THE JEWISH NEWS (USPS 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 acid National Newspaper Association and its Capital Club. Published each Friday by The Jewish - News Publishing Co., 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, MI 48075-4491 Postmaster: Send address changes to The Jewish News, 17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, MI 48075-4491 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 sixth day of Adar II, 5744 The following scriptural selections will be read in our synagogues: Pentateuchal portion, Leviticus 1:1-5:26. Prophetical portion, Isaiah 43:21-44:24. Thursday, Fast of Esther Pentateuchal portion, Exodus 32:11-14, 34:1-10. Prophetical portion, (afternoon only) Isaiah. 55:6-56:8. Candlelighting, Friday, March 9, 6:12 p.m. VOL. LXXXV, No. 2 Page Four Friday, March 9, 1984 BETRAYALS • • • SUICIDES A tragedy perpetuated in the Middle East has so many accompanying agonies that it is no longer limited to that area alone. Perhaps it should be judged as having been agonized unin- terruptedly for many years. It has grown to new and unrestricted dimensions and it causes con- cern outside the limits of an embattled part of the world. While it is centered in Lebanon, it is unre- stricted. It leads to Cairo and has evidence in Amman. It is rooted in fears and the cement was in hatred and bigotry. Can it be disputed that the scrapping of an agreement with Israel, dated May 1983, at the outset placed the former civilized Lebanon in the ranks of peace-seeking and peace-loving na- tions? It' is true that with the Syrian knife at his throat, the Lebanese president was forced into a betrayal of a great trust. Even if partially re- tained, the great betrayal was already in action. , Yet not to be ignored is the additional factor of abandonment of a great trust in Cairo. Perhaps it began in the very spot where peace assumed great courage. It was in spite of threats from many Arab nations that Anwar Sadat went to Jewish Jerusalem to make peace. Now his suc- cessor, Hosni Mubarak, accepts as bedfellows those who strangle peacemakers. That's the tragedy in the main: that peacemaking is obstacled, that betrayals are the course of each day's experience in the Mid- dle East. There is a clear warning in all of this: that betrayals do not menace only a few, with Israel as the chief target; that the entire Middle East is affected; that it is suicidal for the entire area; that it is threatening to good will everywhere. That's what created the American effort to re- scue Lebanon as an additional tragedy. Peace seeking is a dangerous road to human decency. THE JEWISH RESPONSE Facing up to what is occurring, friends of Israel, more notably the Jewish communities everywhere, are irritated in their roles as world citizens, concerned as Jews who have the major obligation of lending all the support that can be accumulated to prevent calamities for the re- deemed in Israel. If attitudes are to be judged by the re- sponses given regularly and uninterruptedly by the Greater Detroit Jewish community, there is a heartening feeling that the Bnai Rahamanim the traditionally compassion- ate — are not neglecting duty in a great crisis. Without the unity of the Jewish people, Is- rael would have much less to depend upon in a struggle that is often embittered, always defen- sive. It is this unity that is so vital to Israel, even more important for Jewry as the defender of Israel and the people and the state. The Allied Jewish Campaign in Detroit is a major test in the challenge that is addressed to — all. There is a measure of unanimity- in the enrollment of supporters of the major humanitarian philanthropic movement, with such great vitality, that a sense of pride emerges in the process. Even unanimity, however, has some re- strictions. There is need for as close to total enrollment in the ranks of the currently con- ducted Campaign to protect the local and na- tional movement as well as to uphold the hands of the builders of Zion. Even the few who are yet to be reached to create a unanimous front must not stay out of the ranks now being mobilized. Presently, this is one of the major means of sending forth a message that in a world threatened with end- less enmities and warfare, the Jews stand for creativity. Therein lies the obligation to give strength to the philanthropic solicitations now in progress, to provide success to the Allied Jewish Campaign, to give an assurance that Jewish unity is undiminished. UNSULLIED POLITIC S A quadrennial demand for elimination of bias in competitive political aspirations is again on the agenda. Especially during the four-year cycle of campaigning for the Presidency, inter- religious groups call upon candidates and their adherents to live up to the highest goals in striv- ing for high official posts. This is in evidence again in a call for politi- cal decency issued by the Detroit Round Table of _ the National Conference of Christians and Jews, in which the Catholic, Jewish and Protes- tant co-chairmen declared: "Today we call on all candidates and public officials to pledge to avoid prejudicial language or actions in their campaigns or offices — not only because it makes good political sense but because it is morally right. "To insure that any religious or ethnic group is not subject to attacks or insinuations is the duty of all fair-minded persons. This is what makes American democracy work. We expect the same quality from public officials." This is a declaration that cannot and dare not be ignored because it is a call for self-respect in American and human relations. Hopefully, it will not need repetition to assure adherence to its high goals. Prof. Neiman's Book Hebrew Literary Critics as 1784-1884 Functionaries Desrcibed in Ktav Volume A remarkable revelation, introduced as a fact not to be ignored, is contained in a highly-scholarly and thoroughly-researched volume regarding Hebrew literary criticisms preceding the period of the Haskala in Russia in the latter part of the 19th Century. The title of the book is "A Century of Modern Hebrew Literary Criticism, 1784- 1884" (Ktav). The author, Prof. Morris Neiman, who taught Hebrew language and literature for 33 years at Brooklyn College, delves deeply into the subject and refutes views that such criticisms post- dated the era under review. Prof. Neiman "subscribes to the thesis that it is erroneous to assume that Hebrew literary criticism had its inception in Russia and that there was none in Germany and Galicia prior to 1860." An important admonition in the author's introduction to this noteworthy analysis of Hebrew literary criticisms merits special at- tention. Dr. Neiman states: "If, for example, the Golden Age in Spain produced lasting mas- terpieces in all branches of thought and literature, then some form of literary criticism must have existed. Works like `Shirat Yisra'el' (Hebrew Poetry) by Moses Ibn Ezra and the chapters dealing with literature in `Tahkemoni' (An Assembly of Wisemen) of Alharizi and the `Teshuvot' (The Rejoinders) of the disciples of Dunash and Menahem ben Saruq testify that such was the case. And it seems probable that these few books that were preserved are quantitatively only a small fraction of a greater body of critical literature that did not survive the ravages of time." It is important to note that Dr. Neiman revives an interest in the Me'assefim, those who wrote in the Me'assef, Hebrew for The Gatherer, which began publishing in 1784 and had noted writers as contributors. The assembling of these writers is in itself significant. Then there is the review of the works of writers in Galicia, the beginning of literary criticism in Russia — with emphasis on the writings of Funn and Levensohn, and the roles of the more popularly known, including the Kovners, Smilanskin, Lilienblum and others. In every respect, Dr. Neiman goes into impressive detail about the works under review and the form of the criticisms. In that process, the reader learns about the literature under discussion, the products of an important era — 1784-1884 — when there were so many oppressive experiences in spite of which Jewish life went on and the search for learning and'the dedication to culture predominated, even if it was among a minority. It was the kind of minority that gave strength to a Jewry surviving spiritually against great odds and creating legacies which become apparent in works like Neiman's "A Century of Modern Hebrew Literary Criticism." Apparent in what the Neiman research attains are many episodal revelations, such as: "The criticism of the romantic period (1830-1860) was confined to the effort to establish European forms of literature in Hebrew. Thus, the Hebrew-reading public had to be convinced of the utility and meaningfulness of fiction, and a great many of the critical essays written at the end of that period were devoted to that subject." Prof. Morris Neiman makes a distinct contribution to efforts to preserve the Jewish literary treasures with this notable impressive work.