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PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor and Publisher
ALAN HITSKY
News Editor
CAR MI M. SLOMOVITZ
Business Manager
HEIDI PRESS
Associate News Editor
DREW LIEBERWITZ
Advertising Manager
Sabbath Scriptural Selections
This Sabbath, the 24th day of Shevat, 5744, the following scriptural seleCtions will be read in our synagogues:
Pentateuchal portion, Exodus 21:1-24:18.
Prophetical portion, Jeremiah 34:8-22, 33:25-26.
Feb. 3, Rosh Hodesh Adar I, Numbers 28:1-15
Candlelighting, Friday, Jan. 27, 5:25 p.m.
VOL. LXXXIV, No. 22
Page Four
Friday, January 27, 1984
POLITICAL BEDFELLOWS
Politics have or make strange bedfellows.
It may well be that the economic problem
Benjamin Disraeli had much to say about will be the decisive one in the choice of a
politics — and he was the expert whose political President for another four years. The fact re-
skills led him to the British Prime Ministership. mains that a situation that has thrown most of
In his novel of 1828, "Pompanilla," he said that mankind into the throes of war compels consid-
"experiments mean revolution."
eration of the international issues in the politi-
Were the eight Democratic candidates for cal battle that has just commenced in this coun-
President who appeared together at a three- try.
hour session at Dartmouth College experiment-
At Dartmouth there was a lot of fun, yet
ing?
there were shortcomings not to be ignored.
In 1827, in the earlier novel, "Vivian Grey," Major involvements by this nation in conflicts
Disraeli confessed, "In politics nothing is con- in several areas of the world demand considera-
temptible." Today's candidates, without being tion. They won't be overlooked, either by candi-
aware of such wisdom, unquestionably lean on dates or voters. Accepting comedy in the proce-
such defense. Else, how could they make so dures, some already judging the Dartmouth ex-
many promises?
perience as entertainment, there also will be a
But also in "Vivian Grey," Disraeli de- great measure of seriousness.
clared, "In politics there is no honor." That was
There may even be a demand for a political
before he became Prime Minister, and that faith described as morality, and that's where
gives it a "hekhsher" — the widest form of ap- promises will be tested.
proval.
Perhaps the greatest test is provided by a
There is too much at stake in politics and declaration, in 1921, by one of the great Jewish
the politicians who pontificate to be ultra- authors of the century, Israel Zang-will, who
cynical about this serious matter. But drawing stated, in "Voice of Jerusalem":
upon the views of office-seekers is an urgency,
"If the world is not to perish in its blindness,
especially when the citizen, who is King for a it must revert to the leadership of thinkers and
Day in November, has much to consider in men of faith. Politics . . . must become religion
preparation for casting the crucial ballot.
instead of religion — at the first real call upon it
With so much at stake, the testing time — becoming politics."
provides an opportunity to make decisions, to
establish in one's mind whether foreign affairs
That's putting the whole issue to the chal-
are as important as economics, or whether the lenging test. It addresses itself to the rightists
latter, affecting the nation as it does, will over- as well as leftists, to the bigoted and the
shadow all. Another skillful politician, Vla- humanists. Perhaps it is too difficult a test for
dimir Jabotinsky,- the actual creator of the politicans, but may be more rational for the
movement that later brought Menahem Begin person at the ballot box.
to power in Israel, was quoted as having said:
What a glorious day to look forward to in
"Ninety-nine percent of all activity is eco- November, even if the Supreme Judge on that
nomic and practical, and only one percent is fateful occasion, the Voter, will, in an era of
political; but the one percent is the beginning of many promises, possess that power only for the
the whole sequence."
day!
FAIRNESS TO ISRAEL
The series of New York Times articles by
David K. Shipler added to tensions that contin-
ually create animosity toward the Jewish state.
The disturbing series is properly refuted in the
leading article on the first page of this issue by
Kenneth Bialkin, national chairman of the
Anti-Defamation League of Bnai Brith.
The ADL leader's refutations must be
supplemented with this letter which appeared
in the NYTimes on Jan. 23:
The Israeli-Arab conflict in our region is of
great concern to anybody living here. However,
most of the information brought to the attention
of the public through the news media deals with
matters that show mainly the negative aspects of
the problem.
This is the case with your correspondent in
Israel, whose present series of news articles
(Dec.- 27-30) is based on minor aspects from
which general conclusions are being drawn.
Many positive aspects of the matter concerning
the coexistence of the two nations are being
excluded by your correspondent, perhaps be-
cause they are not making headlines.
For the last five years, I have been involved
in establishing a cancer treatment program for
the Arabs of the West Bank. The program is
being executed by an Arab-Israeli team that
works together in our oncology clinic on the
West Bank as well as Assaf Harofeh Medical
Center in Zerifin (near Tel Aviv).
Close to 2,000 cancer patients have already
been treated in this unit, and the modes of treat-
ment we use are as advanced as any available
today in the United States and in Israel .. .
It is my feeling that an esteemed newspaper
like yours should also try to report on matters in
our region showing the coexistence between
people, which is stronger than you may expect it
to be.
Y. Horn, M.D.
Department of Oncology,
Assaf Harofeh Hospital, Zerifin, Israel
Basic truths, too-often ignored, fail to por-
tray Israel's progressive policies that are
humanely beneficial to Arabs and Jews alike.
Too much that is creative in Israel is being sac-
rificed in emphasis on the negative. This is an
occasion again to ask for fairness to Israel.
..012k0
Salzmanns' Radauti:
Remnant of Vanishing Glories
Radauti is a symbol. Its story is a Jeremiad. It is one of the many
dramatic chapters in Jewish history.
It is a small town in the Romanian Bukowina region.
The dramatic factor in its story is the community's tragedy. It had
a Jewish population of 8,000 half-a-century ago. Then came the Hitler
horror, the inhumanities that drove the residents of this Jewish
center into concentration and death camps.
In 1976, a photographer and his wife, an author, spoke to the
survivors of this Romanian city. They found 240 of them and they tell
their story as survivors in a volume so deeply moving that it belongs
to the treasures of Jewish literary-photographic description of the
most chilling conditions. It is in "The Last Jews of Radauti" (Double-
day) that the drama is recorded by the eminent photographer Laur-
ence Salzmann, with his wife, Ayse Gursan-Salzmann relating the
story about the victims of the Nazi brutalities and those who live to
tell the tale of the worst terror in human history.
Photographer Salzmann had gone to Romania on a Fulbright
grant in photography. As Mrs. Salzmann relates, he was interested in
studying strong folk traditions. That's how they both got to their
subject of Radauti.
For two years, 1974 to 1976, Salzmann lived in Radauti, talking
to the people, taking photos for his great work which Doubleday
introduces as the revealing chapter in Romanian history.
There is a shocking lesson in the story related by Mrs. Salzmann,
making this volume doubly valuable for historians. In the Polish-
Jewish experience, Jews who tried to return to their home towns after
the Holocaust found their cities and villages thoroughly demolished
into cemeteries.
In a similar way, Ayse Gursan-Salzmann concludes her brilliant
essay about Radauti:
"Today Radauti is a model town. It has new bloculs (block apart-
ment houses) for people who have recently moved into town from the
surrounding peasant communities to work at industrial jobs. Most of
the cobblestone streets have been recently asphalted over; the small,
individual stores left over from Austrian times in the town's center
are scheduled to be demolished, to be replaced by the modern bloculs.
"Some of the remaining Jews are planning to emigrate soon; after
that, in the words of one Jewish resident, the town will be Judenrein.
All that will remain-to show that Jews once lived and flourished there
will be the few crumbling stones of the Jewish cemetery outside the
town, next to a junkyard for cars."
Therefore, where it is not already a cemetery as in what was a
great Polish-Jewish community, whatever there is of survival in
Romania is vanishing.
In the Salzmanns' volume there is a retention of a noble memory,
the perpetuation of the ideals which underlined the devotions of
Jewish communities.
The epic value of the Salzmanns' collective effort is commended
in a preface in which the eminent photographer Cornell Capa de-
clares:
"The Salzmanns' book on the Jews of Radauti is a modern mira-
cle. The miracle is manifold: how a handful of people managed to
survive the Holocaust and straggle back to their homes in Radauti;
how two young people, the Salzmanns, dedicated their hearts, brains;
and skill to fix and transmit that experience for us; and how every-
body involved, governments, foundations and the people themselves,
opened their doors so that now we can hold this special jewel of
vanishing life in our hands.
"The content of this book is an affirmation that nothing can be
more interesting, gripping and illuminating than the fabric of real
life."