PURELY COMMENTARY
Public Relations Weakness In Craving For Peace
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor Emeritus
p
eace in its unattainability could
turn into an ugly term. Yet, it
must constantly be advocated
lest the affected areas turn either into
jungles or into totally unsafe places for
humankind.
Every effort at discussing peace is
currently accompanied by repetitious
obstacles. Numerous proposals are on
the agenda for Israel and the Arabs.
The treatment of it has become caption-
ed "Jews and Palestinians." In
substance and summation there is
always the same result: The Arab na-
tions are avoiding direct negotiation
with Israel; spokespeople for Palesti-
nians will not sit at a conference table
with Jews.
It compels a reminiscence about
Harry S. Truman. It was at a luncheon
he hosted in Kansas City for those of us
who attended the inauguration the day
earlier of the Truman Peace Center to
be established at the Hebrew Univer-
sity in Jerusalem. "Mr. President, I
said to him, "Perhaps we are envision-
ing the inauguration of a great era for
peace!' He dropped the pen and paper
he was holding, raised both arms high
and said dramatically: "We have no
peace and there'll never be peace. There
will never be peace on earth!' That's
when he was already becoming skep-
tical about the very ideal that was be-
ing hailed in his honor!'
Nevertheless, the very ideal must
never be abandoned and the approach
to it necessitates understanding of
conflicts.
In the current critical period in
Israel, which is cause for so much agony
for Jews everywhere, there is need for
understanding to a high degree to avoid
loss of friendships for Israel.
The distress over the occurrences is
deeprooted and painful. We are hor-
rified by beatings and equally agonized
by the hatreds that generate the
violence. We are outraged by the
challenge to our morality. Every suspi-
cion of the Jewish role is always accom-
panied by the gesture from our midst to
correct a wrong and to meet those
described as enemies half way.
Nevertheless, the hatreds and
venoms continue and we lose friends in
the process. One such loss was the
criticism of Israel that came from the
American Federation of Labor. This is
the type of friendship we cannot afford
to lose. This is the first such criticism
on record from the AFL. It is a move-
ment that has always been closely link-
ed with the Israel Federation of Labor.
It was like a partnership of Histadrut
with American Federation of Labor. It
has always been a partnership of Israel
with AFL. Therefore, the public rela-
tions approach has weakened and must
be resuscitated. We cannot afford such
a loss. Therefore, the need to sustain
friendship through understanding of
facts and adhering to them.
Therefore, the admission that the
public relations needs have weakened
and need to be revived both in Israel
and in this country.
Even the constant demand that
Israel get out of occupied territory
needs understanding. When there ap-
pears the practicality of proper peace
negotiations there will be compelling
situations that are not to be ignored.
Getting out of Judea and Samaria —
referred to as West Bank — may no
longer be feasible. There are about
60,000 Jewish settlers there now. Deal-
ing with them and their settlements is
not like the abandonment of Sinai to
Egypt in the peace agreement of Camp
David.
Dealing with that problem conser-
vatively, the Wall Street Journal made
this comment, editorially:
Let's begin with the venue
for these international discus-
sions, the United Nations. Two
of the five permanent members
of the Security Council, the
Soviet Union and China, do not
recognize Israel. The UN Gen-
eral Assembly is tilted heavily
against Israel, as it has demon-
strated time and again in its
resolutions. It can be argued
that the UN has in fact pro-
longed the agony of the Palesti-
nians through the refugee
camps that have kept the prob-
lem festering for 40 years. So if
Mr. Shamir has some suspicion
of UN-sponsored solutions, it is
not altogether surprising.
What about the Soviet in-
terest? The Reagan Administra-
tion seems to think it is dealing
with a new kind of Soviet leader
in Mikhail Gorbachev. Maybe
Mr. Shultz and Mr. Reagan know
more about this than we do, or
maybe they're fooling them-
Continued on Page 42
Dr. Carl H. Voss' Militant
Role As Editorialist
D
r. Carl H. Voss, with a lifetime
record as a militant Christian
Zionist, acquires added stature
as a leading ecumenical editorialist.
Matching his record for civil liber-
tarianism when he was in leadership in
the American Christian Zionist move-
ment advocating political and religious
support for the Zionist cause, he em-
phasizes the humanitarian aspects in
his interpretive treatments of religious
ecumenism.
Eloquence, educational emphases
and journalistic tasks are in the record
of his latest contributions in behalf of
Israel. His literary efforts included
volumes biographically and theologic-
ally analyzing the lifestyles of Dr.
Stephen S. Wise and John Haynes
Holmes and their Jewish-Christian
dialogues.
The highlight of Dr. Voss' current
contributions to theological studies are
in a trilogy dealing with Judaism, Pro-
testantism and Catholicism.
Fortress Press, Philadelphia
published the three volumes.
Dr. Voss wrote the forward to A
Catholic Vision. It was co-authored by
Stephen Happel and David Tracy.
Protestantism: Its Modern Meaning
was co-authored by Dr. Voss with David
A. Rausch.
Rabbi Howard E. Greenstein of
Cong. Ahavath Chesed, Jacksonville,
Fla., is the author of the third volume
in this series, Judaism: An Eternal
Covenant. Dr. Voss also wrote the
foreword to this volume.
It is an almost compelling duty for
writers on religious topics to be in-
fluenced by the Holocaust and to com-
ment upon the tragic conditions stem-
ming from Nazism. In the volume on
Protestantism, Voss and Rausch draw
upon historic experiences. They provide
an excoriation of the anti-Semitic traits
as they emerged from Hitlerism.
The authors of Protestantism go in-
to detail to show how religious anti-
Jewish sentiments were spread during
the Nazi era and to a degree succeeded
in spreading the additional lie of
outrageous "atrocity propaganda!' The
failures to condemn the mass murders
were especially evident in so-called
"liberal" ranks.
"During Hitler's 'Final Solution'
threat to the Jewish problem, fun-
Continued on Page 42
Detroiter Provides Guide To Smithsonian Treasures
T
he national treasures, in the arts
and sciences, that draw more
than 25 million yearly to the
Smithsonian Institute in Washington
now have a guide book, so complete that
it has become a must for 4,000 libraries,
with many more planning to acquire it
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
(US PS 275-520) is published every Friday
with additional supplements the fourth
week of March, the fourth week of August
and the second week of November at
20300 Civic Center Drive, Southfield,
Michigan.
Second class postage paid at Southfield,
Michigan and additional mailing offices.
Postmaster: Send changes to:
DETROIT JEWISH NEWS, 20300 Civic
Center Drive, Suite 240, Southfield,
Michigan 48076
$26 per year
$29 per year out of state
604 single copy
Vol. XCIII No. 1
March 4, 1988
McFarland Publishers of Jefferson,
N.C. announce that The Smithsonian —
A Guide To Its National Public
Facilities in Washington, D.C. has gone
through its third printing, a fourth is
anticipated, and the author, Charlotte
Sclar, has emerged among the most
thorough students of Smithsonianism.
The author, a retired teacher, a
University of Michigan graduate with
a '67 M.A., is a science and arts addict.
Her many Smithsonian visits enamored
her to the subject of her book and she
spent 12 years compiling facts and
assembling material to cover every
aspect of treasured valuables assembl-
ed in the Smithsonian.
Understandably, the contents are
all-inclusive, of interest to all citizens.
For the Jewish visitor and reader of
Charlotte Sclars guide, the Jewish
aspects and the Smithsonian collections
devoted to them provide an extraor-
dinary interest. At the same time there
are Jewish masters of the arts whose
Charlotte Solar
representation in the Smithsonian is
taken into account by Charlotte Sclar.
There is an immensity of Jewish in-
terests in the Sclar volume. Israel has
several references in relation to con-
tents stemming from the Jewish State.
Among the guidelines is this recogni-
tion of Israel's representation at the
Smithsonian.
"An exhibit on Israel features ritual
ceremonial objects on Judaism. Among
them are the sacred Scriptures called
the Ibrah, which includes the first Five
Books of the Old Testament; these are
shown with their cases. There are also
menorahs, an Ark light, Torah mantles
and pointers, a Passover ritual set,
phylacteries, a prayer shawl, a skull cap
and a sanctification cup, among other
things!'
Traditional Jewish objects are
voluminously represented in the
Smithsonian and Charlotte Sclar
credibly covers her self-assignment,
which emerges as a labor of love. Her
accomplished task, already widely ac-
claimed in the thousands of libraries, is
a tribute to a devotion admirably
adhered to by the Detroit author.