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Friday, May 25, 1984
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
PURELY COMMENTARY
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
The eminent Bayard Rustin
answers the vocal critics
of a Holocaust memorial
The eminence of Bayard Rustin, a leading member of
the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, who has the distinc-
tion of being chairman of one of the leading black move-
ments, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, provides the
necessary defense for the urgent need of the proposed
Holocaust Center in Washington.
A doubt on that score which was quoted here as a
criticism of the proposal is refuted by survivors from
Nazism and in an especially impressive response to the
critics by Bayard Rustin, who wrote to the New York
Times:
It is, of course, true that Israel serves as a kind
of Holocaust memorial. Yad Vashem in
Jerusalem is a splendid museum which never
fails to move visitors from all nations and faiths.
However, this does not mean that America, the
leader of the free world, does not need a national
Holocaust museum, archive and educational cen-
ter.
Most who visit
Washington will never
have an opportunity to
be in Jerusalem. Be-
sides, at the center of
democracy, our citi-
zens and visitors need
dramatic reminders of
the horrors of World
War II, and especially
a firm resolve to use
our strength and wis-
dom to assure that the
outrages of the Nazi
era are never repeated
against any people.
Bayard Rustin
As the home of the
largest number of Jewish citizens in the world,
and as the leader of the Allied Forces that de-
feated Hitler and liberated the death camps, it can
hardly be said that America has no direct concern
with the Holocaust. Considering our role in world
culture and world geopolitics, it is very far from
an "empty gesture" to memorialize the victims of
what is perhaps mankind's worst tragedy.
On several occasions, both President Carter
and President Reagan as well as high personages
in our country — Christian and Jew, black and
white, survivor and liberator — have expressed
their realization of the importance of an institu-
tion on democracy's "sacred ground" to com-
memorate and to remind.
Expressing confidence that a Holocaust memorial
museum would constantly attract attention from Ameri-
cans of all faiths and races, the Rustin defense of the pro-
posed memorial center is couched also in the following:
A Holocaust memorial museum is not only for
Jews. As Prof. Elie Wiesel has frequently stated:
"Though all Jews were victims, not all victims
were Jews." Blacks cannot forget Hitler's per-
nicious doctrines of racial . superiority, or his
treatment of Jesse Owens at the 1936 Berlin
Olympics. Christians who forget his ultimate
plans for all organized religions do so at their own
peril.
The museum will stand as a warning against
hatred and dehumanization, whoever is the vic-
tim.
The eloquence in this defense of an important project
which has gained official endorsement, from President
Reagan and an overwhelming Congressional sentiment,
contributes impressively toward continuing support of the
similar Holocaust museum soon to be dedicated in this
community. If the doubts about the need for the center have
any substance, it is overwhelmed by the Bayard Rustin
invitation for support of the projected memorials aimed at
never forgetting" the horrors so that they may never be
repeated.
New York Times feature, appearing on the Washington
Talk page, entitled "Briefing," a few days ago published
this revealing item:
The Congressional Record, the official daily
transcript of the proceedings and debates in the
House and the Senate, is thought by many to be a
verbatim transcript of what takes place.
In fact, members of Congress have long been
allowed to revise their utterances in the interests
of grammar and clarity before the Record goes to
press. Representative Robert S. Walker, a
Pennsylvania Republican who is known as a
gadfly, even a carper, on the Hill, says the
privilege of reviewing one's remarks is being
mightly abused and the result is that the Congres-
sional Record is not the reliable document it should
be.
In verbatim remarks in a recent issue of the
Record that irritated more than a few of his peers,
Mr. Walker said that revisions had become so ex-
tensive that the Record has become "distorted in
its content and quite often inaccurate."
This whole process of alteration and distor-
tion takes place under a cover of secrecy since no
one is permitted access to legislative transcripts
before the Record is printed," Mr. Walker said.
"The result is disastrous. The public often is pro-
vided deception rather than truth about Congres-
sional proceedings: What we are talking about is
truth. The U.S. House of Representatives hardly
can be expected to be trusted if it has little regard
for the truth and its records have little acquain-
tance with the truth."
If this can happen to the records of the chief legislative
body of the United States, one can imagine how devastating
to truth can be the right granted or assumed by legislators.
Perhaps this can also happen in the judiciary. Then, woe
unto the historic records of any government or nation!
The factors regarding historic truths need to be
studied, with an aim to their protection at all times. The
current era is especially challenging. If hatemongers are
permitted to distort the facts about the Holocaust, as some
anti-Semites are still trying, in this country and in Great
Britain, then accuracy in historical records can be doomed.
Therefore, the need to protect truth rather than wait for the
uncertainties of research.
The movements are afoot at this time in many com-
munities to encourage the gathering of records and
chronicling them for the generations to come. Delays in
compiling such data can lead to loss of dependable
documentaries and also to factual distortions. This may
serve as advice for historians in this community who are
aiming to retain the facts about Jews who have made con-
tributions here and who have given this community sub-
stance.
There is a fortunate relieving factor. Emer ging on the
scene are academicians like Prof. Arnold Ages of Waterloo
(Ontario) University, who dependably researches into
Jewish history in his commendable contributions to Jewish
journalism and history. The shortcomings, therefore, are
not a lost cause.
The Chosen People terminology:
Sidney Harris' interpretations
invite authoritative comment
Popular columnist Sidney Harris, who occasionally in-
serts negatives and the ultra-controversial in relation to
Jewish interpretations, was exceptionally positive in his
recent columns which the Free Press entitled "Chosen
People wear a yoke, not a superiority complex." That essay
properly defined the idea of Jewish chosenness, which is so
often misjudged with accusatory views that often lead to
judging Jews as arrogant, as superiority-claimants.
While Harris did well by his subject, there are the
authoritatively traditional views which often need defin-
ing the strictly Jewish way. That's how the "Attah Behar-
tanu" — "Thou hast chosen us" — should be viewed.
Dr. Philip Birnbaum, the eminent scholar, in his
•
widely-acclaimed A Book of Jewish Concepts, which con-
tinues among the most important works issued by the He-
brew Publishing Co., provides the desired definition. He
Protection for historical
explains at the outset:
records ... protecting them from
In the festival Amidah
prayer, the contents of the
abuses and distortions
paragraph attah b'hartanu
(thou hast chosen us) are
History always needs protection from distortions as
based on many biblical passages that keep re-
well as from omissions which can destroy the very meaning
minding the people of Israel that they have been
of human experience.
chosen by God to be his witnesses, his kingdom of
Often even the most scrutinizing research can fail
priests, a beacon of light and truth to the nations
either to expose tampering with records or retaining the
of the earth: "You are a people holy to the Lord
truth that is vital to retention of facts.
your God, who has chosen you from all the na-
A very interesting and frequently fact-exposing daily
"
r
unulri; rairi$
tions on the face of the earth to be his own posses-
sion . ." (Deuteronomy 14:2).
However much they may have fallen short of
their duty, however much they may have neg-
lected to remain fruitful to their sacred task, they
have not been deposed from the office to which
they were appointed.
It is the election of Israel that enters into consideration
as an ideal as it relates to the Chosenness leading to the
goals of attaining the highest ethical codes and human
values for all mankind.
The Attah Behartanu essay by Rabbi Birnbaum
reaches the high levels defined by Rabbi Birnbaum.
ften
As Birnbaum defines the election of Israel, m'
referred to as The Chosen:
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook describes the af-
fection for the people of Israel at sacred, derived
from a high and divine source .. .
The best thinking of various Jewish theolo-
gians on the subject of the election of Israel may
well be summed up as follows. Only in Israel did
the ethical monotheism exist; and wherever else it
is found later on, it has been derived directly or
indirectly from Israel. The term election of Israel
expresses merely a historical fact. Israel feels it-
self chosen, not as a master but as a servant. It
separates itself from others only for the purpose
of uniting them. The people of Israel affirm not
that they are better than others, but that they
ought to be better.
Judaism differs from all other religions in
that it is neither the creation of one great moral
teacher nor seeks to typify the moral and spiritual
sublimity in a single person. The entire people
must bear the stamp of holiness.
God's selection of Israel does not imply any
inequality or favoritism. Of the stars perhaps only
one has planets. Of the planets, only one is at all
likely to sustain organic life. Of the animals, only
one species is rational. The same selective process
appears also in operation in human history. The
whole human history would seem to show that
God prefers one person Wefore another. There are
differences of mind, body, gifts. One man appears
to be more favored than his fellow, more clever,
more beautiful, more prosperous. Higher attain-
ment means higher responsibility. So, this appar-
ent inequality and favoritism which Israel's selec-
tion implied was but designed to afford them
greater opportunity for service.
A Biblical expression similar in thought to the
idea of a chosen Israel is to be found in I
Chronicles 17:21, where King David declares:
"There is none like thee, 0 Lord, and there is no
God besides thee . . . What other nation on earth is
like Thy people . .." In the passage "Thou art
One," which forms part of the Amidah for Sabbath
afternoon, David's utterance is quoted along with
a reference to the prophecy: "On that day the
Lord shall be the only One, and His name the only
One" (Zechariah 14:9). This implies that mankind
will at a certain future time understand the sig-
nificance of universal unity and brotherhood and
be free from past errors concerning the essence of
God. The election of Israel and the Oneness of God
are closely related concepts which blend into one
aspiration and ideal for a united mankind.
It is to the credit of Sidney Harris that he truly ad-
vanced the historically realistic approach to this oft-
debated theme when he stated in his column:
This role of The Chosen
People" has been so much
misunderstood — willfully or
not — that Gentiles ignorant of
the Bible story have assumed it
stood for a self-appointd
"honor" the Jews to
themselves, which conferr a
sense of superiority, rather
Sidney Harris
than a yoke they were suffered
to bear until the day of redemption.
Ironically, the early Christians suffered much
the same way — their Roman overlords found it
incomprehensible that the Christian savior
should,be born Jewish in an obscure village in a
remote province of the empire, and apparently
lacking the power to escape crucifixion. The one
choice of Jehovah was as inscrutable as the other,
but history has dictated that only the Jews have
continued to pay the price.
Due credit to Sidney Harris, therefore, for genuine_- '
scholarship. That's what makes his newspaper column so
deservedly popular.