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Friday, May 11, 1984
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
U.S. Jews haye changed tactics
on the question of Soviet Jewry
THE JEWISH NEWS
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BY WOLF BLITZER
The Jewish News Washington correspondent
Washington — American televi-
sion viewers saw a group of Soviet
Jews joyoisly dancing the hora out-
side a Moscow synagogue on the first
day of Passover. Their spirited — and
courageous — demonstration, in the
clear presence of the Soviet secret
police, was a dramatic reminder of
the continuing plight of Soviet
Jewry.
That filmed report from Moscow
came at a time when American Jews
are again taking a closer look at their
own activities during .World War II
on behalf of the European commu-
© 1984 by The Detroit .Jewish News
(US PS 275-520)
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CANDLELIGHTING AT 8:23 P.M.
VOL. LXXXV, No. 11
Israel at 36
The number "36" has a special significance in Jewish tradition, since it is
double chai (18), which stands for "life." As Israel celebrates her 36th
anniversary of statehood, it can be said that she indeed leads a "double life" on
several levels. In the negative sense there is the double standard applied to
Israel by most of the nations of the world. In a positive way there is the sense
of two lives that each Israeli lives — for himself and for the Jewish people, a
living symbol of renewal in the wake of the Holocaust.
Some Jews recite the Hallel prayer on Yom Haatzmaut (Independence
Day, which was marked in Israel on Monday) just as they do on the festivals of
Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot, since they regard the creation of the Jewish
state as a miracle. Whether its existence is miraculous or by force of human
will, the establishment and continued growth of Israel is an event to be
marked by thanksgiving and celebration.
We urge the community to participate in the local Israel Independence
Day celebration and Walk for Israel on May 20 at the main Jewish
Community Center, and to take to heart the beautiful words of the Prayer for
the State of Israel:
Our Father in heaven . . . bless the State of Israel, the beginning of our
redemption . . . Grant peace in the land, and lasting joy to its inhabitants."
nity. Did the American Jewish lead-
ership at that time do all it could to
rally support for the Jews of Europe?
At the same time, more evidence
is emerging almost every day docu-
menting the apparent indifference,
at best, and outright anti-Semitism,
at worst, of the State Department,
the War Department, the White
House and other branches of the U.S.
government in refusing to take con-
certed steps to help rescue Jews dur-
ing the Holocaust.
Indeed, a just-broadcast Met-
romedia News documentary on
American television, narrated by
filmstar Ed Asner, vividly showed
once again how easily the Allies
could have bombed the railroad lines
to Auschwitz, but never got around to
it. They never really considered it
enough of a priority even though they
were fully aware of the slaugher
underway.
American Jewish activists today
want to make certain that their chil-
dren will not be in a position to ask
Moralities affirmed
When ethical codes are undermined and basic Jewish duties are
maligned, Jews everywhere are deeply hurt and have cause for
sorrowfulness.
When misled and fanatic extremists in Israel resort to vile tactics
borrowed from the demented who had caused harm to their fellow citizens,
the shock thus created is as horrifying to Jews everywhere as it is to the
people of Israel who suffer from it.
Exposing the Jewish terrorists — a term that is in itself humiliating —
by the Israel goernment is not a matter to boast about. It is a duty from
which no one with a sense of honor can ignore or shy away from under any
circumstance. When Jews act criminally, as the fanatics who threatened'
Arab lives in Jerusalem did, the punishment must be as definite and as firm
as if it were the act of hatemongers in Jewish ranks.
It will be recalled that when Jewish statehood was aspired to, in
pre-Israel times, the cautious who represented the Ahad HaAmists, the
cultural Zionists, admonished Zionist leadership to avoid being "like all the
other nations." They warned against careless planning in setting up
government rules lest the ethical codes that are the very roots of Jewish
existence should be defiled. Perhaps those visionaries, who may have been
unjustly viewed as antagonists of Zionism, had the vision to foresee that Jews
who are motivated by hatred might sink to the lowest elements of
inhumanities out of vengeance, which has no place in Jewish ranks.
The outrageous resort to terrorism by Jews, no matter how very few their
number, calls not only for the condemnation and punishment for such crimes.
It serves as a challenge to the religious ranks whence such terrorists stern to
act formally for their rejection and to warn that such defiling of Jewish and
human ethical codes will never be tolerated. This is a duty never to be
shunned.
Activists today do not
want to be asked in the
future if they did enough
in the 1980s to help
endangered Jewish
communities.
•
them sometime down the road
whether or not more could have done
to help endangered Jewish com-
munities in the 1980s. Still, most of
these activists will agree that they
still represent a minority of Jews in
the United States. The unfortunate
fact seems to be that the overwl 'l-
ing majority of American Jews h,
very much involved in the current
struggle to help win freedom and
emigration for Soviet, Ethiopian, Sy-
rian and other Jewish communities
around the world.
Sure, the major Jewish organ-
izations are actively involved in the
battle, but the rank-and-file, for the
most part, are not. In any major
Jewish community in the United
States, only a handful of Jews is ac-
tually involved on a regular level.
The rest often seem largely indiffer-
ent.
Thus, some observers suggest,
that's why you don't see very many
public demonstrations on behalf of
Soviet Jewry in the United States
now-a-days, despite the fact that only
a dismal 1,315 Jews were permitted
to leave last year — lower than any
number since 1971. There was a to-
tally different atmosphere, these cri-
tics insist, in the early 1970s when
there were many demonstrations and
protest marches.
And while the issue of the
Falas- has has won considerably
greater attention in recent years
among many Jewish activities
around the country, it, also, is still
not all that burning a matter for most
of the nearly six million Jews of
America.
Critics in the Jewish community
charge that Jewish political activity
is directed largely toward helping
only one endangered Jewish commu-
nity — namely Israel. Israel, for al-
most all American Jews, is seen as
remaining in almost constant peril,
the result of continuing Arab hostil-
ity. The plight of other Jewish corn-
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