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
Editor and Publisher
ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
Shalom, Alp Aime
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yam can do kr 11.5
Business Manager
HEIDI PRESS
Associate News Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the fourth day of Tevet, 5744, the following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Genesis 44:1847:27.
Prophetical portion, Ezekiel 37:15-28.
Dec. 16, 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. 9, 4:43 p.m.
VOL. LXXXIV, No. 15
Page Four
Friday, December 9, 1983
PEACE,' REALISM, COURAGE
Boiling military, diplomatic and socio-
religious issues dominated the Middle East
battleground for many decades and the crises of
recent months appear to have forced clarifica-
tions which may lead to long-sought solutions.
Perhaps it is too much to expect that deep-
rooted hatreds will vanish very soon, or that a
road to peace can be paved even with the best
intentions of the nations involved. That a better
understanding of the issues is being shaped ap-
pears to be an introduction to the hopes for a
reduction of the antagonisms, even if a total
cessation of them has an imaginative flavor.
The American-Israeli agreements, the
encouragement, even if limited, from Lebanese
sources, toward a measurable accord, must be
recognized as a continuing process in relation-
ships between many of the elements involved in
what had been dispute and is now portrayed as
an aim tow _ ard cooperation and at least an end to
warfare.
This country and Israel have a long-lasting
friendship. There were dark periods of differing
views. The ideal of friendship nevertheless sur-
vived many obstacles.
Now the link is stronger because it involves
the fate and security of other nations. The plight
of Lebanon has created an obligation to assure
survival for a distinguished peoplehood and
both the United States and Israel have impor-
tant roles in the hope that the tragedy which
has resulted in more than 100,000 deaths in
religious and political conflicts will end.
Therefore the recognition that the Soviet-
Syrian obstructions are the main road-blocking
factors toward peace may lead the rest of the
Arab world and the nations concerned with the
peace aspects to contribute toward the steps
taken for amity and a cooperative human spirit
in the Middle East.
These really are the factors in the situation:
that the Arab nations should end their own
enmities and should recognize that it is for the
benefit of all involved that there should be an
end to the Lebanese conflict and that with it
must come a cessation of hatred toward Israel.
The road to such decencies was paved at
Camp David. There were the blinded haters
who sought to destroy it. Even some American
participants in those deliberations often acted
as encouragers of discords rather than creators
of a peace movement.
Then came the May 17, 1983 Israel-
Lebanon agreement. It was like a dream fulfil-
led that a second Arab nation was to make peace
with Israel. There are still on the scene would-
be destroyers of such a policy, and an abandon-
ment of that agreement could also end the
Israel-Egyptian accord.
It is on this score that the Arab nations as
an entity must act toward creating the good will
that is needed toward a lasting and true peace.
Such must be the aim resulting from the
negotiations which made the tri-national dis-
cussions in Washington historically significant.
Therein lie triple obligations to be shared
by the international community, Israel and
world Jewry and the media.
If there is a sincerity among the nations,
with a serious concern for peace, the pressures
must be exerted upon the war-mongering to
treat Israel as a neighbor, thereby ending
horror-filled situations that stand in the way of
amity.
There are peaceniks in Jewish-Israeli
ranks who have earned great respect for their
idealism. They overlook one important point:
that Arabs are more important than Jews in the
reluctance to be overcome on the road to peace.
Instead of contributing toward shattering unity
in Jewish ranks they would do well to spend at
least a portion of their time toward seeking
cooperation for an end to saber-rattling against
Israel. If they can win some Arab support for
peace they will have earned the peacenik title.
Then there are the media. If there is to be a
clear road to peace they must end a search for
sensationalism. It isn't all vote-getting to seek
peace in the Middle East and to recognize
President Ronald Reagan as a leader in that
effort. The media have a bad record in the
Lebanese situation and in attitudes toward Is-
rael. The time has come for the strictly factual
and a reduction in the quest for sensationalism
tendencies.
A number of interesting comments ap-
peared in the press in recent days. One asserted
that there are Arab tendencies toward coopera-
tion with Israel with an assent toward peace.
Another, by Thomas Friedman in the New York
Times was under the heading "In the Palesti-
nian Split, It's Every Arab Leader for Himself."
Yet, in Amman, King Hussein told Terrence
Smith of the New York Times that he was ready
to negotiate again with Yasir Arafat.
Collectively, they provide proof that what
is happening is as detrimental to Arabs as
might have been intended for Israel. It is the
basic proof that an accord would benefit all the
contending forces. This provides hope that
realities may teach more than hatred.
It sounds easy to express hopes and to offer
advice in a tragic situation affecting many na-
tions and their peoples — all ganged up against
Israel — when only hate continues to dominate.
Such is the evidence from Saudi Arabian lead-
ership, whose sentiments, in commenting on
latest developments were only to keep
scapegoating the Jewish state. Can such Arab
"idealism" continue to blind some eyes in Wash-
ington? From present indications and especially
President Reagan's emphasis on friendship
with Israel, there is cause to doubt it.
Everybody is involved in the developing ef-
forts toward peace. They affect all mankind and
an avoidance of continuing conflicts can also
eliminate the threat of another world war.
Three Centuries of U.S.
Jewish Records Personified
An album immediately identifies a record of photographs, with
specified attention to personalities and families.
When three centuries of photographic evidence is illustrated
with photographs relating to all the periods under consideration, the
collective effort emerges as history.
This is the fascinating judging of the immense work accumulated
by Allon Schoener under the title "The American Jewish Album: 1654
to the Present (Rizzoli International Publications).
This volume is not a complete historical record. There is much
that could have been recorded. For example, the first Michigan
Jewish settler, Ezekial Solomon, the fur dealer who had close ties
with the Indians in Michigan as well as in Canada, is not mentioned.
But the manner in which many of the photos are identified
immediatley gives this album the family assignation, as in the one
about a Detroiter. There is a photograph which is described: "Albert
Weinberg returning to his home in Detroit with a deer that he shot in
Northern Michigan." Albert may identify himself if he is of this
generation and therefore reads this review. The year of this picture-
taking is not given but the fact that a Jew is among the hunters in this
state and that there is indeed an emphasis on hunting in Michigan
gives the Schoener volume a special identity. It recognizes a unique
status for Michigan.
There are hundreds of photographs and collectively their histori-
cal value is immense.
It is from the period when the first 23 Spanish and Portuguese
refugees found haven in this country that the cast of characters find
themselves portrayed and identified by Schoener.
The volume's status is affirmed in a page-and-a-half photo which
is described: "Demonstration, Camden, N.J., 1948: School children
celebrating the founding of the state of Israel."
The hundreds of photographs and illustrations, selected from
many scores of sources, from private family albums and from public
archives, commence with and include the famed colonial Jacob
Franck and Abigail Levy Franks families, Isaac Leeser of Bible trans-
lation fame, Uriah Phillips Levy, Rebecca Gratz and the hundreds of
early pioneers intermingled with the latter decades of famed per-
sonalities.
It is in the introduction of six pages in this large volume, by
Henry Feingold, professor of history at City University of New York,
that the reader finds the evaluative and complimentary account of the
Schoener effort and its impressive results:
"The passion and intensity discernibTe in so many of these pic-
tures and letters is characteristic of a people, who after having their
abundant energy suppressed for centuries behind thick ghetto walls,
found in America a society based on the love of what is free and the
welcome of what is new and different, which encouraged them to
release those pent-up energies. American Jewry has done so in all
areas of endeavor from new temple architecture to better forms of
bookkeeping. This album shows that passion for life and living which
Jews were able to fully heed only in America."
The introduction, like much in the Schoener essays accompany-
ing the priceless photographs, define the experiences of the immig-
rants who created the American Jewish community. The newcomers'
struggles and successes are movingly related.
These are part of a volume which concerns itself with the colonial_
period, with the era of the Spanish-Portuguese and German migrants,
the subsequent Polish and Russian immigration periods. In the proc-
ess, the Americanization procedures are traced and explained and the
resultant community-building becomes apparent in a volume that
has much merit.