PURELY COMMENTARY
Emergency Public Opinion and Monetary Means
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor Emeritus
E
mergencies have accustomed us
to normalcies in Jewish life. We
have never been without them.
There may have been a lull for a cou-
ple of years, but threats to our security
spell uninterruption.
The newest of the means resorted to
as menacing to Israel is the arson in our
forests. We have planted under Keren
Kayemet l'Israel — Jewish National
Fund — inspiration. Tree planting
never ceased through the ages. In the
centuries preceding the modern Zionist
movement there were Jews who never
left Eretz Israel and the planting was
a continuity in the Land of Israel.
It is noteworthy that the tree plan-
ting as a KKI-JNF cause became reali-
ty in Jewish and Zionist history, in the
first few years of Theodor Herzl's
leadership. The JNF and its tree plan-
ting program were the ideological crea-
tion of Heidelberg mathematics pro-
fessor Hermann Shapira in 1901.
Since then, non-Jews as well as
Jews have been planting trees to help
in the blossoming of what emerged as
the redeemed State of Israel. There isn't
a nation on the face of the globe that
doesn't have to its credit forests planted
in Israel.
In the effort to destroy the state, ar-
son became a weapon against us and in
the instituted violence millions of trees
have been destroyed. Such is the new
emergency. To counteract it, $30 million
is needed, and the campaign to secure
this sum assigns a $300,000 share to
the Detroit community. We have never
shirked. Surely we won't now.
It is well for us to recollect that
while it was not arson, even before
statehood Arab antagonists attempted
to uproot Israel's forests. When that
uprooting took place, the Jewish
response was "ten newly planted trees
for every one uprooted!' There is a
repetition of this response to violence in
the current campaign to reassert Israeli
and Jewish defiance of violence. It is
emphasized by Israel's President Chaim
Herzog who declared:
"Project Tree for a Tree" is a
natural and appropriate re-
sponse to the vulgar and
criminal attempt by our enemies
to burn down Israel's forests. It
is the reply of all those who
cherish Israel, Jews and Arabs
alike, to those who despise the
land and seek to destroy it; to
those who prove by their crimes
that they are unworthy of this
good earth.
Defiance of violence and terrorism
is also indelibly recorded in our actions
in times of emergencies. There can be
no hesitancy in the mobilization of ac-
tions to counteract dangers. They have
existed and are repetitive. In the
volume already referred to in these col-
umns, "After the Riots, American
Responses to the Palestine Crisis of
1929-30." Hunter College history pro-
fessor Naomi W. Cohen related the
failures and the loyalties that were ex-
acted from the concerned and un-
concerned in tackling the serious issues
of that time. In her WSU Press book,
Prof. Cohen related events that are akin
by the then Detroit Mayor John C.
Lodge. Giving it semi-official emphasis,
writing to me in my capacities as the
editor of the Detroit Jewish Chronicle
and as president of the Zionist District
of Detroit, he issued this statement:
FunD
to the present. It is as the title of her
book asserts, akin to the current crisis.
In our community we had, at the
time, a very positive attitude, from
Christians as well as Jews. The public
opinion sentiments supporting Jewish
rights and the determined will to revive
Jewish statehood, as well as the leaders
in the battle for justice, were
predominantly non-Jews. On our side
was the very distinguished American,
Frank Murphy. He spoke out in the
Zionist spirit at public rallies, in the
press, in messages to government of-
ficials. With him in our behalf was so
distinguished a spokesman as Con-
gressman John D. Dingell Sr., and
Senators James Couzens, Arthur H.
Vandenberg, and Homer Ferguson, Con-
gressmen Clarence McLeod, George
O'Brien and other members of
Congress.
It is the manner in which they acted
that was unique. Exemplary is a state-
ment that was issued on Sept. 3, 1929,
Will you be so kind as to con-
vey the following message to
Detroit's Jewish citizens
assembled in various halls
tonight to protest against the
outrages in Palestine?
Every man and woman,
Christian or Jew, must have
read with horror and shame of
the brutalities perpetrated on
defenseless Jews in the Holy
Land. I join with you in voicing
my indignation at the horrible
occurrences. The conscience of
this country is aroused in pro-
test against the savageries com-
mitted. Our sympathy is with
the unfortuantes who have suf-
fered in a manner which, in
comparison, makes the suffer-
ings of the Middle Ages appear
mild.
I join with you in calling
upon our government at
Washington to guarantee protec-
tion to American life and pro-
perty in Palestine.
I join with you in paying
honor to the dead and in exten-
ding the sympathy of this com-
munity to the Jewish heroes
who defended the Jewish set-
tlements in Palestine and who
Continued on Page 40
Michigan Native In Israel Views The Crisis
S
everal weeks ago, when there
was especially distressing con-
cern over the critical treatment
of the young Israeli soldiers in the
media, the column shared with our
readers a valuable explanatory state-
ment by one of America's most
distinguished Jewish scholars who now
makes his home in Israel. Prof. Sol Lipt-
zin defined the position in Israel's
defense forces of his grandson, who acts
humanly yet is compelled to resist the
violence against his nation by young
rock hurlers. It was an important defini-
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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Vol. XCIII No. 22
2
August 5, 1988
FRIDAY, AUGUST 5, 1988
Robert Rockaway
tion of youth defending himself and his
people.
The views of Prof. Liptzin are ex-
ceedingly important because of his
distinguished academic background. As
head of the German department at the
College of the City of New York and as
hebraist and yiddishist as well as
teacher in English and German, he
brought to Israel acclaim as author,
scholar, interpreter and inspirer of the
Jewish community as well as his college
classes.
Now we have a view of Israel in
crisis on a general basis. It is from Pro-
fessor Robert Rockaway, the native
Detroiter, University of Michigan
educated, who taught at the Universi-
ty of Texas before assuming the
American history professorial post he
now holds at Tel Aviv University.
Professor Rockaway, as author of "The
Jews of Detroit," a second volume of
which is due soon, wrote his impres-
sions of his current experiences in Israel
to one of Detroit's community leaders.
He is critical of the present leadership.
In the debates that have ensued
whether there should be criticism of
Israel, especially by Americans, what
he has to say adds to the opinions en-
suing from the discussions now going
on. The following excerpts from his com-
ments will surely be accepted as
valuable to the discussions:
I share your feelings about
the U.S., and bless my grand-
father for having the courage
and foresight to move there from
Russia. And yet, deep down in
my Jewish consciousness, I
believe that it is important that
there be an Israel, if only as a
refuge.
Our tragedy is that our
leadership is simply unequal to
the task of running the country
(any country; any business!!!).
Unfortunately, given our
cumbersome electoral system,
nothing short of an upheaval or
revolution will bring changes
for the better. Since 90 percent
of our population come (or
came) from non-western and
non-democratic countries, the
chances of more liberal changes
taking place are remote. People
like me are a small minority of
the population. And without a
large immigration of liberal-
minded Jews from the west
(we're getting an inflow of
western Jews [from the U.S.A.],
but they're far from being
liberal — politically and
religiously — in fact, they're the
opposite. You can find lots of
them in settlements on the west
bank — I've met them and even
guarded them during reserve
duty — and it would be kind to
call some of them right-wing, na-
Continued on Page 40