from Arab and
pro-Arab sources, whether Syrian or Russian or
their allies.
While mourning the losses and taking into
account the bestialities as they affect both the
United States and Israel, there is no ignoring
the truth that there have been and there are
many betrayals that contribute to the permis-
sive terrorism in the Middle East. Anwar Sadat
joined Menahem Begin in a "No More War"
pledge which had begun to benefit both coun-
tries. Sadat's successor, Hosni Mubarak, con-
tributes toward betrayals of this agreement,
and a similar approach to mutual understand-
ing between Israel and Lebanon, with the latter
having emerged in the May 17 agreement as the
second Arab state to declare an end of war with
Israel, could easily be undermined if a Mubarak
policy were respected in any degree.
Instead of condemning the outrages in
Lebanon and the mass murders, Mubarak re-
sorted again to attacks on Israeli policies. Re-
sorting to such hate provocations, already hav-
ing condoned the spread of anti-Semitism in
Egypt, Mubarak adds deceptions to portrayals.
Even the fratricidal era of Syrian-PLO-
Arafat feuds seem to have failed to teach the
Egyptian ruler and his anti-Israel associates
the proper lessons.
Such are the betrayals. Such are the decep-
tions which are really Arabic self-deceptions.
Even the multiple sufferings, Arab losses being
even greater than those of their targets, are
slow in providing rationale to end the insanities
in the Middle East.
A tragic addendum to self-deceptions is the
lack of vision among Arabs in the Judea-
Samaria areas who, in spite of the internal ter-
rors, continue to acclaim Yasir Arafat. Blind to
the realities of a feud in which Syrians are out to
crush Arafatism, there are shouts and demon-
strations under an Arafat banner for the man
was chosen for rejection by his fellow terrorists.
There will be probably be no difference between
Arafat and any successor, yet self-deceptions
remain the rule.
Biography Emphasizes
Brandeis' Zionist Role
A generation of activists in behalf of social causes, for the ad-
vancement of the Zionist ideal, is re-introduced by Lewis J. Papei in
"Brandeis" (Prentice Hall). The biography of the late Supreme Court
Justice Louis D. Brandeis is replete with dramatic details about the
eminent jurists court opinions which have become rooted in American
jurisprudence, and his leadership in battling vested interests in pub-
lic trusts when he rose to the title of "The People's Lawyer."
In his Zionist devotion Brandeis
covered vast fields, in his support of
the cause, in his involvements with
the most distinguished personalities
in the movement, his controversy with
Chaim Weizmann. He was never to-
tally separated from the cause even
when the differing views assumed bit-
terness.
His dispute with Weizmann,
which resulted in his abandoning
leadership in the Zionist Organization
of America, has full coverage in this
book, in the developments which oc-
curred at the Cleveland ZOA conven-
tion in 1921. That's when he and
Stephen S. Wise, and Zionist leaders
like Judge Julian W. Mack, broke
LOUIS D. BRANDEIS
ranks with Louis Lipsky and his asso-
ciates who supported Weizmann. It
was an economic issue, but the Keren
Hayesod advocates under Weizmann's
leadership gained control of the ZOA.
But Brandeis' interest remained
pragmatic. He had the backing and
association of Felix Frankfurter, who
also soon was to be on the Supreme
Court bench, Benjamin Cohen of the
historically famous Cohen-Corcoran
combine who were referred to as the
Gold Dust Twins by President
Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Stephen
Wise.
Brandeis encouraged David
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT Ben-Gurion and the Jewish forces who
protected the Jewish settlements in
Palestine, and Brandeis aided Zionism in many more ways.
Of unusual interest in the Paper biography is a revealing account
of Brandeis' appeal to Franklin Roosevelt for aid to the sufferers from
Nazism. Brandeis' long association with FDR commenced during the
Woodrow Wilson Administration. Brandeis was among the fiercest
opponents of the FDR attempt to pack the Supreme Court to assure
success for Roosevelt's economic policies. But although Brandeis was
in great measure responsible for the defeat of the court-packing at-
tempt, the President did not shirk from responsibility of meeting the
jurist on the question of relief for Nazi-oppressed Jewry.
They met at the White House on that sad day in November 1938
when Brandeis made his appeal. Roosevelt pledged to issue an appeal
to open Palestine's doors to the Nazi sufferers. Roosevelt agreed and it
satisfied Brandeis, but there was a disappointment in the British
intransigence and failure to aid the oppressed.
It is all part of a story that will call for added comment and
analysis of the Paper biographical document. As an historical study,
it will continue to insure reference in the need to keep major historic
documents alive. The Paper book is such a document.