PURELY COMMENTARY British Deception Continued from Page 2 writers on subjects relating to British imperial policy. Dr. Sil- verfarb, however, has not used these sources uncritically, since he has verified his material with works by Iraqi leaders and writers who provided us with their version of the events and developments in the country that have bearing on British imperial policy. The product of his research may be taken as a balanced assessment of both British impe- rial interests and legitimate Iraqi national aspirations. He has also provided the reader with an in- terpretation of the movements and events which shaped the "in- formal • empire" that may be in the additional 46 pages of notes indi- cating the extent of the studies scrupul- ously pursued . in the making of this noteworthy work. Daniel Silverfarb is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Silverfarb of Southfield. A University of Michigan graduate who also pursued post-graduate studies at Wayne State University, he received his PhD degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has authored eight articles on Anglo-Saudi relations. He is presently engaged in extensive Arabic studies at the University of Wis- consin, having devoted the past summer in such studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Dodger Followed Continued from Page 2 Arthur Balfour taken to sum up Britain's impe- rian experience in Iraq. Nor did he shrink from giving his own personal views on dome of the important issues that arose be-. tween Britain and Iraq. In all these endeavors, Dr. Silverfarb did his utmost to maintain a high level of objectivity and impartial- ity. This requires emphasis in the treatment of the Silverfarb thesis be- cause its originality and the publication of Britain's Informal Empire in the Mid- dle East is filled with facts never pub- ' dished before. As Dr. Silverfarb advises his readers: This book is based mainly on unpublished British documents located at the Public Record Office in London. The volumes on Iraq in the foreign office 371 series were the most valuable, al- though for the period before Iraqi independence in 1932 the files in the colonial office 730 series were important. I also used cabinet, air ministry, war office, and Baghdad embassy papers. For matters relating to Kuwait, India office and Kuwait political agency docuthents located at the India Office Library and Records in London were useful. This volume therefore assumes an importance among the major historic documents dealing with the Middle East. They are revelations that give them sig- nificance as documentaries. The less than 160 pages in the Sil- verfarb researched study has annotations 50 - Friday, October 17, 1986 me: being Jewish and rooting passionately for Brooklyn to ec- lipse the Yankees in the next year's World Series. Observance of Jewish Holy Days and festivals often presents a problem, de- veloping into challenge and protest, as the following from the New York Maga- zine indicates: Nancy Reagan's office re- cently sent out invitations to a Vladimir Horowitz concert at the White House, set for Sunday af- ternoon, October 5 — he second day of Rosh Hashanah. One Jewish New Yorker who received an invitation called the Office of the White House Social Secretary to complain that the Reagans had scheduled the event on the Jewish New Year, the second most holy of the Jewish holidays. He was told, "Oh, we didn't realize it was a holiday." Mrs. Reagan's press secre- tary did not return calls for comment. Howoritz's agent, Peter Gelb, said, "Every Jew I know, except for really, really religious Jews, celebrates Rosh Hashanah the first day. This blowing it out of proportion. This revives importance to the recommendation frequently made that Jewish community functionaries should endeavor to provide public institutions, universities, schools, government offi- cials, et. al, with Jewish calendars months ahead of Rosh Hashanah. Would it help? That's as doubtful as the hope that many transgressions calendar-wise will ever be forgotten. Shaarey Zedek Legacy In B'nai Mitzvah Manual Fayga Keidan was a popular name in local women's movements for a number of years. She was an'especially active and impressive personality among Shaarey Zedek women in all aspects of their work,especially the cultural. Bayre Kaidan, her husband, in addi- tion to his professional work as a lawyer, shared her interests, in the synagogue, Zionism, social services. It was natural, therefore, that they should be regular participant in the services of their synagogue and that their children should be worshippers with them and students in the Shaarey Zedek school. It left a deep impression upon daughter Alice and she now shares the legacy in a book for b'nai mitzvah celebrants. Now, as Alice Keidan Lanckton, in THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Alice Keidan Lanckton anticipation of the Lancktons' son's bar mitzvah and a friend's son's immediate celebration, she utilized the acquired in- spiration in her own childhood to advise how to observe a bar mitzvah — indicat- ing that it also applies to bat mitzvah. In the advisory text, The Bar Mitzvah Mother's Manual, (Hippocrene Books), Mrs. Lanckton goes into all the compel- ling details in preparation for a bar mitzvah celebration. She emphasizes the religious factors, the ritualistic, the Haf- torah, and guides the celebrants along the social needs, the dinner, the caterer, the invitation. Of special interest here, now, is a revealing chapter entitled: "Where Do We Belong? To Join a Temple (or Not)." Thig is where she goes into details about various houses of worship and introduces her own experiences in childhood, defin- ing Shaarey Zedek. Here is what she says: In the city where I grew up there was only one place to be- come Bar Mitzvah. With more than seventy thousand Jews and thirty different synagogues and temples you might think that there would have been quite a choice. But there was really only Shaarey Zedek. Where else would the rabbi know — and mention at the serv- ice — that my great-great-uncle had been president sixty years ago, that my grandmother had belonged since marriage, and that my mother was president of the Sisterhood? Where else was there such a large, imposing building with so many grand, wide steps in front? This was an IMPORTANT syna- gogue, a venerable synagogue, almost a hundred years old — a mighty age for a midwestern synagogue. Hundreds of families were proud to "be Shaarey Zedek" (as in "they're not Shaarey Zedek"). Those wide steps were full of people after (and often during, the High Holi- day services. Yet they all seemed to know each other, and best of all they all seemed to know me. Hadn't I won the Best Queen Esther con- test there wearing an old purple evening gown given me by one of the very judges of the contest? There may have been many hun- dreds of members, but when my parents were late picking me up from Sunday school (and they . always were) I could have gotten a ride home with anybody stand- ing around chatting in the halls. They all seemed to have known me before I was born. In my child's. mind, so ready to see the world in black and white, it was not just that Shaarey Zedek was the utterly right synagogue. It also became apparent that all the others were so thoroughly wrong. Reform synagogues were just pretenders. They didn't even call themselves synagogues (let alone "shuls"). Instead they claimed to be tem- ples. On top of that, they used very little Hebrew and had serv- ices at night (when it wasn't even Kol Nidre). All those Jewish men with no yarmulkas! Who did they think they were? Protestants? But to go to a "little Or- thodox shul" (who knew there could be large ones?) was prob- ably worse. First of all, men at these shuls wore hats — not sen- sible, civilized yarmulkas like my father and brothers — but actual hats with brims. (Judaism was very cerebral to my family.) The men sat separate from the women because of arcane Jewish laws my mother wouldn't dream of even speaking about. In their prayerbooks they had Hebrew on both the facing pages, the ser- mons were often in Yiddish, and few of the members were native Detroiters. Of course, the other Conser- vative synagogues were also sig- nificantly imperfect, though they had the good sense to use the same Hebrew and English prayerbook Shaarey Zedek did. The nearby one was much too young an institution, and it was full of people ivho still insisted on walking on Shabbat (Our perfect synagogue had made the com- promise of having insufficient parking available.) Alice's definitions of the Reform and the Orthodox, the differing and their specific emphases on worship, make in- teresting reading. An author's recollec- tions of her own synagogue have a par- ticular interest in a community that in- spired an author to write about her childhood and her house of worship. It is a Keidan story worth reading. To Wiesel: A Salute Shared By Mankind Elie Wiesel, as Recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize emerges anew as a symbol of the high- est spirit in humanism. He is the repre- sentative of his people whose honor he defends with great dignity. He is Wiesel also the giant advo- cate of justice for the oppressed in the world, regardless of race or creed. This is a glorious day: to send this salute to my dear friend Elie Wiesel, to share the opportunity to honor him, to- gether with peoples everywhere who will benefit from the courage of one of the very great men of the century. Mazal Toy, Elie!