2 Friday, January 31;, 1986
THE VETROIT JEWISH NEWS
PURELY COMMENTARY
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Jerusalem Chronicled Fascination
Emphasizes Pilgrimage, Prophecy
Jerusalem is never out of the public focus. As the Holy City, it generated
sanctimony as well as hatreds. It is both the City of Peace as well as the center of reli-
gious conflicts with inspired acrimony.
The Western Wall — the Kotel Maaravi — nearly always confsedly referred to as
the Wailing Wall, centered in the disputes that marred the peace of Jerusalem for
many decades. It was a subject of controversy on an international scale in the late
1920s and the controversies continued into the era of the British Mandate as well as
the years of Israeli revived statehood.
Jerusalem is the exciting topic of three important volumes which could be called
"current," having all been published in 1985. Two of them, already reviewed on this
by Martin Gilbert (Viking Press), reviewed
page, are: Jerusalem: the Rebirth of a City
reprinted 1912 edition, co-published by
Baedeker's
Historical
Palestine,
Sept.
20, and New York, and the Karl Baedeker Guide Books in Germany, reviewed
Hippocrene,
Sept. 20, 1985. The book is an emphasis on the Baedeker nomenclature for traveling,
tourism, etc.
Gilbert's Jerusalem covers the years 1838 to 1898.
Now we come to a most revealing work, filled with fascination, with history and
human dramas. Jerusalem by F. E. Peters (Princeton University Press) is defined as:
"The Holy City in the eyes of chroniclers, visitors, pilgrims and prophets, from the days
of Abraham to the beginnings of modern times."
What a vast field, and sources researched by the author are remarkable for the re-
velations about the religious groups who were in the constant conflict, the ideologies
that only seldom united the peoples in the Holy City, the aspirations that were marked
by pilgrimages.
The author, F. E. Peters, professor of history and Near Eastern languages and lit-
eratures at New York University, included in his massive, 656-page book a record of
the fanaticisms that ensued during the centuries under review. There were always
Jews in Jerusalem, although their numbers varied, depending on the oppressive meas-
ures that were endorsed and the prejudicial aspects of either Christian or Moslem
influences.
The objectivity — the impartiality — of Prof. Peters' treatment of the Jewish-
Moslem-Christian involvements is evident in this important study of an immense sub-
Continued on page 18
C ' ) 64-4
/16.1
Oratex;ib*gelega
"AltrA4.,%.
PRESENCE or HOLY INSPIRATION). — Toldot
Long life is a divine blessing:. Therefore the man however ignornant must have done
some good deeds. — Talmud
His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. — Deuteronomy 34:7
Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his sea-
son. — Job 5:26
the
So much for the intriguing "longevity" theme suggested by the signatories to
above. Its date, the year 1940, represents challenges that keep addressing Jewry and
humanity in the matter of the neglected efforts in the Holocaust tragedies.
Two imposing and agonizing questions:
How could an assembly.of communal personalities, meeting to honor the world's
most distinguished Jewish citizen, who was destined less than a decade later to become
the first President of Israel, fail to take into account his presidency of the World Zionist
Organization?
Meeting on the eve of the Great Catdstrophe, is it possible that the threat to the
world and to Jewry which was soon to be reduced by a third of its world constituents
could be ignored?
The second question must be placed first on the agenda. The spreading accusations
oln,edrers .
currently continue that there was failure fully to take into account what was transpir-
— air-e-0
14044 4,
ing, how a Holocaust was approaching. It is possible that the confirmation of such guilt
is realistic, that when there were gatherings on social scales the great drama, already
being enacted, was not fully taken into account, that what should have been primary in
people's minds was not treated with the vision necessary for communal leadership. As
one (this commentator) who desires to feel that he was never silenced when his people
were menaced, this now emerges as a puzzle. Perhaps treatment of the first question
will offer a solution to this dilemma.
Why was the Zionist factor 'ignored in the above salute to one of the world's first
Zionists? Is it possible that what had taken place was more or less common fault of
"flirting with philanthropy?" Yes, it's possible, because there was an era when Jews
suffered from "Grand Dukes and Bauch-Juden" (quoting Israel Zangwill and Max Nor-
dau): There was an era when certain Jews were ready to be "charitable" with Palestine
Jews, were ready to help the Hebrew University as long as there was no mention of
"Ransomed and nearly lost and therefore forgotten Detroit toast to Chaim Weiz- Zionism. It was an era of indifference and neglect, a time when added help for the,
mann" may be the way of describing the accompanying Salute to Weizmann. It is now Zionist rescuers might have increased - the ranks of the rescued.
capturing the attention of leaders, locally and nationally, and therefore merits renewed
These may be brutal recollections, to ► ed by a measure of self-chastisement. The
realization of 'the tragedies and the mounting responsibilities came a bit too late.
attention.
The text of this brief documentary draws interest on many scores.
But why be blind to realities?
At the outset, it should be noted that it was signed by eminent leaders in the first
half-century in the history of the Detroit Jewich community. Fred Butzel, Meyer Pre-
ntis, Henry Wineman, Joseph Ehrlich, U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Charles C. Weizmann's Concerns
Simons. Nate Shapero, Abe Srere, Fred Ginsburg, Judge William Friedman, Judge
It was ,in 1942 that *MU Zionist Organization President Chaim Weizmann exer-
Harry B. Keidan, Mrs. Aaron DeRoy, Irving and Louis Blumberg and others are in the
notable list. Few documentaries areattested by so significant an array of personalities. cised serious concern over the status of the European Jewries whose very existence had
The retrieved document is only 46 years old. That's a brief span in the life of a already been threatened by the Nazi rulers of Germany. That's when the great pres-
community. Yet, of the 56 who signed this salute, only five — Philip Slomovitz, Charles sures had begun upon the British Foreign Office to keep Palestine open for Jewish ref-
Feinberg, Judge Charles Rubiner and Isidore Sobeloff (whose home now is in Los ugees.
The demands for the right of Jewish victims of Nazism to have unmolested freedom
Angeles) — are still here to recall that important assembly of Detroiters.
to settle in Palestine were directed especially to British Prime Minister Winston Chur-
This suggests a study of and in longevity.
Longevity is an ever-enticing subject, with puzzlements and concerns, with agonies chill. When. British Minister of State Lord Moyne was assassinated in Cairo in 1944,
and occasional compensations. The rabbinic sages, with the Talmud and Scriptures as "by the Jewish underground fighters, against the will and authority of the Jewish
their source, have often competed in judgments of the never-ending challenges, and Agency; (it) brought about a temporary alienation of Churchill from his Zionist sym-
pathies," according to Encyclopedia Judaica. The urgency of the need to labor unstint-
some views being quoted:
He who welcomes an old man is as if he welcomed the Shekhina (DIVINE ingly for rescue efforts did not'emphasize the names Weizmann and Churchill.
Mystery of Longevity . • .
The Mystery